31 Oct 2019

Newsletter #11

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

Updates for Parents

Starting from this Friday, the Weekly Updates sent to parents and posted on the website will be changed to fortnightly distribution. This is intended to help reduce the amount of communication you get from the school and to avoid undue repetition. After Christmas we will move to a new format for the Fortnightly Updates which will be easier to find the information you need. We are working on this now and look forward to sharing the new format in the new year. If you have any feedback on this please feel free to email me at brenda.cook@beaconhill.edu.hk

Privacy and Safety of our Students and Families

It was brought to my attention this week that there was a posting of one of our students onto a social media site without the parents’ permission. The posting was alarming to the parents of the child and has resulted in them feeling that their child’s safety could be at risk. This situation has highlighted how important it is to remind you to always ask permission before posting any other child’s photo on any social media platform as to respect and protect the child, the families and the school identity and safety.

Golden Book Certificates

The staff will now present Golden Book Certificates to children in class rather than during an assembly. All of our staff felt by cancelling the assembly they would gain valuable teaching and learning time back in their classroom. We also felt that the recipients of the award will get greater acknowledgement from their teacher and classmates using this format. Congratulations to the students who have received Golden Book assemblies so far.

Uniforms

As cooler weather approaches, please be reminded to get in early to the PTA shop for any additional uniform items your child might need. As a reminder, our intention is to reduce our current inventory over the next year or so, in order to minimise loss from having to write-off too much stock as we will be moving to a brand new uniform.

Please note that your child will be able to wear their existing uniform this year and next. The new uniform will start with our new intake of Year 1 students in 2020/21

Kind regards,

Brenda Cook

Principal

Please find below important dates for your diary. These dates are more school-based rather than individual year group dates. More specific dates pertaining to your year group will be shared by your child’s teacher as part of weekly updates.

Monday 4th November – Camp takes place this week for years 3, 4 and 6

Tuesday 12th November – Year 5 bake sale for all of the students

Medical Authorisation Form

Please click HERE.

Student Withdrawal Form

Please click HERE.

PTA Winter Uniform Order Form

Please click HERE.

Popcorn Day (30 October-1 November)

This kicked off yesterday with Y1 & 4 and will culminate with Y3 & 6 on Friday. Huge thanks to all students supporting this event and to our PTA parents who helped serve up this delicious treat :

Wednesday 30 October Y1 & 4 Popcorn Day

Thursday 31 October Y2 & 5 Popcorn Day

Friday 1 November Y3 & 6 Popcorn Day

Well done to all those who brought their own container.

Uniforms

Winter Uniform is now on sale. We have run out of the following :

Size 6 & 8 Long PE Pants – these will be replaced shortly by new navy track suit pants which are due to arrive in November.

Size 8, 10, 12 & 14 Red Sweater – these will not be replenished this year. PE jacket, fleece & wind jacket can be worn if weather starts to cool.

Size XS & S Fleece (Limited Stock) – these will be replaced by a new navy tracksuit jacket.

Our Uniform Committee is working with ESF central procurement on the design of the new uniform. Please note that the new uniform is not due to come into affect until 2020-21 for the new year 1 intake and 2021-22 for remaining years. Any uniforms purchased now can still be worn this year and next year.

If you wish to place an order please click on the link, fill in the form and hand in a cheque with you child’s name, class, contact number and uniform written on the back. We shall send the order straight to classroom as soon as the cheque is received.

Uniform Order Form (Winter) – CLICK HERE

Hot Lunches

DCK have commenced their online ordering system. We hope that this makes ordering more convenient. It also cuts down on having to distribute paper copies which helps in our efforts to reduce waste. Please be aware of ordering deadlines as this system does not allow any ordering beyond the deadline.

Please note deadline for November ordering lapsed on 21 October.

We shall keep you updated here as soon as December menu is ready for ordering. Lunch cancellations can only be made through email and must be sent out before 8:30am on the day required. Please email mealbox@deliciou sck.com stating school name, student name, class and cancellation date(s).

Upcoming Events

Friday 1 November – Y3 & 6 Popcorn Day

Tuesday 12 November – Y5 Bake Sale

Regards,

BHS PTA

Box of Hope

Football Training

Boys Training Schedule

All sessions will be held at Kowloon Tsai Park. Pick up from school at 4:45pm.

