Newsletter #20
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
PTA News
ESF News
Other News
Dear Parents,
This week has seen the culmination of our activities celebrating Chinese New Year. Last night we had over 150 children performing and the premier performance of our BHS Community Choir at our Chinese New Year Performance. Thank you to all the parents and special guests who were able to attend. Particular thanks to Mr Jonathan Straker who currently works in ESF Centre. Some of you may remember when Jonathan worked at Beacon Hill in his role as Vice Principal. Last night was special for us and hopefully for Jonathan too as it was the last ever BHS Chinese new year show he will attend as a member of ESF because after over 30 years of service to ESF, Jonathan will be leaving at Easter. He will be going to the UK to be with the rest of his growing family.
Today, our Chamber Choir and Fan Dancers represented BHS when they joined the Chinese New Year celebrations at the Kowloon Learning Campus. Click HERE for photos. Thanks to Scott Gibson and Kannis Tsui for their work in enabling this to happen. The whole school took part in wide-ranging arts and craft activities this morning, looking wonderful in their special clothes. Click HERE for photos. Then they all enjoyed the Chinese New Year performance with the finale being an exciting Lion Dance. Thank you to the PTA for sponsoring this. Click HERE for photos.
A huge amount of time and effort goes into planning all the events that take place leading up to this special time of year. The majority of the work is led and carried out by our wonderful Mandarin Department, spearheaded by Lynn Xu and supported wonderfully by Pu Xu, Xiao Bing Yu, Gina Wang, Wanning Gong and Catherine Lie.
IMPORTANT DATES
| FEBRUARY | |
| 15th | School opens, 8.45am |
| 15th | Paul Melsom working with Year 6 |
| 18th (Thurs) | 1G Class Assembly |
| 18th | DBIS Beach Rugby Tournament |
| 19th | Sports Day |
| 22nd | Kely Support Group presentation to Year 6 |
| 23rd | Year 5 Pizza Lunch |
| 23rd | Kids on the Block performing to Year 6 |
| 23rd | Learning Technology Workshop for Parents, 6pm (Hall) |
| 24th | Year 3 Trip to Crossroads |
| 25th | Year 1 and Year 6 Immunisations |
| 25th | Gecko Maths Competition at Island School |
| 26th | 1H Class Assembly, 9am |
| 26th | RCHK Mixed Basketball Tournament |
| 26th | 3rd UoI Reports go live on the Gateway |
| MARCH | |
| 4th | Student Led Conferences (No formal classes on this day)
Further details will be sent after the Chinese New Year Holidays |
Please note that you can view our calendar on the school website.
ESF Stakeholder Survey
Stakeholders will soon be invited by email to participate in the biennial ESF Stakeholder Survey, which will be open from 14th to 24th March 2016. Through this survey we aim to find out about the impressions that parents, staff and students have formed about the education we provide. The feedback from the survey will help us build on our strengths and inform our future planning.
A parent invite will be emailed to the primary contact parent in your family on 14th March. [If you have a child at another ESF school you will receive a separate invite by email to participate in that school’s survey].
Students in Years 5 and 6 will also receive an email inviting them to participate in the survey – WE WILL PROVIDE TIME IN SCHOOL FOR THEM TO COMPLETE THIS.
We would be very grateful if you would spare the time to complete the survey. It’s shorter than in the past and takes about 15-20 minutes to complete (though may take a little longer if you wish to add comments in the optional comment boxes).
Student Reports
The English and Maths mid-year reports and Units of Inquiry 1 and 2 have been available for viewing by parents since the start of the Christmas holiday. Since that time, out of the 540 students we have, just 256 students’ reports have been accessed by parents. We know that parents as partners is a vital element in ensuring your child progresses as well as they can and part of this is being aware of where they are in their learning and what the next steps are. If you haven’t yet taken a look at your child’s reports, they are accessible via The Gateway at any time. You can access The Gateway via our school website.
BHS Community Choir
Some of you may have seen the BHS Community Choir’s first performance last night. If this has inspired you and you would like to join, please just come along. New recruits are welcome any time. Rehearsals are on Thursday evenings from 7pm in the school hall. Our next performance will be at the International Food Fair.
