Newsletter #7
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
PTA News
ESF News
Other News
Dear Parents,
I hope you found this week’s parent teacher consultation evenings helpful and that they gave you a good understanding of how your child has settled into the school year as well as some targets for their learning.
Giving Back to our Community: Colours Day
Today was the culmination of a week of special events raising awareness and money which will be used to purchase the items needed to make the food parcels on December 8th. Today all the children took part in either a sponsored walk/run or read. They all did a great job, dressed in their house colours. We also saw some of our staff members (Ms Andrews, Ms Ma, Mr Douglas, Mr Lowe and Mrs Lowe, plus all of the Senior Leadership Team) get ‘dunked’ with very icy cold water! With the lunchtime activities this week and the donations for ‘dunk the teacher’, we have already raised over HK$31,500! Thank you so much for the incredible support – it has been beyond our wildest expectations. Photos from the week can be found HERE.
Please do your best to help collect sponsor money next week and send it into school after the half term holiday – the deadline for sending in money is Friday 13th October. We will then be able to announce the ‘grand total’. Thanks again to the whole community for supporting this special initiative and a special mention to Mr Thompson and Mr Pheasant for planning and preparing the events.
Thank you to our PTA and volunteers who organised and served on the Mid-Autumn Festival market stall yesterday. I know many children purchased fruit and lanterns. This morning in assembly the Mandarin department shared stories and music in connection with this festival and even had a ‘blind tasting’ of some different flavoured mooncakes! I wish all our families a happy celebration of this event next week,
IMPORTANT DATES
Parent Information Evenings Offered This Term
Please look out for emails asking you to sign up for these.
BHS / ESF 50th Anniversary
Many of you have signed up for the various running races on October 22nd – I look forward to seeing you there. Even if you haven’t registered for any of the races you are very welcome to join in the fun in Central that morning as there will be various performances and games stalls.
ESF is organising a 50th Anniversary Golf Day on 4th November 2017 at Nansha Golf Club (China). The event is open to all teachers, support staff, parents, alumni and friends. For more information please contact Mr Steven Szeto – steven.szeto@esfcentre.edu.hk
Community Choir
Our BHS Community Choir will begin again on Thursday 12th October (that’s the first Thursday after the mid-term holiday) at 7pm. Please sign up if you would like to come along. The evenings are fun and casual and no prior singing or performing experience is necessary.
https://goo.gl/forms/INxcht0TaEQXvyFR2
The Year Group Weekly Updates and Single Subject Monthly Updates are available on the school website – so please remember to refer to the website or our app (https://www.beaconhill.edu.hk/mobile-app/ ) each week to learn about what is happening in your child’s class.
A reminder that school is closed next week for the mid-term holiday and will open again on Monday 9th October. Have a restful week.
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James Harrison
Principal
Reading Eggs
We would like to inform you that we will no longer be subscribing to this online Reading programme. The costs associated with this subscription are high and data shows that less than 25% of BHS students are accessing the website regularly. The money saved will be used to purchase additional books for the school. Please remember that the children may still access Big Universe, which has a far more comprehensive selection of books available, to supplement their home reading and for research purposes.
Green Team
Dear Parents,
Our Butterfly Garden project is in full swing. Currently we are organising to have plant beds put in for our students to be able to learn about how vegetables and herbs grow. As you can imagine this is very exciting for our students and will provide excellent opportunities to learn vital lifelong skills.
In order to do this we are asking for your help. In the spirit of recycling and reusing we are looking for used wooden pallets. Maybe you or your place of work has old wooden pallets that you do not need anymore and you would be willing to send them to school. If you know of any unwanted pallets of 1.2m x 80cm or other sizes that are of good quality that we could dismantle and use the wood from we would love to have them. The pallets must be clean of toxic materials and any other contaminate materials. We would very gratefully receive them at school. We are also hoping to collect old tyres. Please email me at jane.farago@bhs.edu.hk and let me know if you can help.
