April 2025
Kehila Heschel | Lishai Peel (and students)

At Kehila, we learn not just from books but from each other. We practise kindness every day. One way we do this is by taking care of the kindergarten students during recess. Every day at our school brings a new surprise. We love exploring nature, whether it’s hiking in eco class, or learning about pigments in leaves, or planting and harvesting vegetables from our garden, which we donate to the Jewish food bank. We each have something special we love: Miss Ellie enjoys discovering colours in nature; Miss Sophia loves gardening; and Miss Sadie loves to experience nature through drawings and learning tree names.
 

One of our favourite parts of the week is Kabbalat Shabbat, when we take turns being the chazanit, drinking grape juice, and enjoying special Friday treats like Challah and Oreos. We also love celebrating holidays together. Purim and Tu B’Shevat are our favourites! This year, Sadie dressed up  as Queen Esther, and Ellie loved the Purim carnival, especially the fun stations like face painting, guessing how many chocolates are in a jar, and bracelet making. We’re also excited to welcome Yonatan, a new classmate from Israel, who is nine years old. Kehila is a place where we learn and have fun together!

Young journalists
We invited our students to write our article, and they were excited to be young journalists.  Providing young people with the opportunity to express themselves is at the heart of how we teach at Kehila. 

Prizmah, the Centre for Jewish Day Schools, recently released a report that showed 81 per cent of day school alumni say their Jewish identity is very important to them, compared to just 35 per cent of those who did not attend.  This finding underscores the vital role Jewish education plays in shaping a strong sense of identity and connection to heritage. 

But the impact of Jewish day schools extends beyond individual students — these schools enrich family culture, deepen Jewish literacy, and help cultivate the future leadership of our community. Investing in Jewish education fosters lifelong engagement and strengthens the broader Jewish world.

Kehila is growing and evolving to meet the needs of our students and families. Our aftercare program is expanding to include STEM, music, and sports. Our integrative curriculum offers students the opportunity to learn in three different languages starting at JK in — French as well as Hebrew — while exploring a new middah (Jewish value) each month.
Every holiday we observe, and every lesson we teach, is rooted in a fundamental question: What kind of individuals do we want to raise, and what kind of world do we want to help create? You can see the answer in the everyday moments at Kehila, the way our students explore, learn, and celebrate together.

CAPTION: Kehila students, Sadie, Ellie and Sophia