BRADBURY NEWSLETTER – 24 JUNE 2020
Dear Bradbury School Community
My very last newsletter! What a wonderful experience it has been to be your Principal for the last 14 years. I have loved every moment of it! Together, we have seen some real changes- moving from a British curriculum complete with a house system and principal led assemblies, to becoming an outstanding international IB World School. We have implemented a concept based curriculum framework appropriate for our goal of seeing our students become global citizens. This curriculum has embraced an agentic, problem solving, real life connection approach. Our academic results are outstanding and our students superb.
We have passed two rigorous CIS evaluations with flying colours, and seen lots of site development. Many people have passed through the doors of Bradbury over the past 14 years and each one has left knowing that they had a place where they belonged, where everyone is part of a collaborative team and where everyone’s strengths are valued. Our students have had many opportunities to become leaders and to show their poise and confidence through our wonderful school assemblies. I loved watching every single one of them! They never failed to impress and awe me.
I leave to take up another exciting job in my beautiful home country of New Zealand. This time however, I will be working not just in one school, but nationwide, making changes to a system that has the potential to impact and improve many children’s and their families lives. I am very much looking forward to this opportunity. Everything I have learned during my time at Bradbury stands me in good stead for this challenge. Of course though, Hong Kong will always be a part of me. My beautiful twin grandchildren remain here, so I will be visiting them as often as I can!
Many thanks for many years of sharing the children that we care for. Many thanks also for your thoughtful gifts, the amazing video and your best wishes. Of course, if you are ever in NZ, please look me up. I will be based in Wellington and would be delighted to show you this energetic and creative city. Mr Tang or Ms Fritzi will be able to give you my contact details.
Leaving with me are:
- Rebecca Ryder- to Discovery College
- Tracy Fleming- to South Korea
- Caroline Cuddy- return to UK
- Maisie Walker-Rees- return to UK
- Petra Lancelotte- return to UK
- Vivien Cheung- moving into a teaching role
- Alison McArthur- spending time with family
I know that you will join me in wishing each of these special people every happiness as they pursue their next adventure.
We welcome:
- Mrs Kate Gower, currently Head of Lower School, Harrow International School, Hong Kong.
- Mr Matther Baker- who will teach 1B (actually this is a welcome back for Matt, as has worked at Bradbury previously).
- Mr Joe Harris- who will teach 2H.
- Ms Siobhan O’Shea- who will teach 3S.
Also, a big thank you to Pang Lao Shi, who is stepping down as Head of Chinese next year. A warm welcome to Au Yeung Lao Shi, who will take up this important position for next year.
Thank you always and warm wishes for a wonderful summer and my gratitude forever.
Dr. Sandra Webster
Principal
Ms. Wesbter’s Farewell Assembly
By Mr. McKee, Mc. Bremner, and the Student Council
On Monday and Tuesday this week we held our farewell assembly for Ms Webster. This was a special occasion to celebrate her time at Bradbury School. To ensure that we were staying socially distanced, the Student Council planned a special ‘pop in’ assembly! Each class had 10 minutes with Ms Webster to celebrate, perform or share a memory on ‘Teletubbyland’. It was possibly to the longest and most special farewell assembly of all time as our students, danced, sang, recited poems, share stories and memories. Emotions were high as we farewelled our very special Principal and we wish Ms Webster all the best for her next journey.
A special thank you to Aidan Fu, Charlize Cheung, Kathleen Sylvester, Trisha Cheng, that ran the organisation for each day and kept things on time. Thank you to Christian Palmis, Peter Mok, and Jonathan Chong for the preparation and setup. And a huge thank you to all those families and ex staff who sent through messages for Sandra’s farewell video. These have been passed onto her to read at her leisure.
Important Dates
N.B. Dates and Activities may change from time to time. Please check the online calendar for the weekly updates on www.bradbury.edu.hk calendar. Thank you.
| DATE | EVENT | TIME |
| 25 June 2020 –
10 August 2020 |
Summer Holidays ( No Classes) | – |
| 11 August 2020 | School Resumes for Y2 – Y6 | 8:30 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. |
| 11 August 2020 | School Resumes for Y1 (according to A / B Groups) | 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. |
Medical Room: School Dental Appointment Slips 2019/2020
By Lauren Lau, Health Professional
Please note that the school dental appointment slips have been distributed to the students. Please bring the
appointment slip, toothbrush and SDCS handbook when you attend.
If you cannot keep the appointment please call the Dental Centre directly and change your appointment time.
If any queries please contact me asap.
