Principal’s Message
Dear Parents,
I think the biggest kick I get out of my job is to see how much the pupils enjoy learning.
When I was at the Sai Kung campus, I had to pretend to be the shark they avoided and escaped to the house in the outdoor play area.
At Tai Tam, it was wonderful to see a video of the children introducing their friends in Mandarin. They were also keen to show me their artwork and role play – of course, I had to join in!
Likewise going to a Music class at Lam Tin campus, it was great to join the pupils in expressive movement to Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”.
Today, I was impressed with the Pupil Council’s presentation for the Gender Equality Week and I look forward to their actions when it happens. It is such an important message to relay to everyone.
I had the pleasure of showing the members of the Parent Advisory Committee the new facilities in the school and, in particular, the Makerspace where we were explaining the 3D printing, the Green Room for filming and the developments for the augmented and virtual reality headsets.
Tomorrow we are looking forward to the Open Day and welcoming new families to see the school and hear about the great teaching and learning. It is always enjoyable to showcase what the school has to offer.
Have a great weekend.
Brian Cooklin.
Principal.
LAM TIN UPDATES (scroll down for Tai Tam and Sai Kung campus updates)
UPCOMING EVENTS
6 November - 6:00 - 7:30pm
Secondary Options Evening
8 November
Year 2 Author Visit and Storytelling Workshop
Year 6 Parent Residential Presentation
9 November
Year 6 Visit by Simon from the Holocaust Centre
Year 1 Visit by Marine Biologist Estelle Davies
13 November – 8:15–9:00am
Year 4 Parent Residential Presentation
15 November
International Day – woo hoo!
30 November
Christmas Concert
Save the Date
Primary Sports Day on Friday, 1 December
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Poppies are currently available for a donation at the school office. If your child wishes to purchase one then please send any donation in a sealed envelope, saying ‘poppy money’ and we will help them to buy and wear a poppy. Here is remembrance in different languages:
Remember
记得
Recuerdo
Należy pamiętać
Ne feledje
Hãy nhớ
โปรดจำไว้
BOX OF HOPE
We are supporting this great charitable event again this year and you can start sending in your boxes as of next Monday. Read about this great cause here.
ERIN WIGHT – Juilliard Music Specialist
We had another fabulous visit with Erin Wight our Juilliard Music Specialist. She visited all three campuses and impressed students with her viola playing! She also worked with all of our music teachers and was delighted with the progress made in the development of the programme at our schools. We have also made plans for some interactive parent and student workshops at our Early Years Campuses for her next visit in March!
FIREFLY – YEAR BLOGS
Please continue to check the blogs for weekly information about what your child has been learning in school.
MIT – STEAM PROJECT: The Launch of Greener Skies STEAM month for Year 7
As part of our collaboration with MIT, we are running a month-long STEAM project entitled Greener Skies. We are delighted to have some of the parents from the aviation industry to share their professional knowledge to us. The whole of Year 7 will be working on this theme during a month-long project in November where they will be learning about the history of air travel, the impact it has had on the planet. Finally, our pupils will contribute to work on a future greener plane design on their own. They have to design it detail, model it and work on a presentation for it.
SAFEGUARDING – Photographs in school
Please remember that taking photographs in school, unless expressly invited by the teacher, is not permitted. Of course we want you to be proud parents at events and assemblies, so feel free to take photographs then, but please note that taking photos through the classroom windows without prior consent or the knowledge of the teacher is not acceptable. We have several children in school who we are not allowed to have pictures of. Thank you for your understanding and support.
HONG KONG BASKETBALL COMMUNITY!
Top Flight Basketball Academy have an exciting opportunity coming up. The Top Flight Pro Camp featuring founder and CEO of 10,000 hours Devin Williams is taking place, and the YouTube star is keen to work with Hong Kong’s best youth basketball players.
The camp will take place November 10-13, 2017 and will be a great opportunity to work with one of the best trainers in the game today. We encourage any of Hong Kong’s aspiring players to register for this special camp.
Registration is now open on their website. For more information please email them.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Congratulations to Soleil Chan who had a busy half term holiday, gaining awards for both second and third place in different categories of the Chinese Piano Competition. A fantastic achievement, well done Soleil!
CALLING ALL NETBALLERS – Sunday, 26 November 9am-12noon
Read about some amazing netball opportunities for our budding netballers. This year we have Joline Henry, New Zealand Silver Fern 2004-2015, returning to NAIS to run more of her amazing workshops. She will be running one workshop in November 2017 and 5 more between January and June 2018. Details of the 2018 workshops will be available in the new year.
