Dear Community,

There is an ongoing debate in the wider community regarding the role that schools should play in values education. Traditionally, lessons in morality have come from the home, however, it has been argued that in an age of social media that our children often learn social mores and attitudes from their peer groups and online communities. With this reality in mind, social commentators and academics are increasingly arguing that our educational institutions are well placed to influence the intellectual as well as the social and emotional development of our children.

This has been acknowledged by the writers of the Australian Curriculum who have included personal and social capability, ethical development and intercultural understanding as key capabilities alongside the more typical cognitive based practices of literacy, numeracy, ICT and critical and creative thinking.

Professor Howard Gardner was also focused on this when he launched The Good Project. This is aim

Today in the Junior Kindergartens we celebrated Kabbalat Shabbat with our Grandparents and Special Friends.
The children shared the blessings of the Brachot and sang Shabbat songs. Charlie accompanied us playing the guitar. The Parsha this week was about Mitzvot, at the end of our Service each child gave their special visitor candles for Shabbat and a handmade card sharing a Mitzvah they enjoy doing with their Special guests.

Students from Years 4-6 competed in yesterday's Balaclava District Athletics Carnival. The conditions were very challenging for our students as it rained for much of the day but they were still able to give of their best and do the School proud.

Mitchell Langer and Mark Shvartsman from Year 5 were fantastic in their events qualifying through to the Beachside Division next week. Unfortunately due to the weather conditions and concern for our students' safety, our students did not participate in events that were scheduled later in the day.

This week, two teachers from Hobart with 17 students visited the Senior School. As part of their Comparative Religions class, they visited our School, had breakfast at Glicks and a tour of TBI in order to gain valuable experience and knowledge about Judaism. Students participated in a Q & A session before they met up and had lunch with the Year 12 Captains. The group was led from Hobart by Dr Peter Jones and Ms.Kylie McKinnon from The Friends (Quaker) School of Tasmania.

Year 2 students visited the National Gallery of Victoria at Federation Square to explore the Australian Indigenous collection.

They enjoyed a tour looking at the galleries collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, noting the range of styles, symbols and stories represented by different tribes. Students discovered meanings and messages in the art and discussed the map like composition. They saw both traditional painting as well as modern mixed media pieces and noted the similarities and differences.

This week the Junior School celebrated Book Week.

Each day at lunchtime there was "pop up reading" under the trees by a different Homeroom teacher. The celebration of Book Week was highlighted on Wednesday where each student dressed up as their favourite character from a book. Each student brought in the book and shared it with the other students explaining why they enjoyed reading the book and why they chose the character.

We also had a great Book Swap. Each student brought from home one of their favourite books, and for a gold coin donation they could swap it for someone else's. All the money raised was donated to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

This week we celebrated Book Week at the Middle School during Hebrew classes.

Years 3 and 4 students wrote a book about themselves and their families. Year 5 students wrote a story about their after school activities. All students had to create their book by composing the text, drawing pictures and sharing stories with their peers.

Student and teachers at the Middle School have celebrated Book Week in a variety of ways.

In Years 3-5 classes, students shared one of the short-listed books and worked together, exploring the themes of the book and then decorated their classroom door - the results are magnificent.

The theme of Book Week this year is “Books Light Up Our World” so it was most appropriate that Marc Light was one of our special guest storytellers at our daily storytime sessions in the library each lunchtime of Book Week. Other storytellers were Bryan Conyer, Naomi Rubinstein, Jayne Wise, David Opat and Annette Wester.

We all dressed up as a character from our favourite story book and we shared our books with our classes, which were all read. Junior Kinder proudly showed off their costumes to all of Senior Kindergarten. We finished with a parade, explaining our dress ups and what our favourite book was all about.

Thank you to the parents for putting in so much effort into the costumes!

As part of our Expanding Horizons program, Year 9 visited The Shrine of Remembrance. Dedicated to the soldiers who have served in both past and current armed conflicts and peacekeeping operations, the memorial gave us the chance to honour the brave men and women who served to protect Australia in wars throughout history.

Throughout our tour of the Shrine, we learned about the service and sacrifice that many people took during World War I. We participated in dressing in clothes similar to what soldiers and nurses would have worn during that period of war, as well as explored the Shrine and paid our respects to the fallen soldiers.

As the Cheshire Cat insists, ‘Every adventure requires a first step. Trite, but true, even here.’

