Dear Community,

When I was a student growing up in the 1980s we were often set research projects as major class assessment tasks. For instance, I remember projects on coffee, glow worms and on the Olympic Games. 

One that stands out is a project that I completed on the country of Costa Rica. We were given significant class time to work on it. These were the days before computers were on hand and so the research was manual and painstaking. 

In order to complete the project I would need to find material that helped answer questions on Costa Rica’s gross national product, main religious and language groupings, export industries and prime tourist locations and natural wonders.

To do this we would have time in the library where we would consult the right volume of World Book Encyclopedia or Encyclopedia Britannica. We would then transpose the relevant information into an exercise book. Then when the research phase was complete we would do drawings, cut out images from magazines and pamphlets, type (I recall using my mother’s fancy digital typewriter which could store a few paragraphs of text) or write neatly the relevant information on small pieces of paper. We would then compile all of this onto a large piece of coloured card paper.

I believe that our teachers valued these tasks as a way to enhance our literacy, presentation skills and research into global phenomena. 

A fundamental economic principle is that the value of a resource is proportionate to its scarcity. In the 1980s the access to the information required to answer these questions was limited to physical resources that were available in libraries.  

In 1998, the company Google was formed and this changed the value of information. Over the following 10 years,

Chayei Sarah

Candle lighting 7.51pm | Havdalah 8.54pm

Our parashah includes the mission of Avraham’s (Abraham’s) servant, Eliezer, who is given the job of finding a suitable wife for Yitzchak (Isaac). He travels to Avraham’s homeland and prays for a sign – that the woman who he will know to choose as a bride for Yitzchak will not only offer him water but will also offer to water his ten camels (Genesis 24:14).

Why determine that a seemingly impossible feat would be the sign?! How could Eliezer expect that anybody would offer to draw hundreds of litres of water for the camels of somebody she had just met? Surely, simply offering water to him – tired and weary from a long journey – could have served as a sufficient sign that the woman embraced hachnasat orchim (hospitality) and was pure of heart?! 

But Eliezer was searching for somebody of impeccable character, whose middot (personal characteristics) were above and beyond what might be expected. He was looking for somebody who would not simply go through the motions or “tick the box” but would go above and beyond any formal sense of obligation.

Rivkah (Rebecca) appears at the well and immediately offers him a drink, then declares “I will also draw for your camels, until they finish drinking” (Genesis 24:19). This is quite extraordinary! Her actions demonstrate extreme chesed (lovingkindness, generosity and compassion). Without even

After postponing the annual Prep to Year 5 Inter-house Athletics Carnival for a week due to poor weather, we ran a very successful carnival with our students enjoying the day. All students from Prep to Year 5 ran, jumped and threw themselves into a variety of events. Please click here for a selection of photos from the Carnival. There are more photos on the myKDS Photo Gallery.

Ultimately Galil won the trophy, making that four wins in five years.  An incredible achievement by the House!

Congratulations to all students who put on a great day of fair play, competition and fun.

FINAL SCORES: Galil 3047; Kinneret 2406; Arava 2387; and Negev 2351. 

Drew Solewicz, Sports Manager

Yesterday was  World Kindness Day, a day to promote and practise acts of kindness. In early childhood, kindness lays the foundation for essential life skills like sharing, helping, and building positive relationships. Not just yesterday, but throughout the year we have worked together to help children develop important social emotional skills such as empathy, cooperation, and understanding others’ feelings. 

We read the story “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” which helps teach us that everyone carries an invisible bucket that fills up when we are kind and empties when we are unkind. 

ogether, we spoke about all the different ways we can fill our buckets at kindergarten and at home ; by using kind words, helping a friend, inviting someone to play, and being kind to our teachers by listening and showing respect.

We also talked about being kind to our resources and materials by taking care of them and using them thoughtfully. The children shared examples of how they can help care for our classroom by packing away toys, putting lids on textas and treating books gently and not throwing or standing on them.

The children each decorated their own kindness bucket. Throughout the day, they add pom poms to their buckets whenever they show kindness, a visual way to recognise their kind acts.  

Some acts of kindness:

As part of our exploration of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, the Year 5 students recently visited Toolangi State Forest and the Black Saturday Lookout and Memorial in Kinglake. Please click here to see photos from the day. This excursion marked the culmination of our learning about the causes, impacts and recovery efforts following one of the most significant natural disasters in Victoria’s history.

