General

Dear Parents,

 

I hope your family enjoyed the recent half term break. Students have returned to school this week happy and quickly settled into their learning routines. With the help of Mr Dotillos (AV Educational Assistant) I would invite you to ‘walk with me’ around Kennedy School and take a peek into some learning this week. This short video (11 minutes) is intended to give you a window into student learning. Lessons are fun, engaging and varied for the students - I hope you find time to watch and enjoy our students sharing their learning at Kennedy School.

 

Thank you to the PTA for initiating some events for students in coming weeks:

 

• Friday 29 October: Fun-O-Ween (dress up day for everyone)

• Thursday 4 November: Diwali (dress colourful or in Diwali outfits)

 

With the support of the PTA, we will continue to find ways to scale up events which make Kennedy School’s community unique and fun for the students. This includes finding ways to connect parents. Please read the details in today’s newsletter about an upcoming PTA community coffee morning which will be just for parents.

 

Health reminder

Please be reminded that should your child be subjected to a COVID-19 compulsory testing order from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), they must not attend school until a negative test result has been confirmed and shared with Nurse Henriette. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Nurse Henriette at school. We remain vigilant in monitoring student health during these challenging times. Your continued cooperation and understanding is valued.

 

Important e-safety reminder

Many of you may be aware of the latest popular Netflix show entitled ‘Squid Game’.

Common Sense Media says, “Parents need to know that the level of violence is very intense in Squid Game…”

 

Netflix (and other popular streaming platforms) do offer parents security controls to limit young children from accessing adult content. This link shows how this can be done through either pin code protection or filtering in several simple steps:

 

As always, we also encourage that parents take an active role in monitoring their child’s internet usage, particularly if accessing websites such as YouTube from personal devices.

 

School Calendar (Revised)

Please refer to the revised school calendar in this newsletter. It reflects the recent changes to the ESF school holidays. Please note the ‘school day’ CPD on 2 June 2022 has been cancelled and will be a normal school day for all students.

 

Enjoy the weekend with your family.

 

Mina

Diary Dates

Diary Dates

25 to 28 Oct: School Photographs

29 Oct: Fun-o-ween Dress Up Day

1 Nov: Year 6 immunisation

4 Nov: Diwali - Dress colourful or in Diwali outfits (There will be a live stream of the parent led Diwali assembly at 8.30 am)

5 Nov: PTA Coffee Morning

8 Nov: Year 1 immunisation

10 Nov: PYP 101: Parents Guide to the IB PYP Programme 2021

12 Nov: PTA Coffee morning

23 to 26 Nov: Year 6 Camp

Updated School Calendar 2021/22

 

Here is the updated school calendar for the academic year 2021/22.

 

 

Newsletter Library

Ever wanted to check information on an older edition of the newsletter? All copies of the newsletter are stored in the “News” tab on the ESF App.

 

PYP 101: A Parent's Guide to the IB Primary Years Programme 2021

Wednesday 10th of November  at 6.00pm to 7.00pm

 

This webinar is designed for parents to find out more about the IB PYP, which is the curriculum framework we use at Kennedy School and across ESF. This webinar will focus on the IB Mission, the Learner Profile, key features of the PYP, and how our curriculum is embedded into the PYP framework through our Programme of Inquiry.

In other words, this workshop will answer the questions:

1. Why is my child learning this way? 

2. What are they doing? Why are they doing that?

3. How does the curriculum support the way my child learns?

This webinar will be interactive and you will be discussing and working with other parents. It is a great opportunity for us to share, learn and grow together. 

Please fill out the survey here and we look forward to seeing you virtually on Wednesday 10th of November.

Friday 29th October - Fun-O-Ween Dress up

To honour our traditional Kennedy School celebration, we are inviting children bring a $5 donation and come dressed up next Friday 29 October.

 

The children can have a photo taken in their outfits during their morning break and photos will be shared for all parents to enjoy.

School Tours

School Photographs

Techni Photo will be in school from Monday 25 October to Thursday 28 October to take individual portrait photos of the children.  Social distancing will be observed and all staff and children will be wearing their masks as usual.  Each child will briefly remove his/her mask when taking the individual photo.  We will not be taking group class photo at this stage.

The children should be in their formal school uniform and hair accessories should be in purple or white. 

The photo schedule is as follows:

House Recycling Challenge

We are starting the Kennedy House Team Recycling Challenge! This year long challenge will pit house against house in the race for Trash Cash!

 

We are running this challenge through the Environment Protection Department’s Community Recycling Network called Green Community.

Recycling is easy and it feels really good!

1. Check this LIST for what you can recycle at these centres

2. Take your recyclables to any of these COLLECTION POINTS

3. Scan your House QR code to earn points for your house

4. Check your house’s progress HERE

Tip: Have this poster with the QR code ready to scan upon arrival at the Recycling centre!

 

Box of Hope 2021

One of our favourite charities, Box of Hope, will resume collecting boxes this year. Hurray! 2021 will be Box of Hope’s 14th year delivering smiles in a box to underprivileged children in Hong Kong and Asia. In 2019, Kennedy School collected 1,100 beautiful boxes for families in need here in HK and in other countries. Can we exceed this target?

 Boxes should be brought into school from (Mon to Fri) 1- 5 November.

Tetrapak Update

The Monday Tetrapak Recycling programme is growing from strength to strength! Lions are still in the lead with Dragons and Unicorns close behind.

The totals so far are:

Lions: 29 kg

Dragons: 27 kg

Unicorns:26 kg

Phoenix: 21 kg

That means more than 2,500 tetrapaks have been saved from the landfill by the Kennedy School community since September! Well done!!

Please make sure all are washed, dried and cut open.

 

Community Coffee Morning for parents

Friday 5th November 9.00 to 10.00 am

Friday 12th November 9.00 to 10.00 am

Being part of a close and supportive community has always been at the heart of Kennedy School life — but connecting with other parents and families has been challenging the past 2 years.

With this in mind, Year 5 parents and long-time community members, Catherine Dannaoui, Fiona Bulmer and Natasha Petit O'Connor, are hosting two casual coffee mornings at school.

This is for any parents keen to connect, chat, share experiences and spend time together (in-person!).

Please fill out the form HERE to register your attendance.

 

 

Kennedy School Tram Christmas Decoration

The PTA is delighted to announce that we are working with Lion Rock Press to produce a limited edition ornament of the Hong Kong Tram specially for the school. 

The Kennedy School tram will be in Kennedy purple with the label "Kennedy School Hong Kong".

We have only 100 trams left, so if you are keen to add this to your collection, please complete this GOOGLE FORM. 

While stocks last!

Kennedy School Christmas Wrapping Paper

Can we say the 'C' word? Start planning for Christmas with our fabulous Kennedy School Christmas wrapping paper.

Each sheet is 70 cm x  52 cm

5 sheets - $40

10 sheets - $80

To order, please email Mrs Vicki Rummun vrummun@kennedy.edu.hk.

 

Uniform and Buses

Winter Uniform Items

All uniforms can be ordered from http://www.schooluniform.hk

We have the Kennedy cardigan, V-neck and fleece jacket. For PE days, we also have long track pants. Orders will be delivered to the children directly. At times when we have been busy, the site may be suspended for stocktaking. Please be patient! 

 

Buses

If your child is a bus user and has started an new activity or changed their afternoon schedule, please make sure you inform Mr Chen at bus@kennedy.edu.hk

For now, we CANNOT ACCOMMODATE PLAY DATES - this is due to the afternoon buses being very full. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.