From the Principal

Andrew Watt – Principal

A busy term

Our busy term has ended on a positive note, with restrictions easing, allowing parents to visit our campus and engage more fully with our School community. Whilst there is still some way to go, we are proceeding steadily, with due caution, towards a more normal school existence. Our students will depart our gates – weary but in good spirits – to commence their well-deserved break. Wishing you a safe, restful and enjoyable time, with family and friends; Chag Pesach Sameach.

Speaking of Pesach

The students have spent many hours learning about and preparing for this important festival. Over the past weeks I have heard the melodies and words of songs such as Ma Nishtanah and Daiyenu drifting across the campus, as the students practised their parts for the upcoming sederim. Thank you to the Jewish Life teachers for their commitment to helping the students discover and learnt about the important themes, customs and traditions of Pesach. Please enjoy this short video of our Pesach celebrations that we have prepared for you.

Speaking of Pesach – I hope you enjoyed leafing through our online cookbook – Our Pesach Feast. The recipes were sourced from our Emanuel School families’ Pesach favourites and were compiled into an easy online collection, illustrated by Year 3 students. I am sure you’ll find a delicious treat or two to share.

K-12 Music Competition Finalists Concert

Oliver Mendoza-Jones, Year K, singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Our K-12 Music Competition Finalists Concert was held in the Millie Phillips Theatre on Monday evening. The audience enjoyed a range of entertaining performances, across the following categories:

Performance competition (K-12)
Composition competition (K-12)
Practice competition (K-6)

The depth and sophistication of musical and creative talent at Emanuel was reflected throughout the 30 performances. The quality of our Primary School performers indicates their potential to achieve at an outstanding level in their High School journey. We have much to celebrate! Thank you to Diana Springford, Daniel Burley and the Music Department for a fabulous evening and mazal tov to the winners of the 2021 Emanuel School Music Competition:

K-2 Practice Winner – Abbie Schnapp
K-2 Performance Winner – Zella Benko
K-2 Composition Winner – Zella Benko

3-6 Practice Winner – Nathan Shammay
3-6 Performance Winner – Isaac Shammay
3-6 Composition Winner- Mia Chesler

7-10 Performance Winner – Ella Bortz
7-10 Composition Winner – Mariah Lewy

11-12 Performance Winner – Ruben Mihalovich
11-12 Composition Winner – Ezra Hersch

Years 1-2 Swimming Carnival

Kol Hakavod to all our enthusiastic swimmers and participants at the Years 1-2 Swimming Carnival which was held at Des Renford on Thursday. Below is a taster of the wonderful photos that Ofer Levy, parent photographer, took on the day. There’ll be more to come next term.

Reducing our carbon footprint

Our commitment to a move towards a more sustainable future includes the installation of solar cells with 100Kw production capacity on three of our buildings. Raising student awareness of the outcomes of this sustainability initiative is the next challenge! In late November last year, a meeting was held with our Student Sustainability Committee, to explore strategies to design and promote our solar analytics data. M+G Energy were commissioned to design-custom a dedicated display data URL page, to be viewed online, providing information about our solar analytics; a visual representation of our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint. We have also introduced a new consumption meter, to show a real time comparative of power generated and used – including a useful comparison of our solar production with the carbon absorbed by trees. The dashboard can be accessed here.

In keeping with this important theme – it’s Earth Hour on 28 March and you can read more about this in the article of the same name, written by our Student Sustainability Committee.

Mazal tov

Twenty five students in Years 10-12 received Grey Sports Colours this week
The Junior and Intermediate Boys Basketball Teams won the Sydney Schools Cup grand finals on Tuesday afternoon

Quote of the week

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.”
Plato – philosopher

Primary News

Natanya Milner – Head of Primary School

Consent

There has been much discussion about consent in the media and its importance in education. In Primary School, we feel strongly that we set the foundations of students’ understanding of consent. This is something that is discussed in Kindergarten and continues throughout the Primary years in age appropriate ways. In formal programs, students discuss these themes in their protective behaviours lessons where they explore ‘public’ vs ‘private’ parts, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ feelings and the importance of telling a trusted adult. Consent is also a theme that can be discussed as students navigate respectful friendships and relationships. We are able to draw on the Leader in Me concept of ‘courage and consideration’. It is vital that students have the courage to say no and have their wishes respected. It is also essential that students are taught to do this with consideration – in a way that respects the feelings and rights of those involved. These concepts can be related to relationships with family and friends and do not need to wait until students are exploring romantic relationships. We value the opportunity to reinforce the key messages in both our homes and our school.

Music Competition

This week’s music competition was absolutely gorgeous and such a wonderful showcase of the incredible talent on offer at Emanuel. I would like to wish the students who performed a huge MAZAL TOV. I am so proud of you! Well done to Koben Benko, Zella Benko, Oliver Mendoza-Jones and Stevie Zurnamer in Years K-2 and Veronica Aranov, Mia Chesler, Misha Grynberg, Seth Nachman, Aaron Pal, Isaac Shammay, Nathan Shammay and Leah Zipser in Years 3-6.

A huge thank you to Danny Burley, Jo De Araujo, Antonio Fernandez, Ben Marshall, Remi Owen, Sarit Spira, Di Springford and the team of music tutors for the fantastic concert and for the energy and commitment that they put into our children each and every day.

Museum Day

What a fun event! It was fabulous to see the Year 1 students present their learning over the past term as they investigated the past, artefacts and history. Thank you to Ms Chester and Mrs Silver for organising this week’s Museum Day. Thank you to all our parents who braved the rain to join us.

Year 1 and 2 Swimming Carnival

It was lovely to end the term with the Years 1 and 2 Swimming Carnival. It was a great day filled with enthusiasm, participation and sensational swimming. Mazal tov to the students who took part in the carnival and thank you to the parents and grandparents who joined us to take part in the fun.

Finally, a huge thanks to Stuart Taylor for co-ordinating the carnival and to the Year 1 and 2 team for their hard work.

Innovation Leader

I am excited to announce that Carrie Thomas (formerly Grieve) has been appointed to the position of Innovation Leader K-6 starting from the beginning of Term 2. Carrie is a well-respected and much loved member of our team who has taught across a variety of Primary School year levels. Her previous experience includes being the ICT and Gifted & Talented Educator at an International school in China and she has led various coding and technology clubs at Emanuel.

Within this role, Carrie will be responsible for curriculum-based projects connecting technology and innovation to classroom learning. She will also lead a number of extra-curricular initiatives and external programs. Carrie will liaise with industry experts and other schools to ensure we remain at the forefront of learning in this area.

We are excited to welcome Carrie into this new position and look forward to many exciting initiatives and projects.

Welcome to Ms Cox

As a result of this appointment, Carrie will no longer be the teacher of 2 Tzfat from the beginning of next term. We are delighted to confirm the appointment of another outstanding educator into this role. Felicity Cox will join us from the start of next term. She is most recently from Wenona and prior to this has taught in various schools in Sydney, Canberra and London. We look forward to welcoming Felicity to the team.

