Principal Marc Light is currently on sabbatical. Here is an Insights column published early in 2020 which remains timely:

Dear Community,

In one of my favourite scenes from the classic ’90s movie Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Bill and Ted are placed in an uncomfortable position when asked to offer some words of wisdom to their adoring followers. The advice they come up with is indeed sage, they say – “Be excellent to each other!”

Following recent prominent stories in the media, it seems increasingly apparent that our society needs the wisdom of Bill and Ted. In the past week we have seen the murderous scourge of domestic violence and partner abuse once again as front-page news and we have seen the bullying of a young indigenous boy entering social media feeds.

The responses to these have shown both the best and the worst of humanity. 

This week our school community was very fortunate to hear from Asha and Tanya Mendel as part of our Parent Education series. They very bravely shared their experience of Asha's eating disorder. They talked us through the onset of the illness, the daily experience, the assistance they received, and the impact on family and friends. They also spoke about the warning signs and highlighted that parents should watch out for gastric issues, mood changes and social withdrawal. It was an extraordinarily personal evening which was highly emotional and it was incredibly generous of the Mendel family to open up to the King David community.

David Opat

Vice-Principal Wellbeing and Head of Junior School

Our Year 11 and 12 students were afforded the opportunity to hear from former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at a combined event for Melbourne's Jewish schools. Mr Bennett spoke to the students of his varied life, growing up in Haifa to parents who had made aliyah from the United States, his distinguished service in the Israeli Defence Forces, his failures and then huge success in developing a 'start up', followed by his decision to enter into Israeli politics, rising from Binyamin Netanyahu's Chief of Staff to being the Prime Minister himself. He shared the difficult decision to be part of the broadest coalition government Israel has seen, consisting of religious parties, left and right wing, as well as, for the first time, an Arab party. Following his talk, Mr Bennett invited questions from the audience, and then an IDF musical ensemble entertained students. Student leaders from the four participating schools all played a role in the<