Dear Community,

All educators recognise the importance of providing meaningful feedback in order to foster improvements. This is one of the fastest growing areas of educational research as it is so vital to the teaching and learning process.

Of course, feedback is essential in all our lives. It helps us to foster healthy relationships, strive to make changes and focus our attention on our achievements in particular areas.

The King David School embraces feedback from a range of sources in order to monitor our performance and to ensure that the changes that we make will lead to improvements in the areas that will most make a difference in the experience of our students.

One area of feedback that we rely on is obtained through our surveys of students, staff and parents. Last year we engaged Independent Schools Victoria to conduct surveys of our community members in the LEAD (Listen, Evaluate, Act, Deliver) survey.

Last night we celebrated the past, present and future of our wonderful School in a Community Celebration with close to 300 past and present families that included alumni and staff.

Those guests fortunate to attend a "First Look" Tour of the new Senior School building returned with great excitement about the opportunities the new classrooms and spaces will give our students. For those families unable to attend the "First Look" Tours, an alternative date is being offered.

Our 2016 Community Appeal was officially launched at this event by Mark Harrison, our School Council President who acknowledged the generosity of our School supporters who have already pledged to the Chai Ve'kayam building program. He spoke of the importance of the historical mansions at Orrong and Dandenong Road as they provide the heymishe (homely) atmosphere of the School. He called on members of the community to support the Community Appeal for the mansion refurbishment at both the Junior and Senior School

All students from Years 5 & 6 competed in the Balaclava District Summer Round Robin.

King David was very competitive throughout the day in all of the sports. Basketball, cricket, volleystar, softball and hockey were played in the tough hot conditions with great sportsmanship. While the students did not manage to bring home a championship, they certainly showed great fighting spirit and determination throughout the day.

The VCE Theatre Studies class attended a production of the Australian play, The Secret River on Wednesday at The Arts Centre.

The Play is an adaptation by Andrew Bovell of the iconic novel of the same name by Kate Grenville. The Secret River follows the story of a family of early settlers in the year 1813 and their encounters with the indigenous Dharug tribe of the Hawkesbury River region.

Artfully directed by Neil Armfield, the production offers a window into, and acknowledgment of, Australia's past. "For all the beauty, dignity and depth of this tale, it leads relentlessly into dark places." (Neil Armfield on The Secret River)

To say that each and every audience member was moved by this performance does not do justice to the power of this incredibly emotional tale. The tears in each of our students' eyes as they stood to give their ovation at the conclusion of the play, was further testament to this.

In the month of Adar, we are commanded to 'increase joy', and the students at Southwick were definitely doing that as they enjoyed a big lunchtime celebration for Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet!

Students posed in a photo booth, enjoyed face painting, bubbles, dancing and colouring. The smiles were everywhere as Purim songs played from the speakers and students warmed up their dance moves for Purim. In addition to the face painting, students were also showing off their crazy hair inventions (it was Crazy Hair Day last Friday organised by our KDSPA as a fundraiser for the King's Carnival to be held in November).

Last week Year 3 students celebrated their 'States of Matter' unit by participating in science rotations all around the School. Six different experiments explored solids, liquids and gases. Led by their Homeroom teachers and some Senior School Science students, the Year 3s hypothesized, investigated and analysed their experiments.. They also observed a dry ice experiment! The Year 3s were completely engrossed in their science rotations. What a wonderful conclusion to our States of matter unit!

The Maths Department invites all students from Prep to Year 12 to participate in the 2016 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 Teegan Casselson (Yrr 7), Brandon Efron (Yr 10), Ari Feldman (Yr 9), Alexandra Kiroi (Yr 9), Lara Meydan (Year 9), Amanda Morris (Yr 10), Jack Moses (Yr 7), Sandra Pecherskaya (Yr 9), David Pecherskiy (Yr 7), Daniel Pinhasov (Yr 9), Gabriel Reyzis (Yr 9), Max Sandler (Yr 8), Tom Scheuer (Year 7), Tobi Taranto (Yr 5), Danny Touretski (Yr 7), Kevin Tran (Year 10) , Ruby Walsh (Yr 5) who submitted the correct solutions for Maths Challenge 2.
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Last week, six Senior students traveled to the Kooyong Rd Campus to assist the Year 3 students with their science-themed party.

The Senior students were responsible for demonstrating and running science-related activities that linked with the science that the students had been learning in class.

The visit by the Senior students marked the launch of our Big Scientist, Little Scientist initiative. This is a program which encourages Senior students to volunteer their time facilitating science-related activities for younger year levels in the School. It is hoped to engage our "Little Scientists" with the wonders of science and develop science communication skills in our "Big Scientists".

Our Senior students enjoyed the challenge of simplifying scientific concepts and showcasing some really cool science to the very enthusiastic and very knowledgeable Year 3s.

KDS String students Noa Abrahams, Rylee Sack and Frances Yudko had the privilege of performing with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) recently.

This involved a day of rehearsals with ACO musicians and a performance at the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation on Wednesday 9 March. Following their item, our students heard the rest of the concert and also had a chance to meet informally with members of the group including the acclaimed soloist and Artistic Director of the group, Richard Tognetti AO.

The KDSPA is delighted to be selling Stand Up’s New Australian Haggdah for RRP $40 (inc GST). 30% of the proceeds from the sale of every New Australian Haggadah will go towards supporting our School. Purchase before 12 April for delivery in time for Passover. Buy your copy online at standup.org.au/kdspa or print out the attached Order Form.

Parent Information Session for children entering Prep in 2017. Parents of Kinder children at ANY Kinder are invited. Thursday 7 April 7:30pm