Report to supporters of the Primary School: March - May 2019

We would like to renew our thanks to all of our friends who support our Primary School. Your contributions have allowed it to grow and flourish this year.

Enrollment

Our Primary School currently has 238 pupils from grade 1 to 6. The complete educational system, including the nursery and pre-school has a total of 278 pupils; this year the school reached a near parity in the number of Jewish and Arab pupils and the number of girls and boys.

The School has almost doubled over the last 5 years with children now coming from 19 surrounding towns and villages.

For 2019-20 we had a very large number of children who wanted to come into our first grade. There were enough children for 3 new classes. Unfortunately we don’t have enough physical space and are unable to absorb the additional transportation costs. For the time being we will continue with 2 new first grade classes. There will be 11 classes next year in the Primary School plus the kindergarten and pre-school, and we will need to expand our educational team.

Prize for Excellence by the Ministry of Education

Our unique approach of education emphasizing peace and acceptance was recognized this year by the Ministry of Education. We were selected among all educational institutions in the country (kindergartens, elementary schools and high schools) as one of the nine finalists for a prize of Excellency by the Ministry of Education. The binational, bilingual curriculum that the school developed with thanks to your long standing support, was undoubtedly one of the reasons.

A delegation sent by the Ministry of Education visited the school in February 2019 and praised the atmosphere of the School, the behavior of its pupils and the curriculum taught by its teachers.

Additionally we were visited by the General Director of the Ministry of Education and all of the regional directors; the head of the Mate Yehuda Regional Councils and department heads; 30 school principles from the region; teachers from the Lucerne Teachers College in Switzerland; and the Ambassador of Germany to Israel.

Financial Concerns

This school year brought with it a lot of great accomplishments and growth as well as new financial challenges. Parent involvement in the School has increased, and with it, also the level of oversight from the Education Ministry. A number of parents complained about the amount paid for tuition and as a result the Ministry has limited the amount that can be taken for each child. These funds are used for teaching hours, to support the library, community activities, transport coordination, and additional hours for Reem Nashef as the Palestinian deputy principal. The result of the complaint was that we had to reduce the budgeted income from parents by 60%. In the past, with parents fees, and your support, we were able to balance the school budget but now we are going to need to provide more funds, or cut staff.

After months of negotiating with the parents’ committee at the School, we found budget lines that we can work with the Education Ministry and the Regional Council to receive funds to cover (for example, we should be able to receive a budget for water, electricity, gardening and security). This means we will not need to raise a lot more money but for this year we are going to need to raise $130,000 more than we planned. I hope that with your help, and with a foundation with which we are in touch, we will succeed in meeting the School costs without impacting the teaching hours or school program. We also face rising transportation costs next year as the school grows, a burden we share with the parents.

Curriculum Development and Learning in School

Over the last four years the Primary School has been working on developing the binational and bilingual curricula, which has now been translated into Hebrew and Arabic and we plan to translate (at least in part) into English. The teachers are already using the curricula in classrooms. The pupils benefit from the multicultural atmosphere which has been strengthened with the appointment of Reem Nashef as Palestinian vice principal. The placement of Hebrew and Arabic signs throughout the school also makes Arabic more prevalent in the School’s day-to-day life. The Primary School policy is to limit the number of pupils per class in order to ensure that the teachers can give attention to every pupil in the classroom, and to keep school fun. This year we had the opportunity to present our unique approach to education and the curricula at an international conference on ‘Activist Pedagogy for Shared Life and World Betterment’, which took place at the Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and Arts in Tel Aviv.

We are now at the point of printing and publishing the curricula the School has developed for grades 1 to 6. It is being implemented and provides weekly lessons with two teachers, one Arab and one Jewish, where the Palestinian and Israeli cultures and traditions, national and religious holidays are taught in class. As part of this, the new curriculum is teaching important values such as tolerance, equality, peace, mutual respect, unity and individual and cultural obligations. It integrates classroom study with class projects, school-wide activities and family events.

Our next step is to disseminate the curricula and make it available and accessible to other schools.

We are developing a working relationship with the other bilingual binational schools (Hagar School in Beer Sheva and the Hand in Hand schools), We are also establishing a partnership with MATAC - Center for Educational Technology, the biggest institute in Israel that is responsible for developing curricula, writing textbooks, digitalization and online learning for schools in the country. We had a very encouraging meeting with the staff of their department for shared society, who thought they could learn a lot from our work, and we decided to work together on a three-year program in order to make the learning materials developed by the School staff available to all schools that have students from different ethnicities and cultures, as well as put the materials online in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

Technology studies

Our pupils not only benefit from a bilingual and binational curriculum but also study in class technology, coding and robotics which is in addition to our ongoing developing music program.

Our children recently took part of a national computer competition and made it to the finals, which will take place soon. The school also raised awareness of the pupils to the harmful content on the web and worked with the children and their parents to protect them against abusive behavior on the internet.

