Bradbury Newsletter 11th December 2009
|
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Dear All,
What a fantastic fair! It was a great day. Many, many thanks to our wonderful P.T.A. committee for months of thought, hard work and preparation.
Thanks too, to our team of hard working volunteers who manned stalls, collected money, sorted, tidied and cleaned up.
A special thank you also to our site staff who put in many hours of work, especially after everyone else had long gone on Saturday night, to have the school in top shape ready for Monday morning.
The success of the fair underscores the strong school community that we have established together. Thank you all.
Term 2 after school activities are now up on our website. Please go to www.bradbury.edu.hk, click on Community. You can download the application forms. Please mail your payments directly to the company offering the after school activity. Bradbury School is not responsible for the quality and safety of programmes offered by third parties. However, please note that all hirers are required to provide third party insurance. Parents are urged to take steps to ensure that they are satisfied with any and all aspects of the after school programme(s) they elect to opt in to.
Many of you would have noticed the work going on at the former ESF Centre. After Chinese New Year, Hillside Kindergarten (formerly Sheung Wan Kindergarten) will open on floors 1 and 2 of the centre. The third floor and roof will become part of Bradbury School connected by a bridge. The plan is to relocate our existing library into this space, in a greatly enhanced way. My intention is to have a state-of-the art library which is a high quality model of a school library.
We will need to relocate our Year 3 classrooms as the link bridge will use some of their classroom space. These will go up to the third floor where our library and staffroom are currently located. In the rest of the space made available by this relocation will be the staffroom, meeting room and new multi purpose space for our students to enjoy activities such as art and science.
This is a very exciting development for us here. Initial plans are underway and once finalised I will display them for you to view.
As this is the last newsletter for this calendar year, may I take the opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday. I hope that you all get to enjoy time with your families and a chance to relax.
Safe travels.
Yours sincerely,
Sandra Webster
Principal
|
|
NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY
If you are going to be out of Hong Kong for Christmas, please do not take school library books with you to prevent loss. However, if you are staying in Hong Kong please encourage your child/ren to borrow books to enjoy over the Christmas holiday. Children can borrow a maximum of two books. Also, we would encourage you to make use of your local library. The Library.
|
|
IMPORTANT DATES
|
|
PYP NEWS
What makes PYP an international program?
The PYP promotes international mindedness in order to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring people who create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. Fostering an understanding of culture and personal cultural identity enables learners to develop an awareness of different cultural perspectives and the commonality of human experience. The PYP curriculum framework provides opportunities for learning about issues that have personal, local and global relevance and significance. An effective PYP school has an inclusive ethos which values and reflects the diversity of cultures and perspectives within and beyond the school community. An Internationally-minded person actively demonstrates a responsibility and commitment to making a difference in the world. What, then is a PYP school? It is a school that, regardless of location, size or constitution, strives towards developing an internationally minded person. What is an internationally minded person? It is a person that demonstrates the attributes of the learner profile:
Many thanks
Chris Duncan - PYP Coordinator/Vice Principal
|
|
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS
The Battle of the Books (BoB) is an annual inter-school reading competition which brings together students from almost twenty international schools. Prior to the competition in May, competing students co-operate to read approximately twenty books selected by the BoB organisers and practice for the competition. At the competition, teams from each school square off against each other in a series of matches testing the students’ knowledge of the books they have read. Teams are eliminated one by one until the last school standing is declared the winner.
We have over 50 students from Years 5 and 6 participting in Battle of the Books this year from Bradbury School. In preparation for the competition, the students have been divided into teams and meet each week to discuss the books read, share important information and compete to be the winning team for the month. The meetings have been fantastic and the students are working very well together!
Look out for more information about this exciting competition in future newsletters.
2009 P3 YOUNG WRITER’S AWARDS
Recently P3, in conjunction with well known author Nuri Vittachi, held a writing competition for primary school children. Students had a chance to write the ending of a novel written by Mr. Vittachi. Many students from all over Hong Kong submitted entries and 2 of our present students as well as a former student were awarded prizes:
Michelle Cheong 5B:Outstanding Effort in the 7-9 year category
Nadia Cheng 5C:Outstanding Effort in the 7-9 year category
Lucy Ross:Winner of P3 Young Writers’ Prize in the 10-14 year category. Her ending is included in Jeri Telstar and the Slimy Robber
Well done ladies!
