Parent Update - 26 January 2018

Parent Update - 26 January 2018

Principal’s Message

 

Dear Parents,

 

What a wonderful experience our pupils have had visiting the Volvo Ocean Race!  Many of the adults in the building are jealous that they have not seen it yet.  The pupils were full of what they saw and it fitted well with our STEAM projects and reinforced the messages relayed by our showing of the “Plastic Ocean” last year.

 

It is great to give them these different first-hand experiences and to see the impact they have on their learning.

 

We had a marvellous turnout of parents for our “Life in Secondary” presentation for Year 6 parents about the transition to Secondary School.  Stars of the show were two of our current Year 7 pupils – Jack Parsons and Ronnie Chiu – who gave their positive feedback about the move.  Thank you for the support and the questions as we ensure that your children make as smooth a transition as possible.

 

Equally well-attended and important was the Year 9 options evening where parents and pupils had the chance to be informed about IGCSE subject choices and the upcoming IB Diploma.  My thanks to all the staff who presented and the subject teachers who ably answered questions.  Thanks, too, to the parents who supported the event and for their questions.

 

The recruitment rollercoaster rolls on with 6-8 interviews per day (or night depending on the time zone!).  Mrs. Harley and I fly to London at the weekend to conduct 43 interviews in three days so wish us luck!  So far we have seen some excellent candidates and look forward to adding to the staffing complement.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Best wishes

 

Brian Cooklin

Principal

 

AQI POLICY

Owing to the recent poor air quality, we thought you may like to read up again on our policy which you can read here.   

 

SCROLL DOWN FOR TAI TAM AND SAI KUNG UPDATE

LAM TIN UPDATES

Message from head of Campus

 

Dear Parents,

 

This week has seen us focus on the transition aspects throughout the school.  Year 9 pupils and parents attended our “Options Evening” on Wednesday when staff discussed the subjects on offer for IGCSE and how this leads to the IB Diploma programme in Years 12 and 13.

 

Our Year 6 parents/pupils/teacher are currently focusing on the transition into Year 7 and how we can all work together to prepare the pupils for this move to Secondary.

 

At the other end of the school, all of our Year 1 pupils from across the three sites came together to visit the Volvo Ocean Race and then spend the afternoon together in Lam Tin.  All of our Year 1 pupils will be coming together to form Year 2 in Lam Tin from August and we are looking at how we support the pupils in this.  There will be a number of transition events planned for both Year 1 and Year 6 in the coming months and we will be sharing more information about this shortly.

 

Best wishes,

 

Sarah Harley

Head of Campus

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

28 January

History Bowl Event at Korean International School

 

29 January

Class Assembly 4B - Chris Cottrell

 

30 January

Year 9 and 10 Trip to Tanzania

 

31 January

PTA Mahjong Night

 

2 FEBRUARY

U14 Nord Anglia East Asia Games

Class Assembly 1E - Claire Day

 

15 FEBRUARY

Staff INSET day – no school for children

 

16 FEBRUARY

Start of Chinese New Year Holiday

 

Save the Date: Wednesday 14th March - Spring Soiree

 

ARTISTS’ OF THE MONTH

Well done to the winners of Artists’ of the Month for December. See their fantastic work here.

 

SUMMER PERFORMING ARTS WITH JUILLIARD:

We are delighted to announce that applications are now open for the Summer Arts Programmes 2018.  This year there are three available locations with a vocal programme running in Florida, a string programme in Shanghai and the Flagship Programme in Geneva which caters for dance, music and drama.

These Programmes cater for a wide ability range and are offers to students at Nord Anglia at a 15% discount.  For more information and to contact our dedicated Summer Arts team for further details, click here.

 

CONGRATULATIONS

Following Soleil’s success last week, we are thrilled to be able to share with you further news of student success.  Mayu Okaguchi in 4D participated in the ‘Sonny TY International Gymnastics Competition’ in Manila, Philippines in October.  Competing against young people from Hong Kong, Malaysia, the

Philippines,  Indonesia, India and Iran, she not only secured first place in both the ‘floor’ and ‘beam’ categories, but was awarded the prestigious title of Champion for her level across all categories of the competition! 