Our Musical – Aladdin Jnr

We welcome Katie Kermond to the role of director for our musical, Aladdin Jnr. Katie has over 30 years of experience as a producer, director and choreographer and will combine these skills to create our wonderful end of year production. Just a reminder to our families that our musical is a compulsory part of the music program and requires students to be available for our performances on the following dates (out of regular school hours):

Sunday 14 November 2021 (afternoon show)
Monday 15 November 2021 (evening show)
Tuesday 16 November 2021 (evening show)

Pesach

This week’s Sederim were joyful events that showcased the students’ learning over the past weeks. I would like to thank the children for their commitment to learning and for participating so enthusiastically. Thanks also to the Hebrew and Jewish Studies teams who have worked tirelessly to organise these events. Kol Hakavod!

A commonly heard phrase on Pesach is ‘m’avdoot l’cheroot’ – from slavery to freedom. Over the Sederim, we discuss the journey of our ancestors as we left the hardship of ancient Egypt and searched for freedom. Many of us also discuss more modern examples of slavery and hardship with an acknowledgement of our duty to support the oppressed around the world.

Events over the past year have truly given us a new appreciation of freedom. Compared to others around the world, we are lucky and I feel so grateful for the opportunities that we have. It has been wonderful to welcome parents on campus and to be able to include our special community in school life. We are blessed to enjoy the freedoms that we have and I remain mindful of those around the world who are not as lucky as we are. I wish you all Chag Pesach Sameach.

Term 2

I would like to wish all of our community a happy, safe holiday break. Term 2 begins on Monday 19 April 2021 and students are asked to return in winter uniform.

We look forward to welcoming them back!

From the Head of Jewish Life

Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Quest(ioning)

The Haggadah, the “Telling” upon which our Seder experience revolves, is as much about asking as it is about telling. Well known are the four questions of the Ma Nishtanah – Why/How is this night different?

Of the four children presented in the Haggadah, the central concern is their ability and/or desire to ask. The Seder purposely begins in a fashion to arouse curiosity and to engage us in an ongoing narrative of questioning, reflective of our people’s history and ongoing journey.

In his book, Out of Curiosity: Restoring the Power of Hungry Minds, Bryan Goodwin offers seven “learning conditions” which might ignite our children’s curiosity. One of these conditions is “incongruities”– Encountering something that runs counter to our expectations. Several examples at our Pesach Seder, to consider, discuss and debate, might be:

Moshe, who grows up as the adopted grandson of Pharaoh/an Egyptian Prince, not knowing he is a Hebrew, takes up the cause of the Hebrews against his grandfather.

Pharaoh’s very daughter saves Moshe against the decree of his father.

Moshe after saving a Hebrew slave is threatened by a Hebrew slave to report this Egyptian Prince for seeking to help them.

Moshe calls out to God for help at the Sea of Reeds and receives the response “why call out to Me” (you need to save yourself).

God sends Moshe to liberate the Israelites but prevents Pharaoh from letting them go.

We open the door to welcome Eliyahu about midpoint in our Seder, but the door is closed at the start of the Seder when we invite “all who are hungry to come and eat”.

Our Jewish tradition teaches that with the return of Elijah (precursor of the Messiah) all questions will be answered. Perhaps all hunger will be eradicated, as well, as each one will “sit under his own vine and his own fig tree”.

But, for now, let our Pesach Seder create hungry minds and may we share with each other nourishing and delightful food for thought.

Chag Pesach Sameach to all our Emanuel families.

Ma Koreh

Adam Carpenter – Head of Jewish Life Primary

Primary students have been engaged in a variety of learning experiences, activities, reflections and sing-a-longs in the lead up to Pesach celebrations this weekend.

Our Pesach activities have included:

Year 6 Jewish Life leaders making Ashkenazi and Sephardi style haroset for Primary students to enjoy during the week.
Matzah Factory visits by students in Years 1, 2 and 3.
Year 2 Seder – with a special, surprise visit from our long standing Pesach pianist and former Emanuel parent, Michelle Goldman. Thank you Michelle for stepping in at the last minute to share your musical passion.
House Sederim for Years 5 and 6 – a more intimate seder held in House groups provided the opportunity for discussions, questioning, learning and a chance to sing seder songs, recite brachot and taste the Seder foods.
Pesach experiences for Years 3 and 4 – provided the opportunity to taste and learn about the Pesach foods and experience the Pesach story through drama.
Year K students experienced Pesach, its rituals and symbols through creative arts and crafts.

Here are some links to websites and articles that may expand your knowledge and understanding of Pesach – its history, customs and significance:

For a new read on Pesach and Jewish life
For a wide range of Pesach material
For a taste of Sephardi Pesach customs
For accessible academic historical and Biblical scholarship

Wishing you and your family a safe, festive and meaningful Pesach and seder – חג פסח שמח

Word of the Week

Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Passover
Pass Nicht

There is a great likelihood that the holiday you have been calling Passover is not.

Our Pesach Haggadah, which we read at our Seder, begins with the words:

All who are hungry come and eat (יכל/yechal),
all who are needy come and יפסח/yifsach.

The general translation of יפסח/yifsach, being of the root letters /פסחpesach, is partake of the Pesach meal, corresponding to the word eat.

Later in the Haggadah we recite the words of Rabban Gamliel (from the Mishnah): “Whoever does not explain these three things on Pesach has not fulfilled his obligation”. The first of these three things is “Pesach”. The explanation immediately follows: “Pesach is that which our ancestors ate when the Temple existed” – meaning the Paschal lamb/sacrifice (Korban Pesach).

Following the question: “For what reason (did they eat the Pesach sacrifice)?”, the critical statement appears: “Because the Holy One Blessed be He פסח/Pasach the houses of our ancestors in Egypt, for it says (in Exodus 12:27) ‘You shall say it is the Pesach sacrifice to the Lord, Who פסח/Pasach the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but our houses He saved’”.

So, what is Pasach, and therefore Pesach?

The first English translation of the Bible, by the leading Protestant Reformer Tyndale, renders פסח/Pasach as Passover. Perhaps this translation, preserved by the King James version, originated with the Vulgate, St. Jerome’s 4^th century Latin translation of the Bible, which renders פסח/Pasach “ac transibo”.

The Biblical author(s), however, were meticulous in the words they used. When referring to the Egyptian houses in which the first born would be killed the word עבר/pass over or through is used. “I will pass through (עברתי/avarti) the land of Egypt in that night, and I will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12). The word pasach, employed with regard to the Israelites was to have a contrasting meaning: “The Lord will pass through (עבר/avar) to smite the Egyptians, but seeing the blood upon the lintel and sideposts the Lord will פסח/Pasach..and not allow the destroyer to come into your (Hebrew) houses to smite (Exodus 12:23).

We now have an indication of what the word פסח/Pasach (and hence Pesach) might mean. The following verse from Isaiah provides more clarity: “As flying/hovering birds, so will the Lord of hosts shield Jerusalem, shielding and saving, protecting (פסוח) and rescuing. The root word פסח/pasach means protect. When, therefore, we say in the Haggadah (quoting the Bible) that the Lord פסח״/Pasach the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but our houses He saved”, God is being depicted as a safeguarding agent against destruction.

