MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Dear Parents,
Starting the week with a Singing Assembly at Lam Tin led by Mr. Widger is always a good beginning. At the same time, I was welcoming Mike Gatting, the former Middlesex and England cricketer, who ran very successful workshops with our pupils.
The Year 10 “mock” IGCSE exams finished this week and we wait with bated breath for their results next week.
Year 4 trooped off on Tuesday, very excitedly, for their residential trip to Cheung Chau. The reports received and the photographs sent seem to show that they have had a great time.
Attending the British Chamber of Commerce Education Committee is always interesting, especially as we planned next year’s events and the school’s participation.
By the same token, the Senior Leadership Team held a Strategy Day where we were working on roles and responsibilities as the school expands and the implications of a possible fourth campus, which requires a lot of planning.
Well done to the PTA for organising a successful Mahjong night. Please come to their Annual Meeting on Wednesday, 16 May at 6:00pm and get involved. The PTA exists to help build our community and to bring people together in enjoyable activities for families and staff. Please support them as much as you can including, if you can, by coming to the PTA Gala Dinner on Saturday, 12 May at the Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel.
Finally, good luck to Mr. Sutton and our pupils who fly to Boston this weekend to participate in the M.I.T. Science Fair, organised exclusively for Nord Anglia Education Schools.
Enjoy your weekend.
Best wishes,
Brian Cooklin.
Principal.
NOTICES
30 APRIL – 4 MAY
ECAs start
Book Week
1 MAY
Public Holiday – School Closed
4 MAY
Dress up as a book character day
12 MAY
4th Annual Nais Pta Gala Dinner
21 MAY
Teacher INSET – Children NOT at school
22 MAY
Public Holiday – School Closed
AND THEY’RE OFF TO MIT …
It’s the week they’ve been waiting for and they’re revved up and raring to go. Our students will be flying into Boston from far and wide this coming weekend for STEAM Week @ MIT – a unique, five-day long event packed with STEAM-related challenges, learning and adventure at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Three Year 6 students, Maithili Parekh, Kyle Yuen and Joseph Ooi and Year 7 student Philine Kotanko have been selected to represent NAIS HK, and they worked extremely hard to earn their place. Kotanko said her winning entry to ‘Hack the Bottle’ was directly inspired by the Greener Skies challenge set by MIT this year.
“I made a plane powered by a portable charger. We learned about cars that use batteries instead of blowing carbon dioxide into the air. It made me think that if it’s possible to do it with cars, why is it not possible to do that with planes?”
The rundown of events for STEAM Week promises to pack a punch. Having seen the schedule, all four NAIS HK students have picked out an activity they’re most looking forward to experiencing. For Kyle and Joseph the Boda Borg, a challenge where teams of three-to-five people work together to figure out how to escape from a room, is an activity they’re keen to tackle.
“I’m quite excited to overcome the obstacles that await us and the difficulties we will face,” said Ooi. “I wonder how we’ll think of ideas to help us overcome the challenges.” Philine and Maithili on the other hand, are keen to learn more about robots.
“I don’t understand how robots work, and how they have artificial intelligence. So when I go to MIT I want to find out more about that,” said Parekh.
We’ll be following all our students at MIT next week. Stay tuned and follow us @Naeducation and check out our Facebook page to learn more about this exciting event! #NAEMIT
SCROLL DOWN FOR TAI TAM AND SAI KUNG UPDATE
LAM TIN UPDATES
HEAD OF CAMPUS MESSAGE
Dear Parents,
The week started with the sound of singing throughout the school as the Music department led the music assembly with call and response in four parts. Some of our Year 6 pupils then had a MasterClass in cricket led by ex England captain – Mike Gatting.
Year 4 pupils have encountered the diversity of Hong Kong weather this week, high temperatures and humidity during their hike and then camping in the rain at Cheung Chau for their residential. Both staff and pupils continued to smile throughout and we look forward to welcoming them back later today.
