Dear Community,

This week I was privileged to participate in a series of educational discussions at an Australian Heads of Independent Schools Association Branch meeting. The discussion topics focused on perceptions of the decreasing relevance of the ATAR and the vital role of schools to provide a broad and holistic educational offering.

Reference was made to the 2018 Mitchell Institute study which showed that tertiary institutions are increasingly looking at other factors than ATAR to determine admission. In fact, the study found that only 26% of tertiary entrants relied upon their ATAR for admission into their course.

Given this small number, some of the principals decried the disproportionate pressure getting a “good” ATAR can have on student culture. There were numerous horror stories outlined of students who alienated themselves from school and social life and activities in order to “buckle down” and prepare for the high stakes exams only to ultimately succumb t

Shavuot (meaning "weeks") marks the end of the seven week counting period from Pesach to Shavuot. On Shavuot we celebrate receiving the Torah. It is also a harvest festival, one of the pilgrimage festivals, on which people brought their spring offerings (known as ‘bikkurim’) to the Temple in Jerusalem. The eating of dairy foods is also favoured.

Students were invited to come to school dressed in white and with flowers in their hair or on their clothes. This is an Israeli tradition connected to the celebrations of the Kibbutz workers who delighted over their harvest.

Kinder to Year 5 students gathered in the playground to watch our traditional play of Moshe going up to Har Sinai to receive the Torah. They engaged in fun and educational activities throughout the day and enjoyed ice cream at lunchtime.

Our Friends of King David Association hosted a presentation last night by Sidra Moshinsky, our Director of Jewish Life and Learning. The theme was King David - The Man and the School. In a classroom setting, Sidra discussed King David as the first historical figure in Jewish history and led a text-based analysis of key moments in his life. He was believed to have been born and died on Shavuot.

King David is recognised as someone with many qualities and also deep flaws. David was not just a man of physical courage and musical talent, but also someone with a deep spiritual dimension who was therefore chosen by G-d to lead his people. There was lively discussion about King David and his relationship to Bathsheba - a part of the narrative that illuminates David’s weaknesses and wrongdoings, as well as his capacity for repentance.

Year 6AZ took up the #trashtag challenge on Wednesday afternoon for World Environment Day. Inspired by people from around the world who have taken the time to clean up their environments, the class enthusiastically spent their Kesher period picking up the trash around the Senior School. As you can see, they did an amazing job!

Five keen Year 7 students ( Mia Bentata, Natalie Irons, Trixie Irwin, Sammy Katz and Reagan Perlstein) celebrated World Environment Day by brainstorming an effective way to build a vertical garden on the decking outside Mg01 (Science lab).

They each created a prototype construction of recycled pots and hung them from the iron work. The following day I received an enthusiastic email "we want to come back every lunch time and keep building". It already looks aesthetically pleasing and it supports the School's vision of 'Go Green'.
What started as a STEM project will evolve over this term and beyond.

Gan Tamar have been immersed in Shavuot learning this week. As it is customary at Shavuot to eat dairy food, we have talked about where milk comes from and how milk is processed and taken to supermarkets. We also discussed what foods are dairy. In Hebrew, Shiri gave the children the opportunity to "milk" a cow. We made a replica "Har Sinai' using paper mache and decorated the mountain with flowers.

We are extremely proud of Freya Boltman, Year 12, who received a Premier’s Award in acknowledgement of her outstanding result in VCE Theatre Studies which she completed last year.

This week, Freya attended a ceremony with her parents, Marc Light and Laura Rickhuss where more than 1000 guests were present to celebrate the achievements of award recipients who were presented with Premier's VCE Awards for their exceptional study outcomes in 2018.

Our wonderful team of Pre-School Educators arranged a rich cultural excursion this week for the children in Gan Keshet. Jenaya from Yarn Strong Sista was the storyteller who shared information about her own journey as an Indigenous woman. The children respectfully listened to Welcome to Country and we all felt very privileged to be sharing such a special time together.

Jenaya talked about the importance of possums to the Aboriginal people of the Kulin Nation and how every Aboriginal baby gets a possum cloak at birth. The children were able to feel the possum skin and see how the skins are sewn together as the child grows and gets older. Jenaya spoke of how your identity as an Aboriginal person doesn’t differ if you have different skin colour or hair. She also talked about Bunjil the Eagle as the Creator and Waa the Crow as the Protector. In fact, Waa or Waa Waa also means ‘hello’.

The Years 3-5 Swimming Carnival showcased outstanding sportsmanship and stellar individual performances in the pool. The scores were the closest in recorded history with only 9 points separating first and fourth place which meant every competitor counted right up until the final race where Galil took out the 2019 Championship.

Well done to all students!

“Are you watching the sumo wrestling this lunchtime?" That’s not a question you’d get asked on a regular day in school. But it was no regular day and KDS is no regular school.

Let me backtrack. It was the first week of term and a group of ten Year 6 students sat in front of our teacher Heath for our first Kindle Robotics program. Heath took out of a box something that surprised us all. He said that we were to build robots that we would then programme to fight against each other but all I could see in front of me were hundreds of Lego parts.

Year 12 student and gymnastic superstar, Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva has had a very busy first half of the year!

Her gymnastics season started with a major trip to three World Cups, where she spent four weeks travelling to three countries: Bulgaria, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, to represent Australia in high level competitions. Upon return to Australia, Alexandra had one month to prepare for the Australian Gymnastics Championship - a two week long event for elite gymnasts.

Please join us for the KDSPA Annual Breakfast which promises to be a wonderful event. There are opportunities to come along with family or friends or join a table of your choice. Please book: www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=506177& This year we are bringing our Silent Auction to our wider KDS Community. So if you are unable to attend this amazing event, you can still be part of it by clicking onto the link below. It is simple to login or register and then you can bid on an amazing array of items.

Join us for a matinee performance of this not to be missed musical. When: Sunday 15 September at 1pm Location - Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne. It’s a delectable treat featuring songs from the original film, including Pure Imagination, The Candy Man and I’ve Got a Golden Ticket, alongside a brand new, toe-tapping and ear-tickling new score.

Bookings for our highly anticipated Senior School musical, 42nd Street are now open. Please click HERE to book.

Join Etz Chayim tomorrow, Saturday the 8th of June from 5.30pm to celebrate Shavuot. See attached for detail.

The King David School is hosting the first Jewish community Brick Builders’ Tournament during the July school holidays for students from any school in Years 2, 3 and 4. Places are limited. Students register in a team of two with a cost of $35 per person including tournament entry, morning tea and lunch.

A night of learning together facilitated by the 2018 New Israel Fund (NIF) Fellows, Sara Sterling and Patrick Prunster. See attached for detail.