From the Principal

Andrew Watt – Principal

COVID-19 changes

In light of the cluster of COVID-19 infections, involving both staff and students at Tangara School for Girls, the NSW Chief Health Officer proposed a range of public health recommendations that primarily impact our sport, music and social activities involving parents/families (e.g. graduation dinners). The School’s Strategic Advisory Team has considered these changes and we have released our modified program. The safety and wellbeing of our staff and students remains of paramount importance to us. We appreciate both your patience and support of our new versions of sport and music.

Recognising Academic Achievement and Effort

Our 15-minute mini assembly on Tuesday acknowledged and celebrated those students who received a Principal’s Award for their Semester 1 Academic Report. At the culmination of the reporting process, a member of our Executive team reads each set of Year Group reports and makes a summative comment on each student. We try to capture key progress points and we try to provide broad advice on how each student can improve. I read and commented on all Year 7 and Year 12 reports and was pleased to note that the vast majority of student reports indicated positive progress and significant gains over the semester, despite the remote learning period. 

I was delighted to congratulate the 143 students who received a Principal’s Award for their Semester 1 Report. Sixty-six of these awards were received by our Year 10 and 11 students, which augurs well for the future. A small number of students received a Principal’s Award that recognised ‘perfect’ effort and achievement; receiving a report with every single ‘tick’ in the top grade.

Mazal tov to:
Year 8: Gabriella Freed
Year 9: Tess Endrey and Arielle Melamed
Year 10: Mathew Lowy
Year 11: Ruby Hurwitz, Tara Linker, Jessica Lowy, Ruben Mihalovich, Chloe Miller and Jordan Stein
Year 12: Beau Glass and Jonathan Sebban

Welcoming a new Board Director

I am pleased to announce that Bassina Farbenblum has been appointed to fill a casual vacancy on the Emanuel School Board. Bassina has two children (Rafi and Miri) in our Primary School and is a passionate advocate of the School. A member of our Jewish Life Board Committee and a human rights lawyer and academic by profession, Bassina is well equipped to contribute to the governance of the School.

Traffic management around the School – fines for a crowd of over 20

Firstly, a huge thank you to those parents (and grandparents) who have been so patient and polite amidst the congested traffic conditions. Your support in putting the safety of our children before your personal convenience is sincerely appreciated. I am pleased to report that the move to a staged finish time in the Primary School and the exit of siblings of Kornmehl students via the Kornmehl gate has reduced congestion.

Our current challenge is our need to comply with government COVID-19 regulations around adults not gathering in groups of more than 20. In addition to the need to reduce crowding for safety reasons, if a group of over 20 parents gather outside our gates, you are vulnerable to significant individual fines and the School can also be fined. With this in mind, wherever possible, please collect your children by car, via GWTF, or organise to meet your child (if over 10 years of age) at a location that is a long distance from the School.

Mazal tov

Our High School Debating teams won their debates against Moriah College. See the Debating page – Speechless – for more information. 

Quote of the week

“It’s fun to do the impossible.”
Walt Disney

From the Head of Jewish Life

Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Bestowing blessing

This week’s parashah, Re’eh, is remarkable for its doubling of verbs, particularly in reference to benefacting another. While the Bible is employing a literary technique to emphasise the importance of the action being commanded, our Rabbinic tradition utilises this kafel lashon/double wording to move beyond the straightforward meaning of the text to engage hearts beyond hands.

The biblical command Patoach Tiftach/פתוח תפתח – “You shall surely open your hand” to the poor and needy, explains our Jewish tradition, should also be read as Pituach Tiftach -“An opening will open”. Once you open your hand to another you will have created an opening in your heart that will benefit you and empower you to continue to benefit others.

In being enjoined Aser Te’aser/עשר תעשר- “You shall surely tithe” your produce for the landless (Levites), fatherless, stranger and widow, the Talmud explains, we are also being reminded that Aser Te’asher – the one who so tithes will in turn be enriched.

With the culminating statement Naton Teetein/נתון תתן -“You shall surely give” to him and not be grieved in your heart in accounting this as a loss to you, the Rabbis note Natun Teetein – you are giving that which had been given unto you. You are fortunate in that you can benefit another with that which you have been benefited.