Another great green initiative that will be happening on the 20th of October is the ESF beach clean. In past events BHS students have been fabulous participants in this event and we hope many more students will join in and enjoy this event again this year. Our students have a good understanding of the importance of keeping our green spaces clean and of keeping plastic from polluting our oceans. It would be wonderful to see as many as possible doing their bit. Each student will need an adult accompanying them and a water bottle but otherwise everything else is provided and you get to keep your free t-shirt at the end! Please come and donate a few hours of your time to make a difference to the beaches of Hong Kong.
Proposed Agenda for 20th October (to be finalised nearer the date)
9:00 Coach Bus departure from Kowloon Tong MTR Station Exit D (To Fuk Road)
9:30 Meet at Hang Hau and change into a red ESF T-shirt
10:00 Coach Bus departure from Hang Hau MTR Station Exit A2 (Ming Shing Street)
10:15 Arrive at Bayside Beach
10:30 Participants to be given tools
11:00 Start Cleaning Up
12:30 Light lunch will be provided
13:30 Continue cleaning up
15:00 Depart Bayside Beach
15:15 Drop off at Hang Hau MTR station
15:45 Drop off at Kowloon Tong MTR station
To sign up, please click the link below and complete the online registration form:
https://goo.gl/forms/5hGcvaLofSo7BU673
*Registration deadline: 13th October 2017
Thank you and I look forward to seeing you on the day.
Jane Faragó
Environmental Coordinator
Y1 Admissions 2018-2019
Central Applications (2013 birth) Year 1 admissions in 2018-2019 enewsletter (revised).pdf
2017-2017 School Levy/PTA Fees
BHS Action in the Community
Mother Tongue Story Telling and Mother Tongue Book Donations
Last year a group of parents read stories in their mother tongue to our students on a Tuesday and Thursday lunchtime. The students and parents had a wonderful time sharing stories in their language. If you are interested and have the time please click here to sign up. Any time that you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
We would also like to increase the range of books we have in the range of languages we have spoken within a community at school. If you have a book that you would like to donate, gently used or new, please ask your child to hand in to the school office.
If you have any questions or some ideas on how to promote your Mother Tongue please get in contact with me via email, andy.thompson@bhs.edu.hk
Andy Thompson
Vice Principal
Mid Autumn Festival Market
To support our Mandarin Department we have yet again had a very successful Mid Autumn Festival Market where the children were able to purchase lanterns and fruit. A huge thank you to the parent volunteers and yourselves for supporting this event. All proceeds raised will go back to the Mandarin Department for purchase of new material.
Uniform Shop
Winter Uniform pre-order forms have been distributed to all Y1 and new students on 27 September 2017. Forms will be available in the foyer for remaining students.
The uniform shop shall close from 27 September – 15 October 2017 for processing of these orders.
To expedite orders please submit as soon as possible and ensure the correct total is written on cheques, with name, class and telephone number on the back. If you require a plastic bag, please also include $0.5 for the levy.
Once processed, orders will be sent directly to classrooms with an acknowledgment form to sign and return.
Uniform samples will be available to view outside the uniform shop from 27 Sep 2017.
PTA AGM
Nomination Form for the PTA Executive Committee has been distributed and AGM will be held on Wednesday 11th Oct 2017. New members are welcome with open arms. To find out more about what we do, how to get involved or support us, please visit www.beaconhill.edu.hk/pta-2.
Have a great Mid Autumn Festival and Mid Term Break
BHS PTA
70th Hong Kong Schools Music Festival
The application form for entering 70th Hong Kong School Music Festival will be ready for you to pick up at the school front desk from Monday 25th September. If your child/(ren) wants to participate in this competition, please return the application form and application fee in a cheque payable to “Beacon Hill School” to the school office on or before Tuesday 10th October, 2017. Any late application received after the deadline will not be accepted.
Please note that ESF school education level is not equivalent to the local school system. If you enrol in the year group programme, please cross check with the following table for the correct age group. HKSMSA is based on the local school system for enrolment.
Should you have any queries, please contact Ms Shiree Yam at the office.
| ESF Level | Local School System |
| Y1 | K3 |
| Y2 | Y1 |
| Y3 | Y2 |
| Y4 | Y3 |
| Y5 | Y4 |
| Y6 | Y5 |
Shiree Yam
HR/Finance Manager
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.
