Parent Update - 27 January 2017

Dear Parents

After Marathon interview sessions and jet lag, it was a pleasure to be back in school and enjoy school life.

The PTA event on Tuesday evening, where we were taught how to play Mahjong was particularly enjoyable. Once we understood the basic rules, it was great fun and I even managed to win one game! It was also good to welcome a number of new families who joined the school this month.

Of course, the usual meetings continue but it is exciting to see the new classrooms being finished and the new facilities getting ready. Equally, the new campus at Tin Wan is progressing too, and, after the holiday, we should have pictures of what it will look like when it is completed.

The highlights of this week have to be the Year 3 Performance and the Chinese New Year Assembly. The Year 3 Performance had it all – Music, dancing, acting, humour and recipes! More than anything was the sense of enjoyment and the costumes looked marvellous too!

I hope you and your family have a lovely holiday.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Brian Cooklin

Principal

UPCOMING EVENTS:

30 January – 3 February

Half Term Holidays

6 February

Back to school!

7 February

Parent Workshop KS1 Maths

(Please note the workshop will be rescheduled to 28 February)

8 February

Year 9 Options submission deadline

13 February

PTA Meeting

14 February

PTA Coffee Morning & Bake Sale

17 Feb – Save the date!

Superstar flautist Jasmine Choi will be in school

20 February

Year 6 Residential trip

21 February

Year 8 Spanish Cookery Workshop

22 February

Year 9 trip to Tanzania

JUILLIARD ARTIST VISIT - FLAUTIST JASMINE CHOI COMES TO NAIS

Friday 17^th February will see the first of our Juilliard Artist Visits this academic year. Jasmine Choi, rated one of the top ten flautists in the world and a Juilliard Alumnus will be spending the afternoon with our students, coaching the flute group, performing for all year groups and answering questions posed by our young people.

Between 4.30pm and 6pm, we will be hosting ‘An Evening with Jasmine Choi’ in the school hall. We would love to see as many parents as possible at this exciting event. Jasmine will not only perform, but talk about her journey as a musician, what music means to her and provide you with the opportunity to ask any questions you may have for her.

We are also delighted to announce that Jasmine will also be giving her Hong Kong debut flute recital on 25th February 2017 at the Jockey Club Auditorium, PolyTechnic University. Hosted by Mr. Ringo Chan, there will be an exclusive 15% discount for children and parents of NAIS HK. For details of the concert, please go to following link: https://www.facebook.com/events/244616435951803/?ti=icl

To find out more about Jasmine and her dazzling career, visit her websitewww.jasminechoi.com.

YEAR 3 PERFORMANCE
In case you missed our Year 3 performance yesterday, there was lots of singing, dancing and drama as our pupils shared with us the traditions of Chinese New Year and performed some interesting songs and choreography. Event highlights are posted here (http://www.facebook.com/NAISHongKong) .

GLOBAL CAMPUS VIRTUAL CHOIR

Children in KS2 and the advanced choir are working hard on their performance of ‘Wondrous Garden’ by contemporary composer, Jack Blume. This piece has been commissioned by Nord Anglia for our Global Campus Virtual Choir. All 43 schools are signed up, and when completed, this will be the largest ever virtual childrens’ choir on record. Please follow @musicNAISHK (https://twitter.com/musicNAISHK) to see a glimpse of these rehearsals and see some of the exciting activities your children are exploring through the curriculum.

NAIS PTA MAHJONG AND DIM SUM NIGHT A GREAT SUCCESS

Who said Mahjong is difficult? A lot of our parents managed the mahjong 101 in just an evening. We're sure that it's a great start for a prosperous year of the Rooster for all of our participants.

A PEEK AT WHAT THE MANDARIN TEAM HAVE BEEN TEACHING THIS WEEK

The Mandarin team have been busy teaching our Secondary students to make dumplings (jiǎo zi) this week. They thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only did they learn some dumpling making skills, they also learned why the dumplings are in the shape they are, and several Chinese New Year stories. What a fun way to learn! More photos are posted here (http://www.facebook.com/NAISHongKong) .

WE HACKED THE TUBE!

What an exciting day we had on Monday when several Year 6 and Year 7 children presented their ‘Hack’ to the panel of judges. Four lucky students were chosen to go to MIT. Congratulations and well done to everyone who took part. Your ideas, creativity, and professionalism really blew us away.
More on the hack and an update on the water testing experiment here (http://www.facebook.com/NAISHongKong) .

GLOBAL CAMPUS UPDATE: CHINESE NEW YEAR REUNION COMPETITION

On Friday evening, Andrew, Michael, Annie, Rebecca, Judy and Kelly from Year 9 joined Mr Robinson and Ms Lau for a trip to Central to visit the Bring Me A Book Foundation centre. Bring Me A Book are usually supported by Sandringham House but on this occasion students were there to interview the New York Times award winning children's author Yu Li-Qiong and to celebrate her book A New Year's Reunion for the Global Campus. The book is a beautiful celebration of Chinese New Year which also touches upon the difficult lives of migrant workers in Mainland China who are reunited briefly at this time of year. You can find the book in our school library (though be warned it is very popular just now) but Global Campus is also offering you a chance to win a signed copy in either English or Mandarin.
The competition is open to all Nord Anglia staff and pupils. We would like you to either take a photo or draw a picture of what Chinese New Year looks like in Hong Kong or any other city around the world you may be visiting over the holidays. Alternatively, you could submit a photo or drawing of another festival that takes place wherever you are spending the holidays.

