Schechter Day School Network

Kellman Brown Academy in Voorhees, NJ announces that community leaders, Judy and Bernie Platt, have established an endowment for a permanent scholarship fund to provide a Jewish Day school education at Kellman Brown Academy. Rabbi Moshe Schwartz, Head of School, said “The Platt’s leadership and vision will have an important impact on the future of Jewish education in our community.”

Solomon Schechter Day School of Metropolitan Chicago and the Master of Arts in Jewish Professional Studies (MAJPS) program of Spertus Institute have formed a unique partnership in which 13 Solomon Schechter Day School teachers are engaged in the two-year master’s program that deals with core Jewish and professional themes. This cohort of the MAJPS program is specifically tailored to the needs and interests of the individual educators and the long-term goals of Solomon Schechter Day School. Read the rest of this post »

The Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union announced a $15 million challenge gift made in memory of longtime Maplewood resident Golda Och — the largest in the school’s 45-year history and one of the largest endowment gifts ever made to a Jewish day school in North America.

Read all about it in NJ Jewish News »

The Rabbi Jacob Pressman Academy Day School is proud to announce that we have been recognized as a 2010 National Blue Ribbon School by the US Department of Education. The announcement was made by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Thursday, September 9th, in Washington, D.C. Pressman Academy was recognized in the high performing school category.

Pressman Academy Day School was nominated for Blue Ribbon School status by the Council for American Private Education (CAPE) last school year. The US Department of Education then verified that Pressman is ranked among the nation’s highest performing schools as measured in both reading (English language arts) and mathematics on tests referenced by national norms in at least the most recent year tested.

This year, more than 1,8000 teens will participate in Conservative Movement programs in Israel with Ramah, Solomon Schechter, and USY. Below is our list of the 32 participating schools who are sending a total of 1113 students to Israel.

Also take a look at our Photos from Israel Trips. Read the rest of this post »

Congratulations and yishar koah to the middle school students of the Jacob Pressman Academy (Los Angeles) who participated in the California Mathematics League. The 6th grade placed 4th in the LA city competition and the 8th grade who placed 3rd in the LA city competition. A huge yishar koah to Benjamin B., who ranked 1st  in Los Angeles and placed 6th overall in the entire state for 6th grade.

 
The California Math League is part of the national Math League and is dedicated to bringing challenging mathematics materials to students. League specialties include math contests, books, and computer software designed to stimulate interest and confidence in mathematics for students from the 4th grade through high school. Over 1 million students participate in Math League contests each year. Contest questions are designed to cover a range of mathematical knowledge for each grade level. Questions on the contests never require any mathematics beyond the grade level tested. This year over 137 private and public schools participated in the California competition.
 

News from Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union

Athletic Fields Renovation Set to Begin

We are excited to announce that the final stage in the Upper School renovation is about to begin with the upgrade of our athletic fields! The plan includes renovating the existing soccer and softball fields and adding a new running track. The improvements to the existing fields will include re-grading them to improve drainage and bringing them to regulation size so that more home games can be played at the school instead of traveling to local town fields to “host” a home game.

The new fields and track will significantly enhance the athletic experience of Schechter’s student athletes. The Physical Education program will also benefit from the improvements. In addition to raising the quality of the athletic facilities, the safety of the athletes and spectators will be greatly enhanced with the addition of a fence between the fields and the adjoining property that operates next door. The improvements will also include the addition of an underground sprinkler system and a water fountain. A small weight room will also be added indoors.

When student, families and staff at Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union heard about the devastation in Chile following an earthquake a few short weeks ago, they knew they had to help. After all, the school has a close connection to Chile – For the past six years SSDSEU has held a 10th grade annual exchange program with the Instituto Hebreo in Santiago, Chile.

Immediately following the earthquake, SSDSEU Chilean Exchange program coordinator Gail Shapiro, reached out to Instituto Hebreo and the surrounding Jewish community. “Thankfully no one in the community that we know has suffered any physical harm and there was minimal structural damage to their homes and school,” said Shapiro in an e-mail to the SSDSEU community. “Nonetheless, as a school we wanted to help the greater Chilean community.”

Read the rest of this post »

Pressman Academy is in the news for its Hebrew immersion program. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

It’s not easy for a teacher to communicate in an entirely foreign language, especially to pre-schoolers. But that is what happens in an extraordinary experiment in Hebrew-language immersion launched seven years ago at the Jacob Pressman Academy, a Conservative day school in Los Angeles. Children entering the school between the ages of two and five have the option of spending half their day in classrooms where only Hebrew is spoken.

The Pressman program is based on a body of educational research suggesting that languages are not taught but acquired. Rather than subjecting students to drills and rote memorization, let them absorb a second language the same way they learn their mother tongue—by hearing and speaking. A second body of research focuses on the ways that developing brains create neural pathways. For children under seven, it emerges, second languages are stored in the mind just as the mother tongue is.

Read the whole article on Jewish Ideas Daily

Members of Schechter’s eighth-grade class of 2009 hold the tallit at last spring’s special needs b’nai mitzvah in Nahariya.

As reported in the Jewish Standard newspaper:

On the last day of September, more than 300 students and faculty in grades three to eight at Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County walked laps around the New Milford school’s new outdoor sports facility to benefit special-needs bar and bat mitzvah celebrants in Nahariya. Read the rest of this post »