Interestingly, in two of three occasions here in Exodus, the 3^rd century BCE Greek translation of the Septuagint renders פסח/pasach as defend and protect. The 10^th century philologist Menachem ibn Saruk, likewise, believes that the word means to spare or save, associating it with an act of chemlah/compassion. The first century BCE Aramaic translation of Onkelos and the 2^nd century Rabbinic Mechilta similarly associate פסח/Pasach with pity (חסה) resulting in divine protection.

As we near the end of the seder and the haggadah narrative, we say:

“Lord, You smote the first born on the night of guarding, Pesach.
Mighty One, Your first born You protected (פסחת/pasachta), through the blood of Pesach.
To prevent the destroyer from entering my doors, on Pesach.
You shall say ‘It is the Pesach sacrifice’.”

The Kabbalist, Isaac Luria, referred to Pesach as Peh Sach (The Mouth that Speaks). In our history of persecution, we lacked a voice to freely express ourselves as individuals and as a people. Throughout the generations, Pesach was seen as a night to tell our story and to pray for a protective agent that might bring about our redemption as we recount our ancestors’ deliverance from Egypt.

Today, as we celebrate Chag HaPesach in the safety and security of our homes, may we remember that it is the Holiday of Compassionate Protection and not pass over those in need. May we empower those who are hungry for freedom to find their voice and help them to live freely beyond the constraints of the narrow space of mitsrayim.

Opportunity Class – Year 5

Digital Technology

Emma Lord – Head of Software Engineering & Digital Technologies

Schools Cyber Security Challenge

Congratulations to the Year 7 Digital Technology student who have completed the Information, Privacy and Security, Schools Cyber Security Challenge.

Students used an online digital simulation to find out how safe our information is. This Challenge teaches personal information security using the innovative approach of thinking from a hacker’s point-of-view. Students learn to value the importance of password strength and protection, as well as discover just how vulnerable private information can be online.

The Schools Cyber Security Challenges have been developed by the Australian Computing Academy at the University of Sydney, in partnership with some of the biggest names in industry, including the big four banks and AWS.

K-12 Sport news

On Thursday 18 March, the two Emanuel 16 years girls futsal teams competed at the NSW Schools Regional Futsal Championships at Blacktown. This is always a top class event, with strong football schools taking part. Well done to an outstanding performance by the Emanuel students, with one of the teams making it through to the grand final, playing Mamre Anglican College. In what was a very tight match, Mamre won 1 – 0. Fortunately, both grand finalist go on to play in the state finals in early August, so the team now have a great opportunity to continue to improve over the coming months. A special mention to Captain Hannah Kim, Eden Levit who scored an abundance of goals and Gemme Odes who performed outstandingly well, playing well above her age division.

Throughout Term 2, other Emanuel teams from 10 years through to 18 years will also compete in various regional championships. If your child would like to trial for a team, please ensure that they have filled out the nomination form that was previously emailed.

The Emanuel Boys Firsts Football team had another victory in the CIS Football Cup on Wednesday, beating Shellharbour 5 – 0. Well done to all the boys on what was a solid performance. Special mention to goal scorers, Shai Farhy, Aaron Lemberg and Michael Heymann. The team will now prepare for their Round 3 match against Moriah.

High School basketball had a successful week. Both the junior and intermediate teams won the Sydney Schools Cup grand final on Tuesday afternoon. The Year 7/8 team had a strong win over International Grammar School, 50-29. The Intermediate team were down with only minutes on the clock but came back to win by three points over Moriah College. Well done to all students involved in the Sydney Schools Cup this term.

Zac Urbach and Eden Levitt at NSW Junior Athletics Championships

Individual sporting achievements

Congratulations to Shai Farhy, Eden Levit, Alexander Kirievsky and Zac Urbach on their outstanding performances at the NSW Junior Athletics Championships. Shai performed a personal best in triple jump, jumping 12m and placing 6th and came 8th in long jump and 7th in the 200m. Zac achieved a personal best time of 11.42s in his 100m event, placing 9th in the final. Eden achieved 7th place in the under 18 years 100m event and placed fourth in the 17 years 200m. Eden has now qualified for the Australian Championships in April. Alexander placed 5th in the hammer throw, 6th in shot put and javelin and 8th in discus. Alex has also recently been named in the under 16 years NSW Metro basketball team.

Coach profile: Aytek Genc

Emanuel Head Football Coach, former Socceroo, Aytek Genc, has a playing and coaching career spanning over 40 years. Aytek has been coaching the football and futsal teams at Emnauel for the past six years and has previously coached at Knox Grammar and Oakhill College. Outside the school system, Aytek has an impressive playing career in the NSL and overseas in football, and represented NSW in futsal. Currently, the Head of Football at St George City, Aytek has previously coached championship winning teams in the NPL, was assistant coach at Sydney FC and was an SBS commentator for over 20 years.

Upcoming events

Wednesday 21 April
14 years NSW Schools Futsal Regional Championships

Thursday 22 April
15 years AICES Netball Championships
ASISSA Netball Gala Day

Friday 23 April
Year 7/8 JDS Basketball Gala Day

Monday 26 April
First day of the K-12 weekly sport programs

Music Matters

Diana Springford – Head of Music

Recent student performances

Please read all about our Years K-12 Music Competition Finalists Concert this week in a separate article in this newsletter. We are grateful to Remington Owen for writing that piece and for his support of the students. Congratulations to all finalists and winners and thank you to all participants.

Kol Hakavod to our student performers from the Advanced Jazz Ensemble who entertained guests at the recent Welcome to New Parents’ Breakfast last Friday. Ben Cohen (Year 11), Ari Merten and Guy Rein (Year 12) were accompanied on bass guitar by their ensemble conductor, George Nikolopoulos.

Music Camp 2021 is coming soon! Please turn to the separate article in Ma Nishma.

Private Music Tuition and Infant Strings Program

Thank you to those who have advised us of changes to private tuition and Infant Strings Program enrolments for next term. The due date for new enrolments, notification of changes or intention to discontinue for Term 2, has now passed. All students currently receiving private music tuition and students in Years K-2 Infant Strings Program will be automatically re-enrolled into tutor schedules for next term along with students commencing lessons for the first time, committed to the full term of lessons and liable for fees. Please contact Matilda Grieve if you have any questions.

The schedules for Term 2, 2021 will be created at the end of term and emailed by mid-April.

Breaking news

The Music Department now has an Instagram page. Please follow us, but make sure your Instagram account is set to private and that your name is visible, so we know who you are.

Ensembles and Choirs

We have room in many of our ensembles and choirs and they are now in full swing. Those interested in playing their instrument or singing as part of a group should get involved. Here is a link to our list of ensembles and choirs. There truly is something for everyone. Only students in our ensembles and choirs may attend Music Camp in June so join now if you want to come along.

Music Portal page

For announcements about our busy Music program, please check our Music Portal page on a weekly basis.

K-12 Music Competition Finalists Concert

Remington Owen – Music Teacher 5-12, Year 7 Tutor

On Monday 22 March 2021, after a rather gloomy weekend of rain, an incredibly talented, driven and hard-working group of musicians gathered for a special evening of music.

