26 Oct 2018

Newsletter #10

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

House Charities

This year we are growing the roles of our House Captains and developing links to charities. Our House Captains were tasked with each researching two charities that they felt we could support. They then presented to the Senior Leadership Team to make a final decision.

The following charities our Houses will support this year are:

Confidence – UNICEF, a charity focused on supporting Children’s Rights.

Diversity – Hong Kong Seeing Eye Dog Services, a charity supporting the training of dogs and services for the visually impaired.

Happiness – Action Sports Foundation, a local charity which enables the underprivileged to access sports programmes.

Inclusivity – Lok Sin Tong, a local charity which provides educational, medical, elderly care and social services in HK.

Confidence House Day

In assembly today, Ryan & Hena shared why UNICEF was their chosen charity. They shared with the children a brief history of UNICEF and what they do to support children’s rights. They read the story ‘For Every Child’ by Caroline Castle in association with UNICEF.

Ryan and Hena also organised a lunchtime movie for all children in Confidence house. This was a lovely opportunity for the children to mix with other children from across the school. Well done Ryan and Hena for all their hard work and preparation.

UOI Reports Go Live after 4pm for Years 2-6

UOI Reports on the Beacon for Years 2 & 3

Year 2 & 3 Parents, you will access your child’s UOI report from the Beacon.

UOI Reports on the Gateway for Year 4 – 6

The report for your child’s first unit of inquiry is now open for viewing on the Gateway. To do so, you will need to:

Log on to the Gateway – tg.esf.edu.hk
Click on the ARR tab and Click on ARR Report
Click on the Printing Tab
Select the current year (2018/19)
Select your child’s name
Select UOI comments

Please remember to share this with your child also.

Year 1 Parents, your child’s report will be available at the end of Term 1.

Wellbeing Focus

This week, Katelyn, one of our Diversity House Captains shared how ‘Be Active’ is an important aspect of Wellbeing. Katelyn told the students how she likes to be active by taking part in different indoor and outdoor activities.

Exercise plays an important part in our wellbeing, both physical and mental. Exercising releases dopamine and serotonin which both contribute to feeling good! Exercise is also intrinsic in improving brain function; when we exercise the chemicals we need for creating and strengthening the connections between neurons in the brain are released and when new connections are made in the brain, we learn!

Now that the weather is much cooler, perhaps families might explore parts of the Hong Kong hiking trails. There are many trails of varied levels of difficulty and durations.

Mandarin Mondays

The children had a great time last Monday talking about and role playing one of the many stories in ‘Journey to the West’. Next week we will continue our fun ‘journey’ this time with another story about Monkey King. Do you know a Princess with a magic banana-leaf shaped fan made of iron? This powerful fan can put out fire from a monstrous volcano!! She also has a husband who can morph into a powerful white bull. Come and find out how our hero Monkey King defeat this power couple and help his fellowship continue with their journey. Also, would you like to act as one of the characters? We would love to see many of our talented little performers.

Community Choir

Our BHS Community Choir has resumed with the first session last night. This is open to all parents of BHS students and to BHS Staff. The choir will be rehearsing on Thursday evenings from 7pm. We would hope to perform at the BHS Christmas Concert. No auditions or previous singing experience – just lots of enthusiasm needed!

If you are interested in joining, please click HERE.

Box of Hope

This year, BHS will once again be supporting Box of Hope. Box of Hope is an annual charity event aimed at providing useful and educational gifts for underprivileged children who live in Hong Kong and Asia, some of whom may never have received a gift before. All you have to do is provide some small educational and interesting, useful gifts for a boy or girl and put them in a beautifully wrapped or decorated shoe box. Please wrap the box and lid separately and secure with an elastic band. All boxes will need to be checked before they are sent off for customs purposes. So if you have some empty shoe boxes, save them for this worthwhile cause. Students will need to put a sticker on their box. If you need more labels please go to this link: http://boxofhope.org/info/children/how/en/ If you would like to know more about Box of Hope please visit their webpage: http://www.boxofhope.org/home/main/en/

The deadline for the collection of all boxes is Monday 19th November.

Student Achievement

Congratulations to Hena Yang (6D) who participated the the 3^rd Sonny Ty International Gymnastics Cup competition held in Manila, Philippines on 20 October.

50 gymnasts from HK, Philippines, Thailand, India, and Indonesia competed at the competition, for “Level 3” winners who are 10-11 years old.

They performed in Floor, Vault, Beam, and Bar. Hena undertook months of preparation and she was awarded 3^rd place on “Beam”.

This is Hena’s first participation in an international competition, and we are so proud of her achievement. Congratulations Hena on your Bronze Medal!

On 14th October, Nathan (4W) and Nathelie Yau (6H) participated in the swimming gala organised by the Hong Kong Medical Association. It was the first time for Nathan to swim competitively and he earned his first silver medal in 50m Breast Stroke Boys 8 and Under.

