Newsletter 26/2015-16
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
ESF Stakeholder Survey (14th – 24th of March 2016)
QBS Exhibition – Student Action
Y4-Y6 Qoodle Password Changes
Mathematics Parent’s Workshop with Peter Sullivan
Club News
Position Available : PTA CHAIRMAN
PTA News
Principal’s Comments
Important dates for your attention:
- Student Portfolios will come home for sharing on the Friday 18th of March. Year 6 will bring home Student Portfolios in the week following the QBS Exhibition.
- All Y2 to Y6 students will bring home the QBS Student Internet Use Agreement on Monday the 14th of March. This needs to be signed by student with parent witness please and returned to school by Monday the 21st of March.
Digital Citizenship – ‘too much time online’
Here is a selection of informative eSafety videos and reading material for parents about ‘too much time online’.
https://www.esafety.gov.au/education-resources/parent-resources/esafety-for-parents-too-much-time-online
These resources may assist families to reflect on how best to manage their child’s ‘time online’.
Book Week
It has been an exciting week at school with lots of fun and engaging activities for students to do for Book Week. Reading on the Throne of Books and Occupy QBS Staff Room to read were favourite places to be this week. Book Character Dress Up Day was great. The students and staff had lots of creative and clever costumes to finish off a very successful week. We enjoyed a whole school assembly to celebrate the achievements of students and classes throughout the week. The classroom door Book Cover competition resulted in so many creative designs across the school. Thank you to Miss Trunkfield, Mrs Tang, Miss Luong and Mr McLarnon for going the extra mile to create such a memorable week for the children.
Emeritus Professor Peter Sullivan
We were very pleased to welcome Professor Sullivan from Monash University to QBS this week. He worked intensively with teachers on the planning, teaching and review of high challenge Maths lessons with all year levels. Some of Professor Sullivan’s key messages about learning Mathematics included:
- understanding comes before process (e.g.,understanding significant concepts before calculations)
- there isn’t just one way to seek solutions to Mathematics problems
- Mathematics experiences which build engagement, motivation, persistence and resilience drive student improvement
Professor Sullivan also offered a very informative and well-received workshop for parents during his visit to QBS. Please read below for more details about this workshop.
Before Professor Sullivan left QBS he complimented the professionalism of teachers, their engagement and willingness to develop the teaching of high quality Mathematics experiences for students. This was positive and encouraging feedback for QBS teachers from such an experienced and knowledgeable expert. We look forward to welcoming Professor Sullivan back to QBS in September for further professional development and advice on stretching our students and their learning in Mathematics. Mr Andy Thompson and Mr Bill Mason coordinated a highly relevant professional experience for QBS this week and we thank them for their leadership and initiative.
Regards,
ESF Stakeholder Survey (14th – 24th of March 2016)
In the near future all QBS parents will be invited to participate in the ESF Stakeholder Survey. The information about this survey will come to parents from ESF via email. I would encourage parents to complete this survey so that QBS can continue to strive to be the best it can be for your child.
QBS Exhibition – Student Action
Taking Action in Year 6
We are an Exhibition group from Class 6J. Our names are Jana, Nicole, Valerie, Rafay and Myron. Our focus in our exhibition group is to let others know that refugees can promote positive contributions to our world. Our third line of inquiry:
“How art and photography can promote positive contributions that refugees could make to Hong Kong.”
We would like YOU to post this message on your social media and spread this message to your friends and families all around the world.
Yours Sincerely,
The Art and Photography Exhibition group: Jana, Nicole, Valerie, Rafay and Myron.
Other Y6 Actions
Y4-Y6 Qoodle Password Changes
We are aware that some of our students still have the same password as they were issued with in Year 1 and these may have become known or are easy to guess. Before the end of term, all students in Y4-Y6 will be given help to change their Qoodle password as well as learning about password strength and how to protect them. It is important that all parents ask their children for this new password as they play an important role in helping to monitor their children’s’ online activity.
Y1-Y3 students should keep their existing passwords unless they are convinced that someone outside their immediate family knows it. If they do change it please make sure your child can remember it as forgotten passwords can waste a lot of learning time in lessons.
Please note that Qoodle password changes only effect Qoodle and QBS Google Apps. Passwords for other online learning resources remain the same.
Mathematics Parent’s Workshop with Peter Sullivan
This Tuesday Peter Sullivan lead a very successful Parent Workshop to approximately 100 parents. This has been part of his work with us during this week where he has planned and taught lessons with each year group.
