Newsletter 4
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
Mid-Autumn Evening on 18th Sept
Expressive Arts News
School Photograph
Water Testing in ESF Schools
Launch of ESF Strategic Plan 2015-2020
Free Workshop for K1-Y2 Parents
Club Registration
Chinese Clubs in Preparation for LNY 2016 Assembly
Year 6 / 7 ESF Transfer
Position Available: PTA Honorary Treasurer
PTA News
Principal’s Comments
Thank you to all parents for their involvement in the Mandarin Workshop on Thursday evening this week. It was heartening to see so much support from the QBS parent body for this important part of our learning week at QBS. The Mandarin teachers welcome parental contact so please do not hesitate to get in touch with members of this hard working team if you have questions about this aspect of your child’s learning. Please click Video 1 / Video 2 to watch two short clips from the children about QBS Mandarin.
The coffee morning for Parents as Partners this week was well attended too. Ms Abidi and Mr Dewey provided parents with a detailed overview of the many ways parents might volunteer at QBS. We look forward to continuing to develop Parents as Partners at QBS again this year.
This week we’ve had a visit from Hong Kong’s Expat Magazine and you might be interested to know that QBS will be included in the October edition.
The children are particularly enthused about the latest ‘spray and sip’ water bottles available in stores. They are popular and I suspect encouraging the children to drink more water – a good thing! The spray feature of the water bottle is quite appealing to the children and it would be most helpful if you could reinforce with your child the importance of personal hygiene when using it. Children have been informed it is not healthy to share the spray with others. Please reinforce this feature if your child is bringing a ‘spray and sip’ water bottle to school.
We are looking forward to seeing parents in school next Thursday for the Parent Teacher Consultations. Please click here if you have not yet booked your appointment via Gateway and read about this process. For your information, the booking system will close at 10am on Tuesday the 15th of September. Kindly be reminded that school will finish for students at 12.00pm on Thursday the 17th of September so the consultations may commence from 1.00pm.
Please be reminded that QBS has high expectations of student uniform. It is expected that all students are in proper uniform daily and this includes hair accessories. Please click here for detailed information.
Mid-Autumn Evening on 18th Sept
Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most celebrated Chinese festivals in the Chinese community. QBS would be holding our very own celebration on 18 September 2015 night (Friday) , 6 – 7:30pm. There will be sales of food and drinks (organised by PTA), activities for children, lantern walk, drama, riddles and last but not the least the result of the lantern making competition. Bring your families along and enjoy this lovely evening together.
Expressive Arts News
List of music teachers
Thank you to everyone who helped contribute to the list of instrument music teachers. All the teachers on the list have agreed to have their details shared. Please click here to access the list of teachers. If you would like to still recommend an instrument teacher, please also click here to access the form. This link can also be accessed through the Expressive Arts section on Qoodle.
Girls uniform in the Expressive Arts lesson
Due to the nature of our lessons, the children need to move freely around the space and sit on the carpet. Please can the girls wear their skorts or PE kit on the days that they have Expressive Arts. Some of the girls seem very self-conscious when they are wearing their dresses in these lessons.
School Photograph
The school photographer will be at school on Friday & Monday, the 18th & 21st September. All students should dress in navy blue school uniform on the 21st September when the whole school photo will be taken. Please note if your child has PE that day, they are to wear school uniform to attend the PE.
Sibling / Family picture can be arranged after school on Monday the 21st September between 3pm – 5pm at QBS or by appointment at the Technic Photo Studio. The price lists with the contact details of the Studio are attached (for individual and sibling / for family). If you are interested for an appointment, please click here to download the reply slip.
Water Testing in ESF Schools
As you may know, over the last few months fresh water sources across Hong Kong have been found to contain significantly high levels of lead.
Over the summer, we took samples from all fresh water sources in all of our schools. From over 300 fresh water sources tested, only 4 samples were found to have levels slightly above the HK Government guidelines. KGV, Sha Tin College, South Island School and West Island School each had one sample with levels slightly above the guidelines. All other fresh water sources in these schools were within the guidelines.
The health and safety of your children, and our staff, is always our number one priority. In this regard, we have taken immediate steps to shut down the four sources whilst action is being taken to ensure levels are within safety standards.
Launch of ESF Strategic Plan 2015-2020
Dear parents,
ESF is moving into a new era. To prepare for this, ESF has engaged in an extensive strategic planning process involving members from the advisory committees and the ESF Board. After a year’s work, the refreshed ESF vision and mission along with the ESF Strategic Plan for 2015-2020 have now been approved by the Board and ready for launch.
Town-hall meetings to share the Plan with all of you are organised and I hope you will be able to attend:
- Tuesday, 22 September: King George V School
- Thursday, 24 September: West Island School
- Monday, 5 October: ESF Centre
- Tuesday, 13 October: Renaissance College
All presentations will be held from 7 pm to 8 pm. If you wish to attend, please click here to register.
For any enquiries, please write to news@esfcentre.edu.hk.
Thank you and I look forward to seeing you at the meetings.
