Parent Update - 4 September 2015

Dear Parents,

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW WE TEACH YOUR CHILD (Years 2 to 6 only)

You should all have received the Curriculum Newsletters from your child’s class teacher (also available on Firefly and our website). These are a useful overview of what your child is learning in each subject. In addition, we are hosting a Curriculum Evening on 17 September and an invitation letter went to you all by email earlier today. Please let me know if you’ve not received it.

SAVE THE DATE – SECONDARY SCHOOL OPEN EVENING – 5.30PM TO 7PM – 29 SEPTEMBER:

We’ll be hosting a Secondary School Open Evening on 29 September for all interested families in years 5 to 8. We’re also opening this to non-NAIS families interested in learning more about our Secondary School. More details next week.

SWIMMING UPDATE:

Our swimming PE lessons are well underway, and it’s been so lovely seeing the children enjoying their swimming classes. We do know that some of the little ones feel the cold, despite the pool area being a balmy 31 degrees, so if you feel that your child would be more comfortable in a ‘rashie’ swim shirt, then we’re happy for them to wear one. Our NAIS swimsuits and jammers (boys swimming shorts) will also be ready by end-September. We will upload the ‘Order Form’ early next week.

PARENT WORKSHOP – HOW TO USE FIREFLY – 8 September, 8.30am

Our Parent Workshops start again next week. The first is on ‘Using Firefly’ our new Parent Portal. Please RSVP to Ricky AuYeung (ricky.auyeung@nais.hk). The full list of upcoming Parent Workshop can be found on our website and Firefly.

STAR OF THE WEEK – DRAMA – Click for photos

Our Primary assembly begin with a piano recital from Tina (6B), followed by Class 6A and Mr Gadsby leading the assembly with their "Famous People and their Inventions". Finally, a big congratulations goes to all of our Stars of the Week and their achievements in Drama!

Y1: Rayyan Ali, Denise Tsui, Dylan Holsheimer, Carson Wong, Jia Dreyer

Y2: Ellen Peters, Mollie McGregor, Audrey Marwood, Antonio Li, Zarif Iqbal

Y3: Gilles Bogaert, Dante Griffiths, Divina Law, Claudia Merrill, Toby Deacon-Potter

Y4: Allegra Vidali, Maithili Parekh, Isaac Reid, William Wang

Y5: Bryant Cheng, Leo Han, Annabel Sanderson, Zena Murphy

Y6: Hailey Tsui, Matthew Rostron, Charlotte Knowles

Y7: Simone Skovgaard, Jamie Law

Y8: Sebastian Mak, Lucia Bowers Martinez

SECONDARY SCHOOL – YEAR 8 MENTORING & TARGET SETTING

Starting next week, our Year 8s will be meeting individually with their Heads of House for their mentoring and target-setting meeting. Please take the time to talk to your Year 8 child about their aspirations for the year ahead, and get some feedback from the mentoring conversations that they will be having with their Heads of House.

PTA UPDATE – Please click on our PTA section on Firefly

Thank you to everyone who has put their name forward for being a Class Rep. There has been a very high level of interest. If you would like to put your name forward, could you please email ptanaishk@gmail.com before 14 September. While you’re welcome to put your name forward for any class they are, in particular, looking for volunteers for the following classes: 1A, 1E, 2A, 2B, 2D, 3D, 4C, 5A, 5C, Years 7 & 8.

NAIS PARENT SOCIAL EVENTS:

One of the loveliest things about our school is our welcoming parents. I wanted to highlight a few upcoming events:

- NAIS Hiking Group – Our Monday morning hiking group has a full calendar ahead. Click here for details and email Jane Candlish, our Star NAIS Hiker, at: janecandlish@hotmail.co.uk

- Southside Parents – Lunchtime get-together on Friday 11 September at 12.30pm at Chung’s Cuisine (3/F, Stanley Plaza). Please email Jo Walpole at: jwalpole@netvigator.com

- Sai Kung & Clearwater Bay Parents – Back due to popular demand … the last-Friday-of-the-month drinks at Casa. Please look out for an email reminder from Lexie or Susie or just come along from 8pm. The first outing will be on 25 September.

INSTRUMENTAL TUITION:

Message from Miss Rowan: Thank you to the many parents who have signed up their children for private music lessons. Your child should have a timetable in their school bag today and lessons will start next week. If you have not yet purchased or rented an instrument, please email Ringo Chan (ringochan@puremus.com) who should be able help in time for the first lesson.  Please note that instrumental lessons are now full, so please contact me if you would like to place your child on a waiting list for next term (naomi.rowan@nais.hk ). 

REMINDER: WITHDRAWAL NOTICE PERIOD

Please remember that we have a three month notice period for withdrawal from NAIS. While of course we hope that you’ll all be staying, for those of you who will be relocating over the Christmas Holidays, please be aware that we need to receive notice on or before 11 September (three months before the end of term). If you withdraw after that date unfortunately you will need to pay short notice fees (the equivalent of three months’ tuition, pro-rated from the date of the withdrawal notice).

Have a lovely weekend.