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4 Nov 2020

Newsletter- 04/11/20

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

 

Dates for Your Diary

Wednesday 4 November                   3 Way Learning Conference 1:15- 6:00pm (no afternoon class zooms)

Tuesday 10 November                       Y1 Immunisation

Tuesday 10 November                       5:00pm Online Safety Parent workshop (Keeping your child safe online)

Tuesday 24 November                       5:00pm Reporting 2020/21 Workshop (Improving our reporting systems)

Tuesday 1 December                         5:00pm Literacy workshop

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.

We have received our conformed IB Evaluation and we are delighted with the result. The school has evidenced a quality PYP learning environment for children with the evaluation team giving a range of commendations including:

  • The clarity, shared ownership, and access to the school vision and mission statements;
  • The strong culture of collaboration evident at the school;
  • Open, respectful and ongoing communications between the school and stakeholders;
  • Creative and effective strategies for shared and distributed leadership;
  • Extensive provision of funding to enable a quality PYP learning culture;
  • The library being a vibrant learning space and a focal centre for learning;
  • Collaborative structures and processes in place to ensure effective planning and reflection;
  • Leadership and all teachers take an active and intentional role in developing and supporting students personal and social education;
  • Teachers and students make optimal use of technology for teaching and learning;
  • Teaching and learning is strongly supported by a range of resources that enrich the learning experience of students;
  • The school encourages students to reflect on the why, what and how of learning; and
  • Systems are in place to regularly analyse assessment data to inform teaching and learning.

In addition to the commendations, the school received recommendations on a number of areas for strengthening including:

  • Further empower students to take self-imitated action as a result of the learning;
  • Continue to ensure academic honesty policy is communicated effectively;
  • Ensure that a common understanding of academic honesty is established;
  • Further explore ways to integrate into the written curriculum the policies developed by the school; and
  • Ensure PYP planners are coherent records of student learning.

 

The Evaluation affirms the positive direction of the school since the last review in 2014 and the dedication of the team especially over the last 18 months. The findings will be central to our plans for the next 3-5 years.

Parent workshops: Since the start of this academic year, we have run a range of workshops to support parents, the quality of teaching and learning, and student wellbeing. We have three more workshops via Zoom this term which are detailed above. We look forward to seeing you at as many as you can attend. We will record the upcoming workshops so that you can view them at a time suitable to you if you cannot attend.

Suspended School due to Weather: In the event of a T8 or above, please note online learning provision will be available. In the morning of an event, teachers will provide independent learning experiences online for students. We will send a message via the ESF app in the morning if T8 is announced confirming the availability of learning.

Student Wellbeing: Assessing Wellbeing in Education (AWE)

As we continue our focus on contextual wellbeing at KJS, we want to make you aware of one of the modes of gathering data that we are using in order to measure wellbeing at school and plan next steps.

Next week, children in Years 4, 5 and 6 will fill an online questionnaire assessing their wellbeing. This is happening across ESF with all students in Years 4-13. The Assessing Wellbeing in Education (AWE) assessment will help schools to measure and track the wellbeing of their school community through Positive Education based online wellbeing assessments. This is our third year using the AWE survey and I’m sure you’ll agree this information is more vital than ever.

The AWE assessment consists of a collection of validated psychometric scales and scientifically informed questions from the psychology literature that assess various aspects of wellbeing. The AWE assessment covers all major theories of wellbeing, rather than one particular theory or perspective. Filling in the 14 questions should take no more than 10 minutes.

The school will receive data about each student’s wellbeing and also anonymised data related to classes, year groups and the whole school. This will help the school plan to help both individuals and inform whole school plans.

Thank you for your ongoing support as we work together to ensure “Success for Every Child”.

 

Kind regards

亲切的问候,

सधन्यवाद

Neill O’Reilly

Principal

 

 

Donation Raised – Dress Casual Day

A total of HKD18,171 was raised for the Community Chest last Friday. Thank you for your generosity.

 

 

Yearly Fee Collection

To streamline fees and provide a sustainable solution to technology demands, we will continue collecting a lump sum from each child.  Please click here to download a copy of the newsletter.

 

 

Update: Government Student Grant 2020/21

The deadline for submitting the government’s Student Grant has passed. An acknowledgement email from the school office has been sent to parents who have submitted an application form. The forms will be delivered to the EDB Special Duties Office for processing.

If you have missed the deadline and would still like to submit an application, please send the application form to the school office as soon as possible. In line with EDB’s instructions, late applications will still be considered, but processing time might be delayed.

Please note that KJS or ESF is not responsible for the processing and distribution of the grant. For further enquiries, please contact the EDB’s Special Duties Office at spdenquiry@edb.gov.hk or 3850 2000.

 

 

Library News

Thank you to the KJS Community for your ongoing support of the Library!

We received some exciting news this week! Through a recent IB evaluation, we have learned that they recognized our library as “being a vibrant learning space and a focal centre for learning”. We appreciate and understand that we received this commendation through positive feedback from the KJS Community. Thank you!!!

KJS Virtual Library Update

The KJS Library Team has recently added a new section in the KJS Virtual Library called Learner Profiles in the Library.

After going to the page, scroll down and you will see Ms. Lau’s bitmoji character slideshow. Click on any PYP learner profiles listed on the bookshelf and it will bring you to a subpage that has picture books linked to the learner profile. These are all read alouds so you can read and listen to the stories. Explore more links by clicking on pictures such as famous people or items.

Which learner profile best suits you? Let us know. Enjoy!

 

Invitation for Home Language Book Donation

We love celebrating our Home Languages at the Library. If you have a chance to visit, you’ll see our bilingual book section and our new Chinese book section. Based upon a survey conducted in class last year, our students speak a diversity of languages. To ensure we are inclusive and provide a diversified collection, we invited all of you to donate books in your home languages to us.

As such, we’re inviting you to help us again. Christmas is fast approaching and if you’re clearing your closets, this would be a great time to donate your home language books to us at the Library. We’ll make sure to recognize your donations to us through social media and with a permanent recognition of the donation on the inside cover of the book.

If you have time, we would appreciate it if you could also record the story for us. Here is an example recorded by our Chinese Teacher.  We will put a direct link to the video recording on the front cover of the book so that students have the option of listening to the stories read aloud to them when they borrow the book.

Look at some of the happy faces of students who helped us last year.

 

Battle of the Books (BOB) Update

Thank you to all the Year 5 & 6 students who applied for BOB this year. Deadline was today at 3pm but we anticipate receiving over 100 applications. We appreciate all your wonderful reasons for wanting to be in the club and will review all applications carefully.

Once we have the list finalized, an announcement will be made on our KJS Virtual Library home page and selected students by email. Thank you for your interest and patience.

 

Scholastic Book Orders

If you’re looking to buy books for Christmas, Scholastic is starting their book club again. Flyers and order forms are now electronically and can be accessed via the KJS Virtual Library’s main page.  Deadline for orders is 11 November 2020.

 

 

ESF and Other Notices

73rd Hong Kong Schools Music Festival (2021)

Entry forms for the 73rd Hong Kong Schools Music Festival (2021) are now available (click here ).  Parents who wish their children to participate in the Festival must return the completed forms together with the entry fee in cash, to the school office by Friday 20 November, 2020.  Late applications cannot be processed.  Please also write your child’s name and class on the top right hand corner of the entry form.  For further details on Rules & Regulations and Syllabus, please visit the official website http://www.hksmsa.org.hk.

 

 

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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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/.
  3. 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.