Newsletter #12
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
Sports
PTA News
Other News
Dear Parents, Family and Friends,
This week our Year 6s and Year 3s have been away on school camp – Year 6 to Outward Bound in Sai Kung and Year 3 to Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre. Although the weather became cooler during the week, this did not prevent the children having a great time. Thank you to all of the teachers and educational assistants who gave up their time to enable these camps to happen. Next week our Year 4s head off to Cheung Chau and the week after that, Year 5 go to Lei Yue Mun.
On Wednesday our English Team (Ms Jeves. Mrs Fennelly and Ms Younie) led two workshops – one for Helpers and one for parents. The focus was on reading comprehension. I hope those who attended found them helpful.
Arts in the Park
We have our Chamber Choir performing at the Arts in the Park event which is in Victoria Park, Hong Kong Island tomorrow. It is a great family event with many different performances, so if you have time I would recommend a visit – I will be there on Saturday afternoon! There are two links to the schedule: HERE and HERE.
Well done to all the students for their eagerness to win House Points last week. Once again it was a very close result:
As the Year 6s were out on Camp on Monday, Augusto Wong from Year 5 collected the trophy in their behalf. Well done to all of the students for their effort and enthusiasm.
‘Get Hong Kong Reading’ Campaign
One of our parents, Mr Webster, has asked if I could share with our community a project designed to promote the love of reading. Here is some information about it.
A Little Background
A group of 8 colleagues got together and decided we wanted to promote something which was, Local, Life Long, Love of HK, and including Learning, our 4L’s. We decided to support Bring Me A Book Hong Kong through a facebook campaign and launched last week.
For Get HK Reading facebook page, click HERE.
Hong Kong children score lowest among 43 first world countries in confidence, interest and motivation to read.
Let’s change this!
The campaign is simple
- Take the 10 Minute Reading Challenge
- This is simply reading to your child or children, take a picture or video and post it on the Facebook page and then share with your friends
- The facebook link is HERE.
- Make a Promise
- This is simply selecting options to make a promise, click HERE.
- With the good start from the 10 Minutes Reading Challenge, why not join us to make a step forward?
- Let’s make a promise to yourself about reading, do it and make the change together.
- These are:
- Read books at least three times a week myself.
- Share a photo of a book that you/ we have read to this page and share it to my friends.
- Read books with my kid/ kids at least three times a week
- Donate a book to Bring Me A Book Hong Kong (BMABHK)
- Be a volunteer to Bring Me A Book Hong Kong (MBABHK)
- Make a donation to Bring Me a Book
- We have sent up a JustGiving Page to support Bring Me a Book which advocating literacy in Hong Kong, if you wish to make a small donation please click HERE.
We are always promoting reading and the love of reading and hope that this project is something simple that you could join. Thanks to Mr Webster for telling us about it.
International Food Fair – We Need Your Support
Our fabulous PTA is currently asking for prize donations for our International Food Fair Prize Draw. If you or any of your contacts are able to provide a prize, please contact Janley, our PTA Coordinator – pta@bhs.edu.hk Thank you in advance!
Dropping Off Children in the Morning
If your child is brought to school by private car please make sure you drop them off quickly and then move on. We sometimes have drivers who drop off and wait, or even get out of the car and go into school. This blocks the front of school for our school buses who need to off-load many children. This week some of the buses have not been able to stop outside the school which means the children, including Year 1s are having to walk on the pavement by the busy road unaccompanied. Also, please do not stop in the entrance to the school car park as this can cause the road to be blocked in both directions. We want to make the busy morning time as safe as possible for everyone. Thanks for your support.
Important Dates
BHS SLT Awards
Here are the recipients of last week’s SLT award:
| Jasmine Tin – 2K | For being a kind and caring friend to her classmates. |
Box of Hope
Thank you so much for your generosity for the Box of Hope appeal. All of the boxes were collected yesterday and will be delivered to children across Asia before Christmas.
Best wishes,
_
James Harrison
Principal
Introduction to the PYP on Tuesday 29th November
As I am sure you are aware Education is constantly developing and schools are a very different place to when you went to school. With this in mind the Introduction to the PYP Workshop is designed to give you everything you need to know about the PYP. It is ideal for new parents to our school and parents who have not attended a similar workshop. I will make it as interactive as possible and you will leave with a good foundation of our approach to learning at Beacon Hill School. We will run this workshop on Tuesday 29th November at 6:30 to 7:30 pm on. Please note the 9:00 am workshop has been cancelled due to a timetable clash. Click here to register.
