Parent Update - 18 May 2018

Parent Update - 18 May 2018

Message from the Principal

 

Dear Parents,

 

I have just returned from the COBIS (Council of British International Schools) conference in London with 750 delegates, from over 200 schools in 65 countries and over 150 Exhibitors. It is, of course, a great opportunity to showcase our school and to network with colleagues from around the world.  As the only COBIS accredited school in Hong Kong, it means we can extend our teacher training provision, take part in competitions and events. Good luck to our COBIS Games teams who are currently in Sheffield in the U.K. and thanks to Mrs. Harley and the team who are organising Safeguarding training for COBIS schools in Asia at the end of the month.

 

The theme of the conference was “Leading Learning” and with 12 keynote speeches, over 20 workshops to choose from, and different break-out sessions, it was certainly action-packed. Some of the subjects covered were Creativity, Youth Mental Health, Personalised Learning, outdoor experiential learning and coaching for leadership.  It was also good to hear about the latest research and to see what is now on offer as resources.  As a school, we seem to be quite far ahead of others with our use of VR and AR headsets and complex problem-solving, but I was really impressed by the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) which may be coming to a school near you!!

 

Life goes on in the school when I am away: Primary Assessment Week, football fixtures, equestrian training and the PTA Annual General Meeting. My thanks to all the member of the PTA for their steadfast support of the school. In particular, fulsome praise is due to Heath Zarin and Jessica Bruser, who are leaving their positions, for their tremendous contribution to the school community. I wish the new team well.

 

Coming straight off the London flight to go to the PTA AGM, followed by a Breakfast Meeting and presentation at 7:30am the next morning may have been ambitious when contending with jetlag, but needs must.

 

I enjoyed 6Cs assembly this morning and the Careers Day for Secondary students. Both were great experiences.

 

Perhaps more worrying news from the Government was with regard to the problem of being overweight.  While 45% of our Primary pupils took part (as opposed to 79% for all Primary schools), only 14% were termed overweight. This compares with a Hong Kong average of 18%. In Secondary school, only 23% participated (compared to 42% across Hong Kong) and here our overweight figure is 26%. 20% for all students. It is a worrying trend across Hong Kong and one we will address.

 

Have an enjoyable weekend.

 

Brian Cooklin.

Principal.

 

21 MAY

Teacher INSET – Children NOT at school

 

22 MAY

Public Holiday – School Closed

 

12 JUNE

Auction of Promises Charity Event – Balmoral

 

 

 

 

BOOKS AND BUNS SUCCESS!

Can you believe it? The total amount raised was HKD28,150, which isn’t bad for selling some cakes and second-hand books. This money will go towards the two charities that Sandringham and Windsor support – Heep Hong Society and Bring Me A Book Hong Kong.

 

Thank you to Bookazine, Totem Books, Bleak House Books and The Hong Kong Book Company for their generous book donations that were used as prizes for the Bake-Off winners.  

 

Many thanks again to all the parents, pupils and staff for helping support this hugely popular and enjoyable event.

 

LOOK WHO WE HAD VISIT US IN SCHOOL …

It was only the Citi All Stars who are playing in this weekend's HKFC Citi Soccer Sevens!

 

Yesterday we welcomed players Alan Fettis, Marvin Andrews, Luis Boa Morte and Herita Iliunga into school. They were all fantastic with the pupils, playing basketball with them during lunch-time and delivering a football coaching clinic and a question and answer session with our Year 7s during PE.

 

They will play against PE teacher, Mr. Day’s team (the YYL Masters) tonight, so he’s hoping our pupils tired them out so they can beat them!

 

COBIS GAMES 2018

Don’t forget to wish our team good luck as they compete in the COBIS Games 2018! Stay tuned to see how they get on. Here they are enjoying a tour of Manchester City’s FC Stadium. 

