Parent Update - 8 September 2017

Parent Update - 8 September 2017

Principal’s Message

 

Dear Parents

 

What an action–packed week!  Firstly, my thanks to so many of you who kindly sent me messages, emails or in person asked after my wife’s health.  I appreciate it very much.

 

In our school, excitement mounts as the two wonderful campuses at Sai Kung and Tai Tam get ready to open.  I have been meeting and greeting some of the families who have enrolled and they are delighted by what they see.

 

By the same token, people are also very pleased with our new facilities at Lam Tin, especially the Sky pitch.  We wait with bated breath for the formal opening of the Makerspace next week.

 

Our new company Director of Education, Mr. Andy Puttock, toured our Lam Tin campus and was very impressed by the positive attitude of all concerned.

 

In school, we have held two very successful and informative curriculum evenings.  Thank you for your support and involvement, and thank you to all the staff for their presentations and participation.

 

We look forward to all the new developments next week.  We will be inviting you to the Makerspace soon to try it out and, of course, I hope to see you at our new campuses too.

 

Have an enjoyable weekend.

 

Brian Cooklin

Principal

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

11 September

PTA meeting 5-6pm in The Hub

ECA Season 1 begins

 

13 September

Year 5 Residential Parent Presentation in The Hub 7:30-9am

Year 1 (Lam Tin parents) Stay & Play session 7:45am-9:15am

 

15 September

Class Assembly 6D, David Gadsby

 

21 September

Year 3 Residential Parent Presentation in The Hub 7:30-9am

 

22 September

Class Assembly 5E, Connor Lyons

 

NEW CAMPUSES

If you haven’t checked out the fabulous photos on Facebook yet, you really should -  the campuses are looking amazing! It’s been a hectic week getting ready for the start of school next week and we can’t wait to welcome everyone on Monday. Lam Tin parents, you are also welcome to arrange a time to come and visit the campuses. We’d be happy to show you around.

 

MUSIC @Tai Tam:

Miss Kelly has been working extremely hard to prepare the music room at Tai Tam this week.  The space looks beautiful with a fantastic array of instruments, and even Old MacDonald overseeing the room with his stunning view! We can’t wait to see the resources being used when the campus opens.

 

SAI KUNG & TAI TAM

Mrs Charlier and Mrs Harley and their teams have had a great week meeting the new children and their parents.  Everybody has found the new schools welcoming, bright, and airy. In Tai Tam the space is being put to good use as the teachers have created an indoor scooter track which both children and staff have enjoyed using. The new site has been declared a winner by the children!

 

FOOTBALL FANATICS … TIME TO GET INVOLVED

The Under 14’s Nord Anglia Games football tournament will take place in Guangzhou, 10 - 12 November 2017.  Any Year 8 & 9 pupils who are interested in attending should attend trials this coming Wednesday, 13 September at lunchtime.

 

E.T. Phone Home!

The Hong Kong Philharmonic will accompany a screening of the original movie ‘E.T’, playing John Williams’ moving film score. A treat for the whole family!

 

MUSIC ECAs at Lam Tin:

The department has been busy preparing for the start of ECAs next week at our Lam Tin campus.  If your child is interested in participating but has not yet signed up, please contact the following members of staff:

ABRSM Grade 1 upwards:

• String Ensemble                  Hannah.Kelly@nais.hk                      All strings, Years 3-10
• Guitar Ensemble                  Naomi.Rowan@nais.hk                    All guitarists, Years 3-10
• Flute Ensemble                    Naomi.Rowan@nais.hk                    All flautists, Years 3-10
• Wind Band                             Kirsty.Blackwood@nais.hk              Woodwind instruments

 

ABRSM Grade 2 upwards:

• Symphony Orchestra         Hannah.Kelly@nais.hk            All strings, woodwind and brass, Years 3-10

 

Calling All:

• Senior Choir                          Hannah.Kelly@nais.hk                      All singers, Years 6-10
• Beginner Band                    Kirsty.Blackwood@nais.hk               All beginner instrumentalists

 

ECAs – TAI TAM & SAI KUNG

The teams are busy planning what ECAs will be offered at the new campuses so they can start soon. There will be different options and a separate sign up process to that of Lam Tin, so stay tuned.  

 

COMMUNITY CHOIR

Monday, 11 September is our first community choir rehearsal for the year.  We welcome all parents, helpers, staff members and students (accompanied by an adult) for evenings of fun music making.  Community Choir is held in the music room on the second floor, from 4pm-5pm.  All you need is enthusiasm, a willingness to sing and a smile!  What better way to spend an hour whilst waiting for your child to finish their late-night sporting ECAs?

 

WHAT OUR STUDENTS ARE SAYING

Congratulations to Maithili Parekh who has featured in the latest video released by Nord Anglia Education about the wider impacts of music education.  Maithili eloquently discusses the impact of music on interdisciplinary learning! 

 

For more examples of student work over the past weeks, please follow @MusicNAISHK

 

INSTRUMENTAL LESSONS

Instrumental lessons will start next week.  Please check your emails for the timetable.  If you have not yet received a timetable, please contact Mr. Ringo Chan (ringochanatnais@gmail.com) or WhatsApp 6199 9933 for further information.

 

CALLING ALL SWIMMERS!

Dave Cameron back for another Children’ s ‘Elite 4’ Stroke Workshop. His extensive knowledge and coaching skills are a must for any child making swimming their sport.  Dave is the Director at the Minnesota YMCA and runs the swim team which competes at the National age group level.  He also travels extensively running training camps in the USA, and also advising individuals and teams for the English channels crossing. 

