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
Sports
PTA News
Other News
Dear Parents, Family and Friends,
This morning 1W shared their learning through their class assembly. They told us all about the questions they had connected with their unit of inquiry about how the Earth changes. We learnt about day and night and the seasons. They shared a lovely story, called ‘How Maui Slowed the Sun’ and one of the children’s favourite parts was the dance. Well done to all of 1W and special thanks to Mrs Wu, Ms Donna, Mrs Mehek, Ms Kannis and Mr Gibson.
This evening is our International Food Fair, starting at 5pm. I look forward to seeing you later.
IMPORTANT DATES
Dropping off / collecting children
This is becoming a problem and causing potential safety issues as well as causing a nuisance for our local residents. The police contacted me earlier in the week to ask that I request parents / drivers to not park illegally and to not block the road, for example by stopping in the middle of the road whilst letting a child get out of the vehicle. The children are capable of walking a short distance and do not need to be dropped off right outside the school entrance. The police are very understanding but they have issued a small number of parking tickets this week. Thank you for your assistance and understanding.
Action
We completed our ‘7 Days of ABCs and 123s’ this week. On Monday everyone came dressed up as a book character or in a costume with a mathematical theme. In the morning we created human graphs on the playground! We also had another author visiting this week – David Schwartz from the US who was a big hit with the children.
As part of this event we are supporting the Heifer organisation and their ‘Read to Feed’ programme. You can find details about this, some resources and a sponsorship form to download later in in this newsletter. I hope that you can encourage your child to read more books and help foster a love of reading whilst helping those less fortunate than ourselves. This sponsored read will continue until after the Easter holiday.
Student Achievement Beyond School
Monique Wong (3A) competed in the 69th Hong Kong School Music Festival (Vocal Solo -Foreign Language -Primary School Age 7-8 section) and wanted to share the good news that she was awarded 2nd place. Congratulations Monique!
Natalee Evans (6H), Lauren Stanion (6D) and Katie Adams (6D) are members of the ‘Flying Kukris’ U12 girls team. Last Sunday they participated in the Hong Kong Football Club Youth rugby festival and I’m delighted to say they reached the plate finals. Natalee’s father tells me there was some fantastic teamwork throughout the day resulting in a thrilling plate final win over USRC Tigers 6-9 to the Kukris. Congratulations to them all.
BHS 50th Anniversary – ‘design a logo’ competition
We will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of BHS throughout the 2017-18 academic year. We have a planning committee who are already working on some special events to mark this milestone. One important feature is to use a special BHS 50th anniversary logo which will be used on publicity materials, communications and items linked to the anniversary. We are opening this up as a competition – anyone may enter; students, parents, ex-students, teachers, educational assistants, site staff; in fact anyone with a connection to BHS. The only criteria is that it is represents BHS 50th year. Entries may be submitted in any medium and either electronically or by hand. Please send entries to:
or post to Beacon Hill School, 23 Ede Road, Kowloon Tong
or hand in at Reception.
The closing date for entries is Monday 8th May.
Home Learning at BHS
We are reviewing our Home Learning policy (you are probably more familiar with the term ‘homework’) to ensure it aligns with our philosophy. We value parental input into our policy formulation so would appreciate just a few minutes of your time to complete this very short survey.
https://goo.gl/forms/ZrGQKRrsvGi3BjFm2
Heifer Read to Feed – Reading for Empathy, Reading against Poverty!
We are delighted to inform you that BHS is participating in the Heifer Read to Feed program, an educational fund-raising program that fosters a love of reading in students while empowering them to make a difference in rural China. We hope you can support your child to join this meaningful program. The sponsored programme will kick-off on Monday 13th March, the first day of our Book Week and run until Tuesday 18th April, the first day back at school after the Easter holiday.
Students taking part are encouraged to read while collecting sponsorship from parents, relatives and friends based on the number of books read or a single donation. Funds collected this school year will be used to assist impoverished families in Wadu Township of Baoshan City in Yunnan Province. The money will be used to help them become self-reliant by providing livestock and training with the ultimate goal of helping more families in the community from “Passing on the Gift” – that is recipients donate their animal offspring and pass on their new animal husbandry knowledge to other villagers.
We appreciate your encouragement and support of your child while he or she participates in Read to Feed, allowing them to enjoy reading and helping others for a better world. Thank you!
Please click below to download a sponsorship form
Read to feed Sponsorship Form.pdf
Please click below to download a Reading Record sheet
Read to Feed Record Sheet.pdf
A reminder that school closes for the Easter holiday at 12pm next Friday, 31st March and reopens on Tuesday 18th April.
