Newsletter #27
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
Other News
Dear Parents,
Welcome back after the Easter holiday. I hope you were able to have a relaxing and enjoyable break with your family. It has been great to see the children return full of energy and curiosity and I have seen wonderful learning and teaching occurring throughout the week. This term promises to be yet another busy one with many activities and events happening – be sure to keep up-to-date by checking the weekly Newsletter and Year Group Updates.
As we have witnessed, we can expect wet conditions throughout the coming months. Please take a moment to remind yourselves of the ‘Bad Weather Procedures’ which are on our website – https://www.beaconhill.edu.hk/bad-weather-procedures/ In the event of any school closures we will make announcements on our website and also via our mobile app – make sure you have your notifications set correctly. You can download our app here – https://www.beaconhill.edu.hk/mobile-app/
Here are the upcoming events:
IMPORTANT DATES
| APRIL | |
| W/B 18th | InCAS Assessments – Y6 |
| 18th | 2F Trip to Kowloon Tong |
| 19th | Y6 Pizza Lunch |
| 22nd | 2M Class Assembly. 9am, Hall |
| 23rd | Tournament of the Mind Competition, KJS |
| 25th | Island School Information Evening, BHS Hall, 6.30pm |
| 29th | 5Y Class Assembly. 9am, Hall |
| MAY | |
| 2nd | Public Holiday – School Closed |
| 3rd | BHS CPD Day – School Closed |
| 4th-6th | Book Week |
| 4th | Battle of the Books Semi-Final, BHS Hall |
| 4th | Year 2 and 3 Theatre trips |
| 4th | Year 4 trip to the Philharmonic Orchestra |
Please note that you can view our calendar on the school website.
Introducing the BHS House System
We will be introducing a ‘House’ system from August, with the intention of encouraging a sense of belonging and a collective spirit, providing opportunities for positive competitive spirit; strengthening pastoral care – especially vertically (Y1-6); providing further opportunities for students to develop social and leadership skills and developing school pride, involvement & participation. We have already started the planning for this and are calling on the help of staff and the community to help make it successful. One exciting dimension of our plans is that the ‘points’ the children earn will be converted into a monetary value throughout the year and will ultimately be donated to a local charity. To allow this to happen we are looking for corporate sponsors who would be willing to commit to donations that would total $40,000 over an academic year. This may be from one or several donors. I am reaching out to you, our BHS community and will also be contacting a range of companies and businesses in the next two weeks to find willing donors. There would be opportunities for corporate advertising, publicity in school, across the ESF and with the local charitable organisation and the opportunity to develop links with the students and BHS. If you think you might like to donate, or know someone who would, please give me a call or email me and I can provide more details. james.harrison@bhs.edu.hk Tel: 23365221
Raffle Tickets
Thank you for your incredible support for our International Food Fair last term. The PTA still has a significant number of unreturned raffle tickets. All have to be accounted for so if you have any at home please return them, or the money equivalent. The PTA will be contacting those concerned.
Year 5 Market Day
Yesterday saw the culmination of our Year 5 Big Business unit with a very successful Market Day. All of the BHS students and staff had the opportunity to purchase items and we were able to host 150 students from Kowloon Junior School, who will be having a similar event in a couple of weeks time. For photos, please click HERE. Well done to our students for the successful ventures. All profits are going to be donated to help support a kindergarten in Sudan.
Student Achievement Beyond School
During the holidays, many of our students have been busy with sporting activities. I am always pleased to hear about what our children do beyond the school. One such example is Jotaro Kobayashi in Year 5 who participated in three football competitions as follows:
- In the U12 Captain Tsubasa first training workshop Easter Cup : Champion (Rising FC)/ 6 teams
- U12 Captain Tsubasa first training workshop Easter Cup : Best Goalkeeper (individual)
- U11 Guangzhou Chin Ho Cup : Champion (Rising FC)/ 8 teams
- U12 Nike 5 : Champion (Kitchee B)/ 48 teams.
- U12 Nike 5 : MVP (individual)/ 480 players
Very well done to Jotaro.
Class Assembly
This morning 1F shared their Class Assembly with parents and the school. They did a great job telling us about plants, how they grow and are turned into food for us to eat and how they provde materials for other things we need. The children wrote the script themselves and had great fun practising. They showed immense confidence in their first BHS Class Assembly. Thank you to Ms Farago, Ms Matthews, Ms Cheung, Ms Kannis, Miss M, Mr Bernie and to all the parents who came to watch.
Secondary Schools Curriculum Changes
Many of you may already be aware of proposed changes in ESF secondary schools middle years curricula. Secondary schools are communicating these changes with their communities. For your information I am attaching letters from Island School and West Island School.
WIS MYP.pdf
IS MYP.pdf
Island School will be coming to BHS to share information about this and other important aspects of their development over the next several years on the evening of 25th April. Please click on this link if you wish to attend – http://goo.gl/forms/IyYRgxBk1P . As many of our students currently transfer to Island School I would encourage you to attend.
ESF Stakeholder Survey
Thank you to those in our BHS Community who took time to complete the ESF Stakeholder Survey. We are just getting the results back and I will share them with you in the coming weeks.
Parent Information Evenings
Another very short survey we would like parents to complete is here: http://goo.gl/forms/dAKnRjBEH3
This will take just a couple of minutes and is designed to help us plan parent information sessions for the coming school year that more closely suit your needs. I appreciate your time with this.
BHS Community Choir
This brand new choir started in January. If you would like to join, please just come along. New recruits are welcome any time – you don’t need to have any musical background, just enthusiasm. Please click HERE for music.
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JAMES HARRISON
PRINCIPAL
News from the English Team
It is the start of a busy term for the children in the library, as usual there will be lots happening throughout the day with classes borrowing and lunchtime activities. “Tinkering Tuesday” continues to be very popular and it is great to see the children collaborating and getting creative.
With even more parents signed up for borrowing we are expecting to see lots more loans from our family collection. Family borrowing times are as follows:
| Before school | After school | |
| Monday | 2.45-3.30pm | |
| Tuesday | 8.15- 9.00am | |
| Wednesday | 2.45-3.30pm | |
| Friday | 8.30-9.15am |
Help needed
We are also looking forward to our annual Book Week at the beginning of May. This year we are looking for parent volunteers to take part in storytelling sessions at lunchtimes in the library. We would love for you to come into school on the 4th, 5th or 6th May to share a story with a small group of children. You can choose the story, the language it will be told in, the age and number of children you want to read with. If you interested please contact Ms Jeves at jevese@beaconhill.edu.hk It would be great to have many parents involved and sharing their love of reading during Book Week.
Author visit
Before the holiday Year 4 had the fabulous opportunity to meet with the famous children’s author and illustrator Graeme Base. Graeme Base, who lives in Australia, has written many books which are hugely popular across the world and definitely in our library! They are beautifully illustrated and often feature exciting puzzles and codes to solve. The Year 4 children enjoyed listening to how he gets inspiration for his books.
Island School Redevelopment and Curriculum Roadshow
Representatives from Island School will be at BHS on Monday 25th April at 6.30pm to share information about the Island School redevelopment and their curriculum. All interested BHS parents are invited to attend.
Please add your name to the following document if you will attend the session: http://goo.gl/forms/UrbxkOL9KN
International Food Fair (“IFF”) on Friday, March 18, 2016
Grand Raffle Lucky Draw winning ticket numbers have been posted in the SCMP and Apple Daily and on the BHS website https://www.beaconhill.edu.hk/1516-pta-raffle-results/. Congratulations to all lucky winners!
A heartfelt thank you to all Parent Volunteers, Monetary & Food Donors & Food Coordinators, Staff, Teachers, EAs, Caretakers, Student Talent performers, Year 5 Students for their creative Hall Games & the Community Choir for a wonderful & successful 2016 International Food Fair!
Parent & Teacher manned Stall funds raised during the IFF event day are listed below and they total a whopping $80,337.00 (approx. 16,000 coupons) ! Thank you to Volunteers that helped set-up & clean-up on the day and count IFF coupons after the event.
Dessert Stall $4,564.00
Western Stall $1,645.00
Chinese Stall $7,910.00
Indian Stall $3,045.00
Indonesian Stall $4,215.00
Korean Stall $5,570.00
Japanese Stall $2,290.00
Bakery Stall $1,710.00
Egg Waffle $820.00
Ice Cream $3,010.00
Candy Stall $7,160.00
Hot Dog Stall $4,285.00
Popcorn Stall $3,328.00
Bouncy Castle $6,485.00
Chips & Drinks $8,045.00
Hall Games $16,255.00
The Grand Raffle Lucky Draw Ticket sales proceeds and winning lower school & upper school classes will be announced later as we are in the midst of recovering unaccounted UNSOLD tickets issued to each student. The BHS PTA must undergo an accounting Audit specifically related to the 2016 BHS IFF Day, corresponding Grand Raffle Lucky Draw and all the 15,000 tickets printed according to the HK Lottery License No.#4516 issued by the Home Affairs Office of the Hong Kong SAR Government. We must account for every ticket issued, else it may jeopardize future HK Lottery Licenses for the purposes of our annual IFF Grand Raffle Lucky Draw. All Grand Raffle Ticket sale proceeds from each IFF are donated directly to Beacon Hill School.
Reminders:
- Deli Fresh lunch order for May 2016 has lapsed today, Friday April 15, 2016. Please ensure your order and payment is received and confirmed by Deli Fresh directly.
- Tuesday 10 May 2016 Year 4 Pizza Day
- Tuesday 17 May 2016 Year 1 Bake Sale
- Tuesday 24 May 2016 Quiz Day
- Tuesday 7 June 2016 Year 2 Pizza Day
- Tuesday 14 June 2016 Year 3 Bake Sale
Again thank you for supporting the BHS PTA in our efforts to support BHS & ultimately our children currently thriving at BHS. We certainly have fantastic community spirit!
Rowena Chow
Chair, BHS PTA
Disclaimer: Beacon Hill School and the English School Foundation do not recommend or endorse any external events in this newsletter. There is no contractual arrangement between BHS/ESF and the event organisers.
