Parent Update - 24 March 2017

Parent Update - 24 March 2017

MESSAGE FROM THE SCHOOL

 

Dear Parents

 

There is never a dull moment in the life of a school Principal!  The week began with a wonderful visit by Liam Day, a Juilliard trumpeter and his pianist, Matt.  They played a great range of music for our Assembly, then delivered recitals and performances throughout the day to all classes and ensembles.  What better way to start the week!

 

We also hosted a visit by Legislative Council member, Nathan Law and his colleagues.  They requested a meeting to address questions they had about our new campus.  After answering their questions and giving them a tour of the school, they said they were very impressed.  In particular, both Nathan Law and Joshua Wong stated they wished they had come to this school and they look forward to something similar in Tin Wan.

 

We also had a meeting, which had been previously organised, with the local councilor in Tin Wan, local officials and representatives of the residents’ estates.  There we answered a wide range of questions.  Understandably, they are concerned about traffic congestion, loss of shopping facilities and access to the building.  We were able to reassure them that most pupils will travel on school buses which are well managed and that any parents dropping off children would do so in the adjacent car park which links directly into the building.  New shops are due to open to replace old ones and a new lift is to be installed so they can go directly to the shops.  They were satisfied with our responses and pleased about our approach to be part of the community.

 

The Dracula Rock show by Year 4 was definitely the high point of my week.  The music, dancing, acting and general performance were excellent and we have some real stars in the making! Costumes and make-up too were great and suitably scary.  It is the best musical I have seen in the school so far and I am so proud of all the staff and children involved for staging such a show and for displaying such confidence.

 

I also had great fun being in the hot seat for Year 2 as Thomas Alva Edison, the American inventor.  I was really grilled by the pupils so just as well I had done my homework!

 

It was fantastic, too, to see the excitement of our pupils and staff representing the school when we presented the books we have donated through the “Bring me a book” charity.

 

See what I mean about variety?  Have a good weekend.

 

Brian Cooklin

Principal

 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

27 March

Year 3 residential departs

PTA Meeting 7pm

 

28 March

Secondary Battle of the Books – Mandarin

Year 2 Zen Organic Farm visit

 

29 March

Year 3 residential returns

 

31 March

Year 8 performance 1:00 to parents

Year 3 Hike in the hills 8:00am – 12:15pm

 

3 April

Class Assembly 1E, Helen Whitehouse

Primary Parents COBIS Meeting 5pm

 

4 April PUBLIC HOLIDAY (School closed)

 

5 April

Primary parents evening

Year 7 performance 1:30pm

Meet our artist-in-residence 6:30-8pm

 

6 April

Class Assembly 3B, Robyn Dowding

Primary parents evening

Spring soiree music concert 4-5:50pm in the Hall

 

10 April

Spelling bee

 

11 April

Whole School Sports Day

11th to 15th COBIS Primary Games

 

12 April

Last Day of Term, 1pm Finish for all

 

RE-ENROLMENT REMINDER

Please remember to complete the re-enrolment form on or before Friday, 31^st March 2017.

You can fill it in here. We’re at 46% return rate right now

 

PARENTS EVENING (Years 1-6)

We will be holding a Parents’ Evening (Years 1-6) on Wednesday 5^th April between 3:00pm and 5:30pm, and Thursday 6^th April between 4:30pm and 7:30pm. This is an opportunity to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss their progress this term. The appointments are 10 minutes and will be held in your child’s classroom.

 

Aston Wilson will be available in the 1/F Activity Room for uniform purchase on both dates.

 

Please can you ensure that your children are picked up from school at the normal time or are signed up to take the bus unless they are performing in the concert. Class teachers have appointments with other parents and therefore they are not able to supervise pupils who have not been collected.

If you would like to schedule a meeting, please follow the steps below:

• Log in to Firefly
• Click “Resource” - “Parents” - “Parent Evenings” - “Make your appointments”
• Click “Log in With Firefly”
• You may need to click “authorise the app”
• Follow the instruction on the page to book your appointment

Registration is now open and will end on Thursday 30^th March at 11:55pm.

 

THE GIFT OF GIVING - SANDRINGHAM CHARITY PRESENTATION

Mr Reid, Miss Batiste and a group of Sandringham students attended a presentation yesterday to open a new bookshelf with 45 beautiful books, for Kowloon Ling Liang Church Kindergarten. This was achieved through the money raised from Sandringham and Caernarfon's House charity event last year - Books and Buns. The money donated will also go towards reading training for the Kindergarten teachers and the parents of the children who attend the school. The NAISHK pupils did a wonderful job of reading to their young audience and we were very proud of how they represented the school.

 

A LOOK AT WHAT’S HAPPENING IN ART

See for yourself the amazing work that is happening in our art rooms (and beyond). The level and quality of work produced by our students never ceases to amaze me. But then again, I suppose this is what to expect with great teachers and specialist expertise!

