Dear Parents,
A week in the life…
A week in the life of our school reflects a week in which learning is very much at the forefront of all colleagues’ minds. As our term heads towards its final weeks, the school is a hive of activity, and all of it centres on our children.
In previous weeks, I have shared the critical role that both formative and summative assessments play in supporting children’s next steps. Teachers and middle leaders have been using these assessments to signpost the next steps for our children and our provision across the school. They use a range of information and data sources to support our ability to understand children’s progress to date and what comes next. This analysis helps teachers share a full picture of a child’s attainment and progress across the curriculum, in parent meetings and during reporting cycles.
This week, at parent-teacher meetings, you will have the chance to talk about your children and their progress, what they have enjoyed and how they are developing as people. I would urge all parents to meet with teachers this week and ask questions about how to support them at home, and it is worth remembering that in each meeting, we should be thinking about how to help our children to ‘run their own race’. We are all here to help each child get better, one step at a time, so that they can run their race.
On the other hand, middle leaders, who are responsible for leading curriculum change and improvements across the school, use the same approach to data analysis to identify our successes and action plan the next steps for our whole school and the curriculum. They are working together to improve outcomes for all children in all classes through an analysis of summative and formative assessments. Our middle leaders are, therefore, key drivers of our ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘what’ in the primary classrooms.
A week in the life of our school is reassuringly focused on sharing and celebrating our children’s successes while thinking about how to improve; this iterative cycle helps our children and school community thrive.
Asian Gaelic Games Winners
Last weekend, one of our teachers, Gary Walsh, represented the Hong Kong GAA Club in the Asian Gaelic Games in Bangkok. The Asian Gaelic Games is a nine-a-side tournament, with Matches lasting 14 minutes each in Gaelic Football and Hurling. The games have been running since 1996 and move from city to city each year—they have been hosted in Manila, Singapore, Phuket, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Penang, and Bangkok.
After playing ten matches over the weekend in both Gaelic Football and Hurling, Gary successfully returned to Hong Kong with two gold medals: Senior A Football Shield Champions and Junior Hurling Champions. In this annual event, we have a rich history of previous NAIS Hong Kong teachers Fiachra McArdle and Colm O’Brien, who also represented the Hong Kong GAA Club in The Asian Gaelic Games.
Mr Walsh carries on the tradition of our fantastic Nord Anglia teachers being invited to represent Hong Kong at the highest level of sporting events!
I look forward to seeing parents in school this week.
Take care,
Stephen Sharma
Head of Primary