Andy Thompson
Vice Principal
Year One Play Workshop
Thank you to all the Year One parents who came to take part in the Year One Play Workshop in the last two weeks. We were so pleased to see so many parents, along with their children, engaged in great examples of different types of play. We hope that you learned more about the role of adults in child’s play and most importantly had a fun time together with your child. Thank you also to all the parents who have managed to send in their pledges. It is great to hear that many children will be now taking part in more play dates and given more opportunities outside of school to learn the skills necessary for cooperative play. It is also great to hear that more parents would like to get involved in their child’s play. Please enjoy the photos HERE.
The powerpoint slides can be found HERE.
Year One Team
Camps for Years 4 and 5
In the next few weeks our Year 4 and Year 5 children will be going on their camps. The camps are an exciting way of experiencing new areas of Hong Kong for many of our children and broadening their experiences. Parents are encouraged to keep up-to-date with what is going on on each camp by clicking on the links on the front page of our website or through our mobile app by clicking on the ‘Camp Live’ icon on the bottom of the screen. We will be posting photographs of the children throughout each camp.
Chad Pheasant
Vice Principal
ESF Christmas Card
Parent Workshops 2016-17
Term 1
| Date | Workshop |
| 29 November | Introduction to PYP (Year 1 parents and new parents) |
Netball
On Saturday 5th November, the BHS Rockets played IFS Dragons. It was a hot day and everyone played so well, particularly the girls who had to play all four quarters. The whole match was very close and we sadly lost 4-5, however in the second half our defence was superb and did not allow the other team to score another goal. Our weekly friendly matches at KJS must be paying off as we are getting better week by week. Well done to everyone who played and thank you very much to everyone who came along to support!
Calling all gymnasts!
If you are a gymnast and know that you will be competing in next year’s HKSSF competition can you pleas email me as soon as possible so that the school can enter a team in next year’s competition. In previous years we have had individual competitors and this year we would like to also enter the teams competition. I would also need a volunteer parent to be the liaison between the school and the organisers.
Thanks,
Mr Teahan
Year 6 Bake Sale
Thank you to our Y6 students & families that donated delicious home-made goodies for the Y6 Bake Sale! Also a big thank you to the Y6 Parents that volunteered with sales. Y6 helped raise HKD$3235.50 for the PTA!
PTA Fees
Further gratitude to our BHS Community for helping to fund the BHS PTA with fully paid PTA Fees for this 2016/17 school year. As you witness from our 2016 Audit Report presented during the recent AGM, the BHS PTA help to sponsor many BHS programs and events throughout the school year, over and above the PTA Fees that are collected. If it wasn’t for our wonderful BHS Community, many sponsorships that enhance our children’s experience at BHS would not be possible.
ESF Parent Representative
You should have received the ballot papers for voting parent representatives to the ESF Board. Our own BHS School Council Parent Representative, Shareen Hellen, is a candidate. She has been very involved with the BHS PTA over the years and would be very grateful for support from the BHS community. Place the ballot paper into the envelope provided (one envelope for one ballot paper) and return to ESF Centre by post or by hand by 12 noon on Friday, 18 November 2016. Do NOT return the ballot paper to BHS.
International Food Fair
We have thus far received half the amount of the Grand Raffle Prize donations towards our International Food Fair (“IFF”) Lucky Draw which will take place Friday March 24 2017 from our BHS Community support. In the past we’ve received over HKD$60,000 worth of prizes or donations, offering wonderful anticipation and sales for our IFF Grand Raffle Tickets which is governed by the HK Home Affairs Office under an approved HK Lottery License. Our BHS Community has benefited directly from these proceeds with a new playground, ICT equipment, new library, new ICT room and new playground equipment, overall improved environment for teaching and learning. All IFF Grand Raffle Ticket Sales proceeds are donated directly to BHS and this coming 2017 IFF Grand Raffle Ticket Sales proceeds will be pledged towards school grounds anniversary enhancement in conjunction with our Beacon Hill School 50th Anniversary! Appreciate your donations and support to BHS PTA and BHS and our thriving children.
Reminders:
1. Tuesday 2 December 2016 Xmas Disco ticket order forms (for Students Only) have been sent home with Y1-5.
2. Thursday 8 December 2016 Xmas Carol Concert ticket order forms (for non-performers, family & guests) have been sent home with Y1-5. Those whom will perform will receive notice from class teachers, junior choir or chamber choir.
3. Xmas Carol Concert Hamper Prize donation forms have been sent home.
Enjoy your happy camper reunions!
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.
