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Masada College students depict the stories of Holocaust Survivors

All Year 10 College Masada students were involved in the Living Historians Program, interviewing child Survivors of the Holocaust. This year they were fortunate to engage with George Sternfeld from Poland, Jacqui Dale from France, Egon Sonnenshein from Slovenia and Joe Symon from Hungary. Each story was pertinent to its respective time and place as well as huge sadness, loss and remarkable resilience in survival.

After a month of creativity, and with Years 7, 8 and 9 as their audience, the students depicted the stories of survival in script, drama, power point, artwork and music. All these renditions reflected thought, empathy and understanding as well as deep talent with which this cohort is blessed.

From Chopin’s Nocturne #20, Jakov Shwekey’s ‘We are a Miracle’ to a Klezmer band arrangement of a Psalm of David, the hall resounded with skill and verve. The audience and survivors alike were impressed. Rabbi Lewin calls Masada students the ‘Candle Generation’ – they have indeed demonstrated their light and continued respect for the stories of their elders. Kol hakavod to them all!

– Marion Seftel Senior History Teacher

 

Jewish Students Connect through the Global School Twinning Network

The Global School Twinning Network (GSTN) is an initiative of the Jewish Agency for Israel that provides an opportunity for Jewish students around the world to meet and have conversations around Jewish identity and social responsibility. The project successfully promotes connection with Israel through numerous virtual collaborative activities with a group of Israeli students from the Rogozin School. At the end of the two-year project, Masada students travel to Israel to meet their peers.

Masada College has been part of the GSTN since 2018, with Years 7 and 8 Hebrew classes currently involved. The students use an online bulletin board to communicate with their Israeli counterparts where they share short films about themselves and their communities. This enables students to develop a deeper understanding about each other’s way of life. Masada students reply in Hebrew and the Rogozin students reply in English which develops language skills for both groups of students.

This year, students also collaborated on a community project, Mishloach Manot (the Jewish tradition of sending gifts on the Jewish of holiday of Purim), and distributed packages to the Wolper Hospital with their message. Likewise, Rogozin students provided packages to children with disabilities.

The schools also designed a virtual Hebrew and English newspaper together and created language games for each other to enhance language skills. Both schools participated in an international project creating a Passover themed recipe book in Hebrew and English.

Adi Halevi, Head of Hebrew at Masada says the interaction with Rogozin School has been incredibly beneficial for all involved. “Students from both schools have improved their language skills and enjoyed learning the cultural differences and similarities in teenagers in the two countries,” she said. “The collaboration on a joint community project was very special. Allowing students to share cultural insights in this way is a truly unique opportunity. Students developed their IT skills and worked collaboratively, despite the geographical distance,” she said. Masada College and Rogozin School are currently developing new initiatives such as virtual tours of sites across Australia and Israel, as well as a photography competition. “We plan to work with the Sydney Opera House, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Israeli galleries to connect high school students with artists and authors from the two countries,” said Mrs Halevi.

A year ago, our Junior School students also joined the Global School Twinning Network, beginning a partnership with a school in Israel called Aliza Begin. Our Year 6 Hebrew classes began their partnership by writing blessings to each other for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Year 12 2020 – A Resilient Cohort

Masada College Year 12 2020 students begin their HSC exams this week and what a challenging year it has been for this cohort.  These HSC students had barely completed four weeks of schooling at the beginning of this year when the threat of Coronavirus potentially closing Australian schools, first came to light. By the 25th March they found themselves in a foreign learning environment – learning online via Zoom. College Principal, Martin Tait, says, “Our students embraced the new way of learning with maturity and calmness and are to be congratulated on the way they handled the online platform, supported each other and navigated what has been a most challenging year.” “Equally, I am very proud of the dedication and creativity shown by our staff in working in a new technology space to support our Year 12 cohort,” he says.

There have been many hurdles for HSC students on an academic level in preparing for the HSC in this uncertain year. Preparation of bodies of work for subjects like Visual Arts, Design and Technology and performances for Drama and Music have all had been very demanding with the goal posts moving several times.  “Our students have taken the changes in their stride and although there has been the usual pressure of deadlines, our students have prepared themselves well and we are proud of their final completion of work,” said Mr Tait.

Masada College was extremely mindful of student wellbeing, throughout year, for their Year 12 cohort. “Our wellbeing support programs with our dedicated team of Patrons and College Psychologist were motivating students to attend all online classes and encouraging students to have a well-balanced lifestyle,” says Mr Tait. Each Year 12 student was also assigned an individual Year 12 mentor from teachers, support staff to administration, which was a first-time initiative for Masada.

