From the Principal

Andrew Watt

Celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut

We are not a community that passes up the opportunity to get out of our school uniform and enjoy a party! Our exuberant celebration of Israel’s 71^st Birthday included a whole-school event, filled with music, ruach, singing and special messages from Israel. Years K-2 activities included an Israeli market (shuk) experience; Israeli dancing; Hebrew/Israeli songs; creating class name posters and face and biscuit decorating. Years 3-4 activities included designing a new Israeli flag and creating a tourist campaign for Israel. Years 5-6 activities included researching and creating a presentation about an aspect of Israeli society and culture and creating a music video for HaTikvah.

Whilst celebrations commence in Australia, Israelis will celebrate the anniversary the 1948 Declaration of Independence with official ceremonies, followed by night-time festivities on the main streets of the cities, where crowds will gather to watch public shows offered for free. Many spend the night dancing Israeli folk dances or singing Israeli songs. During the daytime thousands of Israeli families go out on hikes and picnics. Army camps are open for civilians to visit and to display the recent technological achievements of the Israeli Defence Forces. The day is concluded with the ceremony of granting the Israel Prize recognising individual Israelis for their unique contribution to the country’s culture, science, arts, and the humanities.

Yom HaZikaron Memorial Ceremony

Our High School students led this moving Memorial Day Ceremony for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism, with maturity and sensitivity. With 59 added this year to Israel’s list of over 23 000 fallen, our ceremony included insights into the lives of several fallen soldiers, and we observed a minute of silence. The student reflections included Motti Hammer’s song below, which captures the emotions, but also the hope and the search for a way forward, looking to a time when the cycle of death and violence will end.

One Living Human Tapestry

Because we are ALL ONE living human tapestry

And if one of us is gone from among us

Something dies in us and something stays within him…

If we know how to pacify the animosity

If only we know how

If we know how to quieten our anger

Despite the hurt, to say “I’m sorry”

If we know how to start afresh.

Because we are all ONE human tapestry

Wanted: Go With The Flow (GWTF) Traffic Assistant – paid position

We are seeking to employ a member of the Emanuel School community to assist us in both the mornings and afternoons, during term time. Key responsibilities include ensuring that cars move to drop off and collection areas, approaching stationary cars to assist with doors or bag storage, ensuring that cars do not stop in prohibited areas or remain in GWTF zones for extended periods and generally, troubleshooting and supporting a smooth flow of traffic around the campus. The hours are 7.00 am to 9.00 am and 2.45 pm to 4.45 pm. Please direct all enquiries to our Director of Finance and Operations, Jillian McCormick. Applications can be lodged through Deborah Beder at dbeder@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

The Emanuel Babysitting Registry

For some years, students from Years 9 to 12 seeking babysitting work for members of our community, have been listed in our Babysitting Registry. The Registry is currently advertised in Ma Nishma and on our two private Facebook pages. Whilst this was created as a beautiful initiative that reflects our community spirit, unfortunately, we have recently received legal advice that, as the School has a non-delegable duty of care in relation to the safety of its students, we should have no links to advertising or supporting the Registry. Therefore, we have revoked our involvement with the registry; we will not be publishing the Registry and will remove it from all our sites. The Registry may continue as an initiative organised by the community, rather than the School.

Dogs on campus

Parents are reminded that dogs are not permitted on campus. This policy removes the risk of dogs potentially attacking our students.

Mazal tov

Our intermediate boys team reached the Easts Cup Basketball Grand Finals. They put up a valiant effort but were narrowly defeated by Cranbrook.

Sienna Poswell, Eden Levit and Hannah Kim

Eden Levit, Hannah Kim and Sienna Poswell played in the CDSSA 15 years representative football team at AICES Championships yesterday and won the tournament, a fantastic result!

Juniors, Middles and Seniors B teams all won in Round 4 of HICES Debating on Wednesday.

Our Year 10 HICES Seniors B Debating team remain proudly undefeated after the first four rounds of the fiercely fought competition.

Quote of the week

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.”

Clay P Bedford

JCA Annual Fundraising Event

From the Primary School

Katie Brody – Director of Studies K-6

How do we ‘Get Reading Right’ here at Emanuel School?

If you missed Joanne Dooner’s presentation on Thursday morning, or have an interest in understanding how young people learn to read, this article is for you.

Last Thursday Jo-Anne Dooner, co-founder of Get Reading Right, visited to work with our Years K-2 teachers once again. She began the day with an informative and engaging presentation to the K-2 parents, the highlights of which are outlined here. If you would like a copy of the handout, please see the link below.

According to Jo-Anne Dooner, “Learning to read is essentially learning a code. The letters we use are simply symbols or written code for the speech sounds of English. Learning about the relationship between the letters of the alphabet and the speech sounds they represent allows us to ‘crack the code’ and learn to both read (decode) and spell (encode)”. If students have spent too much time learning words off by heart, looking only for picture cues or looking to find words they recognise only by site, they soon reach a stage where they can’t progress further and they need specialist intervention. These students can eventually learn to read and spell.

Once students can recognise and say even a small number of phonemes, they can then begin to blend them together and read their first words. For some students in Year K, this happens at an impressive rate. However, Jo-Anne affirms that one should not be discouraged if students cannot blend the sounds together right away. Learning the skill of blending sounds together, is like that of learning to ride a bike. Just as with any new skill, students don’t all learn to balance, pedal and steer right away. They need practice, encouragement and time to build confidence through small, incremental successes (and failures) along the way.