At Toolangi, students explored the forest ecosystem and learned how the environment has regenerated since the fires. They observed new growth and discussed how both people and nature recover after such devastating events. At the Kinglake Memorial, students reflected quietly on the lives lost and the strength of the community that rebuilt in the years that followed.

The excursion was a powerful way to connect classroom learning with real-world experiences, deepening students’ understanding of resilience, recovery and the importance of caring for our environment.

Romy and Gideon, Year 5 Teachers

The Year 4s had a unique opportunity to consolidate their own understanding of narrative structure by teaching it. They skillfully applied their more advanced literacy and revision skills to support their younger partners throughout the process. They helped the Preps plan, guiding them to select characters, settings, and central problems for their stories. Using the Story Map to lay out the sequence of events logically, they assisted with ideas and typing up the final narrative.

This process was instrumental in cultivating the Year 4s' leadership qualities while also nurturing the Preps' creativity and confidence in building a story from scratch.

It has been inspiring to watch the older students model positive leadership and revision skills, resulting in a stack of imaginative and well-planned stories from our youngest learners. We look forward to seeing the narratives they continue to develop together!

Rebecca Fiala, Alexa Shepherd, Awatif Davies and Emma Furman, Prep and Year 4 Teachers

On Wednesday, Headspace came to KDS to create a lunchtime Artspace for students to paint, make jewellery, and engage in mindful crafts together. This initiative was launched as part of Mental Health Awareness month in October, but due to popular demand will be a regular monthly activity offered to students at the Magid Campus. 

Chanie Stock, Wellbeing Program Coordinator

GiST Lunchtime Club offers a special opportunity for girls in Years 2 and 3 to engage with STEM learning. Through real-world projects and connections with female STEM professionals, the club aims to:

Build confidence and self-belief in STEM; Spark curiosity and sustained interest in STEM fields; Foster a growth mindset; Strengthen positive perceptions of women in STEM.

This term, our ‘hands-on’ and ‘minds-on’ investigations have focused on the theme of expanding and shrinking. Our young scientists have explored reactions and processes by making puffy paint, creating a model of a saturated cloud and observing changing gummy bears.

The young scientists provided the following observations and explanations:

"Squirting shaving cream releases gas so it expands. The foam is saturated with food colouring and releases the food colouring that is like the rain. Our model was successful." - Cressida Cooney

"The gummy bear soaked in tap water expanded and the gummy bear soaked in saltwater expanded. The salt water pulls out the moisture in a process called osmosis." - Dari Presser

Please see

Our Year 5 students had a fantastic time on their second transition day to the Middle School! The day was filled with excitement, curiosity, and hands-on learning as they explored what awaits them next year.

Students began the day hearing from our current Year 6s, who shared their own experiences, insights, and tips about life in Middle School. This was a wonderful opportunity for the Year 5s to ask questions and gain a clearer picture of what to expect.

They then rotated through a range of engaging taster sessions, giving them a glimpse into the diverse subjects and opportunities available. In Intro to PBL with Adi Z, students worked collaboratively to build the tallest tower strong enough to support a mug using only paper and paperclips — a true test of teamwork and creativity! In the Tech Space with Heath M, they explored circuits and created light-up cards, while in Intro to Science with Nilusha G, they experimented in the lab with soda, turmeric, and paper to uncover fascinating reactions. The fun continued with the JEE team, where students enjoyed discovering Jewish concepts through an energetic game of “Bingo Bang.”

Lunchtime brought even more excitement, as Year 10 students hosted a basketball game and a creative craft session, 

This week four King David School students were honoured to receive the Greg Sher Memorial Award in a special ceremony facilitated by the Community Security Group (CSG). The awards were presented by CSG CEO Justin Kagan who served alongside Private Greg Sher. 

Greg Sher was a much loved soldier and CSG volunteer who contributed greatly to his community. 

The Greg Sher Memorial Award is presented to two Year 5 students and two Year 11 students who have undertaken voluntary service to the community and/or the school.

Awarded students are contributing by doing outstanding service in the community or at their school, or by displaying ‘mensch’ qualities.

This year’s KDS award recipients were Year 5 students Edie Smith and Zach Sutton and Year 11 students Sam Lazarow and Leo Aarons.

Mazal tov to Edie, Zach, Sam and Leo who show us what it is to be menshes.

