Editorial 23.06.2022

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Dear Parents

There was much jubilation amongst Year 11 students as, for everyone except those taking Modern Hebrew, their GCSE exams finished today. One girl pointed out that they have done 23 exams and it has definitely been a marathon. However, it is a process that we are all profoundly grateful could happen this year without disruption. The removal of something we take for granted does help us to appreciate its value. I know the Year 12 Poland trips were particularly special because they knew that other students had been denied this privilege. It is a reminder to be truly grateful for the many blessings we receive on a daily basis and not to take them for granted.

Wishing you all a Good Shabbos.

Mrs K Brice
Headteacher – Girls’ School

Editorial 16th June 2022

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Dear Parent,

In this week’s parsha, we learn about the role of the kohanim when lighting the menorah on a daily basis. We are told that, when the kohen would light the lamp wicks, he had to keep the flame next to the wicks until the fire took hold and was able to burn independently. Rabbi Wein brings a beautiful idea about this: this is a metaphor for Jewish education. Every parent and teacher is responsible for a child until they are able to sustain themselves. This could be spiritually, socially, financially or psychologically. As we know, this can take many years!

Rabbi Wein goes on to ask an important question: how long do we need to carry on taking this responsibility? He says that the goal of parenting and of education is to produce young people who are well-balanced, self-reliant, resilient and independent and, thereby enabling them to steer their own path once they reach adulthood.

We try to instil these key characteristics in our students regularly and it has been an absolute pleasure to see our Year 11 and Year 13s taking their national examinations; they have shown their ability to cope under stress during a very long exam season. We wish them all much hatzlacha over the next few weeks.

Have a peaceful Shabbos,

Mrs D Lebrett
Headteacher
Hasmonean Boys’ School

Editorial – 09.06.2022

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Dear Parent/Carer

Above and Beyond

Poor bar mitzva boy! If Parshas Nasso is your sedra, it’s the longest single sedra in the whole Torah. A whopping 176 pessukim. (The truth is the repetition of pesukim with the nesi’im bringing identical korbonos does make it easier!)

It is striking to note that the longest chapter in the whole of Sefer Tehillim (and also the longest chapter in all of Tanach) also has 176 pesukim.

Which masechta in Shas has the most dafim? Bava Basra. How many? Again, the masechta finishes on daf 176.

There must be an explanation to all this. What is special about the number 176 and why is this the magic number for the longest sedra in the Torah, the longest chapter in Tanach and the longest masechta in Torah Shel Bal Peh?

Tehillim 119 follows the sequence of the Hebrew alphabet. The first 8 pesukim begin with the letter א, the next 8 with the letter ב and so on until the final 8 pesukim of the chapter which begin with the letter ת.

When a chapter follows the sequence of the Hebrew alphabet, it connotes a totality, an all-encompassing picture, from א to ת.

The number 7 represents this world, which was created in 7 days. Chazal say that the number 8 alludes to the World to Come. The number 8 represents something beyond this world; a dimension which transcends nature and physicality. This is of course Torah.

Perhaps the message is this. All of Torah transcends this world. תורה שבכתב and תורה שבעל פה are beyond the natural and are essentially spiritual. So are the soaring emotions, petitions and praises of Hashem that is Sefer Tehillim.

And a timely message straight after Shavuos, when we re-accept the Torah and when parshas Nasso invariably falls.

May we merit to impart the beauty and depth of Torah to our students and show them the transcendent, elevated nature of Torah.

Good Shabbos

Rabbi Golker
Menahel

Editorial 26.05.2022

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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

Editorial 19.05.2022

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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

Editorial 12.05.2022

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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

Editorial 05.05.2022

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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

Editorial 28.04.2022

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Dear Parents and Carers,

Some time ago, I commissioned an independent review of our provision for students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) with the aim of improving this area to ensure that we are prioritising the needs of students with SEND and are a fully inclusive institution.

To fully abide by our ethos of Torah im Derech Eretz, we need to be a fully inclusive school that considers the quality of the children with SEND’s experiences across all areas of their school life and supports them to the extent that they need it. To become the best that we can be in this area we need to undergo transformational change, for example in regard to how we allocate funding and resources, the quality and breadth of our provision, our learning and teaching and, most importantly, our attitudes and values and our partnership with parents.