Learning to read:

‘Cracking the code’ = developing phonemic awareness. Students have to learn all 44 speech sounds (phonemes) and how they are represented by the letters to write them down (graphemes – how you write a phoneme, which is the basis of learning to spell). Students learn to write the phonemes and then they can segment the spelling of each word based on the phonemes within the word. Learning all the ways we can represent sounds in words takes students all the way to Year 6 as there are around 280 graphemes.
Consolidate their ability to ‘crack the code’ and develop the ability to blend those sounds together (synthesise). Once this skill is developed, they need to work on doing it quickly – fluency. This is the time when decodable books really allow students to feel a wonderful level of success. In addition, a sequence of ‘Camera Words’ are reinforced. These are not decodable, but they are essential and help to connect decodable words to create sentences (eg ‘the’ and ‘was’). These are offered in a deliberate order based on regularity, frequency and functionality.
Once fluency is developed, the understanding of each sentence becomes the focus. This is where pictures can assist in word-meaning association as well as helping students to build meaning through the unwritten messages (visual literacy) that is deliberate in quality picture books.
Developing reading comprehension is the next stage. This happens at a literal level at first, then students learn to show inferential comprehension and finally they learn to analyse text (which takes longer).

Types of books – using the analogy of their ‘health’ benefit:

‘Chocolate’ books: They’re fun, light, humorous or silly eg – Captain Underpants or the Rainbow Magic Fairy series. They’re not really quality literature but they’re popular with young readers as the sentences are short, vocabulary is simple and students engage with the humour. Children often read and enjoy these alone.

‘Fruit and vegetable’ books: They’re still quite sweet but a little bit ‘healthier’ in terms of a decent plot and development of characters. They are still quite light in terms of complexity or quality, can generally serve as good shared reading experiences or as a read alone book. These are often based on a high interest topic for the child. ‘Fruit and vegetable’ books are good for children as they provide enjoyment as well as developing vocabulary.

‘Protein books’: These books are high-quality literature, often having won literary prizes or they may be classics that have been around for generations. These books have well-developed plot lines and characters, as well as having a didactic message that can benefit young people. These can be picture books as well as novels. They provoke discussion, often contain figurative language or sensory imagery and serve as excellent models for the developing writer.

Jo-Anne Dooner’s advice for parents wishing to assist their child at home:

Maintain a focus on the decoding of the phonemes, blending (when ready) and building fluency.
Ensure your child uses the pictures as secondary information – decode the words first. If dependence on the pictures is clear, cover the picture as they read, then uncover it as a ‘reward’ for good decoding.
Provide children with a ‘healthy diet’ of reading – We all love a bit of ‘chocolate’ and so long as it is not the only book in the ‘diet’, it is harmless and can lead to better choices.
Non-fiction books should be encouraged as part of the range of books experienced by your child.
Insist that even reluctant readers read for 20 minutes (minimum per day) – read alone, read to them or alternate reader page by page.

Please click here for access to the Handout for Parents provided at the information session.

NAPLAN testing begins next week

From Tuesday 14 May to Friday 17 May, our Years 3 and 5 students will participate in NAPLAN Online. Aside from the writing task for Year 3 being on paper this year, the rest of the assessments will be completed online. Click here for the information brochure for parents and carers. It addresses common questions about NAPLAN Online testing.

One of the main features of the NAPLAN Online format is that it is a tailored (or adaptive) test. The tailored test provides a more precise assessment of your child’s performance in the areas of reading, language conventions (grammar, spelling and punctuation) and numeracy by adapting to responses. As your child progresses through the test, questions may be easier or more difficult, to better assess his or her ability. Your child’s NAPLAN results and scores are based on the number and complexity of questions he or she has answered correctly.

If you have any questions about NAPLAN Online, please contact your child’s teacher or Katie Brody, Director of Studies K-6 kbrody@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

For more info click on these links:

Uniform update

Please review the uniform requirements on the Parent Portal to ensure your child is appropriately dressed each day for school. There have also been a few updates to the uniform requirements:

NEW soft shell jackets are available for purchase and can be worn with the sport uniform.
Students in Years 5 and 6 are required to wear the blazer to and from school every day. They may add a school jumper underneath for more warmth.

Students in Kindergarten to Year 4 may wear the Micropeach as an extra layer on colder days.

From the Head of Jewish Life

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Where is “Merciful God”?

Our Jewish Community’s recent Yom HaShoah commemoration included, as did similar gatherings around the world, an intoning of the El Malei Rachamim prayer.

אל מלא רחמים שוכן במרומים…/El Malei Rachamim Shochein BaMeromim…

God full of mercy, who dwells on high…

These very words conjure the question of the Shoah, of which we are most mindful, “Where was the merciful God?”.

Saying these words, brings to mind, as well, the words of the celebrated Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, from his poem אל מלא רחמים/El Malei Rachamim – God Full of Mercy:

אלמלא האל מלא רחמים – Ilmalei HaEl Malei Rachamim

היו הרחמים בעולם ולא רק בו – Hayu HaRachamim BaOlam VeLo Rak Bo

Were it not that God was full of mercy

there would be mercy in the world and not just in Him

In projecting the full measure of mercy as being within God we excuse ourselves from being merciful beings, rendering mercy as dwelling on high and not within our world.

Questioning the presence of the merciful God points to the absence of the merciful man.

This week’s parashah, Kedoshim, begins and ends with the call for us to “Be Holy (Kedoshim) for the Lord your God is Holy”. It is in this parashah that we find the universally recognised mandate: “Love your neighbour as yourself”.

Significantly, scholars contend that this command VeAhavta LeReiach KaMocha/ ואהבת לרעך כמוךmore correctly means “Love your neighbor, for he is like you”. This reading is borne out by the second iteration of this injunction: “The stranger that resides with you shall be as one of your citizens, and you shall love him, for he is like you (VeAhavta Lo KaMocha/ואהבת לו כמוך), for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

In both instances, the command to love our fellow human being, for he is like us, concludes with the reminder “I am the Lord”.

God is full of mercy, within our world, only if we are the same.

The Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Elie Wiesel, who asks in his book Night, “Where is merciful God, where is He?”, dedicated his life to calling upon the mercy and presence of man.

He could not do otherwise, nor should we. For the presence of the merciful God does not preclude but is predicated upon that of merciful man.

Love your neighbour, for he is like you

Devar Torah

Kobi Bloom | Jewish Life Teacher | Year 10 Tutor

Pesach is the story of the end of the Jews time in slavery, a time where we were constrained physically and mentally in Mitzrayim, Egypt, the narrow place. On the second night of Pesach we begin counting the Omer, a period of 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot, between the end of slavery and the beginning of the Jewish People at Har Sinai. So, we have left Mitzrayim but not yet reached Sinai, neither here nor there, we are in an in-between space, a liminal space. This is a period of our Jewish calendar for us to consider transition.

There is a theory, offered by author William Bridges that transitions happen in three stages, ending, the neutral zone and beginning. In our story, Pesach is the ending of slavery, Shavuot is a new beginning, a life no longer dictated by the demands of an earthly taskmaster bur rather Torah and our collective imperative for good.

Thursday marks 71 years since David Ben Gurion proudly declared Yechi Medinat Yisrael, the Nation of Israel lives. Was this our new beginning? Or was it perhaps just the end of our time in Mitzrayim, a period of 2000 years where our lives as Jews often hung perilously in the hands of others.

But before I speak about Zionism, we need to really understand the in between time, the neutral zone that Bridges speaks about, in our story from Mitzrayim to Sinai, this in between time takes place in the desert, bamidbar.

According to Bridges, people in this intermediate space are often confused, uncertain and impatient. There may be feelings of anxiety, scepticism or low morale – the past has been let go of, but the path to the future has not yet manifest.

It is uncomfortable, being no longer this but not yet knowing what that is going to look like, how it feels, who we will be and whether it will be any good at all.

And yet the neutral zone is a time of rich spiritual power, creativity, a time to try new ways of being in the world. It can be liberating to not be constrained by old ideas about who we are, what are our lives are supposed to be like. Terrifying sure, but also exhilarating.

The neutral zone is a time of quietness, of seeking out silence and the power it holds.

It is no coincidence that everything important in the Tanakh – prophecies, kingships, Torah – came out in the wilderness. It’s a place of danger and vulnerability, and perhaps it can feel like it can go on forever. Just ask anyone who has been on Chavayah and travelled on the overnight hike through the desert. Midbar Medaber, despite its almost inconceivable silence, the desert speaks with incredible power.

I suggest that Yom HaAtzma’ut, Israeli Independence marks the ending of our 2000-year exile and since then, our people have been in transition, in between. The fact that Israel now exists cannot alone be our Shavuot, our redemption. We need to see the State of Israel as a place that still needs to reach the promise laid out in the Declaration of Independence, which states that: “Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” Notice that it says The State of Israel will ensure equality, it will be guarantee freedom. It will, it will, it will. Israel is far from perfect and yet so many people celebrate it as if it is. The founders of Israel wrote about Israel in the future tense because they knew that we must always be in transition towards this better future. Our nation has made progress, but it is not there yet. We know that we are once again under threat, Israel is being bombarded by hundreds of rockets as we speak and while we hope for peace and are regularly challenged by tragedy, we do not want to abandon our dreams of an Israel that we can always be proud of, a light unto the nations. That’s the thing about Judaism and transitions, we are always transitioning towards something better. We don’t believe that our ancestors were freed from slavery so our job is done or that we received the Torah at Sinai so we are done with reinventing ourselves. We have a Seder, count the Omer and celebrate Shavu’ot every year.

So, while we sit here in that uncomfortable time of transition between the Israel we have and the Zion we dream of we are also reminded by Pesach, The Omer and Shavu’ot that revelation is a process that we transition towards constantly. The point of the transition is for us to sit with the anxiety, ambiguity and the unknowability of our what comes next. This is the time to go down deep into the deepest recesses of who we are, to find the resources and riches we didn’t know where there. We must take hold of this transitional time and harness the spiritual power and creativity it affords us to try new ways of being in the world, so that together, we can try to live up to the hope of our Jewish Nation.

Our new Jewish Life Madrich

Jason Glass

We are happy to have Jason Glass join our Jewish Life team. We look forward to his working in partnership with our students and staff in creating and realising a meaningful understanding and joyous celebration of our Judaism here at Emanuel.

Rabbi Siegel

My name is Jason and I am a 22-year-old university student, currently on break from my medical studies.

I have been in and around informal Jewish education since I was 14, and really attribute my strong sense of identity to these experiences. As a teenager, I learnt the importance of critical thinking and the values of learning.

These principles were only enhanced when, at 19, I embarked on Shnat Hachshara (a year of training) in Israel, where I spent my time learning, volunteering and living. Over the course of the year, I learnt just how much we can grow and evolve as people and today, personal development is a key driving force in my life.

I remain active in the Jewish community today, largely in the form of Hineni Youth and Welfare, in which I have been a Madrich (leader) for the past three years, two of which I have been Rosh Chinuch (Head of Education). In this setting, I have been privileged to help facilitate the growth and learning of a new generation of Jewish youth, and have seen firsthand the impact youth can make once empowered and given agency.

I am extremely excited to be able to use my passion of engaging our Jewish youth within the Emanuel context, and I’m looking forward to working with you all.

