From the Principal

Andrew Watt – Principal

The value of a good night’s sleep

Many young people struggle to get out of bed in the morning and find it difficult to maintain their energy and focus throughout the day; some even struggle to remain awake at school (hard to believe, I know!).

This sleep deprivation is often self-imposed, when instead of the required 8-10 hours, they get 6-7 hours. This lack of sleep causes our students not to function at their optimum and can result in poor behaviour, mental health problems and low functioning in the classroom. On the other hand, a good night’s sleep maximises brain growth, consolidates learning – and keeps us fresh to maximise our future learning. 

Michael Grose, in his article, 6 nightmare habits that are ruining teenagers’ sleep, stresses the key role of parents in helping them establish good sleep patterns, by erasing bad habits.  

Do any of the following list sound familiar?

Dr Carr-Gregg, adolescent psychologist, speaks about the consequences of being woken up too early and thus missing out on REM sleep. This is linked to anxiety, depression, poor immunity, accidents, poor judgment and memory. Parents are encouraged to set boundaries around bed time and to be consistent in maintaining good sleep habits, as the responsible adult in the room. As a parent of post-adolescent children, I can appreciate what an uphill battle this can be! The rewards, however, are significant.

Sad news

Greg Churm – smiling, always

Sadly, Greg Churm, our former IT Technician, passed away on Wednesday after a long illness. Greg was a long serving and dedicated staff member and he will be sorely missed.

Please visit the page titled In Memory of for a heartfelt tribute to Greg. 

Showcase of Young Innovators 

Our Years K-6 Innovation Festival, Imagining the Future, held today, was a joyous occasion where innovation and futures thinking, as it has played out at Emanuel this year, was featured and celebrated. Buzz words such as ‘innovation’ and ‘futures thinking’ have become an increasingly popular part of the vocabulary within schools. We must, however, be careful that we do not treat them too lightly or merely give lip service to the important skills, dispositions and mindset that relate to these critical future workplace skills.

At Emanuel, these terms have been translated into action, through project-based learning involving design-thinking, systems-thinking,

critical analysis and collaborative, transdisciplinary approaches to solve complex, real-world problems. This is what deep thinking is all about. Today, we were privileged to view and interact with a small part of the creative world of our students, as we explored a wonderful showcase of projects. The capacity of our young ones to ideate, innovate, problem solve and create was impressive! The challenge for schools is how to best prepare our students for this often volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

Our Festival today and our approaches to innovation and entrepreneurialism will position our students to have the mindset and skills to take on the challenges that the future holds and be a valued, contributing member of the workplace of the future. Congratulations to Sophie Poisel, our Year K-6 Innovation Leader, for this special event.

The World of Maths 

Numeracy is an essential component of our curriculum, and to make numeracy fun and relevant to our students, we have arranged for the World of Maths Roadshow to visit our School. This roadshow provides an ideal opportunity for students to see how Mathematics is applied to some real-life situations. More importantly, our students are engaged in hands-on activities that cater for all ability levels and probe their problem-solving skills. It is a highly engaging session!

Mazal tov

• Congratulations to the winners of the Lion King poster competition, Amélie Mueller, Year 4 and Maddison Green, Year K. You’ll be able to see their entries as well as other entries on the page entitled Primary Musical.
• Simone Rappaport, Year 10 and Elia Gil-Munoz, Year 9  presented a very poised, mature and engaging segment about their recent trip to Kenya at the Emanuel Synagogue Social Action Committee’s Small Changes, Big Differences evening recently.
• Daphna Levin-Kahn also presented at the Small Changes, Big Differences evening on the Year 9 Jewish Studies Be The Change elective collaboration program between Emanuel School, the Synagogue Social Action Committee and Chifley Public School.
• Year 8 Hebrew students, Jordan Baskin, Ilan Meshel, Mirabelle Mirvis, Talia Kleviansky, Jack Smagarinsky, Tomer Aron, Mayer She and Mahley Rosen Tal are finalists in a short film competition for second languages.

Quote of the week

“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”

Roy H Williams

NEW: Emanuel School App

Zoran Taleski – ICT Manager

Our School App is now available for download and can be found in the Apple iOS App Store and the Google Android Play Store. 

To access the app you will need to enter your Emanuel School parent credentials. If you do not remember your school credentials please follow the link here to reset your password. Hint: Your username is Firstname.Surname

The app features:

• Emanuel School Calendar
• Ma Nishma
• My Portal
• Contacts
• Links
• Absence Forms.

Coming in 2019

Our team is already working towards a Version 2 of the app which is due for release in early 2019. The next update will add the following features:

• Event Permissions
• My Child’s Timetable and Events
• Targeted Newsfeed.

