Dear Parents,

The children have had another busy and productive week of learning with their peers and teachers. Please enjoy a short ‘walk with me’ video of our students during their play break on Wednesday 5 May. Included in the video:

1. Daily RAT upload onto ESF App

2. No class mixing in 2022/2023

3. Hear news from the children in the playground

Raincoats for Term 3

The rainy season is upon us with the increased likelihood of sudden downpours in the mornings and afternoons. Please ensure that the children’s raincoats are in their bags at all times. Suitable raincoats include those that also protect the school bag. A limited number of Kennedy School raincoats are available for purchase at the link below.

Kennedy School raincoats

Rainstorm warning information for parents

Hong Kong’s Battle of the Books

Congratulations to Kennedy’s Battle of the Books Team - they competed in the semi finals this week and will join the final in a few weeks. The Kennedy students defeated teams from KCIS, American School Hong Kong and German Swiss. The children are required to read 20 books and know these books in detail to compete in the competition. The Battle of the Books Team has been led to the finals by Ms Susan Mifsud. It was a wonderful parting gift for Ms Susan as she leaves Kennedy this week. Thank you Ms Susan for all your hard work. We will miss you.

The Battle of the Books team are:

Year 5: Sya Ang 5B, Jasmine Choi 5B, Amelia Percival 5D, Claire Chen 5P

Year 6: Andrea Cheung 6C, Mikayla Tse 6N, Cherise Chan 6R, Damien Ling 6R, Julianne Lee 6S, Bryce Pun 6S, Hailey Ang 6S, Quentin Xu 6W

Year 3 Art Exhibition

I have enjoyed the exhibitions of beautiful art projects in Year 3 all week. The children have been so excited to share their inspiration and creativity. Well done to all of Year 3.

Welcome to new staff

I would like to extend a warm welcome to the new Kennedy staff. Please read their introductions here.

New Kennedy School Staff

Have a lovely long weekend with your family.

Mina

9 May - Public Holiday

10 May - Term 3 swimming begins

10 May - Year 3 Exhibition for 3H

13 May - Year 6 Taster day for 6W, 6N, 6R (9.00 am - 12.30pm)

17 May - Year 6 Taster day for 6C, 6S (9.00 am - 12.30pm)

20 May - Year 6 exhibition

24 May - Year 1 Parent consultations with Chinese Teachers on Zoom

2 June - School day as usual. (CPD day cancelled)

3 June - Public Holiday

24 June - Last day of school - ends at 12 noon

Kennedy School is very proud to present a fabulous momento of the experiences and memories our children have made this academic year.

The Kennedy School Yearbook is packed full of children’s work, entertaining photographs, pictures of school-wide events and students’ amazing achievements. Every child is featured as a celebration of school life at Kennedy School.

Each hardcover Yearbook can be purchased for $260.

To order, please login to the Gateway and view the eNotice alert. We have limited copies available so please put in your order early.

Once purchased, the books will be delivered to the students' classrooms in June.

SWIMMING PROGRAMME COMMENCES

We are delighted to inform you that our summer swimming programme will start on Tuesday 10 May 2022 at the Stanley Ho Sport Centre swimming pool.

The swimming schedule for the next two weeks is as follows:

Week 1 - 10 to 13 May 2022

Week 2 - 16 to 20 May

All children are required to attend these essential life skill lessons. Please provide a valid doctor’s note to the class teacher and school nurse for the day your child is unable to swim.

Kennedy School’s Term 3 swimming caters for ALL children from Years 1 to 6.

The aims of the programme are:

• Water safety

• Learn to swim

• Stroke development

In case of inclement weather, the swimming teachers will go to the classroom and teach water safety to the younger students and simple, practical water safety techniques to the older children.

To be prepared for swimming every child requires:

• Swimming kit appropriate for school use - eg; a plain one piece swimming costume or shorts/jammers.

• Swimming caps are strongly recommended and compulsory for ALL children with hair below the tops of their ears. This is for safety as well as for making children easy to spot while in the water.

• Large T-shirt or swim robe and waterproof shoes, crocs or sandals for walking to and from the pool.

• Large towel, preferably a beach towel or swimming robe.

• A strong waterproof bag labelled with their name and class.

• A rash vest is highly recommended for sun protection. Swimming goggles are also recommended. Please ensure any goggles are measured to fit your child prior to their lesson to avoid your child losing pool time.

There is a limited supply of swimming kit and swim caps are available from the online school uniform shop HERE.

