Weekly Message
Dear Parents,
What a busy and wonderful week it has been. From our football teams who went to Guangzhou last weekend to compete in the NAESCA Cup U14 Football Tournament (great results by the way) through to us successfully donating 426 boxes to the Box of Hope charity - fantastic. Thank you to each and every one of you who donated and also to the parents and teachers who accompanied our football teams to China.
Wednesday was our amazing International Day which saw a kaleidoscope of colours, foods, dress and cultures celebrating the schools multicultural and diverse mix. Next came a visit from local artist Elaine Chiu who ran a watercolour painting workshop with our Y9 pupils to develop their understanding of two-point perspective and watercolour painting techniques by taking part in this workshop. And today we welcomed Pilot Tim Grevis-James into several classes as part of our Greener Skies challenge and he spent time talking to students and answering their many questions.
We also celebrated coming top out of the school in Hong Kong in the Language Perfect competition – well done to every student who took part to make this happen.
Next week looks equally as exciting, with Monday being World Children’s Day. It is also the launch of our STEAM week running at our Sai King and Tai Tam campuses.
Finally, don’t forget that next Friday is Gender Equality Day, and a non-uniform day where we’d like everyone to wear something red to match the Global Goal #5 logo.
Have a lovely weekend.
Kind regards
Jane
GENERAL ALL CAMPUS NOTICES
SUPPORTING WORLD CHILDREN’S DAY
On Monday, 20 November, our students will join with other young people globally to celebrate World Children’s Day by raising their voices in solidarity with some of the most vulnerable children in the world.
Building on the fantastic work they’re already undertaking as part of our collaboration with UNICEF, our students worldwide are coming together for 24 hours to raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals and children’s rights:
An important aspect of World Children’s Day is that we listen to and empower young people. Our students are passionate about making a real difference and we believe that with our support now, our students can have a significant impact on the world for decades to come.
You can follow the action live through our UNICEF social hub.
SIBLING PRIORITY
We are currently reviewing all the applicants for the next academic year (2018/2019). As you know siblings have a priority and we want to make sure that the siblings of our current students and families have submitted their applications. If you have not done this as yet please contact admissions@nais.hk by Friday the 24th November 2017.
GENDER EQUALITY WEEK – Global Goals
Friday, 24 November is a non-uniform day when students should wear red (to match the Gender Equality logo). Our Student Council from the Lam Tin campus will visit our Sai Kung and Tai Tam campuses will read and discuss books that promote Gender Equality with EYFS children. (Monday 27th Sai Kung and Thursday 30th Tai Tam).
LAM TIN UPDATES (scroll down for Tai Tam and Sai Kung campus updates)
UPCOMING EVENTS
20 November
Greek Day in Year 3
Class Assembly 5A, Sophie Halmshaw
Immunisation for Year 1 & 6 pupils
21-22 November
Year 8 Camping Trip
21-23 November
We will be holding a Parents’ Evening on Tuesday 21st November between 3:00pm and 6:00pm, and Thursday 23rd November between 4:30pm and 7:30pm.
24 November
Gender Equality - Non-uniform day (students should wear red)
Class Assembly 6E, Laura Rhodes
27-28 November
Year 9 Camping Trip
30 November
Christmas Concert
1 December
Primary Sports Day
INTERNATIONAL DAY
We had another wonderfully successful celebration of our culturally diverse school. Thank you to everyone for their hard work, time and effort for making this such a great day. Everyone enjoyed themselves and the students had a blast learning all about the different countries, playing games, tasting foods and seeing the traditional dress of countries around the world. We are so proud of being a truly international school and educating our children to respect themselves and to know that different doesn’t mean bad.
Watch the video of each country introducing themselves here.
CONGRATULATIONS SANDRINGHAM
Amazing effort by the students, teachers and parents of Sandringham, a total of 66 videos make them the winners of the “Dizzy Goal Challenge”
ORDERING SCHOOL PHOTOS
Please access your child’s photo via http://www.schoolmaster.hk/
To login, please click “User Login” on top right corner and 3 boxes will pop up:
School id: nais1718
User id: Student code (12 digits marked on student card)
Passwords: Student birthday in YYYYMMDD format, i.e. YearMonthDay
User Guide and Service Details are available here for easy reference.