School Calendar

The school calendar shows all upcoming events at Emanuel School. This includes events at Kornmehl Pre-school, Primary School and High School. The calendar also gives parents and staff the opportunity to add events to their personal calendar giving the option to add reminders.

Newsletter

Push Notifications for Ma Nishma will be available. You will be alerted when a new issue of the newsletter is published.

My Portal

The app allows for access to resources on My Portal for parents. Please note, not all My Portal functions are available in the app experience. Parents will still be required to use a tablet or desktop for some functions of My Portal (change my details, diary and event permissions) as indicated by the Mobile/ Tablet/ Desktop icons.

Contacts

The Contacts tab will give you quick access to key contacts at Emanuel School with the option to call and email from the App.

Links

The links page will give parents and staff a quick link guide to commonly used systems and pages.

Absences

Parents now have the option to record student absences and submit leave information. Parents will need to enter their child’s details and reason for leave/absence.

If you have any suggestions/comments/issues with the Emanuel School App, please email helpdesk@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au.

From the Primary School

Helen Maynard – Director of Studies K-6

Maths in the home

As educators we frequently advocate for a bedtime reading routine. The article below has an interesting perspective around making Mathematics part of this daily routine too. It might be something that you wish to try at home.

www.kqed.org/mindshift/42361/how-adding-math-to-a-childs-home-routine-can-advance-achievement

International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS)

Some students in Years 3-6 have elected to undertake some or all of the 2018 ICAS Competitions. These international competitions are administered to provide students an opportunity to compete at a high level in their chosen field.

Results are rewarded according to the following scale:

High Distinction Certificate – the top 1% of participants

Distinction Certificate – the next 10% of participants

Credit Certificate – the next 25% of participants

Merit Certificate – the next 10% of participants

Participation Certificate – all remaining participants

We have received the results for English and the Mathematics Competitions.

We congratulate all those students who participated for their wonderful efforts. Certificates will be distributed when they arrive.

We would especially commend the following students for their outstanding efforts:

English

High Distinction: Ashley Cohn (Year 5), Elias Davis (Year 5), Raphael Harpaz (Year 5).

Distinction: Amali Allul Orozco (Year 3), Gil Banna (Year 3), Samuel Carpenter (Year 3), Benjamin Freed (Year 3), Avalon Gold (Year 4), Amelie Mueller (Year 4), Gabriel Pozniak (Year 4), Noa Rosenzveig (Year 4), Violet Nathanson (Year 5), Joshua Ottaviano (Year 5), Gabriella Solomon (Year 5), Zack Berkowitz (Year 6), Gideon Pozniak (Year 6), Miriam Stubbs-Goulston (Year 6)

Credit: Elise Goldberg (Year 3), Jonathan Igra (Year 3), Eli Jocum (Year 3), Leah Joshua (Year 3), Asher Morris (Year 3), Brandon Shevelev (Year 3), Jemma Adler (Year 4), Ezra Glover-Sanders (Year 4), Jake Isenberg (Year 4), Kira Levin-Kahn (Year 4), Phoebe Machlin (Year 4), Gideon Owen (Year 4), Ari Smaller (Year 4), Jessica Smith (Year 4), Aaron Berkowitz (Year 5), Ariel Bloom (Year 5), Leah Doust (Year 5), Eliora Glass (Year 5), Jed Gottlieb (Year 5), Leah Grunseit (Year 5), Sava Putilin (Year 5), Jayden Segal (Year 5), Zachary Sherman (Year 5), Daliah Smagarinsky (Year 5), Valerie Aronov (Year 6), Gabriella Freed (Year 6), Joshua Gordon (Year 6), Aiden Kanevsky (Year 6), Oren Levin-Kahn (Year 6), Sophie Masnick (Year 6), Jasper Selinger (Year 6), Jacinta Shevelev (Year 6)

Merit: Noah Revelman (Year 3), Declan Christie (Year 4), Daniel Newfield (Year 5), Gemma Wainstein (Year 5), Alice Milner (Year 6)

Mathematics

High Distinction: Gil Banna (Year 3), Noah Revelman (Year 3)

Distinction: Sam Carpenter (Year 3), Isaac Shammay (Year 3), Ezra Glover-Sanders (Year 4), Avalon Gold (Year 4), Amelie Mueller (Year 4), Gideon Owen (Year 4), Leah Grunseit (Year 5), Raphael Harpaz (Year 5), Daniel Newfield (Year 5), Willow Gelin (Year 6), Aiden Kanevsky (Year 6), Alice Milner (Year 6), Jasper Selinger (Year 6)

