Principal’s Message
Dear Parents,
Happy New Year! I hope you and your families had an enjoyable time together whether in Hong Kong or in colder/warmer climes.
We went back to our home in Scotland and had a wonderful time celebrating with our family in temperatures of -5oC and snow!
Welcome to all the new families who joined us this week – there are over 50 of them – and it was good to meet some of them this week. I am sure you will make them welcome and part of the NAIS community. Certainly, your children have, as some went out of their way to help the new starters this week. Thank you all for your support.
This is a very busy time for recruitment for next session. We have received almost 600 applications for the 33 posts we are filling – the majority are new ones as the school grows across the three campuses. We are one of the most popular schools in the Nord Anglia Education group, but it does make life difficult reading and assessing all of them! Mrs. Harley and I will attend the company’s recruitment event held each year in London where we will conduct the face-to-face interviews of the U.K. applicants. It is always an exciting, if tiring, part of my job, but also one of the most important things I do.
Have a great weekend.
Best wishes,
Brian Cooklin
Principal
PTA DRINKS & NIBBLES @Tai Tam campus
Join our Tai Tam PTA next Thursday as they host a wonderful event for all our families. Whether you are a Sai Kung, Lam Tin or Tai Tam parent, everyone is invited and the more the merrier. This is the perfect opportunity to come and see our beautiful Tai Tam campus while meeting some new (and familiar) faces. Don’t miss out, sign up here.
FREE CONSCIOUS AND EFFECTIVE PARENTING TALK*
We are happy to welcome Katherine Sellery into our school for this free, hour-long class where she will introduce effective parenting techniques – always a popular, helpful and insightful topic. If you are interested in learning more, she will then be offering an 8-week course at both our Sai Kung and Tai Tam campuses.
To register for the talk at Sai Kung, please email Fiona.Tang@nais.hk on or before 12noon on Tuesday, 16 January 2018.
To register for the talk at Tai Tam, please email Amy.Yeung@nais.hk on or before 12noon on Wednesday, 17 January 2018.
*We highly recommend that you sign up early as there are limited spaces available.
SCROLL DOWN FOR TAI TAM AND SAI KUNG UPDATE
LAM TIN UPDATES
Message from head of Campus
Dear Parents,
Happy New Year! It was lovely to welcome everyone back, including 30 new families here in Lam Tin. In assembly this week, we discussed the concept of New Year Resolutions and what type of resolutions the children may make. We also identified that we need perseverance to achieve our aims this year.
The children have happily been sharing their holiday experiences with us and all seem happy to be back with their friends.
Best wishes,
Sarah Harley
Head of Campus
UPCOMING EVENTS
19 January
Class Assembly 3A Mrs. Doherty
22 January
ECAs commence
15 FEBRUARY
Staff INSET day – no school for children
BLOGS
Please continue to check the blogs for weekly information about what your child has been learning in school.
FEBRUARY LUNCH MENU
Click here to see what tasty dishes are in store for the February lunch menu.
IMPORTANT ECA INFORMATION
ECAs start on Monday 22 January and end on Thursday 22 March 2018. Please read the important information
below:
Transport Option (Primary only):
Please note that your participation in activities may mean that your departure time from school has now
changed on those days of the week. You must inform us about the transport or pick-up arrangements for each
day of the week. Please take a moment to log into CHQ and select your transport choices on your "my profile"
page. All choices must be made before 12pm on Monday 15 January 2018.
If you have any queries about Buses, please contact bus@nais.hk .
Payment for ECAs:
If you have selected a paid-ECA, we will forward your email address to the provider (details are on the sign-up
form). They will then be in touch directly with regard to payment and to answer any further questions you may
have.
If you have any questions about these activities, please contact the school.
TEACHER SPOTLIGHT – MR BILL MILLIGAN
Mr. Milligan began his teaching career in the North of England, teaching English at KS3, 4 and 5 as well as holding responsibility for the Media Studies department at King James' School, Knaresborough. From there, he moved to London, where he gained experience as Deputy Curriculum Leader of English, which ensured he was able to influence the curriculum with his choice of wonderful books from around the world. He has also worked as a House Leader at Haileybury Almaty, Kazakhstan, gaining valuable international schools experience which he believes will serve him well in his new role as KS4 Co-ordinator at NAIS Hong Kong.
“In my previous post, with 14 years of experience behind me, I held a leadership position in the Pastoral Team at Isleworth and Syon School in West London, which was both a highly demanding and highly rewarding role. My passion lies in providing an outstanding, personalised education for all, ensuring that every child has the opportunity to flourish. To this end, I have recently completed a Masters in 'Education: Leading Innovation and Change' with St. Mary's University, London, and have been inspired to challenge myself and my students to think about learning differently, recognising that there are a variety of ways to reach extraordinary outcomes.”
“I am a passionate fan of film and football, though, naturally, not at the same time.”
