Groucho Marx is said to have written a resignation from his membership at a private Beverly Hills Club, hilariously stating that: “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.” 

This is the opposite of how we aspire to be at King David. We truly believe that everyone has a place and everyone has value in our community. We want you to feel you belong and to feel that you can contribute to helping shape our community.  

A number of months ago I wrote to our school community with a reminder of some of the great ways you can get involved in contributing to the experience of other families and in setting the tone for how we operate. 

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteering rates across Australia have plummeted. In an article in the ABC on this phenomenon, Volunteering Australia CEO Mark Pearce states that “what we’ve seen is a longer-term decline in volunteering rates, and that’s been amplified by the COVID pandemic.”

The 2021 Census showed a 19% drop in rates of volunteering from the number recorded in 2016. The ABC reported that this finding was matched by an equivalent drop in data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The COVID-19 pandemic has, without doubt, impacted preparedness to volunteer. This is likely due to a range of factors such as the encroachment of the workplace into our homes through email and messaging and other work from home measures. The sum total is that it is likely that many individuals feel like they are more time stretched and have less capacity to give.

In the same ABC article, social researcher Dr Hugh McKay, explains that “this is a weird period we are in at the moment, that helps explain the decline of volunteering … We’ve been changing in ways that have made us more individualistic, much more concerned about ‘me and my rights and my entitlements and my identity.’”

The sad corollary of this is that community organisations are finding it harder to engage volunteers in key programs and activities. This is also true of some of our important opportunities. 

I am aware that our incredible KDSPA can always use more volunteers and that this is such a great way to become acquainted with families from your children’s year levels and from across the School. At a recent KDSPA event, a parent explained to me how so many of her close connections in the School were established through KDSPA activities like serving icy poles and hot chocolates on campus and volunteering for the King’s Carnival.

I am such a believer in the friend-raising function of the KDSPA and really hope that our families get to experience the true community that comes through involvement. Likewise, the outstanding Parent Safety Group that serves to ensure the safety of our staff, students and families on entering and exiting the School are in need of additional volunteers to make sure that all shifts are filled.

One of the ways that the KDSPA will be trying to activate greater levels of community engagement is a Stay and Play initiative. This will involve encouraging families across the school, but particularly in the Junior School, to park off campus and to come onsite to collect their children. We would love our families to stay around at the end of the school day and to foster those crucial social connections while your children play.  Please watch out for announcements from the KDSPA so that you can help support this initiative and build the culture of the School.

I hope we all share the sense of belonging to our school and our school community, and also the responsibility to give what we can to help King David to thrive.

Shabbat Shalom,

Marc Light