On Thursday afternoon, over one hundred cars arrived in the school playground, carrying the boys who will join us for Year 7 this September. They were welcomed by members of staff and each boy received a welcome pack to take home.

For two hours, cars flowed into the playground, all brilliantly choreographed by Benji Shebson from the HIPE department, ably assisted by Kevin, Hasmonean’s amazing site manager.

Staff members who welcomed the boys included: Mrs Lebrett, Mr Kalley, Ms Benarroch, Mrs Fine, Rabbi Amar, Rabbi Hager, Mr Markiewicz, Rabbi Fachler, and Benji Shebson. Each staff member took time to chat with the parents and students in every car.

It was a really beautiful event and congratulations to Benji for yet another successful event in these testing times.

Every single year Hasmonean Girls has created a meaningful Bat Mitzva celebration for the Year 7 students and this year was no exception. Mrs (and Mr) Naylor, along with Mrs Paster and the HIPE team of Shira Rabson, Hodaya Schiff and Racheli Wagner delivered a special brunch to every single girl.  Later in the day, they all shared a Zoom celebration which was perfectly pitched for this special milestone in their lives.

Congratulations to Shira in Year 10 for coming Third in the Blank CANvas design competition. The task set was to design a can which would promote recycling. This is a great message for all of us.

Shira’s winning design can be found at https://everycancounts.co.uk

Hasmonean Girls’ amazing Informal Education team concocted a plethora of 33 Challenges for the girls to do at home while raising much needed funds for future HIPE activities.

Lag B’Omer began with DWL’s Louise Leach running a zoom Zumba session for over 70 participants. Later on in the day, girls were encouraged to a number of other “33-related” challenges, such as:

• Learn how to say 33 in three other languages,
• Say 3 things they are grateful for,
• Speak to a grandparent for 3 (or more!) minutes.

From 3.30pm – 5.30pm, 33 challenges faced our girls as they raced to reach their fund raising targets. In the space of less than 24 hours, over £15,000 was raised!

Thank you to Miss Rabson, Miss Schiff and Miss Wagner for a such a bonkers way of enjoying Lag B’Omer!

A number of Year 11 and 12 girls were given the chance to attend a talk at Christ Church College Oxford on the 13th March. Ana Hastoy provided the girls with a personalised event which started with a talk about admissions and access to Oxford. Ana explained the College system and gave us an excellent run through of the dos and don’ts for Personal Statements for Oxbridge.

We had a tour of Christ Church where we were shown the Hogwarts stairs and dining hall. Later we were able to talk to the Oxford Rabbi and a Jewish student who gave the girls an insight into Jewish life in Christ Church and beyond. It was great to hear how well the Jewish students are provided for and how far the Colleges have gone to provide Kosher meals and facilities.

We met with a panel of First Year female students, including students from the Physics, Maths, Philosophy, Medicine and Music departments. They were able to provide us with a better understanding about what student life involves, including their personal application process, the work-life balance, and interesting events which the students get to partake in. Our Hasmonean girls asked pertinent and interesting questions which enabled us to better understand how STEM subjects are taught, as well as the options available in the Humanities and joint degrees.

Before we left we were able to tour the smaller College of Corpus Christi with its incredibly ancient library which was a highlight for some of our girls. Ana will be coming in later in the year to talk to a larger number of students as part of our Oxbridge programme.