Dear Community,

This week Victoria experienced the extremities of weather patterns that are fast becoming the new normal. As I read of the start to one of the earliest bushfire seasons in memory followed immediately by dangerous flooding, I was reminded of the meme which is an image of a behatted dog sitting at a table with a cup of tea inside a house that is on fire. A speech bubble states “This is fine.”  

How else can we respond to the progressively worsening news regarding the immediate and future impacts of climate change? As we hear of record after record being surpassed - most recently, Victoria’s driest ever September - many of us can feel that the only way to confront such news is to ignore it and to carry on as if everything is fine.

However, the alternatives available to us are not limited to ignoring reality or despairing in hopelessness. I take inspiration from our student leaders that confront the future with bravery and op

It was a joyous day today in Gan Zayit (Junior Kinder) as children learned the meaning of Simchat Torah, examined a mini Torah scroll and proudly waved their handmade flags. Chag Sameach!

Regen Week comes back with a bang for its second year with creative and fun activities to raise awareness and celebrate sustainability, all led by a passionate group of Year 11 students. Regen Week is one full week of exciting and relevant activities to show how we can make small adjustments in our lives or how we can affect the culture around us to try to combat climate change. 

We started the week with a Kesher launch, in which the activities and events were outlined, with a reminder that there will be a fun quiz to be done every morning this week!! Monday lunchtime we had our very first activity which was a Judaism and nature collaboration which manifested into decorating in our in school Sukkah. This was an opportunity for the students to meet and interact with the new 5784 Hanhagah and make beautiful paper chains. There was also a free lemon cordial!

 

Giorga Sack, who starred as Elsa in our Frozen Jr production last term, was recently accepted into the highly prestigious Melbourne Theatre Company Youth Scholarship Course. Giorga spent a week over the school holidays at the Southbank Theatre, working with 25 other talented students from across Victoria, to extend and develop her dramatic skills.

Below is a short Q&A with Giorga regarding her experiences:

Q - What sorts of workshops and activities did you experience during your time at the MTC Scholarship program 

A - I was so fortunate to work with a bunch of amazing actors, dancers, directors and costume designers! We worked on techniques on how to really capture the essence we wanted to produce on stage; walking around the room, given an instruction and portray the instruction with our bodies and speed. We also did a speaking workshop where we attempted to read/act a script of dialogue using different parts of our mouth to rea