Photo Albums:

School Community Meeting on Safe Internet
Safe Web Surfing Competition

Because we are always looking to broaden the perspective of our pupils, we have developed special programs focusing on nature and the environment. Among these are the community garden project, an initiative that allows children from 3rd grade to learn about their natural surroundings and be aware of the importance to preserve the environment. Pupils from 1st and 2nd grades also benefit from monthly sessions in the community garden.

In April, with the onset of Spring, a new project began at the School, organized by one of the graduates of the School for Peace who is working on a project to teach beekeeping and honey production to Israelis and Palestinians from the Palestinian Territories. He proposed working with the children in the 5th and 6th grade to teach them beekeeping as part of their environmental studies and enrichment programs. Consequently we placed bee hives throughout the village and the children are now learning how to take care of them and produce honey.

The School’s music program continues in full force allowing children from the 1st to 4th grades to learn about music and how to play musical instruments. In the fifth and sixth grades, pupils then choose to pursue music, sports, or art.

With the festivities of Purim, the children from Kindergarten and the Primary School enjoyed dressing up and sharing sweets with each other. https://photos.wasns.org/index.php?/category/916

National Days

We recently completed a month of national days. The staff held a discussion on the ceremonies and celebrations of Israel’s Independence Day and the Nakba; Memorial Day, Holocaust Day. It is always an interesting period in the village and the school with discussion on why we need ceremonies together, and/or separately and how to make these sensitive days and the outside reality relevant to such young children.

Holocaust Day was especially emotional with all of the children and staff dressed in white. At the ceremony, one pupil from the 4th grade told the story of her grandfather’s experience during the Holocaust and the students and parents stood for a minute of silence in memory of those who perished. Photo Album

For Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism there was also a ceremony. Boaz Kitain, a member of the community whose son Tom died in army service, told the story of his son, who was born in the village and attended school here. The following day the Jewish pupils celebrated Independence Day, and then returned to their mixed classes for a joint activity. For the Arab pupils, participating in Independence Day and Memorial Day ceremonies is optional.

Nakba Day

May 15 marks the day of the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) however the Education Ministry forbids the teaching of the Palestinian narrative in schools. Therefore the event was commemorated outside the School in the village auditorium. The 6th graders prepared a ceremony for the whole school. Two children, the grandchildren of refugees, told the story of the 1948 war and how their grandparents became refugees. The children sang the Palestinian anthem and famous songs about the right to return and the longing for their homes.

For Ramadan each class organized an evening Iftar, meal to break the daytime fast, with children and families. The occasion included discussions and group activities. We learned about the traditions of the month of Ramadan, the holiest period in Islam, and on the values it emphasizes, such as tolerance, helping the needy, and assisting the other. These Ramadan evenings have become a tradition at the school as well as in the village. This year the community Iftar meal included a festive procession through the village with songs, dancing and distribution of sweets. It is very nice experience to see all the village members participating in this celebration together.

The Graduating Class...

Every year the 6th grade graduates deal with end of the year exams so they can be accepted into junior high/middle schools in the area. With that pressure there is always the additional tension of the end of the school year which is filled with emotion and the pain in having to separate from friends they have studied with for the past 6 years. After so many years together at the Wahat al-Salam Neve Shalom Primary School, it is time for them to say goodbye and to move on to different schools carrying with them the values they have learned throughout the years.

This year the homeroom teachers of the 6th grade, Aya Ramon and Reem Nashaf decided to hold a two-day intensive seminar for their students. After a meeting and activities led by facilitators and teachers, there were different activities focusing on the connection to Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom, the School and ideas or goals for their personal future. The two days included discussion on personal, group and national identity. All the parents came in the evening for a festive Ramadan Iftar dinner with the children. There was then a special art workshop with Hanoch Yivny, a well-known artist, who taught the families how to create portraits of their children which would reflect their personalities, using different recycled materials. In the end, each parent stood with their child and presented the art they had created and the characteristic of their child that it portrayed. And of course we finished with a group photo to put into the end of the year album.

It was a very emotional two days, hearing the children and their parents as the end of their educational experience with us approached. It was personally very emotional for me as a mother of a child at the School. It was the first time I stood with my son Adam in front of his class and realized his journey in our amazing school, and also mine - after 19 years as a mother and raising 3 children in the school - was going to end.

Helping our Neighbors

As the year draws to a close, the school and community came under the threat of fire which broke out and seriously damaged homes and public buildings in nearby Kibbutz Harel. We too were poised to evacuate our homes but the fire took a different direction. Now, with many of the residents of Harel being unable to return home, the school is hosting children and families. Their pre-school and kindergarten has moved into our School until they can rehabilitate their buildings and they can return.

Final Word

Thank you for working to support the school and our mission. We greatly appreciate your assistance, which gives us the opportunity to impact a new generation and reach out to more and more children and their families.

We look forward to continuing to work with you and seeing the School grow, spreading its message of peace, tolerance and shared society.

Sincerely yours.

Samah Salaime
Director of the Communication and Development Office, Wahat al-Salam - Neve Shalom