I would like to share with you the content of my speech at this morning’s KDSPA Breakfast:

Hinei matov u’manayim shevet achim gam yachad. How good and pleasant it is to be able to sit together again!

It is a great honour to speak with you today and especially to be at our first KDSPA Breakfast in three years. 

Recently, we invited our School Captains, our Roshei Hanhagah, to join our Senior Leadership team meeting as a means of conveying student voice and sharing their thoughts on the School. I was struck by how one of our Roshim, Charley, spoke of the incredible power of our “community” and how positively it has shaped her experience at our school.

Over the past few years of rolling lockdowns and reduced social interactivity, maintaining the unique power of the King David community has been a challenge.

Gift packs to our Year 12s, personal deliveries of honey cake to every staff member for Rosh Hashanah, chocolates sent to every family and phone calls to every family and staff member by our School Council have helped ensure that we have maintained that sense of belonging.

However more than each of these ventures I am so proud of the way that our whole school community – the staff, the parents, the friends and the students have maintained our cultural practice of supporting positive relationships, looking out for one another and maintaining mutual respect, even as we have seen this dissipate in wider society.

This sense of belonging and connectedness is not accidental – it is the result of the School’s emphasis on inclusivity as a core value. It is the result of our valuing of student wellbeing and the inherent focus on the worth of each student. It is also modelled in the way that our staff treat our students and the way that our older students relate to younger ones.

This is emphasised in our school programming, in our explicit curriculum and in our buddying and student leadership activities. 

Of course our hard work in this space is reinforced by our families. One of the blessings of being in a school community that values these deep and genuine relationships is that it becomes self-selecting as we attract families for whom this is an important priority. 

The King David School Parents’ Association, in particular, walks hand-in-hand with us in establishing a culture where every community member is included and supported. Over the past few years, the KDSPA have seen its standard operations significantly impacted as some of its big events have been moved online. 

However, I think it is vital to congratulate and thank the KDSPA and in particular our wonderful president, Tina Landsberg, who has maintained that focus not just on fundraising which of course is greatly appreciated, but on friendraising. Continuing to build our community.

This happens in myriad ways with picnics, twilight cocktail evenings, comedy nights, the family Shabbat and of course this morning’s breakfast.

Most importantly each of these events give each of us an opportunity to help build the community that they wish to be in. 

As we emerge from the era of lockdowns, the School is committed to working with our families to double down on reinforcing this vital aspect of our school. We will  provide a range of initiatives that ensure that these valued relationships are still nurtured and that parents’ voices are considered as we continue to adjust to new ways of operation. 

Community is  undoubtedly one of our “superpowers” and is why it feels so special to be part of The King David School. That said, it is evident that this must not be taken for granted and is best achieved when we all work to preserve it. 

Our School is committed to nurturing connections among all community members. My request is that we continue to join in partnership to help build and preserve the School that we wish to grow up in, work in and be connected to. I know that future generations of student leaders will also say that they are part of a wonderful school that offers a beautiful community in which they belong.