MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Dear Parents
It has been very busy with interviews for new staff for next year. We have been seeing applicants from other Hong Kong International Schools, and by Skype for other Nord Anglia Education teachers in our schools around the world and other International school applicants. We are one of the most popular schools for applications and it means we have a great choice of top quality candidates to join our excellent teaching team.
But that’s not the end of our interviews! Next week, Mrs. Harley and I fly to London for the company’s annual recruiting event “Outstanding Teachers for Outstanding Schools” so that we can interview the large number of British applicants for our schools.
The recruitment process is very tiring but also very rewarding, and something extremely important to ensuring the highest standard of teachers for our school. It is great to hear that existing staff and parents have recommended our school as a great place to work. It is also very interesting to witness the enthusiasm, drive and initiative these teachers exhibit – it makes it hard to decide whom to appoint.
Just as exciting was meeting the new families last Saturday who brought their children in for assessments so they could be selected for Year 1 classes in August. Again, it was exhausting delivering 8 presentations back to back for four hours but also interesting to meet new families and answer questions.
We have also been pleased to welcome our new Regional Managing Director for China Region, Mike Embley and two Directors from our Education Offices in Oxford: Inderjit Dehal and Jayne Bennion into school this week. They have been here to gather information about the school and to check on how we are doing, and the feedback has been very positive.
Finally, excitement is mounting as we look forward to Chinese New Year and to the Year 3 performance and assembly. I always enjoy watching the children perform, especially when I can remember how shy some of the children where when they first joined. But most of all, I love seeing proud parents and look forward to seeing Year 3 families on 26 January for the event.
Hope you and your family have an enjoyable weekend.
Mr Cooklin
Principal
UPCOMING EVENTS:
17 January
Year 2 Author Visit 2:30, Reena Bhojawani
Year 7 Theatre Visit, Horrible Histories
U14 Basketball Boys vs Carmel @NAIS 4.30 T/O, Girls vs DBIS @DBIS 4:30 T/O
19 January
Options Open Evening 4:00 – 6:00pm
20 January
Class Assembly 1A, Jennifer Rowland
23 January
Class Assembly 5A, Rebecca Atkinson
24 January
NAIS PTA Mahjong and Dim Sum Night 7.00pm in the school hall – last few days to sign up!
26 January
Year 3 Performance - Parents welcome to join at 1.30pm
30 January – 3 February
Half Term Holidays
17 Feb – Save the date!
Superstar flautist Jasmine Choi will be in school
HAPPY FRIDAY the 13th!
Did you know: The fear of Friday the 13th is also called friggatriskaidekaphobia or paraskevidekatriaphobia. Now try saying that really fast 10 times!
SPELLING BEE DATE CHANGE
Please note that the Spelling Bee date has now been changed to Monday, 10 April.
MIT STEAM DATA CHALLENGE – Parents, we need your help this weekend.
Following on from the success of our first MIT challenge in which pupils across the school explored their curiosity and designed their own curious questions, we are now preparing our second project. This will be about data and how we use it to tell interesting stories.
Many of the curious questions we received during the last project were based around the environment and pollution and this is the area of curiosity we would like further to explore. We want to find out about the quality of water around Hong Kong, and we are going to conduct some Citizen Science across the whole school community. We are asking pupils in Year 1 – 6 to collect water samples from local beaches, rivers and other water sources. After that the pupils will analyse these samples within Science, Maths and Humanities.
Could parents please support their children in collecting samples from around Hong Kong? Samples should be around 100ml and collected in disposable plastic bottles labelled with the location it was collected in.
All samples should be delivered to class teachers by Monday 16th January. Thank you in advance for your help and support with this exciting project.
FEBRUARY LUNCH MENU
The new February lunch menu has been posted onto the website and Firefly. Please remember to send in your lunch forms ASAP.
NAIS PTA MAHJONG AND DIM SUM NIGHT – 24 JANUARY IN THE SCHOOL HALL
Heard of the Ancient Chinese game - Mahjong? Ever wanted to know how to play it? Well now is your chance.... On Tuesday, 24 January we will be hosting a relaxed and friendly opportunity to learn and or play Mahjong.
Please sign up before 16 January.
SAVE THE DATE – Special guest, flautist Jasmine Choi
I am delighted to confirm that Jasmine Choi (www.jasminechoi.com) will be joining us on February 17th to both work with students and perform for parents and the wider community.
Jasmine has been rated as one of the top ten flautists in the world and we can’t wait for her to come and inspire our students (and us!).
More information to come but we wanted to give you plenty of time to plan and to save the date. This is a not to be missed opportunity.
