Editorial 26.05.2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

I would like to share with you two highlights of my week. The first was reading a letter from parents about the girls’ Poland trip that was sent to the trip leaders, Rebbetzin Taylor, Mrs Waugh, Miss Gelley, Miss Rabson and Rabbi Bennett:

We just wanted to express our profound gratitude for the most amazing trip you put together for the girls.
[Our daughter] came back on such a high! She spent hours on my bed that first night telling me all about this incredible trip and the multiple moments of inspiration, love and achdut that she experienced.
I have never seen her so uplifted and pray that she will carry these feelings and thoughts for a long time to come.
I must admit that none of my other girls who have been to Hasmo on this trip ever came back on such a high! Something very special occurred in those few days. I’m not sure if it’s the quality of the girls in this year and that friendship and achdut that unites them so much, or maybe it was the quality of the teachers who were part of this journey with them who they clearly adore and feel so close to and feel constantly supported and inspired…. Or maybe it was the quality of Michal the madricha who expertly tapped into their emotions, awareness and understanding. Or maybe it was the perfectly organised logistic of the trip with decent accommodation and delicious food always awaiting them. Or maybe it was a combination of all these things that enabled them to learn and absorb and be witnesses to our history and feel great emotions and yet rejoice and sing out of love for Hashem and pride of being alive and upholding their faith.
We thank you all for the efforts and care you obviously invested in making this trip so memorable and for inspiring our daughter on a daily basis. May Hashem bless you all with continued hazlacha and fulfillment in everything you do.

The second was seeing the highlights of the Boys’ Lag B’Omer trip: Lag B’Omer Video

These trips – as are all of the trips and broader enrichment activities that we offer – are a reminder that is so important to offer so much more than an academic education. As we look forward to the final half term of the year, my thanks go to our secular staff who have worked so hard to the ensure students gain the best possible GCSE, BTEC and A-Level grades, to our Kodesh staff and HIPE teams who equipping students with the skills, knowledge and inspiration to remain proud religious Jews, and to our broader pastoral teams who are helping students to navigate their way through adolescence in the increasingly complex modern world. Let us also not forget our non-teaching staff without whom our schools would cease to run with almost immediate effect. The two trips above rely on all of these groups to work together… and this really demonstrates the magic of Hasmonean.

Wishing everyone a good Shabbos and a peaceful half term holiday,

Mr Andrew McClusky
CEO, Hasmonean MAT

Dear Parents and Carers

We heard this week of the sad passing of Rabbi Pinchos Roberts ztl.

Aside from being an enormous talmid chochom and Rov in North West London for many decades, Rabbi Roberts was also an elector Rabbi of Hasmonean. We are enormously grateful for his dedication and sage advice over many years. Even after he retired to Manchester some years ago, he would regularly enquire about school matters and cared deeply about the chinuch of our children.

It is with much sadness that we mourn his passing and we wish his family much comfort. He will be sorely missed.

Rabbi J Golker
Menahel

Lag B’Omer

With bright sunshine and blue skies, Hasmonean set off on its Lag B’Omer adventures.

A plethora of coaches took the girls to Chessington where they had a wonderful day enjoying the rides and just being able to hang out and enjoy unstructured time together. They all received green wristbands with emergency number, HIPE Chessington stickers and ice pops as they boarded coaches. It was a day of sunny breezes with the Vampire ride as an absolute favourite.

The boys spent a day in the water with the Years 7 and 8 going to Fairlop Waters in Essex and our Years 9, 10 and 12’s going to The Wave, Coventry. The Year 7 and 8 boys came back from the trip and excitedly grabbed their burgers from the BBQ which was manned by Dovid Belovski from our HIPE team.

Thank you so much to HIPE for organising the day and to all the staff who ensured that every child had a safe and enjoyable time.

Editorial 19.05.2022

Dear Parent,

The first exam season for three years is successfully underway and we hope for a good outcome when the results are published. It seems from their general demeanour, that for most of our students, the arrival of exams has actually come as a relief. This is hardly surprising as we have a tendency to exaggerate the awfulness of an event which we are dreading. We play it through in our mind and imagine the worst so the reality is often a pleasant surprise. This tendency to catastrophise has been made much worse by the pandemic. This makes the celebration of festivals like Lag B’Omer all the more important. It was lovely to see boys and girls taking time out in the sunshine to relax and have a good time and focus on something other than academic work for a few hours.

Wishing you all a Good Shabbos.

Mrs K Brice
Headteacher
Hasmonean High School for Girls

Year 12 Early Entry Day – Girls’ School

On Friday 6th May, our Year 12 girls had a series of workshops dedicated to providing guidance and insight into Medical, Dentistry, Veterinary, and Oxbridge applications.

