20 Jan 2023

Monthly Newsletter (January 2023)

Principal’s Message

Message from the Principal

家; family, home. We all know the importance of a supportive family – children feel secure and cared for and develop confidence to explore their world, try new things and learn. At South Island we strive to create this atmosphere for our whole community, because we believe that when you feel a sense of belonging, magic can happen.

This past week has given us many opportunities to show our commitment to each other and the importance of family.

On the weekend, a great number of our teaching staff came together with their families to hike the Hong Kong Trail in memory of our colleague, Paul Gardner, who passed away last year. It was a lovely atmosphere and a wonderful opportunity to share stories about a man who was a very important member of our South Island family.
This week also marks the end of the Year 13 mock examinations. The students had a great support system to help them through a very tough couple of weeks, in their parents, their teachers, and their classmates.
We welcomed our new staff members with a coffee morning to build connections and welcome them to the family.
We also welcomed Year 6 students, soon to be Year 7 South Island School students. The number of our current SIS students who volunteered their time to show these younger students around campus and to make these first experiences of secondary life memorable was outstanding.
Our PE staff also went the extra mile to support our Year 11 students at Wong Chuk Hang, ensuring they could showcase the best of their skills in Rounders. Special mention goes to the students themselves for the robust encouragement they offered each other.
And finally, our amazing Chinese New Year Assembly. This was a special highlight of the week, with the entire school coming together to celebrate the incoming Year of the Rabbit as one family.

This coming week marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year; a time to reconnect with family and look forward to a healthy, happy and prosperous year ahead. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your part in making South Island School a very special place to learn, to grow, to thrive.

Have a wonderful holiday and best wishes for the year ahead.

Kung Hei Fat Choi / Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Carolyn Andrews

Interim Principal

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NOTABLE EVENTS

(1) CHINESE NEW YEAR ASSEMBLY

Chinese New Year represents a very special time for many of our students in South Island School, and to welcome the Year of Rabbit, the School celebrated this important annual festival with the Chinese New Year Assembly.

The assembly featured more than 70 fantastic student performers. Performances included solo and group singing, Chinese dance, and interpretations of famous Chinese pieces on the Guzheng, Erhu and piano. The assembly ended with the Leadership Team singing Gongxi Gongxi alongside the students, and everyone seemed to be ready for the holiday and the festival! Congratulations to all the student performers and teacher performers (Mr Lee and Ms Nicholas), student helpers, staff and a special thank you to Ms Holyoak, Ms Chen and Mr Mak for all their hard work and preparation for this enjoyable assembly.

(2) KUCA MAD WEEK

This year’s Kuca MaD week was focused on the issue of period poverty, aiming to destigmatize and raise awareness around this topic around school. There were various activities planned for students to participate in, including origami, quizzes and documentary screenings. Well done, Tania Chim (12K2), Katrina Wong (12K2) and the Kuca MaD Council team for such a great initiative. You all made a difference!

(3) YEAR 6 TASTER LESSONS

This week we are excited to welcome our second group of Year 6 students to South Island School community this week. We believe that the move to secondary school is a significant milestone in a students’ life, and therefore it is our aim to make the transition as smooth as possible. The students were excited to gain a sense of life at secondary school, meet teachers and make friends with other students. In addition, there were opportunities to experience tasters lessons in subjects such as Science, French/Spanish, Maths, Global Thinking, Individuals and Societies, PE, Creative Arts and a welcome to the Family Bauhinia.

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UPCOMING EVENTS & INFORMATION

(1) GOVERNMENT ISOLATION ORDER UPDATE

The government has made changes to the isolation due to Covid that will come into effect on January 30, 2023. For our students who test positive for Covid should not attend school until they have tested negative by RAT. To read more about this update, please click the link HERE.

(2) ESF STAKEHOLDER SURVEY

From February 1-12, we will be inviting our stakeholders to complete a survey to capture your feedback on how we, as a school, are providing the best for our students. You will receive an email from Belinda Greer, CEO of ESF, inviting you to complete this very important survey. We would like to hear from each and every member of our community so please do take this opportunity to share your views.

(3) CURRICULUM EVENING

After a successful series of curriculum evenings in term 1, we would like to offer further information sessions in terms 2 and 3. Therefore we would like to know which subjects or aspects of the curriculum at South Island School you would like to learn more about.

Thank you for taking the time to share your opinions in the following Google Form HERE.

Previous Curriculum Evenings:

– Mathematics – 27 October

– Languages – 17 November

– Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) – 1 December

(4) MESSAGE FROM THE PTA COMMITTEE

The PTA would like to extend a very warm welcome to the families who have joined the SIS community since 2020. As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we are excited to announce our Yum Cha session will be returning. This will be a wonderful opportunity to have existing and new parents, students and staff together especially even more around Chinese New Year, when support and connection are so culturally important.

In our first session, we would like to invite families who have joined SIS between the year 2020 to 2023.

Date: Friday 3 Feb 2023
Time: 1:30 – 2:30 pm
Venue: 5/F, The SPACE, South Island School

To register for this event, please complete the form HERE.

As a reminder, the PTA Committee is looking for an administrator. This is a full-time role during term time, with some additional work in August. SIS PTA stages a number of social and fundraising events each year and supports the school and parent community for the benefit of all South Island School students. If you are interested in applying for this PTA administrator role, please find more information HERE.

Happy New Year!

Phase Year 7-9

Message from Head of Phase Year 7-9:

CURRICULUM

Year 9 Options Fair

Many Year 9 students and parents attended the school options fair to find out more information about the subjects on offer for their (I)GCSE courses. It was great to see students listening to presentations, asking questions and discussing their possible choices with their friends. Thank you all for attending and hope you found it helpful.

Year 9 & 11 Vertical Tutoring

Another superb opportunity took place to gather information for their choices for (I)GCSE options. Our Year 11 students spent a Pastoral Learning Curriculum (PLC) session this week explaining their option choices with the Year 9 students. They discussed the challenges they faced during the year and valuable tips to support progress. A big thank you to the Year 11 students for their honesty, enthusiasm and support during this session.

Year 9 – Community Project in Global Thinking

The community project was officially launched in the first week of this term so that our Year 9 students are more aware of what is ahead of them with this exciting part of the MYP journey. The Year 9 students have been sent a survey to complete, which will help gauge their interests and help form their learning groups. The first session in their Community project groups will begin after half term.

VALUES IN ACTION

Year 8 Prefects

This term, Year 8 Prefects have been supporting the Family Bauhinia team by guiding Year 6 students on their taster days at SIS. The students were fantastic ambassadors for the school and ensured the Year 6 students had a fantastic visit. We look forward to seeing them back in school in August!

Year 7 PLC Term 2

In response to student needs, Year 7 students will be focusing on ‘how we treat others and conduct ourselves’ in this term’s pastoral learning. They will be preparing various display materials including posters demonstrating ‘above and below the line behaviours’.

Vertical Values in Action

Students from Year 11 have been completing various projects for their IGCSE Global Citizenship course. One such project was to raise awareness with Family Bauhinia students about plastics in the sea. This was achieved through playing games, quizzes and working with the students to teach them about the consequences on wildlife in the oceans. Our students really enjoyed the connectivity and activities arranged, it’s always rewarding to see students advocating for causes they are passionate about.

WELL-BEING

Year 8 PLC: Relationships

This week Year 8 students explored different types of relationships, how to identify when a relationship might be unhealthy, and they all gave advice on how to strengthen relationships. This is a great conversation to continue to discuss at home, and guidance from parents can help our students to navigate friendships and all kinds of relationships they are building.

Year 7 – SIS Community Challenge

Due to the short ‘half-term’, Year 7s have created for themselves a short challenge to focus on in the last two weeks. These have included; making sure to recycle carefully, contacting friends and family more, playing with family and helpers instead of gaming, and reducing screen time.

The Space – Connectivity and Well-being

The Space continues to be a positive environment for all at lunch and break and the Year 6 students certainly enjoyed experiencing some of the games and activities on offer when they visited in the last two weeks. There really is something for everyone here, from more physical activities of basketball, to a place where children can game together over lunch or just sit and chat about their days. We especially like it when the older and younger students mix, maybe over a game of chess, as can be seen below, or find something in the cupboard to give them an opportunity to create, like the girls who built the wooden structure from a kit in the lost and found!

Syrita Nicholas

Head of Phase (Year 7-9)