The Parent Workshop was a very informative and interactive session where Peter discussed his ideas around enhancing the learning and teaching of Mathematics with parents. The majority of the session was spent on sharing the lessons he taught to our students where he used challenge in Mathematics to engage and develop student’s learning.
Please click here to read the power point for reference for the parents who attended.
Club News
QBS Term 3 Clubs
There are a few QBS clubs available in Term 3 for students to sign up for.
Registration Procedure:
- Registration will open at 12pm on Wednesday 16th March
- View available activities on the activities page under the After School Activities Sports or Academics.
- Make sure you click on the correct tab.
- Click ‘Register Now’ next to the club you would like your child to join. (‘OK’ to confirm).
- If ‘Register Now’ link is not available then you have not paid the fee.
- Under the ‘My Activities’ tab the club chosen will show ‘Pending for Approval’.
- Registration will close at 12pm on Monday 21st March
- Your activity registration status under the ‘My Activities’ tab will be updated at 4pm on Thursday 24th March to either ‘Accepted’ or ‘Not Accepted’.
- ‘Not Accepted’ – The activity is probably full.
- Please make sure that you inform your child’s teacher and the PTA about which club your child has been accepted to. This is necessary for the school bus and if they are a walker.
- There needs to be an adult before the club starts and after it ends.
Private and ESF ED Services Clubs
ESF ED Services and Private clubs are accepting registration for Term 3 clubs. Please check our school website for more inform on these clubs.
QBS home page >Life at QBS>Clubs.
Position Available : PTA CHAIRMAN
Dear Parents,
CALLING UPON ALL ENTHUSIASTIC & BUDDING LEADERS!
- Are you an Enthusiastic Leader who is willing to accept challenges?
- Do you have good social skills in presenting?
- Are you confident and independent?
- Do you have the quality of being a core leader?
- Do you have a few hours to spare A MONTH leading a charity?
If YES, Then don’t spend all that time looking for a job – this is all you need!!
The Quarry Bay School PTA is searching for a new Chairman to replace our current, Mrs Michelle Saad, who will be sadly moving on with her son to SIS.
This is a vital role in leading, maintaining and developing the PTA’s operations in support of our School. As Chairman you will obtain experience in managing a company, with exposure to leadership, planning, fund-raising, finance management, health and safety, and all other operational aspects of running a charitable organisation in Hong Kong. You will not be expected to do this on your own and will get plenty of support from the staff and members of the PTA.
This is also a key opportunity to develop a range of skills used by company directors, such as chairing and presenting reports at meetings, project management and in leading or participating in School and PTA decision making platforms, and representing the parent body at high level ESF and School meetings. You will not need to be involved in the day-to-day elements of the PTA operations, however you may be called upon to provide assistance and support by the staff for PTA matters.
NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY!
The simplicity of the PTA’s operations makes it the perfect opportunity for you to learn the basics about running and leading a business, comprising of a bus service and a school shop, as well as fund-raising events. All you need is enthusiasm, confidence, good social skills, be logical and practical in your thought processes, and ideally to have some basic background and knowledge of ESF and the School.
If you are up to to the challenge or would like to discuss the role personally, please do not hesitate to contact Mona Diwan by email at mona.diwan@qbs.edu.hk, who will be happy to give you more details on the position.
Who said learning was just for children?!
PTA News
Upcoming Events
Term 2 & Term 3 will feature a host of exciting events, as below, so please mark your diaries accordingly:
- Popcorn Sale: 23rd March 2016
- QBS “Themed Disco”: 21st April 2016
- Pizza Sale: 13th May 2016
Request for Parent Volunteers
All parent volunteers who would like to help out with our popular Popcorn Sale (held at breaktime) are requested to send an email to mona.diwan@qbs.edu.hk, titled “Popcorn Sale – Parent Volunteer”, to enable us to send you further information by return email. Looking forward to your support.
PTA School Buses
Early School Closure – Half Day School
School will be closed early at 12:00noon on Thursday, 24th March 2016 for Easter break. Please click here for the bus schedule
PTA Shop
Winter uniform – last day of sales:
Last day of sales of winter uniform will be Thursday, 17th March 2016.
Summer uniform – purchase:
Will be available for purchase from Monday, 21st March – Thursday, 24th March 2016..
The PTA Shop will opened from 8:15am – 12:15pm during those days.
Transition Period:
Transition period for changing uniforms will be April. Students can opt to either wear summer or winter uniform depending on the weather.
Commencing Wednesday, 4th May all students will be required to wear only summer uniform to school.
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”.