From 5.00 pm, students from Years K-12 who were selected as finalists in the Performance and Composition sections of the Music Competition, performed for a live audience of staff, parents, friends and adjudicators. These finalists were selected from a large pool of participants who submitted videos to the Music Competition.

Zella Benko, Year 2, performing Halo, by Beyonce

The evening featured exciting performances on a variety of instruments, in a variety of styles, brightening what would otherwise have been a rather despondent evening of rain with excellent, musical performances. Performances were of a very high standard with each musician demonstrating sound technique and respective mastery of their instruments. Particularly enjoyable were the presentations of original songs and compositions, which gave the audience an insight into some of the ways in which Emanuel students are creating original music.

After each section, students received individual feedback from the adjudicators, Jason Noble and Alice Chance, who were very impressed with the overall standard of musicianship and poise that our musicians demonstrated. The list of winners for each section have already been mentioned in this Ma Nishma by Principal Andrew Watt, yet all students who participated in this wonderful event are to be congratulated on their participation and performances: Oliver Mendoza-Jones (Year K), Koben Benko (Year K), Stevie Zurnamer (Year 1), Zella Benko (Year 2)*, Nathan Shammay (Year 3), Veronica Aronov (Year 4), Mia Chesler (Year 5)*, Leah Zipser (Year 5), Seth Nachman (Year 6), Aaron Pal (Year 6), Misha Grynberg (Year 6), Isaac Shammay (Year 6)*, Daniel Zipser (Year 7), Ella Bortz (Year 7)*, Aaron Berkowitz (Year 8), Benjamin Fram (Year 8), Ashley Kim (Year 9), Ruth Durbach (Year 9), Mariah Lewy (Year 10)*, Myles Cohn (Year 11), Guy Rein (Year 12), Ariella Tracton (Year 12), Chloe Miller (Year 12), Ezra Hersch (Year 12)* and Ruben Mihalovich (Year 12)*.

Overall, the entire Music Competition was a great success, culminating in a refined and professional concert, enhanced and supported by Ben Marshall.

Many thanks must go to Joanne De Araujo for organising the concert, Diana Springford for organising rehearsals, gathering students, and accompanying some students at the last minute. Thank you to Daniel Burley and Sarit Spira for their mentorship of students, and Antonio Fernandez for accompanying students.

We look forward to running this competition again in 2022. Until then, keep looking for the many music events coming up including the Twilight Concert and Music Camp.

* indicates that this student was selected as a winner in their section.

Thank you to Michelle Favero for these beautiful photos of the evening:

Primary Debating Club

We are the Debating Leaders of 2021 and we would like to explain a bit about the Debating Club.

Towards the end of last year, we were offered the opportunity to do Debate Club on Friday at lunch. The HICES debaters from last year who are now in Year 7, came and taught us some tips with Mrs Butler. This year, we are the HICES debaters and every Friday morning we come to school early to practise and learn to debate with Mrs Butler.

Our first formal inter-school debate will be on Friday 26 March 2021. We will be debating against Broughton Anglican School on Zoom. The topic for Friday is that, “…smart phones should be banned for all school students in school”. This year, the first few debates will be online. It is unfortunate that we don’t get to travel as a team on the bus and visit each school in person, but it means that we get to have a very different experience and we still get to compete. We have been learning heaps with Mrs Butler and two Year 10 students, Jake Fleischer and Maayan Granot who have volunteered their time this term to help us learn. Together, all three have helped us improve and learn more and more about debating skills.

We are looking forward to all our debates in the future, even if we don’t win. Most of us used to think that debating was a competitive sport, but we now know that it is about learning and getting to do the things you love as well as meeting new people.

By Julia Manoy and Marco Meer – Debate Leaders 2021

Year 4 and 5 Geography

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

Last week, our Year 4 and 5 students were lucky enough to be addressed by a PhD student, Kristina Ulm, from UNSW, who is specialising in Urban Agriculture and the Effect of Human Activity on the Environment. The focus also included Sustainability and Food.

Our students have been studying this broad topic through different lenses, in their Geography this term and it was wonderful to get an expert in the area to share her knowledge of and passion for this subject.

The students had endless questions for Kristina, showing their involvement in the talk and the interest that was sparked for them on the topic. Many students returned to class with questions to record and look into on an ongoing basis.

We are most grateful to experts who come into our School and give so generously of their time to share real world experiences with our students, and we thank Kristina for her time.

Talking Holocaust

Sonia Newell – Development Officer – Alumni & Community Relations

We wish all our readers Chag Pesach Sameach. If we think back to last year, we were all in lock-down and celebrating Pesach with extended family by Zoom or some other video conferencing platform but this year here in Australia, we are thankful to be able to unite under one roof, although there are still some restrictions on numbers. We will be thinking of our fellow Jews around the world, many of whom sadly are still in some degree of lock-down and unable to share this important Jewish festival in person with family members who do not live with them. We certainly all look forward to the time when life will really return to “normal” whatever that new normal will be, and we are free to travel again and visit family and friends no matter where in the world they live.

Jewish Women

Members of National Council for Jewish Women of Australia (NCJWA) NSW were amongst the many other Jewish women and men who raised their hands in support of this year’s International Women’s Day campaign theme #Choose to Challenge on the 8 March 2021.

The below photo shows four members of NCJWA (NSW) and includes Emanuel grandparent Nadene Alhadeff who is Executive Director and Co-ordinator Eastern Suburbs Mum for Mum NCJW program, Suzy Wolanski, and past Emanuel grandparent Maxine Bachmayer, co-President, NCJW (NSW). It was taken by Wendy Bookatz, Office Manager/Media Manager who is a past Emanuel parent and mother of alumnus Sam Bookatz, Class of 2007. Hundreds of Jewish women across Australia participated in the Women’s Justice March a few days earlier, including Ronni Kahn AO, founder of the food rescue charity OzHarvest whose photo appeared on the front page of last week’s AJN. She was amongst the marchers in Canberra on the 4 March 2021 and she told the AJN “I stood alongside tens of thousands of women demanding justice and parity for women across the country“. Ronni has visited Emanuel School a number of times to speak to our students who have run numerous food drives over the years to help support OzHarvest.

Talking Holocaust with alumnus Sean Torban (Class of 2018) and staff member Anna Mayliss

Holding their first event for 2021 last Sunday at The Sydney Jewish Museum, three generations met together to learn and talk about Holocaust history, our memories and most importantly our future.

This event was organised by Sean Torban (Class of 2018), the founder of Talking Holocaust project.

Sean would love to see members of our School community get involved with Talking Holocaust so if you are interested please send an email. He will be speaking at Yom Hashoah Commemorations 2021 on the 7 April 2021, commemorating 80 years since the Nazi invasion and murder of Jews in Soviet territory. Registration is required – limited seating available. For further enquiries please email Suzanne Green.

Watch this space

As time goes on and Sydney hopefully stays COVID-free, we are planning our first non-online Gesher event in such a long time. Still in the early planning stages so I cannot tell you too much for now, but it will be a private tour to one of our well-known art galleries. A daytime event in early to mid June, it will be open to grandparents and parents. More details coming soon.