STARS OF THE WEEK – TEACHERS CHOICE
Year 1: Mikaela Or, Marcel Wong, Reyansh Roongta, Douglas Madden, Aston Chan
Year 2: Caroline Espeskog, Syeni Wijayadasa, Amelie Gordon, Emin Davies, Sophia Bondarenko
Year 3: Charles Shih, Jia Dreyer, Hoi Hei Lau, Lewis Wong, Eva Wadsworth
Year 4: Kara Li, King Tong Ngai, Isaac Fung, Olesya Rana, Sarah Bai
Year 5: Hampton Wang, Bair Batomunkuev, Naomi Khaira, Divina Law, Tony Sang
Year 6: Jonathan Ring, Isolde Gorjup, Martine Bratsberg, Bob Sheng Wang, Karsten Shiu
HIGH COMMENDATIONS – TEACHERS CHOICE
Year 7: Justin Tsz Ching Wong, Henry Dier
Year 8: Aaron Hallworth
Year 9: Sam Tam
Year 10: Marcus Wong
See their smiling faces here.
ASSEMBLY TIME
Primary Assembly
In today’s assembly we celebrated our first 2018 Stars of the Week for their achievements. It was great to hear all the reasons for the student’s nominations and to see how supportive their friends and teachers were. Encouragement and celebrating successes helps us to reinforce our ‘Be Ambitious’ philosophy and give our children the confidence they need to succeed.
Mr. Cooklin also got students to share their New Year resolutions to their peers and urged all of us to be a better person and to treat people more kindly in the New Year by stopping and thinking before we act and speak.
Secondary Assembly
Mr. Malone led the Secondary assembly today where he introduced students to some new routines, reminded of them existing ones and challenged them to go from ‘Excellent to Amazing’. He spoke about the fantastic comments the ISI Inspectors had made about the students last year and how they could build on this, aiming even higher in the expectations that they have of themselves moving forwards. Let’s see what amazing achievements they come up with by the end of the year.
TAI TAM UPDATES
Message from the Deputy Head of School
Dear Parents,
It has been a pleasure to welcome and meet our new starters this week. They have settled in well and have been busy making new friends and exploring their learning environment. I have also been very impressed with how welcoming our current students have been helping them get used to the routines and encouraging them to join in. Thank you also to all our parent reps who came in on Monday and joined our new parents for a coffee. We are very happy to have our parent community grow.
It has already been a busy week with our children enjoying the new play equipment that has been installed over the Christmas break allowing them to climb, slide and imagine. We are also looking forward to our new rock climbing wall being finished very soon.
Finally, our Year 1 children have turned into palaeontologists this week going on a dinosaur dig! I can’t wait to find out what they have discovered.
I hope you have all had a restful and happy Christmas break.
Kind regards
Mrs. Katie Malone
Deputy Head of School
NOTICES
18 JANUARY
EYFS Trip to KidsFest – Emily Brown and the Thing
Conscious and Effective Parenting Talk - free session - 6pm-7pm
PTA Drinks and Nibbles 7-9pm
22 JANUARY
ECAs commence
24 JANUARY
Year 1 Volvo Race Boat Trip
26 JANUARY
Celebration Afternoon - EYFS
Parents of EYFS will be invited into school to celebrate their child’s work
EYFS Reports out on Tapestry
1 FEBRUARY
Year 1 Trip to KidsFest – Dinosaur Zoo
8 FEBRUARY
Year 1 Class Assembly – Year 1 Parents are invited to come and watch 10:00
15 FEBRUARY
Staff INSET day – no school for children
KIDSFEST
You should have received letters home about our trips to KidsFest. Please ensure that you have returned both the consent and medical form to your Child’s class teacher.
PTA DRINKS AND NIBBLES - Thursday, 18 January 7-9pm
Our Tai Tam parent PTA invite you all for Drinks and Nibbles. Please click here to show your attendance. We hope to see you there for a fun evening.
FREE CONSCIOUS AND EFFECTIVE PARENTING TALK - Thursday, 18 Jan 6-7pm
Come, listen and learn about this fantastic course. Professional parenting trainer, Katherine Sellery, is coming into school and offering a free hour-long class as an introduction to Parent Effectiveness Training. For those who are interested and want a deeper understanding and knowledge, she will then be running an 8-week course here at our Tai Tam campus.
Dates of the course a Tai Tam are: Jan 29, Feb 5, 12, 26 and March 5, 12, 19, 26
Time: 8:30-11:30am
Please email Amy.Yeung@nais.hk to register for the talk on or before 12noon on Wednesday, 17 January 2018.
Why not join the talk and then stay on for the PTA drinks and nibbles! That’s your evening sorted.
CLASS ASSEMBLY SCHEDULE 2018
The schedule for our class assemblies is as follows – your class teacher will give you more details nearer the time.
TEACHER SPOTLIGHT – MISS LEANNE DOBSON
Miss. Dobson graduated from the University of East Anglia in 2012 with a specialism in KS1 and lower KS2. From there she moved to Merlin school, a pre-prep in South West London where she taught in Reception. She stayed there for 5 years, and in that time, took on the role of Head of Early Years.
“I strive to create a classroom environment where children feel confident take on challenges and become independent learners. I feel this is especially important in the early years, where instilling intellectual curiosity, a love for learning and a 'give it a go' attitude is key to later success in education. In my free time, I enjoy horse riding at a competitive level and playing my acoustic guitar.”
