19 Jun 2017

PTA Newsletter- 06/19/17

Kowloon Junior School Parent Teacher Association’s latest newsletter is available to read now.

PRE-OWNED UNIFORMS

Dear Parents,

As we are at the last month of this academic year, we would like to reflect on the achievements of our school community.

We organized the Lantern Festival Party, the Quiz Night, the Disco Night and the School Fair. We also organized the KJS Community Choir, Christmas sales at KJS and KGV, two charity visits to The Hub, and a raffle ticket sale. We sponsored a number of school events including the inter-schools sports tournament and the year six leavers celebration party. We have donated HK$300,000 to the school to support school development projects.

None of this would have been possible without your support and generosity. we would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone of you who has supported the PTA, to make our children’s learning experience at KJS more enjoyable and more rewarding.

SCHOOL LUNCH SURVEY

We have sent out an online survey to gather your opinion regarding school lunches. We would like to share with you some of the findings:

When deciding to order school lunch for the children:

86% of the respondents indicated they found the ”choice of different cuisines” is somewhat or very important.
56% of the respondents indicated they found “price” is somewhat or very important.
20% of the respondents indicated they found having a “vegetarian” option is somewhat or very important.
70% of the respondents indicated they found the option “NOT to order everyday” somewhat or very important.
68% of the respondents indicated having “extra fruit with lunch” is somewhat or very important.
68% of the respondents indicated having “low sodium/ low sugar” is somewhat or very important.

A number of parents also commented they would like to see more varieties of cuisine and different portion sizes for lower year groups. They would like to see more vegetables and fruit being offered in school lunches.

NEW SCHOOL LUNCH PROVIDER

Since the contract with Deli Fresh will expire this June, we have invited 4 different caterers including Deli Fresh to bid for a new contract as school lunch provider.

After reviewing their proposals, and food tastings with all 4 caterers by some of the PTA committee, parents, staff and students, site visits to caterers’ kitchens, and taking consideration of findings from the survey, we are pleased to announce we have selected Sodexo as our new lunch provider at KJS.

We selected Sodexo based on the following reasons:

They are the current lunch caterer at KGV and will prepare the food at the kitchen in KGV. They will prepare and cook the food at KGV on the day and transport the food from KGV to KJS to ensure food is freshly prepared daily.
They employ strict standards, policies, procedures and reporting systems in their operations and have an approved supplier network where they can trace back the source of their ingredients.
Their health and nutrition philosophy is very much in line with the KJS’s balanced and healthy core values.
They do not require us to order lunch every day for a whole month: parents can order the number of days based on their needs.
They will offer a wider choice of cuisines including Indian, Korean and Japanese food.
They will offer us more varieties of food including noodles, sandwiches, salads and naan bread.
They will offer us a healthier menu including fruit EVERYDAY, more varieties of vegetables and vegetarian options.
There are no MSG or additives in their food and their food was agreed to be the tastiest among all the caterers at the food tastings.
They will provide a regular portion size for year 4 to 6 and a smaller portion size for year 1 to 3 to minimize food wastage
They can maintain $30 per meal for 2017-18 and will increase no more than 5% for 2018-19.
The menu will be emailed to parents monthly and ordering will be done online and paid for by credit card, minimizing paper wastage and extra administrative work.

We are working with them closely to fine tune the ordering system to ensure it is user friendly. We will update you in July with the menu for August and clear instructions on how to place your order online. We very much look forward to our new partnership with Sodexo and we hope your children will enjoy their school lunch more.

PRE-OWNED UNIFORMS

KJS is becoming a more environmentally aware school. Many parents have expressed a willingness to donate and purchase pre-owned school uniforms. If you have used uniform that are in “GOOD” condition that you would like to donate, pleases wash and iron them and place them in the assigned boxes outside the school office on any day from now until Friday 30 June. We will sort them out and re-sell them to the community in the next academic year (details to be announced) so they can be re-used. Proceeds from the sale will be donated to the PTA to further support the school.

Have a wonderful summer holiday and see you all in August. For the year six leavers, good luck with your next journey!

With warmest regards,

Kowloon Junior School Parent Teacher Association

PTA Committee 2016-17

William Wong, Shelia Gridley, Saloni Melwani, Pooja Daryanani, Robert Wong, Anushka Nainani, Karen Thomas, Ciarian Fay, Jane Parker, Zoe Brinkworth, Ian Riddell, Gillian Hadley, Greta Holmes, Nicola Rigby