Our Jewish tradition points out that the verb natan/to give is a palindrome indicating that in giving one will in turn be given. In the Midrash on the book of Ruth, whose protagonist is an exemplar of giving, the Rabbis say “More than the rich does for the poor, the poor does for the rich”.

In giving we enrich and sustain others, as well as ourselves, well beyond monetary benefits.

Perhaps this is how we might understand our parshah’s promise: There shall be no needy among you, for the Lord “shall surely bless you” – Barekh Yevarekhekha/ברך יברכך.

Ma Koreh

Adam Carpenter – Head of Jewish Life Primary

My Israel Video Competition

Earlier this term, Jewish Life Leaders Suzanna Garbuz, Akeisha Kantor and Boaz Simhi created a short video called “מים לחיים Water for Life”, earning them a Certificate of Commendation in the UIA 2020 My Israel Video Competition.

Mazal tov to Kenya Martin in Year 8, who came second in this competition, winning a voucher to use towards her Israel Program. Have a look at her outstanding video.

Below are some extracts from our Primary School video – Water for Life:

Akeisha:

Shalom and welcome to this edition of Mayim LeChayim – Water for Life, where we explore Israel’s water challenges and how this small but resourceful nation is valuing its most precious resource – water. 

Did you know that: More than 60% of Israel is desert. The Negev is Israel’s largest desert, sitting in the southern part of the country. 

Israel has responded to its water challenges in multiple ways – including water conservation campaigns, building water reservoirs throughout the country and using innovative technology for desalination plants, waste water recycling and in agriculture.

Suzi:

When you flush the toilet in Israel, it is amazing to think that that sewage and drain water will be treated and cleaned to a sanitary level for agriculture. Once treated in water recycling plants like the Shafdan near Tel Aviv, the water is transported in purple colour pipes to different parts of the country, including arid desert regions in the south, to grow the cucumbers, tomatoes and capsicums that will be eaten in homes in Israel and around the world. 

In addition to recycling, Israel has invested in desalination technology to provide potable water for its citizens. The five Israeli seawater desalination plants are among the twelve largest plants in the world. Its Sorek plant is the largest in the world, taking salty sea water and turning it into drinking water. By 2050, Israel plans to have 60% of all national potable water demands met by desalination. 

Boaz:

Dreams are created drip… by drip… by drip… Israel’s founding Prime Minister David Ben Gurion had a vision to make the desert bloom. What a meshuggeneh idea, to have farms, orchards and crops growing in arid, desert areas!

Yet through innovative irrigation technology, particularly drip irrigation systems that are highly efficient and high tech, Israel has significantly reduced the amount of water used in agriculture and farmers in Israel have indeed made the desert bloom – planting orchards, crops and farms in desert making Ben Gurion’s dream a living reality.

Primary

Colleen Elkins – Gifted and Talented Co-ordinator K – 6

Year 5 class formation

As our Year 4 parents will know, the Year 5 Class formation for 2021 is underway.

As always, this time can bring with it some polarising emotions: from great excitement for some to disappointment and confusion for others.

We encourage you to have the conversation with your children that this is a snapshot of their time in education and that the school has sought to place students where they best fit, for their own development.

The ultimate goal when Year 5 classes are being formed is to ensure that students are placed with others at a similar ability level to them, at that point in time, in order to allow them to be successful learners.

When students are in this kind of learning environment, teachers are able to pitch the learning experiences at the Zone of Proximal Development of the child. The child is challenged to the point where they are reaching for new material that is unknown, yet within their grasp, allowing them to feel inspired to learn, to take on the challenge and consequently experience success.

If the level is beyond the Zone of Proximal Development of a child, they can become overwhelmed, decide that the task is too difficult for them and shut down; not having the confidence to attempt it. This tends to have a detrimental effect on the long-term academic self-image of a student, consequently affecting their progress.

To place a student with others to investigate content at the same level of complexity as them, creates the conditions for the student to be able to flourish.