Ma Koreh

Adam Carpenter | Head of Jewish Life Primary

Dressed in blue and white, students entered through a blue and white balloon tunnel to celebrate 71 years of Israel’s Independence. Our day of celebration included the following activities:

A whole school Yom HaAtzma’ut ceremony filled with music, ruach, singing and special messages from Israel
A shuk experience where students could interact with stall owners from Year 6 in Hebrew, to taste and experience foods of Israeli including cherry tomatoes, olives, Bisli and halva
Singing Israeli songs – שירים and experiencing Israeli folk dancing – ריקודי עם
Learning about their class name and creating posters representing its people and places
Faint painting and biscuit decorating with the Israeli flag
Creating video clips to various traditional and contemporary renditions of HaTikvah
Learning about the meaning and symbolism of the Israeli flag then designing their own flag for Israel
Creating a tourist campaign for a place or region in Israel
Researching an aspect of Israeli culture and creating presentations to share with their peers
An Israeli sports carnival, where students where placed into teams with names of Israeli sport teams, such as like Maccabi Tel Aviv and HaPoel Haifa, and competed in popular Israeli sports such as:

football – כדורגל

basketball -כדורסל

volleyball -כדורשת

matkot –מטקות

Thank you to the canteen for providing delicious falafel for lunch and for the ruach of our teachers and students in creating a day of learning and celebration about Israel.

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Yom Hashoah Commemoration

The theme of the Yom Hashoah commemoration this year was “Resistance – lighting a Dark space”. Our High School students and staff community came together to remember those we lost in the Shoah but to also focus on the power of our spirit and the resistance of our people in the face of tyranny.

Daniel Samowitz

Part Time Jewish Life Teacher

Click here to watch Rachel Turtledove’s performance at the ceremony.

In this excerpt from What Really Makes Us Free by Elie Wiesel https://docs.google.com/document/d/16ACX-rWxwWVwMjb6Iq8y0ZQsSSW0CoH_wT5Etwz0NlU/edit I see obvious connections that can be made to the festival of Pesach which we just celebrated. Wiesel speaks about how people in captivity can remain free.

It takes free people like Moses to stand up to those who are keeping others in captivity, He risks everything in order to maintain hope and freedom.

The story of Pesach teaches us that freedom is engrained in the Jewish people, regardless of what situation we are in. This is what Wiesel speaks about, the inherent freedom experienced by the Jewish people even in times of trouble and captivity.

By Matthew Joffe

The Holocaust. The systematic murderer of millions of Jews. An enforced oppression which created a divide in who was seen as ‘perfect’ and who was seen as ‘damaged’. We could never truly understand the hardships and hopelessness of those who suffered. In Polish cities under Nazi occupation, like Warsaw and Lodz, Jews were confined in sealed ghettos where starvation, overcrowding, exposure to cold, and contagious diseases killed tens of thousands of people. While many Jews could not escape their inevitable future, some managed to overcome these obstacles, demonstrating resilience and rebellion.

The Holocaust is most often-associated with prisoners in their striped uniforms set against a backdrop of barbed wire and long rows of bleak-looking barracks. However, this was not the case in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. For nearly four weeks, Jews revolted against the Nazis as they entered the ghetto to deport the remaining Jews to concentration camps.

These Jews managed to hold the ghetto for nearly up to a month, but they eventually ran out of supplies to keep fighting. Their resistance became a symbol that counteracted the often-misleading narrative that Jews went to their deaths without a fight. As Viktor E. Frankl stated: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

As we commemorate on Yom Hashoah the legacy of those who perished, we are responsible for recalling more than the horror alone but also the acts of resistance and bravery against man’s inhumanity. In remembering this great tragedy of our people and of our world may we find the strength in ourselves to stand up against the injustices confronting us today.

By Lachlan Corne

Yom Hazikaron

Ruth Harvey

Head of Hebrew

Student Devar Torah

Charli Krite – Year 12

This week’s Torah portion, Kedoshim, begins with God telling Moshe: “Speak to the entire congregation of the children of Israel and say: ‘You shall be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy’.” Today I don’t want to focus on holiness in the eyes of God, rather holiness in the eyes of man, in the eyes of the people sitting in this room.

When you think of being truly holy, what do you think of? Is it turning off your phone to keep Shabbat? Sitting in this room surrounded by your friends, family and people a part of a wider community? Perhaps just a short and silent meditation. Kedoshim can be looked at in many ways, it can be interpreted in the way that relates to being holy by following commandments and fulfilling mitzvot, but it can also be understood that to be truly holy we must look into ourselves and through that, relate to others around us.

Now close your eyes, picture a moment in your life when you have felt truly holy. Think about where you are, what you can see, smell, feel. Are there people around you? Or are you by yourself? Sit in this place for a moment.

Now opening your eyes, turn to the person next to you, share with them where you were or what you were doing.

Notice how no one said anything the exact same as you. We were all in different places, having different experiences and feeling different emotions, but united by the one thing that unifies us. The collective experience of holiness.

According the Torah, to be holy relates to fulfilling mitzvot, keeping Shabbat, or not getting tattoos. But as individuals, as a part of a wider community, is this really our only definition? In Hebrew, the word kedushah, from the root word kadosh, translates to sanctity, or to be separate and thus holy. The idea of being holy therefore relates to the idea of being different or set apart from the normal, and that the realm of holiness is entirely separate from the common, in the same way, that God is. “For I, the Lord your God, am holy” implies the fact that God is unique and set apart from the normal. This metaphorical separation of ‘discovering holiness’ can be coupled with the action of connecting with others around us, the community.

If being ‘holy’ relates to being separate, why is it that the entire congregation was called together by God? Perhaps, the individual perspective of holiness comes from not only within, but also the fact that our connections with others impact the way we relate to being holy. We gather today to experience something bigger than ourselves, we come to experience something together as a community and it is here for me, that I am holy.

From the Head of Music

Diana Springford

Music Camp Talent Quest

Show off your secret, or not-so-secret, talent at the Music Camp Talent Quest on Tuesday evening. Students who wish to participate should have a well-prepared act that is appropriate for Music Camp students from ages 9-18. It could be serious or funny. Students who would like to participate must register their interest with Mr Burley by the first Monday of camp. They should bring whatever gear they need and, if using a backing track, should have it fully downloaded and given to Mr Burley by the last Friday before camp.