ESF App
By Steve Fennelly, Vice Principal
You may recall that some months ago we sent an email concerning our new school app. In the interests of updating our systems and making our lines of communication more effective and efficient, we would like the app to be our main channel of communication from school to home next academic year.
The app has:
- ‘Need to know’ messages and diary dates (these will include urgent messages about school closures due to weather or protests etc)
- ‘Nice to know’ school news via social media
- Useful contact names, emails and phone numbers
- A link to ‘The Buzz’ – our school virtual learning platform
- Your child’s timetables
- Your child’s homework
- The ability to quickly send absence emails to school (from school and the bus)
If you have children in other ESF schools, the app will automatically add them to your family account.
The app is ready for download now. Please search your app download area for ‘ESF App’.
We will continue to use email communication with parents for this term but will also send out the same messages by app. Our aim is that all communication will be via the app next year.
Once you have downloaded the app, you will need to log in. Please see below for instructions.
How to configure and unlock the App
- Enter any of the personal email addresses you registered with the ESF
- Press Request unlock key
- Wait for an email containing the unlock key code number
- Enter the unlock key code number
- Press Unlock
If you have any further questions, please email me at stephen.fennelly@bradbury.edu.hk
Keeping Up with The Green
By Martin Law, Environmental and Sustainability Coordinator
As the school year is coming to an end, here are some highlights of the greening activities and what is expected in the coming few months.
This year we had applied for the Hong Kong Green Schools Award and the Non DIsposables Campus Award, where we completed an hour long presentation and a guided tour of the school’s greening facilities. We will hear back from the WWF in the coming months when the results are known.
Meanwhile, Rooftop Republic recently came to install the new planters on the 2nd floor Teletubby Area. They replaced the old planters made from recycled wood which have rotted over time with new specially designed planters tailored to the needs of the space.
The solar panels and weather station provided by the Energy Conservation Fund is set to be installed over the summer holidays by Green Tech Solar HK. This will enable our students to have access to current weather data, which will be displayed on the school televisions and can be used for cross curricular purposes.
In addition to the living walls, we are starting to install vertical planters around the school and will continue over the summer to further enhance our green environment. Our on site gardener/ botanist has been active in maintaining our living walls and vertical gardens to ensure they are best fit to the environment.
Things to look out for…
We will be creating a page on the school website containing pictures of animals and creatures found around school campus. We hope this will raise awareness of local animal/insect species and their habitat needs as students observe their surrounding environment and learn to respect and care for wildlife.
We also hope to continue placing banners with environmental information around the school grounds to promote accurate identification of living species and living processes.
PTA News
By Monica Brennand, PTA Chairperson & Lin Gong, PTA Administrator
A couple of updates from the PTA!
School Shop
The school shop will be closed from the 25th June and will re-open on the 5th August from 10am – 3pm. If you wish to purchase uniform and stationery please remember that the shop will be closed during the summer holidays.
Shop Opening Hours for Beginning of the School Year 2020 – 2021
For the convenience of parents, we have made special arrangements for the shop opening hours at the beginning of the new school year. We encourage the parents to purchase the uniforms and stationery early as it will be very crowded in the shop at the beginning of the new term. The PTA shop will be closed during summer holiday.
Open Date: August: 5, 6, 7, 10
(open from 10:00a.m. – 3:00p.m.)
Our shop will open regularly Monday through Friday from 8:30a.m. to 11:30a.m. 11th August onwards.
Download:
EDB Student Grant
By Alan Tang, Office Manager
For parents who turned in the grant forms but never received any communications from the EDB or the grant money, please contact the EDB:
Email: spdoenquiry@edb.gov.hk
Hotline: 3850 2000
Address: 10/F, Kwun Tong View, 410 Kwun Tong Road, Kowloon
For parents who received an email indicating there’s an error and need to amend the forms:
We have and will continue to contact all parents once we receive those forms back throughout the summer. EDB is still working on more returns so if you haven’t received it yet, please contact the EDB or wait for school’s further communications.
There is no current set deadline for returning amended forms. The EDB is now allowing scanned versions meaning you can print, amend the forms, sign, date, scan, and email it back to us for the school chop.
You may also contact the EDB for further assistance.
Y6 Exhibition
By Amanda Bremner, PYP Coordinator
The Y6 Exhibition was a huge success…well done. The students created a wonderful Padlet which really showcased their learning around the students passions and interests.
A huge thank you to all the staff who supported and mentored students through this learning journey.
Download the newsletter in PDF:
