Principal’s Message
Dear Parents
I hope you and your family had a wonderful summer and enjoyed your time together, wherever you travelled to and in Hong Kong.
I would like to welcome all our new families and I am sure that our current families will welcome them too. We’ve had a great start to the new term and I know our teachers have been impressed by the good behaviour and positive attitude of the pupils. We need to keep it up!
Unfortunately, I missed the start of the term because my wife had a serious accident in the U.K. I am very pleased to say she is making full recovery and will join me in a couple of weeks.
Class 4C’s assembly today had a great message about setting SMART targets and developing a ‘can do’ attitude. This is something which you could encourage at home too because it makes such a difference.
Have a great weekend.
Brian Cooklin
Principal
UPCOMING EVENTS
4 September – 4:00-6:30pm
Curriculum Evenings - Primary Years 2 – 6
5 September – 5:00-7:00pm
Curriculum Evening – Secondary
8 September
Class Assembly 3B, Robyn Dowding
11 September
PTA meeting
13 September
Year 5 Residential Parent Presentation
Year 1 (Lam Tin parents) Stay & Play session
15 September
Class Assembly 6D, David Gadsby
PARENT WORKSHOP SERIES
We want to hear from you!
Tell us what topics and training you want information sessions on, be it Firefly, Homework or the Pastoral system and we’ll put together a parent workshop series based on the most requested topics. We want to help you get the most out of school life and to support you in the areas you need. So, let us know what you want to know and when you want to know it.
Please send in your topic suggestions and preferred session times (am, pm or early evening) to Mr Tom Ferguson at Tom.Ferguson@nais.hk by Friday 8 September. Stay tuned to see what comes from this.
YEAR 1 – STAY & PLAY (LAM TIN PARENTS) 13 Sept 7:45am-9:15am
On Wednesday 13 September, you are invited to spend some time with your child in their class to see how they are settling in and to have a chat with their teacher. From previous years, this has always been a very popular day, as the children are always super keen and proud to show you their room. You will be able to stay in the classrooms until around 8:30am, and then go downstairs for a cup of coffee. Members of the PTA will be there to answer any questions you may have about getting involved and there will also be a short Q&A session with Head of Year 1, Ms Gilly Johnson.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MUSIC
Keyboard Skills in the Classroom:
Before the summer, we were visited by a team from the Nord Anglia head office in Hong Kong who interviewed a number of staff, students and parents. The first of these videos has now been released and can be found here.
Exciting News!
Following the packed-to-capacity Summer Concert in June, we are delighted to announce that this year’s summer concert will take place at City Hall on 14th June at 3pm. Further information will be available nearer the time, but please keep the date in your diary! Tickets will be on sale in April at the cost of $50.
Instrumental Lessons:
This week has been extremely busy with all the signups for 1:1 instrumental tuition and we are delighted to see so many students returning to the programme! Mr. Ringo Chan and his team are in the process of finalising the timetables and we hope that lessons will start next week. Timetables will be distributed through class teachers at the earliest possible opportunity.
Juilliard After School Arts Programme:
In addition to our daytime instrumental tuition, we hope to launch the Juilliard After School Arts Programme very soon. We are delighted to have onboard the following Juilliard Alumni and Affiliated Artists:
Ms Gen Wong and Mr Ivan Osaulenko on piano, and Ms Christine Wong on violin.
The cost of these lessons would be approx. $800 per hour ($400 per half hour).
As these lessons will be taking place after school hours, children must be supervised by an adult (parent or helper). We will provide a space for you to wait with your children! If you are interested in signing up for this, please contact naomi.rowan@nais.hk.
In the classroom:
It has been a fabulous week in the music classroom with students already showing progress in their musical skills. Many students in Years 3-6 have been embracing new instruments from ukulele to trumpet, violin and flute! The department will be sending letters home next week to allow students to take home their instruments – please ensure that your child’s name is clearly completed and that both yourself and your child sign to accept responsibility for these.
SWIM TIME
We have had a fantastic start to the year in curricular swimming and shall be giving you regular updates about our successes and progress as we go through the year. Please take time to read the information about our swimming pool procedures here.
