Newsletter 36/2015-16
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
Celebration of Learning – Friday 10th June 2016
Gateway demographic information changes
Order Your Year Book
Summer (Book) Borrowing 2016
ESF Summer Camps
PTA News
Principal’s Comments
Important dates for your attention:
- Please click here for all the key dates in Term 3 at QBS
Personal, Social and Physical Education (PSPE) at QBS
Mr Luke Schroder
Next year we intend to further develop the school’s PSPE curriculum. There will be a particular focus on positive education and its role in the development of students. This area of the curriculum is very important and supports a child’s long-term personal success. Mr Luke Schroder will lead this aspect of the curriculum. Mr Jonny McLarnon will work with Mr Schroder as a leader of PSPE at QBS. Please click here to read a message from Mr McLarnon.
ESF Aquathon
Best of luck to all QBS students competing in the ESF Aquathon tomorrow at KGV. I look forward to seeing their efforts and hope the weather is kind on Saturday morning.
New QBS Year 1s
It was lovely to welcome our prospective Year 1 students to school this week for their familiarisation morning. The students were very excited to be here and it was great to meet them all again. Mrs Sue Yee has been leading the induction process for parents this term. We recognise the transition from kindergarten to primary school is significant for the children so have offered on-going information workshops for parents over the term. We look forward to August when the new Year 1s will join QBS along with their families.
Year 4 – What the Ladybird Heard
Year 4 students have done a superb job this week performing their adaptation of Julia Donaldson’s story What the Ladybird Heard. The students were enthusiastic, confident and having lots of fun during their shows. Well done Year 4 students – it was a great team effort. Thank you to all staff for their creative involvement too.
Celebration of Learning – Friday the 10th of June
Next Friday the 10th of June is the student led conference event called Celebration of Learning. The purpose of a student led conference is to give your child the opportunity to share their learning through structured tasks both within the classroom and specialist areas. The student is responsible for leading this process with parents. Staff are present in the student led conference to offer prompts and encouragement. The parent’s role in the student led conference is to ask questions about what you see your child doing. Then you are encouraged to ask your child to explain their understanding and knowledge to you. There will be a creche operating in the Learning Centre for siblings waiting for their parents. Drop off your children and they will be supervised. Please remind yourself about this event by reading below. All students will take home their Portfolio after they finish their student led conference – you may keep it at home, there is no need to return it to school.
QBS 2016/2017 calendar
Please click here to view the QBS calendar for next academic year. All public holidays have now been gazetted by the Government.
Regards,
Celebration of Learning – Friday 10th June 2016
A reminder that next Friday will be our annual Celebration of Learning Day. We are looking forward to this student-led day, where your child will guide you through a range of learning engagements in the classrooms.
If you have not yet made a booking for the event, please note the deadline is next Monday 6th June at 8:30am. It is an expectation that all students participate in the day.
On the day, lessons as usual will not take place. Please attend school for your pre-booked appointment, and also take the opportunity to visit specialist teachers either before this or afterwards in the following locations:
- Physical Education: Gym – Y1 and 2, Outdoor Areas – Y3, 4, 5 and 6
- Mandarin: Hall
- Expressive Arts: Expressive Arts Rooms
- Information Technology: IT Suite (Y1, 2, 3) and classrooms (Y4, 5, 6)
The Learning Centre will also be open on the day to allow summer book borrowing to take place for the Year 1 and Year 2 students.
Finally, a reminder that students should wear their PE kit so they can share some of their PE learning experiences.
We look forward to seeing you next Friday.
Gateway demographic information changes
The end of year 2016 report will be posted to you soon, please make sure your postal address is correct on the Gateway, to submit any demographics information change, login to Gateway and go to ‘Admin> Change Request’ and submit changes. The changes will be reflected in your account within the next 2 working days.
If you have any problems you can contact me at ken.lee@qbs.edu.hk.
Order Your Year Book
The QBS Year Book 2015/2016 is ready for ordering. The price is $110 each. Please click here for more information and to place your order using the online form.
Summer (Book) Borrowing 2016
Dear Y1 – Y5 Parents,
Research has shown that the long summer holidays can produce what is known as the summer slide. This is where children, particularly struggling readers, don’t read and actually take backwards steps due to a lack of practice. Many children forget what they have learned or slip out of practice during this time. Supplying readers with interesting and accessible books leads to improvements in reading, whilst self-selected voluntary reading leads to the greatest gains in reading achievement and other aspects of literacy (Krashen, 2004.)
