Natanya Milner – Head of Primary School

I can’t believe that I am writing my final Ma Nishma article for the year. After a year of you all receiving so many communications from me, you’re probably breathing a sigh of relief!

End of year events

I am looking forward to ending the year with special ceremonies to celebrate all the children. By the time this is sent, we would have completed the first of these events, our Year 6 Graduation and Presentation Day event. I am writing this in advance of the event but have no doubt it will have been a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the children’s Primary School education.

Next week we will enjoy the K-5 events. The basis of these is to celebrate the children and acknowledge their incredible efforts and achievements through the oddest year in my time in education. We hope the K-5 families will Zoom in and share the events with us! We can’t wait!

Use the link below to join all presentations (all use the same link) and please feel free to share this link with family and friends.

Emanuel Primary School End of Year Presentations 2021

Kindy : Monday 6 December at 11.20 am
Year 1: Tuesday 7 December at 11.20 am
Year 2: Wednesday 8 December at 9.00 am
Year 3: Wednesday 8 December at 11.20 am
Year 4: Tuesday 7 December at 9.00 am
Year 5: Tuesday 7 December at 2.15 pm

We are also looking forward to our End of Term Picnic Day (weather permitting). We hope this will be a relaxing and fun way to finish the year together. An invitation with further details will follow but please take note of the date and times.

Friday 9 December 2021
Fearnley Grounds, Centennial Park

Years 3-6 | 9:15 – 11:15 am
Years K-2 | 12:15 – 2:15pm

Parents who would like to join us will be required to sign-in and produce their record of vaccination.

Aladdin Jnr

Hot off the press – our Year 6 main cast of Aladdin Jnr were disappointed that the show was cancelled this year and created this ‘teaser’ to keep us excited for Aladdin Jnr 2022. Thank you so much to all the children involved as well as the wonderful staff involved including Brooke Oldfield, Remi Owen, Sairt Spira, Di Springford, Alice Girle, Antonio Fernandez, Ruari Campbell and Peter Mussared.

Exciting news

I am so excited to let you know that Meghan Carroll had her baby last week. The gorgeous ‘Ambrose Lior’ was born on Tuesday 23 November weighing 3.6kg. Ambrose means ‘immortal’ and as you probably know, Lior is a Hebrew name meaning ‘my light’. We wish Meg and Marcus a huge MAZAL TOV and look forward to regular photos and updates!

Farewells

Unfortunately, the end of the year always comes with some sad farewells. This year we will be saying goodbye to three special teachers.

Roslynn Pardy has been at Emanuel on and off since 2015 (having had a move to Canada in the middle). She has taught grades across the Primary School and has been instrumental in the development of the school’s transdisciplinary approach. Roslynn has been our 3-6 coordinator and in this role, she has both led and supported staff with new initiatives. Roslynn’s thoughtful and calm approach has been appreciated by us all. We wish her all the very best as she heads off to her new school and enjoys being at the same school as her gorgeous daughter.

Lara Kepitis joined Emanuel as an OC teacher in 2018. She has taught the Year 5 and Year 6 OC program and has been instrumental in reviewing and rewriting our reports as well as sharing her knowledge of gifted education with the staff. I am so grateful to her for the energy and care that she has put into her teaching. We wish Lara all the best as she embarks on a career outside of teaching.

Kim Haddix has been a member of the Emanuel team since 2019. She has been a dedicated Year 6 teacher and has taught both 6H (OC) and 6R. Kim is a warm and energetic teacher with a passion for literacy and language development. Kim introduced the Write a Book in a Day program into Year 6 which has quickly become a much-loved tradition. We will miss Kim and hope that she enjoys travelling and wonderful new adventures in the coming years.

I would like to thank all 3 of these amazing teachers for their dedication and care. We will miss them all!

Thank you

There are so many people to acknowledge and thank for their incredible efforts throughout 2021. Whilst this won’t do justice to how grateful I feel, I would like to acknowledge some of the special people in our team.

This year saw Andrew Watt, Margaret Lowe, Adam Majsay, Mario Torresan and I spend far more time together than we ever thought we would. The rapid rate of decision-making led to hours and hours of meetings, debates and discussions. I would like to thank this team for supporting the Primary School through 2021. I thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration.

As always, the Primary Executive Team has been an amazing support as we have steered the ship this year. There have been many decisions to make and a huge additional workload. I am so grateful to them for their dedication. Thank you to Hagit Bar-On, Katie Brody, Adam Carpenter, Meghan Carroll, Lynn Joffe, Samantha Rogut and Carrie Thomas.

The support team has been even more essential than ever before this year (if that’s even possible) and has provided much needed expertise and support. Everyone from marketing, to reception to IT have been so appreciated by us all. I would like to acknowledge the Primary office team. My amazing EA, Lisa Connors, began at Emanuel this year and has somehow found her feet and done a phenomenal job keeping me organised and sane. Nicolle Rubin has had a huge load with attendance and compliance rules changing almost weekly. I am so grateful to them both for making sure all the behind the scenes pieces were solidly in place.

I imagine that you all join me in thanking the incredible teaching team who managed this year so magnificently. I am in absolute awe of how they made the most of every opportunity and kept pivoting dizzily without stopping. This team includes the class teachers, specialist teachers and teachers’ aides whose collaboration, positivity and adaptability seemed limitless. I know how exhausted they all are and I am excited that they have this well-deserved summer break. Each and every person in this team did their bit to ensure the ship kept sailing this year!

Whilst we haven’t seen our Emanuel parents and community as much as we would have liked, in many ways you all feel closer than ever. Thank you so much for partnering with us during home learning and supporting us through the uncertainty of 2021. I know how stressful it was for many of you to manage jobs and home schooling and we are incredibly grateful that you enabled e-Manuel to be a success. I feel blessed to work in a school with such a special community. I would like to thank the Board and P&F who are comprised of an amazing group of parent volunteers who offer hours and hours to the school to ensure that the rest of us have a happy experience. It is greatly appreciated!

Last but DEFNITELY not least, I would like to thank our beautiful Emanuel children for doing what they do best…offering their energy and positivity each day to learn, work together and be supportive classmates and friends. It is the children who are at the core of all we do and I couldn’t be prouder of their determination, resilience and achievements this year. Like the teachers, they deserve a wonderful summer break.

I wish the Year 6 students and families all the very best for High School and we hope you will stay in touch. To our K-5 community, I look forward to seeing you all in 2022 and can’t wait to see what exciting opportunities lie ahead.