BUSES
Tai Tam and Sai Kung Campus:
If you have not yet contacted the bus team, please complete the bus application form and send to the relevant email address below by 11am on Monday 4 September 2017.
For Tai Tam Campus: taitambus@nais.hk / For Sai Kung Campus: saikungbus@nais.hk
If you have sent an application form to the bus team and have not yet received a confirmation email, please contact them to check the status. A bus place is not guaranteed until you have received confirmation or notification from the bus team.
Please note that school will be finished at 12.15pm on 11 September 2017. Please arrive the bus stop 2 and a half hours earlier than the scheduled drop off time. The full bus service will start on 12th September 2017."
Lam Tin Campus:
For anything bus related for our Lam Tin campus, please use the following email address lamtinbus@nais.hk.
ASSEMBLY TIME
Primary Assembly – Class 4C
Well done 4C on your fantastic assembly all about ‘The Power of Yet and SMART’. Rather than say “It doesn’t make sense” or “This doesn’t work”, try saying “It doesn’t make sense … yet” or “This doesn’t work … yet”. They also explained to everyone about goal setting using the word SMART; Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. With a little hard work and positive thinking, there is no way that we won’t all be able to reach our goals. Congratulations 4C on inspiring us to do our best!
Secondary Assembly
ECAs, health and fitness were the main discussion points today in the Secondary assembly. Mr Pate talked with the students about why it’s so important to do physical activity during the week and how physical activity influences academic performance. With so many ECAs to choose from he recommends pupils to make at least one of them something physical. Excitingly, one of the new sports discussed was ‘Volleyball’ and that this year we would like to have a team representing our school in the Global Games in Beijing. So, for all those students that want to try a new team sport, this could be something for you!
Also introduced was another amazing opportunity, the ‘Hong Kong Award for Young People’ (HKAYP), which is open to students from age 14. This is an exciting programme to be led by Mr Fawcett. Last but not least, ‘Uniforms’ and the importance about wearing them correctly as each and every student is a representative of our school. So, tuck in those shirts, straighten those ties and polish those shoes!
STARS OF THE WEEK - TEACHERS CHOICE
What better way to end the week than to celebrate the success for our “Stars of the Week. Well done and congratulations one and all. You should be very proud of your achievement.
Year 1: Jude Letcher, Andy Wang, Haruka Shiratori, Suri Tang, Alfie Finch
Year 2: Ritsika Chotwani, Dora Sui, Candy Zhou, Chloe Li, Eliot Przyszczykowski
Year 3: Lyla Baker, Siya Tipnis, Hoi Hei Lau, Maya Fakuda, Diana Xu
Year 4: Kristin Knowles, Alicia Poon, Daisy Deacon-Potter, Felix Gaarder, Claire Cheng
Year 5: William Dunlop, Hannah Nayeer, Eva Simmonds, Ruggero Mencerini, Zenith Wong
Year 6: Bronte Marner, Ashton Thatcher, Romina Lecher, Rebecca Gao, Eugene Su
WHO’s WHO & WHEN TO CONTACT THEM
Quick list guide of who to email for what:
- Lam Tinlamtinbus@nais.hk
- Sai Kungsaikungbus@nais.hk
- Tai Tamtaitambus@nais.hk
Lam Tin - LamTinReception@nais.hk
Tai Tam - TaiTamReception@nais.hk
Sai Kung - SaiKungReception@nais.hk
Lam Tin - Class Teacher and LamTinReception@nais.hk if your child is sick or for medical reasons, and Christian.Bishop@nais.hk and Tom.Ferguson@nais.hk to request a leave of absence.
Tai Tam - Class Teacher and TaiTamReception@nais.hk if your child is sick or for medical reasons, and Sarah.Harley@nais.hk and Katie.Malone@nais.hk to request a leave of absence.
Sai Kung - Class Teacher and SaiKungReception@nais.hk if your child is sick or for medical reasons, and Naima.Charlier@nais.hk and Emma.Coleman@nais.hk to request a leave of absence.
Please do not use the info@nais.hk for any of the above queries.
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 notifications” for our posts.
Have a lovely weekend.
