Newsletter 16/2015-16

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

 Student Portfolios

 Term 1 Interim Reports

 ISA Results for Year 4 & 6

 Year 6 SIS Visit and Exhibition Information

 Club News

 Social Media – Online Chat Groups

 Donation to West Morninghope School

 QBS Hour of Code

 PTA News

Principal’s Comments

Important dates for your attention:

• Friday 11th of December – Student Portfolios sent home
• Monday 14th of December – Student Portfolios returned to school and the Westmorning Hope Visit by QBS students
• Tuesday 15th of December – Year 3 and Year 4 Christmas Parties
• Wednesday 16th of December – Year 1 and Year 2 Christmas Parties
• Thursday the 17th of December – Year 5 and Year 6 Christmas Parties
• Friday the 18th of December – End of Term 1 Interim Reports available on Gateway at 9.00am and end of Term 1 (school closes at 12.00pm)
• Monday the 4th of January – QBS Continuous Professional Development for staff (school closed for students)
• Tuesday the 5th of January – School resumes for all students (Term 2)

Dress Red and Green or in your ‘Christmas Jumper’

Next Friday all students and staff are invited to wear green and red or their favourite ‘Christmas Jumper’ to celebrate Christmas. Let’s dress up in our Christmas clothes and celebrate the end of a successful Term 1 at QBS.

QBS PTA Christmas Fayre

Thank you for the wonderful support shown last Friday evening for the annual PTA Christmas Fayre. It was a lovely community evening and we hope you enjoyed it.

West Morninghope School

Thank you for the gifts which have been sent to school for the children at West Morninghope School. A group of students and staff will deliver these gifts next Monday the 14th of December. This is a long-standing annual tradition at QBS which we value.

Regards,

Student Portfolios

Today your child will bring home their portfolio to share with you over the weekend. The portfolio is a sample of your child’s learning experiences from different curriculum areas during Term 1. Please spend time discussing this portfolio with your child and ask them about the different pieces of work and why they are in the portfolio. These portfolios will continue to be built upon next term so must be returned to school on Monday the 14th of December.

I have attached a reflection sheet to help, if necessary, to guide your conversation when sharing your portfolio with your child. This maybe added to your child’s portfolio to enhance the celebration of your child’s learning.

Term 1 Interim Reports

Please be reminded that your child’s end of Term 1 Interim Report will be available for viewing on Gateway next Friday the 18th of December at 9.00am. You will need to know your Gateway log in and password to view your child’s report. If you need assistance with these details please contact Mr Ken Lee on 2566-4393 or email him on ken.lee@qbs.edu.hk

A reminder email will be sent to all parents early next week which includes the steps required to locate the Interim Report on Gateway.

ISA Results for Year 4 & 6

Dear Year 4 & 6 Parents

As you know, the children in Year 4 & 6 took the International School Assessment (ISA) in Mathematical Literacy, Reading Literacy, Narrative and Expository Writing in October 2015. The results of your child’s tests are now available on Gateway.

Please log-in to Gateway and browse to Admin > Student Demographics > Assessments (Parent View). A link to the ISA results in PDF format is available at the very bottom of the screen. The file is called ISA 2015, View help diagram for more assistance.

Please note that the ISA assessment is a standalone assessment that gives a snapshot of your child’s learning on a given day and as such is an overall judgement about your child’s learning. These need to be made in conjunction with other school based assessments and your child’s class based work which is reflected in the school reports and parent teacher consultations.

Parents will have an opportunity to discuss the ISA data in the context of your child’s whole learning through the Parent Teacher consultation scheduled for February 18th and 25th 2016.

If you have any queries or questions related to the assessments please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Michael Dewey

Vice Principal

Year 6 SIS Visit and Exhibition Information

Transition Visit to SIS

The Year 6 children will be visiting South Island School for 2 days during the first week back after the Christmas break. The children will be visiting as class groups and will experience a sample of Secondary School life and lessons. All children will partake in the visit whether they are moving onto SIS or another school next year.

6M and 6T will visit on Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th January 2016

6K and 6J will visit on Thursday 7th and Friday 8th January 2016

Your child will receive a letter from SIS with additional information regarding this trip.

Exhibition 2015

We would like to invite you to an Exhibition Information coffee morning on Wednesday 6th January 2016. The meeting will be held in the amphitheatre in the Learning Centre. Tea and coffee will be served from 8:15am with the meeting starting at 8:30am. It should last for approximately 30 minutes.

The Exhibition is an important event in your child’s school life. It brings together all of the learning they have done over their six years in primary school and is an important occasion at which they will present their knowledge and understanding to a large audience.

The coffee morning will allow us to explain the Exhibition in some more depth, provide you with ideas on how you could support your child with their Exhibition learning and also answer any questions that you may have.

Merry Christmas!

Finally may we take this chance to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. We hope all of you enjoy a relaxing break and some time with your family.

Kind Regards,

The Year 6 Team

Club News

Term 1 clubs finishing dates

There are a few clubs that will end later. Please note this and make sure you inform your children.

• QBS Rugby 17th Dec
• QBS Chess 15th Dec
• QBS Chinese Dance 17th Dec
• QBS Chinese Puppetry 16th Dec
• QBS Orchestra (please see email from Ms. Hill)
• ESF Ed Services Football 14th Dec (this is a make up class)

Term 2 Clubs

The Term 2 QBS clubs registration closed today at 12pm.

Please check the gateway on Wednesday 16th of December at 4pm to see which club your child has been accepted to.