 

The in December, Mayu participated in another competition in Shenzhen, this time gaining first place for ‘floor’ and ‘bars’ and again claiming the title of Champion!  Congratulations to Mayu on this fantastic achievement!

 

If you have any stories of success (however big or small!) that you would like us to celebrate with your child and the wider community, please email jane.archibald@nais.hk.

 

ECAS AND SPRING CONCERT:

Save the Date: Wednesday 14th March - Spring Soiree (Lam Tin Campus)

ECAs are underway and yet again we are delighted with the signup from students.  In response to parent feedback about children wanting to attend too many ECAs (a great position to be in!), this term the string group and wind band will rehearse as independent ensembles.  During these rehearsals they will also practise a combined number, and with a few additional combined rehearsals in the lead up to the concert, come together to form the Symphony Orchestra. 

 

IGCSE OPTIONS PARENTS’ EVENING

If you missed this informative session, you can get more information here.

 

MATISSE MASTERPIECES

Year 8 have been working relentlessly hard to complete their acrylic self portrait painting. Their work has been inspired by the French artist, Henri Matisse and his love of colour. Matisse said “The chief function of colour is to serve expression”. 

 

BLOGS

Please continue to check the blogs for weekly information about what your child has been learning in school.

 

FEBRUARY LUNCH MENU

Click here to see what tasty dishes are in store for the February lunch menu. 

 

 

 

STARS OF THE WEEK – MATHS

Year 1: Daren Yu, Lucas Wong, Flora Fei, Stella Wong, Krystal Lau

Year 2: Aayush Das, Torben Beatty, Julie Zhu, Hypatia Vourloumis, Jamie Li

Year 3: George Hawkins, Sophie  Wang, Hannah Liu, Kevin Chen, Asia Thompson

Year 4: Benson Cai, Nazar Bondarenko, Cloris Zhao, Kyler Lin, Chris Chan

Year 5: Jonathan St-Georges, Belinda Liu, Fiona Chan, Arianna Muggeri, Chloe Longueville

Year 6: Charis Chor, Caterina Rossi, Emma Sommerhalder, Tony Zhang, Yoshiaki Okaguchi

 

HIGH COMMENDATIONS – MATHS

Year 7: Abby Choi, Steven Gu

Year 8: Brendan Wang

Year 9: Celina Ji

Year 10: Velvet Lung

 

ASSEMBLY TIME

Primary Assembly – Class 2D, Rebecca Atkinson

This morning, class 2D were very proud to share their depth of knowledge about the ancient civilization of Sumer. They confidently presented us with information including the early writing system (Cuneiform), the geographic range of the civilisation and also how Sumerian mathematics and measurements are still used today. Can you believe the origins of the sixty-second minute and sixty-minute hour can be traced all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia?! Even the class’ concluding musical rap about Time helped to reinforce the connection between Sumer and present day. Well done and thank you!

 

Secondary Assembly

In assembly today Mr. Malone introduced the idea of ‘Blue Monday’ (15th January 2018) - considered by some to be the most depressing day of the year. Pupils and staff were asked to share their ideas on why this day may be considered as such. Ideas ranged from winter weather to not having much money after Christmas.

 

The conversation then changed and focused on why pupils and staff have reason to be positive and optimistic about the start of a new school term and calendar year in January. Contributions from pupils and staff included the chance to learn about new and interesting topics, to catching up with friends after the Christmas holiday and welcoming new pupils into the secondary school and making new friends.

 

Mr. Malone then highlighted the mentoring sessions held on Thursday morning between pupils and staff and how the targets generated are a great way to focus and aim for self-improvement this coming term. Pupils were encouraged to revisit their targets and aim to ensure they are successful in self-improvement and making even more progress this coming term.