Credit: Elise Goldberg (Year 3), Leah Joshua (Year 3), Emily Seemann (Year 3), Brandon Shevelev (Year 3), Jemma Adler (Year 4), Jake Isenberg (Year 4), Kira Levin-Kahn (Year 4), Phoebe Machlin (Year 4), Noa Rosenzveig (Year 4), Ari Smaller (Year 4), Ashlet Cohn (Year 5), Elias Davis (Year 5), Leah Doust (Year 5), Niek Nathan (Year 5), Violet Nathanson (Year 5), Jayden Segal (Year 5), Daliah Smagarinsky (Year 5), Gemma Wainstein (Year 5), Jesse Barel (Year 6), Ethan Hirst (Year 6), Alexander Kirievsky (Year 6), Oren Levin-Kahn (Year 6), Gideon Pozniak (Year 6), Yael Rembach (Year 6), Miriam Stubbs-Goulston (Year 6)

Merit: Eli Jocum (Year 3), Gabriel Pozniak (Year 4), Daniel Zipser (Year 4), Gabriella Solomon (Year 5), Joshua Gordon (Year 6), Charlie Kerlander (Year 6), Renee Korotkaia (Year 6), Sophie Masnick (Year 6), Ella Sherman (Year 6), Jacinta Shevelev (Year 6)

From the Head of Jewish Life

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Collateral damage or collaborative change

With ever-increasing “advances” in technological warfare, we are able to kill more people, more quickly than any other generation in history. At the same time, our ‘smart’ weaponry seeks to minimize collateral damage in maximising efficient destruction.

One of the earliest recorded discussions of collateral damage appears in this week’s parashah. Learning of the possible wholesale destruction of the city of Sedom, Avraham confronts God: “Would you destroy the righteous with the wicked?”.

When are we effecting indiscriminate punishment rather than demanding collective responsibility? Our Rabbinic tradition contains a remarkable maxim: “Woe to the wicked one and woe to his neighbor”.

Is the innocent/righteous one a partner in suffering because he cannot escape the influence of his wicked neighbour or is the enduring wickedness of the neighbour testimony to the lack of concern and influence of the ‘righteous’ one?

Significantly, Judaism does not trace its origins to Noach who: “righteous in his generation”, abandons the same to a fate of destruction while he and his family seeks to save themselves. Before Avraham, our people’s patriarch, steps into the breach to speak out against collateral destruction, we learn that he seeks to “teach justice and righteousness” to his children and to effect its practice among his neighbours.

‘Clean bombs’ may eliminate the fallout of a ‘dirty bomb’ but it too is an avoidable rather than necessary evil.

Sedom might still be saved if there remain ‘righteous’ individuals who can effect a change. The wicked and the righteous, our tradition teaches, are inextricably bound in both destruction and salvation.

A story

A prospective student approached the head of a Jewish academy wishing to learn about Judaism.

As part of his ‘entrance exam’, the teacher presented him with a question:

“If two men come down a chimney and one emerges dirty and the other clean, which has a wash?”.

 “The dirty one”, answers the young man.

 “Incorrect”, responds the teacher. “Obviously, the dirty one looks at the clean one and sees he is clean so he thinks ‘I must be clean’. The clean one looks at the dirty one and sees he is dirty and thinks ‘I must be dirty’. The clean one has a wash.

The young man goes away in dismay. 

The next day he returns requesting another opportunity. The teacher asks the question: 

“If two men come down a chimney and one emerges dirty and the other clean, which has a wash”?” 

“The clean one”, responds the young man. 

“Incorrect”, says the teacher. “Obviously the clean one looks at his hands, sees they are clean and he knows he is clean. The dirty one looks at his hands, sees they are dirty and knowing he is dirty he has a wash. 

Bewildered, the young man once again returns home. 

The following day, he returns to the academy and is granted a final opportunity to correctly answer the question posed to him:

“If two men come down a chimney and one emerges dirty and the other clean, which has a wash?” 

The young man wonders aloud: The dirty one, the clean one, the dirty one, the clean one? Finally, exasperated, he turns to the teacher and beseechingly asks: “Please, tell me which one has a wash?”.

 The teacher looks at the young man and asks: “Tell me, how can two men come down a chimney and one emerges dirty and the other clean?”

Student Devar Torah

Eden Sadra – Year 11

Parashat VaYera

This week’s parashah is VaYera, the 18^th chapter of the book of Bereishit. I’ll give a quick description.

Avraham is just chilling, basking in the hot desert sun when suddenly three visitors show up at his tent. Being the hospitable man that he is, he invites them in and he and his wife create a lovely meal for them; bread, meat, cakes and more. The three men ask where his wife Sarah is (as she is cooking up a storm in the kitchen) and when he points toward his tent and tells them that she is in there, they confidently tell him that Sarah, Avraham’s very old wife will bear a child very soon.

