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
SEN News
Sports
PTA News
ESF News
Other News
Dear Parents
Arts in the Park
Last Saturday, our BHS choir joined forces with the choirs of Kennedy School and Kowloon Junior School to perform a medley of songs from the Wizard of Oz. Following their performance, they took part in a parade through the streets of Causeway Bay. The children performed brilliantly and looked amazing in their own designed costumes. Click HERE for more photos.
Wellbeing Focus
Diversity House Day
Our Diversity House Captains, Katelyn & Muchan led us through an informative assembly today sharing with us why they chose Hong Kong Seeing Eye Dog Service as the charity for Diversity house. Through a provocation, they blindfolded Mr Hoskins and asked Miss Younie to guide him through some obstacles. They made it even more challenging by playing some loud sounds of HK traffic to demonstrate how hard it is for the visually impaired. At lunchtime, they organised a guide dog to visit and meet with the Diversity house students. We also got to see some dance talent from students in Diversity House.
Reading Workshop for Parents & Helpers
Thank you to all the parents and helpers who attended our Reading workshops this week. We hope you were able to take away a lot of different ideas for supporting your child with reading at home.
Diwali
This week we celebrated Diwali with a special assembly. The children heard about what Diwali means to some of BHS staff and students and enjoyed finding out about the special traditions and story of Diwali. The students were entertained by a special dance performance from 1P and staff. Thank you to Mrs Chand for the wonderful display in the foyer and Ms Kashish for choreographing the dance.
Mrs Chainrai, a regular supply teacher at BHS, also worked with groups of students to create some colourful Rangoli patterns on the playground.
Mrs Dhupar (Dhyana’s mum 2D) also came to share a story with 2D and the children made some colourful patterns of their own.
Wishing all our families a Happy Diwali!
Camp Season Begins
As camp season begins, we are looking forward to the Year 3-6 residential camps. Excitement is building and many children will report that camp is one of the highlights of their year at BHS. Please refer to the camp letters for information to help your child pack what they need. As much as possible, please guide them to be independent so that they know what they have brought with them and recognise their own belongings.
Next week I am looking forward to going on camp with Year 3 to Sai Kung Outdoor Recreation Centre and the following week I will be spending a day and night with each of the Year 4, 5 and 6 camps. Parents can follow our camp adventures via these links:
Whilst we endeavour to keep you updated on the camp adventures with photographs, our teachers’ main responsibility is ensuring our children are safe and getting the most out of the camp experience.
Mandarin Mondays
Many of you may have missed this week’s Mandarin Club because of school photographs. We will rerun this week’s story in our “Journey to the West” series on Monday, the 12th. If you joined us the week before, you must remember the princess with a banana-leaf shaped fan made of iron and her husband who can morph into a white bull. We will share a story about their son this time. Their son is no ordinary boy. After all, how can he be with such powerful parents! This boy always dresses in red so people call him the Red Child. Under his deceiving babyish looks lies a destructive force: Fire! Scorching fire gushing out of his month! Water is useless in front of this fiery blaze. Even our hero Monkey King got burnt badly. So, how did the story end? Did Monkey King conquer the Red Child? Could the fellowship continue with their journey? Come, come to Mandarin Club. Let’s find out together!
Students Taking Action
At BHS, we try to find those ‘teachable moments’ when things happen or issues arise. Recently, our Year 6 students were very concerned by the possibility of lots of waste generated by an ice cream day. The students wrote letters and wanted to learn more about creating a petition as a way of expressing disagreement and concern. The petition was not intended to be shared with the parent body and is no reflection on the wonderful work our PTA do to support and fundraise for our students. We appreciate the ‘green’ efforts the PTA have already established such as, a ‘green’ international food fair, less waste during bake sales and encouraging the children to bring their own tupperware for Pizza lunches. The PTA have also negotiated with the lunch provider to supply reusable lunch boxes therefore saving over 800 lunch containers each week!
Community Choir
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.
For existing members, click HERE for the audio files.
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 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.
Uniform Reminder
Thank you for your continued attention to your child’s presentation for school. It is always pleasing to see the students so well presented in their uniform as it fosters an ethos of high standards in our school community. Please remember the following:
- All Black school shoes are worn with uniform.
