Knock, knock! WHO’S THERE?…

One of my great joys in life is attendance at our Junior School creative assemblies. Throughout the course of a term we rotate opportunities for year levels in the Junior School to host an assembly. The structure of these assemblies focuses on initially providing an opportunity for the students to share the key learnings that they have been exploring – I recently wrote about the Year 3 students’ exploration of empathy in this column. Following this, our students run through a series of individual creative acts which allow them to present a magic trick, a joke, a musical performance, a dance or some other form of creative expression. Finally they close the assembly with the Australian and Israeli anthems and the School Song.

Each of the individual creative acts allow our students to confront the challenge of performing publicly and to have an opportunity in a safe and supportive environment to put themselves out there in front of a crowd. Over the years, it has been wonderful to see the burgeoning confidence of students who were too shy to perform an individual act in Prep and then over time became comfortable to express their individuality through these acts.

There are notable highlights every year when a student presents a unique talent that they are proud of. Some recent ones include the “cup stackers”, “rubik cubers” and artists who describe an artwork they have created and how they completed it. Of course, these are interspersed between the full gamut of knock knock jokes that are delivered both with, and often without, a comprehensible punchline.

We invest time and energy in these and other performance opportunities because we believe that they help students to gain self-confidence, to develop resilience and to have an opportunity to find their voices. It also allows us to establish an appropriate culture in which students also learn to become good audience members who encourage and support their peers.

In an era where more Australian students than ever before are regularly presenting with anxiety disorders, we believe that providing developmentally appropriate opportunities to perform from a young age allows our students to develop the courage, self-concept and thick skin that prove so valuable in everyday life.

Of course the creative assemblies are not the only performance opportunities offered to our students – as they move through their schooling, they will have myriad chances to participate in debates, public speaking assignments and competitions. Indeed, learning the art of public speaking and the capacity to confidently express one’s ideas to an audience is one of the key skills that can support graduates to flourish as they transition to the workplace.

Our Performing Arts program and the extensive schedule of music soirees, school musicals and productions are other vehicles which require students to step outside their comfort zone and present themselves confidently to an audience.

Like so many things that occur in our school, our program of creative assemblies are almost unbearably cute, but are actually very serious and important growth opportunities for our students.

So to those with Junior School-aged family members, I encourage you to share your favourite “knock-knock” joke with them and I look forward to participating in the raucous and encouraging laughter – especially if I can understand the punchline!

Shabbat Shalom,

Marc Light

Principal