Last weekend, I had the privilege of attending the ZFA Jewish Educators' conference at Mount Scopus in Melbourne, together with a team of Carmel Jewish Studies staff. The experience was quite different from my first ZFA conference two years ago, when everything was new, every idea was surprising and I knew nobody. This time I was fully aware of what to expect and was looking forward to the added joy of catching up with friends from my JNF study tour of Israel in 2022, as well as colleagues with whom I have worked since then. It was also wonderful to be able to spend quality time off campus with our own Carmel staff, discussing what we had learnt each day and enjoying my new favourite food, laffa bread.

Great food aside, it was a brilliant opportunity to hear from the best in the business regarding what is going on across the world in Jewish education. Choosing the workshops and sessions that would be most interesting for me was a real treat. I picked a variety of presenters covering different themes, having already ascertained that we had ensured decent coverage of all that was on offer. Favourites for me included a teacher talking about strategies she uses to 'ignite the spark' in Hebrew lessons, and a very robust discussion around the ethics of a textbook banned in Israel because its 'dual narrative' approach involved students learning about conflicts through analysing accounts from both sides.

I also found Zohar Raviv's keynote address 'Between sight and vision: towards a strategic blueprint for Jewish and Israel education in this era' very thought-provoking. He urged us to ensure that we make sure we talk about all the positive aspects of Judaism and not focus entirely on the challenges and tragedies. It was an address during which I took many notes; I will want to re-visit them once I have worked through the emails doubtless waiting for me in my inbox at home.

Our very own Mr Lawrence and Mr Schneider presented at the conference and, as you would expect, did the School proud with their well-planned and thought-provoking presentations on 'The Rabbi Sacks Way' and 'Empathy and Evidence - which is more important in educating Israel advocacy?'. It's fantastic to know that we are working with such well-respected educators in their field and so good to be able to share their knowledge and skills with colleagues from other schools.

The final touch to a wonderful weekend was finding a suitable background read to take on the trip. Recommended to me by a visiting speaker earlier in the term, "The Year of living Biblically" by AJ Jacobs was a delight and made the plane journeys quite bearable.

It takes significant planning to be able to take such a team away from the campus during term time, but the benefits in terms of the quality professional learning that ensue make it eminently worthwhile. My sincere gratitude goes to the AV学院 staff back at the ranch who kept the children learning in our absence and, in doing so, enabled us to benefit from such a rich and valuable experience. Thank you.

Julie Harris

Principal