Education

B’nei Mitzvah

When a child reaches the date of their 13^th birthday in the Jewish calendar they become Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah, which means they are obligated to take on the mitzvot of being an adult.   Traditionally this is marked by offering the Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah an aliyah - the opportunity to recite the blessings and read from the Torah scroll in a Shabbat morning service. FRS believes very strongly that the process of the Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah is much more important than the performance and this process includes peer-led teaching on a Friday afternoon (Friday Group) and classes on alternate Shabbat mornings (Shabbat Programme).

All pupils are seen in the light of what they can achieve – we pride ourselves on being able to take all special needs of our pupils into account in order to create a meaningful process for every pupil, whatever their ability and personal circumstances.

Friday Group (year before a Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah)

B’nei Mitzvah students at FRS learn in a dynamic and exciting peer-led programme called Friday Group. They meet weekly one-on-one with their helper (a young person who has recently been through the process themselves) and learn the prayers, blessings and Torah readings which they will read on their Bar Mitzvah / Bat Mitzvah, also giving them the skills to lead services in the future.

Shabbat programme (school years 7-8)

We meet on alternate weeks from 9.30am to 12.30pm for informal, creative, and participatory programmes, including celebrating their B'nei Mitzvah services together. There are also extra programmes run during school holidays.

Please click here to see Shabbat Programme term dates for 2011/12.

Hadracha (youth leadership) (school years 9-12)

We offer an invaluable youth leadership training programme, run by the youth worker at FRS. This enables teenagers to work on summer scheme and at club as well as being teaching assistants at Kochavim.

Teenagers in years 11 & 12 are also encouraged to complete RSY’s course Hadracha as, once they do, they are trained to teach at Kochavim, and work on RSY’s Shemesh summer camps and become Roshim (team leaders) on summer scheme.  RSY trained madrichim can choose to develop advanced skills in the fields of social action, Israel, creative leaderships, sports and text based studies.

Pathways

New for 5773, a programme designed to allow teenagers to develop skills and knowledge on social action, youth leadership, liturgy, spirituality and informal Jewish education.  Teenagers will follow their own path throughout years 9 - 11, culminating in an exciting trip in Year 12.