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Kowloon Junior School - ESF https://www.kjs.edu.hk/newsletter-01-09-21/ Export date: Sat Apr 20 16:26:45 2024 / +0000 GMT |
Newsletter- 01/09/21 Kowloon Junior School's latest newsletter is available to read now. Dates for Your DiaryWednesday 22 September Mid-Autumn Festival - No school Friday 1 October National Day - No school 11 - 15 October Mid Term Break Friday 17 December Last day of term - Half day (finish at 12pm) 20 December - 7 January Term Break Monday 10 January First day of Term 2 Dear KJS Families, It's been another very positive and constructive week at KJS. I have noticed that our students are being given the time and space to build relationships, slow down their thinking, share, and make connections that deepen their understanding. This approach helps us to continue to develop a culture that values thinking as a necessary part of learning. Speaking of thinking, I have had several conversations with students this week about thinking and writing. Writing (including drawing) is effectively the same as thinking. Our thoughts are manifested in our writing and, as such, more easily understood. I noticed that when I shared this frame of ‘write to help you think', students that seemed a little more reluctant to write, perhaps because they were worried about grammar or spelling, became more at ease with drawing or writing out their thoughts. I then asked students to notice how they feel when they write while engaging in a challenge. Many shared that it felt good and was useful in helping them overcome their challenges. Please join us in continuing to promote writing as thinking and not as something to be done once our thinking is ready or perfect. Kind regards, Dr Jamie Schmitz Acting Principal Library News It has been a fabulous week seeing the children visit the library and borrowing books. Parents, do remember to remind your child to bring their bags on their library day. However, should students forget, they are reminded that they can bring it on other days and exchange them in the morning as they go to class. KJS Reading Pictures  We are once again collecting photos of students reading their favourite books to decorate the walls of our library and around our school. When students graduate, they are welcome to collect their photos to take back as a memento. Please see here for this year's photo and for last year's photos, here is the link. Please share them with us by emailing them to Ms. Lau at macy.lau@kjs.edu.hk. Upon receipt, Ms. Lau will email you back. Due to the number of photos, it may take a few days to get back. After school writing club  The After school Writing Club is back due to popular demand. Lessons will be held online every Tuesday (Years 5-6) and every Wednesday (Years 3-4) starting in September. After 12 weeks, students will have their books edited and published. All published books are prominently displayed on our KJS and ESF Author Alumni display in the library. Please see the flyer for more details about the club. Here is the link. SCMP Young Post Student Reading Program  Thank you for the popular response to the SCMP Young Post student reading program. We have now met our 20 student minimum to start on September 13th!!! If you are interested, there is still time. For parents who missed our newsletter last week, SCMP Young Post Reading program will be starting shortly. Young Post has been modified to a 24-page weekly newspaper that provides students with current news and content tailored to children. Reading newspapers provides students with more opportunities to stay connected with current affairs in the local community, improving vocabulary, the best source of general knowledge, and more. The subscription includes e-copy of Young Post and access to SCMP online on the below dates:  If interested, please complete this Google Form by September 3rd, 2021. Payment methods are linked in the form. Please see link to flyer for more details on Young Post. Happy Reading everyone! If you have any questions, please email our library team at library@kjs.edu.hk. Y6 to Y7 Transfer ApplicationThis is an important notice to all Y6 parents. Referring to the message from CEO Mrs Belinda Greer, there will be an important change to the Y6 to Y7 transfer this year. If you wish your child to transfer to an ESF secondary school, you are required to submit a transfer application for Year 7 (available only on Gateway) during the period Wednesday 1 September- Friday 17 September 2021 Starting with this year's Y6 allocation for Y7, ESF will process and allocate according to an ‘associated secondary school' for Y7 placement. The associated secondary school for KJS is King George V School (KGV). This means ALL KJS Y6 children will transition to KGV for Y7 for the 2022/2023 school year. Allocation for secondary school will be by ‘associated secondary school' and NOT determined by the residential address. However, ESF also recognises this is the first year of this model, and ESF will grandfather all Y6 students who wish to transfer according to their residential zoned address. This means a family may choose to opt out by indicating ‘yes' when completing their Y7 transfer form. Should families wish to opt out and process your child's Y7 transition by zone, it will be according to current residential address at the time of application; change of residential address following submission of application and prior to entry to Year 7 will not be considered. If you need any clarifications, please contact the KJS school office or the ESF Secondary School Admissions Team at secondary.admissions@esfcentre.edu.hk.  We have gotten off to a great start with our new recycling system at KJS!For those of you who do not know, we have partnered with Love Recycling Plus, a fairly new recycling company in Hong Kong. Kenny, the co-founder of the company has been working with myself and Gill Hadley to create a recycling system at KJS that not only gets our waste recycled, but supports us all to think about what we are throwing away and where it is going. Our aim is to not just recycle but to change our habits and our mindsets as consumers. We will keep you up to date as we move through the year but for now, here is what we've accomplished: 1. PTA kindly purchase our electronic recycling bins, which are located on the ground floor. The bins are automatic and have been designed to reflect our KJS logos including Drake the KJS dragon! Thank you PTA!    2. Kenny came to speak with our teaching and domestic staff and on August 18th to introduce himself, his company and his passion for ensuring HK has a sustainable future. He was inspiring to listen to and helped educate us on what needs to happen in order to make our system successful.  3. Students have been working with their teachers to think about what classroom and year group systems need to be in place. We recognise that in order to make this work, we need full input from the students from day 1. As we move through the year, and with Kenny's support we will continue to build on the education so students know why they need to recycle.  4. Kenny came to collect our first round of recycling. We filled three large bags with paper and plastics. Kenny said “I am surprised and happy to see 3 out of 4 bind were full. All recycling was very clean! Well done KJS!”   If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch with myself or Ms. Hadley. Dawn Doucette ESF and Other Notices73rd Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival (2021) E-entry forms for the 73rd Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival (2021) are now available (see the links below). 73rd Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival (2021) - Chinese Speech 73rd Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival (2021) - English Speech Parents who wish their children to participate in the Festival must submit and print out the completed form(s) together with the entry fee in cash to the school office by Friday, 17th September. Late applications cannot be processed. For further details on Rules & Regulations and Syllabus, please visit the official website https://www.hksmsa.org.hk/en/speech-festival/ Student SuccessThe celebration of student success will channel to our Facebook page. You can find the school's Facebook here. Please keep the photos and stories coming of our children shooting the AAROW's of Success! Disclaimer:
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