Final call for Emanuel School Music Camp 2019!

Our Music Camp participants list is now finalised and a group of 130 talented students from Years 4 to 12 are registered to attend in July. A detailed information letter with a packing list will be sent out to attendees mid-term. If you are unsure whether you have registered or not, please check that your name is on the lists on the noticeboard in the Music Department. If your child is a member of the eligible ensembles and you have missed signing up or if you have any questions, please urgently contact Joanne De Araujo at jdearaujo@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

Night of Song (information for soloists)

Please mark in your diary that Night of Song is on Thursday 22 August. This very popular concert is our main annual event for choirs as well as a number of vocal soloists. Aspiring soloists who are planning to audition for Night of Song, please note that this year our theme is Musical Theatre, so we are giving you plenty of advance notice that you will need to prepare a song from a musical.

Kornmehl Gate and Music Room Door open for musicians from 7.00am-7.45am daily

Due to feedback about the effect on musicians of closing the Kornmehl gate and Music door, Mr Watt is willing to trial allowing musicians who have early morning rehearsals and/or have heavy instruments to enter via the Kornmehl gate and Music door between 7:00am and 7:45am sharp. From 7:45am students will need to walk through the Avoca or Waxman gate to come to rehearsal and/or bring their instruments down to the M Rooms.

In the afternoon, musicians should please continue to take their instruments with them out of the Avoca or Waxman Gates.

From the Maria Tirabosco Library

Karen McAndrew – Teacher/Librarian

Library services

The Maria Tirabosco Library offers a number of services and facilities to accommodate the learning and leisure needs of High School students and all staff. We have a broad selection of fiction, non-fiction and magazines in print and digital form, and friendly staff are always keen to help. If your child is new to the High School you might like to visit the Maria Tirabosco Library website http://libguides.emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au/hsl. This site offers access to digital databases, encyclopedias, newspapers and magazines, reading suggestions for Years 7-12, research tips and more.

Opening hours:

Monday: 8.00 am – 4.00pm

Tuesday to Thursday: 8.00 am – 5.00 pm

Friday: 8.00 am – 4.00pm

CBCA Book Week challenge

As part of the Wide Reading Program all Year 7-10 students are invited to participate in the following Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Week challenge and competition. Since 1945, the CBCA has fostered and promoted quality Australian literature to young audiences up to 16 years old. The students’ challenge is to read, critique and advocate for one of the 2019 CBCA: Older Readers short listed novels.

Key information …

Read a selection of the 2019 CBCA: Older Readers short listed novels by the end of Term 2
Write a 200 word review on their favourite 2019 CBCA: Older Readers short listed novel using the writing scaffold provided
Submit their review to seniorlibrary@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au before Monday 5 August 2019 (Week 3 in Term 3)
The winner from each Year Group will be presented with a book voucher at the Book Week Assembly.

Details of listed books and writing scaffold can be found on their LibGuides iRead page.

Representative Sport

Kristy Genc | Head of Sport | PDHPE Teacher | Year 11 Tutor

Representative Sport news

It has been an exciting start to the term for the Emanuel Representative Sport program.

Jared Elbourne and Gabriella Goodridge represented Emanuel and AICES at the CIS Swimming Championships last week.

Jared, the Emanuel swimming captain, placed 4^thin the 50m breaststroke, swimming a personal best time. Congratulations to Jared on his contribution to School Sport and in particular Emanuel Swimming. Jared has excelled in swimming throughout his schooling and has been a leader in sport at the School, and it was fitting to see him swim in his last school swimming event with such a great result. Well done Jared.

Gabriella swam in four events, with outstanding results in each:

50m freestyle – 5^thplace

50m fly – 2^ndplace

100m freestyle – 4^thplace

100m butterfly – 3^rdplace

Gabriella will now compete at the NSW All Schools Swimming Championships next week. Good luck Gabriella.

On Wednesday 1 May, four Emanuel Football teams travelled to the Central Coast to compete at the CDSSA Football Gala Day. The day was a great success with all teams playing well. The senior boys teams finished the day undefeated, winning 1-0 against SEDA College and drawing with Moriah College and Central Coast Sport College. Well done boys!

Selections were also made for the CDSSA Football teams during this event. Congratulations to the following students who have been selected in representative teams:

Ethan De Melo
Hannah Kim
Eden Levit
Ellie Morris
Sienna Poswell
Danielle Rutstein
Jordan Weizman

Congratulations to Eden Levit and Romi Lapidge who competed at the AICES Netball Championships on Monday. This day is always very competitive, with a high standard amongst the associations in attendance. The day provided a great experience for the girls and was an excellent learning opportunity.

The Emanuel Intermediate boys basketball team competed in the grand final of the Sydney Schools Cup Competition this week, playing against Cranbrook School. It was an exciting game to watch, with the scores incredibly close throughout. Unfortunately, Cranbrook pulled through in the last minute to win 37-29. Congratulations to Brody Elbourne, Aaron Glass, Samuel Greenberg, Alexander Kirievsky, Matthew Lowy, Daniel Malamed, Marcus Tsimbler, Ben Rozen and Amadeus Tjanaria on their great commitment and performance throughout this tournament.

Click on Image to view Gallery

Meir Advocate

Hi Meirians,

Welcome to Term 2! We hope you have all had a refreshing holiday and are already getting back into your normal routines. Here’s what this term has in store…

Our Term 2 motto

After the success of last term’s motto Meir has decided to make term mottos a tradition. Every term we will focus on a new motto in House Assembly, something which will help us make good habits, appreciate what we have or just give us a good life lesson. So, without further ado our new House Motto for Term 2 is…. “Stars can’t shine without brightness”

Ms Selinger Calligraphy

Ms Selinger

We give a big congratulations to the amazing Meir Tutor, Ms Selinger. She won first prize at the Easter show for her incredible calligraphy skills. Once again congratulations for this achievement.

