Jaffa Parade

Colourful, joyful and bringing everyone together. This is how to describe the annual Christmas parade along Yeffet street in Jaffa. Many of our pupils could be seen wearing various costumes from angels to Santas. Joined by what must have been thousands of Jaffa residents, the scout group bands of Jaffa marched to well-know Christmas favourites like Jingle Bells and Gloria in excelsis deo. A very fitting and special way to start the Christmas festivities!

Christmas Holidays!

After a long and busy term, we are finally enjoying a bit of a break until 11th January 2010.

The term ended with the usual Christmas productions by the primary school, high school disco and high school Christmas assembly. Special thanks to the primary staff for all their input and efforts in making the productions successful and very entertaining. There was great participation from all the children! Even the many parents enjoyed it.
In the weeks leading up to the end of term the Tabeetha primary school (Reception-Grade 5) visited Kibbutz Nir Eliahu for a 'food experience' on Wednesday 9 December.
Throughout the day the children made their own orange juice, cheese, butter and pita. The children held baby chicks, patted various farm animals, ground wheat, and played a seed and tree products identification game during which, among other things, they learned where cane sugar and chocolate come from. At the end of the day the children ate the food that they had made along with fresh vegetables provided by the Kibbutz. Fun was had by all.

Holiday bug has bitten!

The holiday season is fully upon us! Celebrations are heating up and decorations are filling what once was empty space. The main school hall has been transformed into what looks like Santa's workshop! The walls in the upstairs primary hall are filled with Christmas-themed artwork from our primary classes.
We even had a visit from one of our Reception parents who came into school with materials for making spinning tops and all kinds of other goodies for celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hannukah. The children (and teachers) were even treated to freshly baked jam-filled doughnuts; a special treat during this holiday time. The children were taught about the holiday of Hannukah and its importance and lit candles together.
Our MICC pupils will be arriving back from Poland at 1am tonight, so we are looking forward to posting their experiences as soon as possible.

We also have our High School Christmas Disco tomorrow night - a highlight of the Student Council's social calendar, as well as the primary Christmas play tomorrow and the high school Carol service on Friday, packed full of music, singing and readings from the Bible of the Christmas story, and of course plenty of Christmas Carols!

Getting ready for MICC

As mentioned in one of our previous postings, we are getting ready to attend the Model International Criminal Court in Poland from Friday 11th December until next week Wednesday 16th December. Twelve of our pupils from grades 10, 11 and 12, as well as one of our teachers, will be flying out in the early hours of Friday morning from Ben Gurion Airport, here in Tel Aviv, and will make their way to Krzyzowa, Poland.

Yesterday, we were interviewed by a reporter from the Jerusalem Post, one of Israel's leading English newspapers. The story, which appeared on page 5 of today's print edition will soon be uploaded. We have also had an interview by a local Arabic newspaper as well as interest been expressed by a Jaffa member of parliament! This is truly an honour to be part of something so amazing!

Cricket comes to Tabeetha!

Yes, believe it or not, the game of gentlemen has come to our little school in Jaffa.


We had a visit by a representative of the Israel Cricket Association who introduced the game to our grade 3 to 10 classes, many of whom have never heard of cricket.


The idea is to increase awareness of cricket amongst the youth of Israel. Already there are teams of Israelis and Palestinians playing together through the Peres Center for Peace . We are also hoping this will gain momentum in Tabeetha and we will have a team or two playing against other teams in the region.

End of a difficult week...

It has been a difficult past couple of weeks for the school and community. We have experienced the loss of great friends of the school and Jaffa community.

Firstly, we heard about the sad passing away of Mr. George Baird in Scotland. Mr. Baird was a great friend and supporter of Tabeetha School. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this time.

Also, the entire Jaffa community was shocked to the core by the news of the sudden passing away of Mr. Joseph Deek, a great friend and family member of many people in Jaffa. His funeral witnessed literally thousands of attendees in procession along Yeffet street in Jaffa, on the way to the Greek Orthodox Church, where the ceremony took place. The procession was led by the scouts of Jaffa, Muslims and Christians, many of whom attend the school. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends.

The general school family is beginning to feel the bite of the winter cold and flu bug, with many teachers away from school.

The Muslim community is celebrating "eid al adha" this weekend. We wish them eid mubarak.
Of course, the rest of the school is continuing on as usual with teaching and learning, preparing for exams in January and planning for Christmas celebrations happening at the end of the school term.

We have a representative from the Israel Cricket Association coming into the school next week Wednesday to introduce the game of cricket to our pupils during PE lessons. Hopefully this will lead to some after school cricket activity.

To end with some good news...One of our grade 4 pupils, Jessica Bekkerman, has been selected to move to the next round of a dance competition towards appearing on the Israeli version of "Dancing with the Stars". We are all very proud of you, Jessica! Well done!

Cruising on autopilot...

Day to day matters arise and are dealt with...staff meetings, parent-teacher meetings, Senior Management Team meetings, we even had to deal with RAIN!! Of course, much needed in our part of the world.