A massive thank you to Mrs Langdon for her session on how to navigate admissions exams. We also had external visitors who came to talk to the girls. Dr Bergin spoke to them about Dentistry. He had a fascinating insight into life as a dental student and offered valuable expertise on expectations and gaining work experience.

Our alumni, Tamar Neville, came to speak to them of her experience of applying for and doing a medical degree. The girls were able to relate to her experience of being a religious young woman in a competitive career and she patiently answered millions of questions.

Dr Caroline Dewhurst spoke to both Years 12 and 11 about life as a Vet and the girls found this both intriguing and informative. We were also happy to invite back Anna Hastoy from Oxford University to continue her support to our girls with her expertise and insight for both Oxford and Cambridge applications.

It was a really productive day with many of our girls coming out enthused and motivated to start their own journey.

Thank you to Mrs Valencia for organising this very motivating event.

Christchurch College Oxford

Several Year 12 girls attended an educational tour of Christchurch College Oxford on Tuesday 10th May to understand the application process, entry requirements, as well as the life of an undergraduate in one of the world’s top universities.

Girls from Year 12 with aspirations to study at Oxbridge were invited to attend the Oxford College tour following an earlier visit from Oxford outreach staff to Hasmonean the previous week. The tour started with an hour-long presentation covering topics such as university fees, college applications and interviews, Oxford clubs and societies as well as an outline of the popular college courses. Pupils were given some free gifts and souvenirs and after lunch had a lengthy Q&A session with current third year undergraduates where the topics of A-Levels, work-life balance and life as a Christchurch student attending tutorials and lectures was discussed.

The girls then had the opportunity to discuss Jewish Life at Oxford with some Jewish students currently studying at the college followed by a tour of the campus and quads including a visit to the Great Hall dining area and Tom Tower used as locations for the Harry Potter movies. The Year 12 girls were hopefully inspired by the visit and had a flavour of the unique life at Oxford.

Imperial War Museum Trip

Our Year 9 students spent a very enjoyable and interesting day last week at the Imperial War Museum (IWM). The whole year group was invited to attend, regardless of whether they are studying for GCSE History or not.

The IWM is a wonderful museum which really brings the experience of war to life. It is a place where students can explore the causes and consequences of conflict, not only with regard to governments, but also how the lives of ordinary people were affected.

One of the activities they took part in was ‘documentary challenge’, which involved filming their own mini documentaries in the First World War exhibition.

Thank you to Rabbi Gaffin, Mrs Joffe, Mrs Abecasis, Mr Neagus, and Mrs Rand for staffing this trip with Mrs Yaros.

2022 Young Social Enterprise Competition – Seed to Feed

Two Year 12 students at Hasmonean High School for Girls, Ariella Wolfson and Aliza Siepe, were the winners of the 2022 Young Social Enterprise Competition.

The Young Social Enterprise competition, which is run in conjunction with Tzedek and the Office of The Chief Rabbi, invites students in Years 10-13 to design a sustainable project in response to a case study. This year, the case study was showcasing the various challenges faced by individuals in the Mion District in Ghana.

Cost effectiveness, sustainability, viability, creativity, and research were the evaluation criteria throughout the competition and the groups received feedback from Tzedek. There were 3 rounds to the competition: the project proposal form, the creative submission and the final pitch, which was followed by a Q&A with a selection of expert judges.

Their project, called the Seed to Feed Foundation, consisted of two main parts. Firstly, an after-school agriculture club for school children to give them a kick start in their agricultural education which is the main source of income in the Mion District. The second part of their project was the creation of plantable seeded paper. This is made by taking paper based materials out of landfill, mixing them with water and seeds, which when dried, produces seeded paper. This could be used in the schools as a resource and then planted to produce nutritious crops for school lunches after its original purpose had been fulfilled.

The final pitch consisted of five groups and Aliza and Ariella did incredibly well to scoop first prize which is a trip to the United Nations in August.

We are very proud of their achievement.

 

Editorial 12.05.2022

Dear Parents,

This week’s parsha, Emor, teaches us that the holiness which we should aspire to reach is not a stable state of being: on the contrary, it is an elevated status that needs to be safeguarded and sanctified. We can only be holy as long as we behave accordingly. Hence, as long as the Kohanim maintain their holiness and they protect the mishkan, Bnei Yisrael stay holy. With the great power of being holy, comes the even greater responsibility not to defile the holiness.

