Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Parent Helpers

Many thanks to the huge numbers of parents who have helped out with our excursion programmes over the last couple of weeks. We’ve really appreciated your support and it’s been great to have you learning with the students in the outdoors!

Full Day School Starts Next Week

It will be great to get back to our normal routine with more timely snack and lunch eating breaks. We will remind the little ones about eating their small snack first and their lunch second - please remind them too. Under the new rules, now that we are officially eating ‘lunch,’ students can use utensils/chopsticks to eat their food if they wish to.

Updated Mask Policy for PE, Games, Extra Curricula Activities(involving aerobic activity) and activities held in HKU

From Monday 5 December 2022, students will no longer be required to wear masks when participating in PE and Games lessons. This is in line with current EDB regulations as you can see from the guidelines below.

Guidelines:

Must students wear masks during PE lessons on school premises?

If secondary and primary school students have fulfilled the vaccination requirement, schools may arrange for these students to have moderate - or vigorous-intensity physical activities and swimming activities*, including “contact” sports such as football, basketball, etc., without wearing masks.

Students will take their masks off in their classroom before a PE / Games lesson and store it in a zip lock bag ready to wear once the PE or Games lesson is finished. If you would prefer for your child to continue to wear a mask during these physical lessons that is also permitted, Your child can continue to wear a mask throughout the lesson as they have been doing. Please note that students should bring a spare mask each day in their school bag.

Updated Mask Policy for Performances

From Monday 5 December 2022, students will no longer be required to wear masks when performing in shows for eg concerts, choirs, etc. If you would prefer for your child to continue to wear a mask, that is no problem.

EDB Guidelines:

If a school organises a speech day, it must shorten the time of the ceremony as far as possible and reduce the number of performance activities. All KG, primary and secondary school students can attend the speech day. For primary and secondary schools, schools may arrange secondary students having received three doses of COVID-19 vaccine and primary students having received 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine for more than 14 days to participate in mask-off performance activities.

A New Approach from CHP

We had an interesting test case in a class where we had three students who had tested positive for COVID-19 within a 7-day period. In the past, this has always triggered a class suspension. It seems that CHP is managing school cases a little differently now which worked in our favour this week. It appears that if other family members have COVID-19 at the same time as the students or very recently, then they are not considering this a school outbreak. Hence, we won't have to suspend the class. Whilst this is a subtle change, it does make quite a difference in terms of keeping classes running which is of course our key aim!

Changes to Vaccination Requirements
Starting yesterday, Wednesday 30 November, the vaccination requirements under the Vaccine Pass for all children aged 5 to 11 changed.

Please click HERE for more information from the Department of Health.

Please update the latest vaccination and/or recovery records of your child to the VLE through the ESF App so that your child is able to gain access to all venues that fall under the Vaccine Pass.

New School Uniform Additions

It is great to see students already wearing the new long-sleeved shirts and blouses. They look comfortable and will be great for the colder weather coming up. Our uniform suppliers will soon be launching long-sleeved PE shirts too. As a reminder, you can access the online uniform shop at http://www.schooluniform.hk

Please prepare for the winter months by purchasing the appropriate layers that your child will likely need as the weather gets cooler.

Hats in School

Please ensure your child brings a Kennedy hat to school. This could be a Kennedy cap, hat, or their recently worn camp hat. It is very important that our students have a hat with them in school at all times to be protected from the sun, especially with the unpredictable weather we have been experiencing.

ESF Connections Programme

If your child is away from school due to sickness or isolation orders and they would still like to do some learning online, they can access the ESF video resources which can be found here.

As always if you would like to make contact with any of the leadership team, you will find us in the playground or reach out to me via email at bcook@kennedy.edu.hk.

Kind regards,

Brenda

顧仁達

Principal

After School Staff-Run Clubs

Term 1 After School staff-run clubs are being concluded. Please check the dates below for the last session for each club.

Games Schedule for December

Begonia Plants

Your child will have/be bringing a begonia seedling home this week. These are from the LCSD’s (Leisure and Cultural Services Dept) “1 person 1 flower” scheme. Please repot them as soon as you are able to.

Here is some information about how to look after it.

Begonia plant care

Festive Plant Sale

On Wednesday 7 December, we will be selling Christmas poinsettias and Christmas plant kits during first break. Please ask your child to bring $50 if they wish to bring one home! The funds will be used for the school garden.

Kennedy School student artwork in Pokfulam

We are so pleased that 3 students' artwork won the Southern District’s Christmas Street Banner competition. Many thanks to District Councillor Paul Zimmerman for giving our students the opportunity to showcase their artistic skills.

Well done to Jasmine Choi  (6W), Kester Ho (6RI) and Sya Ang (6W).

Here is a map of where the banners are placed in Pokfulam

Google Map of Christmas Banner locations

More information about the competition can be found at Paul Zimmerman's website:

https://www.paulzimmerman.hk/events/christmas-street-banners

Christmas Postbox

Our Christmas postbox will make its appearance outside Reception. From Monday 5 December to Friday 16 December, students can send Christmas cards and greetings to friends and teachers throughout the school. Please include the recipient’s name and class on the envelope so that our Year 6 elves can deliver these greetings!