Pupils are preparing for the "Tabeetha's Got Talent" Talent Show next Tuesday, 24 November.

Preparations are nearing an end for the trip to Poland for the Model International Criminal Court session from 11 to 16 December. Preparations for exams have begun, as all pupils will be writing exams in the first week back at school, after the Christmas holidays. Grade 10, 11 and 12 pupils will continue with their Trial Exams through to the end of January.

Today the grade 10 class visited an archaeological dig close to the school. We were treated to a part of Jaffa history dating back to the late 1800s. Special thanks to the members of the Israel Antiquities Authority for taking time out to show us around the site and enrich our historical knowledge.

Back to school...

We have been back to school for a week and a half since our half term break. The principal of the school and his family had a very successful and rewarding time in Scotland. New friendships have been established which will hopefully last a long time.

Since being back this past week, we have been making preparations for winter exams and Christmas activities. We have also been planning for the visit of 12 of our pupils to the Model International Criminal Court in Poland. We are really excited about this adventure! More information can be found at http://www.model-icc.org/.

The Student Council is planning a Talent Show for grade 4 to 12, which will also be used as a fund raising event. This is scheduled for Tuesday 24th November at 6pm. We are expecting to have a lot of fun and see lots of our pupils displaying their many talents (we may even have some teachers strutting their stuff!) Watch this space for details...

We have begun our half term holiday which will last until Monday 2nd November.

The Principal of the school is currently on a visit in Scotland. He and his family are visiting various churches and schools in the Hamilton and Falkirk areas, as well as other places of interest. Part of this visit is to report on the school and to spread awareness of the work of the school. So far the visit has been very successful and fruitful, with new relationships being established.

We're still here....

After a relatively quiet time from our blog, I am happy to be able to post again! It has been extremely busy, with many different activities taking place around the school. We have also been invited to apply for the Model International Criminal Court in Poland, taking place in December. We will keep you posted on the process.

The past week saw a trip of our grade 10s to old Jaffa. Our grade 7 and 8 classes went on a trip to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi and we celebrated our international food day today!

The grade 10 trip was very successful and informative for our pupils, who were accompanied by their English teachers and a qualified and experienced tour guide who told the pupils about the fascinating history of Jaffa.
The grade 7 and 8 trip to the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi also very good, with our pupils behaving in a way which makes us proud to call them Tabeetha pupils!


Our international food day saw foods from 39 different countries so the sights and smells were amazing! The food was enjoyed in a festive atmosphere, with about 500 participants.



Thanks to all who are part of the Tabeetha community for a great week!

A busy week...

Of course, we are still waiting to post photos from our reunion on Friday last week. We had about 30 ex-pupils visit us at the school. It was heartwarming to see and hear how Tabeetha has influenced the lives of so many special people. Many stories and memories were shared, which made the day really memorable.

We are nearing the end of a really busy week! We started the week with Eid-ul-fitr celebrations, marking the end of Ramadan for the Muslim members of the Tabeetha and Jaffa community. On Tuesday, grade 3 had a lesson in modes of human powered transport and had races out on the playground (running, roller-blades and bicycles). A great object lesson! Today we had our Student Council back-to-school BBQ. Well done to our SC and senior pupils for such a great job. The atmosphere was wonderful, the food was excellent (meat donated by a local ex-Tabeetha butcher in Jaffa) and organisation practically flawless. We even had a staff vs. pupils football match (I still don't know who won the game!)

We look forward to a long weekend this weekend, as Monday is Yom Kippur, when the entire country shuts down for 24 hours. Our daylight savings time ends on Saturday night, when we turn the clocks back one hour.

To the Jewish members of the Tabeetha and Jaffa community - G'mar hatima tovah - "May your finished sealing be good."

Gardening!

Our grade 7 and 8 class had a morning in the sun getting their hands dirty! We had some money left over from last year's Student Council, so it was decided to use this to buy some flowering plants to add some colour to our gardens.

The grade 7 and 8 registration teachers and classes offered to help with this project, and so spent a morning buying the plants from a local nursery here in Jaffa, then spent another morning planting their purchases (yes, they do go to regular lessons sometimes!) Each class will take responsibility for the watering of their new gardens.

Tomorrow we have our big reunion day with many ex-pupils of the school coming to visit. A report will be posted in the next few days.

Reunion

We are all very excited about a reunion of alumni on Friday, 18 September. Plans are underway for a special assembly, a breakfast prepared by the senior class and classroom visits.

We invite all ex-Tabeetha pupils to this special event. Come and tell us how Tabeetha has changed your life!

First week

We have reached the end of the first week back at school. Teaching and learning is well underway and everybody is getting back into routine.

There have been a few hiccups with the timetable, mainly with the grade 11 and 12 classes due to the complexity of subject choices, time, space and teacher limitations. Most teachers and students have had to create custom-made timetibles to accommodate the complexities and have managed to start their courses.