There have been many milestone events that Year 12 students across the country were not able to enjoy due to Coronavirus – those momentous occasions, that make that final year of school a special memory such as the last Athletics Carnival, the Valedictory Dinner with parents and for a Jewish school, a significant moment for parents – the Blessing from the Rabbi. Masada College have worked within the NSW Health guidelines to ensure the safety of staff and students to provide parent involvement via Zoom to as many events as possible. School Captain, Ran Ashkenazi, says “I believe that the missed events aren’t what truly matters. Our journeys; the day-to-day that defined our Year 12 experience – are more significant than the missed milestones. I am grateful to have shared this journey with amazing peers and staff. We go into our HSC exams confident that our teachers have supported us phenomenally, despite the unprecedented year we had.”

“Each and everyone of our Year 12 students has unique, special and admirable personal qualities that are far more important in the long run, than simply academic results,” he says. “The 2020 cohort has been a particularly united and cohesive group. They will be definitely be remembered for their resilience and flexibility,” says Mr Tait.

Alex Symonds Appointed to RBA Educators Advisory Panel

Mr Alex Symonds, Economics and HSIE teacher at Masada College has been appointed to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Educators Advisory Panel (EAP). The EAP was established by the Reserve Bank in 2017 to provide expert guidance to the Bank on matters of education. Specifically, the EPA provides feedback on educational resources and events commissioned by the Bank in support of its public education objectives as well as helping to keep the Bank abreast of curriculum developments.

“We are very proud that Alex will represent other educators as well as our school,” said Masada College Principal, Martin Tait. “This is a deserved honour for Alex. He is an innovative and dedicated teacher, always seeking to spark students’ enthusiasm for Economics.”  Over a number of years, Alex has been rolling out ‘flipped learning’ methodology in teaching his Economics classes. In this model, students learn the content for ‘homework’, watching videos created by Alex to help them understand key concepts. In class, students then look to apply the content – engaging in questioning and thinking routines to help them more deeply understand the subject.

“This model has been very effective with my Year 11 and 12 students as we’re able to maximise class time to help students apply their knowledge and link the content they’ve examined at home to real-world events,” Alex said.

Alex uses his YouTube channel to host his videos on Economics content. He says that the video format is very helpful in allowing students to progress through content at their own pace, including rewinding and pausing material. “I’ve found that students value the opportunity to review the content through the videos, and come to class familiar with the material and loaded with questions,” he says.

There are 12 members on the RBA Educators Advisory panel, including the chair, Jacqui Dwyer, Head of Information Department of the Reserve Bank and representatives from Universities and Economic Teachers Associations from across the nation. Alex and Timmee Grinham from Fintona Girls’ School will help provide the perspective of teachers at secondary schools.  Appointments are for a three-year term and the panel usually meets in person two to three times per year, however, due to COVID-19 the panel will have its first meeting for 2020 via Zoom in June. “I have no doubt that Alex will be an asset to the RBA Educators Advisory Panel. On behalf of all the staff and students at Masada College we congratulate him on this impressive appointment,” said Mr Tait.

Masada Launches Online Home Learning Platform

This week was a remarkable moment in the history of Masada College with the launch of our online home learning platform on Wednesday 25th March. We have been preparing for the possibility for online home learning since early in the year, when the threat of Coronavirus potentially closing Australian schools, first came to light.

Our College has been dedicated to supporting our teaching staff to ensure they have the skills to work in the technology space and learn new software in a relatively short space of time. Ryan Gill, Head of Learning and Teaching (Yr 7-12) explains the College has been using existing platforms such as Google Classroom but expanded these to include video conferencing tools such as Google Hangout and Zoom. “Taking on the technology was a daunting task for some of our staff, so we gave them the time and resources to feel confident with this teaching style,” said Mr Gill.  “It has been amazing to watch our teachers who considered themselves to be the least technologically savvy, embrace the new learning platform and show such creativity in their teaching approach,” he said.  “By the launch date, our teaching team was well prepared to go on this journey of online learning,” said Mr Gill.

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) announced on Tuesday that the Higher School Certificate will go ahead in NSW for 2020, despite the Coronavirus.  Here at Masada College we recognise there will be significant work for Year 12 teachers to recreate assessment tasks that can be submitted electronically and we are very focused on our Year 12 cohort to ensure they stay on top of their HSC curriculum.

“Motivating students to attend all online classes, having a well-balanced life style and driving students to strive for excellence without personal contact with peers to challenge each other, will be tougher than usual says Mr Gill. “Despite the challenge, we are continuing our wellbeing support programs with our dedicated team of Patrons and College Psychologist. Our Physical Education and Rock and Water programs will continue online, with our College Principal leading by example, running online fitness sessions. This week he energised our Year 7 and 8 boys, showing our students that in limited space, star jumps, burpees and running on the spot got heart rates racing and helped students to refocus on their afternoon lessons.

