Mount Sinai College investment pays off
Sydney’s Mount Sinai College has completed a campus renovation including the grounds, buildings, library and new classrooms marking the day with an official campus launch.
Cutting of Ribbon Anthony Berman, Phil Roberts, Tim Greenstein
The journey began six years ago for Mount Sinai College with an architectural design competition. The stated goal: to reflect the aspirations of the team of educators who were looking to make education more relevant and meaningful to our children.
Principal Phil Roberts says, “We are now telling our story like never before. Honouring tradition. Embracing change. If ever there was a slogan that so captured the essence of what has been one of the College’s most astounding and influential transformations, it is this.”
There are those unique features that have never been lost. The uniqueness of a Jewish school with its customs, traditions, festivals, rituals and commemorative days. The Jewish music that is heard through the corridors and even the smell of challot on a Friday remind new parents of their multisensory experiences at a Jewish school. And Mount Sinai has always had a warmth, an exuberance, an energy that is borne out of these traditions which it continues to honour.
“Our design is an architectural expression of the contemporary, relevant Apple Distinguished School we have become. A school that reflects 3 archetypal learning spaces: the ‘cave,’ a private space for learning; the ‘campfire,’ a place where people gather to collaborate in learning; and the ‘watering hole’ which is a place for sharing information and discoveries.” says Roberts.
The classrooms and various spaces with their flexibility and versatility are aligned to current teaching methodology and hence planned. Roberts elaborated that “most importantly, our staff were prepared after years of professional learning to work in these spaces.”
This has been the difference at Mount Sinai – a teaching team of certified Apple Badge teachers working in an Apple Distinguished School all of whom know how to use these facilities to their maximum effectiveness.
Anthony Berman, President of Mount Sinai College noted that everything has been “purpose-built”’- a centrally positioned and family-centred library, the stunning Tree of Life sculpture and Magen David motif, and the external canteen which beckons the community each morning. “Everything was designed to welcome and bring our Mount Sinai community together. Simply put, this is architecture that says “come in and meet the family”.
“We have evolved from one classroom in the back of the shule to what we have today and our Maroubra shule and school stand as pillars of community strength and unity for a growing population of Jewish families”, says Roberts.
“Today we walk around and see the most stunning, imaginative, and stimulating educational environment you’ll find anywhere in the country, but it all means less if our focus is not equally on the calibre of the boys and girls who have graduated from and who characterise Mount Sinai College.”