I’d like to thank Dr Alexander-Passe for his work as SENDCo up until this point and wish him well with his future endeavours. He has now left Hasmonean for what he hopes will be a better home-work balance and we are grateful to him for everything he has given to the SSU.

We will soon be advertising a new enhanced role that will incorporate the role of SENDCo, Inclusion and Inspiration to ensure that SEND is given the status it deserves in the MAT and that children with SEND have an ambassador at a more senior level. We will be inviting in the person who undertook the independent review to be part of the interview process for this new role, alongside a representative from Barnet Local Authority and a panel of parents who have children with SEND. The person who undertook the independent review will be assisting with their induction and will be supporting them to review the staffing structure and the action points from the review.

One very important part of this process of transformational change will be to ensure that we are getting regular feedback from children with SEND and from their parents to ensure that our ambitious plans for this area are having demonstrable impact on our students’ opportunities, happiness, wellbeing and progress. I look forward to sharing with you the impact of those changes over the coming months.

With kind regards,

Mr A McClusky
CEO, Hasmonean MAT

Editorial 07.04.2022

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Dear Parent/Carers,

It is the end of another term and, as is often the case, this means we have to say goodbye to some members of staff.

Mr Lindall, our Director of Science, is taking up a new post at Saracens as Assistant Principal. Mr Boxer, who has been both an English teacher and in charge of Years 8 and 9 at the Boys’ School, is taking on a new challenge as Assistant Head at Pardes House. We wish both Mr Lindall and Mr Boxer well in their new roles, they will be much missed at Hasmonean but we are grateful to them for what they have achieved in their time with us.

For the past two years, a huge number of our communication with you has been dominated by covid. We are now in a period when we are learning to live with the virus. This means we are no longer giving out tests and, if your child does test positive, they only need to isolate for 3 days provided they are feeling well and do not have a high temperature.

These changes are a reminder that life is never static, there is always some new challenge to be faced. Sometimes challenges can seem overwhelming and that may be how some of our Year 13 and Year 11 students are feeling. One of the Year 12 girls shared her way of dealing with obstacles, she said she broke them down until they were in manageable chunks, usually with the help of others and that team work was what got her through.

This seems a good message as we prepare for Pesach.

Wishing you all a chag sameach Pesach.

Mrs K Brice
Headteacher
Hasmonean High School

Editorial – 31.03.2022

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UPDATED INFORMATION ON CATERING SUPPLIERS – 05.04.2022

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are delighted to inform you that our catering supplier has decided to retract their notice to terminate their contract with us. We will work together with them to try and make it more financially viable for them to continue supplying to our schools.

As a result, when we return after the Pesach break, there will be food supplied by Signature both in the morning and lunch breaks.

Wishing you all a chag kasher v’sameach.

Mrs D Lebrett, Headteacher, Hasmonean High School for Boys
Mrs K Brice, Headteacher, Hasmonean High School for Girls
Rabbi J Golker, Menahel, Hasmonean MAT

 

Dear Parents/Carers,

We regret to inform you that our catering supplier has decided to terminate their contract with us. Rising supply costs have meant that it is no longer financially viable for them to continue supplying to our schools.

As a result, when we return after the Pesach break, there will be no food supplied by the school for either the morning or lunch breaks.

As a result, all students will be required to bring in a packed lunch daily going forward, and a snack for break time if they would like to. All food and drinks brought into the school must of course be kosher.

We will be sending out information regarding students who receive Free School Meals over the next few days so that they continue to receive what they are entitled to.

Please be reassured that we are looking into other providers of school lunches ready for September 2022 and we will keep you updated as soon as we have more information to share with you.

We are sorry that this will cause you inconvenience but unfortunately this is due to circumstances beyond our control.

With best wishes and good Shabbos,

 

Mrs D Lebrett, Headteacher, Hasmonean High School for Boys
Mrs K Brice, Headteacher, Hasmonean High School for Girls
Rabbi J Golker, Menahel, Hasmonean MAT