Fortunately, this generation are very comfortable with technology and our students have been grateful to the College for continuing to provide them with the highest calibre education, many have been very pleasantly surprised! We have received lots of very positive feedback from staff, parents and students in the methods for ensuring our students are engaged and learning online,” said Mr Gill. The smooth roll out of Masada’s online home learning platform has allowed for the uninterrupted education of our students and is a testament to the agility and flexibility of our Masada staff.

Masada Cottage Preschool Pencil Case Program

By Mrs Glynnis DeKlerk, Masada Cottage Educational Leader

Starting school involves a great deal of change and we aspire to ease this transition. Our daily routine and Pencil Case Program strengthen our students’ school readiness and enhances their confidence, ensuring that each child is as best prepared as they can be. This program involves giving all our students their own pencil cases filled with pencil crayons, pencils, rubbers, sharpeners and scissors. As part of our school- readiness program, students learn to take responsibility for their possessions and use the materials correctly. Using their pencil cases together with their scrapbooks gives students the opportunities to follow instructions, refine motor skills and enhance creativity. We introduce this program in the fourth term to consolidate all the school readiness we have integrated into our program throughout the year. As their skills improve, so too we see our students’ sense of independence, self confidence and self reliance improve as well.

Transitioning to school is a big milestone for all children. Our program enables the children to engage in a wide variety of experiences and activities which allows them to become active participants in their own learning. In turn, this helps to develop a passion for learning in each child – and the excitement they show as they carefully unzip their pencil cases, makes us as teachers feel confident that we have done so!

 

STEM in the Masada College Primary Classroom

By Mrs Nikki Grauman- Head of Academic Care, Junior School

 

As the needs of students change and as advances in the way we teach and engage our younger students develop, we are seeing the focus in education shift away from lessons focused on teaching the “content”. Instead, we now recognise the need to teach students to learn and apply scientific skills, design thinking and digital-technology-production skills. Helping both boys and girls feel comfortable in the science classroom and increasing engagement has been an emphasis over the past few years through the introduction of STEM, theme-based learning tasks, that enable teachers to provide more diverse and practical activities and learning opportunities to students. The idea is to make what the students are learning more relevant to them and their world. This is done through providing personal choice, autonomy and relevance to their unique and collective needs. 

 

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) has been a central focus at Masada College Primary School, with the aim of meeting the academic, social and emotional needs of all of our students. Our students are exposed to practical, inquiry-based learning opportunities directed at increasing their engagement and expanding their thinking, questioning and wondering about the world around them. This is done through units that are centered around real world themes or problems and hands-on experiments that develop students planning, implementation and reflection skills and strategies. We are also engaging Young Engineers, an educational program that teaches students these concepts through coding and programming using ICT and Lego.  

 

An essential component to our lessons is to begin with a rich task that will spark their curiosity through problem solving, thereby boosting engagement. Another skill that these activities encourage is collaboration between the teacher and their students and between students and their peers.  In Rabindranath Tagore’s words “Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.”

 

Refugee Challenge Sleepout

By Ms Liora Hayman, Jewish Life

A few weeks ago, our students in Years 8-11 were invited to participate in the Refugee Challenge Sleep Out organised by the Year 12 prefects. Students slept over at our school, in outdoor conditions and experienced a full simulation refugee camp, highlighting what it is like for refugees living in camps as well as urban refugees and asylum seekers. The Refugee Challenge was not only a great way for the students to engage with and gain the respect of their peers, but it also gave them a major sense of appreciation, as well as the chance to feel empathy towards the plight of refugees and the harsh reality they must face in order to escape persecution and other dangers. It enabled the students to gain a more profound understanding of the challenges, difficult decisions and experiences a refugee may encounter.

Students come away feeling informed and encouraged to look to the needs of others as well as empowered to consider alternatives, solutions, and practical changes that may inspire better outcomes for people seeking safety and ultimately generate a more welcoming and compassionate society.

Kol Hakavod to the leaders for putting together an outstanding and memorable event!

The 3 C’s of thinking skills versus the traditional 3 R’s of learning

By Mrs Nikki Grauman, Head of Academic Care, Junior School 

Many of us who are parents or educators will remember the 3 R’s relating to school thinking: Reading, (a)rithmetic and remembering. These skills required learners to store, recall and then use previously learned information. And while traditional testing that requires students to utilise this type of thinking are still being used, more and more teachers are setting exams and learning activities in the classroom that require students to use the 3 C’s of learning to guide their thinking and responses, namely: curiosity, creativity and challenging thinking.