Sarah hears this and laughs. God gets angry at her for laughing at Him, saying she assumes He isn’t powerful enough to give her a child in her old age, and then the three visitors leave. This is when the drama picks up. When they leave, God has a chat with Avraham telling him that he’s going to check out the fuss that’s happening over with Sedom and Amorah. He tells Avraham that the outcry of Sedom and Amorah is great, which suggests that their wickedness is pretty serious stuff.

God assures Avraham that if the fuss is as bad as it sounds, there’s going to be trouble. Then Avraham gets all philosophical on us and asks God an interesting question: “Will God destroy the righteous with the wicked? Even if there’s just 50  righteous people, isn’t it unfair to destroy everyone? God should distinguish between the innocent and the guilty. He is after all the “Judge of all the Earth”. Doesn’t that mean he should act with justice?

God reckons that Avraham has a good point and Avraham ends up convincing God to spare the city due to these 50 righteous individuals. Avraham uses those killer negotiating skills and gets God down to 10 people!  Even if there are 10 righteous people in a city, God would spare it to save their lives. Although the parashah doesn’t finish with that, this is the part I want to focus on; a bit of a moral dilemma, if you ask me.

If any of you have heard your parents or anyone else call someone the ‘rotten apple’ of a bunch, the saying “It only takes one rotten apple to ruin the bunch” or something along those lines, then you’ve kind of heard God’s view of this story. Because you see that when one apple gets a disease or gets mouldy, it spreads to the rest of the apples in the bunch, just like how when one naughty kid gets the whole class a detention and everyone suffers, and just how the wicked people in the cities will get everyone killed by God.

The idea of collective punishment sort of goes hand in hand with the idea of collective responsibility. It’s questions like, and I know you’ve heard it all before, but if you see someone being bullied and know that you could do something about it without getting hurt yourself, but you don’t do anything, are you a bystander? Do you deserve to be punished?

It’s actually really interesting to see how an ancient story in the Torah still resonates and has had such an influence on things as little as modern day sayings even if we don’t know it. I know that before I volunteered to write this parashah, I certainly didn’t know that that saying had anything to do with a story out of our Torah.

So, going back to that idea of collective punishment and collective responsibility and stuff, I want to pose you guys with a very simple question:

Do you think collective punishment is fair?

In memory of

King David School Music Exchange

Diana Springford – Head of Music

King David School Music Exchange: Sunday 21 October to Tuesday 23 October

From Sunday afternoon to Tuesday late at night, 11 High School musicians travelled, with Daniel Burley and Diana Springford, to Melbourne to make music with 30 King David School (KDS) students. Our students were billeted with KDS families and made friendships with their fellow musicians (and their families) that will undoubtedly last a very long time. All musicians should be congratulated for their hard work and the high quality of their wonderful choir and instrumental performances for the concert on Tuesday afternoon. It was a special couple of energy packed days.

We are very grateful to the musicians and music teachers from KDS for being such wonderful hosts.

High School Drama Production for 2019

David Camp (Head of English) and Samantha Bauer (Head of Drama)

Emanuel School Drama and English Departments are excited to announce Romeo and Juliet as the High School Production for 2019. Romeo and Juliet will be Produced and Directed by Samantha Bauer and David Camp.

Auditions for Romeo and Juliet will take place in Week 4.

Auditions: Wednesday 7 November 3.30 – 5.30 pm in The Aron Kleinlehrer Performing Arts Centre (PAC).

Students in Year 10 on the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award can audition on Monday 5 November at lunchtime in the Millie Phillips Theatre.

Dance auditions: Tuesday 6 November 3.30 – 5.00 pm in the PAC.

Students auditioning to be a member of the cast should collect an audition pack from Ms Bauer or Mr Camp. The audition pack includes a selection of excerpts and monologues students can choose from as they prepare for their audition.

Students auditioning for dance need to wear comfortable clothes and bring a water bottle to the audition. There is no preparation needed. The choreographer will teach all students a routine as part of the audition process.

Primary Musical

Winning competition posters

Mazal tov to Amélie Mueller, Year 4 and Maddison Green, Year K, for their winning entries which appear below.

• Please see the runners up for the Lion King Jr poster competition below. We had so many wonderful entries!
• Reminder: Years K-6 class costumes are due to class teachers on Friday 2 November (Week 3)
• Tickets will be going on sale next week – please keep an eye out for an email with instructions.

From Year 4 Reporters

Wentworth by-election: Do you think change is good?

Amelie Mueller

Jessica Smith

Noa Rosenzveig

As some of you may know, Dr Kerryn Phelps AM will probably win the Wentworth by-election 51.2% – 48.8% against Dave Sharma, the Liberal candidate. The whole affair started with Malcolm Turnbull’s removal as Prime Minister and his resignation from politics. This sparked fury in the voters of Wentworth, as he was very popular in the area. The Wentworth area includes Bellevue Hill, Bondi, Clovelly (part), Darlinghurst (part), Darling Point, Dover Heights, Elizabeth Bay, Moore Park, Paddington, Point Piper, Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Watsons Bay and Waverly. Phelps ends over 100 years of  the Liberals holding the seat.

Graham Richardson from The Australian stated what a disaster this is. He thinks that it will take a few years to sort out. Before the election, Alex Turnbull, the former PM’s son, posted a video on Facebook, stating not to vote Liberals. After the whole event, Alex tweeted his congratulations on the incredible result of the elections.

Scott Morrison, the current Prime Minister, acknowledged Wentworth voters’ anger at the Liberals for getting rid of Malcolm Turnbull. He stated that the party was to blame for not winning, not Dave Sharma. He was venting his opinions to the crowd when he and Sharma were at a press conference. Mr Morrison said, “Yesterday, Liberal voters expressed their anger at the parliamentary Liberal Party. There is no doubt about that and we copped that fairly on the chin.”

Dr Phelps released a tweet saying: “Holding our breath for the AEC count. This is a white knuckle ride. Whatever the outcome, I am enormously proud of the work of my volunteers and campaign team.”

Because Phelps won, Australia now has a hung parliament, meaning there are not enough people in any party to reach a majority on any decision. The postal votes are being counted on 23 October, but so far, Professor Kerryn Phelps is in the lead by 3.2 percent!

This Monday, the former PM, Malcolm Turnbull, returned from his eight-week exile to the Big Apple. That’s right, he went to New York. And he’s not the first former PM to ‘escape’ to America. Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd are also there, according to the Herald Sun. Rudd has been there for the past five years!

I (Noa) wrote an email to Phelps’s office, and she replied. I asked her for some of her opinions on the campaigns and the victory, as well as a message for the school community. Here is some of her reply:

“It is very important to have young people like you involved and interested in politics and the future of Australia. As a candidate I spoke to lots of young people who live in the Eastern suburbs about the problems they face and ideas they have to improve our community and our country. These include issues like climate change and discrimination in schools. I think the Government should do everything it can to protect the environment. I also think that all children and teachers should be able to feel safe and valued in their schools. If I am elected as the Member for Wentworth. I look forward to visiting you and your classmates to say hello and hear about your achievements and ideas for the future.”

So, what do you think? Do you think that this particular change is good? That’s up to you to decide for yourself. Make sure to read next week, for another exciting story.

Person of the week

Prince Harry founded the Invictus Games, in which injured war veterans from over 18 countries compete against each other. He also went to fight in Afghanistan secretly. However, there was a media leak and the Prince had to go back to England. Get excited for a whole report on the Invictus Games in Week 4!

Book of the week

Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls is 100 stories about inspirational women who changed the world. Both children and adults like it.

Primary Term 4 Extra-Curricular including EActive

Emma Hill | Primary Teacher and Coordinator of Extra-Curricular Programs

The final date for booking into the activities below is Week 4, Friday 2 November.

New Extra-Curricular Club – Code Camp 
Code Camp has been running sessions with Years 2-6 at Emanuel as part of our curriculum this year. We are excited that Code Camp is now offering an after-school program on Mondays. This club is open for students with coding experience in Years 1 and 2, as well as Years 3-6 students.

New EActive activities:

• Beach volleyball Years 3-6
• Futsal Years 3-6

Unfortunately due to low Primary and High School enrolment numbers cricket and ChiFUNese has been cancelled.

Club information, including enrolment and booking details, are now online on the Parent Portal: https://myportal.emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au/parent/extra-curricular/

Please note clubs have minimum enrolment numbers.

 Term 4 Extra-Curricular (including EActive) schedule:

From the Primary Library

Ginnette Cameron-Gardner – Teacher/Librarian

We are pleased to welcome our readers back from their vacations.

So many students are keen to tell us about what they read in the holidays and also to request to borrow the next book in the series or more books written by the author whose work they have enjoyed reading.

The students are enjoying starting to study new topics in class. Picture books feature strongly in the curriculum as content-rich picture books assist students to access information on topics in a format that due to its illustrations makes it easier to understand difficult concepts. Picture books are written for all ages and are written on multiple levels and this aids students with different reading levels to access the information. Picture books can be fiction or non-fiction and the Primary Library has a very large collection of them. The non-fiction picture books support studies about migration, refugees, World Wars, the Holocaust, Adaptation of flora and fauna in many different eco systems, and many other topics.

An example of these is Eve Bunting’s Terrible things. An allegory of the Holocaust.  This is an allegory for how people slowly disappeared from Germany and no one spoke up.

The fiction picture books provide shorter stories that due to their brevity have less complex plots which suit many readers who are time poor and also lend themselves to close study. Some are particularly written for the novice reader but others such as Gary Crew’s The Water Tower are quite dark and are aimed at a more mature reader.

There are two locations for fiction in picture book formats in the Primary Library. Those books suited to the younger reader are in the J picture book collection and those for the more mature reader are in the literature collection at 823.3 – the High School Library  also has a picture book collection.

Picture books activate the students’ thinking on a visual level and still employ story elements including character, setting, plot conflict, resolution. With the aid of the pictures, students of different reading levels can share understanding as their comprehension shifts from text to pictures with the pictures adding to the text.

Some picture books such as Just an Ordinary Day by Rod Clement have illustrations that alter the meaning of the tex, such as: “It was the beginning of just another day…..Amanda awakened to the sound of her alarm which rang at 6.30 am every school day.”

Young Writers Award

Aged 9 to 13 and love writing?

Write a picture book of up to 250 words or a short story of between 850-1 000 words.

Audience: ages between 3 and 12.

Closing date: 17 December 2018

Take a flyer from Ms Elkins’ desk if you are interested or look it up online.

youngwritersaward.com.au

Win cash prize and the winning story will be published for distribution in Australia!

Active Kids NSW

Kristy Reed | Head of Sport | PDHPE Teacher

The Active Kids program is an initiative of the NSW government. This program entitles each child of school age access to one $100 voucher each year. This voucher can be used by families at a variety of registered sporting associations and clubs.

The aim of the voucher is to assist parents with the costs involved in sports registrations and to encourage students to continue to be active. Vouchers unfortunately are not able to be used for any school sport or related activities. It is not too late to apply for a 2018 voucher and I encourage parents to do so before the end of the year.

Further information can be obtained at www.service.nsw.gov.au/active-kids

Meir Advocate

And we are back everyone! It’s Charlotte and Tara, your reporters. We really hope you have all enjoyed the holidays and used it as a time to relax and refuel for the fun-filled, busy term ahead. It is crazy to think that this is the last term of the WHOLE school year – of 2018! How time flies when you are having fun. Anyway… let’s start talking about Meir.

House Music

With House Music just around the corner, Meir is working tirelessly for the opportunity to take over the House Cup! All Meirians are shaking and dancing it up, ready to bring their all when House Music comes, ensuring that it will be a night no one will forget. Thank you to everyone who auditioned for the X-Factor performance, you were all amazing and it really shows how much House spirit Meir has. We are very proud to announce that Coby New, Lucy Klein, Maia Perl and Josh New will be the X-Factor performers and we are positive that they will do an amazing job. 

House Music practise

Mr Adam Ezekiel

The Meirian we have chosen this week is our very own awesome Head of House – Mr Ezekiel! We will ask Mr E three random and interesting questions and show you his answers!

Q: If you had to break one world record in order to receive one million dollars, what world record would you try to break?

A: I would try and break the world record for climbing the highest mountain (Mt Everest) in the world – that would be pretty cool.

Q: Where do you mind not waiting?

A: I don’t mind waiting for a wave in the surf. It is as nice a place as any to just sit and wait patiently.

Q: If you had the world’s attention for 30 seconds, what would you say?

A: When you focus on problems you will get problems, when you focus on possibilities you will have more opportunities.

Quote – Golda Meir

“One cannot and must not erase the past merely because it doesn’t fit the present.” Golda Meir

Love, your Meir Editors,

Charlotte Lyons and Tara Israel

WIZO Primary fundraiser

Primary fundraising

WIZO is a movement dedicated to the advancement of the status of women, welfare of all sectors of Israeli society and encouragement of Jewish education in Israel and the Diaspora. It enriches the lives of children in day care centres and schools and provides a framework for supporting youth. Students in Years K-6 are invited to support WIZO on Monday 29 October by wearing plain clothes and donating a gold coin.

Year 6 Fundraising Team

Student fundraiser

BJ Shapiro

Ben (BJ) Shapiro is a Year 8 student at Emanuel who has successfully been selected to represent Australia in the Junior Boys Basketball Team in the Pan American Maccabi Games 2019.

He will be playing in the U16 Boys Junior Basketball Team and it will most definitely be a highlight of his career!

