Newsletter #10
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
Other News
Dear Parents, Family and Friends,
We have been following a process to elect Year 6 House Captains for our new ‘Houses’ recently. This week was the culmination of this with many of our Year 6 students giving speeches to the Year 5 and 6 students in their houses outlining why they believed they would be the most suitable person to be the House Captain. I was present in one of the groups and was incredibly impressed by the quality of the presentations, both in terms of content and presentation style. I think they would all do well if they were running for US President! At the end of the presentations, the candidates had to answer questions and then the voting took place. We will be announcing the elected captains (two per house) in Monday’s assembly. I wanted to acknowledge the final candidates who did such a marvellous job this week:
Praise, Kirsty, Razeen, Ginny, Maisy, Kwan Yin, Ethan Yuen, Chloe, Ju Young, Stacey, Ria, Janice, Ronny, Avina, Tammy, Michelle, Jotaro, Hogan, Katie, Marcus Ho, Darryl, Alyssa, Jasmin, Justin, Hugo, Keisha, Anupransh
It was good to see many of you at school last night for our Maths Workshop evening. I am sure you found the event informative and enjoyable. Thanks to the teachers who led the session – Mrs. Dale, Mrs. McKinnon, Ms Davis, Ms Chung and Mr Thompson.
This morning, 5P shared their class assembly which was devoted to the festival of Diwali. It was a colourful and exciting performance which was entertaining and educational. This was enhanced with the rest of the school wearing colourful clothes in recognition and celebration of Diwali. Thank you to all of the teachers and other adults who have helped and supported Mrs Pickering. I wish all our families who celebrate this festival a Happy Diwali.
Important Dates
BHS SLT Awards
Due to the school photos there was no Golden Book Assembly this week.
Box of Hope
This year we will again be supporting the ‘Box of Hope’ appeal. We ask for children to bring in a wrapped shoe box full of exciting gifts which will be delivered to children in need in other regions of Asia. Please refer to this website for specific details – www.boxofhope.org. Your child will have brought home an A5 sticker that can be put on the donated box before bringing it to school.
All boxes need to be brought to school by Thursday 10th November, when they will be collected by a courier.
Action
During the recent half-term holiday, members of the ESF Staff from many different schools and the ESF Centre, spent a day doing two ‘Beach Clean-ups’, at Clearwater Bay Beach and Sheung Sze Wan Beach. Our very own Mrs. Lamb and Mrs Faragó represented BHS! Well done and thanks to them both and the rest of the ESF Community for leading by example.
BHS Community Choir
Our community choir had its second get together this week. If you are interested, please sign up and come along. New and existing members are very welcome. Please click on this link to register: https://goo.gl/forms/fERvdJNghaaC1YYa2
Request for Help
Mrs Sandra Webster, Principal at Bradbury School, would like to conduct some research for her studies. Please see the attached information and if you are interested please email me and I will pass on your name. To find out more about what is involved please see the attached document.
explanatory-statement-project number added.pdf
Best wishes,
_
James Harrison
Principal
News from the English Team
How can I help my child with reading at home?
On the 9th November the English team will be running two workshops, one for helpers and one for parents, to help explain how we teach the children to use different comprehension strategies.
At Beacon Hill we try to teach the skills needed to understand what we read explicitly to the children so that they know why they are used and get frequent chance to practise them. This makes them more effective and confident readers.
If you or your helper want to know more about how to help your child use the comprehension strategies of inference, vocabulary development and making connections come along to the workshop.
Please put the date in your diary and a Google form will be sent out very soon for you to sign up.
Wednesday 9th November 2pm: workshop for helpers only. 6.30pm: workshop for parents.
Last year’s successful workshop on reading.
Author visit
On Wednesday we had a special visitor in school, Jacqueline Harvey is a best selling children’s author from Australia who has created the characters Alice Miranda and Clementine Rose. She began the day by entertaining the children in Year 4 and 5 by sharing some stories from her childhood and explaining what motivated her to write. Jacqueline then worked with the Year 4 classes on aspects of writing, focussing on the idea of showing what is happening not telling. She finished her busy day by talking to Year 2 and 3 about her characters and some of their adventures.
It was a great opportunity for the children to learn about the life of an author and the book writing process. Many of the children took an order form for discounted books which should be returned to the library, more copies are available for those who are interested.
Art competition
A huge well done to the children that participated in our Roald Dahl art competition, winners will be announced and prizes given next week. The artwork will be outside the library alongside a display about the festival of Diwali which will be celebrated this weekend.
Diwali, a time for new starts and sweet thoughts.
Family borrowing
Please remember that if you have applied for a family library card this will be kept in school, so there is no need to wait for it to be sent home before you begin borrowing from any of the books in the library. We have recently added some fantastic new titles to our parent collection.
Here are our family borrowing times. You can find the registration form on the school website: https://www.beaconhill.edu.hk/letterspage/
| Before school | After school | |
| Monday | 8.30-9.00am | 2.45-3.00pm |
| Tuesday | 8.30-9.00am | |
| Wednesday | 8.30-9.00am | 2.45-3.00pm |
| Thursday | 8.30-9.00am | |
| Friday | 8.30-9.00am |
As always if you have any questions and queries about English at school or the library contact me Emily Jeves at jevese2@beaconhill.edu.hk.
Thank you,
Emily Jeves
Teacher Librarian
Parent Workshops 2016-17
Term 1
| Date | Workshop |
| 8, 10, 22 November – Day Appointments
24, 30 November – Evening Appointments |
Mandarin Parent Teacher Consultations |
| 9 November | English Reading Workshop for Helpers |
| 9 November | English Reading Workshop for Parents |
| 29 November | Introduction to PYP (Year 1 parents and new parents) |
Netball
On Saturday 22nd October, the Beacon Hill Rockets had their first Junior Netball League match against the Hong King Cricket Club Eagles. It was our first match of the season and the beginnings of the children getting used to playing together as a team. They played brilliantly demonstrating good use of skills which we have started to use in training and really worked well to play as a team. Well done to our defenders who put up a good fight, but unfortunately we lost 10- 5. Our shooters did really well too! Thank you to all of the parents for coming along to support and we look forward to our next match on Saturday 29th October.
Miss Younie & Miss Andrews
Johns Hopkins Centre for Talented Youth
Dear Parents,
On 18th October, an information evening was help by representatives of the Johns Hopkins Centre for Talented Youth. JHCTY share how they conduct the oldest and most extensive university-based Talent Search, by offering an above-grade level testing to the 2nd to 8th graders (year 3 – 9 students) worldwide. For academically advanced students who qualify, CTY offers challenging summer and online programs.
We are pleased to inform you that we are able to offer the test at BHS. Please see attached for more information. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at susan.chung@bhs.edu.hk
Susan Chung
Vice Principal
161114 Testing Instructions - BHS.pdfDisclaimer: 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.
