Parent Update - 9 June 2017

Message from the Principal

Dear Parents,

Another very busy week started with Henry and James Zarin taking over my job as Principal for the Day.  I am sure the pupils felt they were better at the job since they announced an extra ten minutes for the morning break! We had an amazing day with a great variety of activities, including being set on fire in Science!

The main work this week has been about preparing for the new campuses! Sai Kung at Hong Kin Road and Tai Tam at Redhill Plaza – both great locations with wonderful views.  Work is progressing for both sites and we have been re-organising our structures.

I will be Principal over the three campuses, splitting my time amongst them.  Mrs. Harley will be Head of School at Tai Tam with Mrs. Malone as her Depute Head whilst Mrs. Charlier will be Head of the Sai Kung School and Mr. Bishop, Head of Lam Tim.  We have also appointed two Acting Deputes to assist Mr. Bishop. 

Mr Malone will be Acting Depute for Secondary school and Mr. Fielding for Primary school.  Both will continue with their teaching duties. We wanted to make these changes so that each campus will have some of our original staff and the same ethos will be created.

I also spoke at an event organised by the British and American Chambers of Commerce on Future innovations in Education.  It was great to share about our collaboration with M.I.T., our STEAM challenges and the great new Makerspace being built in the school to encourage this.

Have a great weekend.

Brian Cooklin

Principal

UPCOMING EVENTS

12 June

Summer Music Concert Rehearsal

Balmoral’s Auction of Promises (12-15 June)

13 June

Summer Concert

Jumble Sale - 1/F Activity Room

15 June

Year 6 Transition Day

Year 2 Performance

16 June

Celebration Assembly

Primary School Disco

17 June

PTA Gala Dinner ticket booking closes Wednesday, 14^th June

19 June

Year 3 Roman Day

Screening of Plastic Ocean

20 June

Secondary Eco Challenge

21-22 June

The Big Draw & Year 6 Building Challenge

22 June

Food Waste Collection Day

23 June

Non-uniform Day

Year 9 Science Trip

Naked Lunch Day

Secondary End of Year Party

CLASS ALLOCATIONS FOR NEXT YEAR

Mrs Harley and the team are busy working on allocating the class teachers for each year group for the new academic year and we hope to be able to announce this early next week.

BALMORAL’S AUCTION OF PROMISES

Balmoral’s Auction of Promises is back by popular demand and will be taking place during the week of Monday 12^th to Thursday 15^th June. Tickets can be purchased from your child’s class teacher or House Tutor for $10 per ticket. Please refer to Mr MacKinnon’s email for more details.

JUMBLE SALE – PICK UP A BARGIN

On Tuesday, we will be holding a uniform sale to sell off all the lost property that has accumulated and not been claimed. All items will cost $50 or less depending on the item, and each piece of uniform has been dry cleaned and is in good condition. What’s more, all proceeds will be split between the four House charities. So, stock up on some extra uniform for a fraction of the original price.

SUMMER CONCERT

Its been a flurry of activity as our students prepare for the Summer Concert next Tuesday.  All our musicians from beginner through to advanced, are invited to participate in our grand finale number, Blue Monk, one of the core works from the Juilliard Programme.  Thank you to all parents who have already confirmed attendance.  Due to the large numbers of students involved and logistics of organising instruments, we are now unable to accept any more students, unless involved in the ECAs.

If your child is participating in the concert, please remember to send them into school in full uniform, including school socks and black shoes! Please also ensure your child brings their instrument to school on Monday (if applicable).

The concert will finish at approximately 5pm, and students will return to classrooms for collection.  We would be grateful if parents could remain in the hall whilst we take students to their rooms!

COLLABORATIONS IN ACTION

Today we welcomed Bernadetta Brzyska and Connie Young from Head Office into school so they could interview students to find out more about how our amazing collaborations impact on learning.  We are constantly looking to improve the education we offer students around the globe and these sessions help us to understand where the most impact is taking place and where we can work to develop further.  It was amazing to hear from students how they feel that our Juilliard, MIT, STEAM and United Nations collaborations will help them in the future.  Some of our parents and staff, also kindly volunteered their time to share their experiences.  Thank you to all our participants for taking the time to talk to us! We will share the link to the video once it is compiled. 