At QBS we would like to take some preventative measures to ensure that our students continue to make good progress during the summer holidays, therefore we are offering Summer Borrowing to those children currently in Years 1 – 5 who will be continuing their learning with us in August 2016. Each child will be allowed to borrow up to 10 books. We have run this program for several years now and it has proved to be very popular with both children and parents. People are often concerned about the amount of books we might lose over the summer, but let us reassure you that at QBS our children value and look after Learning Centre books.
REQUIREMENTS
In order to qualify for our summer reading program your child needs to have NO OVERDUE LOANS, therefore all books will need to be returned DURING THE WEEK 6TH- 10TH JUNE.
Years 1 & 2
During our Celebration of Learning day on 10th June the Learning Centre will be open for Y1 & 2 only. Your child will be allowed to borrow up to 10 books. It is hoped that you will come with your child and help to select books of interest. It would be best if you could come along at your designated time slot for the Celebration of Learning, as we will be very busy during the day and this will help to stagger the number of children borrowing.
Please bring a waterproof bag – this will help keep the books clean, dry and together.
Years 3- 5
PARENTS MUST SIGN UP to give permission for Summer Borrowing, using the e-notice (to complete on Gateway) that will be sent via email on THURSDAY 2ND JUNE. Years 3, 4 & 5 will then have the chance to borrow their books during their regular library sessions, Monday 13th-Friday 17th June. Please give your child a waterproof bag to bring on their borrowing day, as this will help keep the books clean, dry and together.
RETURNS
The books will be returned to school during the first two weeks of term. There will be a drop box at the Reception for book collection. You or your child could return the books to the drop box or they can bring the books to return during their regular library sessions in week 2.
Please encourage your child to participate in this program as we believe it is extremely worthwhile. We are very excited about this and can’t wait to see our shelves emptying and our motivated and confident readers returning in August.
Anna Trunkfield & May Tang.
learningcentre@qbs.edu.hk
Krashen, S. (2004) The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research, 2nd edition. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
ESF Summer Camps
ESF Summer Sports Camps
27 June – 12 August 2016
Summertime is the time to get out and get moving. With an ESF Sports Camp your child will do just that! Providing a safe and enjoyable environment for students, ESF Sports keeps FUN central to our programme. Our enthusiastic approach combined with expert coaches with a passion for sport, enables every student to develop a broad spectrum of acquisition skills to increase their self-confidence in a range of activities, both as an individual and within a group or team dynamic. Enrol online www.esf.org.hk.
Click here for more.
ESF Summer Language Camps
4 July – 26 August 2016
As a premier provider of extracurricular English language and enrichment education in Hong Kong, we look forward to your children joining us this summer for exciting and rich learning experiences across a VARIETY OF COURSES. Suitable for all pre-school and school age students, our small group courses are run by our friendly, qualified, English speaking teachers. Enrol online www.esf.org.hk.
Click here for more.
PTA News
Events
2016/2017: PTA Events Committee
Your PTA looks forward to planning and organising more fun-filled, and exciting events in the new academic year. If you would like to join our Event Organising Team in the upcoming year, then please send an email to mona.diwan@qbs.edu.hk expressing your interest NOW!
Paddyfield’s Spring BookClub
All orders are due to be delivered before the end of this academic year.
PTA School Buses
No School Buses will be operating on the following days:
- 10th June 2016: Celebration of Learning Day
PTA SUBSCRIPTION FEES 2016/2017
Since the inception of the ESF Ordinance (2008) – all parents have been required to join and become members of their child’s School PTA.
To facilitate ease of payment of the PTA subscription fees, parents can now pay this fees together with the bus fees as stated on the bus application form. This fee is a one fee per family annual payment.
In the event that you do not subscribe to the school bus service you will be required to send a cheque to ESF centre directly, upon receiving their invoice in June.
We will liaise closely with ESF to avoid duplicate receipt of payment. All duplicate payments will be refunded back to the parents.
PTA Shop
Shop closure for summer break
The PTA Shop will close for summer break commencing 17th June 2016. The shop will re-open 1 week prior school on: 8th August 2016 [9:00am-12:00noon]
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”