Parent Update - 23 March 2018-parent-update--23-march-2018-Nord Anglia Education
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Nord Anglia
23 March, 2018

Parent Update - 23 March 2018

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Parent Update - 23 March 2018
Parent Update - 23 March 2018

MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL

 

Dear Parents,

 

It has been a week of great contrasts : from budget meetings and interviews to Shakespeare and Roald Dahl, from Year 3 hikes to residential trips, from I.B. preparations to Inter-house rugby!

 

It is a snapshot of how busy and diverse the school is, which encapsulates one of our promises to parents and pupils : to provide opportunities for success as widely as possible.  I often say to new parents that I don’t know what their child will be successful at, so we need to provide as wide a range as we can to make sure each and every child enjoys success.  That is why residential trips and extra-curricular activities are so important because they provide such rich experiences and opportunities.

 

Seeing the excitement on the faces of the Year 3 and Year 6 pupils as they depart, certainly makes my day as do the comments from the audiences viewing the wonderful plays performed by Year 7 and 8 this week.

 

I am sure I will feel the same when I see I.B. lead the assembly.

 

That’s what makes our job so worthwhile.

 

Enjoy the weekend with your family.

 

Mr Brian Cooklin

Principal

 

 

A UNICEF GLOBAL GOALS SURVEY – Deadline: Saturday, 30 March.

Don’t forget to remind your children share their thoughts and hopes for the global goals. They can complete the survey here.

 

IT’S HEALTHY SCHOOL WEEK from 26 –29 March

 

With your support we can make next week a really successful week! We really want the Naked Lunch especially to be the start of a big reduction in the amount of waste we produce and also see a rise in healthy food eaten in the long term. All the staff are taking part in this initiative too!

 

So remember, no disposable, single use plastics. We only want to see environmentally friendly, health friendly foods and packaging.

 

In the Summer Term, every Friday will be a Naked Lunch day!

  

 

SCROLL DOWN FOR TAI TAM AND SAI KUNG UPDATE

 

LAM TIN UPDATES

Head of Campus Message

 

Dear Parents

 

With both Year 6 and Year 3 out exploring and challenging themselves, we expected the school to be quieter! However, it has been as busy as ever.

 

The standard of the Year 7 and Year 8 performances was amazing and fantastic to watch. IB continued the performance themed week with their assembly about Gardeners' World! It was wonderful to see photos of them as babies and then photos of them grown up in their chosen professions - lots of paleontologist and police officers!

 

Reports have been completed for Years 7-9 and will be published next week. Please remember to book your appointments for the Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9 Parent consultations next week to discuss your child's report and targets.

 

Don't forget we break up for our Easter break next Thursday at 1pm.

 

I wish you all a happy weekend!

 

Sarah Harley.

Assistant Principal.

 

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

26 – 29 MARCH

Healthy Schools Week:

Mindful Monday, Try it Tuesday, Work out Wednesday! – Yes … every day is ‘naked lunch’ so please try not to send in food and drink with packaging.

 

27 MARCH

Year 7 Parents Evening

 

28 MARCH

Year 8 & 9 Parents Evening

Term 3 ECAs will be available on CHQ

 

29 MARCH

End of the term – school finishes at 1pm. School buses will be leaving early, please pick up your children at the bus stop 2 hours earlier than usual.

 

11 APRIL

ECA sign-up period opens. Closes at 12pm on 17 April

 

17 APRIL

ECA sign-up closes at 12pm

 

19 APRIL

PTA QUIZ NIGHT 7:00-9:00pm

 

26 APRIL

PTA MAHJONG NIGHT 7:00-9:00pm

 

30 APRIL

Book Week

 

4 MAY

Dress up as a book character day

 

SAVE THE DATE - 18 MAY

Year 9 and 10 Careers Day

 

 

Term 3 ECAs

The list of Term 3 ECAs will be available on CHQ by Wednesday 28th March. Please access CHQ via your

parental Firefly account. Sign-up period will be from 3:00pm on Wednesday, 11 April and will close at 12:00pm

on Tuesday, 17 April.

 

Term 3 ECAs start on Monday 30 April and end on Friday 15 June.

 

Please follow the link: Choosing your ECA from 28 March to preview what is on offer.

 

STARS OF THE WEEK – TEACHER’S CHOICE

Year 1: Oscar Li, Jayden Lee, Anna Mao, Alex Zhou, Luca Castagnoli

Year 2: Saisha Das, Halle Grace Jakeway, Aindri Wijayadasa, Myra Maheshwari, Cisy Li

Year 4: Antonio Li, Chloe Gordon, Lily Shum, Geraldine Kwong, Cheryl Au

Year 5: Kiara Tagliente, Edward Savagar, Abraham Lai, Sydney Chow, Julian Zhu

 

HIGH COMMENDATIONS – TEACHER’S CHOICE

Year 7: Alden Lau, Sonia Cheung

Year 8: Eva Zhang

Year 9: Celina Ji

Year 10: Amy Jung

 

GET YOUR DIARIES OUT …

Dates for your diaries as you won’t want to miss these great events organised by the PTA.