Nu, so what’s new?

Sam Koslowski (Head Madrich, 2012) quit his job as a Lawyer in a large corporate Law firm and together with good friend Zara Seidler, co-founded a brand-new newsletter, The Daily Aus. Don’t you just love the review “The best newsletter I’ve ever read” – written by their mums! Sign up here for this exciting new newsletter.

If you have photos and/or news to share, please send to Sonia Newell.

Stay safe, Shabbat Shalom and Chag Pesach Sameach. Have a great term break and look forward to seeing everyone next term.

The Good Box

Adele Volf – Year 9

Being the Change, One Box at a Time

Last Thursday, Year 9 Be The Change class had an engaging and informative workshop with Gali Blacher and Maddy Jones, founders of The Good Box, around issues of homelessness and how to start your own social enterprise. Students learned about the different types of homelessness, their causes and solutions as well as the many organisations in place to help out. They also learned about the challenges of starting a new social enterprise and the benefits of having a partner with whom to work on these special projects. Students loved writing personal notes to add to the Pet Boxes and Women’s Boxes that they built and packed.

“I think the most important thing I learnt yesterday at the Good Box session was that homeless people feel so much affection even from the slightest kindness towards them. I felt very happy making a cute note for them and packing the box. It felt like I was helping them through something that can affect someone so badly that they could be couch surfing, sleeping rough (sleeping outside on the streets/train) or sleeping in a crowded house in a bedroom with around 7-15 people. It made me feel VERY special that I have an opportunity to help them and put my effort into something that will make them SO happy.”

A Day at the Museum

The great day finally dawned! A Day at the Museum was about to begin. Over the term, we studied the topic ‘Technology in Family Life: Now and Then.’ We learnt about artefacts from the past, archaeological digs and so much more. We went on an excursion to Vaucluse House and learnt about the Wentworth Family who lived there in the 1800s. A Day at the Museum was a culmination of our learning over the term. We curated an exhibition of artefacts belonging to family members. Our favourites were a juicer from 1910, an egg weigher from 1915 and a tendon hammer from the 1900’s. The parents had a fabulous time trying out all our stations. We certainly were ‘historians on the move!’

Thank you children and parents who contributed to such an amazing event. Not even the rain could dampen our spirits! We had such fun learning about the past and guessing what the future might hold!

Watch this space!

By Rolene Silver and Hayley Chester, Year 1 Teachers[

Seeking to understand

Last week was Autism Awareness Week. On Monday, we met Ms Levin Kahn and she told us lots of interesting things about autism and how it affects the people who have it. Ms Levin-Kahn also explained how, by working to understand people with autism better, we can practise some important Jewish values like “Love your fellow person like yourself” and “Give every person the benefit of the doubt”. We played some games that helped us understand how people with autism might feel in different situations and linked this to Habit 5: Seek First to Understand. By Year 5 students

These are some of our thoughts and wonders:

Elah Thoughts & Wonder
Daniel Thoughts & Wonder
Cooper Thoughts & Wonder
Annaleise Thoughts & Wonder
Ally Thoughts & Wonder

Music Camp

Diana Springford – Head of Music

Coming soon in 2021!
Emanuel School Music Camp with Mt Sinai College

Music Camp is a wonderful celebration of our vibrant music culture and the talents and hard work of our young musicians. Each camp is a special experience for students as they unite in a shared love of music and work together in the pursuit of excellence. Emanuel School music staff join with a team of highly skilled professional musicians to develop and hone students’ musical skills in preparation for an exciting showcase concert.

I’m delighted to announce the exciting news that we will be joined for the full duration of this year’s Music Camp by a group of Primary School musicians and supervising staff from Mount Sinai College.

Music Camp is a four-day camp from Monday 7 June 2021 to Thursday 10 June 2021. The first three days are held at Lake Macquarie Outdoor Recreation Centre in Balcolyn and the final day is held at School. Students return to Emanuel on the evening of Wednesday 9 June 2021, to be collected by parents in the early evening. Camp continues on Thursday 10 June 2021 with an all-day rehearsal, a BBQ dinner for students and our Music Camp Showcase Concert in the MPH on the Thursday evening.

All members of participating ensembles in Years 4-11 are expected to attend Music Camp at a cost of approximately $580. Payment can be made in full or in two instalments, the first of which would be payable ono later than Friday 23 April 2021. Attendance for Year 12 students is encouraged but optional. Year 12 students who are interested in attending should speak to Ms Springford. More details will continue to be rolled out via Ma Nishma and an information note has be sent to parents of eligible students this week, including the cost and procedure for registering to attend.

For the purposes of Music Camp, every music camper must be a member of a core ensemble: Junior or Senior Choir; Gershwin, Bernstein or Copland Concert Band; Rubinstein, Korngold or Mendelssohn Strings. For smaller ensembles such as Rock Bands, if the whole extension ensemble is at Music Camp, we will do our best to allocate rehearsal time for them to work on repertoire for their extension ensemble as well as the large camp ensembles.

Art Express

Ariel Berger and ArtExpress

Ariel Berger (Class of 2020) speaks about the challenges, breakthroughs and conceptual intentions in making his HSC Visual Arts Body of Work. Ariel’s work A Family Lunch is part of this year’s ArtExpress and is on display at Hazelhurst Arts Centre, as well as the official ArtExpress Virtual Exhibition, the work will also tour up to Grafton Regional Gallery later this year.

Click to see the virtual HSC Showcase 2020 and download the catalogue.

Rabin Bugle

Vicky Miller

Shabbat Shalom Rabinites – and happy holidays!

Rebecca Pillemer

Here is some of the latest and greatest news from Rabin plus more Year 7 camp memories and an announcement about House Music which will be taking place in Week 4 next term.

P& F School Camp

Year 7’s Daniel Zipser and Alex Gellert both attended the P&F school camp last week – they had a great time playing chess, playing cricket, and going swimming! Here is what Daniel had to say about the P&F camp:

There was great weather, and we had a great time. We played cricket, chess, backgammon, card games and went swimming in Bents Basin. We left school at the end of lunch on Friday, and arrived at the campsite at about 5 o’clock – due to a car crash on the M5. When we arrived, we set up camp, went for Shabbat, played cricket, had dinner, roasted marshmallows, and played some night-time board games in our tent.

On Saturday, it was a heat wave, around 30-35^oC degrees. We spent most of the time under our tarpaulins playing chess, backgammon and card games. We woke up around 6.30 am, had breakfast, and then tried to play cricket but found it was too hot. Once we got back from cricket, we had a second breakfast (hobbit style), and around 8.00 am we went swimming. Once we got back from swimming the rest of the day was fairly simple. Eating, playing board/card games and drinking. At around 7.30 pm, Dylan’s family (including Alex) and my family started packing up. We left the campsite around 8.30 pm and arrived home around 10.00 pm.

Student achievements

Zac Urbach (Year 10) competed in the NSW State Athletics Competition over the weekend. Zac came 4th in his heat in the prelims with a time of 11.44, then made the finals in which he came 9th overall out of around 30 state level athletes in his age group, with a personal best time of 11.42. Well done Zac!

