Inspired by Stephen R Covey ‘The 8th Habit’: From Effectiveness to Greatness’ Academic Excellence - a by-product of Cultural Excellence Most schools set themselves a goal of improving academic rigour and achieving academic excellence. This may be improving standardised test scores (be it NAPLAN or HSC results), or ranking, or even community perceptions of the school.  … Continue reading Staff Culture and the impact on student learning and achievement

A worldwide pandemic of anxiety We live in anxious times. It's nothing new. Whether the pandemic is over or whether it’s not over, anxiety pervades our lives and society. Anxiety, not a severe anxiety disorder, rather just the day-to-day anxiety, is one of the most common mental ailments that affect Western society, and in fact … Continue reading Contagious calm and Jewish pride; an antidote to anxiety

We usually associate the festival of Chanukah with eight days of simcha or happiness. After all, it is relatively easy to observe, and we get to eat delicious doughnuts which seem to get bigger and better each year. The fact that Chanukah also coincides with the end of the academic year is also reason to … Continue reading Eight lessons we can learn from Chanukah

As parents we have very unique and particular opinions of our own children.  As we know our children so well, we often view our children very differently to how others may view our children. Our children also may behave very differently in different contexts and when they are around different people. Some parents see their … Continue reading ‘My Child Would Never’

Kindness is a curious concept. I think most of us would agree, the world would do better with more kindness – kindness to ourselves, to each other and to our planet. We know it to be a good act; we include it in our school and life values; we talk about cultures of kindness and … Continue reading “You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water”