Beacon Hill School Newsletter (Issue 6) - 11th November,2011

Dear Parents,

A busy time at BHS with Year 6's and 3's out at camp this week and our Year 4's and 5's out next week. The children have been having a wonderful time and the excellent behaviour and manners of the BHS children has been commented on by many of the camp staff and teachers. They will all sleep well tonight.

Sophie-Mei –Mei Fennelly

Congratulations to Mrs Fennelly on the birth of Sophie Mei Mei last Friday evening weighing in at 8lbs 6 oz (3.8kg). I'm sure the new Dad, Steve and big sister Hannah are enjoying the new arrival.

Performance Schedule

We are quickly moving into the X'mas period and as usual our school choirs are performing all around Hong Kong in the next few weeks. Below is the schedule, if you would like to drop in and see the BHS choirs.

This weekend

• "Arts in the Park", Sat 12th November, Victoria Park. 4pm (With Kennedy and Quarry Bay Schools)
• "Arts in the Park", Sun13th November, Victoria Park 10.30am (Just BHS)

X'mas Performances

• CityPlaza, Tai Koo, Wed 7th December, 1.30 pm.
• IFC Central, Sun 11th December, 1pm.
• IFC Central, Tues 13th December, 5pm.
• BHS PTA playground, Xmas Concert Wednesday 14th December, 7pm
• HK International Airport, Thursday 15th December, 12.30pm.
• Festival Walk, Thursday 15th December 4pm.

2J Assembly

Thanks to 2J for a fabulous assembly last Friday, the 4th November. The whole performance was created by the students themselves and showed us the depth of understanding and learning that the children have developed in their current Unit of Inquiry. Well done to everyone from 2J.

Parent Tip of the Week

We are going to introduce a new section to our newsletter that may be of some help to parents in the day to day life of being a Mum & Dad. I know certainly that as a Dad of a six and eight year old I need all the help I can get! This week we will look at SLEEP!

How many hours should my child sleep?

Ten - twelve hours is the recommended time that primary school age children need to sleep. If your child wakes at 6 am that means they need to be in bed by 7-8pm at the latest. Creating a regular routine at night helps children get into the habit of a good sleep cycle.

6:30pm - dinner

7:00pm - reading/relaxing

7:30pm - in bed

8:00pm - asleep It is often the case that children who get less sleep than mentioned above perform poorly at school. They are tired, lack concentration and generally lack the energy required for school. This is particularly the case for many BHS students who have busy after school schedules. So, parent tip for this newsletter…….… If they wake at 6:00 am, then bed by 8 pm at the latest! You can tell them Mr Brewster said so! I'm going to try it tonight with my two children!

As we continue to use The Gateway more each year, it is timely to remind you to keep your log in details safe and secure so that it is easy for you to access the information whenever you need to and to book teacher consultation appointments. Also, as Unit of Inquiry comments will be added to the ARR Report section throughout the year you can have access to these at any time. Some demographic data can now be amended by you directly rather than having to notify the school office. So please take a few minutes of your time to familiarize yourselves with the system and the features that are available to you.

Kind regards,

James Harrison

Vice Principal

Dear Parents,

This year we have moved to an online booking system for scheduling your meetings with teachers. If you have not done so already, please follow these simple steps:

• Go to https://bhs.tg.esf.edu.hk
• Login with username and password (Please e-mail james.harrison@bhs.edu.hk if you are having difficulty)
• Go to Communication > Parent Consultation > Select Child > Select Date > Click on an available time slot.

The deadline for this is Monday 14th November.

Kind regards,

Susan Chung

Vice Principal

A huge THANKYOU to all the parents who come in to help out at our Year1 and 2 PMP sessions. We cannot offer this opportunity to the children without you. The children love these sessions and the teachers are often commenting how important these sessions are for the kids. Your continued support for this program is vital to keep it running, so I encourage you to keep coming and giving your time for this great opportunity. For those of you not involved I am always happy to have more parent helpers and we will be running this program all year, so you may have an opportunity to get involved next term.

Over the term the children have been working on lots of new skills such as skipping, forward rolls, ball skills, hurdles, working on their balance and even tying shoelaces! Ask your child about what they have been doing. I am sure they will tell you their favorite activities.

Thanks again to all of our amazing parents helpers, and I look forward to seeing you in our next PMP session.

Skye Evers

As part of the 'One Person, One Flower' scheme run by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, each of the children at BHS has been given a seedling to take home and care for.

You can find information on how to care for the seedling from the link below: http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/green/download/cosmos_leaflet.pdf

If your child would like to take photos or write a journal of how their seedling is doing, they can be given to me before the Christmas holidays.

By Easter time, the seedlings should have developed into some lovely plants. To support our community, I am hoping that some children would like to bring their plants back to school so that we can give them to an elderly care home.

Miss King

Parents who have submitted the relevant documents for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine and/or Hepatitis B vaccine, we have returned them to your child via the Class Teacher last week. Please keep the documents safely for Part Two Immunization next year 2012.

Thank you.

Miss Chen

School Nurse

The Beacon Hill School PTA Christmas Carol Concert will be taking place on Wednesday December 14th and alongside it will be the PTA's annual Christmas Basket Raffle.

To make the raffle a success we kindly need your assistance in the donation of various items and they will need to be sent to PTA office by Monday December 5 the latest. Those items are:

• baskets
• floral ribbon and cellophane
• chocolates, biscuits….
• health and beauty products (bubble bath, candles, lotions, soap….)
• decorative tissue for filling
• mince pies
• wine

*** All items must be new and in the original packing, please! ***

Additionally, we also need your time in making and wrapping the baskets. This will take place on Friday Dec 9, 1pm - 3pm, so please fill out the reply slip that is sent home today. As always, thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you at the concert.

Ms Chan

PTA Co-ordinator

ESL Gymnastic classes are the most popular in Hong Kong. Now for the first time at Clearwater Bay School we are offering a chance for your child to learn Mandarin at the same time. Classes will be run for 6 weeks this term, allowing your child to 'come and try' and see what they think.

The classes are open to both boys and girls and will take place every Monday for 6 weeks, from 7th November – 12th December 2011. To enrol please complete and return the attached application to ESF Educational Services or visit our website for easy online enrolment. http://www.esf.org.hk/esf_sports/programmes/gymnastics.asp

Tel: 2711 1280

Dear Parents,

Is the family staying in Hong Kong for Christmas? If you're looking for something fun and educational for the kids this holiday season, TLC Kids is hosting an action-packed Christmas Camp at BHS!

This is a great opportunity for children to meet and mingle with other children, learn more about the world around them and have some holiday fun! If you haven't already experienced the TLC experience, Christmas Camp is a must!

Expect all the usual bells and whistles and so much more. We have exciting Christmas-themed projects brewing in the areas of Drama, Magic, Arts & Craft, and even Maths and Science!

200HKD off Early Bird Special valid through to 30 November 2011

Contact us now for more info!

TLC Kids Team

T: 2606 2770 F: 2606 2775

E: info@tlckids.com.hk W: http://www.tlckids.com.hk

Dear Parents,

We are pleased to inform you that the BHS Annual Report 2010-2011 has already been uploaded on the school website as follows:

http://www.beaconhill.edu.hk/sites/beaconhill.edu.hk/files/Annual_Report_2010-2011_final_Parent.pdf

Regards,
BHS Office