In June, the AMIT “Kipa Bots” robotic team from our high school in Modi’in were among 80 teams from around the world taking part in an international robotics competition in Australia. The competition was the culmination of a year of work in which the students developed a robot that independently solves complex tasks on a special task board.
On arriving, the students learned they were scheduled to compete on Saturday. While the competition organizers were able to reschedule some of the activities for Friday and our students could have technically participated, they made the decision to opt out of Shabbat competition altogether. Instead, our students hung a large poster where they were scheduled to appear asking, “Why aren’t we here today? Because today is Judaism’s Shabbat, our day of rest.” Principal Lior Halevi noted that while we often associate Kiddush Hashem (sanctification of G-d’s name) with sacrifices in terrible times, our boys showed the world that Kiddush Hashem can also be performed in love and joy.
For the third year in a row AMIT ranks first at the top of Israel’s nine educational networks as determined by the Ministry of Education. Our winning score is built on:
Highest scores in climate and security in our schools. Five years ago, we recognized the need to develop a network culture to ensure that all our children feel safe in their school environment, with a special emphasis on developing an anti-bullying culture.
High scores in the inclusion of special needs students, service to country (post-high school army and national service) and low dropout rates.
Highest test scores both for percentage of students graduating with a full bagrut (86%) and for those students earning excellent scores in mathematics and English. Our test results are due to enrichment classes, highly individualized attention offered during the school year and in the summer, and the use of long distance learning courses to make sure that every student can excel, regardless of where they are located.
Underpinning this effort is a state-of-the-art AMIT designed Business Intelligence (BI) system enabling us to identify specific schools, classes, and even individual students that would benefit from smaller classes, extra hours, and enrichment courses in specialized subjects. This empowers a unique collaborative culture among teachers, principals and specialty staff driving improved student performance across the board.
At the core of all these measurable outcomes is our values-based education that guides and grounds our network– deepening our students’ bonds to their Jewish heritage and the state of Israel. Despite missing the Shabbat portion of the competition, the AMIT Kipa Bots still won first place in the research category. While I cannot guarantee that we will come in number one in every competition, I can guarantee that if we put values front and center, we will always come out winners.
