Israel’s 73rd birthday was celebrated with a difference at Hasmonean. After a heartfelt Hallel, HIPE and the Sixth Form turned the Hall into our own Machane Yehuda. There were food stands reminding us of our Israeli favourites: ice coffee, choco and orange juice from Café Aroma; croissants and muffins from Café Ne’eman; Catzefet cereal and whipped cream, pick and mix sweets and a watermelon stand.

Mizrachi came to provide a quiz and letter writing to Israeli soldiers. GIFT and Shalva also came in with activities and there was even an appearance from Na Na Nachman Ne’eman!

To keep everyone safe, the girls came into the decorated hall in year group bubbles during Thursday morning’s lessons.

After school, the Sixth Form celebrated with the traditional Israeli activity of a barbecue- on the hill rather than Tel Aviv beach!

While we all missed the dancing which is an integral part of our celebrations, the blue and white festivities certainly gave a feel of Israel to our corner of Mill Hill.

Well done to all our students who participated in the British Biology Olympiad.

Chayale R and Izzy A-P were awarded a gold and a highly commended respectively. The boys Nafatali U, Alon H, Yehoshua S and Noam E all did well with silver, highly commended and commended certificates.

The Olympiad is a competition which challenges and stimulates students with an interest in Biology to expand and extend their talents. They had to sit two 45-minute multiple-choice papers under supervised exam conditions, being presented with both familiar and unfamiliar topics. This demonstrated that they could adapt and apply their knowledge, show understanding of core principles and use problem-solving skills.

It is a nationwide event in which over 8000 students participate, so their achievement is quite remarkable.

On the evening of Monday 15^th March, the Music Department hosted a virtual concert with our talented girls. The concert opened with a serene performance simply called ‘Sarah’, followed by a spirited rendition of Mashiach!

There were two singers featured on the concert: one performed “This is Me” from the Greatest Showman and the other singer provided her own humorous lyrics to post-Covid based on Post Malone.

Five GCSE compositions were performed, ranging from piano solo pieces to full orchestral scores, with the standard being very high and offering a huge variety of styles and musical ideas. We were also taken on a virtual “holiday” after hearing a piano piece called Persian Holiday and then we “danced” to Disco Baroque and Twilight Tango, which was performed on the keyboard!

Many thanks go to our wonderful performers who did themselves proud, performing under such strange conditions. Thanks also go to Mr Michael Hattingh, for his coaching of so many of the students who performed, Mr M Tutty for his technical support and being the champion of Zoom, and to all those who supported the concert.