 

TAI TAM UPDATES

Message from the Deputy Head of School

Dear Parents,

 

Another busy week of learning in Tai Tam topped off by a wonderful EYFS celebration afternoon.  It was so lovely to have so many of you able to join us for the Phonics and Reading workshop lead by Miss Dobson and Miss Griffin.  It was such an informative session on how we teach phonics and how you can support your child at home with reading.  For those of you who were unable to attend I have added the presentation and handout you can find those here. It was also a joy to see so many parents being pulled by the hand to be shown different parts of the school with a very proud child in the lead.  The confidence and different conversations heard show how much our children have learnt and enjoyed at school.

 

The Year 1 Children have also been busy on a trip to Kai Tak for the ‘Volvo Ocean Race School Program’ joining children from Lam Tin and Sai Kung.  This was a good chance for our children to also experience our Lam Tin site to start the transition process for them going to Lam Tin in Year 2.  They travelled on the Lam Tin buses and got to use the amazing ‘Maker Space’ in the afternoon for some more STEAM learning.  I think the smiles say it all!

Our Reception children have also been busy making lamingtons as a special treat for me!  The Maths measuring and language was fantastic to hear and see and they tasted delicious.  It was great to see their faces when postcards arrived from Australia from our travelling pandas and their curiosity sparked about the world around us.  Nursery have been busy making witches in Mandarin whilst learning ‘Room on the Broom’ by Julia Donaldson focussing on learning the animal names.

 

Enjoy your weekend.

 

Kind regards

 

Mrs. Katie Malone

Deputy Head of School

 

NOTICES

 

1 FEBRUARY

Year 1 Trip to KidsFest – Dinosaur Zoo

 

8 FEBRUARY

Year 1 Class Assembly – Year 1 Parents are invited to come and watch 10:00am

 

14 FEBRUARY

Chinese New Year Assembly 8:45am – Parents invited

Children come to school dressed in Chinese Dress

 

15 FEBRUARY

Staff INSET day – no school for children

 

16 FEBRUARY

Start of Chinese New Year Holiday

 

CONSCIOUS AND EFFECTIVE PARENTING SEMINARS- 5 Feb-26 March – last chance to sign up!
Parent Effectiveness Training is simply life changing! For those who are interested and want a deeper understanding and knowledge, Kathrine Sellery is offering to run an 8-week course here at our Tai Tam campus.  Owing to numbers we are postponing our start date to the 5^th February and please do let us know if you wish to sign up.

 

Dates of the course a Tai Tam are:  Feb 5, 12, 26 and March 5, 12, 19, 26

Time: 8:30-11:30am

 

TAPESTRY REPORTS

Children in our EYFS who have been with us before 1^St December 2017 will be receiving a written report through Tapestry.  If you have not signed up to Tapestry, please do contact your class teacher who can support you in this.  Parents who have just joined us, you will be invited by your class teacher to come in to discuss how your child is settling in. Year 1 Parents, our teachers are currently writing your child’s reports and these will be on Firefly before Chinese New Year.

 

MEDICATION

At times children will need to be given medication from the doctor in school. If this is the case, please do fill in a ‘Consent to Administer Medicine’ form into school with the medication.  This will be administered by our nurse and she may also contact you regarding this.  The form can be found on Firefly in Tai Tam, Whole School Forms.  This will need to be filled in on each occasion.

 

 

 

STARS OF THE WEEK – Class Teacher
Congratulations! You should feel very proud of your achievements.

Nursery: Ashley Wong
Lower Kindergarten: Jasper Shaw
Upper Kindergarten: Eric Fang

 

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.  

 

CLASS ASSEMBLY SCHEDULE 2018

The schedule for our class assemblies is as follows – your class teacher will give you more details nearer the time.

• Year 1: Thursday, 8 February, 10:00
• Dolphins and Seahorses: Thursday, 15 March, 10:00
• Starfish and Turtles: Thursday, 10 May, 10:00
• Nursery: Thursday, 31 May, 10:00

 

BLOGS

Please continue to check the blogs for weekly information about what your child has been learning in school.