Great Kindness Challenge Week
We recently focused on acts of kindness during a special week and the children all participated in different ways. Hopefully they were able to bring some of these actions in to their lives beyond school. This is something we wish to be ongoing at Beacon Hill School so let’s keep this in our minds every day.
Learning Technology Parent Workshop
Continuing with our parent information evenings, our next one will focus on Learning Technology and how it is used at Beacon Hill School.
There is more information later in the Newsletter and a link to sign up if you would like to attend. The date of the workshop is 23rd February, at 6pm.
I would like to wish you all a very happy, prosperous and peaceful New Year.
James Harrison
Principal 
MAD Club
Evening Talk
Surviving and Thriving in School – 20 Guidelines for Developing Happy Resilient Children!
Date: Thursday 18 February 2016
Australia’s most high profile child and adolescent psychologist discusses the latest research on how to manage school, with 20 pieces of key advice for parents that will assist in building resilient and happy teenagers who can flourish while studying at school. The discussion covers sleep, managing technology, diet, exercise, memory and managing exams and failure. The advice is based on 30 years of research and experience counselling students in Australia and New Zealand.
Tickets are available at ..
Direct weblink:
Chinese: http://www.hkticketing.com/rd.asp?id=9096&title=SurvivingandThrivinginSchool
English: http://www.hkticketing.com/eng/rd.asp?id=9096&title=SurvivingandThrivinginSchool
Belinda McLaughlin
Head of Special Educational Needs
Our Friday, March 18, 2016 International Food Fair (“IFF”) Grand Raffle Draw HK Lottery License has been approved by the HK Govt Home Affairs Office! This year proceeds from Raffle ticket sales will be pledged towards BHS Playground Improvement. Besides Grand Raffle Draw fabulous prizes, the highest number of tickets sold by lower & upper school classes will enjoy a BHS PTA sponsored class outing!
Two Grand Raffle Ticket booklets will be distributed to each BHS student for sales to family & friends in a labelled plastic bag. Please assist your children to ensure that all SOLD & UNSOLD tickets and monies are accounted upon return to BHS PTA office per labelled information as BHS PTA must comply to strict HK Lottery License guidelines and audit. All SOLD ticket stubs including Monies & UNSOLD tickets should be returned to the BHS PTA office by March 5, 2016.
Enjoy your Chinese New Year with your children & family!
Rowena Chow
Chair, BHS PTA
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 Wednesday 16th 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 will give more details after the Chinese New year break.
We look forward to seeing you.
Ed Wickins
Executive Principal, Kowloon Learning Campus
Updating your child’s medical record on Gateway
You should have received an email this week about some changes that have happened to the medical form on Gateway. The changes, which became effective on 4 February, ensure that we have relevant and up-to-date information about your child’s medical history. The information will be kept confidential and used by schools to ensure your child’s medical needs are managed well while at school.
Due to these changes, we would ask that you review your child’s medical record on Gateway by 14 February to verify that the information is correct and up-to-date. Please follow the steps below:
- Log in to Gateway from 4 February: https://tg.esf.edu.hk/
- Go to Admin > Change Request, and open the Medical Information Formof your child;
- If you need to update or correct the information, please make changes on the form directly;
- Upon completion of the process, click “Submit” whether or not you have made any changes, and we will know that the information has been verified or updated.
Please complete the verification process by 14 February. If you have questions, please contact our school office.
Chad Pheasant
Vice Principal
Learning Technology Parent Workshop – Tuesday 24th February 6:30 pm
Beacon Hill School is a leader in the use of innovative technology for learning. This workshop gives an opportunity for parents to learn more about Learning Technology within the school and to have some ‘hands-on’ time with many of the tools we use.
The workshop will focus on the following areas:
- What is Learning Technology at Beacon Hill School?
- Progression of skills from Year 1 – Year 6 and beyond into Secondary School.
- Technology use across the curriculum.
- What do we use?
- When do we use it?
- Why is it used?
- Computational thinking, coding and making.
- Student accounts and access outside of school.
- iPad apps for learning
- Google Apps and Web based tools
There will be opportunities to try out many of the tools your children use and to answer any questions you may have. Please click on the link to sign up: http://goo.gl/forms/3Xea4QlzRr
Chad Pheasant
Vice Principal