Yours sincerely,
Belinda Greer
Chief Executive Officer
Free Workshop for K1-Y2 Parents
Club Registration
The QBS registration on the Gateway will close on the 14th September at 12pm.
On the 21st September at 4pm the Gateway will be updated and you will know which club your child has been accepted to.
Term 1 clubs will start from the 29th Sept to 27th Nov for academic clubs and from the 29th Sept to the 4th Dec for sports clubs.
Chinese Clubs in Preparation for LNY 2016 Assembly
To enhance the experience of Chinese culture and in preparation for the LNY assembly in 2016, we are offering Chinese Lion Dance (professional coach), Chinese puppetry (professional coach) Chinese dance and Diabolo. Registration procedure is the same with clubs offer by the school.
There are still some vacancies left. Please share and encourage your child, sign them up if they are interested.
Year 6 / 7 ESF Transfer
The online transfer submission process via Gateway will be open during the period Monday 7 September – 18 September 2015.
If your child is to attend an ESF secondary school next academic year (August 2016) then please login to Gateway on a computer (not a mobile device) and go to ‘Admin’ > ‘Change Request’> ‘Transfer Application For Year 7’.
[Select your child that currently attends Year 6 from the drop down menu if you have more than one child attending at QBS.]
The form will show the residential address currently in the system. If your address has changed, you will need to provide the necessary documentary proof which can be uploaded at the time of form completion.
If you require any further information, please view the ESF website at http://www.esf.edu.hk/node/
Position Available: PTA Honorary Treasurer
Dear Parents,
Calling all Budding Entrepreneurs!!
Do you have new business ideas but without the know-how or experience to get them going?
Do you have a few hours spare A MONTH to learn about and to help in operating and managing a business in Hong Kong?
Then don’t spend all that money on an expensive MBA – this is all you need!!
The Quarry Bay School PTA currently has a vacancy for an Honorary Treasurer, which is a vital role in maintaining and developing its operations in support of your School. As Honorary Treasurer you will gain a good basic grounding in managing a company, with exposure to balance sheets, planning, cash management and all other operational aspects of running a business in Hong Kong. You will also get plenty of support from the staff and members of the PTA, who will take care the day-to-day elements of the operation and help you whenever you need it.
This is also a key opportunity to develop a range of skills used by company directors, such as presenting figures at meetings, project management and in leading or participating in sub-committees.
NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY! The simplicity of the PTA’s operations makes it the perfect opportunity for you to learn the basics about running a business, comprising of a bus service and a school shop, as well as fund-raising events. All you need is enthusiasm, be good with numbers, logical in your thought processes and ideally to have some basic knowledge of Excel.
If you are up to to the challenge, please contact Mona Diwan by email at mona.diwan@qbs.edu.hk for more details. Who said learning was just for children?!
PTA News
Final Call – Register now!
4th Chess Star Competition
If you have not registered yet – please register now…..
Quarry Bay School PTA Ltd. is hosting the 4th Junior Chess Star Invitational Competition 2015, sponsored by Quarry Bay School, on Sunday 20th September 2015.
All students studying in ESF & PIS primary schools are invited, for the academic year 2015-16, to join the event.
Please click here for online registration.
Please click here for poster.
This year we will have “Active Kids” running the competition for us.
We welcome Parent Volunteers who would like to help with the event to contact us as soon as possible at mona.diwan@qbs.edu.hk.
PTA School Buses
* After-School Activities: will be starting next week. You are required to inform PTA at pta@qbs.edu.hk of the days you child will not be travelling on the bus due to the after-school activity.
* Change in daily travel schedule: Parents are requested to inform PTA by email only to pta@qbs.edu.hk for any change in daily travel schedule for their child/ren before 12:00noon. You are also required to inform the school/class teacher separately.
* Parent concerns/requests related to buses: We request parents to refrain from boarding the school buses to discuss bus matters with the bus escorts, especially since the buses are on a tight schedule to ensure students arrive at school on time and avoid delays in the schedule. All school bus concerns/requests are to be addressed to the PTA directly. You may contact our Bus Administrator, Dorothy Ho, on 28871004 or by email at pta@qbs.edu.hk, who will be happy to assist.
School bus schedule in the upcoming weeks is as below:
- 17th September: Parent Teacher Consultation – School closes at 12:00 noon
Click here for Bus Schedule for early school closure.
PTA Shop
The PTA Shop is out of stock of the below items:
- Eco-Friendly School Bags
- Eco-Friendly Book Bags – Navy
- Eco-Friendly Book Bags – Red
We are experiencing a slight delay in receiving our bags as we wait to obtain proper certification of RPET fabric from the supplier mill. The tentative delivery date is now scheduled for mid-October. We apologise for the delay and will inform you once the stock is available.
Parakito Mosquito Bands: New design Bands and Refills are available for purchase now!
Winter Uniforms will be available for purchase from 13th October onwards. You may contact us to obtain order forms and place your pre-orders. All pre-orders can be collected after 13th October.
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”.