Rabin musicians are champions

A huge congratulations goes to Ari, Ezra and Rubin for winning the Emanuel K-2 Music Performance and Composition Competition Finalists Concert on Monday evening.

Purim

It was so great seeing everyone have a blast at Purim! We had such an exciting day with lots of fun activities, singing and dancing. The Year 11 Rabin Tutor Group dressed as their awesome tutor, Mr Furman

Base 7 Somerset Camp

The term is coming to an end, and for the Year 7s and their Peer Support Leaders, Somerset Camp was one of the highlights of the term. Here are some more camp photos – where Year 7 Rabin had an amazing bonding experience.

House Music

It has been great seeing Rabin’s preparations for House Music on Wednesday mornings as we have started to learn our awesome dance which we will be performing next term. For anyone keen to do Small House Choir, send an email to Ezra or Ari. The choir is always super fun, and we encourage everyone in Rabin to get involved!

That’s the Rabin Bugle for this week. We hope everyone has a brilliant holidays, and we’ll see you all next term!!

Reminder: We would love to acknowledge your achievements or celebrations. So, if you’ve noticed a Rabinite achievement has not been mentioned please let us know. You can email Mr Morley if you would like a mention or make an announcement.

Meir Advocate

Georgia Kahane – Year 12

Charlotte Lyons – Year 12

Hi everyone!

As this is the last week of term, here is what has been happening in Term 1 in Meir.

Term motto

Every term Meir picks a different motto, it is something that we discuss in House assemblies and Tutor and try to embody over the term.

This term’s motto was:

‘It’s not in our stars, it’s in ourselves’.

We have control over our fate and our actions, we have to take charge and responsibility for what goes on in our lives and be grateful for the opportunities that are presented to us.

During one of our amazing House assemblies, Elia Gil-Munoz (Year 12), spoke to us about this motto. She reminded us that we are at a time in life when our stars will change constantly and often in really unexpected ways. From here we should not fear what may come, but embrace the change and the possibilities.

We encourage you to also embrace this motto and be grateful and embrace everything around you.

House assemblies

This term’s House assemblies were jammed packed with activities. To start the term, we reflected on our holidays and created our ideal 2021 selves. We also created ‘Inclusivity Pledges’, that are beautifully decorating the Meir corridor. As a House we are committed to being our true selves and encouraging and enabling this for others and our pledges reflect such.

This term has also been the first term that we have had consistent House assemblies because of COVID-19 and it has been amazing to see the whole House together again!

House Music

Over the past few weeks, we have also been practising our House Music Dance! House Music will take place in Term 2 Week 4 and whilst I cannot disclose much about Meir’s dance and plans, other Houses – be warned!!

Here is what some Meirians had to say about the dance:

“I am really looking forward to the house dance as we haven’t had House Music in over two years!” – Clio (Year 10)
“The choreography is delightful to learn! The dance itself is engaging and exciting and we cannot wait to perform!” – Eden (Year 10)

Here’s a teaser from one of the choreographers, Dean (Year 12), “Cos you’re hot and you’re cold! You’re yes and you’re no!”.

Get excited for House Music!!!!

Swimming Carnival

This term, High School had its annual swimming carnival! Every Meirain came decked out in green and silver with lots of enthusiasm. Many Meirians were participating and it was an amazing day. Meir placed 3rd in the carnival and Ruth Durbach (Year 9), was Age Champion. Congratulations! We also had many Meirians moving onto CDSSA swimming where they performed magnificently.

Purim

In Week 5 we celebrated Purim! Everyone looked amazing in their costumes and had great discussions about the Purim story and what it means.

We hope you all have a relaxing and safe break, can’t wait to see everyone back in Term 2!

Autism Awareness Week

Tess Endrey

To celebrate Autism Awareness Week at school, Tess Endrey (Year 10) decided to run a fundraiser for Giant Steps and to show the High School a different perspective in relation to people living with autism by exploring what normal life is for her and her family, with her elder sister, Emma. Here are some highlights from her courageous and inspiring speech:

“Google defines normal as conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

I somewhat disagree with this statement as I believe it should only refer to personal experiences and matters. As in to say, “My normal is…”.

When we were little, before school, I think everyone thought their life was ‘normal’ because they had nothing to compare it to. As I grew older, I thought my life was not normal as my family life didn’t flow the way everyone else’s seemed to. This is because of my big sister. Her name is Emma and for her entire life, she has lived with severe autism.

My sister is now 20. She can communicate what she wants but in only single words or simple phrases. She cannot actually speak in a typical conversation and instead expresses her emotions with actions, not words. Her emotions are typically expressed in high pitch screams, cries and hysterical laughing. She has a functioning body which is amazing. She loves her computer, iPad and iPod and can navigate within these technologies more easily than communicating. She loves ABBA, the Wiggles and many other 2000’s kid’s TV shows and likes repetition…

Now growing up, this was my normal. I was brought up thinking that this is how all siblings were and as the younger child I looked up to Emma. I copied her actions because that was my normal. When my sister would laugh hysterically for minutes on end I would join her, and I never understood what was happening.

Starting school, my life was just fine but, forming friendships was extremely weird, because the only friend I ever had was Emma. Meeting people typically like me was so cool but kind of confusing. Especially going to people’s houses and their siblings acting like me.

My afternoons feature me at my desk, doing my homework with my headphones on to distract me from the screaming. As Emma has learnt more about the world, the little things bug her, and when we can’t control these things there is screaming. But not all the time. Sometimes it’s silent, sometimes there is dramatic crying and like I said before, uncontrollable laughter. And you can always hear her music. If WSFM isn’t playing in the car, we cannot physically leave the driveway.

So, this is my normal, and yes, it probably looks very different to your day to day life, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything because Emma has shaped me into who I am today.”

——–

Here is the touching video from Giant Steps that Tess showed at the end of her speech.

Some pictures from activities through the week:

Earth Hour

This upcoming Saturday is Earth Hour, the largest global environmental movement. Earth Hour was actually created in Sydney in 2007, but since then has grown to include millions of people around the world in over 190 countries. The program involves individuals, schools, families and organisations across the globe coming together to show support and concern for the future of our planet by switching off all unnecessary lights and technology for one hour.

Earth Hour also creates many petitions and brings attention to environmental issues in the attempt to raise awareness and bring needed change to the world. Over the years it has been the force behind many environmental achievements. For example, Russia legislated to protects its seas from oil pollution after receiving a petition that was part of Earth Hour’s “I will if you will” challenge. Earth Hour has also helped to plant over 17 million trees in Kazakhstan and provide renewable energy and fuel efficient stoves to families in Nepal and Madagascar. Many iconic landmarks are also switching off their lights in support of Earth Hour this Saturday such as the Eiffel Tower, Colloseum in Rome and St Peter’s Square.

Due to COVID-19, this year’s program will be slightly different and include the first ever Earth Hour Visual Spotlight program, which is comprised of a video. Though the actual contents of the video are a secret, we know the aim of the video is to explore and expose the issues our planet faces from a new perspective. See here for more information on the initiative.

