Newsletter- 02/09/20
Kowloon Junior School's latest newsletter is available to read now.
Dates for Your Diary
Thursday 1 October National Day - No school
Friday 2 October Mid-Autumn Festival - No school
Monday 5 October ESF CPD - No school
Friday 16 October Day before Mid-Term Break - FULL Day Classes
19 - 23 October Mid-Term Break
Monday 26 October Chung Yeung Festival - No school
Friday 11 December Last day of term - Half day (finish at 12pm)
14 December - 1 January Term Break
Monday 4 January First day of Term 2
Dear Parents,
What exciting news that very soon the children will be back in school! I had the pleasure of meeting with the ESF Primary School Principals yesterday, ESF Senior Leaders and our CEO, Belinda Greer. The mood was incredibly positive as the group discussed plans for the return to school. Together, we are working with the EDB to put in place plans that will maximise the time that children spend in school each day. You might be aware of some of the details that have been reported in the media, at this time what we can confirm is:
- Commencing 16 September schools may have up to ⅙ of their children in school;
- Commencing 23 September schools may have 50% of their children in school;
- Commencing 29 September all children may return.
Presently we are finalising;
- Priority groups for the 16 September;
- Arrangements for the 50:50 from 23 to 28 September;
- The safest way to have all children in school from the 29th and any resources and new strategies we will need to have in place to maximise safety, wellbeing and learning;
- The implications for buses and travel.
In the meantime, we are continuing to refine and enhance our distance learning provision while being mindful of children's time on screen and the demands of multiple live zooms during the day. The most recent enhancements include:
- Music - in addition to the bi-weekly live zoons, the music team are offering two singing sessions on Tuesday during morning and lunch breaks: first session Years 1-3 and 2nd session, Years 4-6.
Additionally, students have been encouraged to upload their music performance/practice videos onto flipgrid for upper year levels and the team then give feedback. The team are now also providing additional learning and resources to students (dance, singing, music library) which can be located on all year level websites under the music page.
- PE - due to the overwhelming positive feedback from students and families, PE will be live weekly from next week onward. We know that for some of you, this will decrease flexibility and the opportunity to use the prepared lessons at a time that suits your family best. However, the feedback supports this enhancement.
- Chinese - In years 1-3, in addition to the live Zooms, teachers are available to support student independent learning via Zoom and Seesaw. In Years 4-6, teachers are available to students via Google classroom.
Given the impending return to school, these will be the final enhancements to our Distance Learning for this cycle. Our new return to school plan will have details that will be communicated to families in advance of the return dates to allow preparation time and organisation for each home.
External Standardised Assessments Across ESF Primary Schools
You will know our focus at KJS is “Success For Every Child”. Part of the process we use to analyse the impact of our teaching and learning has been standardised assessments (ISA, InCAS, PIPS).
Much as we value the importance of these assessments, to help build an overall picture of progress and achievement, the decision has been taken that these will be postponed across all ESF primary schools during this period of disrupted school.
ESF senior management will continue working with the school Principals on a new timeline and will review their position again in January 2021.
Here are some helpful tipos for you.
COVID parenting tips: http://covid19parenting.com/#/home
Please take the time to read the important information below. We look forward to seeing you and your children very soon!
Kind regards
亲切的问候,
सधन्यवाद
Neill O'Reilly
Principal
IMPORTANT – Y6 to Y7 Transfer Application
This is an important notice to all Y6 parents. 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 Tuesday 1 September- Friday 18 September 2020.
Applications are processed 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.
For further details, please refer to information available on the ESF website at http://www.esf.edu.hk/year6-to-year7-key-dates/ for key dates and http://www.esf.edu.hk/esf-zones for school zones.
Y1 Central Application for Sibling
Year 1 Central Application for children born in 2016 will begin from 1 to 30 September. If you have a child who is a sibling of a current KJS student and wishes to apply, please do so through the ESF online application system during the Central Application period.
For further details, please refer to information available on the ESF website at https://www.esf.edu.hk/application-form/.
PTA Update
Meeting
We had our first meeting of the year yesterday with a good turnout of parents and updates from the school and the PTA.
Our next meeting should be the AGM on 25 September 2020. As of now we are unsure whether we will be able to go ahead as planned and have the meeting in person. A quorum must be met to carry on with the AGM and we are waiting for more information and guidelines from ESF. As soon as we have this information, we will share it with you.
New Committee
We will be voting in our new committee at the AGM. If you are interested or know of any parent who would be interested in joining our core committee as Vice Chair or Secretary, please let us know via this form .
Parents who are interested in joining the committee as a Parent Representative, please also fill in this form and let us know.
PTA Shop Timings
The PTA Shop is now open for uniform purchases following the guidelines below:
- Parents must make an appointment with the PTA;
- Only one parent will be allowed inside the school, children will not be allowed;
- Parents must sign a Health Declaration form at the school gate – parents will not be allowed inside the school without this form;
- Temperature checks will take place at the school gate; and
- Parents must leave the school grounds as soon as they have finished their appointment.
Appointments will be spaced out so as to avoid large gatherings in the PTA shop.
Class Chat Groups
This is a reminder that Class Chat Groups are created for the benefit of the parents and to build and enhance the school's community spirit. We understand that many classes may not prefer to create new chats and would like to carry on with their chats from last year.
This would be perfectly fine as long as all parents identify themselves and state their full name and child's name on the chat for security reasons. Some class chats may have parents who have left the school already. In the interest of safety and data protection, please introduce yourselves on your chats so Class Reps are aware of who you are. Timetables as well as Zoom links and passcodes are shared on class chats so ensuring safety for families is paramount at the moment.
I would like to thank all parents who represent their classes. They provide an irreplaceable link between the PTA and the rest of the school and we appreciate your help. I am happy to report that this year, we managed to secure a representative for each class within the first two weeks of school.
At the moment, PTA events are placed on hold. As and when it is safe to have large gatherings, we will proceed with our calendar of events.
Lunch refunds from Fit for Life for Term 2 of last year have already been processed. For parents who forgot to fill in the refund forms sent out in June, please email the PTA office and inform Candy So, our PTA Administrator at pta@kjs.edu.hk and she can follow up on these pending refunds for you.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Saloni Melwani
Chair, PTA
ESF and Other Notices
Student Success
The 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:
- Kowloon Junior School, English Schools Foundation and its affiliates shall take no responsibility for any activities, events, and services, that are organised by other organisations or individuals and are mentioned in our newsletters.
- If you do not wish to receive our newsletters by email, you may contact the school office at office@kjs.edu.hk to opt out. Our newsletters will still be accessible on our website https://kjs.edu.hk/kjs-news/.
- In accordance with our Personal Data Handling Policy, Kowloon Junior School and English Schools Foundation may place your child's photos, name, school work, activities and accomplishments in our newsletters or other publications (including but not limited to our websites and social media sites). If you would like to opt out, please email the school office at office@kjs.edu.hk.
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