Maia Loeffler (Year 10) was awarded first prize in the Ziva Shavitsky Foundation Hebrew Essay Competition. This annual competition is open to students from any school in Victoria.

A presentation to Maia was made today at an Assembly at the Senior School, attended by Dr Dvir Abramovich, Director of the Program in Jewish Culture & Society at The University of Melbourne, Helen Shardey and Ziva Shavitsky herself who is an Australian Hebrew language and literature educator. Maia's Hebrew short story on the theme, "one of my favourite places" was written about her visit to Istanbul in Turkey. At the presentation, Dr Dvir Abramovich said the story was extremely well written and stood out from the other submissions because of its sophisticated content.

Dear Community,

Over the past weeks we have enjoyed some inspiring Jewish life events at the School. The Kabbalat Dorot and Kabbalat Torah programs are important milestones in the lives of our students and act to articulate our approach to the transmission of our precious heritage and the development of a sense of individual Jewish identity. This is done through a focus on where we have come from and how we can meaningfully enact choices to support our values and beliefs.

The Kabbalat Dorot (Generations) program is devised to support our Year 6 cohort in developing an understanding of how their lives have been shaped through the inspiring stories of their previous generations. Each student researches their family history and identifies key moments in their family story. The Kabbalat Dorot ceremony was a breakfast in which students were able share their stories with their families, peers and teachers.

A wonderful part of the ceremony involved a series of speeches from members

It was a very meaningful morning with speeches by Year 6 student, Mitch Cowen, parent, Michael Boltman and grandparent Mrs Naomi Tippett AM who all shared snippets of their family's journey and about what the Dorot projects mean to them.

The students then sang the song "masa le'eretz Israel", which talks about the journey the Ethiopian Jews had to endure to get to Israel.

The highlight was watching the students enthusiastically share their projects with parents, grandparents and extended family followed by a delicious breakfast, enjoyed by all 3 generations.

The focus in Year 4 this term is sustainability. The students brainstormed different natural resources found in the environment that are used to create products. They then identified the various ways people should dispose of their waste sustainably through the 5 R's - reduce, reuse, refuse, recycle and respond.

The students completed an activity to identify ways to reduce the waste that is created each day in their lunchboxes. Their challenge was to select five things that the average child brings to school for lunch and to present them in the most sustainable way. They created visual representations of their lunchboxes and were able to explain their choices.

On Wednesday 11 November, Gan Tamar, attended an excursion to Cafe Claremont and Union Park. This was part of our unit of learning based on healthy eating, food preparation and people in the community. We were greeted at the cafe with a yummy plate of toast, a babychino and a delicious gingerbread man! After our sugar high we went to the park and ran around and had the best time ever.

The students of the Junior School gathered together at 11.00am on 11th day of the 11th month together with many people throughout the world to think about the soldiers who went to war and never came back. We conducted one minute's silence as the flag was lowered to half mast and thought about how we would like the whole world to live in peace. We kept on thinking about this as the Last Post was played. To conclude our ceremony we sang; Advance Australia Fair. A very reflective occasion under Melbourne's grey skies.

Ella Sibel (Year 9) and Jacob Moulton (Year 8) leave for London, Prague and Reisa (Germany) on 17 November to compete in the prestigious International Dancers Organisation (IDO) World Titles in Showdance and Tapdance against 92 different nations. These competition have olympic ring status.

Upon arrival in London they will be rehearsing at Pinneapple Studios and performing in London. Over 3000 competitors have qualified for this international event. The Australian Teams qualifying rounds were held in Hong Kong in January this year. The Australian team is currently ranked 6th in the World for their big production called 'Land Down Under'. The team has qualified for 31 events from solos to duos to small groups to big production. This is the first time Australia has entered a full dance team in the world titles and they need as much support as possible. Ella and Jacob have been rehearsing long hours on top of their normal class schedule. The team has 27 members from all over Victoria

Congratulations to Mikaela Webb (Year 12) whose VCE Media Film Production was selected as the winner of the JCCV Youth LGBTI Video Competition. Mikaela's film explores the issues, problems and possibilities facing transgender Jewish youth in today's society, spreading a message of tolerance and understanding for all people regardless of gender.

Mikaela beat other students across the State to win the award (which included prize money). She will now be offered the opportunity to work with Minus18 to develop a concept for an educational film to be used in schools across Victoria. Mikaela's award winning film will be shown at the VCE Visual Arts Show on December 6 which showcases Senior visual art, design and media.

On Thursday 5 November, the Year 3 students embarked on their first ever King David School camp.

All Year 3 students were excited about participating in the extensive program that was planned. There were looks of pure elation as they soared across Emerald Lake on the flying fox. Students used teamwork to conquer the challenging low ropes course and developed their min-golf putting skills.

The final day began with an exciting visit to Healesville Sanctuary where we observed some of Australia's unique wildlife.

A special highlight was the 'Spirits of the Sky' show which featured Australia's most majestic birds of prey and magnificent parrots. We also had an thrilling and close counter with a wedge tail eagle!

The Maths Department invites all KDS students to participate in the 2015 Maths Challenge. Have fun resolving weekly Mathematical problems and win a prize at the end of the school year. Please e-mail your full solutions to yulia.dozortsev@kds.vic.edu.au . Congratulations to Eli Czerniecki (Year 9), Daniel Freidgeim (Year 9), Sasha Kiroi (Year 8), Kevin Tran (Year 9) and Ittai Watterson (Year 9) who submitted the correct solution to Maths Challenge 26.

Winners of the Maths Challenge Competition will be announced in next week's eHarp. Mazal Tov to all students who participated this year.

The taste and smell of mud was revolting yet I knew I couldn't stop crawling through and risk letting my team down. So, I kept moving the mud as fast as I could. My hands felt wet leaves and twigs. It felt squishy and thankfully, wasn’t as deep as it looked. The threatening cage above me was low and made me keep my head lowered, close to the stench.
-David Eikelis

Gift of Life Australia is enrolling potential stem cell donors onto the Australian Bone Marrow Registry. They are currently testing to find matching Jewish Life saving heroes as tissue matching occurs within's one's own ethnic group, with the likelihood of finding a match being 1 in 10 000!

Bookings are now open for the Junior School (Prep to Year 2) Musical – The Great Aphabet Kerfuffle. Please book http://www.kds.vic.edu.au/category/upcoming-events/

Our School encourages the entire community to get involved in Mitzvah Day. This year, the date is Sunday 15 November. KDS is teaming up with Stand Up and also Camp Sababa. A Mitzvah Day Picnic on Sunday, 15 November with the Sudanese community, Stand Up, King David School and Ark Centre - 11am - 3pm at Southwick Campus At RMC there will be games and lots of activities, facilitated by this year’s Year 12 Buddies. 1.00pm - 3pm

Join Etz Chayim for a family friendly Kabbalat Shabbat. Tonight! This is held every 2nd Friday of the month. 6.30pm. See attached for more detail.

The annual JCCV Community Awards are being held at Alexander Theatre, Monash University. Monday 16 November at 7.30pm. See attached for booking detail.

Etz Chayim invites you to meet Rabbi Danny Freelander, WUPJ President, a renowned musician and songwriter, as well as an outstanding orator and leader. Rabbi Freelander will be delivering the sermon at our Shabbat Morning Service on 14th November. He will join us for an intimate Q & A session and communal lunch following the service.

Join Etz Chayim TONIGHT for a brief sing-a-long service led by Rabbi Allison, followed by a fun activity for Tot Shabbat. For families with children aged 3-5 years but all welcome!

Our very own Leonie Leivenzon (Huppert) together with Stand Up and Kedem present an ARTIST OPEN HOUSE. We invite you all to come along to the opening night Thursday 19th November. 7.00pm – 9.00pm at 5 Powderham Road, Caulfield North. Please see attached for other opening times. 30% of profits will go to Stand Up and Kedem. We wish Leonie much success for this wonderful upcoming event.

Come and celebrate the students' wonderful artwork at the 2015 VCE Visual Arts Show - Sunday 6 December, 1.00pm to 3.00pm. Enjoy the impressive visual art, design and media works that have been produced by our talented Senior students.