All teachers are aware of the need to engage students, by piquing their curiosity, engaging them in the subject matter and then extending them however far they can go. This is achieved through the implementation of differentiation in all classes.

High expectations are set for all students and as such, no ‘ceiling’ is placed on any class. Differentiation occurs on an endless continuum and thus in whichever class a child is placed, their academic needs will be catered for and the very best achievement by each and every student is sought by the teachers.

Continual communication occurs between the Year 5 teachers and the Gifted & Talented stakeholders, so that the monitoring of students allows for adjustment of the curriculum where necessary.

We encourage all members of our school community to emphasise for students, that it is their personal best that we are after, and that is what makes people proud of them.

Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

The language of Visual Arts

Working collaboratively and Aboriginal Culture – Part 2 

At Kornmehl we believe in the importance of building respectful and positive relationships. To build positive relationships with others, children need to develop ‘social competence’ and the ability to interact with others with care, empathy and respect. Social competence is the foundation that allows children to understand and self-regulate their own emotions and negotiate their interactions with others. One of the ways we promote social and emotional competence and encourage prosocial behaviours at Pre-school, is by planning, providing and inviting children to engage in small group collaborative experiences.

At Kornmehl, we want the children to be aware of and develop an understanding of Aboriginal culture and heritage and include Aboriginal perspectives into our  program. Some of the ways we have been doing this is through discussions, reading stories and Acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the Land.

In fact, we begin our morning meetings by saying Acknowledgement to Country. We often have discussions about this, revisiting prior knowledge and information, as well as sharing new information as it arises. For example, we talk about why the Aboriginal people needed to take care of the land in order to survive. They needed the land as a source of food and shelter. We have explained to the children how knowledgeable Aboriginal people were, and still are, about what plants/berries were safe to eat and ones that weren’t. Plants and leaves were used for medicine too.

We looked closely at Aboriginal art and how the artists used art elements and symbols to represent an idea or tell a story. We learnt that Aboriginal people didn’t have a written language like us and one way they told stories was through art.

At morning meeting the Starfish children were shown a YouTube clip featuring an artist, Judy Watson Napangardi. The clip showed her painting on a large-scale canvas. It detailed her journey of her work, showing how she drew the outline of her story and then filled it in with a myriad of colours and carefully executed patterns. The videos were very inspirational and during the viewing the children added their impressions of what they were seeing “It looks like a rainbow, swirls, lots of dots”.

During this art study, as Early Childhood educators, we have been aiming to: 

• Develop an understanding and appreciation of art from another culture, in particular Aboriginal culture.
• Encourage children to look closely and notice detail.
• Provide opportunities for collaboration and feedback from peers and educators as they select resources and develop techniques.

During indoor learning time, materials were set up in a way to invite a collaborative art experience, where a small group of artists were invited to embark on a creative art piece while sitting on the floor using paints. At times there was silence and deep concentration and at other times some were excited to share their marks and contributions e.g Daniel: “Look, these are the trails going up”.

The children revisited this collaborative artwork over several weeks and each time continued to add more detail and layers. Sometimes it is the same children that have been revisiting the art piece and continuing to work on areas they have already painted and/or adding to different areas too, and at other times, other children have been welcomed to include their contributions too. As the children have been working, they have been adding details e.g. dot patterns and filling in areas that have not yet been painted. The children have begun to realise and learn that once an area has been painted and dried, this can then be used as a background to add another layer to.

It has been exciting to watch the children painting their own symbols e.g. hearts and butterflies and also including those Aboriginal symbols they are already familiar with e.g. rainbow, girl, boy and rain.

Once completed, the painting was shown at morning meeting to the children. At this time, we all had the opportunity to look at and celebrate the artwork so far. We discussed and looked at the small details, such as some of the symbols the children painted.

This creative art piece is simply beautiful, and our hope is to make it a permanent piece of artwork displayed at Kornmehl for many years to come. We wanted to share this artwork with our Emanuel community. We hope you enjoy it too.

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FINAL ART WORK

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Jeans for Genes Day

We raised $88 on Friday last week for Jeans for Genes Day. Thank you to all our Kornmehl families for their generous contributions so support genetic research for young children.

