30 March 2017/3 Nissan 5777

Term 1 Week 9

Shabbat Commences 5.57pm/Shabbat Terminates 6.50pm

From the Principal

Talent is Overrated

On Wednesday, our High School students (and lucky Year 6s) had the opportunity to hear from Mr. Michael Klinger; parent of Carmel, community member and first class cricketer. Michael spoke fondly and proudly of his Jewish education and of the importance of being part of the Jewish community. And I think that from a parent of Carmel, who graduated from Mount Scopus College that message was appreciated and expected.

But the ever humble Michael Klinger also gave our students the message of the importance of hard work. He acknowledged that his success is due to countless hours of slog and targeted practice. And when asked about the success of the Perth Scorchers, Michael said it was because they ‘train harder than any other team. Other teams get long breaks between matches, Scorchers get back to training straight away’. Michael’s message was one of persistence, grit. And while our kids know that they need to work hard to succeed in academics, sometimes one can be lulled into thinking that for the world of sports or music, innate talent is the key driver to achievement. But in all aspects of life, it takes great tenacity to rise to the top. Geoff Colvin (Fortune Magazine) puts the number at 10,000 hours. 10,000 hours of targeted, deliberate practice is what it takes to be really good at something.

Not that our students would ever be envious (as Oliver Stone says, never underestimate the power of envy to destroy), but what should be ‘envied’, or rather emulated, is a person’s capacity to work hard, to be persistent in the face of adversity and to keep working towards their ultimate goal. Michael’s remarkable cricketing success is a case in point.

We thank Michael for giving of his time to our staff and students and for the signed Guernsey that will be framed and displayed for all to admire.

Shabbat Shalom

Shula

Thank you to Mr Hall who organized for Michael Klinger to address the school

High School News

Year 11 and 12 Judaica Conference

We had heard good things about the Judaica Conference from previous years, but entering the Jewish Centre last Thursday morning, none of the Year 11s were completely sure what to expect. Fortunately for us, the amazing teachers, staff members and guest speakers had prepared an incredible two days ahead. Throughout the conference, the Year 11s and 12s attended a wide variety of different talks from staff members, interstate and international guests, Carmel graduates and other members of our community. These interesting and educational talks gave us new perspectives on many aspects of both our religious and secular lives, and the panel discussions allowed us to explore complex questions we had about Judaism. Community service also really allowed us to actively participate in the community. On Thursday after school, half of us went to the Maurice Zefferet home and the rest of us went to assist at the Menora Charity Fund. At the Maurice Zefferet home we enjoyed interactions with residents. The conversations between the students and the residents were truly special and it was a highlight for all of us. At the Menora Charity Fund we sorted through and prepared items for the past Sunday swapmeet. It was enjoyable working together for a greater cause knowing that we were helping the less fortunate in the community. Now many of us would love to go back and help more! The dinners were nothing short of spectacular. On Thursday night, we were joined by OKC’s and various Bnei and Habonim madrichim. We also had a demonstration from CSG on different techniques in self defence as well as a very insightful question and answer panel. On the Friday night, we were joined by our families in celebrating Shabbat with a beautiful dinner.

We would like to say a special thank you to all of the speakers and organisers for giving us the opportunity to attend such a wonderful and informative two days, and we are looking forward to next year’s Judaica Conference!

By Ruth Karotkin, Judd Behr and Claudia Galanti

More from the Year 11 and 12 Judaica Conference

This past Thursday and Friday, the Year 11's and 12's of Carmel School spent the day listening and engaging in an array of lectures and keynotes provided by guest speakers and members of the community at the Judaica conference. The talks were very informative and interesting topics which provoked thoughtful and insightful discussion among the students. Guest speakers Debbie Stone, Alon Shalev and Rav Noam Sendler came from overseas and interstate, really adding to the experience for the students as they provided a new look on many topics such as prayer and the ten commandments. The week ended with a lovely Shabbat dinner for all the family of the students, allowing everyone to enjoy the shabbat spirit together and talk about the topics spoken of at the conference. The weekend was very well organised thanks to the amazing teachers and speakers, as well as Mrs Niss who organised the delicious food provided for the students throughout the day.

By Gila Cherny

Year 11 and 12 Judaica Conference 2017

Michael 'Maxi' Klinger Visits Carmel

This week, students from Yr 6-12, had the opportunity to listen an elite Australian cricketer, an inspirational leader and an incredibly insightful man in Michael Klinger. Michael captained the Perth Scorchers BBL Championship Franchise this season. His personal performances with the bat were outstanding and he was 'finally' - after nearly 17 years of persistence in playing 1st class cricket around the world - rewarded by being selected to represent Australia in T20 Cricket. Incidentally he vindicated this selection with a number of strong performances with the bat for Australia.

Michael spoke with the students about leadership, resilience and preparation as being the cornerstones to his success. He balances life off the field with university studies, having attained two degrees whilst playing cricket. Add to this a thriving young family with children attending Carmel School's ELC, and you have a brilliant role model for young Jewish men and women in our community.

We take this opportunity to thank Michael for his generosity in making the time to share his life experiences with us. We also encourage parents to engage your children in a discussion about the messages Michael delivered and how concepts of leadership, resilience, preparation, care and compassion can incorporate these into their lives.

Mr Chris Hall - Dean of Students.

Year 10 Science and Engineering Challenge - Carmel takes 3rd place

On Monday all the Year 10 Students competed in the Science and Engineering Challenge run by the University of NSW and Midland Rotary. There were six other schools present and 40 schools competing in the week.

On the day the students performed exceptionally and we were the best school coming into the bridge building which was the last event. Unfortunately, there were a couple of schools who built some fantastic bridges which knocked us down to 3rd place.

The big learning experiences from this was really for the students to work as a team and solve difficult puzzles and challenges, both mentally and using their design and building skills.

Now that we have entered this year we know what to expect for future competitions and be better prepared.

Year 10 Science and Engineering Challenge

Year 7 Barmitzvah Programme

This year we have embarked on a new and revised Barmitzvah program. Not only has the group been learning about the fundamental principles of becoming Barmitzvah and their spiritual significance, but more importantly they have been engaged and enjoying the process.

As part of the program, two weeks were devoted to Tefillin. The boys learnt about the various Halachot associated with this Mitzvah, including the meaning and significance behind it.

We have also re-introduced a beautiful custom here at Carmel where Barmitzvah boys are called up to the Torah in the week leading up to their big day.

It was a great privilege to celebrate the first of 2017 with Daniel Katz and his family this week.

Classmates enjoyed the singing and dancing and of course the cake and refreshments after the service. Wishing Daniel and his family a huge Mazel-Tov and an abundance of blessings!

Gilad Lavi & Arik Singer

Examining the inside of Tefillin and learning the main Halachot of putting on Tefillin

CAT Competition

Last week, Rafael Cowan, Santino Febbo, Drew Bernstein, Ben Masel, Adam Arenson, David Levy and David Golding from Years 6 to 9 took part a one hour problem-solving activity called the Computational and Algorithmic Thinking Competition (CAT Comp). They have spent the last 7 weeks training once a week after school on a variety of logic and Maths problems, ably assisted by Mr. George who enjoys solving the problems just as much as the students. Last year we had some fantastic results and I’m sure we can expect the same this year.

The next step is to start preparing for the Informatics Olympiad and learning to code the problems and have a computer solve them. While this might sound easy it is actually far more challenging as it requires true understanding of the problem in order to instruct the computer accurately.

Year 6-9 CAT Competition

Advanced Hebrew Camp

Recently the Hebrew students of Year 11 and 12 (and the visiting year 10’s) arrived back from a sensational Hebrew camp run by the amazing Hebrew staff. As soon we arrived at the camp we presented prewritten speeches to the rest of the students in which a dilemma had to be faced. The conversations that flowed from these discussions improved our Hebrew greatly as they helped our understanding of words associated with major Jewish topics connected to Jerusalem. We then went straight to a series of activities that the Tzevet had organized. One activity was a room escape with challenging puzzles and the other was an activity on conversational Hebrew slang. Both encouraged teamwork to compete as well as a good understanding of Hebrew. The slang activity in particular benefitted us as it gave us a better understanding of colloquial speech rather than higher order talk. Gilad and Ester then came to speak to us about their time in Achuzat Sarah, a place for children at risk. They served as leaders before getting married. After they remained there and lived with the kids, in what is called a Mishpachton. It was a very inspiring talk about giving back to people less fortunate and our collective duty towards the greater good. Bnei Akiva (Hillel and Eden) ran a fun activity in which we were given an English song to translate . After we translated it, we were given time to practice and perform the songs in our Hebrew version. This was a fun and engaging way to improve our Hebrew and incorporate it into songs that we recognized. After, this, our wonderful Shlichah, Ester, delivered a heart-warming speech about her childhood and the challenges that she encountered whilst growing up. The speech was incredibly inspiring and gave us a chance to talk about what she had said after, which helped to develop our ability to speak conversational Hebrew. Dinner was next as the Year 12s started cooking the chicken and meat and the year 10s set up the tables. This particular time of the day was extremely vibrant as everyone was in a good mood, dancing and listening to Hebrew music. Dinner was delicious and it provided all of us another great opportunity to practice our conversational Hebrew. After the food we went to the common room and relaxed in front of a movie. The movie was called “Someone to run with” and it featured a troubled teen on the run from vicious drug dealers and a boy trying to find and help her. The movie evoked strong feelings within all of us as it encouraged us to reflect on what a privileged life we lead.

We woke up the next morning and had an awesome activity by the Tzevet which was named ‘survivor’. During this activity, we received our incredible shirts which we all greatly appreciated. The whole competition was done in Hebrew which allowed us to engage in more conversational and casual Hebrew. Afterwards, we were very fortunate to have Mr Lawrence come and speak to us about his personal connection with Jerusalem. He told us about his gap year in Israel as well as the time he made Aliyah. This talk was inspiring and we all enjoyed it. His stories evoked a response of awe and anticipation among us for when we journey to Israel at some point in our lives. Afterwards, we were lucky enough to go horse riding. It was a great experience as we all went through the panic and nervousness at the beginning together but thankfully managed to overcome this in the end. This experience contributed to us facing our fears but also building our Hebrew knowledge and vocabulary in a fun and enjoyable environment. We would all like to thank the amazing people who devoted much of their personal time to the organisation of this camp. Thank you to Gilad and Ester for all of their efforts , to the Tzevet for organising such interactive, enjoyable activities, to Bnei (Hillel and Eden) for their wonderful activity, to Mrs Niss who helped organise the camp, to Morah Leanne for her help with the amazing T-shirts, to Mr Lawrence for his stimulating talk, to Neil for being such a reliable driver and last but definitely not least we would like to thank Morah Gundes-Hunt for organising and creating such an amazing camp that we, the students, very much enjoyed.

Written by the Year 11 Hebrew students: Dean, Liron, Sharon and Yannai

Year 11 and 12 Advanced Hebrew Camp

Rav Riskin visits Carmel School

Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Riskin, founding Rabbi of Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York City and founding Chief Rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the west bank, joined us in the high school last Wednesday to share with us some words of wisdom. Rabbi Riskin comes from a well-developed Jewish background and personally learnt under Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, or "The Rav", as he was commonly known. It was an absolute honour to have him speak of some of his life experiences that changed lives and shaped the future for what is now the thriving Jewish city of Efrat. Rabbi Riskin delivered a captivating speech about how he found his belief in God and of how he had established the vibrant city of Efrat in Israel. Efrat is now a major city in Israel with over 9000 residents. It was truly inspiring to hear the rabbi speak of moving his entire community to Israel and to start a city out of rocks and rubble. We were honoured and privileged to have Rabbi Riskin visit Carmel School. He is a true leader and role model for our people.

By Samuel Majzner and Avi Margolis

Year 7 Science visit Mundaring Weir

On Thursday 23rd of March the Year 7 group along with Mr Quelch and Mr Hall travelled out to Mundaring Weir to learn more about the significance of storing, purifying and transporting water in Western Australia in the early 1900’s. They had been learning of the importance water played in society not only as drinking water in HASS and how they can purify mixtures to become safe for drinking in Science. The students enjoyed climbing up and along the dam wall and exploring the pipeline that transports much needed water out to the Goldfields.

Mundaring Weir

News from the English Department

Success for our Debaters in Round One

Well done to Carmel School Debaters who have had a fantastic start to the 2017 Debating Season. Our debaters put in an impressive performance, winning three of our four debates!

The evening began with strong performances from our Novice Teams, Carmel 1, 2 and 3, debating the topic, “That we should ban computers in high schools.” Carmel 2 (Dana Lazar, Chaya Benjamin and Aviya Solomon) won their debate against Perth College 4 with confidence and style. Carmel 3 (Noa Jackson, Clara Febbo and Jacob Parry,) also won their debate against St George’s Anglican Grammar School 1 with consistently strong performances by all three team members. Carmel 1 (Shoshana Benjamin, Rebecca Schwarz and Arielle Meekan) put in a notable performance against Perth Modern 5, but, sadly were defeated. All three teams made interesting arguments to the affirmative.

Lastly, our Junior Team (Drew Bernstein, Santino Febbo and Hannah Rudman), debated Perth College on the topic, “That organ donation should be compulsory.” Both teams debated the topic with insight and were quick with their rebuttals. It was a nail-biting close debate and Carmel School prevailed. The Adjudicator put their win down to their presentation of an alternative model to the one presented by the Affirmative.

Once again, well done to all our debaters! Lastly, thank you to the parents and non-debating team members, Alon Tucker and Shira Resnick, who came along to support their teams. Round Two debates will occur on Wednesday the 5th April.

Carmel's Novice Debators

High School Sport News

Yr 7/8 Volleyball Champions

Congratulations to the champion volleyballers who defeated Mercy College 3 sets to 1 in this week's ACC final. The students played exceptionally well, winning a number of long rallies with both skill and teamwork. Most importantly the enjoyment and enthusiasm of the team was clearly evident to Mr Quelch and Mr Hall who watched the match unfold. Well done team!

The winning Volleyball team

Primary News

Kindy and Prep News

The Kindy and Prep children have been exploring with 'loose parts' in their outdoor area.

'Loose parts means alluring, beautiful found objects and materials that children can move, manipulate, control and change while they play. (Oxfordshire Play Association, 2014) Loose parts inspire play. Children can carry, combine, redesign, line up, take apart and put loose parts back together in almost endless ways. This invites conversations and interactions which encourages collaboration.

Kindy and Prep children explore outdoors

News from the Primary Library

Thank you Jackson of Year 3.2 for your donation of two exciting titles from your home library.

Pesach Drive

Please send in a kosher le Pesach food item to place in the boxes outside reception for our Food Drive for Menorah Charity fund. All help is much appreciated!

Uniform Shop News

A reminder that students return in Winter uniform. All boys socks are now $5.00

Please follow Carmel School on Facebook

Report Abuse

If you feel that this video content violates the Adobe Terms of Use, you may report this content by filling out this quick form.

To report a Copyright Violation, please follow Section 17 in the Terms of Use.