Newsletter #6
Beacon Hill School latest newsletter available to read now. Find out the latest news around the school and upcoming events.
Principal’s Words
BHS News
SEN News
Sports
PTA News
ESF News
Other News
Dear Parents,
We have had quite an unsettled couple of weeks with public holidays and Professional Development days. This week has seen us get back into more of a regular routine which is welcome for all of us! This is an unusually long newsletter but I feel it is important to share with you the many things that happen in the BHS community!
As always, here are the important dates coming up…but please do take a few moments to glance through the rest of the newsletter.
IMPORTANT DATES
| OCTOBER | |
| 10th | ESF Football Tournament, KGV |
| 12th/13th | School Photos |
| 13th | WiseKids Trip, 1F |
| 13th | Year 4 and Year 6 Camp Information Evening, 6pm / 7pm |
| 14th | PTA AGM, 5.15pm |
| 14th | Year 3 and Year 5 Camp Information Evening, 6pm / 7pm |
| 15th | Y5 Swimming |
| 16th | School Photos (siblings) |
| 16th | 3K Class Assembly, 9am |
| 19th – 23rd | Half Term, School Closed |
| 26th | Year 4 to LEAP Centre |
| 28th | ICHK HLY Girl’s Football Tournament |
| 29th | Y5 Swimming |
| 30th | DBIS Football Tournament |
| 30th | 2A Class Assembly, 9am |
| 31st | Peak Girls Football Tournament |
| NOVEMBER | |
| 3rd | Y6 Bake Sale |
| 3rd | Maths Workshop for Parents: Y1 at 6pm; Y3 at 6.45pm; Y5 at 7.30pm |
| 6th | Diwali Assembly, 9am |
Please note that you can view our calendar on the school website.
Visit to KGV and Jockey Club Sarah Roe School
I, along with Mr Pheasant and Ms Davis, was fortunate to be able to visit our ex-Y6 students at KGV and Jockey Club Sarah Roe School this morning. They told us how well they have transitioned and also gave us some advice as to how our current Y6s can prepare. It was wonderful to see them thriving.
PTA AGM
Next week we have our PTA Annual General Meeting. It is on Wednesday 14th October at 5.15pm in the 7/F Conference Room. If you are able to attend we would love to see you! We are keen to recruit new PTA members especially if you have children in the younger year groups. The PTA AGM is immediately before the Year 3 Camp Information Evening so I hope to see some of you there!
PARKING ISSUES
Lately we have had issues with parents and drivers parking in the school car park after school. The car park is for staff use only. We have tried to be helpful and allow some parking but sadly, some drivers have blocked staff cars and have not been willing to move when asked. Therefore we must insist that no parking is allowed in the car park other than by ESF staff. We also request that cars are not parked in the immediate area surrounding the car park exit as this seriously reduces visibility and is potentially dangerous to drivers trying to leave the car park.
Year 4 Sharing
A couple of weeks ago our Year 4s shared their learning with their parents based on their Unit of Inquiry with a focus on the Central Idea – ‘Beliefs and values can influence our attitudes and the way we behave’. It was a fabulous opportunity for our students to talk about what they have been doing and to share what they have learnt. Thank you to all of the parents who attended and well done to our Year 4 Team for setting a high standard for our Sharing Units!
2F Class Assembly
Today, 2F were magnificent in sharing their class assembly with the whole school and their parents. We also had a special guest, Mr Abraham Shek, the new Chair of the ESF Board. The children spoke clearly and confidently and showed how much they have learnt already about being healthy! I particularly loved their singing and dancing!! Well done to all of 2F.
Mid-Autumn Festival
We have had several special occasions recently at BHS. A very important celebration was for the Mid-Autumn Festival. We had a special day where all the children took part in different activities in their Mandarin lessons and also had the opportunity to practise their Mandarin at our Mid-Autumn Mini Market that was set-up and operated by our PTA. The money raised from this market, $7,055, is being donated by the PTA and will be used to purchase costumes and props which will be used in our Chinese New Year performance next year. Thank you to the Mandarin Team for their hard work and especially to the PTA and volunteer parents who came in to serve the ‘customers’ in the market stall.
Other Special Events
Another special day we marked, for the first time, was the UN World Peace Day on 21st September. Students and staff came to school dressed in ‘peace’ colours and had the opportunity to do a range of activities linked to the theme of ‘Peace’. Our Year 6 students even spelt out the word ‘PEACE’ using their bodies on the playground! You can see the result on our website. We look forward to this being a regular feature on the BHS calendar as it reminds us all about living peacefully together and about how important international mindedness is.
