Binational School for Jewish and Palestinian kids

the Primary School successfully accomplished a litany of laudable achievements in the latter half of 2021. These include:

• Re-opening in person for nearly 300 students after more than a year on Zoom
• Adding, in response to demand, a second first-grade classroom

• Welcoming and orienting a new principal, Neama Abo Dalu, an educator and administrator with over 17 years of experience in binational education
• Strengthening, through teacher workshops, the HOTAM curriculum (Education, Culture, and Tradition), setting the standard for bilingual, culturally inclusive education in Israel
• Working with the parents, teachers, community, municipality, and consultants to develop a systematic expansion into middle and high school grades, increasing their regional impact
• Developing or strengthening weekly instructional classes in music, sports, local ecology, theater, film, and nature crafts, in addition to teaching the mandated core curriculum
• Providing teacher training and mentoring in the HOTAM curriculum, lesson planning, and bilingual education during the summer and school calendar year
• Planning and carrying out curriculum-connected field trips and special days including first-day-of-school celebrations, science and art workshops for teachers and students, an experiential learning olive harvest trip, and multiple holiday activities connected to Purim, Ramadan, Easter, and Sigd, all of which included parents and the wider community in their invitations
• Strengthening the Parents Community, including increased classroom involvement and increased community engagement, with a goal that the greater connections fostered among parents provide a place and people with whom to process the tensions and erupting violence in Israel’s Mixed Cities
• Continuing renovation and new construction of the new playground, to be fully completed in 2022