- All White trainers are worn with P.E. kit
- A BHS hat is mandatory for outdoor play.
Please be noted that we have a delay in delivery of some uniform stock but Janley, our PTA coordinator will send them to the student’s classes when they are available.
Student Achievement
On Saturday November 3rd, Cameron Yeung from 6H and her Dad took part in the 3km Terry Fox Run Hong Kong, a community charity run with proceeds go towards cancer research in Hong Kong.Cameron enjoyed the run and was proud to be a part of the charity event. Despite the non-competitive nature of the run, Cameron finished 2nd place. Well done Cameron!
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
Kind regards,
Susan Chung
Acting Principal
Scholastic Book Club
Don’t forget that our latest Scholastic Book Club is now online at http://world-
Please place your order online by November 23rd, 2018.
Many thanks,
The BHS English team
School Council
Our Student Council have been inspired by a teacher’s visit to Impact HK who are a local NGO who support people who are less fortunate than us. Impact HK believes that kindness is very important so it looks to help people in poverty through finding people jobs and affordable housing, sports groups and language lessons. The Student Council will be presenting to the school at Golden Book on Monday 12th November. They will be asking the students if you have any towels, water bottles, tinned or dry food and adult clothing that you no longer need. If you do, there will be a collection box in the foyer. We thank you in advance for your support.
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
Football Club Training Schedule
Boys Training Schedule
Tuesday 13th November – Kowloon Tsai Park – ( 4.45pm pick up from school)
Wednesday 14th November – friendly vs RCHK (for selected students)
Thursday 15th November – friendly vs Kowloon Junior (for all boy footballers) – 4.30pm pick up at King’s Park
Tuesday 20th November – no training – all students on camp
Tuesday 27th November – King’s Park – 4.30pm pick up from King’s Park
Girls Training Schedule
All sessions will be held at Kowloon Tsai Park. 4.45pm pick up at school.
Wednesday 21st November – no training – all students on camp
Netball Mixed Tournament
On Tuesday 30th October our Beacon Hill mixed netball team played in their first tournament of the season. The team was made up of Year 5 and 6 players and they were very excited yet nervous to play against other schools hosted by Kellett Kowloon Bay. We lost our first match against Kellett Pok Fu Lam 5-1, we started off quite nervous and we weren’t sure what to expect from the other teams. Next, we played ICHK who were a strong team and we sadly lost 1-0, but we were pleased not to let as many goals in during this second match. By the time the third match began, we were feeling strong and much more confident which lead us to win against Kellett Kowloon Bay 1-0. When it came to the final match in our group we were hopeful of a place in the playoffs and played with all our might to draw with CWBS, we were determined to hold it to a draw! Unfortunately, we did not make it into the playoffs but we were very pleased with our efforts in our first match this year. We played well as a team, our understanding of the game improved with every match and our defence skills got better and better. Well done to Brody & Yi Wing who were nominated as star players for this tournament. A great effort by everyone who took part and well done for playing so well. A big thank you to Miss Andrews and Miss Younie for coaching us.
Boys U10 Football Tournament
The U10 boys got off to a great start drawing 1 all with Kellet Kowloon Bay. The next game was really tough against Hong Lok Yuen, losing 8 nil but the boys never stopped battling. In the next two games the boy played really well as a team and fought hard but we did not have the luck, losing 2 nil against Kowloon Junior School and by 4 goals to 1 against Shatin Junior School. This put us in the 5th place play off against QBS. It was a great game and we were unlucky to lose one nil. I want to congratulate all the boys for their fantastic attitude that saw us get better with every game.
Girls U10 Football Tournament
The girls played their first match against Kellet and got off to a steady start with an early goal from Linda. They kept their shape well winning 6 nil with hat-trick from Kanna and Rei scoring two gals. The second match was against GSIS 2 and the girls dug in deep and defended well, winning three nil with goals from Linda, Kanna and Rei. The third match was against ICHK 1 and there was another super effort and great team work which saw the girls win 3 nil with goals from Linda, Rei and Kanna. There was some superb defending by Sakurako, Yvaine and Ingrid. The final group match was against Harrow and it was a tough match. The girls worked hard to grind a 4 nil victory with a hat-trick from Rei and a goal by Kanna. In the the cup final match against GSIS 1 Ingrid and Yvaine worked hard in defence and their was an epic tussle in midfield. Crystal had a great game in goal and unfortunately we lost 2 nil. It was a great achievement by all displaying sportsmanship and teamwork to be the U10 Cup Runners Up.