Another annual event on our calendar is the Hong Kong Community Chest Dress Casual Day. As a school we raised HK$6895.4. We have requested that this be used to support child and youth charities in Hong Kong.
School Photos
A reminder that school photos will be taking place next Monday and Tuesday. A reminder about the arrangements can be found further on in this Newsletter.
Parent consultations
Thank you for coming to our Parent Teacher Consultations this week. I hope you found them informative. The report comments for the first Unit of Inquiry will be available to you via the Gateway on Friday 30th October.
Perceptual Motor Program (PMP) Workshop
On Tuesday 22nd September BHS hosted a whole day workshop led by Julie Bradley, a world trainer for Smart Start PMP Australia. We had approximately 40 teacher from ESF and beyond. Julie also ran a session for parents. Please see Belinda McLaughlin’s report below.
School CPD Days
Our recent school closures for Professional Development have meant some time off school for the children but the teachers and EAs were working very hard! The teachers took part in 3 days of Performance Coaching training, which is designed to support much of the work we do on a day-to-day basis in school. The EAs had sessions based on English as an Additional Language (EAL) and Gifted and Talented (G&T). Last week all our EAs and teachers attended the ESF-wide Professional Development Day workshops at KGV, RC and KJS. This was a fabulous day of sharing best practice and learning new ideas. Thank you to the many BHS staff who volunteered to present workshops on this day.
English Workshops
As part of our ongoing commitment to provide information evenings for our community to further encourage our belief of a shared approach to educating our children, last week our English Team, led by Ms Jeves, presented workshops for Domestic Helpers and for parents. The theme was ‘Reading’ and was designed to provide suggestions on how your children can be supported at home. It is always better to attend the sessions in person if possible, but the presentation slides are now on the website. Thank you to Ms Jeves, Ms Heywood and Mrs Fennelly.
Learning Technology Room
Thanks to the support of the PTA, during the summer vacation, our ICT Room was transformed into a magnificent new Learning Technology space we call ‘The Cloud’ complete with new laptop, tablets and furniture. The children (and Mr Lowe) absolutely love working in there! When you are next in BHS please do take time to take a look.
Abraham Shek
This morning we were visited by the new Chair of the ESF Board, Abraham Shek. He was very impressed by the students and staff. He commented on the wonderful community feeling in the school and how happy everyone was! He is looking forward to visiting us again in the near future.
Performing Arts
We have a strong tradition of supporting the arts and I was pleased to receive an email from Lindsey McAlister, OBE JP, the Founder and Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, a few days ago. She informed me that 3 of our alumni have been selected to join the cast of BLOOD BROTHERS! Out of over 600 young people who auditioned Chloe Chan, Emily Hellen and Natascha Netz were chosen to join a cast of 65. What an achievement!!! Well done to those students and good luck with the show.
Community choir
Some of you may have seen the British TV programmes based around the formation of choirs, such as ‘Military Wives’ and this has inspired Mr Gibson and myself to set up a BHS Community Choir. This would be open to all parents of BHS students and to BHS Staff. The choir will begin in January, rehearsing on Thursday evenings from 7pm. We would hope to perform at school around Easter. There won’t be auditions – just enthusiasm is required! If you are interested, please sign up at the following:
http://goo.gl/forms/fHNKBF35kU
Go on – don’t be shy!
Have a wonderful weekend – I will see some of you at the ESF Football tournament tomorrow morning!
James Harrison
News from the English Team
For questions and queries contact Emily Jeves at jevese2@beaconhill.edu.hk
We need your help!
As you will know it is important to us at school that the children can use their mother tongue and learn more about different languages and cultures. In the library we have a small collection of bilingual books in some of the languages the children speak at home. We really want to build up the collection and make it representative of the children in school. However, Mrs Lowe and I are struggling to find quality modern books that will appeal to the children written in languages other than English.
We need your help to build up the collection, as you and your children know best the type of books that will be popular. We are asking for donations of books written in languages other than English that would appeal to children in Years 1 through to 6. These can be stories or information books and do not need to be bilingual, however if there isn’t an English translation of the title please provide one! The books do not need to be brand new but in good enough condition to survive being read a lot.
Please send any books to school with your child and they can bring it to the library.
We really appreciate your help with this project and I will keep you posted about how the collection is growing.
Home reading workshops
Last week, the English team ran workshops on how to help children with home reading for helpers and parents. There was a good response and it was great to meet some of your hard working helpers. They were very enthusiastic about learning new skills to help the children they work with. Thank you to all of you who came. The presentation from the workshop will be available on the school website.