This week, we welcomed Psychologist Dani Kaufman for a ‘Parent Information Evening’ about understanding and supporting children’s emotional and behavioural development. Dani shared valuable insights into how young children learn to manage emotions, behaviour, and social interactions, and how parents can guide them through this stage.

Dani explained that emotional regulation is a child’s ability to manage and respond to feelings in a healthy way. This develops through self-regulation (children learning to manage their own emotions and actions) and co-regulation (adults helping children to calm and organise their feelings).

She reminded us that challenging behaviours such as tantrums or testing limits are a normal part of this learning process. She encouraged parents to recognise when a child is dysregulated (overwhelmed and needing calm support) versus when they are asserting independence (testing limits to learn autonomy).

Dani suggested to use the ABC model: Antecedent (what happened before), Behaviour (what the child did), Consequence (what happened after. Dani also shared strategies to build children’s frustration tolerance, connect through empathy, and support emotional growth by naming feelings and modelling calm reactions.

Final key takeaway:

Year 8 students Jeff Li and Andy Jiang have both attained an excellent achievement in the Australian Mathematics Competition held in August. Each of them has been awarded the highest level of a Prize, placing them in the top 0.33% of all competitors.

Jeff also achieved Best in School for the King David School, meaning his score was the highest across all year levels 7-12.

To recognise Jeff's dual achievement, the competition organisers presented him with a special certificate at the Victorian Awards Ceremony on Monday evening.

Both Jeff and Andy can be extremely proud of the badges they received to commemorate their performances - although small tokens they represent an achievement placing them amongst the best school mathematicians across the whole of Australia.

Mark Langan, Mathematics Learning Area Leader 6-12

On Tuesday evening, the Year 11 VCE Theatre Studies students (Sophia Barolsky, Mia Guberman, Reuben Goldfarb, Giorga Sack, Emily Umansky and Ella Weinstein) presented their Monologue Showcase to a capacity audience in the MPR. 

These works highlighted their understanding of theatre styles from the pre-modern era and showcased the students' wonderful acting and performance skills. 

Eli Erez, Head Of Performing Arts

As part of the $20 Boss Entrepreneurship program, a group of Year 10 students organised a delicious stall on Tuesday, selling ice cream and cookies to Magid Campus students. The $20 Boss program was created by Young Change Agents to support young people to create a product or service using $20 and is supported by Senior School Teacher, Matthew Schumann.

Since first launching in 2015, the $20 Boss program has positively influenced thousands of young people and has equipped them with the skills, tools, and mindset necessary to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

Please join Kedem for their study session with Ilan Bloch, our Director of Jewish Life and Learning. Sunday 30 November at 10.30am. A light lunch will be provided. Please register with Rosi: rosi.kedem@outlook.com. 

Netzer have events throughout November, including Sunday Funday for Years 2-7, and Mitzvah Day activities. Please see https://www.netzer.org.au/melbourne for more information.

Please join us for the last Storytime with Savta for the year, on Sunday 30 November at 10.30am. This KDS program is for all families with 3 to 5 year olds, whether from a Hebrew-speaking background or not, whether KDS students or not yet enrolled in the school. It includes reading stories, playing games, dancing and doing arts and crafts activities in Hebrew (with some English for those who need).
This will be our 10th session, and we will be celebrating the joy of reading Hebrew together. Please register here to attend.  

The Leo Baeck Centre for Progressive Judaism (LBC) in Kew East is seeking a warm, organised Office Administrator to support our small team. Working on site at least 3 days/week (16 hours per week), you’ll help with day-to-day social media, basic website updates, member queries and records, prep for Shabbat and festivals, and general office tasks (calendars, supplies, mail). 
For further details please email deborah@lbc.org.au with subject line “Office Administrator”.

In conjunction with Mitzvah Day International, we have organised a range of activities aimed at making a positive impact and benefiting the wider community. We welcome you to join us this year to build bridges between communities, for the future and with charities that need our help.
Sunday 23 November: 9am-1pm
We have a handful of activities planned specifically for children, including:
Baking Cookies for the Homeless
Packing stationery backpacks for Refugee Children
Plus, a number of other mitzvot to get involved with and a mini fete with proceeds going to good causes! See you there.
Please register here.

Please join us for our Junior School Creative Arts Expo on Thursday 27 November in the Sports Hall at the Dandenong Road Campus. The Art Gallery will open at 3.35pm, with musical performances at 4pm. We look forward to celebrating our students' creativity with you!