Principal’s Message
Dear Parents,
I always enjoy showing people around the school because I am very proud of what the staff and pupils achieve every day and it is a great opportunity to showcase it.
Last week’s visitors were amazed at the quality of artwork displayed by all year groups based on their study of the Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama. They also were struck by the Makerspace and how much they liked seeing the fun the pupils had and their enjoyment of learning.
Erin Wight, who is our link adviser from the Juilliard, visited all three campuses for the first time and the children got so much out of her paying and enthusiasm. Meanwhile our Director of Music, Naomi Rowan, and myself led a ‘lunch and learn’ workshop at Nord Anglia Education Head Office in Hong Kong to give staff there an insight into the inspirational nature of The Juilliard Curriculum.
One group of visitors were here to see the work we do on STEAM and to present proposals to extend the coding content of our computing programme across the school.
The week ended with the incredible Halloween Spooktacular which is an outstanding event in the calendar, exceptionally well organised by the PTA. My thanks to all the parents, staff and pupils who helped make the event such a success. No doubt you’ve seen the pictures of the flashmob dance to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. Over a thousand parents, family and pupils attended and had a great time.
Best Wishes,
Brian Cooklin.
Principal.
LAM TIN UPDATES (scroll down for Tai Tam and Sai Kung campus updates)
UPCOMING EVENTS
1-2 November
School Photographs – remember to bring your own comb or brush and to wear full school uniform!
2 November
Year 6 Evolution and DNA Day
Class Assembly 4E Amy Beedham
3 November
Class Assembly 4E Amy Beedham
Launch of Greener Skies STEAM month for Year 7
6 November - 6:00 - 7:30pm
Secondary Options Evening
8 November
Year 2 Author Visit and Storytelling Workshop
Year 6 Parent Residential Presentation
Save the Date
Primary Sports Day on Friday, 1 December
VIRTUAL REALITY … A REALITY FOR YEAR 8
Year 8 pupils were taken on a virtual under water field trip today using cutting edge VR equipment that is currently being evaluated in school. Pupils got themselves into pairs before diving into the virtual ocean to explore the fish and other marine life. This experience was used as inspiration for an art activity where pupils drew some of the fish they had seen.
Next pupils came face to face with a great white shark and explored their preconceptions about these amazing creatures. After discovering that sharks are in fact much more likely to be killed by humans that humans are by sharks they worked in teams to explore ideas for ways to project sharks in the wild
ASSEMBLY TIME
PRIMARY ASSEMBLY – 3C, RYAN SPEED
The primary assembly in which we all enjoyed an amazing performance by 3C called “Medusa the Truth”. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and it was so lovely hearing all the students singing along to the two songs performed. Well done 3C, you really gave all the students am an extra bounce in their step this morning. We also really take on board the strong anti-bullying message you gave us too.
Last but not least we need to congratulate our boy's Football team, after many exciting matches they came runner-up in the SOCS DBIS/ICHK HLY Football Festival 2017. Sensational effort and we are looking forward to seeing many more exciting matches in the future.
SECONDARY ASSEMBLY
In Friday’s assembly Mr Bishop spoke to our secondary pupils regarding their behaviour and social graces. He reminded them of the importance of using these both in and outside of school, with each other and also with adults. Mr Bishop highlighted how even small gestures such as saying “Good morning” to our many visitors can make a very positive impact and lasting impression. Mr Bishop gave pupils the targets of saying good morning to staff and visitors when they meet one and to hold the door open for an adult rather than rush/push through.
Finally, congratulations were given to Windsor House for winning the Secondary school Athletics trophy after their success at Sports Day on 13th October.
BOWLING FOR HISTORY
Last Wednesday, Secondary students joined in a new lunchtime ECA called the History Bowl Club. In this club students will be working on fun and unusual ways of developing their knowledge and understanding of world history. To begin with, this involved students competing in electronic quiz on the history of East Asia and the Second World War, singing along in a ‘karaoke style’ to a historical song and using the Lego boards in the Maker Space to create medieval castle designs. This is all in preparation for our entry to the International History Bowl and Bee – an international interschool event which will be taking place in Hong Kong in the New Year. We’re really hoping to make it through to Asia wide event held in Thailand and then the global Olympiad event in Germany. You can learn more about the International Historical Olympiad by watching this video.
