At the end of the autumn term, the HIPE teams ran a phenomenal 20-Chanukah events across both schools in a space of five short days, in addition to their regular daily sessions.

The special surprise was a real climax for the week: DNA- otherwise known as Darren and Andrew- a pair of Britain’s Got Talent finalists who entertained the entire school in carefully regulated bubbled slots. Their mind reading acts gripped the students. As excited as the students were to enjoy watching and participating in the acts, the two performers were thrilled to have the chance to perform in front of a live audience.

The fact that HIPE could do so much in such a short space of time with all the Covid restrictions was our own Hasmonean Chanukah miracle!

Special thanks go to Rabbi Gaffin, together with Light Up a Life and Project ImpACT, as our Year 9 girls spent Thursday, period 1, wrapping lots of boxes of chocolates to be distributed to NHS workers in the London hospitals and care homes in time for the winter holidays.

Each student also wrote a personal note of thanks to staff, which was attached to the wrapped gift. The project was aimed at showing gratitude to medical, nursing and support staff for their tireless dedication to looking after us in very challenging circumstances.

Students from Hasmonean High School for Girls, as well as pupils from Hasmonean High School for Boys (see last week’s eNews article and picture), Immanuel College, JFS, Yavneh and JCoSS participated so that almost 1000 Year 9 students from Jewish schools took part in this initiative. Rabbi Gaffin is planning to run more events with Project ImpACT as the year progresses.

All of Hasmonean’s teachers have been very keen to ensure that students are able to catch-up after a summer of distance learning and a somewhat disrupted autumn term. We want to share with our parents the number of ways our teachers have been educating and helping your children.

To help pupils catch-up on missed education, the Government provided schools will additional money.

The Maths department decided to use the catch-up funding first to target a number of our Year 7 students and provide valuable intervention lessons. Every week, three different small groups have been taught parts of the course which have been missed. From January 2021, our Year 11 boys will also be offered intervention sessions. The Year 7 and 11 intervention is planned to run for a total of 20 weeks. Our Year 13 students had 8 hours of catch-up during the November half term and will have another in February. As Maths is a core subject, the department is working hard to ensure all students are up-to-date and do not miss out.

In the English Department, staff have undergone training for the Lexia Core5 Reading programme which supports educators in providing differentiated literacy instruction for students of all abilities. Years 7 and 8 are the key focus groups, but the scheme will also be used to support selected Year 9 -11 students. Lexia provides explicit, systematic, personalized learning, targeting skill gaps as they emerge, and providing teachers with the data and student-specific resources they need for individual or small-group instruction. Again, every effort is being made to target those students who need additional help and provide this. The English interventions will be up and running from January 2021.

Our Science department has been working hard to ensure that MyGCSEScience is set-up to support our Science students, and more textbooks have been ordered as well. With the Year 11 mock exams taking place over the last 2 weeks of term and the Year 13 assessments starting in January, the Science department will be able to highlight which students require extra tutoring and in what specific areas. Interventions will be implemented in early 2021 for both Years 11 and 13, and then catch-up help will be filtered down towards Years 10 and 12 at a later stage.

The Jewish Studies department intends to use some money to fund Hebrew Reading in Year 7. Year 7 is where the building blocks are set to prepare for the remaining years in school, so the focus is being placed on buying additional software and books for our new cohort to really stand them in good stead.

Finally, our Business and Economics department have created a wonderful plan which includes using I Marcouse A-Z business online sessions, having additional staff tutorials, providing focussed exam technique sessions with selected pupils, and delivering a number of other refresher courses.

Thank you to Hasmonean’s wonderful staff who have gone well above their obligations in ensuring that our students are able to realise their potential.

On Tuesday, our Year 9 boys spent period one wrapping goodies to be distributed to the NHS workers in the UK in time for the winter holidays. This is a big thank you from all of us at Hasmonean to those keyworkers who have provided care to many during this extremely difficult period and who continue to provide help.

Thanks go to the H.I.P.E team for organising this wonderful event.

On Thursday, the Year 9 and 10 girls were treated to a fascinating presentation about the practice and excitement of the Hindu faith. Ms Shah explained the origins of Diwali to the girls. The most interesting part was when she came to describe the colour and ritual of the wedding ceremony. She would have brought her own wedding dress but it was way too heavy. Ms Shah used the example of her own recent wedding to provide the detail: for example, the bride’s parents walk the groom down the aisle to show they accept him as part of their family. Of course, lots of food is served and the outfits are very important!

There was a Q&A session after, where questions such as:
‘What language do you pray in?’ were asked. The answer was Hindi or Sanskrit.
Why don’t you wear white for a wedding? Because it is worn for a funeral.
Are their different groups? Yes – each household can have their own gods. Families can also have their own temples at home with their family idol and a space to pray.
Are you allowed to marry someone of a different religion? It is a personal choice.
Do you have an everyday dress code? Yes: a general sense of modesty is required.
Do you have a religious book like the Torah? Yes – we have a book of scriptures and stories called the book of Vedas.

Is there a conversion process? There is no official way of converting, one can just join in and evolve as part of the culture.

Thank you so much to Ms Shah for a really engaging and informative presentation.