Please submit your entries by taking a photo of it and adding it to the Padlet on the New Year’s Reunion page on the Global Library section on Global Campus Online along with your name and class. You can see Rebecca, Kelly and Judy introduce the competition in this video:

https://vimeo.com/200122016
Please make sure your entry includes your name, class and teacher and school to be in with a chance of winning. The closing date for entry is February 14th (Valentine's Day).
We plan to announce the winners and share a video of our interview with Yu Li-Qiong in the weeks to come so stay tuned.

YEAR 4 SCIENCE – LEARNING ABOUT THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

If you look on Facebook, you’ll see some fantastic photos of our Year 4 students holding up their model of The Digestive System. They were told to be as creative as they wanted and boy did they take that instruction on board! We saw digestive systems made from pasta, beans, clay, lego, (the list is extensive!). We also had some excellent Keynote presentations and have been really impressed with the amount of hard work, creativity and detail that they have approached the task with (marble runs, cakes, t-shirts, PowerPoints and models to name but a few!).
See for yourself here (http://www.facebook.com/NAISHongKong) what they’ve been up to.

STARS OF THE WEEK – Mandarin

Another week and more successes to celebrate. Congratulations to the following students:
Year 1: Imogen Lawson, Luna Yamanaka, Vicky Zhang, Elliott Law, Derek Zhang
Year 2: Ruby Shaw, Sarah Imran, Anson Woo, Evie Lyn Elisabeth Weber, Faye Mok
Year 3: Cloris Zhao, Eleanor Belardini, Elina Lee, Juanita Belle Kilmartin, Jayden Poon
Year 4: Radha Peratides, Kiara Josephine Tagliente, Ethan Lau, Seowon Byun, Hans Chiu
Year 5: Martha Lewell, Seohyun Park, Bronte Marner, Kyle Chan, Alison Woo
Year 6: Leon Helmersson, Katrina Chan, Yuzu Murase, Sherise Cheung
HIGH COMMENDATION AWARDS – Mandarin
Year 7: Charlotte Knowles
Year 8: Simone Skovgaard
Year 9: Velvet Lung
Photos can be found here (https://www.facebook.com/NAISHongKong/) .

SANDRINGHAM HOUSE ASSEMBLY

In this week's Sandringham House Assembly, our pupils introduced the origins of Chinese New Year. They were excited to learn about the different Chinese zodiac signs, and find out which one they were! Also, our teachers presented the bronze, silver and gold house point certificate to the outstanding pupils! Keep it up!
See their smiley faces here (https://www.facebook.com/NAISHongKong/) .

CHINESE NEW YEAR ASSEMBLY

A lot of excitement in today's Chinese New Year Assembly as our pupils performed Chinese New Year songs to celebrate this important festival. We also welcomed two energetic lions and enjoyed a fascinating lion dance. A big thank you to our PTA for their support.
Check out our Facebook to see some great photos here (https://www.facebook.com/NAISHongKong/) .

SAVE THE DATE - PTA QUIZ NIGHT

The NAIS PTA Quiz Night is back! This year we are celebrating St.Patrick's Day. Join us for a night of fun and laughters on 16 March from 7pm to 9.30pm at the School Hall.
Also, if you would like to share your recipes for “The NAIS Community International Food Festival Initiative”, please email us at naisrecipebook@gmail.com (mailto:naisrecipebook@gmail.com) . This will be a great opportunity for you to write recipes and take pictures of the amazing dinner and lunches you are about to cook for CNY!

FACEBOOK

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KEY CONTACTS

Quick list guide of who to email for what:
* Bus related - bus@nais.hk (mailto:bus@nais.hk)
* ECAs - Tom.Ferguson@nais.hk (mailto:Tom.Ferguson@nais.hk)
* Homework related – Class Teacher (firstname.secondname@nais.hk)
* Pastoral related - david.sheehan@nais.hk (mailto:david.sheehan@nais.hk)
* School Lunches - katherine.chan@nais.hk (mailto:katherine.chan@nais.hk)
* Admissions and Marketing related – admissions@nais.hk (mailto:admissions@nais.hk)
* General enquiry - receptionist@nais.hk (mailto:receptionist@nais.hk)
* Absences - Class Teacher and receptionist@nais.hk (mailto:receptionist@nais.hk) if your child is sick or for medical reasons, and Sarah.Harley@nais.hk (mailto:Sarah.Harley@nais.hk) (Year 1-4), Christian.Bishop@nais.hk (mailto:Christian.Bishop@nais.hk) (Year 5-9) to request a leave of absence.
Please do not use the info@nais.hk (mailto:info@nais.hk) for any of the above queries.