This is a message that we reiterate to our students regularly: we each have the power to sanctify our time and space, every day and in every way. The day may be mundane, the daily grind of school may be difficult but we have the power to make our day and our experiences holy.

We were honoured to welcome an Israeli farmer to the Boys’ School this week who spoke to the students about keeping shemitah during this year: the boys thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the farmer’s ‘spiritual’ experiences.

Have a wonderful Shabbos.

Yours sincerely,

Mrs D Lebrett
Headteacher
Hasmonean High School for Girls

Yom HaZikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut at the Girls’ School

This is the day which Hashem has made the day when we can celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut in song and in dance at Hasmonean. To celebrate in a way which includes every student, different events were arranged. The hall was filled with students dressed in varying combinations of blue and white, with a backdrop of flags and balloons. For those who wished to praise Hashem in full voice, there was Tephilla with a rousing, heartfelt Hallel.

Following Tephilla, Rikki Shatzkes, on behalf of the Israel Society, gave a clear and brief speech about the establishment and history of the State. She also shared her personal reflections, including speaking about her brother who made Aliyah age 18 and joined the IDF.

Rabbi Schiff came in to speak about his own reflections on Yom Ha’Atzmaut, and clearly showed his excitement at being in Hasmonean at a time when we do celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut! He recalled his own swearing in ceremony at the Kotel, where another Hasmo Alumnus (now Lord Kestenbaum), said to him: ‘Why did Hashem say to Moshe go up the mountain and lift up your eyes?’ The answer: it is not easy to live in Israel, but this is where we are supposed to be. ‘Lift up your eyes’ and be thankful for all that Hashem has done. Tov le’Hodot L’Hashem. This is the essence of being a Jew- to always recognise the good.

And with that, each student wrote a note describing what she felt grateful to Israel for, tied it to a blue or white balloon and the whole school released those balloons into the sunshine.

Later on in the morning, there was a return to the hall for celebrating, dancing, eating watermelon, drinking ice coffee, face painting, and balloon art! Tov L’Hodot- it was truly wonderful to be able to celebrate the 74th birthday of our homeland in true Hasmonean style.

Thank you to HIPE, the madrichot who joined us, and to the one and only Kevin and site team.

Yom HaZikaron – Girls’ School

For Yom HaZikaron, Devorah and Avi Kay, parents of Eli who was murdered in Jerusalem in November 2021, came to speak to the Year 8 and 9 girls. Devorah and Avi shared lessons learned from Eli’s life, including the importance of personal integrity, Eli’s love of the Land of Israel, and his willingness to help those around him in need regardless of background or religion.

Devorah told the girls how she has been inspired by Eli about the importance of following one’s own sense of what is right and not worrying what others may think. She shared a story of how Eli paid for a stranger’s shoes when his credit card wasn’t working and how he would greet the market vendors in Machane Yehudah by name. Eli was an exceptional young man whose smile and warmth gave joy to everyone he met.

Avi spoke about the importance of choosing to respond to tragedy with strength. The students were given the opportunities to ask questions at the end of the talk.

Editorial 05.05.2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

Making Our Days Count

Chazal teach that the period of Sefiras Ha’Omer is meant to be one of introspection and growth.

I once heard an insightful question on the Omer from Rabbi Zev Leff shlita. Rabbi Leff noted that there seems to be a contradiction in the way we count. We count the days at the beginning of each day and the weeks at the end of each week. To be consistent we should either do both at the beginning or both at the end.

Rabbi Leff answered that the way we count teaches us a lesson of how to best use the Sefira. Often when we embark on a journey of teshuva or spiritual growth, we take too big a jump. Mechanchim in the kiruv yeshivos discourage rapid movement as it is difficult to maintain. It is far better to make small, concrete strides.

Our counting each day reflects this. We count at the beginning of each day to show that each day is a separate small unit. We want to improve but recognise that the best way to do so is in small strides.

However, in order not to become despondent by the seemingly small successes, it is important to sometimes take stock of our achievements. We therefore look back at the end of each week and assess our progress. That is why we count at the end of each week. Slowly, slowly, the small successes add up to something quite substantial.

Take Daf Yomi. Each day another page. But not before too long, many perokim and masechtos are covered.

The way we count, therefore, guides us as to how we should utilise the precious days of the Sefira. Counting at the beginning of each day reminds us to make small goals and counting at the end of each week encourages us to take stock and hopefully look back with pride at our achievements.

The summer term is a time for just this. We can take stock and pride in the accomplishments of the tumultuous two previous terms but plan to move forward with concrete, realistic and at the same time ambitious goals for the period ahead.

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi J Golker
Menahel