The Mahjong night organised by the PTA was very successful and seemed lots of fun – not as complicated a game as many feared!
We have been reinforcing our ‘No cap no play’ policy across the Primary year groups and ask that you support us in protecting children from the sun by ensuring they have a cap in school at all times. From caps to shoes and a reminder that pupils across the school Year 1 – Year 10 should be wearing black leather shoes with their school uniform and predominantly white trainers with their PE kit. A few variations on this have been appearing and we do appreciate your support of our uniform policy.
I wish you all a good weekend.
Sarah Harley.
Assistant Principal.
UPCOMING EVENTS
30 APRIL
ECAs start
Book Week
Year 9 Nature Conservancy Trip
1 MAY
Public Holiday – school closed
3 MAY
Year 10 Parents Evening
4 MAY
Dress up as a book character day
10 MAY
Books And Buns Fundraiser Returns
This year Sandringham and Windsor will be battling it out in this popular event to raise money for charity.
More information to follow shortly.
16 MAY
Annual PTA meeting on Wednesday May 16th at 6 PM
18 MAY
Year 9 and 10 Careers Day
21 MAY
Teacher INSET – Children NOT at school
22 MAY
Public Holiday – school closed
12 JUNE
Auction of Promises Charity Event – Balmoral
14 JUNE
Summer Concert – City Hall. Doors open 2pm, concert start time: 2.15pm.
LEARNING MANDARIN AND ENGLISH THROUGH COFFEE MAKING
Arabica? Robusta? Crema? Barista? Year 8 students were full of beans earlier this week as some of them went on a language exchange activity to Ko Lui, a local secondary school. It was a great opportunity for students to collaborate with the local community to practise their language skills and learn what goes into making a perfect brew. They watched the local students making coffee, learned about coffee beans, and how to make a latte onion heart. They also got a chance to taste the coffee they made. Some of the boys loved the taste so much they even had a second cup!
AUCTION OF PROMISES CHARITY EVENT – BALMORAL
Balmoral will be running the Auction of Promises again this year. All monies this year will go to their charity, Changing Young Lives. Last year, staff donated their time and expertise by contributing a promise to the parents and pupils. These included activities such as a rocket making lesson with Mr MacKinnon in the Science lab and, of course, the 'Principal for the Day' with Mr Cooklin.
This year we have already some exciting new promises on offer for our parents and pupils, including some of our old favourites. Your support is greatly appreciated. More information to follow.
A VISIT FROM MIKE GATTING
We were delighted to have Mr. Mike Gatting (OBE) come to NAISHK to deliver cricket coaching sessions. Mike is a former England cricket captain, former President of the MCC, a Director at Middlesex Cricket Club and he is Patron of the Hong Kong Cricket Club. It was fantastic to have Mike here to share his experience, teach some of the basic skills used in the game of cricket and to inspire our pupils. Mike set up a carousel of activities including bowling, batting, throwing and catching and he spent time on each activity to give feedback and encouragement to each pupil. It was a great experience and we look forward to welcoming Mike back in the future.
EQUESTRIAN SUCCESS – 3rd prize
We are delighted to say that our equestrian team came 3rd in the HKEF Inter-School Equestrian Challenge 2018 Finals, which was held over two days last weekend. Our riders, Erik Gaarder, Sylvie Lung, Chloe Skovgaard and Naomi Khaira, all represented the school beautifully, not only in their riding, but also in their behaviour and team spirit. Chloe Skovgaard was especially brave for being bucked off quite hard in the jumping, but she got back on and finished the round.
There were 19 teams in the lower division competition and only the top four schools qualified for the finals. We were fourth going into the finals so were very pleased to have gained third place, beating HKIS. The first1 and second place teams were RCHK and KGV respectively, and we were only 0.6 points behind second place. It was that close!
The competition was judged by some very prominent international judges visiting from the UK – Tim Downes and Andrew Bennie – and all the most important people from the HKEF attended the presentation at the end. It was a fantastic couple of days. Congratultions to all involved. We can’t wait to see how they got on next year!
