Volume 7 - Issue 16 Sivan 5776 - Mid June 2016

Dear ParentsThis time next week our Year 9 students will be touching down in Israel to participate in ‘A Taste of Israel’. This is once again the largest group we have had participating in the programme since its inception some eight years ago, with over 180 students involved this year. We wish them well and look forward to hearing about their experiences when they return. Together with the 61 students who participated in the Lavi schemes earlier this year, over 80% of our Year 9 students will have travelled to Israel with the school.Upon graduation students often recall these visits to Israel as being some of the most important aspects of their JFS experience. We are delighted that we are able to offer these formative Jewish experiences and furthermore that the financial support we have received enables us to offer support to students who would otherwise be unable to participate. It is important to stress that

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MESSAGE FROM THE HEADTEACHER Inside thisIssue:

Sports AwardsSporting talent recognised at awards ceremony.

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Shwekey Visits JFS International singing sensation visits our school.

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FreeflowAn evening of dance presented by our students.

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these experiences can only continue to be accessible to all thanks to external financial support. In the coming weeks and months we will be contacting all JFS families and the wider community to ask for support in continuing to offer and enhance the high levels of enrichment that our students are so fortunate to enjoy. Alongside an exciting programme of capital developments, we will be embarking on an appeal to build on the strong foundations we have developed over the last 14 years in Kenton. We hope that all JFS families will be able to contribute in some way to ensure the legacy for the future of the JFS community. Yours sincerely

Debby Lipkin Simon Appleman

Executive Headteacher Headteacher

Year 8 class dance performers in the Freeflow school show.

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Recognition of Our Sporting StarsWe recently held our seventh annual Sports Awards Evening to a packed audience of 350 award winners, parents, staff and guests. Students were recognised for their achievement, commitment and effort in sports including Athletics, Basketball, Cricket, Football, Rounders, Dance, Leadership and Netball. Notable winners included David Stone, named 2016 Athlete of the Year, after winning the Jerusalem Youth Marathon, Nicola Brooks who

has recently signed a first team contract with MK Dons Ladies FC and Ori Goldberg, Basketball Player of the Year and Maccabi GB representative.The Sports Personality of the Year Award this year was won by Itamar Blauer; a committed coach, performer and leader over the last few years of JFS Basketball. His efforts with the girls’ basketball teams as well as in making his own YouTube coaching channel, saw him crowned as the school’s outstanding all round sportsperson. This year’s winners of the Sportsman/Woman of the Year award were too hard to separate with five winners

overall. In third place were Ella Cohen, GB Lacrosse, and Sasha Leigh, English National Ballet. In second place were Jessica Helfgott, English Gymnastics Champion, and Hannah Freund, GB Karate Champion and GB Representative. This year’s winner was Ben Sugarman, Commonwealth Champion and British Record Holder in Powerlifting. Ben now moves on to Texas for the World Championships in a few short weeks, JFS wishes him the very best of luck!Congratulations to all of our award winners for their efforts and endeavours throughout the year.

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Leave A Charitable Legacy

It was Jewish Legacy Week recently and as a member of Jewish Legacy we marked the day to highlight its

importance and hope that it will help to foster a culture of giving from within our community.In synagogues across the country people were asked to think about leaving a legacy in their will to support the Jewish community. Whilst the Jewish community is known for its generosity, supporting a wide range of different charities nationwide and internationally, only one in four members of the Jewish community leave a charitable legacy, compared to 75 per cent who give during their lifetime. We hope you will consider leaving a legacy to JFS alongside other worthy charitable causes.If you are interested in finding out more about legacy giving and how you could support JFS in this way in the future, please see here: http://www.jfs.brent.sch.uk/support-jfs/legacies

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Students Help Solve CrimeA group of enthusiastic Year 8 Geography students recently took part in an enrichment session. The session involved an activity related

to crime, which is a topic that they are studying in Geography this year. The students were required to solve a theft that happened in 2012 during the Olympics. To help the students solve the crime they were given real evidence to look at and guided by

a police officer who answered their questions and talked to them about his job. The students used their geographical knowledge, skills, information and resources to help solve the crime in just two hours; at the same time learning new skills to help them in crime solving as well as Geography. They considered a range of different reasons why the crime happened. Throughout the two hours the students learnt how to plot detailed information on a map and discovered why a high unemployment rate affects crime. The police officer suggested some strategies used by the police to solve crimes and everyone realised that it is not as simple as first perceived. One student, Noa said, “I enjoyed it because we were able to ask a policeman questions and ask him about his job.” It was interesting to note that the lesson gave us insight into a number of different subjects besides Geography.Hettie Virchis 8W3 Student Journalist