Emanuel on Demand

Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni and Community Relations

Emanuel on Demand

We held our first Gesher online speaker series event last Thursday evening, with alumna Hannah Beder (Class of 2012), 2020 NSW Young Woman of the Year. If you missed this inspiring session, here is the link to watch it.

We are planning our next online session for 9 September 2020 – watch this space.

Our talented riders

We have some serious horse-lovers in our School community, both current students and alumni. Several Year 6 students including Phoebe Machlin, Avalon Gold and Kira Levin-Kahn are all keen riders. Phoebe is pictured here with her horse Kismet, who won last year’s end of year championships at Centennial Parklands Equestrian Centre. Avalon was awarded 1st place at Shibumi Equestrian Centre for her dressage test, preliminary 1B last weekend. She rides with well-respected coach Rosemary Gough from Moore Park stables, Orangeville, and loves her horse Westlake Grand Affair, whilst Kira is just plain ‘horse mad’.

Phoebe Machlin

Avalon Gold

Kira Levin-Kahn

I recently caught up with alumnus Aarin Regan-Lacey (Class of 2017) better known to friends and family as Ari: “I have always been amazed by horses but never had the opportunity to do anything with them. In August 2019, I changed degrees for a 2nd time with the decision to go into social work and potentially equine-assisted psychotherapy. In September last year, I started learning to ride and, within two months, had bought Cruze an ex-racehorse, with the intention to become a therapy horse down the track as well as some light fun riding. However, as I have always been a perfectionist and always aimed high with my goals it wasn’t long before I decided to start training to ride competitively. In December Cruze injured himself which meant he had to go to the paddock for three months and that is when I bought Xena. She was practically free, straight from the racing world where she didn’t make it, but she has proven to be an incredibly talented young jumper who will take Cruze’s place competing in a few years when he retires. My hopes are set very high for her, she has shown great potential and I think she has the brain and ability to go to a very high level.

“Horses have benefited my life in so many ways especially as a means for mental health treatment and calming practices. They have taught me about anger and vulnerability as well as reflecting my actions back at me as horses are the most honest creatures. I still plan to go into equine-assisted psychotherapy after graduating USYD in 2023”.

Ari Regan-Lacey and Cruze

If you are heading up to the Hunter Valley, you might like to pop in to Running Horses Winery and horse stud in Broke, owned by alumnus Dave Fromberg (Class of 1991).  As a horse breeder and wine grower, together with his partner Melissa Lowe and young family, they enjoy the lifestyle of country living. 

Dave Fromberg

Jez

Jeremy with his twins, Michael and Grace

Last Sunday, Compass featured a documentary about the life of Jeremy Spinak AM (Class of 2000) who sadly died in November 2018 at the age of 36. Jez was commissioned by Jeremy in the months before his passing, to leave a legacy for his children and family. The program is heartwarming, heartbreaking and inspiring. 

Remember that September is only around the corner

Alumnus Ben Wilheim (Class of 2008) and friends would really appreciate any support our School community can give for Remember September in the endeavours to help find a cure for Pancreatic Cancer.  

B’nai B’rith and JNF Jewish Changemaker Awards 2020

Don’t forget nominations are now open for these prestigious awards and can be done online.  Who doesn’t love to recognise the wonderful volunteering efforts of our students and young adults. Anyone can nominate – parents, staff and even the nominees themselves. It would be wonderful to see some of our students and alumni nominated again this year.

Friendship Circle (FC) Walk 2020

Our extended School community has strong connections to FC through a variety of ways – it might be through volunteering efforts and/or having children with special needs who attend the amazing events organised by FC for children and young adults of Sydney with disabilities. FC looks forward to our support for this year’s virtual walk.

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

Stay safe and Shabbat Shalom.

Meir

Alix Cane – Year 9

Maayan Granot – Year 9

Hi there!

It’s been a while since you’ve seen the green Meir logo on your Ma Nishma but we are happy to say that the Meir Advocate is back! A lot has happened since our last article… 

New House Captains

A massive congratulations to our new House Madrichot, Georgia Kahane and Charlotte Lyons! We are so excited to see what they will accomplish as House Captains and wish them the best of luck for the year to come. The pair are very excited for their time as House Captains and are very excited to bring their individual flair to the house. 

