EDUCATION
Empowering students to enhance the Negev’s future
Negev-Sinai Elementary School
- Negev-Sinai elementary school in the Mashabim community, the first religious elementary school in Ramat HaNegev, was established in 2015. The school’s goal is to incorporate the region’s advanced agricultural techniques into the curriculum for students of all ages.
- The Negev-Sinai Agricultural Learning Center allows students a variety of educational, social, and emotional experiences throughout the school year. Students work jointly with teachers and community members in this unique agricultural space:
- Building and maintaining their own garden beds.
- Installing irrigation systems to grow field crops such as wheat, sweet potatoes, and carrots.
Studying, documenting, and experimenting with hydroponic crops from on-site greenhouses and taking measurements from the advanced microclimate station. - Later on in the school year, students are even able to make a meal for the community using plants they grew themselves.
- At Negev-Sinai, students learn basic subjects such as English, math, and science; what makes the curriculum unique is students’ exposure to lessons in advanced technology, agricultural techniques, and sustainability. Along the way, students also learn responsibility, teamwork, and love of nature.
- The plan for the next year is to double the school’s music program from 30 to 60 participating students and add percussion instruments to the existing wind instruments.
- Plans also include increasing studies and activities within the areas of “Love the Land of Israel,” the importance of contribution to one’s community, and the development of interpersonal relations. School professionals are working on programs that include a variety of relevant trips to promote the goals of curricula such as:
- Visits and football games with Bedouin children
- Meeting model personalities such as Mayor Eran Foron and Dan Danilovitzh (Mayor of Beer Sheva)
- A variety of trips in Ramat HaNegev and all over Israel
- The school has a Twin Schools program with the Nancy Rubin Jewish elementary school in London, UK. The two student communities regularly contact each other by mail, email, and Zoom meetings with members of the Enhanced English class of Negev Sinai.
- The principals of all the region’s schools meet bi-weekly, and there are a few activities during the school year that Negev Sinai students participate in activities with students of the other schools. For example, during the David Ben Gurion March, Negev Sinai and Zin elementary students join in one group for the event, and afterward, the students gather for additional activities.
- The school’s current needs include:
- Technology; at present, the school only has 16 computers, but would like to add at least 12 new ones
- iPads for at least the 58 7th and 8th-grade students; ideally all students so that teachers can increase online studies for students.
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