We are B’nei MitzvahIn February, Jewish Care visited the Year 7 assembly to tell us about the new B’nei Mitzvah programme they set up in partnership with our school.Once in Year 7 students are busy with adjusting to a new school, new lessons and new friends. At the same time many of us are preparing for our Bat or Bar Mitzvahs, so it was great to hear about a programme that had been introduced to give us an opportunity to carry out Tzedakah and give back to the community.The programme offers different

ways to do this. You can volunteer, take on a challenge or do your own fundraising. You could help care home residents prepare for a Purim party or maybe give up your time to help with some gardening in one of Jewish Care’s homes. You could even take on a challenge such as a 10k Walk or the Community Fun Run as a way of raising money.On a sunny Sunday morning in May, I took part in a 10k sponsored Walk for Jewish Care. A group of shy and nervous children met up at Amelie House in Golders Green, we were given water and snacks before we set off. Some came with groups of friends and others did not know

anyone at all, but before too long we were all busy walking and talking. We were grateful to stop for a much needed break, with drinks and refreshments at Clore Manor Care Home where we also met some of the residents. Some of the children in the group had grandparents or great grandparents who were residents and so they had visited before, but it was my first time and it was lovely to see how pleased the residents were to meet us and find out all about us.We set off again for the next leg of our walk and finally arrived hot and tired at the final stop, the Betty and Asher Loftus Centre. The Centre is really impressive, with a lovely sitting area and a central courtyard with a beautiful and very peaceful garden for the residents to enjoy. The whole day was well organised and really rewarding. My highlights were realising I could walk 10K, knowing that I had raised funds for Jewish Care, seeing the amazing facilities that my funds would help to support and, best of all, meeting the incredible people who use these amazing facilities.If anyone wants more information, please get in touch with Nicki at Jewish Care - ncohen@jcare.org

Leah Ezekiel 7B1

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Yoni Jesner AwardsThe Yoni Jesner Awards Scheme honours the efforts of students who complete voluntary community service.Almost 20 JFS students continued the annual tradition of being involved in volunteering opportunities and honouring the memory of Yoni Jesner.

Design DreamsStudents from Year 10 Design and Technology (DT) GCSE classes went to visit the offices of Delphi, a global supplier of vehicle technology. The enthusiastic students embarked on the educational visit with little knowledge of the engineering involved as they have mostly been working on their DT projects in their lessons. These involve personally orientated projects, for example, one student is working on a money box that counts coins when you put them into the box. They were first given an introductory tour of the offices at Delphi led by an on-site engineer from the car components analysis and design section. Then the students went into a room and saw a working model of a car engine. One student, Ben, found that his favourite part of the trip was, “When we had a tour around the whole site by one of the engineers working there. We got to see all the interesting aspects that go into the process of production.”Our young engineers followed the tour guide to a room where faulty fuel injectors are diagnosed using

sophisticated equipment such as electron microscopes or by making an internal mould. The group was then faced with the task of assembling an engine by using their new knowledge they had garnered from the tour. They also played a game in teams which consisted of choosing the best parts for a small car race which one student, Nadav, found was his favourite part as his team car won the race.Although the trip was fun for the students it was still educationally packed with our apprentice engineers learning about the Scientific Method, which involves the scientific manner of thinking about a hypothesis and the practical applications of engineering.The trip proved most useful as well as extremely fun and enjoyable. Another student, Aaron, commented, “I found it very interesting and I learnt more about engineering and the Scientific Method and how it can be applied to DT.” The students returned to school in time for lunch armed with much acquired knowledge to apply to their projects in the DT lessons and perhaps even in their future professions.Samuel Bass 10B1 Student Journalist

Italian Football ExperienceSam from Year 7 and Max from Year 8 represented the professional football club, Stevenage FC, in Italy recently.They both played in groups that were one year older than them, playing against teams from Rimini, Cesena and Forli, over a period of a week.With wins, draws and losses, this was an incredible experience for our two students.

Singing With A Music StarJFS hosted the largest Yom Yerushalayim celebration in the UK. With thanks to Mizrachi UK, Jewish singing sensation, Yaakov Shwekey performed to a sell-out crowd. The following day Shwekey came in specially to meet Year 9 and 10 students. With a little bit of music and song, he gave a message of encouragement to the students to know who they are, remember their heritage and that they can be whatever they want to be. This was echoed by a rendition of his song ‘I can be’.