The Pre-School has been thrilled to celebrate Children’s Book Week, exploring many adventures through storytelling.
Children’s Book Week is a wonderful reminder of the amazing children’s literature that has influenced our lives growing up. The art of storytelling isn’t simply just reading the words from a page, but engrossing your audience in the characters journey, understanding the tragedy, the joy and complications while learning a life lesson along with way.

Gan Te'ena have been getting arty this term. With whispers of an art show, we decided to take a trip to the Ian Potter Art Gallery to see what an art exhibition looked like. Visiting the Kaleidoscopic Turns Exhibition, the children wandered around and looked at all the amazing, colourful art works. There was so much colour and shape in each piece.

This week we continued our exploration of colour and shape with an art class at The Art Factory. The children each created their own 3D picture box in a five step process, drawing, painting, folding paper, gluing and threading. They were bright and colourful and lots of fun.

This year we have been looking at bystander intervention in our Wellbeing classes.

The idea is that we could almost get rid of bullying completely if people stood up for
each other. To help with this program the School is running a multimedia competition to see which students can produce the best representation of this idea.

First Prize $500 Voucher

On Tuesday, the Year 6 students were engaged in a day of activity which took them outside of their regular classes.

Research suggests that individuals with a positive self-concept are "happier and better adjusted, have a better sense of wellbeing and greater life satisfaction than those with a more negative self concept". (REACH Foundation) In order for young people to have this self-belief, it is important for them to gain an understanding and acceptance of who they are as a person, their true self. Therefore, on Tuesday the Year 6 students participated in a variety of workshops designed to explore their identity.

Throughout the day the students were encouraged to explore their identity and sense of self through art, poetry, drama and technology. The concepts they examined included;

Students at the Senior School participated in the annual RSPCA Cupcake Day fundraiser with proceeds going to animals in need. The RSPCA receive less than 2% of their funding from the Government, and relies heavily on donation from animal lovers.

Student volunteers from Years 9-12 (and some teachers) took to their kitchens to bake a variety of creations, including gluten free and vegan delights. The bake sale was held at lunch time, with students and teachers flocking to get their hands on the sweet treats.

In total, we raised over $430. All the money will assist in improving the lives of many animals that need our help. Our funds will assist in the following ways:

Years 7, 8, 9 and VCE Mandarin students participated in a cultural experience day, last Friday.

Students ate lunch at the Dragon Boat Restaurant and used chopsticks and the turning table to access the food that was ordered.

A guided museum tour followed. Students were curious about foot-binding for women in ancient China. Through the display, students learned about the contribution made by the Chinese during the Gold Rush and how they were subjected to discrimination. They studies the recipe made by Chinese laborers during Gold Rush. Students saw a dragon and learned about the meaning of the colours on the dragon.

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 Daniel Arzhintar (Year 8), Daniel Freidgeim (Year 9), Alexandra Kiroi (Year 8) and Daniel Krowitz (Year 8) who submitted the correct solution for Maths Challenge 18.

We are so proud of all the performers and musicians in this year's Middle School Musical, "Peter Pan Jr". Students in Years 3-8 impressed a sold out audience on the opening night with their talented portrayal of the classic Disney characters. With only a few tickets left for the remaining performances, make sure you don't miss out on this spectacular production. For tickets, visit our website: www.kds.vic.edu.au

Do you love to sing? TBI Fellow Tammy Cohen leads a new choir for Prep to Grade 6 kids. Participants will develop musical and performance skills, explore prayer, Hebrew language and culture through secular and religious Jewish music. To RSVP call Tammy 9510 1488 (x815) or email tammy.cohen@tbi.org.au

The KDSPA would love to invite you and your friends to join us for a Pink Ribbon morning tea on Friday 11 September at 9.30am to raise money for a very worthy cause. There have been many families in our school community who have been touched in one way or another by breast cancer and we want to show our support by hosting this event and raise funds for vital life-changing breast cancer research. Let’s all help. Let’s all try and make a real difference. Come along and enjoy a morning of great entertainment, prizes, food and more. And don’t forget to wear a touch of pink!

Rabbi Danny Schiff, internationally renowned Jewish ethicist will lead Kedem’s 2015 High Holyday Services. Venue: The King David School, 117 Kooyong Rd, Armadale All welcome!

TBI’s High Holy Day program is packed full of musical, craft and learning activities for kids and their families. See attached full details.