HKAYP Updates – 29 March 2019

Gold HKAYP Awards

Congratulations to two of our Alumni Sahil Bhagat and Jeremy Chit Sung on completing their Hong Kong Award for Young People at Gold Level. This is a very big accomplishment, as typically only 50 young people receive this level of Award in Hong Kong each year. We hope this will encourage our many other students to work towards their Gold Award to complete it soon.

 

Silver HKAYP Assessment Expedition

35 Year 12 students embarked on a gruelling assessment journey on 21-23 March in the North East in New Territories. They all covered over 40km over some challenging terrain including in many cases the Pat Sin Leng range. The students camped at a Hok Tau campsite on Thursday night and then tried a new wild campsite at Kuk Po right next to the Chinese Border. It was a challenging expedition due to some unseasonal hot and humid weather and swarms of biting insects! However, everyone kept up their morale and we are proud of their achievements.

 

RGS Schools out Reach Programme

We were delighted to welcome Mr John Pilkington to speak to our Year 9’s about his adventures from the coast of Vietnam to the high pastures of Tibet. John is a very well respected speaker and adventurer and the students enjoyed listening to his well-recounted stories. John was very impressed with our students and the excellent questions they asked.

Below is a brief introductory quote for John Pilkington:

“The explorer John Pilkington has been called “Britain’s greatest teller of travellers’ tales”.  After journeys in Africa and Latin America, he completed an 800 km solo crossing of the western Himalaya.  His interest in Asia grew further with the opening in 1986 of the border between Pakistan and China, making it possible for the first time in 40 years to retrace virtually the whole of the Silk Road.”

 

Dr Rhys Jones on The Journey of an Evolutionary Biologist

Dr Jones spoke to a small group of our senior students from Years 11-13 about his amazing work as a conservationist and evolutionary biologist. He captivated the audience with his adventures and his ground breaking work in wildlife conservation.

Dr Jones is a Cardiff University Lecturer, reptile specialist, environmental consultant, researcher and broadcaster for the BBC, The Smithsonian Channel, National Geographic and the Discovery Channel.

 

YMCA Learn to Read Programme 

YMCA launched its service programmes at SIS. Our Year 12 students showed great interest in volunteering on 22 March 2019.

 

YMCA CAS Experiences

On 14 March, some representatives from the YMCA came into school to share some great service opportunities with Year 12’s. These have already started with students working with the elderly and a help-to-read programme at the Kornhill centre. We look forward to developing this partnership which seems to offer some outstanding CAS opportunities.

 

Hong Kong City Nature Challenge

We would like all students and their families to take part in the City Nature Challenge to survey the wildlife in our amazing city. We will be talking to students about this in Science classes. We really encourage you to get involved. Please see details below, with more details to follow next week.

SIS needs your help in this very important Biodiversity Challenge. We hope that every single student and their family can take part in this fun and meaningful survey. This event is taking place at the very end of the Easter vacation. Please put it in your diaries and get out and about, trying to record at least 25 observations.

City Nature Challenge 2019: Friday 26 April – Monday 29 April

This year there are over 170 cities worldwide taking part and last year Hong Kong came in the top 10! This year we can help equal this or raise our profile.

All you need to do is:

• Download the “iNaturalist” app on your Google Play Store or App Store. This is a very easy app to use.
• During the competition period, take as many photos of wildlife as you are able to, following the guidelines.
• The photos can be taken anywhere in Hong Kong.
• Try if you can to ensure you take photos of wild species (captive or cultivated are not as helpful).

After the competition period there is a period of time for you to try and identify your specimens but don’t worry, there are a team of experts to help you if your photos and observations are good!

 

Identification Dates: Tuesday 30 April – Sunday 5 May

Below are the links to this great event. We hope you will enjoy getting fully involved together with your families. We did really well in the interschools competition last year, so let’s all help contribute to this really important survey.

CNC website (global): http://citynaturechallenge.org/
Hong Kong CNC Project Page: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2019-hong-kong
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2120153251628093/

If you have any questions please ask Mr Morris or Ms Daly.