 

If you are interested in your child joining one of David’s fantastic workshops, check out the details at  www.floatplus.hk

 

CURRICULUM EVENING PRESENTATION

Thank you to those who could attend our Secondary Curriculum Evening on Tuesday, 5 September. As always it was a pleasure to meet new parents, as well as those whose children have been at our school for some time. We are sure you found it valuable to meet with the teaching staff to find out more information about the curriculum in our various key stages, and put a face to the new teachers you have no doubt been hearing of at home.

 

We hope you found the presentation given by Mr. Cooklin, our Key Stage 3 co-ordinator Mr. Cross, our Key Stage 4 co-ordinator Mr. Milligan and our International Baccalaureate co-ordinator Ms. Jouffrey interesting and informative. With our newly commenced IGCSE courses and our impending IB Diploma application we wanted you to get a clear understanding of how this will impact your children’s future education with us as they get older. 

Nord Anglia Education’s I/GCSE results at a glance:

• 1,256 Nord Anglia Education students took the I/GCSEs in 2017
• 47% of all I/GCSE grades achieved by Nord Anglia Education students were at the highest levels of A* or A. This is more than double the 2017 UK average of 20%.
• The pass rate of Nord Anglia Education students for I/GCSE was 88% 
• For the second year in a row, nearly 90% of our students, including those in our bilingual schools, gained 5 or more A*- C grades

 

SECONDARY LOCKERS

New lockers have arrived and will be allocated next week so those heavy bags and books can be stored in there. Remember … no valuables should be kept in there until locks are distributed.

 

GLOBAL CAMPUS

The 2017-18 Global Library has been launched and books are already flying off our library shelves. This year’s list contains 20 books each for Under 8s, 8-11, 11-14 and over 14s. There are books from all over the world ranging from new fiction, classic fiction, poetry, non-fiction and graphic novels. Click here to see the books grouped by age range and theme. Please be aware that not all books are suitable for all ages.

 

There are also special titles to support Nord Anglia’s STEAM programme, Julliard partnership and the United Nations Global Goals. One title that will be of interest to many is ‘Hello Ruby’ – a lively introduction to computers, technology and coding told in a fun and colorful way, without the need for any additional screen time. You can watch some of our students already engaging with the book here.

 

You can also see the Finnish author Linda Liukas outline some of the ideas behind the book in her Ted Talk here.

 

ASSEMBLY TIME

Primary Assembly – Class 3B

Big congratulations today to 3B, what a fantastic assembly about having a growth mindset and a ‘have a go’ attitude! We saw some great performances and we really enjoyed the song at the end. They showed us that we should never give up and how thinking positively can make such a big difference, even if you think it may be too hard, just ‘Have a go’.

 

Thank you also to our fantastic musicians who played some beautiful music being played whilst waiting for everyone to arrive at assembly.

 

Secondary Assembly

This morning was all about housekeeping items … what to do when late, collecting and returning iPads, new lockers being allocated early next week, ECAs, sport reports from our three football matches and House Points to name a few. And of course, we awarded our Highly Commended certificates to our deserving students. 

 

STARS OF THE WEEK - TEACHERS CHOICE

What better way to end the week than to celebrate the success for our “Stars of the Week”. Well done and congratulations one and all. You should be very proud of your achievement.

Year 1: Nadia Chan, Ethan Lui, Christy Au, Nicola Borghesan, Ryu Kook

Year 2: Georgia Farran, Rocky Zhao, Leonardo Koneberg, Juliette Liu, Imogen Lawson

Year 3: Max Colton, Victor Oliver Colotla, Biel Molinas, Robot Zhu, Roselyn Siu

Year 4: Sheryl Wan, Ardi Tse, Jack Hilditch, Sofia Verga, Edison Liu

Year 5: Emily An, Sunny Li, Christiaan Oosterom, Isabelle Luk, Dante Griffiths

Year 6: Iris Yan, Sammy Thompson, Trent Greco, Archer Voon, Delon Chan

 

HIGH COMMENDATIONS – TEACHERS CHOICE

Year: 7    Luca Tagliente, Philine Kotanko

Year: 8    Caresse Yang

Year: 9    Cedric Cheng

Year 10: Michael Chen

 

WHO’s WHO & WHEN TO CONTACT THEM

Quick list guide of who to email for what:

• Bus related :

- Lam Tinlamtinbus@nais.hk

- Sai Kungsaikungbus@nais.hk

- Tai Tamtaitambus@nais.hk

 

• ECAs - Tom.Ferguson@nais.hk

 

• Homework related – Class Teacher (firstname.secondname@nais.hk)

 

• Pastoral related - david.sheehan@nais.hk
• School Lunches  - katherine.chan@nais.hk
• Admissions and Marketing related – admissions@nais.hk

 

• General enquiries:

Lam Tin - LamTinReception@nais.hk                                       

Tai Tam - TaiTamReception@nais.hk                                       

Sai Kung - SaiKungReception@nais.hk              

 

• Absences:

Lam Tin - Class Teacher and LamTinReception@nais.hk if your child is sick or for medical reasons,                   and Christian.Bishop@nais.hk  and Tom.Ferguson@nais.hk to request a leave of absence.

                 

Tai Tam - Class Teacher and TaiTamReception@nais.hk if your child is sick or for medical reasons, and Sarah.Harley@nais.hk and Katie.Malone@nais.hk to request a leave of absence.

 

Sai Kung - Class Teacher and SaiKungReception@nais.hk if your child is sick or for medical reasons, and Naima.Charlier@nais.hk and Emma.Coleman@nais.hk to request a leave of absence.

 

Please do not use the info@nais.hk for any of the above queries.

 

FACEBOOK

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Have a lovely weekend.