New Parent Update - 29th May 2014

Dear Parents,

As the opening of the school draws closer, we wanted to update you again on development in all areas of NAIS school life.

The most exciting thing is that enrolments continue to grow strongly and many classes are already filled. We are really looking forward to welcoming pupils and parents into the school for the Orientation days on 28 and 29 August.  More details will follow in future updates.

CURRICULUM

As you’ll know we will be following the revised National Curriculum from September. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing some information regarding the curriculum and additional subjects we will be offering.

As part of High Performance Learning, our classes are structured around a range of different educational tools and resources. Teachers draw on their own knowledge of teaching and learning to plan lessons and activities for all the pupils. In Maths we will be using Numicon, a scheme which builds a solid understanding of numbers and number relationships. This foundation enables children to develop fluent calculation skills and a secure grasp of pattern and algebra. The pupils will also have access to Abacus, a Maths scheme which creates inspired and confident young mathematicians through the use of challenging activities and investigations as well as access to online revision.

All pupils from Year 1 up will receive specialist teaching in the following subjects: Art, Drama, Mandarin, Music and PE. From Year 5 pupils will be offered the option of learning Spanish as well.

HOUSE SYSTEM

All pupils at NAIS HK are members of a House which runs vertically throughout the primary and secondary years. Our aim is make each House a focal point for competitions, cross-peer group support and to build an ethos that allows pupils to contribute to the success of the community and develop leadership skills.

All pupils will attend House Assemblies and take part in House Competitions. These competitions will vary to ensure as many pupils as possible can take part in one or more, for example Sport, Art, Drama or Music. Our aim is to create a community that will span all year groups at the school and aid the traditional jump from Year 6 to 7. 

The House names are currently being discussed and we will inform all parents and pupils of their House Name at the start of term.

TEACHERS

All our teachers are highly qualified and have been carefully selected for their skills and experience. Our Principal, Mr Cooklin personally reviewed all of the 1,000 applications received, chaired the interview panels and chose the best staff for our school.

The teacher profiles are on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NAISHongKong. For those of you not on Facebook, please see the attached document which includes the teachers that we have previously introduced on Facebook. The remaining teachers will be profiled over the next week or so. Our teachers are excited about joining NAIS and are really looking forward to meeting you and your children.

UNIFORMS

The uniform design is completed and the supplier is now confirmed. You will be able to order uniforms from the supplier from 28 July, in time for collection before school starts. The supplier has been informed of the number and age/size of children joining the school in September.

If you have any specific uniform queries, please contact us at Student Services.

BUSES AND PARKING

Draft Bus Routes

As you will all know, developing bus routes for a new school can be a challenge, especially with so many of our parents relocating from overseas and not yet being able to confirm addresses in Hong Kong. The attached preliminary draft shows the areas we plan to serve with school buses. These routes are based on the information we have received so far from parents and we will be adding more pick-up points as more parents confirm that they would like their children to take the bus.

If you have not yet let us know that you intend to use the bus service, please contact us at Student Services to register. We will be able to confirm timings and cost after we finalise the routes and pick-up points.  

We really appreciate your patience during this process, and if you have any comments or questions in relation to the routes, please contact us at Student Services.

Parking

To ensure the safety of all children arriving and departing from school, there will be no dedicated “drop-off zone” as this area is required for the coaches.  There is a multi- storey car park adjacent to the school and two further Wilson car parks within easy walking distance. Please see the attached map.  The safety of all children is our primary concern with these arrangements. Please contact us at Student Services if you have any questions.

SCHOOL HOURS

Our school hours will be 8am to 2:45 pm for primary pupils and 8am to 3:30pm for secondary pupils. We will have an after school activity programme (from 3-4pm) – see below for more details.

Our homeward bound bus service will cater for primary pupils, and secondary pupils can either be collected by parents or use public transport. Depending on demand, we are aiming to have a shuttle bus from the school to the Lam Tin MTR which you can subscribe to (for primary or secondary pupil use).  There will be a fee for this service, but we are aiming to keep this fee as low as possible.

AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

We will have a full programme of optional after school activities, which will run from 3 until 4pm.  Every member of the teaching staff will run an after school activity so there will be a wide ranging choice for all pupils.  There will be a variety of great activities and these will be available for you and your child to choose once the school opens.

We will run a bus service after the ASAs. This will be a limited bus service, with fewer drop-off points in each area. 

CAMPUS UPDATE

All is progressing well on site.  This week we wanted to share with you some renderings of our School library (see attached).  What a wonderful learning space this will be!

PREVIOUS UPDATES

If you have only recently joined us and you missed our past Parent Updates, you can access them via the links below:

• Parent Update 28 April 2014
• Parent Update 17 March 2014

Please do get in touch if you have any questions or if we can help further.  We are so looking forward to welcoming your children later this year!