The school will be following the COVID-19 protocols as set out by the EBD, ESF and HKU.

Please click on the links below for the children's Chinese learning for Term 3. These links will be updated on a weekly basis. You may also bookmark the relevant pages for future reference:

WELCOMING A NEW PTA COMMITTEE

At our March AGM we bid a fond farewell to Hannah Shepherd, our outgoing chairperson, Fiona Bulmer (Treasurer - now, PTA administrator), Kayte Candy, Tracey O’Malley, Annie Darracott and Brooke Holden and thank them for their dedication.

We welcomed new parent members Sonia Kelsall (Vice Chair), Andrew Barclay (Treasurer), Sarah Ng, Wingie Tsui, Carlo Singson and Tracy Yu.

They join our continuing parent members Natasha Petit O’Connor (newly appointed Chairperson) and Garima Jain along with teacher members Mina Dunstan, Tim Tremmel, Michelle Spratt and Jess Worringham!

We are delighted to include an introduction from our new PTA Chairperson, Natasha Petit O’Connor, who has been on the PTA for the past 18 months:

Click here for Natasha Petit O'Connor's message.

All uniforms are purchased online at the School Uniform website. 

The new style uniform and caps are now available. 

Current students can still wear a mix of old and new uniforms until the end of June 2023.  New students or new joiners for the August 2022 start must wear the new uniform.

 Original uniform is available in the sale section of the site while stocks/sizes last at a discount. 

PTA Uniform Guide

Swimwear available - you can still purchase Kennedy School uniform swimwear in the Sale section. This includes swimming costumes for girls, jammers for boys and house swimming caps. (Available while stocks last, this will not feature in the new uniform.)

Kennedy School Swimwear

Second Hand Uniform

We are accepting limited second hand uniform for the time being - however we will be announcing shortly a date when this will no longer be accepted. Before bringing anything to school, please contact the PTA office.

Thank you to everyone who joined our Wellness Programme “Kennedy Community Cares” which ran from late January to late April during the most recent period of home learning.

The intention behind the programme was to support our special community of parents and staff during such a difficult time as they in turn supported our children. We enjoyed yoga, pilates, Zumba, Sing Movement Jam, Destress Doodling and informative talks from leading psychologists.

The Wellness Programme was made available to parents and staff at no cost as it was entirely sponsored by the PTA. This was only made possible thanks to the generosity of our community in past fundraising efforts and underlines the importance of your support at all our fundraising opportunities.

If you would like any further information regarding the programme and the class providers, please contact Fiona directly in the PTA office at pta@kennedy.edu.hk

We are excited to preview some rather special Kennedy School mugs designed in collaboration with the fabulous Lion Rock Press team. They are now in production and we hope to be able to take delivery of them in early June. Priced at $120 per mug.

We also invite you to take the opportunity to purchase one of our remaining Kennedy School tea-towels too! Priced at $40 per tea towel.

If you would like to pre-order any mugs or place an order for a tea towel, please fill in the Google Form below. Invoices will only be issued once we have a firm delivery date.

All profits will go towards funding proposals designed to enhance the school experience for all.

PRE-ORDER FORM

SAVE THE DATE - FRIDAY 10 JUNE 2022 - EL CHARRO, CYBERPORT

Our resident quiz masters, Mr Dray and Mr King are busy preparing for our very popular Kennedy School PTA Quiz Night.

The event will be open to parents and staff (no children) and will be a chance to come together and have fun as a community, while raising funds for future school projects.

Tickets will be on sale SOON - before then, start swotting up on your general knowledge and random trivia! Teams of 6 people maximum. You can submit a whole team, or we can help put you together with others. Details in the next newsletter.

The PTA Office is manned by Fiona Bulmer, PTA Administrator, and Steven Chen, Central Procurement Officer every day during school hours.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us :

Fiona Bulmer - PTA Fees, Class Parents, Fundraising & Events, General PTA Admin pta@kennedy.edu.hk

Steven Chen - School Buses bus@kennedy.edu.hk and Uniform uniform@kennedy.edu.hk

We can be contacted by telephone at 2579 5699.

After School music lessons at Kennedy School are now available. Please contact the individual teachers to arrange these:

Piano - Ms Heidi Chung M: 9310 8081

Violin - Mr Alan Li M: 6028 8797

Ukulele - Mr Li M: 9657 7695

To sign up for these after school clubs, please use the contacts in each ad.