Carolyn Andrews - Vice Principal/Middle Phase
|
|
P.E. NEWS
With only 1 week to go the countdown to the holidays is well and truly underway! However, there are still heaps more exciting events to come in the P.E. calendar. Athletics days are coming up for Years 1, 2 and 3. Cricket festival/tournaments for Years 4 and 6 and a netball festival for Year 3. These events are the final lesson in the students’ current unit of work. As always all parents are welcome to come along and see what their children have been learning during their P.E. lessons.
On Wednesday Year 5 enjoyed their final swimming lesson. After all completing their assessments last week they had a pleasant surprise to find that this week they had a water polo lesson. It was a super introduction to the sport and they all had great fun! A huge thank you to Aaron Stockdale for running these sessions for us.
SAFETY
Please remember that all children playing soccer and hockey should be wearing shin pads. A number of our children are turning up to after school sessions with out their shin pads. For their own safety the coaches will ask the children without shin pads to sit out of the session. Years 3 and 5 will be participating in 8 week hockey units of work during their P.E. lessons. They will need to wear shin pads and a mouth guard for these lessons. Both are available from the P.T.A shop for $45 each.
Next term in their specialist P.E. lessons the children will all be learning gymnastics. They will need to take off their shoes and socks for the lessons. Please can you start teaching your child to put on, fasten and take off their own shoes and socks to avoid wasting valuable teaching time.
During the winter months the children usually wear their grey tracksuit on P.E. days. Please can you ensure your child has their P.E. T-shirt under their jumper as once they start exercising they get very warm and need to take off their jumper.
Our after school activity program finishes today. But right up to the last day, our budding sportsmen and women have been giving it their all.
It’s been a very busy term for netball. Last Saturday our A team played in the Hong Kong Schools girls netball tournament. The girls all played brilliantly! On Wednesday afternoon the B and C teams got their chance to shine. For a variety of reasons we had a somewhat depleted B team, but the younger girls stepped in and rose to the occasion to represent Bradbury School. The season isn’t quite over we still have two mixed netball tournaments in the New Year.
Our runners are getting faster and faster every week. Last week in a race against Chinese International School we saw 8 of our runners completing the 2KM race in less than 10 minutes. The most notable performance went to Yehudi Chan who had officials questioning if he had hired a helicopter and flown the 2kms as he sprinted across the finish line in 8 minutes and 12 seconds! As well as getting faster the runners are clocking up the KM’s. In an initiative sponsored by ING the children are all logging their runs. Their goal is to reach 42km by Easter. They are all well on their way, with many of the runners already over half way there Olaf Gaanderse, Jasper Langford, Kelsie Bouttle, Joshua Marwick, Toby Skinner, James Davidson and Yehudi Chan have already hit the 21km mark. Well done folks, keep up the good work!
The girls have been busy on the soccer pitch. On 28th November they travelled up to Hong Lok Yuen to play in a girls soccer tournament. They all played amazingly well and spent the whole journey home asking why there weren’t more girls soccer. In the tournament the girls won one game, drew two games and lost only one game in their pool. They made it through to the nail bitingly exciting quarter finals which unfortunately they narrowly lost. Well done girls! I hope to see more young ladies taking to the soccer pitches next year.
Not to be outdone by the girls the boys have kept up their high standards on the soccer field. Although technically the after school activity program finishes today, they are managing to squeeze two final tournaments in. This afternoon the Under 9’s play at GSIS and tomorrow morning our A and B teams play in the ESF tournament at KGV. Good luck to you boys!
None of the after school activities could go ahead without the extra hours and hours that the teachers and coaches spend with the children. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their hard work and dedication throughout this term.
As well as all the things that are happening this term, I am busy planning for next term. Please find the after school activity form for term 2 below.
After School Activities for Term Two
I would like to enroll my child _______________________ class ___________ for the following activities:
I understand that I am responsible for making arrangements for my child to be picked up at the designated time.
I enclose a check, made payable to Bradbury School, for ______________
(Please write your child’s name and class on the back of the check and attach it to this form)
Signed_________________________________
Emergency contact number, to be used if necessary during the activity _____
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
WATCH THIS SPACE!
Linked to our recent Unit of Inquiry which focused on ‘People help me’, culminating in the idea that ‘I can be a help to others’, Year 1 are thinking of others by taking the following ACTION:
Year 1 Staff and Children
|
|
ESF LION SOCCER CLUB
Fraser Laing from Bradbury School played in the Under 9's HKCFL tournament at KGV on Saturday, 28th November and won four out of six matches. Well done Fraser!