Remember to follow our twitter feed @musicNAISHK to find out more about the learning in our classrooms!

SUMMER CLUBS AND ACTIVITIES

We will have GMF Sports Academy and Sports 100 hosting sport camps in our sport hall during Summer break. Checkout what’s on offer! We’ve got tennis, football, basketball, multisports and rugby all covered.

Sports100 – Summer Camp Schedule

Registration: https://goo.gl/forms/YTqNuMPegyj4VoyC2

GMF Sports Academy – Nike Camp

JOIN THE LAST MEETING OF THE 2016-2017 SCHOOL YEAR

Gemma Simmonds, NAIS PTA Chair and PTA Committee Members cordially invites ALL parents and teachers to the last NAIS Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting for 2016 - 2017 school year. Food and drinks will be provided. Please click here for full details and to register.

6 DAYS LEFT TO BOOK!

PTA MASQUERADE DINNER - Saturday, June 17th
Time is running out to book your ticket for this fantastic event. Family and friends all welcome as the more the merrier. See the invitation here. Tickets can be purchased at naisptamasqueradeball.eventbrite.hk.

WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES …

As the well-known saying goes, and James and Henry Zarin found out just what it takes to be Principal when they did just that. They had a great time and experienced everything from making announcements in assembly, handing out House points, attending an SLT meeting to discuss the plans for the new Makerspace, choosing what photo to use in the school next campaign, refereeing a basketball match and welcoming students into the school at the start of the day (and that’s not everything!). Both boys did extremely well in the role and we think if ever we need a substitute Principal, we’ll know who to call. Watch them here.

HARRY POTTER MADNESS

If I could create a film and call it “Fantastic Models and Where To Find Them” I would definitely know where to point the camera crew, as the Year 4 pupils have presented a range of wonderful models of Hogwarts, using their design impressive design skills. The presentation has been very high, but if you didn’t have a chance to see them, the photos here will give you a taste of the magic they shared.

TOOTOOT

In Secondary PSHCE this week, Year 7 have again been considering when and how students can ask for help at school.  The students have focused on the support platform Tootoot, which the school uses to help students reach out anonymously to staff. They have been working on infographics to ensure that the children from Year 5 up understand what the facility is used for and how to use it if they need to. Mr. Sheehan looks forward to being able to get the infographics printed to put around the school next academic year.

PRIMARY ASSEMBLY – 2C

What a tremendous performance from Class 2C this morning who staged a performance based on a traditional Chinese tale titled The Magic Paintbrush. Everyone did a great job getting into character for their roles, and it was high energy all the way with some lovely singing and dancing to boot. Great job everyone, you had us all thoroughly entertained.

See what they got up to here.

STARS OF THE WEEK – Teacher's Choice

As always we are proud to celebrate our student successes. Well done one and all.

Year 1: Caspian Crooke, Preston Loo, Melody Tan / Aarif Chan, Ritsika Chotwani, Alayna Munir

Year 2: Takumi Shiotani, Tyler Adams, Kevin Yan, Max Foo, Jules Prin

Year 3: Cate Tsui, Ava – Rose Jakeway, Eric Chee/ Jerry Tang, Mila Abad Verhagen, Geraldine Kwong

Year 4: Divina Law, Hampton Wang, Chloe Cheung, Darren Gao, Alex Wadsworth

Year 5: Amely Qui, Owen Smale, Tony Song, Iris Yan, Eugene Su

Year 6: Ethan Chan, Nikita Se, Harry Lam, Wayan Singson

See their smiling faces here.

FACEBOOK

Make sure you don’t miss out on what’s happening in school! Check that you have changed your settings and selected the “turn on the notifications” from our posts.