Getting ready For Term 2

Even though it is only Week 2, before you know it, it will be Week 9, you’ll have seven PoU’s all due in the same week and those days when you said: “I have plenty of time to do all this” will be long gone.

So, today when you should be doing some work, but find yourself standing in front of the open fridge for the fourth time in an hour or realise you’re watching ukulele lessons on YouTube when you don’t even own a ukulele, stop and think. We’ve ALL made the error of leaving things to the very last minute, so here are a few steps to remind us all how to stop procrastinating:

Break tasks into small chunks. It can be overwhelming to think about finishing a whole essay or speech, so instead of thinking about everything you have to do, break it down into smaller, more achievable pieces and set yourself realistic goals.
Remove distractions from your environment. If you know you will be checking your phone while trying to tackle your work, put it in a different room. Remove anything that you think may affect your concentration on the task and it will instantly be easier to focus.
Start your day with the hardest tasks. Pick the hardest task first. You’ll be more energised to do this task, you’ll feel so much better once it’s done and then you can move onto the easier tasks for the rest of the day.
Reward yourself. Make sure to promise yourself you’ll get a reward when it is done. Just tell yourself that when it’s over, you get to celebrate with one of your favourite things. After achieving your goals, you can be really happy to find yourself staring into the fridge or watching that YouTube clip!

We hope you have had a great start to Term 2!

Love, your Meir Editors,

Charlotte Lyons and Tara Israel

Kol Szenes

Hi Everyone!

Welcome back to a busy start to Term 2. We hope that you had a wonderful end of term break and Pesach.

So far there have been Three Way Learning Conversations (3WLC) for Years 9 and 7, with Year 8 3WLCs happening next Wednesday. We have attended commemoration ceremonies for ANZAC day and Yom HaZikaron and on Thursday students and staff wore blue and white to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut.

Year 9 students recently attended a Year 9 Jewish Studies Changemakers Excursion whilst other Year 9s including Szenesians Eliza Bowen, Layla Goldberg and Ellie Morris are currently immersing themselves in the East Timorese culture.

We welcome back to school next week Year 11 Szenesians Miriam Itzkowitz and Claudia Burman, who attended the March of the Living program (MOTL). The mission of MOTL is to challenge participants with two of the most significant events of Jewish history – the Shoah (Holocaust) and the birth of the State of Israel. The March of the Living itself, a three-kilometre walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau, is a silent tribute to all victims of the Holocaust. After spending a week in Poland visiting sites of Nazi Germany’s persecution and former sites of Jewish life and culture, participants travel to Israel the following week to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day.

To find out more about Miriam’s and Claudia’s experience on MOTL click on the link to their blog here http://smotlaus.tumblr.com/

Announcements for Week 4

Good luck to Year 12 who will be sitting their Half-Yearly Examinations.
Inter-House Beep test

If you would like to participate in the Inter-House beep test on Friday Lunch in Week 4 (24 May), then be sure to let your House Mads, Mia Port and Erin Nabarro know.

Emanuel Group in East Timor

David Whitcombe | HSIE Teacher

Last Sunday, 11 Emanuel students accompanied by Mr Bell and Ms Korotkov travelled to East Timor. They spent two days in the capital Dili learning about the country then travelled up through Balibo and Maliana and have arrived in the remote village of Gildapil where they will stay for six nights. This week they started teaching English in classrooms and all is going well. They return next Wednesday.

Click on Image to view Gallery

Romeo & Juliet – bookings open soon

Parent Workshops Pre-School to Year 6

Youth at the Zoo

Noah Dawson Kelly – Year 9

Youth at the Zoo (YATZ) is an amazing volunteer program for young people 13-19 years old. I joined YATZ in the annual May intake at Taronga Zoo when I was 13 in Year 7, as did my brother Samuel. I am passionate about animals and had to wait several years till I was old enough to join.

There is a range of shifts available over school holidays to offer to volunteer for, shifts where you learn about wild animals and conservation, shifts where you help the public learn often through fun children activities, ‘sections’ where you help the animals at the zoo such as raking, cleaning glass or cutting up their food, assisting guests at the zoo, helping staff with school holiday programs and a large range of extra activities such as tree planting. These holidays I volunteered to do a ‘section’ and cleaned the glass of the penguins while the penguins swam back and forth following the squeegee and I also attended an education session on the conservation work that Taronga Zoo is involved in.

The full day induction and the training offered is very helpful as are all the amazing staff and volunteers. I would recommend it to anyone interested in wild animals or conservation.

Click here to find out more. If interested, you need to go on the waitlist and then apply through uploading a brief video for the May or November intake.

If you are older and are interested in studying at Taronga Zoo they offer VET and TAFE courses . If you are too young to join YATZ, there is also RSPCA school holiday programs, Taronga Zoo Adventures, Taronga Keeper for a day and lots of other camps. YATZ focus is wild animals and conservation. If you prefer interacting more with animals there are lots of programs with domestic animals including Future Vet Camp, fostering through the RSPCA and volunteering with Sydney Dogs and Cats home or Monika’s Doggie Rescue.

Kornmehl

Terry Wizen – Director Kornmehl

Term 2 is already full steam ahead. The pre-school is buzzing with everything blue and white for Israel’s 71^stbirthday and lots of preparation for Mother’s Day.

Yom Ha’atzmaut

On our return from the holidays the children immediately walked into a focus on Israel. All the classrooms were adorned with blue and white, with the Israeli flag welcoming families in the foyer together with a provocation: “What does Israel mean to you?”

We have had some beautiful responses from parents and a child:

Odin Kaye: Israel is my roots. Israel’s landscape shaped me to become who I am. Israel is where we can all go to feel completely at home and free. Its existence gives us security to feel safe and free everywhere else in the world.