We now look forward to having the primary parents in to meet the teachers and hear about what to expect from the coming year. This is planned for next week. This is always a good opportunity to establish relationships with the parents and community.

The first newsletter of the year has been sent out to parents and can be downloaded from our website.

Back to school..

Some of our students enjoying the new seating and playground on the first day of school.

The day went very smoothly, with lessons beginning by 9.30am. Thanks to the teachers for helping to make it such a good first day.

Preparation

After a good day of meetings, our staff are prepared and positive and ready for the first day with the pupils tomorrow, 1st September. The school campus is looking good and we have good exam results from June, both important factors for establishing a good foundation for another successful year. We look forward to taking you on the journey with us.

We have a roll of 334 pupils who will be arriving in their throngs tomorrow after 2 months of summer holidays. It will be up to us a team of professionals to continue to mold and shape them into successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.

New gardens

Here are our new gardens surrounding the new paved area. We are really proud of the work and we hope the pupils will get great pleasure from this upgrade.

We are also moving into the month of Ramadan and we wish all our Muslim families in the school "Ramadan kareem". All around Jaffa at the moment we have twinkling lights up in the windows (much like the ones below) to help celebrate this important Muslim festival.

More exam results…

We have received the next set of results from the June 2009 examinations. Students sat exams set by the Edexcel and AQA exam boards, both situated in England.

This is the breakdown:

Modern Hebrew AS-Level: 15A (10 100% grades), 1B, 1C (17 candidates)
Modern Hebrew A-Level: 1C (1 candidate)
Polish AS-Level: 1A (1 candidate)
Physics GCE O-Level: 1A, 5B, 6C (13 candidates)
Mathematics AS-Level: 7A, 3B, 4C (15 candidates)
History AS-Level: 1A, 3B, (10 candidates)
Russian AS-Level: 3A (3 candidates)
RE AS-Level: 2A, 1B, 1C (7 candidates)
Japanese AS-Level: 1A (1 candidate)
French AS-Level: 1A (1candidate)
Chemistry AS-Level: 1A, 1B (6 candidates)
Biology AS-Level: 4A, 3B (12 candidates)
Arabic AS-Level: 1A, 1B, 2C (4 candidates)
English Lit A-Level: 1C (1 candidate)
Chemistry A-Level: 1A, 1B (2 candidates)
Biology A-Level: 2A, 1C (4 candidates)
Arabic A-Level: 1B, 1C (3 candidates)
RE A-Level: 1C (1 candidate)
Mathematics A-Level: 2A, 1B (5 candidates)

Once again we are really proud of our students! Well done to all of you and to your teachers.

Exam Results

We have received the first set of exam results for IGCSE and GCE Cambridge Examination Board. This involves mainly our Grade 10 pupils and some Grade 11 and 12 students as well. When looking at the results, we can see a broad spectrum, with many A and A* grades to a sprinkling of U grades.

The basic breakdown per subject is as follows:

Art and Design: 1A, 2B, 1C (14 candidates in total)

Biology: 4A*, 4A, 2B, 3C (16 candidates in total)

Chemistry: 2A, 1B, 5C (10 candidates)

English as a Second Language: 5A, 7B, 10C (27 candidates)

History: 1B (6 candidates)

Literature: 3A, 4B, 1C (16 candidates)

Mathematics: 2A*, 7A, 4B, 6C (29 candidates)

We are really proud of many of our pupils who all worked hard and are now reaping what they have sown.

We expect the rest of the results to be published over the next two weeks and we are looking forward to posting a summary of those as well.

Well done to teachers and pupils!

Summer work around the school

Most of the summer work has been completed, with our cleaners now in the school doing the grueling task of getting the school ready for 1st September.

To the right is a picture of our finished paved area at the back of the school, as part of the landscaping project.



To the left is a picture showing the work in progress.




We have also decided to change the front garden area of the school. Due to the fact that there is a water shortage in Israel and it is difficult to maintain the patch of grass at the front of the school, we have replaced the grass with river pebbles.

Exciting meeting...

Today the principal of the school met with a representative from the Scots Hotel in Tiberias to discuss the possibility of some of our pupils participating in special events at the hotel. We have plenty of talent in Tabeetha; from excellent piano players to talented singers. Our pupils would perform as an introductory "curtain raiser" to other special cultural productions at the hotel.

In light of this, and the fact that we have established a relationship with a local voice coach, we will be establishing the Tabeetha Choir, who will not only perform at the hotel and the other Church of Scotland institution in Israel - St. Andrews Church and Scottish Guesthouse in Jerusalem, but will also perform at school assemblies and other school functions. We are really excited about this new venture!

Welcome to our blog!

This is where you will be able to find news and updates of what is happening at Tabeetha School in Jaffa.

We are on summer holidays at the moment, but there has been plenty happening over the past month. We are in the middle of a landscaping project, made possible by generous donations from our friends in Scotland and supporting congregations of the Church of Scotland. Pictures will be posted shortly.

We have also been working at upgrading some classrooms and doing routine maintenance, in preparation for the new school year which begins in September.