Educational and Financial Report - Masada College

Reporting Area 1 cont: A message from key school bodiesCollege Principal / Head of Senior SchoolToday’s the day, YOU lead the way echoes so well Masada’s Leader in Me philosophy. Each child has and can recognise their own, unique strength and ithas given us great pleasure over the course of 2011 to see our students lead in such diverse ways.As always we had our recognised leaders, prefects, madrichim, house captains, peer support, SRC representatives and the list goes on. We had ourcommunity recognised leaders including our school captain Danielle Sussman who won the Zonta award, Stephanie Zwi, Yr 11, who was chosen as anAustralian representative by the British Council for the Global Changes Award, Lauren Satill, Yr 11, who was awarded a place on the United Nations YouthAssociation Pacific Project and our six Yr12 students who achieved gold in their Duke of Edinburgh.And then we had all those students, from Preschool to Yr12, who through their proactive approach to their Judaism, friendship, charity, kindness, musical,sporting, public speaking, debating, social justice, dancing or organisational skills, have found the leader in themselves and in doing so enriched not onlytheir own lives but the soul of Masada College.Masada College in 2011, introduced The Leader in Me exchange program with Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton, Florida. Emma and Shir joinedus in July and we have three students eagerly anticipating their stay in Boca in January 2012.Another highlight of 2011 was Masada hosting the 30 th United Nations Peace Day celebrations, with special guest speaker the Honourable Nathan Rees,and representatives from 10 schools partaking in this special ceremony.An invitation from Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem, to Masada students for the opening of the final miniature model to be included inCockington Green, Canberra, Mt Masada, was a day all present will always remember.Masada College itself has continued to lead the way educationally, through our Leading Learning educational package. We continue to lead other schools ina Culture of Thinking, having established and pioneered a Collaborative CoT Group, which now has over twelve school members. Plans are already in placefor our second Culture of Thinking Conference in February 2012.We continue to lead the way with our introduction of The Leader in Me into a preschool to Yr 12 context and hope in 2012 to move closer to becoming aCovey Lighthouse School, recognised internationally as leading the way in this approach.Our continual success in providing more opportunities for our students both in and out of the classroom only comes through the synergy that exists atMasada. Thank you to our College executive who have embraced our Leading Learning educational package and continually strive to enhance it, ourteaching staff for their dedication and enthusiasm in implementing it and our administrative and maintenance teams who are the strength behind the scenes.A great vote of appreciation is extended to our generous sponsor, Mrs Millie Phillips, whose enthusiasm and support has provided staff at the Senior Schoolthe opportunity to follow on from the Junior School with The Leader in Me training. Behind all that we do is Masada College’s Board of Management, so ablyled by Mr Trevor Lorge, providing us with endless support and encouragement, continuing to inspire and guide us as we move from strength to strength,confident in the knowledge that Today is the day, WE lead the way.Wendy BarelCollege Principal, Head of Senior School5