HONG KONG HISPANIC SPEECH FESTIVAL
Last Saturday NAIS attended the Hong Kong Hispanic Speech Festival. This is a festival-competition where high-caliber linguists from different schools take part and compete in performances and recitals.
We are happy to announce that NAIS is now one of the selected schools and will be competing next year.
We would like to thank pupils Angus Mclennan, Beatrice Villaflor, Deborah Gerelchimeg, Leah St-Georges, Jasmin Dewar, Raphael Bitter, Aarohi Karnavat and Boco To for giving up on their Saturday morning to join us at last weeks event. They represented our school very wekk and had the chance of meeting other very strong linguistic-minded students as well as educators.
Well-done NAISHK Students of Languages!
SUMMER PERFORMING ARTS WITH JUILLIARD | STRINGS, SHANGHAI 2018
The application deadline is fast approaching so don’t miss your chance to attend this fantasic programme. Nord Anglia students can enjoy a 15% discount. For more information please click here.
ASK THE ARTIST IS BACK!
We a thrilled that another opportunity has been arranged to ask questions of a professional working in the field of Performing Arts. Following the success of the choreographer and dancer Reilly O’Flynn, we now have Juilliard alumna and multiple Grammy winning mezzo-soprano, Isabel Leonard who will be fielding questions from students across Nord Anglia through the Global Campus. For a taster of her work, please enjoy this link to Sesame Street!
WEEK – MUSIC
Year 1: Renee Yoo, Aiden Jo, Alex Kui, Adna Chan, Lola Ashford-Smith
Year 2: Lavonne Ho, Rex Hoskin, Elan Akhter, Aarif Chan, Aidan Adams
Year 3: Sebastian Knowles, Elizabeth Seto, Ruskin Fung, Harrison Payne, Wincy Li
Year 4: Elaine Shiao, Aidan Lee, Cate Tsui, Henry Hallin Lovkist, Saffron Haigh
Year 5: Cory Wong, Benjamin Marks, Jihwan Park, Austen Clark, Heeju Suh
Year 6: Yoyo Chen, Chun Fai Wat, Charissa Kwok, Tony Pan, Kira Thatcher
HIGH COMMENDATIONS – MUSIC
Year 7: Alessandro Conzato, Alden Lau
Year 8: Hayley Dodd
Year 9: Evan Kingsbury
Year 10: Velvet Lung
TAI TAM UPDATES
Message from the Deputy Head of School
Dear Parents,
It has been another busy week of learning for our children from making Gruffalo crumble in Nursery to making Stone Age huts in Year 1. It is always a pleasure to see our children become so involved in their learning and explaining it to me. I have had the pleasure of learning a dinosaur story in Reception as well as learning about knights and princes to finding out about what things you can find in a Stone Age hut in Year 1.
It has also been lovely to welcome many of you in for our EYFS Parents evening and have those all important conversations about the development of your child. It constantly amazes me how much these children learn but also what their next steps are and how we can all help them reach these. It is so important to have an open communication between home and school.
I am looking forward to next week with our exciting book week. It is one of my pleasures to read stories to children and share my love of books. Please do join us for our Book Week assembly at 9:00 on Friday 4th May to watch our fashion parade and guess the teacher’s book character. My costume is all prepared and I look forward to seeing the children dressed in their favourite book character.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Kind regards,
Mrs. Katie Malone.
Deputy Head of School.
NOTICES
30 APRIL
ECAs Start
Book Week – Parent volunteers needed. If you are available we would love you to come and read a story to your child’s class. Please contact your class teacher to arrange a time. Thank you to the many parents who have already done this.
Book Swap Table – If you have a book at home that you can give up please put it on our book swap table located in the foyer and take another home. No money necessary.
1 MAY
Public Holiday – School Closed
4 MAY
Dress up as a book character day. Come and join us for our Book Week Assembly at 9:00am.
10 MAY
Starfish and Turtles Assembly at 10:00. Class parents are warmly invited.