Top Library Borrowers
Each year group is given an opportunity to change their library books in their class library session and the children in Years 1 to 3 are doing really well with this. In Years 4 to 6 the children take more responsibility for changing their books and can do at lunchtimes. This week we said congratulations to the top 5 library borrowers in Years 4 to 6; these are the children who have borrowed the most books since the start of term.
| Year 4 |
Avis Leung Brandon Chu Isaac Hung Miguel Apolinario |
|
| Year 5 |
Avina Chan Darryl Wong Esmond Ng Sabrina John Stacey Lau |
|
| Year 6 |
Ady Lam Brandon Leung Emma Hui Fidel Lau Sze Ching Fong |
World Maths Day! World Education Games
The World’s largest education competition is returning! On Wednesday 14th October all the students at Beacon Hill School will be involved in a very exciting Maths lesson. They will log into their
Mathletics account to compete in live Maths against their class mates, other BHS students or children across the world! The points will then be calculated and scores will be shared across the world.
This also provides us with an opportunity to take action and support UNICEF, who have partnered with World Education Games. If every child brings in $10 we will be able to contribute towards the ‘School in a Box’ programme. Each box contains supplies and materials for a teacher and up to 80 students, helping children in an emergency situation go to school.
Environment
To start the year we would like to remind everyone about packaging waste. The Green Team and I have seen many children bringing plastic bags and drink cartons to school when they should be using reusable snack boxes and water bottles. Please think about the environment when packing snacks and lunches.
Well done to all those children who have remembered to bring in fruit for their snack on Fruity Fridays. The Green Team have decorated some red bins for you to put your banana peel and fruit cores into so that we can compost the waste.
Miss King and The Green Team
Community Chest
On 30 September, BHS students wore casual clothes to raise awareness for the Community Chest Charity. We managed to raise HK$6895.4. Well done BHS!
School Photographs
Reminder of School Photographs 12th – 13th October 2015
Siblings Photographs
BHS recently hosted two workshops with International PMP trainer Julie Bradley from Australia. Forty ESF teachers across the Foundation attended a one day workshop whilst our Year 1/2 PMP parent helpers were invited to a follow up workshop.
Julie’s vast knowledge and expertise enabled all participants to increase their understanding of the philosophy behind PMP. The benefit of giving children multiple opportunities to develop motor skills to automaticity was clearly defined as an integral factor in the development of reading and writing skills. Significant links between memory development and movement were shared. Participants also enjoyed the active nature of the workshop.
Netball
BHS Rockets
On the 3rd of October we had our first netball game against the Hong Kong Cricket Team.We all played really well but we sadly lost 3-2.We would like to thank our coaches Ms Andrews,Ms Younie,Ms Mahbubani and all the parents for supporting us.
BHS Starburst
On the 3rd of October, B.H.S Starburst played Netball at Fa Hui Park. We played against E.S.F Wildcats and they were pretty good. Unfortunately, we lost 5-0 to Wildcats but it was a good game. We would like to thank Ms. Andrews and Ms. Younie for coaching us and all the parents who came to support us.
- 16 October 2015 Year 1 and New Student Deadline – ONLY Year 1 and New Students will receive Winter Uniform Orders for Pre-Orders.
- 26-30 October 2015 – ONLY Year 1 and New Student Pre-Orders with cheque payment will be processed. Uniform Shop will be CLOSED for preparing Pre-Orders for Year 1 and New Students.
- Starting 2 November 2015 – Year 2-6 Pre-Orders with cheque payment will be accepted for processing. Winter Uniform Order Forms will be available starting 2 November 2015 to Year 2-6.
- Winter Uniform Order Forms will be sent home to Year 1 and New Students next week, before 16 October 2015 Deadline.
- Please note that all Pre-Orders are processed with the help of Volunteers and will take time. We will endeavour to complete Pre-Orders with correct cheque payment by 3 working days from time of receipt.
HK Hurricanes Autumn Swimming Clinic & Term 4.pdf
Health
Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) Immunization (for Primary One Students) + Hepatitis B Immunization and / or Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) Immunization (for Primary Six Students)
Each year, we are requested by the Department of Health to distribute application forms for the above named subject. It is for “eligible” primary one and “eligible” primary six students only.
The forms have arrived and the information (to parents / guardians), we have already passed them to your child’s Class Teacher (a week ago). If you have not received one (from your child), please could you let me know a.s.a.p. via e-mail address: rosalind.chen@bhs.edu.hk
Thank you.
Ms Chen