Below are a couple of fun activities or easy things you can do over the school holidays to positively affect and help the environment.

Fun activities:

Start a vegetable garden or grow a worm farm
Ride your bike instead of driving
Go on nature walks
Do some thrift shopping at an Op Shop or at Vinnies (which we were able to raise $3000 worth of clothes for, thanks to all of the generous donations to our clothes drive)

Easy things you can do to make a difference:

Recycle and use your FOGO bin
Turn off all lights and air conditioners when you’re not using them
Use reusable shopping bags
Save water – don’t leave that tap running

We hope you all have an amazing, well-deserved break and that you enjoy Earth Hour this Saturday at 8.30 pm!

All the best, from your Sustainability Committee

Business Boost

Michelle Favero – Manager of Marketing and Communications

Boost your business

Looking for a plumber, a lawyer, a photo booth or a vet? Business Boost is the answer. This online advertising directory includes details of business and services connected to, owned or run by Emanuel parents, grandparents and alumni. It’s the School’s answer to the Yellow Pages.

Each week we’ll randomly choose to feature one of our Business Boost entries. If you’d like to be included in Business Boost, simply complete this form.

Benchmark Physiotherapy

Contact person: Vitali Kanevsky

Address: Shop 1, 7-13 Dover Rd, Rose Bay 2029

Email: officerb@bmphysio.com.au

Tel: 02 9371 1222

Description: Benchmark Physiotherapy offers you access to the most up-to-date and effective physiotherapy services, with dedicated and skilled university trained physiotherapists on staff, we can help in reducing pain and improving function so you can feel your best again sooner.

Special offer for the Emanuel School community: 18% off consultation fees

Challah orders open

Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmel

Pesach

We are continuing to learn about Pesach, through a number of different ways. One way is through discussion and storytelling where we are sharing knowledge and understanding and gaining further insight into what the festival of Pesach means, its customs, rituals, symbols, and the foods we eat.

This past week the children have been immersed in drawing wild animals and frogs using a variety of mediums. We have also looked closely at all the foods on the Seder plate and learnt about their meaning.

We have participated in lots of cooking experiences, from matzah pizzas, to charoset, to dipping parsley in saltwater and learning about the tears of the Jewish slaves in Egypt, to making our own matzah.

The children have loved these interactive experiences and enjoyed all the tasting too. Through all these sensory and visual experiences, the festival of Passover comes alive for the children and has meaning for them.

Through group discussions, role play, dramatisation, song, clay, painting and drawing, the children are given the opportunity to make their thinking visible. When they dramatise and act out the story, the children gain a better understanding of what it means to be free and what it would have been like to be a slave.

We talked about the fact that we are free people and able to make our own choices. For example, we are free to choose who to play with and where to play. We talked about Who’s the boss of your thinking?

The Dolphins have been exploring the concepts of freedom and slavery through the hundred languages.

The children were invited to use the language of drawing to make their thinking visible. This is how they described their drawings:

Finn – Moses is leading me and holding my hand. My engine is red, I’m angry.
Elisa – It’s when Moses freed us, and we were happy.
Luke – I felt happy when I was free, so I could play Lego. I felt sad as a slave. My engine is blue.
Mili – I felt blue and it’s the Red Sea. That’s when we got free and walked away from King Pharaoh.
Alice – Everyone was happy when we were going back to our house. Some people were smiling because we were making a plan to sneak out the door.
Arlo – This is Moses and his stick and everyone going through the Red Sea. The slaves feel red and blue, it’s hard to explain…Red because they were angry, blue because they were sad. I drew hammers with nails and bits of wood that the sad slaves used.
Ollie – I drew when I’m happy and King Pharaoh is not around. I’m shouting at King Pharaoh. I am angry to be a slave.
Jaimee – Happy because they are not slaves and are free.
Leah – I am happy because I am free from Pharaoh. I am sad because they are making me a slave.
Penny – When I wasn’t a slave, I was happy and I did what I wanted to do. When I was a slave, I was sad and didn’t know what to do.
Georgia – Free and happy after being able to cross the Red Sea. The slaves couldn’t cross the Red Sea without Moses.

On Thursday, we all participated in our own interactive Kornmehl Pesach Seder. The children all arrived at Pre-school dressed in their best Shul clothes and were eager to participate in this long awaited Chag. The tables looked beautiful and the food was delicious. Each child participated in dressing up and dramatising the story. We had three King Pharaohs, three Moses characters, Yochevet, baby Moses in the basket and lots of slaves. What a triumph it was when Moses led us to the Red Sea, and it parted, and we were all led safely to freedom and the land of milk and honey. We sang, rejoiced and ate delicious matzah ball soup, lots of Matzah and all the traditional foods found on the Seder plate too. We all had a wonderful time. Our Seder ended with the children all going on a hunt to find the Afikomen.

Thank you to all our wonderful parent helpers: Bolien Brown, Edith Lawrence, Sharon Arnott, Sally Greenberg, Oliver Berger, David Weiner, Sharon Joseph and Katherine Spiro. Your help is very much appreciated by all the teachers and the children.

Open night

The Pre-school looked fabulous last week Wednesday night for our Open night. We had two sessions for families to attend. We had about 35 families attend and they were all delighted to see the Pre-school and look at the spaces and learning areas. Many thanks to Gail Mackenzie for all her hard work in co-ordinating this event. It is always a pleasure working together.

Thank you to the amazing Kornmehl team for always going above and beyond and for the incredible job they do each and every day. The learning was very visible for families to see, as well as being able to feel our warm, caring and nurturing environment.

End of Term drinks for all staff

It was wonderful to host the whole school end of term food and drinks in the Pre-school on Tuesday afternoon. We know that many Emanuel School staff have never been down to the Pre-school before and it was lovely to be able to share our spaces and learning with the Emanuel community. We hope you all had a lovely afternoon.

Centennial Park visits

Next term we are excited to commence our visits to Bush School at Centennial Park in Week 3 for the Dolphins and Starfish groups.

The Bush School approach does not stand-alone from early childhood education and care. The Belonging, Being and Becoming: Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) recognises the importance of the outdoor environment in the development of young children.

The Early Years Bush Connections concept is informed by other successful outdoor learning practices from well-researched and established international examples such as Forest Schools, Wilderness Awareness schools, Wild Play schemes and Nature Kindergartens.

We believe Bush School has many advantages for the children, especially in today’s hurried society, where the children do not get enough uninterrupted time to just play and be in nature for extended periods of time.

