Newsletter 19/2016-17

Quarry Bay School’s latest newsletter is available to read now. Find out the latest news around the school and upcoming events.

 Principal’s Comments

 Parent Teacher Consultations, Thursday 2nd March and Thursday 16th March

 QBS Parent Directory

 Student Voice Poster Competition 2017

 PTA News

Principal’s Comments

Key dates for Term 2

Please click here

Key dates for next week

• Monday the 13th of February – Gateway appointment bookings open for 1-1 parent teacher consultations at 12 noon
• Thursday the 16th of February – Year 3 Mandarin parent teacher consultations

Welcome back to school. I hope families enjoyed a happy time together over the Chinese New Year holiday break. I am pleased to report students have made a very smooth transition back into their learning routines this week. On visits to the classrooms throughout the week the students have been settled and focussed. I was so impressed to see the writing progress from our younger students when I sampled some books this week. Being in the classrooms and seeing the students moving on in their learning is the best part of my job at QBS.

Winter Uniform

Please ensure your child is dressed in the appropriate winter uniform. Summer uniform is not to be worn to school at this time of the year. Uniform expectations at QBS are very high and students must be dressed appropriately. The PTA Shop has a winter uniform for purchase. Thank you for your cooperation.

QBS Behaviour Expectations

Ensuring students experience a positive and happy school day is an ongoing priority of QBS staff. We regularly discuss the importance of being part of the QBS team and behaving as a positive and helpful team member. At QBS we use a consistent language to describe the behaviours we expect to see at school so that everyone has a positive and happy school life. Classroom teachers discuss these with students regularly. This week in our whole school assembly students were reminded of the QBS behaviour expectations and also the importance of using our WITTs should we have a problem at school. Please click here to view the QBS behaviour expectations and the WITTs.

The PTA uses these QBS behaviour expectations within the daily bus service.

If you have any concerns about aspects of student behaviour or well-being at school please do not hesitate to contact the class teacher or myself.

Parent Teacher Consultations

The mid year 1-1 parent teacher consultations will take place in March. These are important discussions about your child’s progress and next step targets. Please read the information below and sign up for an appointment via Gateway from 12 noon on Monday the 13th of February.

Sickness

Please do not send your child to school if they are unwell. Unfortunately we have had quite a lot of sickness in our school this year. If your child has a fever, please keep them home until they are fully recovered. If you have any queries about such matters please contact Nurse Delia.

ESF Calendar 2017/2018

ESF have released the draft 2017/2018 school calendar. Please click here to view it. Please note that the QBS CPD days yet to be included in this draft ESF calendar. The final QBS calendar for 2017/2018 will be shared in the near future.

Regards,

Parent Teacher Consultations, Thursday 2nd March and Thursday 16th March

On Thursday the 2nd of March and Thursday the 16th of March, parents are invited to attend parent teacher consultations at school. We are looking forward to meeting you.

These 1-1 consultations between parents and the teacher will provide an important opportunity to discuss your child’s school experience and is one we value. During the consultation, student exercise books will be available. The teachers will share information on the progress your child is making, and also give suggested next steps. Teachers will also be interested to hear your perspective on how your child is enjoying the year. This is a teacher and parent event only and students do not attend on this occasion.

Please note that on Thursday the 2nd of March, school will close at 12.00noon for students so that parent teacher consultations may begin from 1.00pm. Thursday the 16th of March is a normal school day and all consultations will begin at 3.00pm.

6M parents – For parents of students in class 6M only, the appointment dates will be slightly different to those listed above. Thursday 2nd March appointments will be available as for other classes, however, the second appointment date will be Wednesday the 15th March instead of Thursday 16th March. There is no variation in the times available.

What do you need to do now:

All appointment bookings for the consultations are made through the Gateway system. The booking system will open in Gateway at 12noon on Monday the 13th of February. The deadline for bookings is 9am on Monday the 27th of February.

Gateway appointment bookings are available for your child’s class teacher, along with the Physical Education teachers (Mr Luke Schroder and Mr Rick Leone) and Expressive Arts teachers (Ms Ceri Hill and Ms Jess McGraw). As you will be aware, consultations with the Mandarin teachers are taking place on separate occasions this year. Class teacher appointments will be 15 minutes and specialist teacher appointments will be 5 minutes.