 

NO NUTS
We are a ‘nut free school’ as we have several 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!

 

SAI KUNG UPDATES

Message from the Head of School

 

Dear Parents,

 

It has been another busy week here in Sai Kung. The children are developing so fast and all the teachers are super proud of their achievements. They have been involved in a raft of problem solving activities this week as they have got to grips with the new water equipment outside. Armed with wellies and waterproof tops, the children have created circuits, channeled water through pipes and tubes and investigated the effects of the pumps to create the desired actions. This has been fantastic for their team-working abilities and the conversations they have had have been rich and challenging.

 

Year 1 children took part in a trip to see the Volvo Boat Race village. Afterwards they joined children from Lam Tin and Tai Tam and took part in a series of STEAM related activities in our Maker Space at Lam Tin. These kinds of activities help prepare the children for the move  over to Year 2. For those Reception children also making the move to Lam Tin at the end of this year, we will be planning trips over to the school to help them get ready for the move. For now, they have enjoyed hearing about the experience from their friends in Angelfish class.

 

This weekend Miss Tillotson, Mrs Coleman and myself represented our school at an event highlighting the EYFS and how children learn through play. It was held at Hebe Haven Yacht Club and we took along some of our wonderful resources to demonstrate the learning your children experience every day. It was a great success and we were delighted to be asked to attend, especially as we are such a new school.

 

For those of you who joined us for our phonics presentation, we hope you found it useful. Please let us know if there are any particular topics you wish us to hold parent workshops on and we will happily arrange these. Please make a note of the date 14^th Feb as we will hold a special CNY (Chinese New Year) assembly in school, all parents are invited. We will also ask children to dress in Chinese costumes for this day.

 

Have a lovely weekend,

 

Naima Charlier

Head of School

 

NOTICES

 

1 FEBRUARY

Year 1 Trip to KidsFest – Dinosaur Zoo

 

14 FEBRUARY

Chinese New Year Assembly 9:30am – Parents invited

Children come to school dressed in Chinese Dress

 

15 FEBRUARY

Staff INSET day – no school for children

 

GENERAL UPDATES

 

STARS OF THE WEEK - DRAMA

Congratulations! You should feel very proud of your achievements.

 

Nursery: Curtis Au, Cameron Wong,

Lower Kindergarten: Jack Williams, Mattia Tagliente, May Zhang, Jayden Leung

Upper Kindergarten: Natalie Fu

 

 

CLASS ASSEMBLY SCHEDULE 2018

The schedule for our class assemblies is as follows – your class teacher will give you more details nearer the time.

• Year 1 Angelfish: Friday, 2 March
• Dolphins and Turtles: Friday, 16 March
• Seahorses and Starfish: Friday, 11 May
• Bumblebees and Caterpillars: Friday, 1 June

 

 

STAFF SPOTLIGHT – MR. ANTHONY SCHAVERIEN

 

After completing my PGCE at the Institute of Education, University of London in 2010, I worked at a primary school in London, teaching classes of children across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. In 2014 I joined Nord Anglia Education when I took up my first international teaching position at The British School of Guangzhou, where I held the positions of Primary Science Coordinator and Assistant Year Leader.

 

“As a teacher I passionately believe that confident, independent, creative and resilient young children achieve greater academic success and I aim to develop all of these traits amongst the children that I teach. I aim to create a classroom environment in which mistakes are seen as opportunities for learning and self-improvement”.

 

“In my spare time I enjoy travelling and exploring in different parts of the world. I am very much looking forward to exploring and hiking around Hong Kong and tucking in to an abundance of Cantonese delicacies. I am a keen supporter of the world’s greatest football team, Tottenham Hotspur, and will continue to follow their progress throughout my time in Hong Kong”.

 

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.

 

NO NUTS
We are a ‘nut free school’ as we have several 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!