 

  • PTA QUIZ NIGHT - Thursday, 19 April 7:00-9:00pm

Click here to sign up and start planning your team. Thursday, 19 April 7:00-9:00pm

 

  • PTA MAHJONG NIGHT - Thursday, 26 April 7:00-9:00pm

Don’t miss out on this fun evening. Click here to secure your space.

 

CAREERS DAY

Following the success of last year’s Careers Day, we are pleased to announce that this year the event will be taking place on Friday, 18 May from 1:30pm onwards. Please save the date – we look forward to confirming a number of organisations across a range of industries for our Year 9 and Year 10 students. Further information to follow.

 

ASSEMBLY TIME

PRIMARY – Class 1B

1B had their assembly today and had been learning about ‘Growing.’ They told us all about what a plant needs to grow and the different parts of a flower. We then all said what we wanted to be when we grow up and had such a variety of answers from Police Officers, to Vets, Singers, Scientists, Paleontologists, Bus Drivers, Designers, and Volcanologist! Well done 1B!

 

SECONDARY

Today we focused upon happiness in recognition of World Happiness Day on the 20th March. This topic also has great relevance to our Healthy Schools Week events happening next week - where it was highlighted that health is not solely focused on physical issues but also social and mental health.

 

The definitions of being happy/happiness were looked at along with finding out which nations made the top 10 of happiest countries in the world for 2018. The pupils and staff discovered that the Kingdom of Bhutan places Gross National Happines over Gross National Product and it was discussed what this meant.

 

A number of students from Years 8&9 then shared with all present the things that made them happy. Mr Malone then listed reasons why we should all be happy with our school and living in Hong Kong, including may things we all take for granted.

 

Students were reminded that it is OK to not feel happy about things and that students should feel confident to talk about issues. We explained that they are always welcome to approach staff in school to speak about something and that we have a counselling service for such times. Approaching staff members to share a concern regarding a friend was also encouraged, if students were worried about someone - and that it was not the responsibility of friends to resolve any problems but to help ensure appropriate adults were informed. Of course, speaking to parents was highlighted as a very responsible, if sometimes awkward, thing to do.

 

SUMMER PERFORMING ARTS WITH JUILLIARD

Registration for the Summer Arts Programmes 2018 is now open!  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 Nord Anglia students can enjoy a 15% discount. 

 

For more information and to contact our dedicated Summer Arts team for further details, please click here.

 

TAI TAM UPDATES

Message from the Deputy Head of School

 

Dear Parents,

 

Another busy week in Tai Tam with many fabulous learning opportunities. It started off on Monday with our STEAM challenge to build a city and negotiate ‘bee-bots’ around this city.  It is amazing to see our children already learning programming skills and our Year 1 students learning to de-bug. Congratulations to our ‘bee-bot’ cover winners; Magnus (Balmoral), Ida (Windsor), Dunstan (Caernarfon) and Eita (Sandringham).  The judges had a very tough job as there were so many creative designs – well done to everyone, they were great to see being driven around our city!

 

We have also practised our fire drill and lock down drill this week.  Nord Anglia take the welfare of all our students very seriously and have policies and procedures for these very unlikely scenarios.  Our teachers always take into account the age of our students and ensure that this is explained to the children in advance in an age appropriate way. The children were wonderful, they showed their maturity and how sensible they all are. Our visiting staff from Lam Tin were in awe of how quickly, quietly and sensibly our children conducted both drills.

 

We are very much looking forward to our Healthy Schools week next week including our EYFS Sports Day and I am encouraging all our pupils and staff to have a plastic rubbish free lunch week, we can do it!

 

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather.

 

Kind regards,

 

Mrs. Katie Malone.

Deputy Head of School.

 

NOTICES

 

Please note all ECAs are finished for this term.  We will contact you further about ECAs for the Summer term.

 

26 MARCH

Healthy Schools Week:

Mindful Monday, Try it Tuesday, Work out Wednesday! – Yes … every day is ‘naked lunch’ so please try not to send in food and drink with packaging.

 

28 MARCH

EYFS Sports Day:

All children, including Year 1, will need to go directly to Lam Tin (we will reroute the buses). Parents of EYFS are welcome to stay and join in. Year 1 will be in class with the rest of Year 1. We will take all children back to Tai Tam by school bus. EYFS children will need to wear their PE kit with a House coloured T-shirt. 

Please make sure your class teacher knows your child’s arrangements for this day.

 

29 MARCH

End of the term. School finishes at 12:15pm so the bus will arrive 2 ½ hours earlier. Lam Tin finishes at 1:00pm.

 

19 APRIL

PTA Quiz night at Lam Tin

 

24 APRIL

EYFS Parent Consultation Evening from 3:00 – 6:00pm

 

26 APRIL

PTA MAHJONG NIGHT @Lam Tin 7:00-9:00pm

 

30 APRIL

Book Week – parent volunteers needed, if you are available we would love you to come and read a story to your child’s class.

 

4 MAY

Dress up as a book character day.

 

10 MAY

Starfish and Turtles Assembly at 10:00.  Class parents are warmly invited.

 

21 MAY

Teacher INSET – Children NOT at school

 

31 MAY

Nursery Assembly at 10:00.  Nursery parents are warmly invited.

 

13 JUNE

Nursery and Reception Curriculum evening 6:00 – 7:30pm. 

 

14 JUNE

Year 1 into Year 2 Curriculum evening in our Lam Tin campus 6:30 – 8:00pm

 

21 JUNE

Year 1 Curriculum evening in our Lam Tin campus 6:30 – 8:00pm

 

STARS OF THE WEEK – Nursery Teachers and Drama
Congratulations! You should feel very proud of your achievements.

Nursery: Elvin Tsang
Lower Kindergarten: Jessica Knowles
Upper Kindergarten: Lara Uttamchandi

 

 

SAI KUNG UPDATES

Message from the Head of School

 

Dear Parents,

 

Spring is here and the children have been making the most of the beautiful weather. Our Nursery children enjoyed a trip to the garden centre, where they also bought soil and seeds to continue their learning back at school by growing their own plants. Year 1 and Mandarin lessons have also featured seeds and growing. Year 1 have been learning and retelling the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. It’s been wonderful to see so many children using all the senses to explore the world of nature. There have been a lot of muddy but happy children around the school this week.

 

Another joy has been seeing the amazing Mandarin lessons this week, where Miss Lo has recreated Sai Kung market in the school. Seeing the childern role playing this scene has been such a powerful and enjoyable learning experience for them all. It’s been a delight to see.

 

Next week is our last week before the Easter break and Wednesday will be a highlight for everyone. EYFS will have their Sports Day in Lam Tin and Year 1 will continue with their transition work. We hope that the EYFS parents will all join in the fun.

 

Please remember that we finish on Thursday at 12:15pm so the buses will be dropping off earlier than usual. We will finish the term with an Easter assembly and egg hunt for the children in school.

As always, thank you for all your support. It’s been an amazing term.

 

Kind regards,

 

Naima Charlier.

Head of School.

 

Important Information

 

26-29 MARCH

Healthy Schools Week:

Mindful Monday, Try it Tuesday, Work out Wednesday! – Yes … every day is ‘naked lunch’ so please try not to send in food and drink with packaging.

 

28 MARCH

EYFS Sports Day. All Sai Kung children, including Year 1 will need to go directly to Lam Tin (we will reroute the buses). Parents of EYFS are welcome to stay and join in. Year 1 will be in class with the rest of Year 1. We will take all children back to Sai Kung by school bus. EYFS children will need to wear their PE kit with a House coloured T-shirt.

Please make sure your class teacher knows your child’s arrangements for this day.

 

29 MARCH

HALF DAY – School finishes at 12:15 this day in SK and 1:00pm in Lam Tin

 

18 APRIL

EYFS Parent Consultation Evening

 

19 APRIL

PTA Quiz night at Lam Tin

 

30 APRIL

Book Week

 

4 MAY

Dress up as a book character day

 

STARS OF THE WEEK – TEACHERS CHOICE

Congratulations! You should feel very proud of your achievements.

Nursery: Alfred Lau, Isla Reid
Lower Kindergarten:  Mark Sui, Nia Beatty, Matthew Malone, Oran Doherty
Upper Kindergarten: Max Ip

 

CLASS ASSEMBLY SCHEDULE 2018

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

  • Seahorses and Starfish: Friday, 11 May.
  • Bumblebees and Caterpillars: Friday, 1 June.

 

TEACHER SPOTLIGHT – MISS RENI

Reni was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. She moved to Hong Kong with her husband in 2004. Before joining Nord Anglia International Pre-school, she was a supply teacher at international schools in Hong Kong and Luxembourg. She is a dedicated and passionate educator, especially in differentiation and SEN.  

Reni likes to spend her free time with her family hiking in Sai Kung and Clearwater Bay area.