Nathelie also did very well this year and she won the following medals: 1. Gold Medal 50m freestyle 9-10 years old
2. Silver Medal 50m back stroke 9-10 years old
3. Silver Medal 50m breast stroke 9-10 years old
4. Bronze Medal 4x50m children relay under 12

Well done to both kids!

A few days ago, Jana (2K) and Nathan Hau (4W) spent a great day with their family visiting the elderly and brought them resources such as food and grocery on behalf of an NGO. This is the second year that they have participated in this event and they both found it absolutely meaningful!

Although Jana and Nathan felt a bit challenged when communicating with the elderly, they tried really hard to find their own ways to interact with the elderly. They managed to find out a lot about mah jong! Great job guys!

At BHS we value the importance of developing the ‘whole’ child and this means valuing their achievement and interests outside of school. If your child has achieved something special, we would be happy to share that with the BHS community through this newsletter. Please email details and a photograph to kannis.tsui@bhs.edu.hk

Important Dates

Have a lovely weekend.

Kind regards,

Susan Chung

Acting Principal

Mandarin Consultations

Scholastic Book Club

Our latest Scholastic Book Club is up and running! Go to http://world-schools.scholastic.co.uk/beacon-hill-1 to browse the latest books and order online. For every $1 you spend in BHS’ Book Club, our school will earn 20c in Scholastic Rewards.

Please place your order online by November 23rd, 2018.

For further information, please refer to the email entitled, “Scholastic International Book Club Oct/Nov 2018.”

Many thanks,

The BHS English team

School Photographs 5th-6th November, 2018

Our school photographer will be in Beacon Hill on Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th November. All children should come to school in their school uniform on these days. If your child has PE on Monday or Tuesday then please make sure that they bring their PE kit to school and they will be able to change at school.

Siblings Photographs

For those of you who have more than one child at Beacon Hill the siblings photographs will be taken on Friday 9th November. If you would like a sibling photograph then please click on the link below and fill in the online form to book a space.

https://goo.gl/forms/bdCfnkhWNvy46ank2

If you have any questions then please email me: chad.pheasant@bhs.edu.hk

Chad Pheasant

Vice Principal

Social Thinking Workshop at ESFC

Using Social Thinking to Understand Social Communication Challenges

Jean McPherson and Belinda McLaughlin (ESF SEN Advisory team) will be offering a parent workshop this term ‘Using Social Thinking to Understand Social Communication Challenges’

This 60-minute session aims to increase parent understanding of the ways in which children with social communication differences experience the social world. Parents will be guided through the Social Thinking framework around ‘The Four Steps of Communication’ with opportunities to reflect on their own child’s level of social communication and how best to support them.

Dates for sessions are – Kowloon November 20th at KJS and HK island November 28th at ESFC. Both sessions will run from 5.00 – 6.00pm.

Parents should sign up using the link : https://goo.gl/forms/nbjMdp1Aspaect7q1

Colette Davis

Head of SEN

Boys Football Club Training Schedule

Tuesday 30th October – King’s Park – 4.30pm up from King’s Park

Girls Football Club Training Schedule

All sessions will be held at Kowloon Tsai Park. 4.45pm pick up at school.

PTA AGM 2018

Thank you to everyone who attended the AGM. It was great to see a few new faces, welcome aboard. Our next PTA meeting shall be on 8 November at 12:45 in the Conference Room.

Hot Lunches

Deadline for November order has passed. DCK will not accept any more orders for November. A reminder that order forms will only be provided to students with existing accounts. If you are not one of those and wish to be included in the December order please contact DCK directly on 2464-1838.

Uniforms

The new winter order form can be downloaded from BHS website as per the following link: https://goo.gl/forms/Dw5w9CiJ7QCfE0CI3

To order, please fill in the form then your child can hand the cheque into reception. Upon receipt of cheque your order will be processed and sent direct to classroom. Unfortunately our suppliers have still not been able to deliver PE jackets & long bottoms, fleeces and windbreaker. They have advised delivery will be some time in November. There is limited stock still available in the larger sizes.

For orders which have been placed we shall continue to process them. Where items are out of stock your receipt will be marked up with ‘OS’ and these items will be sent direct to classroom as soon as we receive them.

PTA Volunteer & Donation

Please return the PTA Volunteer & Donation Forms. The various events run by the PTA rely on your support, generosity and valuable time. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sponsorship form.pdf

Upcoming Events :

30 October Y6 Bake Sale

8-12 November Ice Cream Day for different year groups (Details to follow)

13 November Y1 Pizza Lunch

Have a great weekend.

Regards

BHS PTA

HEALTH

IMMUNIZATION RECORDS

All documents submitted by parents or guardians for Immunization (Part One), they will be returned to your child (together with any instructions for you to follow-up, if applicable) via their class teachers or their educational assistants the week starting Monday 29 October 2018.

Thank you.

Rosalind Chen

School Nurse

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.