Social Media – Online Chat Groups

Some of our older students use social media tools for online chat groups beyond school and we recognise this to be part of daily life. As children grow their their use of technology changes – even younger children may be develop an awareness of these groups through their older siblings. The use of web sites such as Facebook and smartphone apps such as WhatsApp, Skype Chat Groups, Instagram and Snapchat have become more widespread and are now extensively used for social communication. We respect a parents’ right to allow their children to use these at home but feel obliged to remind parents of some of the negative consequences which can result from unsupervised use.

Many of these sites/apps allow the creation of closed or open groups used for chat. These often start off as a fun way to communicate with the whole class, year group or ex QBS students. Sadly, these can descend into the posting of unkind comments, expletives, unauthorised sharing of photos of classmates and even bullying. We know that the latter can have an enormous impact upon the happiness and well-being of our students. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for school to monitor the use of non-school systems and as a result parents must take this responsibility and be proactive in this area.

We recommend that parents regularly discuss:

• the appropriate use;
• the importance of not sharing password/user name with others;
• real life consequences of misuse;
• the importance of reporting to a trusted adult if they are the victims, if they observe other students being bullied online or if someone is making unkind or offensive comments.

Active and regular monitoring of your children’s use of social media is very important as he/she learns how to productively participate in these forms of communication. Even when out of school and using third party applications, there will be consequences at school if they are used in a way which affects the well-being of other students.

We recommend that parents:

• know which groups your child participates in, who are the members of these groups and what comments are being shared between users;
• have your child’s emails pushed to your mobile device so that you may ensure messages are within responsible user expectations; and
• monitor chat by members in YouTube groups your child may be participating in.

Donation to West Morninghope School – deadline extended to Monday the 14th of December

We are very lucky here at Quarry Bay School because we can do lots of different things. West Morninghope School is located in Chai Wan. It is a school for disabled children. The school helps the students develop self respect, self discipline, self confidence and independence. They also teach the children life skills such as, personal hygiene, how to cook, how to dress, safety and how to communicate in English.

At QBS we all like to help. So the student voice would like to take action and ask all the students to donate a small Christmas gift so that they can deliver these gifts on Monday 14th December to the children there for them to have a very merry Christmas.

The types of gifts that would be great to give are: stuffed toys, simple puzzles, easy children books or easy duplo/lego packs.

Once you have bought the gift, please wrap it, attach a note to say whether it is suitable for a boy or girl (or both) and what age it would be good for. Then bring the gift to school, place it under the Christmas tree in the school hall and Santa’s big helpers from year 5 and 6 will deliver the gifts on everyone’s behalf.

From Ernest Yeung, Avi George and Destiny Lung.

QBS Hour of Code

All students at QBS have been busy at their computers participating in the world-wide event, “The Hour of Code” along with millions of other students in different parts of the world. Students at QBS have already written a combined total of several thousand lines of code and many have expressed an interest in continuing at home. The link to the Hour of Code is on the front page of Qoodle and passwords have been stuck in school diaries or given to students.

PTA News

THANK YOU !

To all our students and parents who attended the Christmas Fayre last Friday. It was an exciting and enjoyable event with lots of festive activities for everyone. We have received lots of positive comments for the event. Please click here to view pictures.

A lot of hard work and organising went into preparing for this event and it would not have been possible without the support received from the PTA Committee Members, all our parent volunteers, all QBS teachers and support staff, and all the SIS students who came into help on the evening. Thank you!

The PTA were pleased to present the school with a donation of $250,000 on the evening, as part of our pledged funds towards the school’s renovation project. The cheque was handed over to Ms Dunstan by Mrs Michelle Saad, PTA Chairman, on the evening.

[We welcome you to send in your comments or suggestions for the event. If you wish please do so directly to our Chairman on ptasuggestions@qbs.edu.hk and she will be happy to respond to you directly.]

[ALL proceeds raised at PTA events will be given as donation to school to enhance learning facilities for the betterment and benefit of all the students to Make a Difference! ]

A big thank you to all and we

wish you a very Merry Christmas !

UPCOMING EVENTS – TERM 2

Term 2 will feature a host of exciting events, as below, so please mark your diaries accordingly:

• QBS Balloon Show: 27th January 2016
• Paddyfield’s Bookclub: February / March 2016
• QBS Afternoon “Themed Disco”: 17th March 2016
• Popcorn Sale: 23rd March 2016

Details of all the above events will be given in upcoming newsletters in Term 2.

SCHOOL BUSES

QBS will close at 12:00noon for Christmas break – on Friday, 18th December 2015

School Bus Arrangement – 18th December 2015

Click here to view Bus schedule (Afternoon) for 18th Dec 2015.
All parents and carers are requested to be at the stop 5 minutes prior the arrival times of the buses.

Uncollected Students at Bus Stop

All parents and carers are requested to be at the bus stop 5 minutes before the scheduled arrival time of the bus. Buses will NOT wait for late parents/carers. All students not collected will return to school with the bus mum to be collected from the school reception. Parents will be liable to pay for the Bus Mum’s overtime pay and taxi fare to and from school (as stated in our bus rules).

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 delayed departure from school, as buses waiting while PTA are looking for the missing students. We request for your co-operation in this matter, as it is imperative for PTA and class teacher to know if you child is not going home on the bus or not. This is in the best interest and safety of all student bus riders. (Parents are requested to inform PTA via email at pta@qbs.edu.hk as well as copying the message to the class teacher/school.)

The PTA

Both Office and Shop will be closed during the Christmas Break as below:

18th December 2015:

• PTA Shop – Closed
• PTA Office – Closed from 12:15pm onwards

5th January 2016:

• PTA Office & Shop – Open during normal shop and office
  operating hours

Feedback or Suggestions

If you have any feedback or suggestions you would like to give on our event or services provided, please email directly to: ptasuggestions@qbs.edu.hk. Your email will directly be received by our Chairman who will reply 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”.