Newsletter 6
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
Supporting Beginning Readers at Home: A practical workshop
Expressive Arts News
Donations for the early years
QBS Clubs
Important Safety Message
Posties Student Reading Programme 2015-2016
PTA News
Principal’s Comments
Dress Casual Day
Thank you for supporting the QBS Student Voice dress casual day. This group of students initiated action and all donations collected will support:
- Hong Kong refugees;
- Lai Sing Primary School; and
- Siu Sai Wan Jockey Club Home for the Elderly.
Student Voice will be donating a total of $11,500 to these needy groups of people in Hong Kong.
QBS Lantern Walk
Well done to all of the students for sharing their lovely lanterns which have decorated the school over the last few weeks. I have enjoyed seeing them around school. At today’s assembly we congratulated the winners of the competition together (Please click here for the result of the Lantern Making Competition). We also enjoyed the drama performance from our Year 5 students to celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival.
The Mandarin Team have skillfully coordinated a series of lessons where students and parents have been making mooncakes this week. I must say, some of the best mooncakes I have tasted were made right here at QBS in the staffroom. Well done to the students.
Staff Changes in November
One of our well-known and highly regarded teachers will leave QBS to take up a new position at the Australian International School in Hong Kong in mid November. Mr Niall Bennie has been successful in his application for the role of Director of Sports which is a great opportunity for him to lead all sports at a large ‘through school’ (i.e., a reception, primary and secondary campus). Mr Bennie has taught at QBS for five years and he is well-liked and respected by students, colleagues and parents. Whilst delighted about Mr Bennie’s well-deserved promotion, it will be sad to see him leave our community as he has made a wonderful contribution to QBS in so many ways. Looking ahead staff and students will farewell Mr Bennie in the coming months.
Mr Bennie’s teaching duties include PE and additional learning support with the team from the Hive. Following Mr Bennie’s departure, there will be two part-time teachers at QBS through until the end of the academic year to support PE and learning support. Mr James Atkinson will teach PE and Mr Matthew Glencross will provide additional learning support for students.
This week both Mr Atkinson and Mr Glencross were pleased to be offered part-time teaching positions at QBS. These teachers have written introductions to the QBS community. Please click here to read the messages from these Mr Atkinson and Mr Glencross.
ESF CPD
Next Friday all QBS teachers will participate in an ESF wide professional development day (CPD) which will focus on a range of approaches to teaching and learning. The QBS education assistants will also participate in CPD with other support staff colleagues from across ESF on the same day.
Short Week Ahead
Next week is also a very short week for students. They will be in school on Tuesday and Wednesday only due to the public holidays and the ESF CPD for staff.
I wish all QBS families a happy Mid Autumn Festival. It is one of my most favourite celebrations and I will enjoy it with my family.
Regards,
Supporting Beginning Readers at Home: A practical workshop for Parents and Helpers of Year One and Two students
Nurturing and supporting your child to become confident, creative and passionate readers is ultimately what we are aiming to achieve in the classroom. In order to have real success a partnership between home (both parents and helpers) and school is essential to help your child acquire the strategies, skills and confidence they need to develop a life-long love of reading.
We are hosting a parent and helper workshop for Beginning Readers on Wednesday, 14th October at 6:30-7:30pm. Our Year 2 parents need to be aware that we will be using content from last year’s reading workshop.
Please click here to register.
Expressive Arts News
So you think you can dance results
This week at QBS lots of children from Year 1-6 danced on stage in their year groups semi-finals. The hall has seen packed audiences enjoying a range of dances and the children who have performed and shown confidence, commitment and been risk-takers. They’ve also told me how much fun they have had!
All the dances were of a high standard and it was hard to choose the children who will be in the dance performance. Please click here to find out who those children are. (Please note you will need to be logged into Qoodle to access this link.)
Don’t forget to get your Shake and Shimmer Disco tickets from the PTA!
