Newsletter #18
Beacon Hill School latest newsletter available to read now. Find out the latest news around the school and upcoming events.
Principal’s Words
Important Dates
Around BHS
SEN News
Sports
ESF News
Other News
Dear Parents,
Yet again, another busy week at BHS. Last Saturday we had lots of students participating in the Cross Country Challenge with several of them finishing in the top three places. This event is a great opportunity for many children to take part in a competitive event and despite the poor weather I am sure they all enjoyed the experience. Well done to all of them and for the teachers for their support. On Monday our Year 1s visited the History Museum to support their current unit of inquiry. Yesterday, our Year 6s who will be transferring to KGV in August visited for a ‘Taster Day’. Year 1s have had a very busy week as today they went to the theatre to watch ‘Room on the Broom’. I am sure they had a wonderful time. Today, our Years 2s shared their current unit of work with their parents – as I am out of school at the moment on recruitment, Ms Chung has reflected on their learning and sharing – please see below.
In addition to all of this, our Mandarin team has already begun preparations for the upcoming Chinese New Year festivities. Life at BHS is never quiet!
Congratulations
As some of you may have known, Ms Angell was expecting a baby and I am delighted to announce that she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Claire Maeve Angell, who weighed in at just under 3kg. Congratulations to Colleen and Patrick!
Year 2 Sharing Unit
This morning our Year 2s shared their learning with their parents based on their Unit of Inquiry with a focus on the Central Idea – ‘Celebrations and Traditions can be expressions of shared beliefs and values’. It was a wonderful opportunity for our students to talk about what they have been doing and to share what they have learnt. They have clearly enjoyed learning about various celebrations and that was evident by their enthusiastic sharing. Thank you to all of the parents who attended and well done to our Year 2 Team. For photos and videos, please click HERE.
The Great Kindness Challenge Week – starting on Monday!
This year we are going to participate in the ‘Great Kindness Challenge’ week. We believe we are a very caring and friendly community already but it can only be a good thing to be even more caring and friendly. Your child will be given a checklist of 50 acts of kindness that they can try to accomplish during this special week. There are no prizes for those who complete them all; but we will all feel good that people have thought about others and not just themselves. I hope you can support this at home and ensure that we continue to be a caring and friendly community all the time!
IMPORTANT DATES
| JANUARY | |
| 26th | Year 3 Pizza Lunch |
| 26th | PSE Parent Information Workshop, 6.30pm, School Hall |
| 27th | Year 3 trip to Inspiration Lake |
| FEBRUARY | |
| 2nd | Year 1 Bake Sale |
| 2nd | Year 1 Chinese New Year trip |
| 3rd | Year 2 Chinese New Year trip |
| 4th | Chinese New Year Performance (parents of performers only), 6pm |
| 5th | China Day Activities and Performance. |
| 5th | Chamber Choir perform at KGV. |
| 5th | School closes for Chinese New Year, 3pm |
| 15th | School opens, 8.45am |
Please note that you can view our calendar on the school website.
The forecast for the weekend and the early part of next week is for some very cold weather – please make sure your child comes to school in appropriate clothing during this time and of course, ensure that all items are clearly labeled with their name and class.
Have a good weekend.
News from the English Team
Family borrowing
Please remember that the library is now open for family borrowing at the times in the chart below. You simply need to apply for a card by filling in the form found on the school website. We will keep your card at school so just come along when you have time to choose books from any of our collections.
| Before school | After school | |
| Monday | 2.45-3.30pm | |
| Tuesday | 8.15- 9.00am | |
| Wednesday | 2.45-3.30pm | |
| Friday | 8.30-9.15am |
For questions and queries contact: Emily Jeves at jevese2@beaconhill.edu.hk
Home reading
Your child should be reading at home with you every day. The conversation you have with your child about their reading is essential to help develop their comprehension skills, so even if your child is a confident reader do talk to them about their reading. There are lots of ideas to help these conversations on the school website http://beaconhill.edu.hk/helping-your-child-with-reading/ and in the front of the reading journals.
At school we explicitly teach the children different strategies to help them understand, one of these is Making Connections.
At Beacon Hill we teach children to make connections to what they are reading in three ways:
Text to text How does the book connect to something you have already read or a film you have seen?
Text to world How does the book connect to real life, people and places around the world?
Text to self How does the book connect to your life and the things you have seen and done?
Making connections is an easy strategy to model for your child, “This reminds me of the time..“ “This is just like the other story we read when…” “Do you remember when we went …you felt…?”etc. By linking the text to their experiences children find it easier to understand what a book is about.
Thank you!
We would like to say a huge thank you to Jaime Ho from 6H, Ms Chung and Ms Andrews for their recent kind donations of books to the library.
Please click HERE for details of upcoming Parent Talks and an Open Day provided by The Rainbow Project, a charitable organisation involved in supporting children from multi-national English speaking backgrounds who experience Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
ESF Cross Country
On Saturday 16th January 67 Beacon Hill students braved the wet weather and took part in the ESF Cross Country Challenge. Well done to all the students who participated and thanks to all the parents who came along to support their children. Whilst the competition was about fun there were students who finished in the top three in their races. Ryan (3H), Hannah (4M) and Daniel (6F) all finished third in their year group races and Mia (4M) was second in the Year 4 girls race.
For photos, please click HERE. If any parents have pictures from the day can you please email me a copy at timothy.teahan@bhs.edu.hk
Kowloon Learning Campus Update
We have had a very encouraging start to our work “breaking down barriers” between the three ESF schools in Kowloon and developing a new way of working across the KLC. In 2016, we will continue to work on our 7 goals: Developing curriculum continuity, increasing teacher collaboration, improving access and opportunities for inclusion, coordinating student support, increasing use of specialist facilities, developing learning technology solutions, and encouraging lifelong learning.Parents’ opinions are vital to us. We will be holding a parents consultation on Tuesday 22nd March 2016, starting at 9am in Beacon Hill School. All parents are welcome to attend and hear a brief report on progress before having the chance to ask questions.
We look forward to seeing you.
Ed Wickins
Executive Principal, Kowloon Learning Campus
Health
REMINDER
Immunization (Part Two)
- For Primary One Students: DTaP-IPV.
- For Primary Six Students: dTap-IPV.
Please refer to BHS Newsletter #16 (dated 8 January 2016).
If you would like your child to join the Immunization Campaign, please could you return either the completed consent form together with all your child’s Immunization Records as requested by the Department of Health who will check the Records and provide the vaccine to your child, if necessary, or the refusal form a.s.a.p. (if you have not yet done so).
The Drug Administration Policy
This can be found at www.beaconhill.edu.hk
Please go to: About Us > Other Information > Drug Administration Policy.
Herpangia and Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD)
Just to keep you informed that we have “two” students (at present) with Herpangina.
Both Herpangina and HFMD are caused by a virus from the same family, Coxsackie A virus. The virus is common in the summer and fall. With Herpangina, the child may feel generally unwell, lacking energy, headache, fever and sore throat. With HFMD, the child may experience all the above (as Herpangina) and in addition, spots on the hands and feet (that is, skin rash with vesicles).
The prevention is by means of maintaining good personal hygiene and good environmental hygiene.
Please consult the doctor about pain relief medication for the (very) painful mouth ulcers.
It is important to keep the child as comfortable as possible and hydrated. Due to the (very) painful mouth sores, the child may not want to eat and to drink oral fluids. Parental support or guardian support is part of the treatment.
Please re-visit the doctor, if the pain relief medication is ineffective and the mouth ulcers remain for more than ten days.
“Always Keep Hands Clean”.
Thank you.
Ms Chen
