29 Aug 2019

Newsletter #3

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

Thanks so much for attending the ‘Meet The Teacher’ evening last night. We appreciate your support and look forward to working in partnership with you to ensure your child has a productive, exciting and successful year at school. As always if you have any questions, concerns or additional information to share, please contact your child’s teacher who will be able to help you.

Thanks to the PTA for hosting a lovely Wine and Cheese evening for new parents last night. It was great to meet you all and to hear that your children have settled well into the school.

Wearing the BHS School Uniform with Pride

A gentle reminder to please ensure your child is wearing the correct school uniform to school each day. This helps us look well-presented and united as a team and shows we have a sense of pride in ourselves and the school.

Please encourage your child to wear the appropriate uniform and footwear and to only wear jewellery if it is of cultural or religious significance. We find it useful for hair to be tied back and for accessories to not be worn in the hair. Thanks for helping us with this, we appreciate it.

Golden Book Assembly

On Monday we celebrated the first recipients of the Golden Book Awards. Congratulations to the first students of the year! Mr Pheasant also focussed on aspects of well-being like ‘taking notice’ and ‘making connections’. Please look out for these traits in your child and when you see them displaying connections to people or things or taking notice and being ‘in the moment’ please praise and encourage them.

Dropping your child off at school?

Please ensure safe parking and driving practises to help all of our children enter and exit the school without harm. Thanks for helping out with this, it will make a huge difference. Last week some of our site staff received Road Patrol Training from police personnel to help them confidently manage the road and pedestrian situation at peak times of the day. Please see some photos below.

Applications for ESF year 7 places for 2020

Please ensure you read the newsletter below to find out information and crucial dates to apply for secondary school for your Year 6 child.

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.

Wednesday 28th August – Booking system for Parent Teacher Consultations open to Parents with Siblings only

Tuesday 3rd September – School Tours for prospective year 1 parents (contact the school office for more details)

Wednesday 4th September – Booking system for Parent Teacher Consultations open to all Parents

Monday 9th September – School closed – CPD (training) day for staff

Friday 13th September – Mid Autumn Festival Market (during the school day)

Monday 23rd September, 12.45pm – School Council Meeting

Tuesday 24 September – Year 6 Bake Sale

Thursday 26th September – Parent consultations evening (3D scheduled at another time)

Monday 30th September – School closed – ESF CPD day

Tuesday 1st October – School Closed – Public Holiday

Wednesday 2nd October – Parent consultations evening

Monday 7th October – Friday 11th October– School Closed for mid term break

Cheese & Wine Welcome Evening

It was wonderful to see so many new parents coming in and getting to know each other. Enjoy more photos HERE.

Welcome Bowling Social – 18 October

A reminder to sign up for Bowling night. It’s a great way for children and parents to socialise and relax outside of school. Forms were issued and placed in your child’s diary.

Donation & Volunteer Forms

These have also just been issued and are a great way for parents to get involved in the various events organised throughout the year. We rely on your continued support & generosity so any donation is greatly appreciated.

Uniforms

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 – CLICK HERE

Hot Lunches

DCK will continue to provide our hot lunches this year. Unfortunately ordering for August & September has closed. You will be updated here when October ordering is out.

Regards,

BHS PTA

Applications for ESF Year 7 Places for 2020

Parents of our Year 6 students need to submit an application for a Year 7 ESF place for August 2020 via The Gateway between Monday 2nd September and Friday 13th September 2019.

Click HERE for a guide on how to apply through Gateway

Allocation for secondary school will be determined by your residential zone at the start of Year 6. For further details, parents should refer to the information available on the ESF website for key dates http://www.esf.edu.hk/year6-to-year7-key-dates/ and http://www.esf.edu.hk/esf-zones for school zones.

All newly joined Y6 are guaranteed a Y7 place but not necessarily for the school of zone.

Year 6 parents should also note that the deposit payment deadline to secure a Year 7 place, once you have been offered a place at a secondary school, will be Monday 16^thDecember 2019.

If you have any questions then please contact me at chad.pheasant@bhs.edu.hk

Chad Pheasant

Vice Principal

Central Applications – Year 1 (2015 Birth) for August 2020-2021

Football

Boys Training Schedule

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

Tuesday September 10th – we are looking for a parent volunteer to help with the boy’s session as Mr Thompson is on a course. Please email timothy.teahan@bhs.edu.hk if you are available to help from 3pm to 5pm. Thanks.

