Educational and Financial Report - Masada College

Reporting Area 2: Value addedAdditional Teaching and Learning Opportunities♦ Starting the year with a Leader in Me day where students reflected on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and started with the End in Mind, goalsetting for Semester 1♦ In a variety of external competitions, including ICAS assessment, Australian Mathematics Competition our students gained Distinctions and HighDistinctions♦ Our Years 5 /6, 7/8, 9/10 all participated in the Da Vinci Decathlon♦ Masada Year 10 students enjoyed a visit from the Arava students from Israel and one of our teachers, Adi Halevi, spent a month in Arava, Israel.This exposed our students directly to the culture and language of Israel♦ We introduced a Masada Creative Writing Competition which all of our Year 7—10 students entered♦ For the first time Masada College participated in the HICES Music Festival♦ All the Senior School Students and staff enjoyed a visit and a very informative Assembly with Dr Karl♦ A Science Club was established for interested students in the senior school to provide opportunities for hands on experiments after school♦ A Scholars Club was established for Year 12 students to provide them additional essay writing support♦ Junior School students successfully entered Tournament of the Minds♦ Special days to promote curriculum areas and allow students to have uninterrupted time to develop skills and ideas relating to subject areas. OurCreative Arts Camp, Jewish Studies Camps, Mathematics Day (Year 7 & 8), Hebrew Days and Mandarin Day were very successful, as was ourMedieval Day for our Year 7 / 8 History students♦ Mrs Jill Rennie, was recognised by the Australian College of Educators for her outstanding contribution to education in Food Technology andHospitalityExposure to Values Education♦ There was a continuation of our programs which included opportunities for our students to be involved in and or exposed to Interfaith, Indigenous,Environmental, Inter-Generational and Special Needs projects♦ Our well supported Charity Committee was not only involved in fund raising but in a program of deeds to support the needy in our community, theNorth Shore Chesed program. This involves regular cooking and distribution of meals, as well as a variety of other services♦ There was a whole College directed focus on Values—most notably valuing the need to do your best at all times which culminated in an assembly forour 7 Habits afternoon♦ Our continued development in the Leader in Me Program provided staff and students with a framework and language for “effectiveness” andleadership♦ An exchange program between Masada College and Donna Klein Jewish Academy, Florida was launched with two students joining us in June andthree of our students visiting the USA in December / January♦ Masada College hosted the United Nations Peace Day Ceremony in collaboration with Biannca Pace from the Ministry for Peace♦ Masada students featured at the Martin Place Peace Day celebrations♦ Lauren Satill, Year 11 was chosen to be part of the United Nations Pacific Program in East Timor♦ Stephanie Zwi, Year 11 was the only Australian selected by the British Council to represent Australia in London at the Youth Forum♦ Our weekly assembly message and fortnightly newsletter message from the Rabbi focuses on values♦ Participated in Voices for Reconciliation, an indigenous initiative by Ku-ring-gai Council8