The King David School offers our students the opportunity to study a range of languages – Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, French and Yiddish.

In Hebrew, students are grouped according to ability: Beginners, Consolidating, Intermediate and Extension. Native speakers of Hebrew have the opportunity to extend their skills in small study groups in which they are exposed to current Israeli materials.

The Junior School Hebrew curriculum is based on Aleh, Ani Kore Ivrit and Chaverim BeIvrit programs and is organized through themes and topics which are arranged to provide progressive and cumulative opportunities. Topics are integrated with themes and key areas that are being addressed in other domains. Within each theme and topic, time is devoted to the acquisition of new language, structures, communication and convention. Students use and respond to the language in the classroom, relating the language to what they see, hear, touch and need.

Students are immersed in hearing the language whose meaning is made clear by: gestures, dramatization, singing, art activities and conversing. Stimulus materials such as stories, reading activities, card games, multimedia resources, visual and graphic displays and Internet sites, encourage students to understand that the language is used normally for communication in these settings. They also identify features of communication, and differences in greeting routines, ways of being polite and obvious cultural practices. Students participate in activities which locate the language in real communication contexts, hearing simple and extended stretches of the language and gradually using it themselves. The festivals and Shabbat have been an integral part of the program.

In Year 7 the students are introduced to the ALPHA NETA and NETA programs which carry them through to VCE. These multi-dimensional programs integrate the four major language acquisition skills – speaking, listening, reading and writing – by immersing students in everything from classical Hebrew texts to Israeli music, and from historical documents to poetry and drama.

Together with the core study of Hebrew throughout the school, in Year 7 students undertake one semester of Spanish and one semester of French. In Year 8 they choose between these two and continue that language. Year 7 students may elect to do Yiddish outside of school hours. Yiddish becomes part of the regular timetable in Year 10. Russian is added to the elective language choices in Year 9.

VCE courses are offered in French, Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew. Students who complete their Hebrew VCE in Year 11 have the opportunity to continue their studies through the University of Melbourne Extension Program. This program enables the students to study some of the classic Hebrew literature from the 19th century to today’s popular authors.