The Year 7 Shabbaton took place on 23-24 January with over 40 year 7 students heading to Skeet Hill House for the weekend. We celebrated a truly pluralist JCoSS Shabbat with a choice of services, plenty of delicious food and lots of fun and games. Huge thanks to the staff team who joined us and we’re already looking forward to next year!
The school marked Rosh Chodesh Shevat with a choice of over 30 services for Key Stage 3 students and a special assembly for older students led by Rabbi Benji Stanley from the Movement for Reform Judaism. Shevat of course is the month in which we celebrate Tu b’shevat, and this year we marked this festival with a social action project in association with the Trussell Trust which is a network of food banks throughout the country.
The Alan Senitt programme is also well underway, with students taking part in seminars on leadership and project management alongside peers from partner schools. Look out for the official launch of their campaign for this year within the Jewish Community and beyond.
Students are also continuing to build up their Yoni Jesner volunteering hours. We are very proud to be a part of this programme which recognises and rewards volunteering and social action by our students in a wide variety of settings. Some students are collecting their hours through being part of a new JCoSS IJE initiative, Team Tikkun – a group of students who are dedicated to increasing and developing our social action and fundraising. Throughout this month they are running ‘Film February’ during which students can watch classic films at lunchtime for a small fee which will, of course, be donated to our school charities. It’s not too late to sign up to the Yoni Jesner Award Scheme, visit www.jlgb.org/yonijesner
Finally all the Zionist Youth Movements were in school last week, advertising their summer programmes. Students were able to meet movement workers and think about which summer camps and programmes they might want to join. We are proud that
we are the only Jewish secondary school in the UK which invites in all the youth movements from across the religious
spectrum and celebrates all they have to offer.
