Our girls are wonderful, but never more so than during Tephilla.

This week, we celebrated the girls who have shown exceptional focus and dedication during both Shacharit and Mincha. It is a real challenge to maintain kavanna every day, and the girls who were celebrated on Wednesday have made every effort to do so.

To those who have not yet been celebrated: the fact that you create a calm environment in the classroom for those who daven is really appreciated and we thank you.

Finally, thank you to Mrs Paster, Rabbi Bennett and Racheli for organising Wednesday’s awards.

Hasmonean’s aspiring businesswomen of Year 8 visited Cadbury World on Tuesday 10th December. Along with lashings of chocolate, the girls learned about the creation of the Cadbury business which included building the village of Bourneville for the workforce: an early example of ethical entrepreneurship.

They had a wonderful day. Thank you to all the staff who accompanied the girls and made the trip possible.

Over the past 2 weeks, the Music Department hosted two GCSE Specialist concerts, highlighting the talents of our students.

The boys’ concert took place on Tuesday 12th November and the concert began with an explosion of a performance combining drums and electric guitar. There was an impressive array of pianistic skills from Beethoven’s Pathetique sonata to the theme tune from the Avengers.

The concert also featured the GCSE compositions adding an exciting dimension to the concert! Hopefully inspiring the Year 9 and 10 students as they begin their compositional journey.

The girls’ school concert took place on Tuesday 19th November and also offered a mixture of performances and compositions. We had 2 violin performances which contrasted well with all the piano performances.

Some of the students performed their own versions of well-known songs. This highlights a special talent as it involves an understanding of harmony, chords and pianistic techniques.

There is always a lovely, collaborative atmosphere during these concerts and they provide an opportunity for the students to feel part of a school musical community.

Both concerts ended with a duet performance from Mr Hattingh, our Piano Teacher and Mrs Algranati performing 3 short pieces from Bernstein’s famous West Side Story.

My thanks go to Mr Hattingh and all the other peripatetic staff who support all the work that is done in the Music Department to further our student’s learning.

Thank you to our wonderful, dedicated Music department and to Miss Giannopoulou for taking pictures. and to our site team.

Thanks also go to the wonderful site team who always work tirelessly to help set up the concerts!

It may have taken four attempts to arrange the date, but on Monday 11th November our Year 11 boys finally had their away fixture against Immanuel College.

The boys played well in the first half – even though we only took enough players to field a side and had no reserves. In no time at all one of the boys was clipped from behind, landing head first in the muddy ground below. He was helped up – covered in mud!

In the second half, the game got tenser and the mud got deeper. There were a couple of brilliant saves from Goalkeeper Lebrett. On the stroke of 50 minutes Corney unleashed a blistering rocket that smashed into the top left hand corner of the net and the ‘crowd’ went wild. This was followed five minutes later with another Hasmonean goal when Woolich defied the Immanuel keepers grasp to send the ball splattering into the bottom of the net. The last goal came from an unidentifiable muddy Hasmonean player – their numbers were so caked in mud that it was impossible to tell who was who!

Well done to all the boys for their brave perseverance in extremely dreadful conditions and coming away with a three nil victory! Thank you to Mr Tutty for braving the mud with the boys.

Bagel Bar was full to capacity for the Year 7 Mums night out. Organised by the PTA, this was a lovely opportunity to get together. The PTA is open to everyone. If you’d like to get involved, please call Aviva 07940 888051