Newsletter- 27/02/19
Kowloon Junior School’s latest newsletter is available to read now.
Dates for Your Diary
25 February to 1 March Book Week
27 & 28 February Book Fair
Friday 1 March Book Parade
6 to 8 March Y4 Camp
Wednesday 6 March Y2 Trip to AFCD Lions Nature Centre
12 to 15 March Council of International Schools Preparatory Visit
Saturday 16 March KJS School Fair
27 & 29 March Y2 Trips to Mong Kok Flower Market
Thursday 28 March Basketball Tournament at KJS
Friday 29 March Annual Music Concert
Monday 1 April School-wide Exams (just kidding, April Fools!)
Tuesday 2 April Wear Blue Day for Autism Awareness
Thursday 4 April ESF Primary Choral Concert
Friday 5 April Ching Ming Festival – No school
Monday 8 April Student Led Conference (evening)
Tuesday 9 April Student Led Conference (full day)
Thursday 11 April School Disco
Friday 12 April Last day of term – Half day
15 to 26 April Term Break – No school
Dear Parents,
In the immortal words of Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
“Be awesome! Be a book nut!”
This week we encourage you to be a book nut with your child. Nothing beats reading for the key to the world and nothing beats a parent reading with their child, asking questions (being interested) about the book their child is reading and modelling reading because it is true for your child.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
This week is a special week (and relatively easy) to make connections with what your child is learning at school. And just to see how observant they are ask them if they can remember the costumes Mr. O’Reilly and Ms. Lau have been wearing this week as we have been dressing up as our favourite book characters.
We encourage you to do a few special things to celebrate book week such as:
- Read a story to your older child (they will love it)
- Share your favourite book or author at the dinner table
- Have family members select their favourite Dr. Seuss quote
- Dress up for a book week dinner!
- Read a poem at dinner
- Consider purchasing a special book to mark book week 2019 from our book fair
The key message is to have fun with reading this week!
Kind regards
亲切的问候,
सधन्यवाद
Neill O’Reilly
Principal
UNICEF Kid Power Programme Bands are HERE!
This week we will be handing out the UNICEF Kid Power Bands to children who have signed up to the programme. From 1 March we invite these children to get active with the kid power band to earn ‘activity’ points. The more we move, the more points we earn and the more lives we save.
HOW IT WORKS
To ensure we earn as many points as possible please remember to charge the bands regularly and note they are not suitable to wear during water activities.
Good luck!
Library News – Book Week Activities and Philippine Book Donations
Happy Book Week! Here are some exciting activities that have been happening here at the library collaboratively planned with the Year 6s.
Book Week Activities
We are celebrating all week long with different activities held inside and outside the library. To start off the week, we had Mother Tongue Readers read to us by Parents, Teachers and Support Staff during snacktime play.
At lunchtime, students were highly anticipating stories read in English by our Mystery Readers.
For this week’s library lesson, students had the opportunity to explore students’ book writing competition books prominently displayed in the picture book area, they had fun making bookmarks that could also serve as name tags for their new Library Book Bags, and to guess at “Who’s Behind the Book” contest.
Philippine Book Donations
Last November, KJS school community came together to organize a book drive to collect books to donate to rebuild libraries in the Philippines affected by Typhoon Mangkhut. Parents and students came with bagfuls of books. Teachers took action by sorting through their classrooms, shared areas and resource rooms. Together, we donated approximately 1,500 books, 800 textbooks and 300 teacher manuals to NURTURE, an Initiative for Children’s Education.
Our books were delivered during Christmas to Malungon Region on Mindanao Island, the Philippines, a couple of hours South of Davao. We’re happy to announce that we helped rebuild three school libraries.
NURTURE has shared video of why books are greatly needed in the Philippines and some pictures of how our books reached the students there.
We will continue to collect book donations throughout the year. Please drop off your donations to the Library.
PTA Update
Year 6 Library Bag Presentation
On Friday, 22 February 2019, the PTA presented Library Bags to all the Year 6 students. It was a great afternoon where Neill spoke to the children together with Ms. Lau, our Librarian, and Saloni, the Chair of the PTA. The children were all very excited to receive their library bags.
Please note that all children are required to have the Library bag before the end of Term 2. The new sturdy library bag will protect books from being damaged when transporting them between home and school.
The bag is available for purchase from the PTA Shop. You may click here for the form.
School Fair, Green Dream, Saturday 16 March 2019
Sustainable Measures
Our fair is less than 3 weeks away and a lot of planning has gone into it to make sure it is both spectacular and environmentally friendly. New sustainable measures have been implemented to make sure we move forward with the right practices to protect our planet.
Our Asian and Western food stalls in the International Food Village, which is run by parents and teachers, will refrain from using any plastic and paper products. Instead we have hired a new contractor to bring in reusable tableware and cutlery, e.g. food trays (plates), cups, forks, etc. which they will lease to all fair goers for a minimal deposit. The deposit will be returned to you in full after returning the products. There will be no need to wash any tableware – just borrow the items by keeping a deposit, use them and remember to return them to get your deposit back.
Alternatively, you can bring your own reusable containers for food purchases and please remember to bring in a reusable water bottle which can be refilled at various water stations at the fair.
We will be using a stamp card system for the International Food Village and games instead of cash coupons. Cash will be used everywhere else. A letter for Early Bird purchases of the stamp card will be sent out shortly from the PTA. Stamp cards also give you a chance to win prizes from our Lucky Draw.
How you can help
We need volunteers – volunteers for food stalls, volunteers for book and product sales, volunteers for PTA run activities like face painting, applying temporary tattoos, temporary hair colour and selling hair accessories, and volunteers for raffle counting (before the fair). If you can spare an hour or two it would make a huge difference. Our events are a result of joint collaboration between parents, teachers and students. Please get in touch with us at the PTA to let us know if you can help. Our email address is pta@kjs.edu.hk. Contact us if you need more information on how you can help.
International Food Stall Teams
There will be a meeting for all food stall volunteers tomorrow, 28 February 2019 at 2:00pm in the D&T Room on the 4th floor. Please do attend this meeting if you will be helping at one of the food stalls.
The Western food stall needs your help. They need volunteers and assistance. Please reach out to us if you would like to get involved.
The School Fair will begin at 11:00am sharp. Please come early with your family and friends to enjoy every aspect of our biggest event of the year. Our fair will include:
- Mini bazaar in the school hall
- Free eye examinations
- Free sports demos
- Lots of games on every floor of the school
- International Food Village
- Outside food vendors for pizza, ice cream, cotton candy, popcorn
- A bar
- Interactive body art and hair stalls
- Arts and crafts – in the Sky Garden
- Walks through the Secret Garden
- A stage full of wonderfully talented children, teachers and parents
- A live auction
- Our raffle
- A special lucky draw every hour
Don’t miss out on any part of the fun. See you, your family and friends on 16 March!
Thank you.
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!
ESF and Other Notices
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.