 

TIDY UP TIME LAPSE HOUSE CHALLENGE UPDATE

With a long and hopefully sunny weekend coming up, it’s the perfect time to join the Tidy Up Time Lapse House Challenge! The competition will close on the 1^st of June so you have less than two weeks to join. The current rankings are as follows:

 

First Place: Sandringham  with 14 videos

Second Place Caernarfon  11 videos

Third Place Balmoral with 9 videos

Fourth Place: Windsor with 5

 

Remember, if you can’t make time-lapse videos, normal videos or before and after photos are perfectly acceptable too. If your file is too big to post, try uploading to YouTube or Vimeo and posting the link. The full instructions and a safety reminder can be found on the relevant Firefly pages.

 

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE SAI KUNG AND TAI TAM UPDATE

 

LAM TIN UPDATES

 

HEAD OF CAMPUS MESSAGE

 

Dear Parents,

 

This week, the focus for our pupils has been Assessments. It has been a week for them to show us how much progress they have made this year and to feel proud of their achievements. It has been quiet around the school to allow them to focus on these. I have missed watching the exciting and interactive lessons which are normally a main focus as you walk around the school.

 

Today saw our second Careers Day for our Year 9 and Year 10 pupils and it is a good reminder for them to be thinking what they need to do in order to achieve their goals.

 

We welcomed the Year 1 children from Sai Kung and Tai Tam to Lam Tin for their Transition Day yesterday and it was lovely to see them all together.

 

Primary pupils are being challenged to push themselves in their swimming lessons this month as they do the Biathlon training. I was very impressed with the standard of swimming as I watched these lessons this week.

 

 

Sarah Harley.

Assistant Principal.

 

UPCOMING EVENTS

 

21 MAY

Teacher INSET – Children NOT at school

 

22 MAY

Public Holiday – school closed

 

12 JUNE

Auction of Promises Charity Event – Balmoral

 

14 JUNE

Summer Concert – City Hall. Doors open 2pm, concert start time: 2.15pm.

 

JUNE’S MENU IS HERE

Click here to see what’s available. 

 

STAR OF THE WEEK – MATHS

Year 1: Gabrielle Horton, Ishaani Agrawal, Dominic Hall, Oliver Macdonald, Theo Boroncelli

Year 2: Ansen Yan, Tiffany He, Abdulmohsen Abulhasan, Andrew Budihardjo, Jaden Cheung

Year 3: Isabella Cappelin, Kyrus Wong, Karina Chan, Alex Gao, Efe Demiral

Year 4: Ingrid Sam, Teofilo Vourloumis, Jason Chen, Kyle Chan, Emmy-Lou Bitter

Year 5: Mila Abad Verhagen, Kaden The, Kees Espeskog, Max Robertson, Thomas Butler

Year 6: Will Loudoun, Jeff Ma, Julian Winterer, William Drud, Jonathan Liu

 

HIGH COMMENDATIONS – MATHS

Year 7: Sophie Bongardt, Christopher Swanepoel

Year 8: Ava Ring

Year 9: Elliot Ansell

Year 10: Alex Tam

 

PRIMARY ASSEMBLY - CLASS 6C

This morning was 6C’s class assembly. Since they had been learning about Sustainability and Green Cities, they decided to base it on food miles which is a very interesting and relevant subject in Hong Kong. All the children performed brilliantly, speaking clearly and enthusiastically. Everyone really enjoyed the ‘Play your miles right’ game, with most of the audience participating with ‘higher or lower’ chants. Their performance of their ‘food miles’ song (which they wrote as a class) at the end of the assembly was fantastic and was the perfect way to end the assembly.

 

SECONDARY ASSEMBLY

Mr. Cooklin addressed our Secondary pupils in assembly today, speaking to them about the importance of self-respect and respecting others. He reminded pupils of the need for appropriate use of social media applications (such as Instagram) and websites, stressing the importance of how people communicate with each other, whether using their regular accounts or other additional (secret) accounts that they may have.

 

TAI TAM UPDATES

Message from the Deputy Head of School

 

Dear Parents,

 

Thank you to all who came to our Maths workshop and Parent Celebration, it was wonderful to see the children sharing their learning with you and the smiles on both you and the children’s faces. I hope that all of you who were there at our Maths workshop have a better understanding of how Maths is taught in the early years and how you can support your child at home.  For those who were not able to attend, please do login to Firefly in Tai Tam, Information for Parents to find our presentation.