Girls Training Schedule

Wednesday 4th September – Kowloon Tsai Park. Pick up from school at 4:45pm

Mandarin Mondays

We had lots of fun last week when we played a game and got to know each other. It seems many of you love cute animals. In our coming Mandarin Club, we will talk about a very famous and super cute animal. It is chubby, clumsy, funny and has big black circles around its eyes. I am sure you know what it is now — the Giant Panda! Giant Panda is an endangered species, so we must protect them. Do you know where is the largest wild panda reservation in the world? Who work and live in the reservation? And what do Giant Pandas do all day long? Anything you know about pandas that you would like to share with us? Do you have a small cute panda toy at home? Come join us on Monday and let’s talk all about the Giant Panda.

Mandarin Club

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

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

July – Ingrid Siu (5H) took one of her favourite pieces she drew 4 years ago to compete with other Hong Kong students in her current age group on the topic of “Object”, and got recognised with a Special Award by Sing Tao Magazine. She loves to draw and this recognition has definitely encouraged her to continue with her hobby! Keep going Ingrid!

July 21 – Ying Ling Wong (5W) participated in the “2019 Southern District Karate Invitational Tournament (below 9 years old)” aka 2019 年南区空手道分龄邀请赛（九岁以下）. She managed to earn 3^rd place in the competition. Well done Ying Ling!

August 4 – Ernest Chan (5H) participated the Aquathlon Race 3 which was organised by the Hong Kong Triathlon Association. He was met with a bit of a challenge that day as it was a very windy day which caused huge rocky waves in the sea! He is currently preparing for more swimming competitions. Keep it up Ernest!

August 10 – Carlson Lam (5W) represented Chelsea FC Soccer School Hong Kong to attend the 2019 YFL Football Camp at Hunan Chang Sha over a week in August. Despite the fact that the players of Chelsea HK team are one year younger than players from all the other football clubs, with their hearts on fire, the matches remained close, and were exciting. It was definitely a fruitful experience for Carlson. Well done Carlson!

August 25 – Sonia Shum (1L) participated in a Mandarin speech competition and won the gold medal! This was her first competition and she had been practicing for a month. On stage, she was very confident and performed really well. Congratulations Sonia!

What Matters: Effects and Side Effects of Education

Date: Saturday, 7 September 2019
Time: 9:00am – 10:30am
Venue: Quarry Bay School, 6 Hau Yuen Path, Braemar Hill, North Point, Hong Kong
Fee: Free of charge
Requirement: ESF parents only

All parents want an excellent education for their children, but what makes an excellent education can be confusing because of the many competing educational outcomes. For example, direct instruction may improve students’ short-term test scores but can decrease children’s creativity. Some practices that lead to good academic outcomes can result in damaging effects on student’s social-emotional wellbeing.

In this presentation, Professor Yong Zhao discusses why and how different models of education may help or hurt different outcomes so that parents can make more informed choices because some outcomes can matter more in life than others.

This is on a first-come, first-served event. Click HERE to register.

71st Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival

The application form for entering the 71st Hong Kong School Speech Festival will be ready for you to pick up at the school front desk from Friday 23rd August. If your child/(ren) want to participate in this competition, please return the application form and application fee with cheque payable to “Beacon Hill School” to the school office on or before Wednesday 11th September, 2019. The application fee is HK$145. School has added HK$10 transport and handling fee. Any late applications received after the deadline will not be accepted.

Please note that the ESF school education level is not equivalent to the local school system. When you enrol the year group programme, please cross check with the following table with the correct age group. HKSMSA is based on the local school system for enrolment.

ESF Level	Local School System
Y1	K3
Y2	Y1
Y3	Y2
Y4	Y3
Y5	Y4
Y6	Y5

Words from HKSMSA: In view of recent mass activities in various districts. Please consider the current social situation before enrolment. The enrolment of the Festival will proceed as scheduled. During the Festival period, should there be any unpredictable social events, the Association will have to cancel specific groups or even all classes for the safety of stakeholders. Under such circumstances, no alternative arrangement or refund of the entry fees will be made. If the Festival is held as scheduled, parents should first consider their own safety in whatever cases, and decide whether to proceed to or stay at the event venues. For enquiries, please contact HKSMSA at 2761-3877.