For specialist teachers, we hope that the 5 minute sessions mean that a significant number of parents are able to access the meetings. However, booking an appointment with specialists is optional, and there is not an expectation that all parents will book these.

As on previous occasions, Mr Keith Purton (Lead Teacher of Information Technologies) and Miss Anna Trunkfield (Lead Teacher, Librarian) will be available to parents for ‘drop-in’ discussions about their areas of the curriculum on both dates.

To book an appointment please log into Gateway with the following link: https://qbs.tg.esf.edu.hk and (click to book or update) under Parent Consultation.

If you need further help, please click here for step by step instructions on how to make a booking, you can also email ken.lee@qbs.edu.hk, who will be able to provide guidance and technical assistance. We will be unable, however, to make bookings directly on request.

We look forward to welcoming you to school again soon.

QBS Parent Directory

The contact details of parents who volunteered their contact information for the QBS Parent Directory are now available on the Gateway.

Parents can log in to the Gateway and follow the Documents link in the top left hand corner of the page to School Documents > QBS Parent Directory. Alternatively, click here to go directly to the documents folder after logging into the Gateway.

Please note these contact details are separate to the details in Student Demographics. Any requests for changes should be made directly to pta@qbs.edu.hk and NOT through the Change Request form. As the deadline for submission has now passed, any changes will be include in an update at the beginning of next term.

It is important that the parent directory is used in a way which respects the spirit of connecting with others for social events (e.g., playdates and birthday parties). Contact details must not be shared with others outside the QBS community.

Student Voice Poster Competition 2017

Please click here for details

PTA News

Upcoming PTA Events

• Paddyfield’s: Winter Bookclub
• Monday, 6th March – 20th March 2017: QBS Readathon

5th Junior Chess Star Competition 2016-2017

A big thank you to all the students, parents, presenters and staff of QBS and ESF Primary and PIS Schools, who participated in the event and made the annual competition a success.

It was a very eventful Sunday, with 9 schools being represented and over 64 students participating in both the Lower Primary (Years 1-4) and Upper Primary (Years 5-6) Divisions.

We would like to acknowledge and thank our presenters: Awards were presented by: Ms Nicola Lewis (QBS PTA Chairman) and Mr Michael Dewey (QBS VP), and our Master of Ceremony, Mr Colin Sercombe (QBS Chess Club Master).

• In addition we would specially like to acknowledge: Firstly, our parent volunteers and official photographer. Thank you.
  Last but not the least, Active Kids/Chesskids for running the event with their experienced team of officials. Thank you.

School Buses

Term 3 Bus Fee – Post Dated Cheques

The fee will be banked in on Tuesday, 21st February 2017. You are requested to ensure that your account has sufficient funds to clear the payment. All returned/bounced cheques are subject to a surcharge of $100.00.

Change of bus travel arrangement:

We still have many parents who do not inform the PTA if their child/ren have a change in afternoon travel arrangements on the buses. The above results in a delay in departure of the buses from school, while the PTA and Senior Management of the school is looking for the missing students.

We therefore request your cooperation to notify us before 12:30pm of the day for change in travel arrangement of your child. This procedure is imperative and in the best interest and safety of your child. (Parents are requested to inform PTA via email at pta@qbs.edu.hk as well as copying the message to the Class Teacher/School before 12:30pm.)

Feedback or Suggestions

If you have any feedback, or suggestions you would like to make for our events or services provided, please email them directly to: ptasuggestions@qbs.edu.hk. Your email will be received directly by our Chairman, who will reply to you at the earliest available moment.

HELP US – IN OUR DRIVE FOR A GREENER ENVIRONMENT

We request all parents to support a greener environment by BYOB “bring your own bag” when you come to purchase items from the shop.

[With immediate effect the PTA Shop will no longer provide any shopping bags].

Please contact us on 2566 4242 (ask to transfer to PTA), or 2887 1004 for further queries, or by email to pta@qbs.edu.hk, during operation hours.

“Click here for PTA Office and Shop Operation”