11 MAY
Books And Buns Fundraiser Returns: This year Sandringham and Windsor will be battling it out in this popular event to raise money for charity. More information to follow shortly.
12 MAY
PTA Gala Dinner – Save the date.
18 MAY
Maths Workshop 1:00pm and Afternoon Celebration 1:45 – 2:30pm. Our Maths workshop will be explaining about how we teach Maths through play followed by a celebration afternnon. Please email Cora.Tang@nais.hk to let her know if you can come.
21 MAY
Teacher INSET – Children NOT at school
22 MAY
Public Holiday – School Closed
31 MAY
Nursery Assembly at 10:00am. Nursery parents are warmly invited.
7 JUNE
Starfish and Turtles Assembly at 10:00. Class parents are warmly invited.
13 JUNE
Nursery and Reception Curriculum evening 6:00 – 7:30pm.
14 JUNE
Year 1 into Year 2 Curriculum evening in our Lam Tin campus 6:30 – 8:00pm
21 JUNE
Year 1 Curriculum evening in our Lam Tin campus 6:30 – 8:00pm
STARS OF THE WEEK – Mandarin
Congratulations! You should feel very proud of your achievements.
Nursery: Naomi Lord
Lower Kindergarten: Maddie Botha
Upper Kindergarten: Diego Pardo Aldana
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.
SAI KUNG UPDATES
Message from the Head of School
Dear Parents,
This week has been a busy one, as we launched our new MIT challenge about driverless cars. It has been really interesting to see the children gaining an understanding around the ideas developed through this subject. They have found the concept both intriguing and amusing! The city landscape they have created with the help of Miss Man, class teachers and our Heads of House Mr Reid and Mr McKinnon is a sight to be seen. The children have learnt a lot of directional language as well as programming skills while directing their robots around its streets.
On top of all this work we saw Balmoral House designing and making a lava lamp with our Secondary Head of Science as well as visiting our very own Sai Kung cinema in their Mandarin lessons. Miss Lo turned the far end of the school into a red-curtained puppet theatre and we have all enjoyed seeing the ‘films’ acted out in Mandarin.
Can I ask parents to make sure their children have their hat with them every day. The weather is about to get hotter and this will help keep them cool when they play outside. I would also like to ask that you make sure your child has a full set of spare clothes left in school, hanging on their pegs (including socks). Our children love to play and design activities in the water and sand and sometimes this means they need to have a quick change afterwards! This would be much appreciated.
Next week it’s book week and the children will be taking part in a wide array of activities, including visiting the Sai Kung Library. Don’t forget to send all children to school next Friday dressed as their favourite book character. We look forward to welcoming many of you into school next week to read with the classes. It’s a short week next week as there is no school on Tuesday and I am sure everyone is looking forward to enjoying May Day with their families.
Enjoy the weekend.
Kind regards,
Naima Charlier.
Head of School.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
30 APRIL – 4 MAY
Book Week
1 MAY
Public Holiday – school closed
4 MAY
Dress up as a book character day
11 MAY
Seahorses and Starfish assembly
Books And Buns Fundraiser Returns: This year Sandringham and Windsor will be battling it out in this popular event to raise money for charity. More information to follow shortly.
12 MAY
PTA Gala Dinner – Save the date
18 MAY
How we teach Maths through Play Parent information session and celebration afternoon – 1pm
21 MAY
Teacher INSET – Children NOT at school
22 MAY
Public Holiday – school closed
1 JUNE
Bumblebees and Caterpillars assembly
STARS OF THE WEEK – Teacher’s Choice
Congratulations! You should feel very proud of your achievements.
Nursery: Cyrus Pong , Alissa Dunsmore
Lower Kindergarten: Alisa Bovykin, Mattia Tagliente, Tobias Lang, Josh Kee
Upper Kindergarten: Louis Kwok
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. There is also a section of general photos from Sai Kung - you can find this in the “Welcome to Sai Kung” section of Firefly.
