30 Jun 2017

Newsletter #39

Beacon Hill School latest newsletter available to read now. Find out the latest news around the school and upcoming events.

Other News

nl_principal

Dear Parents, Family and Friends,

The 2016-17 school year has come to an end. The beginning of the year seems like just yesterday, yet there have been so many memorable events that have taken place during the year. This week saw the Year 6’s finish their time at BHS with a fabulous production of Ali Baba, followed on Thursday with their Graduation. They have been a tremendous year group and I am confident they will go on to even greater things. Please come back and visit us to share with us how you are getting on.

Photos of the production can be found HERE.

Photos of the graduation can be found HERE.

The end of a school year always means some students and adults have to leave. I wish all of those leaving BHS this year all the very best for the future, including Ms Lie, Mr Greene and Mrs Lussier. For those returning, I hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable summer holiday and I look forward to the start of a brand new school year in August.

The calendar for the 2017-18 academic year is complete. The start date for 2018/19 is shown for indication only and families should avoid making travel plans for 2018 until the school start date and back-to-school work date are confirmed. Click here to download a copy. It is also available on the school website – https://www.beaconhill.edu.hk/term-dates-2016-2017/

BHS Calendar 2017-18.pdf

IMPORTANT DATES

Island School Information Evening on August 22nd

ESF is holding an information session to update the community on the development of Island School. Please see the invitation below.

50th Anniversary Water Bottle

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Beacon Hill School, special edition water bottles will be available to buy, in the four ‘house’ colours. A letter has been sent home so you can order the bottles. A copy of the order form can be downloaded here. When ordering the bottles we would anticipate the children ordering the colour that corresponds to the ‘house’ they are in. For our new Year 1 children joining us in August, siblings will be in the same house as their older brothers or sisters. Those new Year 1s who are new to BHS will be assigned a ‘house’ and this information will be shared at the upcoming induction morning, along with a copy of the order form so parents can ensure they have the correct bottle in August.

BHS water bottle order form.pdf

School Shoes

As mentioned previously, a company called Karaso owned and operated by a couple of parents of a BHS student, sells high quality shoes which you can purchase online. They are suitable for school. They have kindly agreed to donate 10% of the proceeds from sales of their shoes to BHS parents, to the BHS PTA meaning you can get school shoes for your child whilst supporting the school. A special promo code needs to be used when ordering: BHSKARASO. They have an online store but you can also visit them to try out the sizes. The company is Karaso: https://www.karasoflex.com/ We have some samples available to look at outside our PTA Shop. Please note that this is an extra option available to parents and that the PTA is not able to provide assistance with any orders or questions about the shoes.

(Please note that this is an external company not affiliated to BHS or the BHS PTA).

Wishing you a wonderful summer.

_

James Harrison

Principal

News from the English Team

The end of a busy year

The library has been a fantastic place to be this year; it is always a colourful and welcoming place and buzzes with that special sound of people enjoying books! We have had so much going on in terms of displays, clubs, celebrations, author visits, Tinkering Tuesdays, parent story tellers and of course new books which are chosen to support the interests and needs of our school community. Mrs Lowe and I are always on the lookout for books in the languages that our school community speak, so if during the summer break you find a book in a language other than English that you would like to add to our collection please do let us know. We look forward to August and welcoming more of you into the library, remember all families are entitled to a library card which they can use to borrow from any of our collections.The registration form can be found on the school website at: https://www.beaconhill.edu.hk/letterspage/

A huge well done to our best borrowing classes this year and special congratulations to Stella Chen in 4F who was the best borrower in the whole school with well over 130 books borrowed and read!

Library stock take

It seems it is not only Batman that returns his library books- thank you to all the children that got their library books in on time or if unfortunately they had lost them payed the replacement fee. Mrs Lowe and her parent volunteers have been busy and now we are all ready for the new school year. At the last count we only had 45 books still missing and less than ten of those were borrowed by students!

Summer reading

As the holidays begin it is a great time to get that summer reading list written with your children. There are so many wonderful books to choose from and knowing where to start can be difficult. Remember to use Common Sense Media and other review sites to check that the books your children are interested in are suitable for their age. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews One site you might find useful is from the Book Trust in the UK, it lists what they consider the 100 must reads before the age of 14. There are some great titles which will provide your children with lots of entertainment. http://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-blogs/news/222/

Poetry competition

Visit local author Sarah Brennan’s blog for an opportunity for some creative writing fun. https://sarahbrennanblog.com/clever-competitions/

Thank you from the English team for all your support this year, whether that has been visiting or helping in the library, supporting readers in the classrooms, organising resources, donating books, helping your children get ready for Book Week or participating in the parent workshops it’s all been much appreciated. Thank you too for the support you give your children at home to help them practise their reading and writing skills. As always if you have any questions about English at BHS just get in touch: Emily Jeves jevese2@beaconhill.edu.hk

Mandarin

Congratulations 恭喜获奖！

The following Beacon Hill School students have been awarded as outstanding readers in Mandarin online Graded Reading World on 27 May 2017!

Stella Chen 4F

Chloe Wong 6F

Cheyenne Yu 6H

Parent Helpers

At BHS, we are a community who work together in partnership with parents and students. This year we have been extremely lucky to have over 60 parents who have helped us regularly by supporting UOI rotations, PMP, Mother Tongue programmes and Library support.

BHS held a thank you tea for those parents last week and the children made them gifts, drink and food. We would like to thank the parents again for giving their time to ensure our extra programmes can continue.

Susan Chung

Vice Principal

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As our fruitful school year draws to a close, we reflect on how wonderful our BHS community has supported BHS PTA events with monetary, prize and food donations and spirited volunteering. From families, parents, students, senior management team, teachers, education assistants, staff and caretakers, everyone has taken part in some way over the past year and we are very grateful that this support has benefited our BHS children and enhanced our BHS school spirit.

BHS PTA has been able to support more than HKD$260,000 in monetary sponsorship to BHS this school year because of our tremendous BHS community support!

We look forward to seeing new exciting BHS school garden enhancement for our BHS 50th Anniversary & within BHS classrooms in the new school year.

Reminder

DeliFresh will start lunches in the month of September of the new 2017-18 school year. Therefore, home packed lunches will be required during the month of August 2017. Please make sure you download the September 2017 Lunch Order Forms from the BHS website www.beaconhil.edu.hk/pta-2/, and complete with payment posted directly to DeliFresh Ltd. whilst BHS is on summer holidays. Deadline for September 2017 lunch orders is 4th week of August 2017.

Uniform Shop will re-open for Y1 & New Students & Y2-Y6 from Friday 11 August and then 14-15 August 2017, 9:00 am – 3:00pm. Starting 16 August 2017 Uniform Shop will open Monday-Friday until Friday 2 September 2017, 8:15am – 10:00am, thereafter Normal Uniform Shop hours apply.

Trust Y6 Graduating Class families enjoy graduation celebrations & the Y6 Production DVD & good luck to our leavers.

See you all at the 2017-18 Welcome Social Bowling on Friday 15 September 2017!