Whilst the 3 R’s require us to use existing knowledge, the 3 C’s require learners to use this knowledge in order to inform new ideas, examples, evidence, reasoning and decisions. Often times this can mean that there is not simply a yes/no answer or right or wrong solution. Instead, there may be multiple ways that a learner can answer a question. As long as their answer uses knowledge to support and justify their response, their answer could be considered accurate.

In education circles we refer to this as “higher order thinking skills” or “deeper forms of thinking”. It requires the use of ideas and knowledge from multiple sources to inform and challenge our thinking and this is what makes us curious, challenging and creative thinkers and learners.

The world beyond the classroom (and indeed within the classroom) is rapidly changing and evolving. We are regularly bombarded with images, infographics, news articles, adverts, information and social media that requires us to use our judgment and to think for oneself rather than take what we read, hear and see at face value.

Masada College focuses on providing teaching and learning programs and opportunities that develop students’ thinking and equips them with the tools necessary to survive and thrive in today’s world. We aim at building skills that require students to participate as well-rounded, mentally healthy and academically capable young people who have a growth mindset and a positive mental and emotional attitude. We encourage them to be flexible, imaginative, analytical and daring thinkers and to think outside the box. 

So the next time your child asks you a question – before answering it for them – ask them to think about a possible answer or a connection that may help them come up with a plausible solution. Their responses may surprise both them and you!

 

Intercultural Volunteer Program for Masada College and Unity Grammar School

By Martin Tait –  College Principal

Recently I had the pleasure of attending an excursion with a number of our Year 10 students to the Exodus Foundation as part of an intercultural volunteer program at a Homeless Shelter in Ashfield.

Along with Unity Grammar School, our students worked in group shifts which were designed to give the volunteers a holistic experience of restaurant operations. Each shift started with a site induction, after which the volunteers were allocated to a range of roles according to the restaurant’s needs. This included food preparation, restaurant set-up, food and beverage service, the creation of emergency food parcels, and cleaning. I am pleased to say that our students were excellent ambassadors for the College and learnt about the importance of volunteering, as well as at the same time gaining some wonderful connections with students from Unity Grammar School.

Our students were also very fortunate to meet Rev Bill Crews, the founder of the Exodus Foundation. Rev Crews was the recipient of the 2015 NSW Human Rights Award which pays tribute to those who support the disadvantaged and marginalized and endeavor to make NSW a better community. We look forward to more opportunities with them in the future. For further information on the incredible work the Exodus Foundation does each and every day, please visit exodusfoundation.org.au/

I would like to thank Osman Karolia, Head of Community Engagement from Unity Grammar for helping provide this opportunity for our students.

 

Unity amongst a diverse people

By Morah Carolyn Steinman

 

In the lead up to Tisha B’Av, we need to reflect as a People and as a community what we are mourning with the loss of our Temple and the cause of that loss.

 

We teach our children that sinat chinam (baseless hatred) was the cause of the destruction of the Temple, symbolic of Jewish unity and connection to G-d,  during the time of the Romans in 70CE. What we often fail to teach is the admonition of the Gemara (Oral Law), that if we find ourselves living in a time when the Temple remains in ruins, we are equally responsible for the cause of its destruction. This is our reality; a fragmented world in which we have failed to repair the relationships that led to the loss of the Temple in the first place. 

 

Sinat chinam, baseless hatred is actually not baseless at all. There were many reasons that dislike of other views, ideas, beliefs or human qualities were actually justified during the time of the Temple, and we can argue even today.  But what made the hate baseless was that people actively looked for something to hate about the “other”. We as a people turned on one another rather than turning our attention to the enemy without seeking our destruction. So many times in our history we have destroyed ourselves from within. 

 

We are the only religious tradition to record our faults and wrong doings. The Tanach is filled with all the poor decisions we made, the unethical actions and immoral acts we performed. Why does the Tanach do this? Because we are constantly reminded that we are human, even the greatest among us: Moshe, Aaron, the prophets and kings fall prey to human frailty. However, Jews believe that we can always seek forgiveness, repair damaged relationships and heal our world. This is the secret to our survival. 

 

We need to use this time of mourning to self-reflect and seek ways we can communicate better, accept others different from ourselves and strive to strengthen our community of diverse Jewish identity. Together we are stronger, together we can focus on our Jewish survival and that of our children and stand united against those forces growing in the world that seek to assimilate us and question our right to sovereignty in our own land.

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