We had them answer some questions so we can get to know them better: 

What are three cool things about you? 

Charlotte: 

1. I love to dance!
2. I love to act!
3. Green is my favourite colour (Our House colour!) 

Georgia: 

1. I love to play sport and at the moment I am playing four sports 
2. I’m a book nerd and love Harry Potter
3. I won age champion last year in the CDSSA competition

Why did you want to be House Madricha? 

Charlotte, Georgia and Mr Bloom

Charlotte: I really wanted to be House Madricha because ever since Meir was created two years ago, there has been such a warm, positive, endearing and inclusive culture surrounding our new House. I have loved participating in events from the various sports carnivals, ‘House Drama’ and even previously being a Meir Advocate co-editor. So, I wanted to make sure that we keep up the incredible environment that was created for us. I want to make sure every Meirian feels as though their House is a really fun and supportive one. Meir truly is an amazing House and I wanted to be House Captain so that I could give back what it has given me in the last couple of years! 

Georgia: I have wanted to be a House Madricha since Year 7 when I went to my first House Meeting. I really wanted to be able to participate in the School community and I want to be able to get people excited for House Competitions and House Assembly. 

What are you most excited to do as House Captain? 

Charlotte: I am excited for SO MUCH right now but I am definitely the most excited to hopefully be able to choreograph the annual House Music Dance with Georgia and other Meirians for the whole of Meir to perform! I am also really excited to encourage some more house spirit and pride this year with the super fun events and inter-house activities coming up. 

Georgia: I can’t wait to help develop Meir as a House and a community and make it a fun place for everyone to be able to express themselves. I think House Music will be an amazing opportunity for that because we can have people from all years get up and dance and sing together as a team. 

Also, congratulations to all the new Madrichim for 2020 –  2021 – we are very proud of Dean Reuveny who is a Madrich from Meir. We can’t wait to see your amazing leadership skills in action. 

Thank You to our former House Madrichim  

We are very sad that our current Year 12s will be leaving us soon. They have just finished their HSC trials and we are sure they are very excited. We wanted to thank Elijah and Jess for being amazing House Madrichim over the past year and to the rest of the Year 12 cohort for being such great leaders. We wish them luck for everything to come and for their HSC. 

Meet a Meirian  

Meet our new Madrich from Meir, Dean Rueveny, from Year 11! We asked him three random questions below:

What was the best vacation you ever took and why?

Dean: I would have to say a cruise to the Pacific Islands. I was only seven years old at the time and the ship

Dean Rueveny

itself was decked out with an arcade, bowling alley, ice-skating rink and an awesome kids club that I spend my entire trip at. Anyway, it was great seeing the islands and experiencing different cultures at such a young age!

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Dean: Definitely either Milan, Italy or Paris, France! Studying Fashion!

If you could have a super power, what would it be?

Dean: I’d love to read people’s minds, especially my teachers!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Shabbat Shalom

Changing lives

Gidon Grunseit

ZDVO Beit Halochem Australia is an organisation that aims to provide and support the rehabilitation of Israel’s injured soldiers to improve their quality of life. Yet, due to the devastating Coronavirus, Beit Halochem Australia representatives have been unable to continue their travel between Israel and Australia.

This video, published on 4 August, provides a message from the workers at Beit Halochem sharing with us the difficulties that they have experienced throughout the COVID-19 crisis. It is important to support an organisation that does so much for the State of Israel and the soldiers that protect it, ZDVO Beit Halochem Australia supports the rehabilitation of Israel’s 50,000 soldiers and victims of terror. In difficult times, as we are all in now, we must join together and support organisations such as Beit Halochem to connect us all and support the heroes that have and still do fight and protect Israel.  By Gideon Grunseit, Year 11

For Lebanon with Love

Daphna Levin-Kahn – Head of Jewish Studies High School

For Lebanon with Love

You may recall in February this year, as a result of the bushfires, Emanuel School received beautiful and touching messages of love and support from Robbins Hebrew Academy in Toronto, Canada. The thoughtfulness of the gesture and the uplift it gave our community inspired us to send these messages to the Lebanese community of Sydney, drawing our communities closer and wrapping them in love.