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Student Dance SensationThe Summer term is always an exciting and eventful one and a highlight for those with a passion for dance is the Freeflow show. This exciting annual event took place in the JFS theatre, in front of a capacity audience. The show is a chance for performers from years 7-13 to showcase dances they had been working on; some of which they had been practicing all year round and had even missed one and a half days of school to make sure it would be perfect. Smiles could be seen everywhere, both backstage and onstage, as positive energy spread throughout the spectacle. Parents, brothers, sisters, extended family and friends were frantically busy, snapping

photos at every possible opportunity as the final preparations were taking place. As the audience filed in, the dancers were rushed away for last minute pep talks and nerve-calming words of advice. Miss Weightman entered to give a huge welcome and the 300 spectators were buzzing with enthusiasm. Energy levels were running high and as the dancers came on and off stage applause followed.So much action was taking place backstage. There were many quick make up changes and swift switches of clothes. There was never a dull moment onstage either, as the dancers performed a range of styles such as contemporary, jazz, classical and more. As the show was coming to an end, all the performers were reunited to finish off the show perfectly with a

spectacular finale to the song ‘Shut Up and Dance’. Josie, one of the Sixth Formers who choreographed some of the dances said, “Everyone went crazy, the entire crowd got up jumping and dancing and everyone was cheering, which motivated the dancers so much.” At the end of the evening, the dancers, who had tirelessly practiced the whole day long, were exuberant. Despite being caught up in the exhilaration, it was also a time for them to reflect and realise how lucky they are that JFS is a school able to facilitate such exciting experiences. We look forward to next year’s Freeflow where we are sure that JFS students will, once again, make us proud.Yael Viner 7Z1 Student Journalist

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Selected from our Student Journalist Blog... (view our blog at: http://jfsstudentjournalist.blogspot.co.uk/)What Our Ambitions Tell Us About SocietyAmbition is defined as a desire and determination to achieve success. So I find it strange that it is often associated with our career and positions. What does this say about our society?I think that by associating ambition with these specific achievements we are showing that our society largely views success as economic and competitive rather than personal and moral. We prioritise ‘winning’ over other genuine accomplishments.We start to learn this from a very young age. Even before they can write, children are asked what they would like to be when they are older. Far earlier than they are asked or even consider questions about what they would like to be like or what they would like to do for the world, children are subconsciously being taught that money and jobs are more important than personal successes and moral codes. We need to encourage children to associate ambition and success with personal goals, rather than where they are ranked in society and the position they themselves could hold. I believe that ambition is essential - we need to aim high. However, what is even more important is to make sure that we are aiming in the right direction. We need to take a minute to think about our ambitions. What do you want people to write on your epitaph? How do you want to be remembered? Where do you want to leave your mark?Natalie Shapiro 8W1 Student Journalist

Positive Or Negative Ambition What is ambition? It is defined by the Oxford dictionary as, ‘A strong desire to do or achieve something’. This is true but I believe it is a far too simple approach to the question as there are different types of ambition. For example, in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Caesar is murdered by Brutus, and Antony seems to suggest that being ambitious is a bad thing. He exclaims, “Brutus says he [Julius Caesar] was ambitious”, conveying that it is his reasoning for having murdered Caesar. The other type of ambition is a positive one; striving to make something better or to improve oneself on a reasonable scale. I think this is because Antony’s message in his speech is not solely that being ambitious is a bad thing, but that ambition can be dangerous because one can be ambitious for an unrealistic quest without success. Therefore, doing all that is possible to complete their goal makes it a very dangerous form of ambition. Another, more recent example of this type of ambition is Hitler. His terrible hatred and ambition to destroy all those he saw as inferior to the ‘perfect’ German race enabled him to achieve great power in Germany and to create an ideology that at the time seemed a solution to everyone’s problems. However, his unrealistic goal manifested itself in the systematic murder of over 11 million innocent men, women and children.

There are many more examples of this throughout history that show all the damage that the bad form of ambition can have. However, there are also positive examples of ambition that, although they make less of an impact on the world, make it into history. The reason I say the negative form of ambition makes more of an impact is because it is a lot easier to be destructive on a massive scale than to be progressive and moral on even any significantly large scale. A relatively recent result of positive ambition was the creation of the modern state of Israel, fuelled by the great ambition of Theodor Herzl. Seeing a soldier accused of spying simply because he was Jewish, inspired Herzl and it gave him the ambition to create a safe haven for all Jews. His ambition now means the Jewish people have a homeland once again, where they are protected by their country and are safe from persecution. So, to define ambition, ambition is not just simply a binary question of either having it or not, rather, it is a deeper question that shows itself throughout history as people are influenced by an inspiration to become ambitious either positively or negatively. Therefore, I believe the true definition of ambition is, ‘the choice that is made to either be destructive or progressive when one is given an inspiration”.Samuel Bass 10B1 Student Journalist