As we are hosting the workshops here at NAIS, Jolene has donated five free places to our netballers. Please email Ms. Farry at marie.farry@nais.hk by 5pm on Wednesday, 8 November if you would like your child to be considered for one of the free places. She will be pulling the names out of a hat to see who gets the places (got to be fair!) and will then notify every one of the result the following morning, Thursday, 9 November.
CHRISTMAS CONCERT - Thursday, 30 November (3.45pm)
With only four weeks to go until our fabulous Christmas Concert, we would ask all parents to save the date and encourage all students to practice at home. Choir words, orchestra music and string ensemble music are available on Firefly!
DNA DAY – YEAR 6
Year 6 had a fantastic time during their 'DNA Day'. We began the day learning what DNA is and why it is so significant. The children learnt that DNA is made up of four 'units' or 'bases': A, C, T & G. To help them visualise this idea, and because it is good fun, we made DNA bracelets for an animal or plant of their choice. Each of the bracelets, then represented the DNA of that living organism.
Ask your children which animal or plant they chose to represent. Was it a cobra, a butterfly, or even a human?
ASSEMBLY TIME
PRIMARY ASSEMBLY - 4E, Amy Beedham
Next we need to thank 4E for their scrumptious assembly about the history of chocolate, the students performed and sang for everyone including their parents. Even though we were all left with rumbling tummies everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, well done 4E!
SECONDARY ASSEMBLY
Secondary assembly started with a talk by Mr Fawcett who spoke to all the students about the “ Poppy Appeal” . This is something close to many of our hearts, and from next week the students will be selling the poppies at school on behalf of the Royal British Legion.
Also with the colder weather on its way the Secondary students were all reminded that from this coming Monday they will be expected to wear their Winter uniform. This means they must wear their blazers everyday unless they are in PE uniform.
STARS OF THE WEEK – ART
Year 1: Jude Letcher, Victoria Kwon, Edward Colton, Pragnay Mehandiratta, Alex Chen
Year 2: Silas Franczyk, Anokhi Parekh, Arin Atamer, Ho Chuen Gan, Eunice Fung
Year 3: Charlotte Francis, Evie Weber, Takumi Shiotani, Angela Daniel, Andy Suh
Year 4: Sheryl Wan, Ava-Rose Jakeway, Daisy Deacon-Potter, Isabel Kotanko, Andrew Li
Year 5: Josse Knaap, Darren Gao, Eva Simmonds, Antje Singson, Gabrielle Cheung
Year 6: Seohyun Park, Anna Li, Ona Bertran Molinas, Hong Lin Gu, Lavonne Zhang
HIGH COMMENDATIONS – ART
Year 7: Elijah Herron, Samson Dyck
Year 8: Jasmin Dewar
Year 9: Sally Ng
Year 10: Stephy Tsang
See their smiling faces here.
WHO’s WHO & WHEN TO CONTACT THEM
TAI TAM UPDATES
Message from the Head of School
Dear Parents,
It was lovely to see so many of our children at the Halloween Spooktakular and to have children and parents from across all three sites together for a joint celebration. We are currently arranging PTA representatives and Class Reps for here at Tai tam and they will be contacting you shortly with details and to invite you to our first Tai Tam PTA event at the start of next term.
The children have been busy learning this week and the staff have changed some of the learning areas to reflect the children’s developing ideas. Fish have arrived in the Nursery area and provide a calming aspect in our reading area. We announced our first House Point totals this week for across the school and the children were very excited and we will be welcoming the Heads of House to our first House event later this month. There are more details under our Steam area below.
Have a have weekend.
Kind regards
Mrs Sarah Harley
Head of School
NOTICES
10 November
INSET DAY
School is closed to all pupils for staff training.
15 November
International Day
23 November
Individual Online Learning Journal information session 8:30am (followed with coffee and cake!)
STARS OF THE WEEK
Nursery: Jimmy Tang
Lower Kindergarten: Alex Mano
Upper Kindergarten: Jonathan Tang
MIT – STEAM CHALLENGE
As part of our MIT collaboration we will take part in our first STEAM challenge of the year, which is called ‘Greener Skies’. We will launch this project on Monday, 20 November which will then start a whole ‘STEAM Week of Flight’, where the children will be imagining what the future of flight will look like. We will be joined by one of our parents, who is a Cathay pilot and aeronautical engineer, to launch the week. Throughout the week, children will be learning about different aspects of flight, including animals, rockets and aeroplanes. On the Thursday, the children will take part in a House challenge to build a giant plane from junk modelling materials and we need your help for this. Please can you start collecting boxes and send them into school on 20, 21 and 22 of November. Sarah Williams in Year 1 will be coordinating our MIT work from Tai Tam, so please feel free to contact her if you have any questions or want to support in any way.