 

Year 1 have had an exciting week this week continuing their learning about the Stone Age and using all their knowledge learned over the past weeks to design their own Stone Age scene.  I have been very impressed with the thought processes that have gone into designing and making this scene.  They have also been to Lam Tin this week working with all the Year 1 children from Sai Kung and Lam Tin ready for their transition into Year 2.

 

I have also enjoyed hearing our monster piano, which has recently arrived, being used in Music lessons with Miss Kelly.  Children have thoroughly enjoyed using the large piano walking on the keys to play tunes of well-known favourites such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Baa Black Sheep.

 

Don’t forget there is a Teacher Inset day on Monday 21^st May and Tuesday is Buddha’s Birthday so no school. We look forward to seeing the children back on Wednesday 23^rd May.

 

Kind regards

 

Katie Malone

Deputy Head of School

 

 

NOTICES

 

21 MAY

Teacher INSET – Children NOT at school.

 

22 MAY

Public Holiday – School Closed.

 

31 MAY

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

 

4 JUNE

School photo day.  Please ensure that all children come in correct uniform. More information to follow.

 

7 JUNE

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

 

13 JUNE

Nursery and Reception Curriculum evening 6:00–7:30pm.  For Parents who have children in Nursery and Reception next academic year.

 

14 JUNE

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

 

20 JUNE

Nursery End of Year Celebration 9:00–10:00am.

 

21 JUNE

Year 1 Curriculum evening in our Lam Tin campus 6:30–8:00pm for parents who have children in our Year 1 next academic year.

 

22 JUNE

Reception and Year 1 End of Year Celebration 9:00 – 10:00am.

 

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

Nursery: James Mano
Lower Kindergarten: Charlie Howorth, Javen Chau
Upper Kindergarten: Nicholas Fong

 

 

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.

 

SAI KUNG UPDATES

Message from the Head of School

 

Dear Parents,

 

Thank you to all the parents who attended our Maths Workshop and celebration afternoon. It was lovely to see the children showing off their learning and to see the parents engaging with their own learning of how we teach Maths!

 

There have been a lot of happy, full teddy bears in Reception this week as the children have been baking cakes and developing their Maths and language work by holding a teddy bears’ picnic in their pods. Year 1 have been creating incredible dioramas to illustrate how people lived in the Stone Age and Nursery have been doing some fantastic writing (as well as baking cakes!). Every time I enter the Nursery I am so impressed by how focused the children are on their learning and how fast they are developing their skills. It was great to see all the children focused on measuring, mixing and counting to develop their cooking skills.

 

Our Year 1 children enjoyed their first full day at Lam Tin this week in preparation for their transition to Year 2 next year. I was also over in Lam Tin and saw them forming new groups of friends and playing and learning in all different parts of the school. We will continue to hold different transition events for both Year 1 and the Reception children moving over to Lam Tin in the coming weeks.

 

We are happy to announce that we will have a school photo day on Wednesday 6^th June, so please note this day for your diary.

 

Enjoy your weekend with your families, it looks like being a lovely one.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Naima Charlier.

Head of School.

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

 

21 MAY

Teacher INSET – Children NOT at school.

 

22 MAY

Public Holiday – School Closed.

 

1 JUNE
Bumblebees and Caterpillars Class Assembly - 9:00am.

 

6 JUNE
School photo day.  Please ensure that all children come in correct uniform. More information to follow.

 

7 JUNE
Reception children transition event to Lam Tin.

 

21 JUNE
Reception and Year 1 End of Year Celebration: Parents invited - 9:00am.

 

22 JUNE

Nursery End of Year Picnic: Parents invited -  9:00 – 10:00am.

 

28 JUNE

Class parties – more information to follow.

 

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. There is also a section of general photos from Sai Kung - you can find this in the “Welcome to Sai Kung” section of Firefly.