Request: Parents, if you have any areas of historical interest or expertise that you would like to share with the club or if you are aware of any fun and unusual materials or activities for learning about world history – especially topics outside of Britain and the USA – please let us know at david.robinson@nais.hk . For example, next week we will be attempting to memorise all the English Kings and Queens by using this fantastic Horrible Histories song.
STARS OF THE WEEK – PE
Year 1: Elena Verga, Ishaani Agrawal, Arela Ng, Kaden Chan, Peter Vallas
Year 2: Georgia Farran, Isaac Beattie, Ignacy Mikolay Budzinski, Newton Kwong, Harry Savagar
Year 3: Ruby Shaw, Evie Weber, Parth Tipins, Leon Smeets, Loli Gai
Year 4: Paris Yung, Ellie Belardini, Howard Tan, Mayu Okaguchi, Finn Ramachandran
Year 5: Rory Wallwork, Darren Gao, Yash Madnani, Sasha Parsons, Momoka Kubota
Year 6: Andrew Lam, Cyrus Chan, Ona Bertran Molinas, Vivian Wang, Summer Marner
HIGH COMMENDATIONS – PE
Year 7: Sam Hellyer, Nichola McLennan
Year 8: Nicole Chan
Year 9: Evan Kingsbury
Year 10: Anni Hangasjarvi
NAKED LUNCH IS BACK … every Friday
Last year’s Naked Lunch was a huge success but one day is not enough….so, starting after half term, every Friday is going to be a ‘Naked Lunch Friday’ as we really want to start making our school healthy, which includes healthy minds, bodies and environment.
A Naked Lunch is when our pupils bring lunches that have minimal (or no) packaging, are healthy, and come in reusable containers. The aim is to throw away/create as little as possible, be it food waste or packaging. One thing we noticed last year was that naked lunches tended to be healthier than the usual lunches so as well as helping the environment, becoming waste free will also help to make our bodies heathier.
WHO’s WHO & WHEN TO CONTACT THEM
TAI TAM UPDATES
Message from the Head of School
Dear Parents,
It was lovely to welcome all the children back after their half term break, refreshed and ready to enjoy new challenges and experiences. Last week we had the opportunity to hear from Miss Erin Wright, our Juilliard Specialist. Erin is a renowned viola player and shared her passion for music with the children during a special assembly and in lessons with them. The children accompanied her playing by singing and were enthralled by her performance. Please do take a look at the Facebook page as pictures of her performing with the children will be there shortly.
I had great fun at the Halloween Spooktacular at Lam Tin and it was great to see some of you there. This was a whole school celebration for Halloween and we do not have separate campus events. Please remember that the children should wear school uniform as normal every day this week and we do not allow sweets to be brought into school, even for Halloween!
Thank you to so many of you for volunteering to help with International Day on Wednesday, 15 November – this is a great day for all and we do encourage everybody to come dressed in national costume or colours from their chosen country.
Mrs Sarah Harley
NOTICES
10 November
INSET DAY
School is closed to all pupils for staff training.
23 November
Individual Online Learning Journal information session 8:30am
STARS OF THE WEEK
Nursery: Alice Cassidy
Lower Kindergarten: Harith Harish
Upper Kindergarten: Dunstan Lai
INDIVIDUAL ONLINE LEARNING JOURNAL INFORMATION SESSION
Join us at 8:30am on Thursday, 23 November for this informative session. What’s more we’ll be having
a parent coffee and cake morning. Could it get much better!
This session covers everything you need to know about our online learning journal and will give parents an opportunity to see how their child is developing through the year. It will also give you an opportunity to spend time with your child in their classrooms as they show you some of their learning and a chance to meet other parents. Plus coffee and cake … say no more.
INTERNATIONAL DAY – 15 November
Children on this day will be able to come to school wearing something celebrating their culture and country. This could include national dress, colours from the countries flag or even a football top.
BLOGS
Please continue to check the blogs for weekly information about what your child has been learning in school.