TEACHER SPOTLIGHT – EMMA COLEMAN
After qualifying from Warwick University, I taught within Key Stage 1 before securing a position as Early Years Leader in a school in Warwickshire. I have always been passionate about the Early Years and all that it stands for: play based, practical, child led learning where children are free to explore and investigate.
Following my teaching experience in England, I moved to Dubai and joined the Leadership Team in a brand new British International School. Leading the Early Years there was an incredibly valuable experience and I thoroughly enjoyed working and living in Dubai.
I am now Head of Early Years at our schools in Tai Tam and Sai Kung and feel very privileged to be a part of such wonderful settings. To see our vision for the EYFS come to life over the past few months has been so exciting and extremely fulfilling. The children in our EYFS settings are becoming such fantastic explorers, musicians, investigators, artists, designers and learners – all through play and this has been so fantastic to see! I am now looking forward to the rest of the year where we can continue to grow our wonderful new schools!
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Next week we will discuss Remembrance Day, which is coming up on Saturday, 11 November. Poppies are currently available for a donation at the school office. If your child wishes to purchase one then please send any donation in a sealed envelope, saying ‘poppy money’ and we will help them to buy and wear a poppy. Please note that these are fixed on with a safety pin. With children of this age, we talk about Remembrance Day as a time to celebrate peace and to say thank you to those who were brave and helped their countries in past wars. Here is remembrance in different languages:
Remember
记得
Recuerdo
Należy pamiętać
Ne feledje
Hãy nhớ
โปรดจำไว้
International Day – 15th November
Children on this day will be able to come to school wearing something celebrating their culture and country. This could include national dress, colours from the countries flag or even a football top.
INDIVIDUAL ONLINE LEARNING JOURNAL INFO SESSION - 8:30am on Thursday, 23 November
This information session about our online learning journal that will give parents an opportunity to see how their child is developing through the year. It will also give you an opportunity to spend time with your child in their classrooms as they show you some of their learning and a chance to meet other parents. We will end with a parent coffee and cake morning.
CHRISTMAS SHOW - Tuesday, 12 December at 10am
Save the date for our Tai Tam show on Tuesday, 12 December at 10am– all the children will take to the stage and parents will be invited.
CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY – THURSDAY, 14 DECEMBER
It is time to get into the festive spirt and don those fabulous Christmas jumpers we all love (to hate sometimes)! On this day we will be celebrating Christmas by asking all our children and staff to wear Christmas jumpers. We will also have our Christmas parties on this day.
BLOGS
Please continue to check the blogs for weekly information about what your child has been learning in school.
SPORTS DAY
Year 1 children will join in the whole of Primary Sports Day on Friday, 1 December – EYFS will have a separate sports day with Sai Kung EYFS in the Spring. More information will be given about both events nearer the time.
NO NUTS
We are a ‘nut free school’ as we have a number of 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.
SPARE CLOTHES
We do have a small supply of spare clothes for emergencies, can we remind everybody to add a spare set of clothes to your child’s bag every day, just in case!
WHO’s WHO & WHEN TO CONTACT THEM
Quick list guide of who to email for what:
SAI KUNG UPDATES
Message from the Head of School
Dear Parents,
As I write this, our Year 1’s are visiting Lam Tin for their weekly swimming lesson and chance to play and learn with the other Year 1’s. This is a wonderful opportunity for the children to get used to the environment, teachers and pupils in Lam Tin which will ensure they have an easier transition next year. They also enjoy taking part in exciting learning opportunities during the ‘explorers’ session.
This week in assembly, the children were learning about the Season of Autumn and what happens at this time of the year. We discussed how this can be different in different countries and the children are interested in exploring what sights, sounds and smells are associated with Autumn.
Children have also enjoyed taking their learning outside this week. The Reception children have been writing and nursery have been getting spooky with their water play. I’m sure you will agree that it’s been beautiful weather to be outside and learning.
Many thanks for your continued support.
Kind regards,
Naima Charlier.
Head of School.
NOTICES
10 November
INSET DAY
School is closed to all pupils for staff training.
15 November
International day
22 November – 6pm
Our first PTA event will be held at Sai Kung on the roof. We will have a session on ‘Tapestry’ which is our online assessment system for early years followed by a drinks evening for parents. Please save the date in your diaries.
28 November
Parent Consultations
GENERAL UPDATES
STARS OF THE WEEK
Nursery: Ayden Wong, Gabriela Laura Keenan
Lower Kindergarten: Jack Carter Williams, Aryaman Parashar, Jack Walter Champion, William Chen
Upper Kindergarten: Natalie Fu
MIT/STEAM Project:
As part of our MIT collaboration we will take part in our first STEAM challenge of the year, which is called ‘Greener Skies’. We will launch this project on Monday, 20 November which will then start a whole STEAM week, where the children will be imagining what the future of flight will look like. On Wednesday, the children will take part in a House challenge to build a giant plane. We need your help for this. Please can you start collecting boxes that then need to be sent into school on 20, 21 and 22 of November. Eliza Man in Year 1 will be coordinating our MIT work from Sai Kung, so please feel free to contact her if you have any questions or want to support in any way. We will be looking at all things to do with flying including, animals, parasailing, rockets and planes. So, if anyone has any connections to these area, please let us know.
TEACHER SPOTLIGHT – EMMA COLEMAN
After qualifying from Warwick University, I taught within Key Stage 1 before securing a position as Early Years Leader in a school in Warwickshire. I have always been passionate about the Early Years and all that it stands for: play based, practical, child led learning where children are free to explore and investigate.
Following my teaching experience in England, I moved to Dubai and joined the Leadership Team in a brand new British International School. Leading the Early Years there was an incredibly valuable experience and I thoroughly enjoyed working and living in Dubai.
I am now Head of Early Years at our schools in Tai Tam and Sai Kung and feel very privileged to be a part of such wonderful settings. To see our vision for the EYFS come to life over the past few months has been so exciting and extremely fulfilling. The children in our EYFS settings are becoming such fantastic explorers, musicians, investigators, artists, designers and learners – all through play and this has been so fantastic to see! I am now looking forward to the rest of the year where we can continue to grow our wonderful new schools!
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Next week we will have a special visitor and assembly to discuss Remembrance Day, which is coming up on 11th of November. Poppies are currently available for a donation at the school office. If your child wishes to purchase one then please send any donation in a sealed envelope, saying ‘poppy money’ and we will help them to buy and wear a poppy. Please note that these are fixed on with a safety pin. With children of this age, we talk about Remembrance Day as a time to celebrate peace and to say thank you to those who were brave and helped their countries in past wars. Here is remembrance in different languages:
Remember
记得
Recuerdo
Należy pamiętać
Ne feledje
Hãy nhớ
โปรดจำไว้
INTERNATIONAL DAY – 15 November
International Day will be celebrated across all three sites at Nord Anglia and we will be looking for parent volunteers who would be willing to come in and help our children learn about different cultures here in Sai Kung.
If you would be interested in coming in and reading a story from your culture, sharing some food or even running a small cooking class we would be delighted to hear from you.
Please email emma.coleman@nais.hk to let us know and we will liaise with the schools PTA to make it a thoroughly enjoyable learning experience for all.
PARENT CONSULTATION INFORMATION – YEAR 1 - Tuesday, 28 November
If your child is in Year 1, they will have a Parent Consultation later this year. This will be on Tuesday 28th November and you will have an opportunity to sign up for a time to discuss your child’s learning, development, progress and next steps with the teacher. This time will also be a chance to talk about and celebrate your child’s achievements in their first few months of school. However, if you would like to talk to your child’s class teacher before then, regarding how your child has settled into school, then please do email them to arrange a suitable time for you.
SPORTS DAY – 1 December
Year 1 children will join in the whole of Primary Sports Day on December 1. EYFS will have a separate sports day with Tai Tam EYFS in the Spring. More information will be given about both events nearer the time.
CHRISTMAS SHOW – 13 December
Save the date for our Sai Kung show – all the children will take to the stage and parents will be invited. More details will follow.
CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY – THURSDAY, 14 DECEMBER
It is time to get into the festive spirt and don those fabulous Christmas jumpers we all love (to hate sometimes)! On this day we will be celebrating Christmas by asking all our children and staff to wear Christmas jumpers. We will also have our Christmas parties on this day.
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.
Click here for the Nursery.
Click here for the Reception.
Click here for the Year 1.
WHO’s WHO & WHEN TO CONTACT THEM
Here’s a quick list guide of who to email for what:
