The Senior Maths Challenge results are back! Thank you to all who helped to organise this fabulous achievement.

Out of 39 students participating, 29 received a certificate including 5 gold certificates, 14 silver certificates and 10 bronze certificates.

Uriel S was the top student with a score of 112, which qualifies him to enter the British Mathematics Olympiad 1. This makes him one of the top 1000 students in the country.

Four others from the Further Y12 and 13 boys got gold certificates and qualified for the Senior Kangaroo Challenge. Three girls were awarded silver certificates.

On Armistice Day both Schools observed the two minute silence, many listening to the haunting sounds of ‘The Last Post’. On the following day, Sixth Form students led an assembly, reminding younger students of the need to remember that ‘for our tomorrows they gave their today.’ To add brightness to the memories, it was Wear-Red-to-School day at the Girls’ School and a non-school uniform day at the Boys’ School, with donations going to AJEX, the Poppy Appeal, and the NHS.

Mrs Abecasis organised two brilliant trips to the Holocaust Galleries at the Imperial War Museum. Hasmonean was invited as a pilot school for their new education programme. They will be using their feedback to run the same programme for other schools. The museum was really impressed with our students. In turn, our students found the visits very rewarding.

We must bear in mind that our students will be the lead Holocaust educators in the future.

We have had so some lovely feedback from our students:

‘I learnt a lot about many personal experiences of the holocaust in great detail which really resided with me as a great grandson of survivors. Also, the pictures and facts they had were unbelievable and really boosted my knowledge. Lastly the mix of technology and data moulded together worked perfectly to make it an easy, interesting and worthwhile experience.’
By Zacharia B.

‘The Imperial War Museum Holocaust exhibition taught me a lot about the experiences of the unfortunate people in the Holocaust. I learnt a lot about how terrible the conditions were for minority groups targeted by the Nazi’s and how and why these disastrous events took place and how they developed into the Holocaust over time. I think the exhibition successfully conveyed important information very well and in an engaging way.’
Year 11 student

‘Our class trip to the Imperial War Museum was an experience that edified and enlightened us. Although many of us knew the raw dry facts about the tragic events of the holocaust, we had never experienced these with the raw and vivid detail with which they were presented to us in the exhibit. The sepia footage and images documenting the lives of Jews living ordinary lives in Europe were tinged with a subtle retrospective sadness. This was the general tone of the exhibit: one of connection with a past that is often disregarded to instead focus on the atrocities perpetrated, rather than the individual victims involved.
Saadya L.

Our amazing Mrs Abecasis and Mrs Katz created a phenomenal cross-curricular programme of events for Black History Month (BHM). Staff from almost every part of the curriculum found a way to integrate the themes of BHM into their lessons.

In Art, the students explored the work of Yinka Shonibare MBE, who created ‘Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle’ for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. They looked at inspirational quotes from Black figures such as Shirley Chisholm, Michelle Obama and Martin Luther King.

Our Food Preparation and Nutrition department rose to the challenge of creating kosher-Covid compliant food tasting which was related to the African diaspora. This was certainly one of the most popular activities- thank you so much to Mrs Akintunde for bringing this all together.

Mrs Algranati had the students listening to Blues music, creating African drum rhythms, and absorbing the collaborations of Idan Raichel who has worked with Ethiopian Jews, Arabs, traditional Yemenite vocalists, a toaster and percussionist from Suriname, and a South African singer, among others.

In English, the students realised the danger of a single story. Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. In her TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk, novelist Chimamanda Adichie told the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding. They had to rewrite a story which had been studied in the past in relation to the African diaspora and try to write it from their point of view. There was a lot of lively discussion in the lessons about the ‘hidden’ Black icons of our time, and of the Jewish contribution to the Civil Rights movement in America and anti-apartheid in South Africa.

History, French, Maths, Economics, Science, Psychology, and Business Studies all had their part to play in creating awareness of the often hidden contribution of the Black community to every aspect of our lives.

The JS department began with a Dvar Torah on the origins of race after the fall of the Tower of Bavel. The students watched a YouTube clip about racism in modern Israel and examined the religious response to racism. Rabbi Lerer’s excellent speech about the recent protests in America was also used.
Naftali Aklum came to the school to speak about Ethiopian Jews, their culture, some of their struggles in Ethiopia and thereafter in Israel. He also spoke about the journey to Sudan, using the film “The Red Sea Diving Resort” where his own brother was the Mossad agent. He shared his own experiences and how he overcame any misconceptions and started to believe in himself and his abilities.

This month’s experiences have provoked discussion, raised awareness, and increased interest in Black History and the contribution of the Black community to every aspect of our lives.

The first match of the football season was played last week by a strong Year 8 team against Saracens High School in the U13’s Barnet Cup. Hasmonean were victorious with a 3-1 win.

This week, our school was represented by the Year 9 team for the U14 Barnet Cup vs Archer Academy, Finchley. Hasmonean were again triumphant with a 4-3 win! Well done to our footballers!