For queries, please contact us by email cs@schoolmaster.hk or by phone 2880-5000.
DECEMBER LUNCH MENU
It’s time to check out what’s for lunch next month and to place your orders. You can view the menu here.
PLEASE READ - PRIMARY SPORTS DAY – 1 December
Please read important information about the Primary sports day here.
ECA REMINDER
Please be reminded that, as per the original dates advertised on the sign-up forms, there will be no after school ECA’s from Monday 20th – Friday 24th November. This is due to staff hosting parents’ evenings and not being available to run the ECAs. Please note the daily swimming sessions for the swimming squad WILL still take place here at NAIS from 7.00am -7.45am.
LEGO LEAGUE
Our first Lego league team are working on a project entitled Hydro Dynamics which is all about the human water cycle and as part of the challenge they need to come up with a product to improve the way humans use water. We have an idea and now want to share it with someone from the industry and get feedback. Sound interesting? Contact Mr Darren Sutton here.
FOOTBALL
There was an U10 football tournament hosted at HKFC on Wednesday afternoon and we sent two boys teams and one girls team to take part. Congratulation to the Boys B team who won their competition! The Boys A and Girls teams also produced some pleasing football and showing really good progress so far.
FLASH NEWS
Great news … we have recently been granted the status of candidate school by the IBO. This means that we are one step closer to being uniquely identified as an authorised IB World School. Teachers are currently registering on IB specific training so as to teach and assess their students according to IB rigorous requirements.
ASSEMBLY TIME
Primary Assembly – Class 1A, Gillian Johnson
Fantastic assembly today in which 1A spoke and sang all about penguins, where they live, how they breed and many other incredible facts. It was such an interesting topic and what amazed us, was the way they all spoke so confidently spoke in front of such a large audience. Well done 1A, you should be really proud of yourselves.
Secondary Assembly
Today Mr Bishop delivered the assembly to Secondary pupils on the issue and importance of being resilient in order to achieve success in our lives. He asked pupils to think of examples of how people can demonstrate mental, physical and emotional resilience during challenging times and gave 10 Top Tips to pupils on how they can do this themselves. He ended the assembly with a video showing an example of resilience as shown by Diego Hypolito, a Brazilian gymnast who failed to medal in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games but still managed to bounce back to claim silver in 2016. Please follow this link of the video shown in assembly today.
STARS OF THE WEEK – DRAMA
Congratulations to our “Stars of the Week”. Keep up the good work!
Year 1: Elena Verga, Sean Chang, Jaylan Lam, Cathy Cheng, Summer Cooper
Year 2: Emilia Wallwork, Kyle Wan, Freddie Finch, Emi Ikawa Niamh Walsh
Year 3: Minnie Wang, Arlia Doak, Takumi Shiotani, Angela Daniel, Charlotte Wotton
Year 4: Odile Bruinsma, Claire Chan, Kaavya Karnavat, Immie Harley, Julius She
Year 5: Evelyn Bowen, Darren Gao, William Graves, Sasha Parsons, Anton Baxter-Pronk
Year 6: Olivia McQuhae, Martha Lewell, Joseph Ooi, Owen Smale, Esther Rayner
HIGH COMMENDATIONS – DRAMA
Year 7: Mathias Chan, Ilona Przyszczykowski
Year 8: Lea St-Georges
Year 9: Sam Chan
CHRISTMAS CONCERT - Thursday, 30 November (3.45pm)
With only four weeks to go until our fabulous Christmas Concert, we would ask all parents to save the date and encourage all students to practice at home. Choir words, orchestra music and string ensemble music are available on Firefly!
WHO’s WHO & WHEN TO CONTACT THEM
TAI TAM UPDATES
Message from the Head of School
Dear Parents,
This week has revolved around our International Day and all the countries our pupils represent. It has been a truly exceptional first International day in Tai Tam and one which has been very enjoyable and informative for everyone. We started the event with our children and staff fashion parade – representing over 15 countries around the world. Next year we will invite parents to participate so please start planning your costumes now!
Thank you so much to all our volunteers, the children had an amazing day learning about all the different countries and nationalities – baking, creating, dancing and singing their way from country to country within our school community.
We also made handprints which we have shared with Lam Tin and the hands of all our children across the three sites are displayed in the Maker Space in Lam Tin. We have shared the photos of this with our children.