After School Staff-Run Sports Clubs

Please check the schedule above for the last session of our Kennedy School sports club activity for this term. The PE team would like to say a huge thank you to all of the staff that have supported the Kennedy School Extra Curricular Activities this term. It has been fantastic to see our students participate in sports tournaments again competing against other international schools. 

Our students have successfully represented Kennedy in football, netball, tag rugby, tennis and AFL events ranging from Year 2 to Year 6 pupils. 

These opportunities would not be possible without the help of Mr Dray, Mr Richardson, Mr Scott, Ms Noakes, Ms Franklin, Mr Lynch, Mr Kruger, Ms Lacy, Ms Percival and Ms Nancy.

 Please look out for the Term 2 sign up information for Kennedy sports clubs. More details about the clubs will be coming soon in the school newsletter after we have confirmed our pitch bookings with HKU. 

Seeking student artwork for our Lunar New Year Card design competition

We are searching for student artwork celebrating the upcoming Year of the Rabbit.

WHEN: The deadline for submissions is 3 pm on Friday 9 December 2022.

FORMAT & THEME:

• Think about all the different images/symbols that remind you of the theme ‘Lunar New Year in Hong Kong’.

• Use A3 size paper.

• The art can be portrait or landscape.

• Submit artwork without a greeting message.

• Please DO NOT include ‘Kennedy School’, ‘ESF logo’ or ‘2023’ in your design (These will be added in the border later). Clearly write your name, class, age and title of your design on the back.

• Please make sure the submission is an original student artwork and does not contain photos from the internet or design elements (like Canva) that are copyright protected.

• The competition is optional and is to be completed at home by the children.

WINNERS:

2 designs will be chosen from each yearband. The 12 winning designs will be displayed around the school as part of this year’s Chinese New Year decorations.

Please send your artwork to your Chinese teacher by: FRIDAY 9th December

Thank you for attending the 'Supporting Beginning Readers and Writers' Webinar yesterday. We are sharing the slides from the presentation from the webinar with everyone.

Please see below some parent links to videos and student resources to support the reading and writing process with your child.

Matt Glover parent videos

The importance of making books

Spelling at home

Other Resources

Reading and Writing Centre

Kennedy Website

PTA Funding….

The PTA were delighted to organise 150 Outward Bound Water Bottles to distribute to all our intrepid Year 6s who have just returned from camp to mark the key milestone of their final primary school camp experience!

Look how excited 6W were when they were presented with theirs……!

The PTA have also treated school to some new Christmas decorations as we welcome in the festive season. A big thanks to our Year 6 Arts Ambassadors, Ms Worringham, the IN  Department and PTA Committee member, Wingie Tsui for doing such a fantastic job making the school look Christmas ready!

Lunchtime Food Delivery

The PTA is considering securing a vendor to deliver hot lunches to school next term. Please complete this survey to indicate your interest in this service.

Lunchtime Food Delivery survey

Thank you to our PTA and Class Parents

In the first event of its kind, the PTA hosted a festive gathering for the committee - extending the invite to our amazing group of Class Parents who are a key link between parents, the school and the PTA. It was the first opportunity our class parents were able to get together in person this year, having had to switch their Class Parent Guidelines presentation to Zoom.

Winter Wonderland - Monday 12th December

Invitations have been sent out to the families of our Junior and Senior Choir and Orchestra to join the Winter Wonderland Concert in person on Monday 12th December.

If we still have extra capacity, we will be offering a few tickets to the rest of our community to join in our wonderful, festive event. Ticket availability will be announced in a message on the ESF App on Friday afternoon, strictly limited to 2 per application and on a first come, first served basis.

The event will also be live streamed so everyone can enjoy the festivities at home (in Hong Kong or overseas!) The link will be provided in next week’s newsletter.

Festive Hampers

As is traditional at the Winter Wonderland, we create fabulous hampers which are then gifted in a lucky prize draw on the evening.

We are reliant on donations from across our community to make this a success.

Please see the list of proposed items to be donated by yearband below. If you can help donate one item per family we will have a bumper group of hampers to offer. Please send donations to the PTA Office no later than Wednesday 7th December.

PTA Christmas Merchandise

Our festive elves have been busy delivering our lovely selection of Christmas merchandise around school this week. Don’t miss out on the chance to purchase limited edition Kennedy School Taxis - designed in collaboration with the Lion Rock Press, mugs and wrapping paper (designed by Kennedy School students).

If you would like to place an order, please see the link below and with the Christmas Post Box operating from Monday 5th December, we have a lovely set of Christmas Cards designed by our students included in the offering.

PTA Merchandise

PTA Coffee Morning

Thank you to everyone who registered to join the coffee morning tomorrow. We are looking forward to an opportunity to get parents together in a very casual setting.

If you haven’t registered but are keen to attend, we will be offering more opportunities for coffee morning after the Christmas break. Stay tuned.

Zubin Crackers - LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER

If you would like to purchase a pack of Zubin Christmas Crackers for delivery to Kennedy School - please do so before 5th December. Delivery will be made to school on 9th December for those who have made purchases.

Click on the link below or scan the QR code to buy boxes of Zubin Crackers. For free delivery, select Kennedy School and enter your child’s name and class before checkout.

BUY ZUBIN CRACKERS HERE

For more information, contact zubinshop@zubinfoundation.org

Chinese Weekly Learning for:

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6