ESF TIGERS BASKETBALL CLUB WINTER BASKETBALL CLINIC
We are fast approaching the end of the school term and our basketball classes. If your child would like to learn more about basketball during the holiday, the ESF Tigers Basketball Club will be running a 5-day winter Basketball clinic at South Island School and Renaissance College.
For more information and enrolment forms please visit the basketball section of our ESF website: http://www.esf.org.hk/esf_sports/camps_clinics/basketball.asp
Sports Section ESF Educational Services Limited
5/F CIGNA Tower , 482 Jaffe Road ,
Causeway Bay , Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2711 1280 Fax: +852 2711 8007
FREE TRIAL LESSONS
Happy holidays! We are offering children the opportunity to try one of our language classes during the winter school holidays. Trial lessons in Mandarin, French, English and Spanish are available, in three ESF locations, Quarry Bay School, Beacon Hill School and Renaissance College. Go to http://www.esf.org.hk/esf_language/freetrial.asp for further information and to register online.
It is also not too late to register your child to join us for some festive fun on our Winter Camp courses! Go to http://www.esf.org.hk/esf_language/term/schedule_winter.asp for further information and registration details.
|
|
BRADBURY SCHOOL PARENT AND TEACHER ASSOCIATION LIMITED
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 7 DECEMBER 2009
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE
The Committee would like to thank everyone who has supported the PTA during the past year, and most especially with regard to the school fair. The level of support we received was tremendous, with over 200 parent volunteers and we would like to thank everyone, principal, teachers, caretaking staff, and parents for working so hard towards making the fair a success.
A special note of thanks goes to Doug Shearer, Richard Gardener, Anita Gidumal Clements, Judy Stevenson, Beks James and Alison McMillan for all their hard work in connection with the fair and to Mr Lai for his most generous donation of stationery.
The final figures for the fair are still being calculated, but we estimate this to be in the region of $250,000. This figure will be confirmed as soon as possible.
In the past year the PTA have concentrated their efforts on the playground project. $1m has been allocated for purchasing good quality playground equipment for the benefit of all our students. One piece of equipment and the sandpit have been installed, and more are to follow during the course of 2010.
In addition, the PTA has made several other, smaller donations, such as to the Learning Centre, Learning Support Class, Artist in Residence and many other school causes.
In 2010 we intend to continue with the playground project. As Bradbury is to get use of the top floor of the old ESF offices, we expect that the PTA will be involved in funding some aspect of fitting out this new space. We will inform members of these plans as they develop. We will continue with the usual contributions to school departments and camps. Members are encouraged to let any member of the Committee know of any specific requests for funding.
Our main fund raising activity is the school fair which takes place every two years. The Committee feels that it would be better to spread the fund raising events over the course of the year. We also think we should hold new events, such as a quiz night or international evening and would welcome any ideas from members in this regard.
The committee also recognises that not every event should be a fund raiser and intend to hold several social events over the course of 2010 which we hope we bring together all parts of the school community. We would welcome your thoughts on this also.
Thank you.
Given on behalf of the PTA Committee by Jackie McIntyre
P.S. Thank you to all who attended the AGM on Monday 7 December 2009. Copies of the documents tabled at the meeting are attached.
|
|
P.T.A. NEWS
In the recent Bradbury School P.T.A. raffle draw on 5 December 2009, the following ticket numbers won
the following prizes. Please collect your prize from the P.T.A. Shop and remember to bring the winning raffle
ticket and your I.D. Thank you.
DVD RECORDING OF THE BRADBURY SCHOOL TALENT SHOW
Mr. LAW CHAK SUM, a professional camera man, has recorded the Bradbury School Talent Show
which was held on 5th December, 2009.
You are welcome to purchase a copy of DVD of the concerts, the price being HK$70.00 per DVD.
As this is a private arrangement, your cheque should be made payable to LAW CHAK SUM.
If you would like to make a purchase, please return this form with your cheque to your child's
CLASS TEACHER by Monday 14th December, 2009.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Name:__________________________________________________
Class:___________________________________________________ Numbers of DVDs required @HK$70 per DVD:_________ Total:_____________ Signature:__________ (Please don't forget to attached your cheque which is made payable to LAW CHAK SUM) |
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Bradbury-RevisedFS(30.6.2009)-1.pdf | 675.11 KB |
| 08Newsletter111209.pdf | 1.59 MB |