SPORTS DAY
Year 1 children will join in the whole of Primary Sports Day on Friday, 1 December – EYFS will have a separate sports day with Sai Kung EYFS in the Spring. More information will be given about both events nearer the time.
CHRISTMAS SHOW
Save the date for our Tai Tam show on Tuesday, 12 December at 10am– all the children will take to the stage and parents will be invited.
NO NUTS
We are a ‘nut free school’ as we have a number of children with severe nut allergies. This includes peanuts and tree nuts. Please remember this when packing your child’s snack and lunch. We cannot allow nut/nut products of any kind in the building. For a snack we suggest a small piece of fruit or bread.
SPARE CLOTHES
We do have a small supply of spare clothes for emergencies, can we remind everybody to add a spare set of clothes to your child’s bag every day, just in case!
WHO’s WHO & WHEN TO CONTACT THEM
Quick list guide of who to email for what:
SAI KUNG UPDATES
Message from the Head of School
Dear Parents,
It was lovely to welcome everyone back after the half-term break. I hope you all had a restful time with your family and friends. It was wonderful to see the children back and full of energy and enthusiasm.
We started the week with our Star of the Week assembly which was full of singing and musical instruments. The children all joined in with enthusiasm and played and sang beautifully. The musical theme continued on Thursday when our visiting Juilliard advisor Erin Wight spent the day with us. She brought her viola in and played for the children as they arrived and left. We were also treated to an interactive and exciting assembly led by Erin and Mr Widger. You can see videos on Facebook and can see the wonder and excitement in their faces.
Halloween is approaching and we hope the children enjoyed their celebrations over the weekend and this week. Please remember that we have a ‘no sweets’ in school policy and we appreciate your support with this. The classes will plan special games and events to celebrate this day on Tuesday but pupils need to come into school wearing their uniform. Our next big event is International Day so please start planning what your child can wear in school that day. We would encourage them to dress to represent a country of their choice – this can be their own country or another that they are interested in. Already, in Sai Kung we have 16 different nationalities. Please see below for details of how you can get involved.
Many thanks for your continued support.
Naima Charlier.
Head of School.
NOTICES
10 November
INSET DAY
School is closed to all pupils for staff training.
22 November – 6pm
Our first PTA event will be held at Sai Kung on the roof. We will have a session on ‘Tapestry’ which is our online assessment system for early years followed by a drinks evening for parents. Please save the date in your diaries.
PARENT CONSULTATION INFORMATION – YEAR 1 - Tuesday, 28 November
If your child is in Year 1, they will have a Parent Consultation later this year. This will be on Tuesday 28th November and you will have an opportunity to sign up for a time to discuss your child’s learning, development, progress and next steps with the teacher. This time will also be a chance to talk about and celebrate your child’s achievements in their first few months of school. However, if you would like to talk to your child’s class teacher before then, regarding how your child has settled into school, then please do email them to arrange a suitable time for you.
INTERNATIONAL DAY – 15 November
International Day will be celebrated across all three sites at Nord Anglia and we will be looking for parent volunteers who would be willing to come in and help our children learn about different cultures here in Sai Kung.
If you would be interested in coming in and reading a story from your culture, sharing some food or even running a small cooking class we would be delighted to hear from you.
Please email emma.coleman@nais.hk to let us know and we will liaise with the schools PTA to make it a thoroughly enjoyable learning experience for all.
SPORTS DAY – 1 December
Year 1 children will join in the whole of Primary Sports Day on December 1. EYFS will have a separate sports day with Tai Tam EYFS in the Spring. More information will be given about both events nearer the time.
CHRISTMAS SHOW – 13 December
Save the date for our Sai Kung show – all the children will take to the stage and parents will be invited. More details will follow.
STARS OF THE WEEK – Teacher’s Choice
Nursery: Curtis Au, Jack Espeskog
Lower Kindergarten: Alisa Bovykin, Russell Li, Zhitong Tian, Josh Kee
Upper Kindergarten: Eric Fong
BLOGS
Don't forget to read your class blog.
Click here for the Nursery.
Click here for the Reception.
Click here for the Year 1.
CONTACT DETAILS