I look forward to welcoming many of you to our Information session about Tapestry our online learning journal next Thursday.
Have a great weekend.
Kind regards
Mrs Sarah Harley
Head of School
NOTICES
20-24 November
STEAM week
23 November
Individual Online Learning Journal information session 8:30am (followed with coffee and cake!)
24 November
Non-uniform day - wear red to support the Global Goal for gender equality
28 November
Year 1 parent consultations
1 December
Year 1 Sports Day
12 December
Christmas show at 10am
14 DECEMBER
Christmas jumper day
STARS OF THE WEEK
Nursery: Kian Kaufmann Gonzalez
Lower Kindergarten: Adley Lee
Upper Kindergarten: Lara Uttamchandani
STEAM WEEK – 20-24 November 2017
Please can you start collecting boxes and send them into school on 20th, 21st and 22nd of November. Sarah Williams in Year 1 will be coordinating our MIT work from Tai Tam, so please feel free to contact her if you have any questions or want to support in any way.
INDIVIDUAL ONLINE LEARNING JOURNAL INFO SESSION (with coffee and cake afterwards) - 8:30am on Thursday, 23 November
This information session about our online learning journal that 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. We will end with a parent coffee and cake morning.
BLOGS
Please continue to check the blogs for weekly information about what your child has been learning in school.
GENDER EQUALITY WEEK – Global Goals
Friday, 24 November is a non-uniform day when students should wear red (to match the Gender Equality logo). Our Student Council from the Lam Tin campus will visit Tai Tam on Thursday, 30 November to read and discuss books that promote Gender Equality to EYFS children.
YEAR 1 PARENT CONSULTATION INFORMATION – Tuesday, 28 November
Please ensure that you have made an appointment with your class teacher and Ms Li, our Mandarin teacher, to discuss the progress and development of your child.
TEACHER SPOTLIGHT – NICK JONES
Miss Jones gained a Primary PGCE from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2008. Since then she has worked in Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, teaching 2 to 10 year olds. Ms. Jones previously taught at The British School of Beijing for 5 years, moving to Hong Kong in 2015 where she has since been working at an international Kindergarten teaching Year 1.
“My classroom is one where I work very hard to create learning opportunities that pique the children’s curiosity and drive them to want to find out more. I encourage the children to take risks and feel confident to give all experiences a try, ensuring they know they are fully supported and cared for. I like to create a warm, friendly and inclusive classroom where all the children’s learning and achievements are celebrated.
In my spare time, I love to hike and swim, and I try to cook a little too! Having lived in Asia the last 7 years, I have also spent a lot of time travelling and hope to do lots more over the coming year!”
SPORTS DAY – 1 December
Year 1 children will join in the whole of Primary Sports Day on Friday, 1 December. Please ensure that you let your class teacher and taitambus@nais.hk know what transport option you are choosing on this day. 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 - Tuesday, 12 December at 10am
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. This week you should have received a note home about costumes and your child’s line.
CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY – THURSDAY, 14 DECEMBER
It is time to get into the festive spirt and don those fabulous Christmas jumpers we all love (to hate sometimes)! On this day we will be celebrating Christmas by asking all our children and staff to wear Christmas jumpers. We will also have our Christmas parties on this day.
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’s the end of another exciting week in Sai Kung as we have been celebrating our diverse pupil body through International Week. We have been visited by our lovely parents who have arranged a host of exciting activities for the children to help them learn about the different places our families come from. We have visited Norway, India, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Canada to name just a few. The parents came in with props, flags, cooking equipment, stories and lots and lots of enthusiasm. It was really special to have so many visitors and all the children got so much from each session.
On Wednesday, all three campuses came dressed in the colours and traditional costumes of their countries and here in Sai Kung we spent a special day visiting different classrooms and joining in lessons prepared by all our teachers to celebrate a host of countries. All the children have spoken about how much fun they have had and how much they have learnt. A special thank you to all the parents and Mrs Coleman, for organizing such a dynamic week.
This weekend the teachers will be again working hard to create something special to launch our STEAM week, next week. Don’t tell the children, but we will be turning the school into an airport departure lounge and Captain Cooklin and one of our Cathay Pilot parents will be on hand to fly us all somewhere exciting to mark the start of our exploration of ‘the future of flight’. With the aid of a flight simulation and some dramatic techniques we aim to inspire them and light a spark to get their interests up for the week ahead. I will tell you all about how it goes next week. Don’t forget to send us in your junk on Monday and Tuesday so we are ready for the big House challenge on Wednesday, where the children will be working in teams to create giant planes.