STARS OF THE WEEK
Congratulations! You should feel very proud of your achievements.
Nursery: Anna Grant
Lower Kindergarten: Kanata Takaku
Upper Kindergarten: Chloe Fan
BLOGS
Please continue to check the blogs for weekly information about what your child has been learning in school.
NO NUTS
We are a ‘nut free school’ as we have several 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!
SAI KUNG UPDATES
Message from the Head of School
Dear Parents,
Happy New Year. It’s been a busy start to our new term as we welcomed 13 new children to our school this week. I am constantly amazed and impressed by how easily children adapt to their new surroundings, quickly making friends and getting involved in the new activities.
There was also a lot of excitement generated by our new outdoor play equipment which was put in over the holidays. This equipment will allow children to climb, slide, swing, balance and jump. It will also allow them to take risks.
Risk taking is essential for all of us, but particularly so for children. I have to confess it’s the area I have always struggled most with, as both a teacher and a parent. My husband is continuously frustrated with me as he thinks I am way too cautious with the children, but I just want to ensure they are safe. However, I also know that risk taking is vital for a child’s development and you must let them push themselves to try things that challenge them. The benefits are too numerous for me to extol here but I have included a link to a little clip that covers the subject well, for those who are interested which you can watch here.
From spending time this week with the children, as they have explored the equipment, it also drives home how much self-confidence and pride is developed by using our play equipment. Watching the children testing themselves, persevering with something they find tricky and then beaming with delight as they managed to climb to the top, or jump down, has been really satisfying. So, with the teachers we have been showing the children how to use the equipment safely, how to take turns, and watch out for fingers. How not to climb whilst holding house points and how to make judgments about what’s a safe risk. Ask your children how they have enjoyed the equipment this week.
On a special note for our new children, it mentions in the video the ‘little risks’ such as coming to a new school and asking, ‘do you want to play with me?’ So many of our new children have thrown themselves into these risks this week and have come out unscathed, stronger and more resilient than ever. It’s no small thing starting a school and we are super proud of all our new intake and how they have coped with the transition. We look forward to getting to know them better.
If your New Year’s resolution was to learn something new this year then join us for our phonics training on Thursday, 26 January. Also, as mentioned before Christmas we will host a special hour session with Katherine Sellery on parenting skills next Wednesday. If you would like to join us, please find details below. We are happy to run other parent information sessions so please drop us an email if there is a subject that you would like us to cover this term.
Kind regards,
Naima Charlier
Head of School
NOTICES
15 JANUARY
ECAs commence
17 JANUARY
Conscious and Effectiveness Parenting introductory talk 6-7pm
18 JANUARY
EYFS Trip to KidsFest – Emily Brown and the Thing
PTA Drinks and Nibbles
24 JANUARY
Year 1 Volvo Race Boat Trip
26 JANUARY
Celebration Afternoon (EYFS): Parents of EYFS will be invited into school to celebrate your child’s work – Reports out
Phonics Training for Parents: Before the Celebration Afternoon, join us to learn more about phonics and how to help support your child with reading at home.
1 FEBRUARY
Year 1 Trip to KidsFest – Dinosaur Zoo
15 FEBRUARY
Staff INSET day – no school for children
GENERAL UPDATES
FREE CONSCIOUS AND EFFECTIVE PARENTING TALK - Wednesday, 17 Jan 6-7pm
Come, listen and learn about this fantastic course. Professional parenting trainer, Katherine Sellery, is coming into school and offering a free hour-long class as an introduction to Parent Effectiveness Training. For those who are interested and want a deeper understanding and knowledge, she will then be running an 8-week course here at our Sai Kung campus.
Please email Fiona.Tang@nais.hk or call 39581488 ext 3206 to register for the talk on or before 12noon on Tuesday,16 January 2018.
Dates of the course are: Jan 24, 31, Feb 7, 28 and March 7, 14, 21, 28
Time: 8:15-11:15am
STARS OF THE WEEK - DRAMA
Congratulations! You should feel very proud of your achievements.
Nursery: Curtis Au, Bowman Fu
Lower Kindergarten: Helios Chan, Charlotte Chung, Sienna Mackney, Josh Kee
Upper Kindergarten: Oliver Robinson
CLASS ASSEMBLY SCHEDULE 2018
The schedule for our class assemblies is as follows – your class teacher will give you more details nearer the time.
STAFF SPOTLIGHT – NURSE FAY BEESE
Fay qualified as a Registered General Nurse from Charing Cross Hospital in London. Her desire and passion in working with children prompted her to become registered as a Health Visitor (a Specialist Community Nurse working with babies and young children), and later as a Specialist Community Public Health Nurse -School Nursing MSc (Leeds). She has worked as a School Nurse in the UK and Hong Kong and has experience of supporting children in school from three to eighteen years old. Her interests include hill walking and running, riding her motorbike and travel.
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.
There is also a section of photos from Sai Kung in general - you can find this in the “Welcome to Sai Kung” section of Firefly.
NO NUTS
We are a ‘nut free school’ as we have several 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!