The tournament is a self-funded international event, however, the team is responsible for raising money for their joint expenses of $15,500. This includes training weekends, uniforms and coaches fees. The parents are paying for the boys airfares, accommodation and all living expenses.

We have created an amazing raffle, filled with exceptional prizes, such as $2,500 cruise on the harbour, $500 voucher at Bennelong Restaurant in the Sydney Opera House, pamper prizes, food prizes, memorabilia and more…….

Tickets are priced at $10 each, 3 tickets for $25, 6 tickets for $50, 12 tickets for $90, 20 tickets for $130, 30 tickets for $180, 50 tickets for $250, 75 tickets for $350, 100 tickets for $450. www.rafflelink.com.au/macpan2019

Careers

Claire Pech – Careers Advisor

As The UNSW is one of our closest neighbours I thought I would advertise some of their network school events coming up.

Find out about the UAC process and how the process works for 2019 (any Year 12s may find this interesting but note these dates are for our current HSC class – so do not panic!)

Women in Engineering (WIE) Camp application

The WIE Camp is a fantastic opportunity for your female students to explore the diverse fields of engineering through site visits, activities and time spent with successful engineers. Applications close on Wednesday 31 October. The camp takes place in the January holidays starting on 7 January 2019 and is a great way to get involved in the university and get a taster for this course.

Apply now: women-in-engineering-camp-application-registration-49198575263

Key dates

Built Environment Alternative Admission Scheme
Applications are now open and will close on Friday 16 November 2018 at 6.00 pm.

Art & Design Portfolio Entry
Portfolio submissions are now open and will be accepted until 11.59 pm on Friday 30 November. 

Faculty of Engineering Admissions Scheme (FEAS)
Applications are now open and will close Friday 30 November. This is well worth having a look at for any students who are very keen on Engineering but are not so sure they will get the required ATAR of 92. This scheme is an excellent way for Emanuel students to try and gain access if they feel their ATAR may fall lower (81-91.95). The UNSW used to interview applicants but as of last year entrants can submit a video of themselves and their desire to study Engineering and also any engineering projects they have been involved with, or anything that can exhibit their passion for Engineering

Notices, articles and dates

Why women are not ending up in the top jobs in Australia:

www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-11/why-women-do-not–land-ceo-jobs/10364306

UTS – Discover Nursing

The courses are open to High School students and parents. Students can find out a lot about the profession and the course by attending these courses. I encourage especially Year 11 and 12s to register. 14 November at UTS Building 10, Ultimo

Find out more: www.uts.edu.au/future-students/health/why-health-uts/events-and-brochures/discover-sessions

UTS – Information Day

UTS Information Day is being held on 15 December to help all students in Year 12 to finalise their preferences for 2019 entry. 

Find out more: https://infoday.uts.edu.au/

UAC – In Year 12 and thinking of dropping A course?

This post is a great article (written from UAC) to look at some questions to ask yourself if you are thinking of dropping subjects. The sense is not to make any rash decisions, to make sure you are speaking to your teachers and various staff mentors to ensure you are making the correct decision.

Read the post

(Source: MHSCareers, October 2018)

Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director Kornmehl

How lovely it was to see everyone again at the start of the Term. The weeks are already flying by. This week was very busy with both the Starfish and Dolphins going to Bush School on Tuesday and Thursday respectively. 

On Friday we all raised money for teenage cancer sufferers by supporting National Bandanna day.

We also began our Shabbat Project celebrations with a big Kornmehl challah bake with all our Kornmehl families on Friday morning. The children each baked two challot together with their Mum, Dad, Grandparent or special friend. The Pre-school smelt delicious with the aroma of fresh challah baking in the oven. Our sincere thanks to Jesse Meguideche from Jesse’s bakery, for very kindly supplying the challah dough for us. We are very grateful for his support.

We wish you all a peaceful, relaxed Shabbat Project weekend.

Children’s Week

Children’s Week is a national celebration of children’s rights, talents and citizenship and is always celebrated around Universal Children’s Day which is held on the 4^th Wednesday of October in Australia.

Children’s Week celebrates the right of children to enjoy childhood. It is also a time for children to demonstrate their talents, skills and abilities. Some of the main rights of children are:

A child’s right to be healthy; a child’s right to discover; a child’s right to be safe; a child’s right to speak and a child’s right to play.

This is a reminder for us to think about all the children in our care, and how lucky we are to be teaching them on a daily basis and how much we can influence their future. As educators we need to celebrate children and value them as capable, competent little people who deserve to have rights and a voice.

