Newsletter 9/2015-16
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 Educational Services Football Tournament
‘You tell us’ Parent Teacher Consultation Survey
Li Sing Primary School Teacher visit QBS to look at our teaching of Reading
Important Safety Message
PTA News
Principal’s Comments
It has been a busy half term at QBS and everybody is looking forward to a holiday next week. The weather is lovely so hopefully families can have an opportunity to go out on the public holiday and enjoy Hong Kong. There is an interesting article about connecting with children and disconnecting with our mobile devices which is a pertinent reminder of the importance of communicating effectively with our families. Please click here if you are interested in reading about this.
Half term holiday (Monday 19th – Friday 23rd October)
Please remember that we have a week’s holiday next week and there are some key dates to note for the second half of the term.
- Year 5 Camp – 28th to 30th October
- Year 4 Camp – 2nd to 6th November
- Parent Reading Workshop – 4th November 8.30 am
- Introduction to PYP -11th November 8:30 to 9:30 am
Parent volunteers to support learning
Thank you to all those parents who were able to attend the Parent Volunteers information morning on Wednesday. If you would like to support learning at QBS and were unable to come to the meeting please read the attached letter then contact your class teacher after signing the forms.
The class teachers will confirm suitable times and days with all those parents who have already signed up.
New play ground
Our new Astroturf play area is exciting for the children and the soft surfaces mean that the children are enjoying the feel of the grass under their feet. The renovations are progressing and we are getting glimpses of lovely decking and new seating areas for the children. Hopefully this will be done by the end of October.
Outward Bound
We have been very envious of the Year 6 children, their teachers and Ms Dunstan, as they have been very active at Outward Bound, where they have been involved in lots of activities such as jetty jumping, raft building and nights out camping under canvas. I suspect the children will enjoy their home comforts this weekend.
South Island School Students
We have been hosting students from SIS this week as part of the Year 11 works experience programme. The SIS students have supported the teachers and have worked with small groups of children. The SIS students have had a sample of being a teacher which most of them have enjoyed.
ESF Christmas card entries
We have been invited to submit artwork to ESF Centre as they are going to prepare an ESF e-Christmas card. Any children who are interested in submitting artwork need to give their work to Ms Yee by the 30th October, so that ESF have a suitable selection to choose from.
New staff at QBS
We have had two new members of staff appointed at QBS, Mrs Becky Mitchell as a part time EA for Year 5 and Celina Li as part time EA for the Mandarin department.Welcome to them both.
Regards
Vice Principal
ESF Educational Services Football Tournament
Congratulations to all our boys and girls who represented Quarry Bay School in the ESF Educational Services Football Tournament at KGV last Saturday.
Our 3 representative teams played with enthusiasm and quickly built up a great team spirit within their team.
The QBS boys B team were unlucky not to reach the semi-final after a penalty shootout exit in the quarter-finals of the Plate Competition. The QBS boys A team recorded some fantastic victories along the way to reaching the semi final of the cup competition.
The QBS girls did really well to reach the final of the Plate competition after winning a penalty shootout in the semi-final.
Well done to all teams and players involved. We are looking forward to more tournaments coming up after half term.
‘You tell us’ Parent Teacher Consultation Survey
It would be greatly appreciated if you could spend 5 minutes sharing your thoughts regarding our Parent Teacher Consultation in Term 1. As you know this was a ‘You tell us’ style consultation for parents to share relevant information about your child with their class teacher e.g. interests, friendships, successes etc. As this is a relatively new approach we would like to gather your opinions so we can further enhance how we communicate to you about your child’s learning at QBS. Please click here to access the survey.
Li Sing Primary School Teacher visit QBS to look at our teaching of Reading
Firstly, thank you to everyone who has donated books for Li Sing Primary School. We have about 5 large boxes of books which will be a great start for them to start creating their class libraries.
As you may know we are building a partnership with Li Sing Primary School in Tai Hang. As part of this initiative we had the pleasure of 9 teachers from Li Sing Primary school visiting us to see how we teaching reading. They went to a variety of classes to see a range of teaching approaches. All the teachers were impressed by our students and learning environment. To follow up this initiative we will have more teachers visit us in January to see how we teach Mathematics and hopefully in the near future our students will have an opportunity to learn together.
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.
PTA News
UPCOMING EVENTS
Parents Cocktail & Annual General Meeting: 29th October 2015
This is our most important event of the year, when we invite new and existing parents to join all the teachers and PTA members for a cocktail event, followed by the Annual General Meeting.
The AGM is aimed to give all parents and teachers an overview of the past achievements and accomplishments of the PTA and School, in the past year, as well as updating all on future projects and plans. Please email us at mona.diwan@qbs.edu.hk if you will be attending the event..
Pizza Sale: 13th November 2015
[Details for this event will be announced in due course.]
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
“CHRISTMAS FAYRE” : 4th December 2015
Our biggest, festive and funniest event of the year is coming up soon and preparations are under way.
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 Shop
Shop Enquires
Please do not hesitate to contact us on ptashop@qbs.edu.hk for any shop queries you may have. Our shop volunteer will be happy to assist.
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.
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”.