Natanya Milner – Head of Primary School

Welcome

Welcome to Term 2! It has been wonderful to see all the children back at school and hear about everyone’s holiday experiences. We are looking forward to a busy and engaging term ahead.

This term, we welcome three new staff to the Primary team. As mentioned last term, Felicity Cox is an outstanding educator who joins our teaching team and has replaced Carrie Thomas on Year 2. After a period of handover, Carrie will begin her new role as Innovation Leader. We also welcome Elina Liverod to our teacher’s aide team. Elina is an experienced aide and will largely be working with Kindergarten for 2021. Finally, Murat Korkut is a well-respected High School Mathematics teacher and returns to Emanuel. He will be teaching Mathematics to Year 6 and we are excited to have him join our team.

All the best, Ms Turrall

Today is Ms Turrall’s final day of school before beginning maternity leave. We wish Annie and Chris all the very best for the birth of their first child. We look forward to hearing the exciting news and welcoming Annie back for the beginning of 2022.

Yom Ha’atzmaut

We started the term off with a ‘bang’ by celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut on Monday. The day began with a sea of blue and white outfits, engaging assemblies with information about Israel and wonderful music. The children then participated in fun activities during the day. I would like to thank the Hebrew and Jewish Studies teachers, led by Mr Carpenter and Morah Bar-On, for a great day of celebration!

Lice checks

On Day 1 of each term, we check every child for lice to ensure we are beginning with a ‘lice-free’ environment. I am thrilled to let you know that we had 0 cases identified this week. Thank you to Genna for conducting the checks!

Anti-Bullying Day

On Thursday, the Primary School Madrichim organised an excellent ‘anti-bullying’ event that focused upon being an upstander and building buddies. They organised and led activities for every class and were wonderfully organised and inspirational. I would like to thank them and Ms Carroll for their hard work and outstanding leadership.

New reports

Over the past six months, the Primary School teachers have been writing new semesterly reports. In developing these, we have considered the best ways to communicate what we are doing at school and your child’s achievements. We are committed to reporting on academic progress, social and emotional development, work habits and next steps/goals. We are also mandated by certain Government regulations including using a 5 point scale for Years 1-6 and assessing achievement according to NSW standards/expectations rather than a ‘bell curve’ or an ‘Emanuel average’. We look forward to sharing these reports with you at the end of Term 2 and will be seeking your feedback so we are able to reflect and adjust as needed for the future.

Parents coming on campus

Given the current COVID situation in NSW, we will continue to be able to welcome parents on campus for the moment. We are still required to collect information in case it is needed for contact tracing purposes and therefore, if you are coming on campus, please use the QR codes at the gates.

Library

Over the past weeks, Mrs Rogut and Ms Trehy have been busily working to begin a revamp of the Primary Library. We are thrilled with the vision, dedication and effort that they have put into this project and look forward to welcoming you back into the library from next week. Please feel free to pop past to say hello and choose some great books to borrow!

Reconciliation Week

Reconciliation Week takes place from Thursday 27 May – Thursday 3 June. This year’s themes include More Than a Word: Reconciliation Takes Action and  Under One Sky: Yesterday, Today and Forever. The Primary School children will participate in a range of classroom activities and we look forward to celebrating at School on Friday 28 May. Students are encouraged to come to school in yellow on Thursday 28 May as a part of our celebrations. We will be participating in ‘Wear It Yellow’ day – an initiative from ‘Children’s Ground’ – an organisation that supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Please send your children in with a gold coin to support Children’s Ground. Please diarise this date.

K-2 Assemblies

This term, we are pleased to welcome parents to join us for K-2 Assemblies. The following class items will take place:

• Friday 30 April  2021 – Infants Choir
• Friday 14 May 2021 – 1T Hebrew
• Friday 11 June 2021 – 2Y

Assemblies take place in the Millie Phillips Theatre and run from 2.10 pm – 2.50 pm. The rows towards the back of the theatre are reserved for parents. We look forward to celebrating our learning with you!