ECAs (session runs from 23rd Jan to 22nd June)
We have had a phenomenal response to some of our proposed ECAs this term, with many of our most popular clubs being very oversubscribed. Unfortunately for a small number of pupils, this has meant they have missed out on their choices this time. We will produce a list next week of ECAs which still have available places, from which you will then be able to select an ECA, if your child still wishes to join.
GLOBAL CAMPUS UPDATE
The stories written by this year’s finalists for the Global Campus Creative Writing Competition are currently winging their way across world being judged by experts in our many schools, the education team in Oxford and by our mystery famous author. We will announce this year’s winners in the next few months. Students will then have the chance to vote for their own favourite piece of fan fiction and join the Global Campus Visual Arts competition where they will be challenged to illustrate this year’s winners. These entries will then be published online and in a beautiful anthology which will be shared in our schools around the world.
We are immensely proud that last year’s competition winners included Year 7 student Sunny Donat for her story Henry and Henrietta and Year 8 student Beatrice Villaflor whose poem What is Ambition? was highly commended by children’s author Barry Hutchison. Their stories are featured in the finished anthology which has just arrived fresh from the presses and was awarded to the girls in assembly this morning.
The anthology includes stories and illustrations from around the world all on the theme of “Being Ambitious”. Sunny’s story illustration was drawn by a student at our sister school The British School of Beijing while Beatrice’s poem is accompanied by picture from a student at The British School of Warsaw in Poland.
What is Ambition?
A force barely there,
something which casts out despair.
Even against hopelessness and doubt,
Ambition fights back and forces them out.
It motivates us to go past what is enough,
and to keep moving forward even when it's tough.
Inspires us to pursue our dreams,
to go past what is normal and achieve the extremes.
Ambition tells us to keep going,
all by instinct, without us knowing.
It brings us to a place where every idea seems possible,
even ones which aren't entirely plausible.
It inspires us to do more, be more,
and shows us that adventures are just outside our door.
It presents us with new aspirations,
and pushes us to exceed expectations.
It takes our dreams and turns them to reality;
not a figment of imagination – a true actuality.
It tells us we can reach our dreams,
and that when we do, the possibilities are bursting at the seams.
Beatrice Villaflor Year 8
If you would like to see a copy of the anthology it will be available in the school library and you can also see a digital copy here:
Stay tuned for more exciting news about the Global Debate League, Global Library Interviews and the announcement of the 2017 Global Challenge in the weeks to come…
STARS OF THE WEEK –
Another week and more successes to celebrate. Congratulations to the following students:
Year 1: Iggy Budzinski, Jamie Li, Molly Champion, Neil Harish, Torben Beatty
Year 2: Timofey Zubatyuk, Terry Ye, Maxim Harward, Carson Wong, Felix Mulder
Year 3: Esme Mcfee, Eleanor Belardini, Edison Liu, Freddie Cary, Hallin Lovkvist
Year 4: Benjamin Thomas, Jenny Ma, Josh Chan, Bair Batomunkuev, Zenith Kwong
Year 5: Anthony Tjia, Allegra Mepham, Luca Brown, Natalie Ho, Anthony Tjia
Year 6: Elijah Herron, Sophie Bongardt, Morgan Ma, Yuzu Murase
HIGH COMMENDATION AWARDS – Theme work
Year 7: Matteo Griffiths
Year 8: Oliver Ansell
Year 9: Callie O’Shea
Photos can be found here.
PRIMARY ASSEMBLY – Class 4C
In 4C’s assembly today, students celebrated their best achievement from the past year. Students reflected on their achievements across the school curriculum, then decided which they were most proud of. Some achievements related to improving in sports, and other in academic performance. The students then showcased their achievements by answering questions related to their subject, and even shooting hoops!
To end things on a high, students sang their favourite song Eye of the Tiger.
All together now…
Rising up, straight to the top
Had the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I’m not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive
It’s the ….
Check out our Facebook to see some great photos here.
SECONDARY ASSEMBLY
In Secondary assembly, Mr Cross asked students to think about evidence that showed their progress towards their House Mentoring Targets. Mr Sutton then launched the second round of the MIT Curiosity challenge and explained the role our Secondary students will play in the analysis of data collected by our Primary students. Finally, Mr Robinson read out two excellent pieces of student work by our students; Sunny Donat and Beatrice Villaflor which were selected for publication in the Nord Anglia Creative Writing Anthology.
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KEY CONTACTS
Quick list guide of who to email for what:
Please do not use the info@nais.hk for any of the above queries.
Have a lovely weekend.