Best wishes,
_
James Harrison
Principal
News from the English and Maths teams
Seven days of ABCs and 123s
Beacon Hill has been buzzing as children and staff celebrated our Seven Days of ABCs and 123s. There has been so much happening, with special activities at lunchtimes and in classes to explore the link between Maths and Literature. Children created some very large clothes for the Smartest Giant in Town and Top Trumps cards for Pokémon. In the library the children worked out how tall they were in books, made shape bookmarks and others tried their hand at some Roald Dahl linked Maths. It was wonderful to see the number of children who got involved in our whole school quiz and showed their knowledge of books.
Well done to all the children who participated in the pattern photo competition, Ms Jeves will post the photos on The Beacon soon and the winners will be announced in an assembly.
Huge thanks to all of you for supporting your children in creating their book characters costumes or Maths fancy dress. The whole school met on the playground to share their costumes and do some data handling. There were so many fantastic costumes and pictures will soon be on the website. For Maths we had groups of children dressed as numbers, rulers, calculators, shapes and lots more. Amongst those stepping from the pages of books we had groups of magical and science fiction characters, Star Wars was as popular as ever. There were also all sorts of animals, characters from books by Roald Dahl and David Walliams and a great effort from the teachers and EAs. Each class voted for the most creative costume and the children will find out the winners in assembly on Monday.
For many children, a highlight from our seven days was the author visits. On Monday, Beacon Hill was lucky to have Chris White a poet and illustrator from England to share his poetry. There was lots of laughing done by all. He worked with the Year 6s on illustrating some cartoon style animals that they then wrote a poem about.
Later in the week, the Year 1 and 2 children met Reena Bhojwani, a local author who has recently published her first picture book. She shared her book and talked about its theme of kindness. Some of the Year 3 children also had a go at doing some writing with Reena.
This week the whole school were visited by David Schwartz, an American author, who writes about Maths and Science. There were so many fantastic facts to be learned and the children did lots of wondering about big numbers. If they haven’t spoken to you about the 10,000 pieces of popcorn do ask!
It has been a very successful Seven days of ABCs and 123s, we would like to say thank you to all the support of children, staff and parents.
Student Continuation 2017-2018
Dear Parents,
We are now making plans for the 2017-2018 academic year. In order to help our future planning we would like to determine the existing number of current students who will continue at Beacon Hill School next year. This will help us organize the classes and plan for new intakes for next year. Your assistance is greatly appreciated and helpful.
We have sent home with a letter of Student Continuation 2017-2018 on Wednesday 15th March 2017 for Year 1 to Year 5 and the deadline will be on/before Wednesday 29th March 2017.
Many thanks!
Barbara Woo
School Office Manager/Admissions
Student Continuation Ltr 2017-2018_Y1 to Y5 only_1.pdf
Tag Rugby
Well done to the Beacon Hill tag rugby team who won the bowl competition at the ESF tag rugby tournament on Wednesday. The team play outstanding attacking rugby and scored some amazing tries. As the tournament progressed they also improved their defence which enabled them to win their semi finals and final. Natalee was chosen to be player of the tournament for Beacon Hill for her tricky running and try stopping tags. Thanks to the parents and Mr Harrison who came along to support the team.
Results:
Pool Stage
| BHS vs Bradbury | 5 – 3 |
| BHS vs Quarry Bay | 4 – 6 |
| BHS vs Kellett Kowloon Bay | 4 – 5 |
| Semi Final BHS vs Glenealy | 5 – 4 |
| Bowl Final BHS vs Shatin | 5 – 4 |
Health
To Remain Vigilant Against Scarlet Fever (SF)
It is a bacterial infection caused by Group A Streptococcus.
Signs and symptoms include:
- Fever
- Sore throat
- A rash (usually on the upper trunk and neck which spreads to the limbs).
If you suspect that the child has Scarlet Fever, please consult the doctor for confirmation of diagnosis.
To prevent the spread of the disease, please do not send the sick child to school.
Please closely monitor other child/ren in the family.
Always Keep Hands Clean.
Ms Chen
Screenagers
Screening at: St Andrews Church in May.
Find more information about the date at: http://www.screenagersmovie.com/
About the film
Are you watching kids scroll through life, with their rapid-fire thumbs and a six-second attention span? Physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston saw that with her own kids and learned that the average kid spends 6.5 hours a day looking at screens. She wondered about the impact of all this time and about the friction occurring in homes and schools around negotiating screen time—friction she knew all too well.
In SCREENAGERS, as with her award-winning documentaries on mental health, Delaney takes a deeply personal approach as she probes into the vulnerable corners of family life, including her own, to explore struggles over social media, video games, academics and internet addiction. Through poignant, and unexpectedly funny stories, along with surprising insights from authors, psychologists, and brain scientists, SCREENAGERS reveals how tech time impacts kids’ development and offers solutions on how adults can empower kids to best navigate the digital world and find balance.
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.
