Newsletter #29
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
Dear Parents,
BHS is closed next Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd May, for a Public Holiday and school Professional Development Day. It was good to see so many of you on Monday evening attending the presentation by Chris Binge, Principal of Island School and Gareth Stevens, Vice Principal. The information shared about the curriculum and the plans for the rebuilding of Island School and the decant to other sites was very reassuring. You can view the presentation here – http://bit.ly/24lNrzd I will be working with colleagues at Island School to ensure the changes have a positive impact on our BHS students. You can keep up-to-date with the latest at the following website: https://isredevelopment.wordpress.com/
Class Assembly
This morning 5Y shared their Class Assembly with parents and the school. We heard and saw all about their ‘Big Business’ unit, including their aspirations, the skills they developed as well as the challenges they faced during the process. Thanks to all their hard work and collaboration the three classes in Year 5 made over HK$12,000 profit which will be donated to the Immanuel Kindergarten in Sudan. Well done to all of 5Y. Thank you to Ms Younie, Ms Priya and Ms Kannis for guiding and supporting the children and of course to all the parents who came to watch.
IMPORTANT DATES
| MAY | |
| 2nd | Public Holiday – School Closed |
| 3rd | BHS CPD Day – School Closed |
| 4th-6th | BookFest |
| 4th | Battle of the Books Semi-Final, BHS Hall |
| 4th | Year 2 and 3 Theatre trips |
| 4th | Year 4 trip to the Philharmonic Orchestra |
| 10th | Year 4 Pizza Lunch |
| 10th, 11th, | Year 3 Trip to Mei Ho House |
| 11th | Year 2 Trip to DB |
| 13th | Year 1 Sharing for Parents, 9am |
| 16th | Bassistry Arts |
| 17th | Year 1 Bake Sale |
| 17th | Year 6 Exhibition for Parents, 6pm, Hall |
| 20th | 4M Class Assembly, 9am |
Please note that you can view our calendar on the school website.
Year 6 Action Week
Our Year 6 students have been working incredibly hard on their Exhibition. This week has been their ‘Action Week’ which has seen groups doing a range of activities including promoting the purchase by school of fair trade goods, washing cars to raise awareness of child labour, collecting tins and packets of food to donate to a local charity and highlighting the issue of cyber safety. Well done to all the students and teachers for their efforts – not long now until the final Exhibition itself.
BHS BookFest
On the 4th, 5th and 6th May we will be having our annual BookFest. There will be lots of activities happening on those days and the focus will be on poetry. On Friday 6th May we would like everyone to come dressed in a character from a book and children will get a chance to show off their costumes during our BookFest assembly on that day. We would particularly like children and families to have a go at making their own costume rather than using a ‘shop-bought’ one (such as a princess dress).
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
SEN Awareness Month
During April the Jockey Club Sarah Roe School PTA is selling wristbands to show support for inclusion. All funds raised will go towards supporting SEN within ESF. The wristbands are available from our school Reception – $20 each.
Achievement Beyond School
Alyssa Ho in 5Y is a member of a squash team – the Java Road Sports Centre and has been doing very well. They won the Samsung 59th Festival of Sport Inter-district Junior Squash Competition this year, which was held between 9th and 24th of April 2016. This tournament is an annual event represented by most elite junior squash players of 14 years of age and below. This is the 4th consecutive win for the Java Road Team and is the second year that Alyssa participated in the tournament as a U11 member of the team.
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JAMES HARRISON
PRINCIPAL
News from the English Team
Next week will be our BHS Book Fest. There are lots of ways your child can get involved in school and at home. Here is a reminder:
Dress up day
This will take place on the Friday. We ask all the children and staff to dress up as a favourite book character. The children are encouraged to be as creative as possible and rather than wearing a football kit, ready bought princess or superhero costume have a go at making something at home. A prize will be awarded to the most creative costume in each class, following a class vote.
There are three competitions that your child can enter, with prizes for the most creative and imaginative entries:
Photo competition
In this your child needs to take a photo of objects or an event which show the title of the book. This photo should be emailed to Ms Jeves, with the child’s name, class and the title of the book as the subject header. jevese2@beaconhill.edu.hk Closing date will be Friday 6th May, with the best entries being shown in assembly.
Poem in your pocket
In this competition the children are asked to use their poetic and artistic skills to create a mini book. This tiny book should contain either their own illustrated poem or a version of their favourite poem or rhyming story. We look forward to seeing the children’s creativity and the closing date is Monday 9th May.
Book advertisement
Your child can choose to get creative and advertise their favourite book on a poster or make a short video trailer for it. There are examples of book trailers online if your child needs some help with this. Finished entries should be handed or emailed to Ms Heywood. heywoodkj1@beaconhill.edu.hk.
International Food Fair Talent Show Results
Congratulations to all our participants in this year’s Food Fair Talent Show. The judges said that it was the most difficult show to judge and was the closest competition in the history of the event.
Our winner was Janice Wan (6H). The judges were really impressed with her rendition of Flashlight by Jesse J. Congratulations also to Katie Lim (4J) who finished second and to Audrea Lee, Chelsea Chung, Nicole Yuen, Candice Lu and Miyuki Tso (6F) on finishing in third place.
We would also like to say thank you to everyone who was in the audience as you all contributed to making the event such a fun event to run.
A special mention to Amanda Hokerberg who took part in the event at very short notice due to one of our contestants almost not making it due to feeling unwell.
Year Book Cover Competition
We are now running our Year Book Cover competition. Click on the link below to access the information sheet that was shown to all our students during Golden Book Assembly this week. All entries must be in by Wednesday, 4th May and are to be handed in to the desk in the main foyer. Good Luck!
Current UOI Overviews
Please click HERE to view the current unit of inquiry overviews for each year group.
Regards,
Rachael Dewhurst
Vice Principal
Year 6 Exhibition Group 6H02
We are the cyber safety group from 6H, 6H02. If you have forgotten what we have said in assembly on Friday 28 April, you can check our presentation for the rules, deadline and examples with more details.
This is the link to the presentation: https://goo.gl/EQUCR3
Best Regards,
Safety, 6H02
HKU Faculty of Education
HKU are offering a range of summer programs.
- Social Skills Game Education for kids in kindergarten;
- STEM / Visual Art 4-day Day Camp, with social games, mindfulness practice and heritage campus tour for P3-P6 students
- The summer programme for Creativity and Talent Development for Primary 1 to Secondary 6 students.
Please click HERE or the banners for more details of the three programs.
For enquiry, please email Virginia at caise@hku.hk.
Early bird discount is valid till 8 May 2016.
Application will be closed on 30 May 2016.
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.