Kowloon Football Championship
Well done to the under 11 girls football team for winning the inaugural Kowloon Girls football tournament. This is the first HKPSSA (Hong Kong School Sports Association) championship in its debut year. The school will have a banner displayed in the hall.
The girls team play amazing football especially in the football where we beat Harrow 4-0 with Rei scoring all four goals. The goals were real team efforts with the defence stopping all Harrow attacks.
The day started slowly with a 2 nil win against Discovery College and then followed up with a come from behind victory against RCHK. In the third game we finally started playing our style of football and beat Clearwater Bay 5-0. Our last two games were on the small pitch where goals were hard to school and we beat Kellett 1-0 which secured top place in the group. Our final match was a 1-1 draw against Shatin.
All 9 of the girls played top class football and should be very proud of their effort. We had tremendous support from our parents as well.
Tim Teahan
Y1 Pizza Lunch
Y1 Pizza Lunch is on Tuesday 13 November. To reduce unnecessary waste please bring your own reusable plate / lunch box to eat off.
Hot Lunches
A combined December & January order form will be issued on Monday 12 Nov, deadline for ordering Tuesday 20 Nov. Please submit in time as DCK will not accept any orders beyond this date. Note, order forms are customised and will only be provided to students who have ordered before. If you are ordering for the first time, blank order forms will be available at reception.
For Year 2 there is a Pizza Lunch on Tuesday 4 December and for Year 3 it’s on Tuesday 29 January. Irrespective of whether or not you order pizza, your lunch order will be taken for this day. If we receive your pizza order by the 20th November deadline we shall automatically cancel the DCK lunch order for that day and your credit will be rolled over to subsequent months.
There is a sample lunch order placed on the BHS website however the form in your child’s diary must be the one you use to order.
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.
Items out of stock : Unfortunately our suppliers have still not been able to deliver pe jackets & long bottoms, fleeces and windbreaker. They have advised delivery will be end November.
If you have placed order, we shall continue to process the orders. Where items are out of stock your receipt will be marked up accordingly and as soon as these items come in they will be sent direct classroom.
This also applies for exchange items which will be sent to classroom as soon as stock comes in.
Christmas Hamper Donations
An eNotice has been sent out requesting for donations to fill our Christmas Hampers which will be raffled during the Christmas Concert.
To make the raffle a success we kindly need your generous donations.
Ideal Christmas Hamper items include :
- Chocolates, biscuits, pastries
- Candies, dried fruits
- Mince pies
- Health and beauty products
- Wine
- Honey
Please note, all items must be new and in their original packaging.
Please send them into the PTA office by 30th November.
Christmas Concert on 12 December
If you wish to purchase tickets please click on the eNotice and send in the cheque, tickets are $60 each. Deadline for ordering is Friday 3rd December. Note, tickets will not be available to purchase at door and must be bought in advance. All performers will be given free pass into the event.
Upcoming Events :
13 November Y1 Pizza Lunch
20 November Deadline for Dec/Jan Lunch Orders
4 December Y2 Pizza Lunch
12 December Christmas Concert
29 January Y3 Pizza Lunch
Have a great weekend.
Regards,
BHS PTA
HEALTH
Acute Gastroenteritis (AGE)
We would like to inform you of the fact that one student is diagnosed with Gastroenteritis; two students had vomited at home, they took rest at home, they recovered and they returned to school.
AGE is usually caused by norovirus or rotavirus infection. The mode of transmission of these viruses can be by consumption of contaminated food, contact with the vomitus or excreta of the infected persons, contaminated objects and aerosol spread with contaminated droplets of splashed vomitus. They are highly infectious. The symptoms of the disease include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever and malaise.
Children who develop skin rash, fever, diarrhea or vomiting are strongly advised not to attend school to prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases; from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP).
Please seek prompt medical advice, if applicable.
Always Keep Hands Clean.
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.