You should have all received information about our Tapestry information session (EYFS parents) and our ‘Drinks under the Stars’ from the PTA. We hope to see you all there so please do sign up.
Many thanks for your continued support.
Naima Charlier
Head of School
NOTICES
20-24 November
STEAM week
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.
24 November
Non-uniform day - wear red to support the Global Goal for gender equality
28 November
Parent Consultations
1 December
Year 1 Sports Day
12 December
Christmas show at 10am
14 DECEMBER
Christmas jumper day
GENERAL UPDATES
STARS OF THE WEEK
Nursery: Emmanuella Gadsby, Charlie Zarin
Lower Kindergarten: Paolo Ferrante, Santiago Ramdohr Ibanez, Sienna Mackney, Yannis Lam
Upper Kindergarten: Clinton Wong
MIT/STEAM Project:
As part of our MIT collaboration we will take part in our first STEAM challenge of the year, which is called ‘Greener Skies’. We will launch this project on Monday, 20 November which will then start a whole STEAM week, where the children will be imagining what the future of flight will look like. On Wednesday, the children will take part in a House challenge to build a giant plane. We need your help for this. Please can you start collecting boxes that then need to be sent into school on 20, 21 and 22 of November. Eliza Man in Year 1 will be coordinating our MIT work from Sai Kung, so please feel free to contact her if you have any questions or want to support in any way. We will be looking at all things to do with flying including, animals, parasailing, rockets and planes. So, if anyone has any connections to these areas, please let us know.
GENDER EQUALITY WEEK – Global Goals
Friday, 24 November is a non-uniform day when students should wear red (to match the Gender Equality logo). Our Student Council from the Lam Tin campus will visit our Sai Kung Monday 27 November, to read and discuss books that promote Gender Equality to EYFS children.
TEACHER SPOTLIGHT – ELIZA MAN
After spending 9 months language teaching in Bangkok I felt inspired to develop my teaching career further. Once I graduated with my PGCE, I taught in the U.K before joining the Nord Anglia family at the British International School of Chicago.
In my classroom I aim to create an environment where children are excited about their learning, challenge themselves and feel confident enough to take risks. In my role as Innovation and Entrepreneurship Leader I have enjoyed introducing opportunities for children to problem solve creatively and develop their business acumen, and this is something that I hope to continue in Hong Kong. I have been privileged to spend a week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as part of Nord Anglia’s collaboration with MIT. The experience was eye opening and spurred me on to continue my work integrating STEAM education into the curriculum.
Outside of school I lead a very active lifestyle – I particularly enjoy boxing, running and taking part in social sports leagues. I am passionate about travel as it gives me the opportunity to visit incredible places and experience new cultures.
PARENT CONSULTATION INFORMATION – YEAR 1 - Tuesday, 28 November
If your child is in Year 1, you should have already received information about a suitable appointment form Miss Man. You will also be able to meet with Miss Lo about Mandarin at this time.
SPORTS DAY – 1 December
Year 1 children will join in the whole of Primary Sports Day on December 1. The letter with information about this will go home in your child’s book bag. Please let us know about your transportation plans.
CHRISTMAS SHOW – 13 December 9:45am
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.
CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY – THURSDAY, 14 DECEMBER
It is time to get into the festive spirt and don those fabulous Christmas jumpers we all love (to hate sometimes)! On this day we will be celebrating Christmas by asking all our children and staff to wear Christmas jumpers. We will also have our Christmas parties on this day.
CURRICULUM OVERVIEWS
You can find detailed information about the curriculum for the coming term on our Firefly pages. Please do take a look and ask your teacher if you have any questions.
BLOGS
Please continue to check the blogs for weekly information about what your child has been learning in school.
Click here for the Nursery.
Click here for the Reception.
Click here for the Year 1.
There is also a section of photos from Sai Kung in general - you can find this in the “Welcome to Sai Kung” section of Firefly.
WHO’s WHO & WHEN TO CONTACT THEM
Here’s a quick list guide of who to email for what:
