Neta Programme-In Australia
Seven Jewish Day Schools begin a pilot programme to "test-drive" the NETA High School Hebrew programme in 2004 - sponsored by the Zionist Federation of Australia and the Jewish Agency.
Teachers from King David School, Masada College, Moriah College, Mt Scopus College, The Emanuel School, Yavneh College and Academy BJE came together in December for a week long professional in-service by 2 of the people from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem who developed this innovative and revolutionary curriculum - complete with study guides and the required material.
This unique venture - proudly supported by the Zionist Federation - is the first attempt to institute a proper High School Hebrew curriculum professionally developed especially for the teaching of Ivrit in Diaspora Day Schools.
40 teachers participated in this exciting week, with local mentors and co-ordinators selected to ensure the proper implementation of the pilot programme.
The teachers who participated in the NETA training programme
Teachers hard at work during a session
EARLY CHILDHOOLD TEACHERS HEAD TO ISRAELI SUMMER SCHOOL
In an Australian first, Jewish dayschool early childhood teachers visited Israel as part of a professional development seminar aimed at improving preschool teaching.
Organised and sponsored by the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) and the Jewish Agency, the 24 teachers – from Melbourne, Sydney and Perth – spent two weeks in Jerusalem and met with Israeli early childhood professionals. The program began on December 23.
Lorraine Abraham, the Executive Director of ZFA, said the initiative was part of its "ongoing mandate to offer educational services and opportunities to Jewish education and educators in Australia".
She said the participants had already formed networks and had been communicating on a regular basis throughout the year. The teachers have attended pre-seminar workshops and video conferences and this end-of-year trip was a "natural progression", she said.
"What we’re working on is that there’ll be post-programming and throughout 2004 we will work with these networks to really bring back from Israel all the state-of-the-art, new directions in early childhood, Zionist, Jewish education."
Previously, the ZFA has sent primary and secondary teachers on professional development seminars to Israel; this is the first time it has been offered to early childhood teachers. T
The ZFA runs a Jewish educators’ conference every two years – in August 2002, it involved 350 participants and was the impetus for the current focus on early childhood Jewish education. |
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