QBS Shake and Shimmer Disco, Thursday 8th October
- 6:00-6:30pm Dance Performance
- 6:30 – 7:30 QBS Disco
Donations for the early years
Dear Parents,
We are very keen to develop our Early Years play ground by enhancing the area and making it into interesting zones for the children. We are planning to create a senses garden, an imaginative play zone, and small and large construction areas. If you have any other following object that you are willing to donate we would be very grateful.
We are asking for any donations of the following that we can use with the children
- Old CD’s
- Wind chimes
- Whisks
- Large washing up bowls
- Hats, old hand bags or shoes
- Beads or necklaces
- Small mechanical objects no longer in use (e.g., clocks, watches, toys)
- Wellington boots and raincoats
Please contact sue.yee@qbs.edu.hk for any further information or any other donations that we could use with our younger children.
QBS Clubs
QBS clubs will start on the week of 29th September. Please note that:
- Your activity registration status under the ‘My Activities’ tab was updated at 4pm on Monday 21st September to either ‘Accepted’ or ‘Not Accepted’.
- ‘Not Accepted’? – The activity is 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.
Important Safety Message
Some students are being left unsupervised in the playground after school finishes. Students are not permitted to wander around the school or playground after school finishes.
The children must stay with the adult who is supervising them. Sometimes students are unsupervised for up to one and a half hours after school. This is extremely concerning as students are at risk of accidents. There is no playground supervision of children by staff after school finishes.
Please do not leave your child in the playground without supervision after school. Students waiting for clubs must have a supervising adult with them. These students need to be actively supervised by an adult (parent, grandparent, driver or helper).
The adult who is supervising the child must be in the playground area. They need to know the child’s whereabouts at all times.
School cannot sanction the playing of football, dodge ball or the use school sports equipment after school.
If your child does not participate in any after school activity they are to go home immediately after the end of the school day. Only children in clubs should remain after school and this is going to be monitored in the future. Parents will be contacted if unsupervised children are left at school or supervision is not adequate.
This is for the safety and well being of your children.
Posties Student Reading Programme 2015-2016
Posties is published weekly by the South China Morning Post. Subscribers will receive 52 issues by mail on Wednesdays from October to September 2016. For information and subscription, visit www.yp.scmp.com/homeposties. For enquiries, either email to printsupport@scmp.com or call 2680-8822. Subscription deadline is 25 September. There is no obligation to buy.
PTA News
UPCOMING EVENTS
“SHAKE & SHIMMER DISCO” : 8th October 2015
Application forms for tickets have been sent home via the students. The deadline for submission of applications is 5th October 2015. Please send it in asap. Please click here for poster.
Parent Volunteers – Disco: If you would like to help with the Disco event, please confirm by email to mona.diwan@qbs.edu.hk specifying which area you would like to assist with.
We will be requiring your support in the following areas:
- Decorations (pre-disco)
- Bar/Drinks Counter
- Popcorn Stall
- Food Counters: Pizza / Hotdog
- Cupcake Counter (if you would like to bake cupcakes for the event please contact us asap)
“CHRISTMAS FAYRE” : 4th December 2015
Our biggest, festive and fun event of the year is coming up soon and preparations are underway.
We are pleased to invite commercial vendors for the event. We will have limited spaces available, so if you would like to participate as a vendor, please click here to download the form and send it to the PTA office as soon as possible. All vendor spaces are available on first come first serve basis. For further queries please do not hesitate to contact Mona Diwan (PTA Coordinator) on mona.diwan@qbs.edu.hk.
We are pleased to invite parents and carers to run the “international food stalls” at the event. As in the past, we encourage parents to group together and run their food stalls, selling food specialities from their countries. This year we hope to have the following stalls:
- Korean
- Japanese
- Indian
- Chinese
- Malaysian
- Filipino
- Italian
- European
So if you would like to head your food stall please contact us at mona.diwan@qbs.edu.hk asap. We will liaise with you and assist you closely to make all the arrangements of supplies for the event.
PTA School Buses
* After-School Activities: have started already. 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.
PTA Shop
Out-of-stock Items
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 27th October onwards. You may contact us to obtain order forms or download them from the PTA Section of the website, to place your pre-orders. All pre-orders can be collected after 27th 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”.