Expert educators from abroad included Dr. Daniel Rose, Director of Education at Koren, Jerusalem and the Director of Education at the Rabbi Sacks Foundation, who gave a session on Intergenerational Learning in the Jewish School, and Vivet Sparkes from Turkey, whose session was on Mezuzah Mastery: Bridging Tradition with STEAM for the Modern Classroom.
The day provided participants with a choice of 19 sessions, ranging from The Soul in the Spaces – the Mezzuzah Scroll’s Message for Making Tefillah Meaningful with Rabbi David Lister, Rabbi of Edgware United Synagogue, Israel Education in Tough Times with educator Robin Moss and Making Lessons Accessible for all Students with Bradley Cooper, Head of Kodesh at Gesher school.
LSJS’ Primary Programme Manager, Jillian Dunstan ran a session on Planning and Assessment in Kodesh: How to Use my Time Effectively, which included how to adapt the skills taught in the core curriculum for Jewish Studies.
To mark Jews’ College and LSJS’ 170th anniversary this year, participants had the opportunity to take part in a Torah Factory Workshop, with Rabbi Yossi Simon from Tzivos Hashem, making a mezuzah, since each mezuzah scroll contains 170 words.
In his opening address LSJS President Chief Rabbi Mirvis said, “Every year, I have the zechut to address the builders of the future of British Jewry. I am in awe of what LSJS achieves as the educators of educators. We have just started the book of Shemot which has so many lessons, including the fact that we need to recognize each new generation is different to previous generations. It is the ultimate privilege to build the next generation and I thank all you teachers and a big thank you to LSJS.”
LSJS was delighted to welcome teachers from schools across Europe who particularly enjoyed the opportunity to meet each other and network. “This is my first time at this conference, and I am so excited to be joining”, said Selen Yildirim from Ulus Jewish school in Instanbul. “This is such a great opportunity to meet other teachers from all over Europe and I am learning so much from such interesting sessions.”
Joanne Greenaway, Executive Director at LSJS said, “It is so telling that in the Torah, a Bayit, a house is both a physical place and a household, a group of connected people. It is more than just a place. It is who we are and what binds us and what we are striving for together. This is your house and we are the educational family of the UK and beyond. The connections and relationships we build here have tremendous value.”
Dr Helena Miller, Director of Degrees and Teacher Training Programmes, Senior Research Fellow at LSJS and conference co-chair with Esther Colman, said “We are thrilled to see how many dedicated Jewish students come from all over the world to join us for such an impactful and practical day of professional development and networking with such a great range of talented educational leaders.”
LSJS is grateful to UnitEd, for all their support with this conference.