Dear Leaders and Members of the Lebanese Christian and Muslim Communities of Sydney,

There are many tragic events that happen in our world and, understandably, we are not able to respond to each one in this manner.

However, on discussing the devastating news from Beirut last week in our Year 10 class, we realised how much more difficult this particular experience would be on yourselves, your families and friends as the COVID Pandemic prevents you from being in Lebanon when you are most needed or most wish to be there.

We hope that the words and prayers of our young students at Emanuel School, a Jewish Day School in Eastern Sydney, will help bring you some comfort and healing energy in this tough time, and that carrying you in our hearts will lift some of your sorrow.

Wishing you and your families – and for the whole world – healing of body, mind and soul, speedily and in our days.

Hoping for a Better Future – Luca

Hopes & Wishes – Jasmine

Our prayers are with you – Zac

B’Shalom, Bisalam, In Peace

Daphna Levin-Kahn and Year 10 Students of Emanuel School

Speechless

High School Debaters leave us speechless

Last week, our High School Debating teams won their debates against Moriah College. Earlier this term, our Year 11/12 team also won their debate. Congratulations to the debaters and their coaches, and to Yael Grunseit, our High School Debating Co-ordinator, who has taken on her new role with enthusiasm. Since the onset of COVID-19 restrictions, Yael has collaborated with other local independent schools to develop an online debating competition, so our students can continue to refine their debate skills throughout 2020.

Mazal tov to the teams:

Year 7/8: Liberty Waldner, Jayden Segal, Ariel Bloom and Benjamin Fram. Coach Sienna Amoils

Year 9/10: Jesse Herdan, Eden Glass, Maayan Granot, Arielle Melamed. Coach Matthew Friedman

Year 11/12: Chloe Miller, Lara Fosbery, Liat Granot and Ruby Hurwitz. Coach Yael Grunseit

Premier’s Reading Challenge

Hello to all our keen readers

On 5 August we had four students complete the New South Wales Premier’s Reading Challenge and now on 9 August we have five more. So we can celebrate with nine more students this week. Well done. Congratulations to:  

Kindergarten                 Katya Sandy               
                                     Juliette Gavshon         
                                     Eliana Robuck             

Year 3                           Ariel Efrat                    
                                     Nadav Pollak               
                                     Orlando Van der Starre 

Year 5                           Benjamin Freed          
                                     Sofia Berkovic   
        
 Year 6                          Tali Same                     

Not long now until the 28 August and the closure of the opportunity for students to enter their reading this year, so the race to complete is nearly over. Please remember to enter your reading.

Ginette Cameron-Gardner
Primary Teacher Librarian 

Careers

Claire Pech – Careers Advisor

ACU have launched ACU Guarantee. 

This is a new scheme (launched on the 4 August 2020 ) and closing on the 25 September 2020, where Year 12 students can use their Year 11 grades to gain early access to courses. 

Even if Year 11 grades are not as high as a student was hoping for, if they are interested in attending ACU, it is worth looking into this scheme.

Personal statement – students can get adjustment factors for up to three bonus points – in a variety of three different schemes. Adjustments factors (bonus points) can also be acquired if you are the first person in the family to enter university. This ACU portal is similar to a UAC application portal and has a similar feel, so it will be familiar to Year 12 students.

ACU also runs an initiative to attract community leaders – Community Achievers Program  – which closes on 9 September 2020. It is another way of accessing courses for early places, especially if students have done a lot of volunteer work and community service.