There will be no training on November 5th.

Girls Training Schedule

There will be no training on November 6th.

Peak School Girls Tournament

On Saturday the girls football team participated in the annual Peak Girls football tournament. Well done to the team who steadily improved throughout their three games. We started slowly and didn’t seem to be awake during our first game against the Peak. Sophia scored the first goal of the match and then the Peak fired up and scored 5 passed us. The next game against Quarry Bay we fell behind and then it was our turn to be fired up and we bounced back with two goals to win 2-1. In the playoff match for fifth we attacked and attacked Glenealy’s goal and Sophia scored a great goal. Glenealy had one shot and equalised towards the end which we meant we finished 5th equal. Thanks to the parents who came to support the team and well done to Sophia who was named player of the tournament for her 4 goals.

Results

Thanks to Ingrid’s Mum and Kylie’s dad for the photos which can be found HERE.

Graphic Novel Writing Competition

Our Graphic Novel Writing Competition closes on Monday 4th November and I have already received some imaginative and entertaining stories. A reminder that a graphic novel is created by combining pictures and text, it looks like a comic. The children love to borrow these from the library and they cover all genres of story, not just superheroes!

Sadly, Dav Pilkey, the American author of the Captain Underpants and Dog Man series, has cancelled his trip to Hong Kong which means our competition winners will not get to hear him speak. However, his publishers in Hong Kong, Scholastic, have kindly agreed to donate Dav Pilkey prize packs for the winners. Winners will be announced by the end of November.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to get in touch.

Emily Jeves

Learning and Teaching Coach

Mandarin Club

During the latest Mandarin Club, some of you suggested that you would like to hear stories about a legendary boy in Chinese Folktale. Can you guess who he is? His name is Ne Zha (哪吒). While we normally stay for about 10 months in our mummy’s womb, this wonder boy’s mother carried him for 3 years before he was born. 哪吒 was born with amazing powers, but he could also be quite naughty. Eventually, he got himself into big trouble and his fate hung in the balance. So what happened in the end? Come join us on Monday and let’s find out together.

Best,

Mandarin Club

Community Choir

Our BHS Community Choir has begun! This is open to all parents of BHS students, BHS staff, and alumni students and parents of BHS. 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, please click HERE for the audio clips.

Action in the PYP is when students are inspired through their learning and their experiences to make a difference to their lives or the community connected to real life issues and opportunities. We would like to celebrate our students taking action outside of school. If your child has taken any action, we would be happy to share that with the BHS community through this newsletter and through our Facebook page. Please email details and a photograph to kannis.tsui@bhs.edu.hk

October 26 – Abigail Sin (5H) and Caleb Sin (2F) served on Flag Day. They showed confidence and courage when they asked passers-by in their neighbourhood to donate money for the Evangel Children’s Home. They met many kind-hearted neighbours and learned the spirit of service. It was hard work but they endured and enjoyed it! Fantastic work Abigail and Caleb!

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 and through our Facebook page. Please email details and a photograph to kannis.tsui@bhs.edu.hk

October 19 – Charlotte MA (4A) and her Chinese dance team has practiced for a few months and they finally got to perform. This was their first time to perform with the Chinese orchestra. Well done Charlotte!

October 25 – Aryana Vora (2K) performed in a Diwali celebration to a Bollywood song. She received a trophy for her performance. Well done Aryana!

October 26 – Mason Chau (6C) has received his ABRSM Grade 4 violin exam result and he has got a distinction. It is encouraging to see his hard work and enthusiasm getting rewarded. Well done Mason!

October 26 – Heston Ma (5Y) recently had his photo published in the “Around DB” magazine for his participation in Team Fear last year and is excited to be participating again this year on November 17^th. The design of the courses varies from year to year but in last year’s race, Heston and his teammates have had to mountain bike, swim, coaster, trail run, clamber through a bamboo obstacle/assault course and do team puzzles and tests relying on team cooperation and imagination. This event takes place in Discovery Bay every year. The competitors are asked to raise money through sponsorship and over $HK100,000 is donated to Youth Outreach Hong Kong annually. Team Fear Challenge really helps children to learn how to handle fear, perseverance and most importantly to work as a team. Heston has been training with his teammates for a couple of weeks now and we wish him luck. Good luck Heston!