Katya (aged 4): Israel is where Savta is. Israel is a holiday.

Rami Weiss: Israel is a link to our history as a Jewish people. The connecting bond between thousands of years of Jewish life and the present. At its best, Israel represents ingenuity, passion and the drive to succeed, against all odds.

Daniel Stein: Israel is the only Jewish country in the world. I am proud of Israel’s achievements in the short time since its independence. I think it is a peace-loving country with peace loving people that are existing as an oasis in a tough, corrupt and power-driven region. I think Israel has fought hard for everything it has. I believe it has restored pride to the Jewish people since the devastation of the Holocaust. I hope that it sees peace with its neighbours soon.

Sharon Miller: To us, Israel is an anchor and a heart to the Jewish people who are all around the world. An oasis in the middle of the desert where a nation so small bats well above their average in everything from science and technology to the arts and more.

Vicky Lazarus: Israel for me is a spiritual place that I have not yet had the privilege to visit. It is a place that in my mind stands for Courage, Belonging, Togetherness, Culture, Judaism, Strength, Holiness, and Love. A love by the people that live there for their country, for their religion and for Hashem. It is a country that is rich in culture and belief and a will to survive and keep going against all odds by its people.

Vanina Vaisman-Levy: For me it’s very simple: Israel is home, for me, my family and for the generations to come.

Justine Hoffman: Israel feels like home. I love the chutzpah. I love the way everyone feels so familiar and close. It’s a place where I feel my strongest sense of belonging and connection.

Last week we had Yigal Nisel from JNF visit to do a workshop with each group on Israel.

He explained that Israel is a very small country and is mostly desert. He told us that the JNF has planted over 240 million trees. Because of the water shortage in Israel, the sea water is converted to drinking water via desalination. He thanked us for the money we bring each Shabbat to help the JNF. The children then searched for little blue boxes hidden in the big floor map picture. It was a great way for the children to understand that the tzedakah they bring each week is really appreciated. Each child received a little pot, seeds and “magic soil,” to grow some parsley or oregano. Thank you Yigal for a meaningful visit.

Over the course of last week, this week and into next week the Pre-school has and will continue to be turned into a mini Israel.

We have a Shuk outside on the deck. We have an El Al aeroplane flying to Israel.

We have the Kotel. We have the Arava desert in the sandpit and a Bedouin tent outside in the garden.

We have seven species platters to taste, touch, see and smell, Israeli dancing outside on the oval and we have heaps of activities that are blue and white – flag making, Hamsa making out of blue playdough, blue and white craft materials.

It’s a feast of the senses!

Our plan is to immerse the children in Israel studies, making it a familiar country, that they can relate to, understand and develop a deep and meaningful connection to…

We will be continuing our explorations of Israel over the next two weeks.

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day has arrived, and the children are excited to share this special event with their wonderful mums.

We have all made a special tea towel present for our mums and designed beautiful cards with special messages too.

We wish all our Kornmehl mums a very happy Mother’s Day on Sunday.

The Pre-school will be celebrating on Monday morning from 8.30 am to 9.30 am with a delicious breakfast and mindful activities together with all our mums.

We thank all our Kornmehl dads who are coming in on Monday morning at 7.30 am to help set up for the breakfast – Peter Vines, Harley Mackenzie, Neil Shilbury and Danny Stein.

You are all legends!

We also thank all our mums who came in on Friday to bake – Ella Lizor, Odin Kaye and Edith Lawton. Your help is very much appreciated.

Care Packs

The Care Packs from lots of different Centres have started to pour into the Pre-school foyer.

We thank all our Kornmehl and Emanuel School families for their support of this worthwhile project. You still have up until 15 May to get your Care Pack in.

Happy Birthday

We wish a very happy birthday to Hannah Pellow (5), Mika Kachtan (4), Max Freund (4), Abby and Ella Marcus (4) and Jasper McGee (5). We hope you all had a special day.

Save the Date

Please make sure you all diarise Sunday 16 June from 7.00 pm -9.00 pm to come and help us celebrate the Pre-schools 20^th birthday.

Careers

Claire Pech – Careers Advisor

Annual Careers Space event

On Tuesday 21 May, Years 11 and 12 will take part in our annual Careers Space 2019 event. We will have 34 guest speakers in total who are all Emanuel aumni and relatively recent graduates or still at Uni. Students – you have by now all filled in my questionnaire that was emailed out and we are finalising rooming. Please keep an eye out on your Edumate for week 4 to see where you should be. We are looking forward to hosting these speakers, so come prepared with questions.

UCAT

Deadline is coming up on 17 May so please register if you are thinking of clinical sciences, Medicine or Dentistry.

https://www.ucat.edu.au/ucat-anz/dates-and-fees/

UNSW Coop Scholarships now Open for Finance, IT and Engineering

The scholarship applications must be received by 30 September 2019.

Co-op scholarships provide a professional development program which assists scholars to prepare for and make a smooth transition to the workplace.UNSW Co-op Program scholars receive between nine and 18 months structured industry experience and gain valuable work experience with up to four different sponsors, along with great mentoring programs and career advancement opportunities. It is very competitive, so I would make some early enquiries.

Main site: https://www.coop.unsw.edu.au/

Apply here: https://www.coop.unsw.edu.au/apply

UTS Law Undergrad information evening

This is on 27 June 2019 from 5.30 pm – 8.00 pm

Haymarket, Building 5, Block B, Ground Floor, 1-59 Quay St, Haymarket, Sydney

Discover why studying at UTS will give you an edge! This event is open to Year 11 and 12 students, and their parents. Registrations essential here:

https://www.uts.edu.au/about/faculty-law/events/law-undergraduate-info-evening

ACU – Community Achiever Program

Applications are now open.

