31 May 2018

Family Bauhinia Newsletter (May 2018)

Family Bauhinia’s latest newsletter is available to read now. Find out the latest news and upcoming events.

> Celebrating Student Achievements In Family Bauhinia

> Inter-House Swim Gala (Friday 8th June – Victoria Park Swimming Pool)

> School Bus Service Registration for 2018-19

> Important Dates For Your Diary

Vice Principal’s Comments

Dear Family Bauhinia Parents,

June is just around the corner! Where has the time gone? As we end another fantastic year as Family Bauhinia, I want to take this opportunity to thank all members of our amazing family for their valued support – it is because of you our Family is strong.

The last month of school brings with it many changes: we welcome our new, soon-to-be Year 7 students from the Primary Schools; we watch our current Year 7 students take on their senior role in our Family; and we say goodbye to our Year 8 students as they move into their new Learning Family – Bamboo or Banyan.

To celebrate this growth, Year 6 students will spend the day with us on Friday June 1st. They will be welcomed into their new House, meet the other members of their Tutor Group and work with the Leaders of Family Bauhinia, our Year 12 prefects and some of our Year 7 and 8 students. It promises to be great day with many smiles and great memories.

For our current Year 7 and 8 students, we will have a one final get together to celebrate just how amazing this year has been. On June 28^th, we will have a Bauhinia Family Celebration. The purpose of the event is to come together and have some fun one last time as Family for the year. It is shaping up to be a wonderful event.

As I have mentioned many times, it has been another successful year in Family Bauhinia and we like to celebrate our students’ successes. Please find below some of these events and the names of the students that have participated in them.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Carolyn Andrews

Vice Principal / Learning Director, Family Bauhinia

South Island School

Celebrating Student Achievements in Family Bauhinia

Making a Difference

Progress Check Cards

The Progress Check Cards will be available on iSAMS on the following dates:

Year 7 PCC 3 – Thursday June 28th (This is a data report including tutor comment)

Year 7 PCC explanation (MYP grading):

Your child’s teachers will give a rating to express how engaged they have been with their learning in each subject as well as a grading for each criterion (there are 4) for each subject group. The criterion for each subject can be found here. Tutors will also comment as a review of the year for your child. This report has been developed to meet the requirements of the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP)

Attainment : Based on assessments for each criterion (A,B,C,D) on a scale of 1-8

Engagement : How a student has engaged with the subject material since the last reporting period

Attendance : The attendance record is dated from August 2017 until the date of this PCC

TO ACCESS THE PCC IN THE ISAMS PARENT PORTAL (LAPTOP OR DESKTOP), PLEASE FOLLOW THE STEPS BELOW:

1) Login in to iSAMS (Parent Portal)

2) Click ‘School Profile‘ (at the top banner)

– click ‘School Reports‘

– click ‘View (child) School Reports‘

3) You can choose between ‘view‘ or ‘download‘ the reports

– ‘view‘ is a quick view

– ‘download‘ is a full report with the explanation of ratings

TO ACCESS THE PCC IN THE ISAMS PARENT APP (QUICK VIEW ONLY), PLEASE FOLLOW THE STEPS BELOW:

1) Login in to iSAMS (Parent App)

2) Click ‘My children‘ at the bottom banner

3) Select your child’s name

4) Select ‘Assessments & Reports‘

5) Select ‘PCC3 Y07 (2018)‘ and you can view the report (quick view only)

Curriculum Update

Bioblitz Unit of Inquiry – Year 7 Science

City Nature Challenge

As part of the City Nature Challenge, and meshing with their unit of work in Science, Year 7 students carried out their own BioBlitz to investigate the biodiversity around South Island School. Between April 27th and 30th, students took photos of the wildlife they saw in Hong Kong urban parks, throughout the countryside, on beaches, in neighbourhoods and around the islands, and uploaded their observations to the iNaturalist app.

The following results were achieved (number of results; global position in brackets):

Observations: 20268 (8/68) Species: 2932 (4/68) Observers: 755 (7/68)

Further details regarding Hong Kong’s involvement can be found here

To view all photos of the Bioblitz unit of inquiry, please click on the link here

Ms. Cowland (Co-Director of Science)

Chinese Online Reading Awards

We are always very impressed with the hard work and determination our students put into learning Chinese. We are very pleased to announce that 2 of our students have won an Award from Graded Reading World (阶梯阅读空间) which is an online reading programme organised by Commercial Press:

The best participation awards went to:

2nd Prize: Y7 Marcus Lau – who also received an Excellence Award
3rd Prize: Y7 Chun Yee Lui

Ms. Tracy Cheung (Head of Chinese)

Inter-House Swim Gala (Friday 8th June – Victoria Park Swimming Pool)

Please find below information regarding the upcoming Swim Gala. It is a great day for the whole as we come together and compete, cheer and celebrate as a school – it will be a great day!

