Parent Update - 5 December 2014

Dear Parents,

Only two weeks to go until the end of term, and the halls of the school have been filled with music and artistic creativity as we run up to our Year 1 and Year 2 performances, our Great Sleigh Debate, and our Whole School Assembly.

We’re looking forward to seeing as many mums and dads as possible at these performances, and remember that you’re all invited to come along to the final Whole School Assembly on Friday 19 December. It starts at 9.30 am and you may take your child home directly afterwards if you’d like. But please can we ask you to let your Class Teacher and the Bus Team (bus@nais.hk) to know if you’re taking your child early. If you need a reminder of our action-packed schedule during these last two weeks, please remember to check the Christmas Countdown calendar.

STARS OF THE WEEK IN MUSIC – CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS

We’ve had a lot of opportunities to see our pupils in action these past few weeks as they prepare for their Christmas Performances and Inter-House Singing Competition, so it was lovely today to celebrate achievement and effort in music during our Friday Assembly. A huge congratulations to our Stars of the Week:

Year 1:  Cloris Zhao, Mollie McGregor, James Frappell, Sheryl Wan, Larisa Holt

Year 2:  Darren Gao, Cameron Vinning, Jessie Dong, Kaitlyn Chak, Dante Griffiths

Year 3: Charlie Oak, Soleil Chan, Aryn Deasy, Calvin Te

Year 4: Karen Finch, Sophia Forzani, Maya Kamhawi

Year 5: Jenna Evans, Caresse Yang, Steven Wu

Year 6: Vanessa Chan, Megu Tanaka

Year 7: Xin Chun Zhu, Jean Jang

INTER-HOUSE CHRISTMAS CARD COMPETITION – CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS

Pupils planned, designed and drew their Christmas cards in last week’s art lessons. There were some beautiful and very creative pieces and it was a very hard decision to choose the winning cards. After a lot of consideration in the Senior Leadership Team, we were delighted to announce the following winners and Caernarfon winning the overall trophy.

Our Winners!

Year 1 to 3: Mary Zhang (3C), Harrison Cai (1C), Stephanie Kwan (3C) and Kai Potgieter (1E)

Year 4 to 7: Kaho Ishida (5B), Jean Jang (7B), Joey Lee (5C) and Michael Oak (7B)

High Commendations go to:

Year 1: Erin Tohill (1A), Lucas Cheng (1D), Osher Ma (1E), Sofia Verga (1E)

Year 2: Rainie Wong (2A), Sunny Li (2A), Arianna Muggeri (2C), Joonsuh Huh (2C), Brian De Lalinde (2C), Hampton Wang (2D), Lucas Vandeweghe (2D)

Year 3: Yoshiaki Okaguchi (3C), Keira Yu (3C), Audrey Lai (3C),

Year 4: Anne Matsumoto (4A), Kingsley Lui (4B), Selene Chan (4C), Emma Standing (4C)

Year 5: Annabel Lai (5A), Isabel Ng (5A)

Year 6: Tanya Tan (6A), Jia Yi Zheng (6B), Savannah Berry (6B)

Year 7: Alice Dong (7A), Tim Zhu (7B), Suzy Ingrouille (7B), Lucia Bowers (7B), Andrew Chim (7B),

HONG KONG SPEECH FESTIVAL

This Hong Kong-wide competition is on-going, and this week we scooped three more accolades for our pupils: A big congratulations to Kimmy Kwok (4C) who was a Winner in her category, as well as Valeria Kulik (7B) who took home second place, and Soleil Chan (3B) who was awarded a Merit.

EXTRA ORCHESTRA REHEARSALS – BRING YOUR INSTRUMENTS

Our orchestra is in full festive-mood, and Miss Rowan has managed to squeeze in some more rehearsal times. If your child is playing in the orchestra at the final Assembly on 19 December, could you please remind them to bring their instrument on Monday 8 December, Tuesday 9 December, Thursday 11 December and, of course, on Friday 19 December.

JANUARY LUNCH MENU

The cafeteria now offers healthy sandwiches and salads, along with not-so-healthy, but delicious pastries and muffins! The January menu for hot and cold meals can be found at this link, and we ask parents of children in Years 1 and 2 to sign up in advance so that we can help these younger pupils to collect their meals. From Year 3 onwards, the children can select their own meals using their Octopus cards.

REMINDER – SCHOOL PHOTOS – 12 DECEMBER

Please remember to send your children in their normal school uniform (not PE uniform) and Year 7s in their blazers. Please encourage your children to pay special attention to their neat appearance for the school photograph. This will be our first Nord Anglia International School whole school photograph, and it is a big milestone for us all. We’ll email details afterwards of how you can order a whole school or your year group photos.

COBIS OLYMPIC GAMES – TRIALS FOR FOOTBALL – 8 DECEMBER

We’ve already identified some incredibly talented swimmers who will be part of our team for the upcoming COBIS Olympic Games being held in May 2015. Now is the turn for our budding football players. Parents that have registered will already have received the attached letter with details on the Football Trials. Please email Mr Pate immediately if you have any questions as these trials are taking place on Monday 8 December.

UPDATES ON OUR GLOBAL CLASSROOM

We do hope that your children have enjoyed exploring the Global Classroom website, and are starting to collect stamps in their GC Passports. This morning, Mr Robinson gave all the children an update on some of the amazing activities and events on the Global Classroom. Please take a look at the December Newsletter for Primary and Secondary pupils. It really is an amazing resource for all our children across the Nord Anglia family of schools.

PE UNIFORM – REMOVE JEWELLERY PLEASE & WEAR WHITE TRAINERS

Mr Pate, our Head of PE, has asked me to remind you all to talk to your children about not wearing any jewellery on PE days. If your child does get their ears pierced over the Christmas break, please put a small piece of medical tape over the ear lobe. While we’re still doing non-contact activities, it is a good habit to get into as the children move up through the school and develop their PE skills. May we also remind you that sports shoes should be predominately white. Please keep your brightly coloured trainers for wearing at the weekends!

OUR LAST PARENT WORKSHOP FOR 2014 – PHONICS: HOW TO SUPPORT YOUR CHILD

Thank you to Mr Sheehan, who gave an interesting Workshop this week on ‘Advocating for your Child’. It was a timely reminder of how different all our children are, and how we, as parents and educators, can listen to and understand their needs respectfully. Please see a copy of Mr Sheehan’s presentation here.

Please don’t forget to register for our last workshop of the year being held on 11 December. Mr Oak will be speaking about "Phonics: How to support your child at home". Please email Ricky.Auyeung@nais.hk to reserve a place. This event will be ending promptly at 9am so that Mr Oak can dash upstairs to lead his Year 2 class into their Christmas Performance.

As usual, please get in touch if we can help with anything. 

Wrap up warm and enjoy your weekend.