Some very popular courses at ACU are listed below. Some of the reasons that students would choose this smaller, more intimate institution rather than the big 50,000+ students of some of the bigger universities are for the following degrees:

• Bachelor of Physiotherapy (this does not sit under ACU guarantee) as it is their most popular course
• Bachelor of Paramedicine (this course does not sit in the main offers but hopefully will by the end of the demand period, and so will become accessible) 
• Bachelor of Nursing 
• Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science 
• Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary)

As you can see by these course listings, ACU has an excellent industry reputation with great work placements, and practical and dynamic teaching methods, hence they have very competitive lists for these top courses listed. For some other courses, the ATARs are much more accessible and so courses in the late 50s and early 60s give access to courses in Business, Arts and Social Sciences. Law at ACU is a much more accessible option with ATARs in the 70s and 80s.  It is not reflective of their students’ ability or educational standards, but simply an indication of demand compared to the number of places on the courses.

Notices

TAFE Vs University

This is a topic that is playing out a lot recently – especially as our workforce is under much more pressure in Covid times. It also can be an area that some students really struggle with, as they feel that TAFE or a vocational education plan is a Plan B or a 2nd best option. I want to reassure students that this is not the case. Some students are much better suited to TAFE learning as it is hands on, practical and skills based, rather than theoretical, lecture based and non-skill based. For all parents who are wanting the ‘best for their children’ sometimes this can be the TAFE path. Please read more here on the debate and here for courses.

Other useful links

Metro Trains Virtual Industry Tour  

Autohaus Hamilton Virtual Tour

Applying to University free booklet  (Password EMS0219 for account set up).

Parents and Friends

Ruby Berkovic & Jen Opit

Hi Everyone,

Online Family Trivia Event

On Sunday 30 August 2020 at 4.00 pm, the Parents & Friends and Gesher are holding the School’s first ever online Family Trivia event. To date, we have over 50 families joining us!

The event is completely free and will be a fantastic way to get together with other Emanuel families from the comfort of our homes and have some fun.

You can name your team and dress up in your funkiest hats. Register here: 

Please note that this is a ‘friend raiser’ not a fundraiser and is suitable for the whole family. We hope to see you all there.

Entertainment Books

In case you want to order an Entertainment Book, you can do so here 

Weekend Brain Teaser

A pregnant lady named her children: Dominique, Regis, Michelle, Fawn, Sophie and Lara. What will she name her next child? Jessica, Katie, Abby or Tilly?

Have a lovely weekend,

Jen & Ruby

Thank you

Thank you to our PSG volunteers this week:

Dates for your diary

NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge
Friday 28 August 2020
Students’ reading log must be entered by midnight

Online Family Trivia 
Sunday 30 August 2020, 4.00 pm – 5.00 pm
RSVP by Thursday 27 August 2020

Online Speaker Series with alumnus, Mitch Burnie of Adamama Urban Farm
Wednesday 9 September 2020, 7.30 pm
RSVP by Monday 7 September 2020

Have your say

You may have recently received an email from the JCA asking you to complete a survey regarding your views on school education. The JCA, the Jewish day schools and other JCA educational providers are working collaboratively to understand what is important to parents in the Jewish community, and to help shape the future of the education of Jewish children.

The survey is independent, anonymous and takes about 15 minutes to complete. The JCA has engaged Nous Group, an independent Australian-owned management consultancy, to manage the process.

Participation is voluntary and is aimed at parents of Jewish children aged two to 20 years old. The survey closes on Monday 24 August 2020.

Please take a few moments out of your day to have your voice heard.

Recipe of the Week

Each week we’ll bring you a tasty recipe passed down by Emanuel families, from the Emanuel School Community Cookbook, The Family Meal. 

From the kitchen of Leigh Goldberg
Mint Crisp Rocky Road

Ingredients

400g mint chocolate biscuits, roughly chopped into 1 – 2 cm pieces
10 Peppermint Crisp chocolate bars chopped into 1 – 2 cm pieces
2 cups marshmallows, quartered
400g good quality dark (or milk) chocolate

Directions

Line a 25cm x 44cm baking dish with baking paper
Place biscuits, Peppermint Crisps and marshmallows in a bowl and mix well.
Gently melt chocolate.
Pour the chocolate over the mixture and stir through (use your hands to make sure it all gets coated)
Quickly transfer the mixture to the lined dish, cover and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours.
Once it has set, take it out of the tin, place on a chopping board and cut into rough squares.
Store in an airtight container (if it lasts!).