INFORMATION

The Swim Gala will begin at 8.00 am sharp so students need to be at the pool by 7.45 am at the latest.
The Gala will finish at approximately 12.00 pm.
The venue is Victoria Park Swimming Pool, 1 Hing Fat Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
The theme this year is Sea Creatures colours, so we encourage the students to wear as much bright red/green/blue/yellow/orange/purple as they can!

TRANSPORT

The school buses will be running at the same times as they normally do on a school day.
Buses will take students straight to Victoria Park Swimming Pool from their bus stop to arrive between 7.30 -7.45 am (bus students do not come to school first)
There will be 1 bus in the morning going from South Island School leaving at 7.15 am mainly for staff but there will be room for students who live close to school
Buses will pick students up from Victoria Park Swimming Pool shortly after 12.00 pm and drop them off at their bus stop as they would on a normal school day.
There will be one bus going back to South Island School from Victoria Park Swimming Pool shortly after 12.00 pm.

CANCELLATION

The pool is indoor so there should be no weather issues to interfere with the day. If there are severe weather conditions which prevent us from travelling, confirmation of the cancellation of the gala will be posted on the school website at 6.45 am on Friday 8th June.

WHAT TO BRING

Snacks and drinks – there is no shop at the swimming pool so you need to bring your own food and drink
Students must bring: House swim cap, goggles, towel and poolside shoes.
EVERYONE will be taking part in the House challenge so all students need a swim kit.
All students must wear their South Island School swimsuit or a plain black equivalent if they do not have a school swimsuit.
Students must bring their school PE kit with their house T-shirt for when they are not racing
Students should not bring any valuables on the day (no laptops/iPods) as there are no storage facilities.

NOTES

Students are not permitted to leave the swimming pool complex during the day
Any students who cannot swim on the day need to bring a note and give it to their form tutor who will pass it onto the PE dept.

SIS Goes MaD 2018

Balance Payment for SIS goes MaD Week trips is due on 7th June for all trips.

A separate email has been sent to inform parents of the exact balance needed for their child’s/children’s particular trip. If you have not received the e-mail please contact Ms. Yokee Kwan (ykwan@sis.edu.hk).

Mr. Slethaug (Vice Principal)

School Bus Service Registration for 2018-19

For the new school year 2018-2019, Kwoon Chung Motor Co. Ltd. will operate an ONLINE platform with South Island School Parent Teacher Association Ltd for registration of the school bus service.

Online registration is now open. Please read the following details before you begin registration:

School Bus Information (bus fees, bus cards, students’ behaviour, cancellation, refund, etc.)
Bus Routes
User Guide for Application

Please CLICK HERE to proceed with the ONLINE registration for the school bus.

Please note that the bus seats are allocated on a first come first serve basis but priority will be given to New Year 7 students. Parents should submit the application on or before Thursday May 31, 2018

If you have any queries, please feel free to contact the PTA Administrator – Ms. Lee-Chan Chin at 2554 6622 or email at pta@sis.edu.hk. The bus information is also available on the school website https://www.sis.edu.hk/pta-bus-routes/

Student Withdrawal

If you are withdrawing your child at the end of this academic year, please complete the student withdrawal notice and return it to the Admissions Office in school via email at admissions@sis.edu.hk on or before 1st June. Otherwise, we will assume that your child is returning after summer and parents are liable to the tuition fees for September even if the student does not return to school.

Student withdrawal notice is available at school office or school’s website.

Ms. Sharon Wong (Admissions Officer)

Important Dates For Your Diary

MAY 2018

May 31 – Year 6 Parents Evening

JUNE 2018

Jun 1 – Cross ESF Pastoral Day
Jun 1 – SIS Films Award
Jun 1 – Year 8 Inter-house Gecko Maths
Jun 1 – ESF Swim Fun Gala (Year 7 swim team)
Jun 4 – French and Spanish spelling bee semi-final
Jun 7 – Deadline for ‘SIS goes MaD 2018’ balance payment
Jun 8 – Inter-house Swim Gala @Victoria Park
Jun 11 – Year 8 Public Speaking Competition
Jun 15 – Term 3 after school activities finish
Jun 18 – Public Holiday (school closed)
Jun 19 – CPD Day (school closed for students)
Jun 21 – ESF Junior Swim Gala Years 7-10 @SIS (by invitation only)
Jun 22 – Year 8 Inter-house Waterpolo
Jun 26 – Gala Concert
Jun 28 – Year 7 PCC3 live on iSAMS at 4.00 pm
Jun 28 – Family Bauhinia Celebration
Jun 29 – Last day of Term 3

All dates including whole school events and information can be found on our school calendar. To view the calendar, please go to our website and click on the link School Calendar

> Vice Principal’s Comments