 

LIAM DAY - JUILLIARD ARTIST VISIT

We have enjoyed a fabulous week in music with Juilliard Artist and Alumni Liam Day joining us on Monday.  All students experienced Liam’s wonderful performance in the morning and were mesmerized by the diverse pieces played on different trumpets with a range of mutes.  Liam then talked to students and performed the theme from Star Wars (many times!) in both playgrounds, whilst students and staff watched over balconies as the music reverberated around the school.  Following this, Year 5 beginner brass players experienced an informative and fascinating masterclass where Liam explained about the difference between ‘aperture’ and ‘embouchure’ and divulged essential advice on practising at home.  These Year 5 students have led lessons in class this week, turning from student to teacher and leading a second masterclass with their peers.  Bryant, Esther and Sonia then attended a mini-lesson focused on intonation and warm-up exercises to support the excellent work they are already doing in their peripatetic lessons at school.  The afternoon was spent surprising classes throughout the school with bursts of music and the chance to find out more about Liam and his many trumpets, followed by an intensive interview led by Ava and Oliver who asked extremely insightful questions.  A video will be ready soon but for now click here to see what we got up to @musicNAISHK

 

HONG KONG MUSIC FESTIVAL

Congratulations this week to Loli, Cloris, Claire, Tony and Gabrielle (again for a second amazing performance!) for their outstanding performances at the Hong Kong Music Festival.  We look forward to more photographs and news over the coming week!

 

SPRING CONCERT

All students involved in the Spring Soiree should now have received a letter (please check your emails!) informing them of their performance time and relevant information for the concert.  Please do email ricky.auyeung@nais.hk with the information requested on the letter to ensure that you have a seat at the performance!  Please also remember to send your child into school on Thursday 6^th March with their full uniform (including school socks and black shoes!) with a snack. 

 

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE – CORNIELIA ERDMANN 5 April 6:30-8pm

Cornelia introduced herself and the project to the whole school this morning and the children all seemed very excited about taking part.

 

For those of you who haven’t already, don’t forget to RSVP by emailing me at jane.archibald@nais.hk, on or before 30^th March if you want to join Cornelia on Wednesday, 5^th April, 6:30-8pm where she will share more about the project over some cheese and wine. There will also be the opportunity to learn more about how you, our parents, can support, and to get more in-depth understanding about what your children will be doing and how amazing the final project will be.

 

SPORTS DAY

We are holding our Sports Day on Tuesday 11^th April at Kowloon Bay Sports Ground. We will provide more detailed information nearer the time, but we want to share important details with you now to allow you to plan ahead. 

 

 

YEAR 2 SCIENCE

On Wednesday, through lots of mini-experiments, students gained a better understanding of different theories relating to the suitability, stretchiness and floatiness (ok, not the real technical terms or definitions) of different kinds of materials. The pictures explain better than I do and you can see them here.

 

YEAR 3 AUTHOR VISIT FROM REENA BHOJWANI

Our Year 3 students welcomed Reena Bhojwani, a Hong Kong local author to the school on Thursday. Reena shared her fantastic first book with the children, discussing the theme of kindness and how we can support those around us. There was a special focus on our mothers in the lead up to Mother’s Day this weekend and the children discussed all the things that their mothers do for them and how much they appreciate it. Reena led each class to conduct an interesting creative writing workshop where they explored these ideas further. All of the children are now very excited to share how much they appreciate their mums.

 

Checkout our Facebook page to see what they got up to.

 

YEAR 4 PERFORMANCE

Our Year 4 students brought the show Dracula Rock yesterday and it was FANTASTIC! Based on the Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, they performed this horror fiction by acting like vampires. All of students had fun doing their own make-up and getting ready in their costumes. We must admit, some of them looked really scary. They gave a great performance, dancing, acting and, of course, singing, their way through the show. Good job Year 4.

 

Watch their performance here.

 

STARS OF THE WEEK – Maths

Another week and more to celebrate. Congratulations to the following students:

 

Year 1: Aindri Wijayadasa, Milo Fagerlin, Newton Kwong, Caroline Espeskog, Rocky Zhao

Year 2: Ella Ishoy-Graham, Max Colton, Alex Gao, Lucas Marks, Hono Kamiya,

Year 3: Gigi Yuan, Ashley Lam, Cheryl Au, Kaden Yuen, Osher Ma

Year 4: Newton Xu, Cory Wong, Abraham Lai, Lily Waite, Devon Perrin

Year 5: Audrey Lai, Tony Zhang, Ashton Thatcher, Kyle Chan, Kira Thatcher

Year 6: Yuha Choi, Gareth Kwong, Vita Tang, Matthew Ip

 

HIGH COMMENDATION AWARDS – Maths

Year 7: Isaac Yu

Year 8: Kate Wong

Year 9: Jean Jang

 

See their smiling faces here.

 

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HELPED AT OPEN DAY

We had a great time and a big thank you to everyone who helped make it such a successful event. Having the students there to talk with parents and families made the day extra special and they did such a great job. We’re very proud of you all.

 

FACEBOOK

Make sure you don’t miss out on what’s happening in school! Check that you have changed your settings and selected the “turn on the notifications” from our posts.

 

KEY CONTACTS

Quick list guide of who to email for what:

 

• Bus related  - bus@nais.hk
• ECAs - Tom.Ferguson@nais.hk
• Homework related – Class Teacher (firstname.secondname@nais.hk)
• Pastoral related - david.sheehan@nais.hk
• School Lunches  - katherine.chan@nais.hk
• Admissions and Marketing related – admissions@nais.hk
• General enquiry - receptionist@nais.hk
• Absences  - Class Teacher and receptionist@nais.hk if your child is sick or for medical reasons, and  Sarah.Harley@nais.hk (Year 1-4), Christian.Bishop@nais.hk  (Year 5-9) to request a leave of absence.

 

Please do not use the info@nais.hk for any of the above queries.

 

Have a lovely weekend.