Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It was a happy day yesterday to finally get back to teaching and learning without masks. Please refer to my note sent yesterday with more details about the Kennedy School approach to mask-wearing.

Letter to Parents - Mask Wearing at Kennedy School

It was great to see the children’s smiles, their wobbly teeth, their new ‘big’ teeth, their dimples, noses and chins and full faces at school yesterday. This created so much discussion and joy. Here are some photos to celebrate the day.

Celebration of Learning and Three-Way Conferences

Thanks for booking your timeslot for Friday 24 March 2023. The closing date for bookings will be 3 pm on Friday 10th March.

Siblings:

• If you have more than one child, you can spend time together as a family.

• When it comes to the 3-way conference part, the sibling not involved can stay in the same classroom and the EA will guide them to some activities or reading while they wait for you to finish with your other child.

Important timings for the day

• The school will be open from 8.10 am to begin at 8.15 am.

• Teachers will be taking a snack break from 10.45-11.15 am and lunch from 1.45-2.15 pm. Classrooms and areas around the school will still be open at this time and supervised by EAs so you are still welcome to do the activities at this time with your child.

• If you have one of the later appointments in the day please arrive 50 minutes before your appointment time so you can see all of the other activities in the school and classroom before your 3-way conference.

• All classrooms and learning areas around the school will close at 4 pm.

School Uniforms and Hats!

We have noticed a huge improvement in the way students are wearing their uniforms - thank you so much for helping with this. As we move into the warmer, sunny weather, please ensure your child has a hat, plenty of water and has applied sunscreen.

On games days - children MUST wear a hat as it is really warm at the HKU grounds and there is very little shelter.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Our weekly assemblies for Years 1 to 4 this week have focussed on stereotypes, particularly raising awareness about gender stereotypes. Key ideas include:

• All persons are equally valuable, regardless of their gender

  • describe ways to make relationships between genders more fair and equal in the home, school and the community.

• Stereotypes about gender can lead to bias and inequality.

  • explore gender stereotypes and the impact they might have on our behaviours.

It was interesting to see that in Years 1 and 2 as the children are so young, they tended to relate everything to themselves, ie if they were a boy - boys could do everything and if they were a girl then girls could do everything. Interestingly, there was a marked difference by the time kids got to Years 3 and 4 where gender stereotypes had already begun to be well established. For example - the belief that certain toys, occupations, colours of clothing and designs were only for boys or only for girls. We will be continuing to work on this to give a greater perspective.

Year 5 and 6 assemblies have focussed on how members of our community raise awareness and take action to help and support others. We’ve heard from parents, staff, community members and ESF students. This is connected to the United Nations Global Goals.

Parent Education in DEI - ESF is also organising a DEI workshop for Parents called ‘Supporting Conversations about DEI with your child’. This will take place on Wednesday March 22, 6 to 7 pm via Zoom. A registration form will be sent to you soon.

If you would like to contact any members of the leadership team, you will find us in the playground or you can locate our emails on the ESF APP. You can email me at bcook@kennedy.edu.hk.

Kind regards,

Brenda

顧仁達

Principal

Yearband Led Dress Up Day News **Stop Press**

On Friday March 17th, Year 3 is in charge! They have decided to encourage everyone to come to school dressed in GREEN in celebration of St Patrick’s Day that day!

We are delighted to share that performers from University College Dublin will visit school to perform for the whole school during the day on 17th March.

Kennedy Community Cares - Webinars for Parents & Staff

The past 3 years of COVID restrictions have taken their toll across the community in a variety of ways. We would like to support our parents and staff on the journey out of restrictions, to address problem areas and move forwards with confidence and calm.

The PTA have engaged experienced mental health practitioner Dr Scarlett Mattoli, and the team at SPOT therapy to conduct a series of webinars for our parents and staff that covers the following topics:

• Anxiety - the impact of the end of the mask mandate;

• Self Regulation & Emotions;

• Social Skills;

In order to reach a wider audience, and recognising it is not always possible to make it to an in person event at school, we offer these talks as webinars.

The first will take place on Wednesday 15th March, 6 to 7pm with Brenda Cook and Dr Scarlett Mattoli talking to us about the end of the mask mandate, and anxiety amongst our community with tips to help us all move forwards.

We invite our community of parents and staff to attend. Please follow the link below for more details and to register to attend HERE.

The second will take place on Thursday 20th April, 6 to 7 pm with the team at SPOT Therapy delivering insights on self regulation, emotions and social skills. Sign up details to follow.

Book Week  (March 20th - 24th)

In preparation for Book Week, we would like to invite you and your family to enter our “Catch Me Reading” competition.

How do I enter? Please send a photo of your child/ your family reading in an unusual situation. Do you like to read buried in the sand on the beach? Do you like to read sitting in an unusual place or in a creative position? Send your photo to Ms. Chan mkchan@kennedy.edu.hk The deadline for your submission is Thursday 16th March. We will share your photos and announce the winners during Book Week!

Kennedy Sports Teams

This is such a busy period of the year for our Kennedy Sports Teams. We are very happy to see our students playing competitively again in sports such as Tag Rugby, Tennis, Basketball and Cross Country running.

Basketball

Last Friday our Kennedy Basketballers played really well in a Tournament at RCHK. Both our Boys and Girls teams had a fantastic day honing their Basketball skills and won many games against other international schools from across Hong Kong.

Cross Country

Congratulations to everyone who competed in this year's HKPSSA Island Cross Country at the Chinese International School on Saturday, February 25th.

We are very proud of all 41 students in attendance who produced great performances, helping Kennedy finish second overall out of the nine schools. All of our students who took part demonstrated great tenacity, mental toughness, and resilience in completing what was by no means an easy course. We couldn't be more proud as a school, and the sportsmanship and encouragement shown to one another over some difficult parts of the route was a personal highlight.

Finally, I'd like to congratulate and acknowledge the following students for their amazing results on the day:

Isabelle Spensley - 3rd Place (U9 Girls)

Olivia Schuette - 2nd Place (U11 Girls)

Sophia Huang - 1st Place (U10 Girls)

Chaska Poon - 1st Place (U10 Boys)

Raef Caldwell - 1st Place (U11 Boys)

Please see the folders here (Basketball, Cross Country) for a selection of photographs from the day and take a look at our Kennedy School social media posts.

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 as we are now in March and the weather is warming up.

Chess Competition

Well done too to our Kennedy School Chess Teams! 4 teams out of the 31 that attended flew the Kennedy School banner at the Hong Kong Inter-School Chess Championship last Sunday. The children competed in 7 rounds with Team A bringing home the trophy for 5th runners up. Well done boys!

Please click on the link below for health guidelines from Nurse Brigette about when to keep your child home from school.

School Health Guidelines

Draft ESF Calendar 2023-24 

Here are this week's Chinese learning notices:

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