Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Sports Day

What a fabulous week of sports days! The three events were so much fun and such a great way to pull our community together again! It was clear everyone was having a great time and enjoying all the activities in the fabulous setting at HKU.

I saw parents and caregivers being fully supportive of their own and other children too by encouraging them and cheering those that found activities a little more difficult - this was great to see. A big thanks to Paul and Leo our PE staff who did an outstanding job in organising the event and to our sports ambassadors who were great role models and showed their positive attitude and leadership skills. Please see more about sports day below. If you would like to share your photos taken on the day, please upload 1 Sports Day photo HERE

Staff

We welcome Mandy Smith, who will our school counsellor till the end of the academic year.

Mandy Smith Introduction

We also welcome the return of Cat Lao to 2B as Educational Assistant.

Sports

We have so many wonderful sporting clubs, games, PE and physical events happening each week. Last Saturday, we watched many of our runners take part in the ESF cross country - they did so well and the parents who attended were supportive of the entire team. Thank you so much. It’s great to be back! You can follow our sports endeavours on Instagram.

Kennedy School on Instagram

Stakeholder Survey

We’ve hit 200 parent responses! Thanks! Let’s see if we can at least double this by the end of the week! Your feedback is critical to us - it only takes 10 minutes I promise! You’ll find the link in your email. The larger the sample size the more useful the data is. Thank you for helping us with this, we really appreciate it.

Seesaw - Putting an end to the common exchange

“What did you do at school today” “Nothing!”

You’ll be seeing snippets of learning coming through to you each week on the Seesaw platform.

The purpose of this is for you to have a window into the learning of your child. One of the best ways to engage with it is to use the picture, photo or work sample as a conversation starter with your child. Some good questions could be:

• I saw….tell me all about what you were doing here

• This looks interesting - what were you learning?

• I see you had PE today - tell me about that - what was the best bit?

• I loved seeing your classroom video today - tell me about what you like about your classroom.

• That looks interesting - how did you work it out?

• What are your favourite things to do?

• This looks funny - what was happening?

• Wow! I loved seeing this learning you did - how did you do it?

• I bet that took a long time to work out - what steps did you have to go through?

• I see you’re working in teams - what do you find easy/hard about working in teams?

• Tell me about the friends you played with today - what did you do?

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

As a school, we are continuing to learn more about ways we can embrace and nurture diversity, equity and inclusion within our learning community. This graphic was a useful discussion point in working out the best supports and systems that remove barriers for all.

This graphic also created good discussion:

As a reference point here is the ESF DEI statement - found on our website.

After-School Activities - Pick-Up Times

After-school staff-run clubs have begun. Please note the pickup times and end dates of the sessions which you can view on Gateway.

In order to reduce the congestion outside the school, the school gates will be opened at 3:45 pm. Please wait on the lower playground and promptly collect your child outside the gym or in the playground at the end of the activity. Please pass this message on to the adult who collects your child. For those driving, we have witnessed some dangerous roadside parking practices. Please keep in mind that we have many children leaving school at this time and it is important to keep their safety first and foremost.

If you want to contact any leadership team member, you will find us in the playground or email me at bcook@kennedy.edu.hk.

Kind regards,

Brenda

顧仁達

Super Sports Days - A big Thank you!

Our students had lots of fun this week actively participating in the Kennedy School Sports Days. This is the first Sports Day event that we have been able to host in over three years and we definitely made the most of it!

Thank you to everyone who helped to make this event such a success. It takes a huge team of people to make this happen, Mr Crompton and Mr Bogaerde would like to say a huge thank you to all of the Kennedy staff, parent volunteers and of course our wonderful students for trying their very best in all of the activities.

Well done to all of the Houses and congratulations to the winning House - The Dragons!

Overall Sports Day score totals are:

Dragons: 840 points

Unicorns: 800 points

Lions: 760 points

Phoenix: 750 points

Yearband Led Dress Up Day

A reminder that next Friday 17th February, Year 4 have decided that the whole school should come to school wearing the theme “Clash of the Patterns” - you can be as creative as you like! We look forward to seeing spots, zig zags, stripes, squares, dots, blocks, flowers - any kind of pattern - but try and make the top different to the bottoms!

If you are not quite sure what we mean - here are a few photos to get you started….

Be Bold ! Be Patterned!

We ask children to bring in a voluntary donation of $20 to hand in as they arrive at school that day. Year 4 are planning to use the funds raised to hire a voice coach to help them prepare for their Year 4 show!

1. ESF Connections Programme

If your child is away from school due to sickness and would still like to learn online, they can access the ESF video resources, which you can find here.

Digital Resource Bank

2. ESF Draft Calendar 2023-24

Please see attached for the draft calendar for the academic year 2023-24.

School Calendar 2023-24

3. Weekly Chinese Learning 

Year 1 Weekly Learning Notice 

Year 2 Weekly Learning Notice 

Year 3 Weekly Learning Notice 

Year 4 Weekly Learning Notice 

Year 5 Weekly Learning Notice 

Year 6 Weekly Learning Notice