Some advantages of Bush School are:

Open-ended resources in visually simple spaces – giving children the opportunity to be creative, to observe, to be inspired and to problem solve in an open-ended natural environment.
Risk full learning – the development of a risk adverse society is creating what Tim Gill calls the “shrinking horizons of childhood” where the independence and freedom of childhood has been curtailed.
Eco-friendly and sustainable living – do we want the earth to still be beautiful in 60 years’ time for our children? We need to encourage an ecological awareness in the children from a young age. Real materials are far more sustainable and encourage the children to use their imagination more than materials that are prescribed.
Physicality – children need to be more active. Movement is critical to each child’s health and wellbeing. The physical aspects of their development are promoted through running, climbing trees, and physically being in wide open spaces with a canopy of trees for a roof.
Children who play regularly in natural environments show more advanced motor fitness, including co-ordination, stamina, balance and agility, and they are sick less often.
When children play in natural environments, their play is more diverse with imaginative and creative play that fosters language and collaborative skills.
Exposure to natural environments improves cognitive development by improving their awareness, reasoning and observational skills.
Spending time in nature has shown to reduce stress. Nature buffers the impact of life’s stresses on children and helps them deal with adversity. The greater amount of nature exposure, the greater the benefits.
An affinity to and love of nature, along with positive environmental ethic, grow out of regular contact with and play in the natural world during early childhood.
Early experiences with the natural world have been positively linked with the development of imagination and the sense of wonder. Wonder is an important motivator for lifelong learning.
Motivation, concentration and problem-solving skills are developed through exploratory play.
Children who play in nature have more positive feelings about each other. The development of self-confidence and self-belief comes from children having freedom, time and space to learn, grow and demonstrate their independence.
Natural environments stimulate social interaction between children. It fosters an increased awareness of others and our actions on them as well as encourages sharing and co-operative play.
Language and communication development is fostered by being in the outdoors. This is prompted by visual and other sensory experiences of participating in a bush school program.

Happy Birthday

We wish a very Happy Birthday to Arlo Berger (5), Adam Gavshon (5) and Xander Kogan (4). We also wish our special Educator Joanne Woods a very Happy Birthday.

We wish you all a Chag Pesach Sameach and a happy and restful holiday. We look forward to seeing you all back at Pre-school on Monday 19 April 2021.

Careers

Claire Pech – Careers Advisor

Last week I attended the Sydney University annual Careers Advisors day for 2021. A full transcript of my notes can be found here. My highlights reel can be found below:

Sydney University is very proud of its market share of 1st preferences at nearly one fifth of all places.

This a new scheme for early entry into the creative spheres:

This was a list of all of the new updates for 2021. Individual specifics of the updates can be found in my full notes here.

Notices and dates

Sydney University Prospectus Guide 2021

https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/study/guides/usyd-undergraduate-guide.pdf

Pre-requisites at Sydney University 2021

https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/study/guides/usyd-undergraduate-guide.pdf

LGBTQI scene at Sydney Uni and inclusivity

https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/lgbtiq-pride-network.html

UNSW dates for the diary

Search the events page for more information.

Community notices

Parents and Friends

Ruby Berkovic and Jennifer Opit

Hi Everyone,

And just like that, Term One is over!

Friday Chill Out

We hope to see many of you after School today at our first Friday Afternoon Chill Out in far too long.

As today is the the last day of Term One, join us from 3.30 pm – 4.30 pm, to stay back at school for an icy-pole and a catch up with other parents while the kids play. It’s a beautiful tradition of ending our week together that we can’t wait to resume.

Where: Basketball Courts
What: Icy-poles $1.00 – $2.00

**Please note, parents must supervise and be responsible for their kids at all times in the designated Friday Chill Out area. **

Challah is back

From Term 2 we will be able to resume challah sales!

You can eliminate the hassle of having to pick up your weekly challah and support the Parents & Friends at the same time. We will be distributing freshly baked challah every Friday at the cost of $4.50 and your kids can pick it up outside reception between 3.20 pm – 3.40 pm on a Friday afternoon. (Gluten free challah is available at $10.00 a loaf).

The challot must be pre-ordered. Please register your interest here

Parents and Friends meeting

Our next Parents & Friends meeting falls in the term break and so it will be cancelled. Please contact us if you need anything before May’s meeting.

Weekend brain teaser (from last week) and answer

Question: Turn me on my side and I am everything. Cut me in half and I am nothing. What am I?

Answer: The number 8.

Have a fantastic break and Chag Pesach Sameach.

Jen & Ruby

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 Bev Hurwitz

Bev’s Melanzane Parmigiana

Ingredients

4 carrots chopped
3 celery sticks chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 basil leaves
1 clove of garlic
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tomato passata jars
2-3 packets grated mozzarella
4 large eggplants
Extra light olive oil

Directions

Place all ingredients (except eggplants and mozzarella cheese) into a pot and bring to boil. Reduce heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
Once soft, mouli together to make a tomato-based “pasta sauce”. If the sauce is thick, add a touch of water or extra light olive oil to smooth it. Set sauce aside.
Slice eggplants thinly lengthways. Heat a frying pan with extra light olive oil and fry eggplants very lightly. Alternatively, place the eggplant slices in a single layer on a baking tray. Coat lightly with the olive oil. Bake at 180C in oven until soft.
Use a rectangular lasagne dish and layer eggplant, pasta sauce and grated mozzarella cheese.
End with cheese on top and bake in the oven until slightly golden and crispy at 180⁰C for about 30 minutes. Freezes very well either before or after baking.

Makes 8

You can order the Emanuel School Community Cookbook, The Family Meal by contacting rubykb@gmail.com

Ma Nishma

From the Principal

A busy term

Speaking of Pesach

K-12 Music Competition Finalists Concert

Years 1-2 Swimming Carnival

Reducing our carbon footprint

Mazal tov

Quote of the week

Primary News

Consent

Music Competition

Museum Day

Year 1 and 2 Swimming Carnival

Innovation Leader

Welcome to Ms Cox

Our Musical – Aladdin Jnr

Pesach

Term 2

From the Head of Jewish Life

Quest(ioning)

Ma Koreh

Word of the Week

Passover Pass Nicht

Opportunity Class – Year 5

Digital Technology

Schools Cyber Security Challenge

K-12 Sport news

K-12 Sport news

Individual sporting achievements

Coach profile: Aytek Genc

Upcoming events

Music Matters

Recent student performances

Music Camp 2021 is coming soon! Please turn to the separate article in Ma Nishma.

Private Music Tuition and Infant Strings Program

Breaking news

Ensembles and Choirs

Music Portal page

K-12 Music Competition Finalists Concert

Primary Debating Club

Year 4 and 5 Geography

Talking Holocaust

Jewish Women

Talking Holocaust with alumnus Sean Torban (Class of 2018) and staff member Anna Mayliss

Watch this space

Nu, so what’s new?

The Good Box

Being the Change, One Box at a Time

A Day at the Museum

A Day at the Museum

Seeking to understand

Music Camp

Coming soon in 2021! Emanuel School Music Camp with Mt Sinai College

Art Express

Ariel Berger and ArtExpress

Rabin Bugle

Shabbat Shalom Rabinites – and happy holidays!

P& F School Camp

Student achievements

Rabin musicians are champions

Purim

Base 7 Somerset Camp

House Music

Meir Advocate

Term motto

House assemblies

House Music

Swimming Carnival

Purim

Autism Awareness Week

Earth Hour

Business Boost

Boost your business

Benchmark Physiotherapy

Challah orders open

Kornmehl

Pesach

Open night

End of Term drinks for all staff

Passover
Pass Nicht

Coming soon in 2021!
Emanuel School Music Camp with Mt Sinai College