The Community Achiever Program offers students who are active in their community early entry to their course of choice. It also provides opportunities to enhance leadership skills. If a student is successful in applying for the CAP, they could receive an offer to study with ANU as early as August. This is a great opportunity to showcase the amazing skills that Emanuel students have.

https://www.acu.edu.au/study-at-acu/admission-pathways/i-volunteer-regularly/

Study Medicine – the 10 Step Medical School application guide

A new free resource – 10 Step Medical School Application Guide is also now available. Download and use this to guide students through the medicine degree application process.

https://www.studymedicine.com.au/10-step-application-guide

Connecting our Community – Gesher

Sonia Newell – Development Officer

It’s wonderful to hear about recent Emanuel School graduates and their contribution to our local and extended communities. A number of alumni from the Class of 2017 spent last year in Israel on Shnat with Habonim and are now leading the various weekly ‘Habo’ sessions and holiday camps. Kerryn Finn, along with Jordana (Jordi) Blackman, Maya Buhrich and Ethan Cohen are all running the upcoming Habonim camps in the July School holidays.

Kerryn Finn says “Choref is Habonim Dror’s annual winter camp for Years 3 to 11. We are excited to announce that this year’s theme is Zricha – the Hebrew word for sunrise. Why have we chosen this? Sunrises represent renewals and new beginnings – the dawn of a new day, of fresh and enjoyable experiences. Just as a sunrise brings in the start of a new day, we aim for this machane (camp) to bring in the start of a new adventure for friends of Habonim Dror in Sydney. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran who’s spent your whole life in the movement or a newcomer ready to learn lively ruach chants for the first time, Machane Zricah will be is an open and inclusive environment for everyone, and camp never fails to be an unforgettable experience.”

Genevieve Goldman – Class of 2018

Accolades continue for Genevieve Goldman, Head Madricha 2018, who topped the State in HSC Drama last year. She is the recipient of the June Frater Award for Excellence in HSC Drama, which will be presented to her at Drama NSW State Conference this weekend. Drama NSW is the professional teaching association for Drama education in the state. This award is highly prestigious and acknowledges the hard work and dedication of students in HSC Drama, and is presented to the NSW student who achieved the highest HSC score in Drama for the previous year – our very own Genevieve – mazal tov!

Lori Frankel (standing) and Mia Charlupski (seated) with Year 3 students

Lori Frankel who finished Year 12 here in 2012 has returned to school to do her final practicum for her Primary Education degree at Notre Dame University. Lori is very excited to be back at Emanuel and is spending the whole term with the Year 3 students and their teacher Melanie Horin. I caught up with Lori on Monday morning and the classroom teacher for that session was Mia Charlupski who is also from the Class of 2012 and returns to us from time to time as a casual Primary Teacher.

We hope you will join us for one of our two “Breakfast with Emanuel” sessions next month, when you will hear from our passionate Principal Andrew Watt and School Counsellor Kim Slender. Please see details here:

I thought you might like to know about a Facebook post I just read, especially given the commemoration this week of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers of Israel and victims of terrorism). This post highlights the achievements of many Israelis who have won awards and/or invented so many amazing world-famous “things”: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10156377092812404&id=598602403

Our School Community is always ready to support so many amazing and worthy causes and charities, and here is one that might interest you too: Run2Cure Neuroblastoma is a fun run event for families and schools, taking place on Sunday 2 June in the Domain.

The goal of this event is to provide a fun morning and to raise awareness and funds for research into the aggressive childhood cancer, neuroblastoma. This year there is a 3km Primary School Challenge among other fun runs. If you would like to register, simply go to www.run2cure.org.au

If you have photos and/or news to share, please send it to: snewell@emanuelschool.nsw.edu.au

Breakfast with Emanuel

Parent Safety Group

Thank you to our volunteers last week:

Yossi Biton, Sasha Shevelev, Daniel Grynberg, Michael Grushkin, Ian Doust, Mike Evans, Adam Tsipiris, Asnat Meretz, David Khedoori, Harold Gottlieb, Gary Aaron, Wayne Keyser, Jonathan Nesher, Ronen Vexler, Sol Caganoff, Daniel Butt, Leon Kantor, Matthew Owen and Peter Freed

From the Parents and Friends

Hi Everyone,

We hope you are settling into Term 2 nicely.

By now our Mother’s Day breakfast and stalls will have finished. We will include photos in next week’s instalment but would like to thank everyone who made today possible.

A special thank you to Biller Property for generously sponsoring our coffee cart.

Thank you also to the wonderful Michelle Stockley, Nikki Michel and Lisa Strous, as well as their helpers, for running the gift stalls. We hope you enjoy your gifts!

A big thanks goes out to all our wonderful volunteers for helping us make today possible. And finally, thanks to all of you that came out and enjoyed the morning with us.

We wish all the mums, grandmothers and special friends in the Emanuel Community a very happy Mother’s Day for Sunday!

P&F theatre fundraiser: School of Rock the Musical!

Join us for the Emanuel P&F theatre outing to see School of Rock the Musical at 6.00pm on Sunday, 17 November at the Capitol Theatre! Tickets are selling fast so don’t miss out!

There are limited tickets to this performance. Get the best priced A-reserve tickets available for $94.90 and a free program per booking donated by Playbill, plus a chance to win 2x $100 merchandise packs!

This works as a group booking, so individual tickets will be allocated after sale period is completed and the P&F receives the tickets. Tickets are allocated based on date of purchase. If you have a large group and you want to sit together you need to purchase all the tickets in one booking.

Book now: www.trybooking.com/BBAKH

Entertainment Books

Emanuel School is fundraising with Entertainment Books!

Your support really helps our fundraising.

Order Now: www.entbook.com.au/200508p

See you all around the school soon,

Jen & Ruby