The Governor-Generals message:

“For all of us, children represent hope and the future, how we care for, respect and nurture our children that will determine our prosperity and happiness. It makes sense that we should actively encourage the views of children, listen to their ideas, and value their insights. The theme for this year’s Children’s Week has been nominated as Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that ‘Children’s views and opinions are respected. They have the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child and the right to be heard.’ So this year, as we continue the journey of rearing confident, happy and safe children we resolve to listen to our children, to take heed of what they have to say and their perspective on the world. This will be good for children; it will be good for all of us.”

Orientation visits for Year K

The first of four orientation visits began on Thursday afternoon. Half of our children excitedly walked up the hill to meet the Year K teachers for the first time. The children enjoyed the visit very much and coped well with this first orientation visit to Year K. Many thanks to the Primary School and the Year K teachers for making it such a lovely, clam experience.

National Recycling Week

We are very excited about national recycling week coming up in week 5 from  12-16 November. We hope that you will all help us collect a variety of recycled materials for the children to explore and investigate, to make and create. Examples of these are washed, coloured plastic lids, clean egg boxes, plastic milk bottles, plastic, washed yoghurt containers, paper towel rolls, polystyrene food trays, boxes of all shapes and sizes, buttons, tea bag tags and so on

We hope also that families are working collaboratively to reflect, think and collect what they would like to use to make their recycled Chanukiah together with their child at Pre-school during that week. We are excited to see all your wonderful creations.

Enhancing your child’s language – Part 1, by Belinda Fisher, Speech Pathologist

Parents often ask what they can do to enhance their child’s language. Here are a few ideas:

Descriptive language

Difficulties with descriptions can limit your child’s language to labelling and commenting.  Descriptions provide additional information and allow your child to express him or herself using more complex sentences. They also provide children with the opportunity to learn and use new words that describe such things as size, colour, shape, texture and feelings.

Activities at home that you can do to help your child’s descriptive language include the following:

• Look at the colour, size and shape of things when you look at pictures together or are driving or playing with toys. Say things like “Find me a green toy” or “Look at the cow, it’s a big cow”.
• Expose your child to various describing words as much as possible, talking about the size of things, their smell, shape, taste, colour and texture.
• Make a ‘feelie bag’ where you put different textured objects into a pillowcase and ask your child to put their hand in the bag. Then ask your child to describe what the object they are holding feels like. Make a list of different words they can use such as slimy, cold, smooth and rough.
• Describe objects to your child that they can see or touch. Then ask your child to describe things that cannot be seen or touched, such as feelings or things in a different room.
• Play guessing games and ask your child to describe an object or a person so you can guess what or who it is. This can be a family game where everyone has a turn.
• Play I spy where you use the first sound and descriptive language to guess items.

Concepts

It is also important to develop your child’s understanding of concepts – things like beside, after, many, next week, next Monday and before.

Some activities that you can do to help your child’s understanding of concepts include the following:

• Providing a model of concepts in conversation, for example, you can emphasise words that illustrate time in sentences such as: “We are going to Grandma’s house next week”.
• Ask your child to act out concepts during games or playtime. Things such as “Touch your nose after you stamp your feet” (time), “Put the block beside the teddy” (place), and “put some of the pencils in the pencil case” (quantity).

Connecting our Community – Gesher

Sonia Newell – Development Officer

Book launch

It is no mean feat to write a book and have it published. Past parent Xanti Bootcov, whose two sons finished Year 12 here in 2013, has done just that with her book BUT THEY LOOK SO HAPPY (a mother’s journey to loving her sons). You can find her on: www.facebook.com/xantibootcovauthor

This is not the only Emanuel connection here – Xanti’s writing mentor, the well-known author and book publisher, Joanne Fedler, is also a past parent – her son, Aidan, finished Year 12 last year and currently coaches basketball at Emanuel.

Xanti invites us to her book launch on Sunday 18 November.  Please see invitation for details.

Alumni Pilot Program – can you help?

Are you a current employer who may have vacancies to offer? Would you be interested in helping out our Year 12s when they leave and/or other Emanuel alumni?

We are currently reviewing and gauging interest in a potential program.

If this is of interest to you, please get in touch: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

Dr Sarah Kummerfeld

Genetics: Cracking the Code of Life

Wolper Jewish Hospital and Friends of Wolper, as part of the Wolper Wellbeing Program, are holding a (free) Q&A evening on Wednesday 14 November at 7.30 pm at Event Cinemas Bondi Junction. One of the presenters on the panel is current Emanuel parent Dr Sarah Kummerfeld, also an Emanuel alumna (Class of 1997, Head Madricha). Sarah is Scientific Head of the Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics, Garvin Institute of Medical Research. This session is open to anyone interested in attending. For more information, contact the Wolper on 9328 6077 and see the advert on the Community announcements page.

If you have news you would like to share with us, please let me know: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au