BRADBURY NEWSLETTER – 11 JANUARY 2019
Greetings to the Bradbury School Community,
A very warm welcome back to everyone as we start our exciting second term. A warm welcome back also to Mrs. Anika Barry is back with us after her maternity leave in 3DB.
Another busy term awaits Bradbury School. We have our Yr 6 Exhibition which will see our year 6 students working with many Staff across the school. Our parent teacher consultations are scheduled for the 5th and 13th of March and of course we are very much looking forward to our CPD day on Friday 18th January with Dr. Misty Adoniou. There is further information in the newsletter about this day. I would like to urge all of you to attend the parents’ information session on Friday afternoon. Misty is very knowledgeable around what you can do to support your child’s reading.
I look forward to working alongside you this term and together building on the great work already started.
Sincerely,
Sandra Webster
Principal
Hong Kong Young Writers Awards
Well done those students who put in an entry for this year’s HKYWA. Keep an eye out for the foyer display showcasing those entries in the next week.
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 |
| 15 January 2019 (Tuesday) – 17 January 2019 (Thursday) | Year 6 Visits South Island School | 8:30 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. |
| 15 January 2019 (Tuesday) – 17 January 2019 (Thursday) | Year 1 ( 2019- 2020) Admissions Interviews | 8:30 a.m. |
| 17 January 2019 (Thursday) | Year 4 Cake Sale | 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. |
| 18 January 2019 (Friday) | Dr. Misty Adoniou Talk to Parents: Workshop on Supporting your child’s Reading | 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. |
| 18 January 2019 (Friday) | C.P.D. DAY ( No classes today) | —— |
| 22 January 2019 (Tuesday) – 23 January 2019 (Wednesday) | Year 1 ( 2019- 2020) Admissions Interviews | 8:30 a.m. |
| 24 January 2019 (Thursday) | Year 1 Kidsfest Theatre Trip | |
| 25 January 2019 (Friday) | Year 3 Trip to ICC | |
| 01 February 2019 (Friday) | Chinese New Year Celebrations | |
| 04 February 2019 (Monday) – 08 February 2019 (Friday) | Chinese New Year Holidays (No Classes) | —— |
| 21 February 2019 (Thursday) | Year 3 Cake Sale | 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. |
| 26 February 2019 (Tuesday) | Year 4 Sports Day | |
| 05 March 2019 (Tuesday) | Parent Consultations 1 | 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. |
| 13 March 2019 (Wednesday) | Parent Consultations 2 | 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. |
| 15 March 2019 (Friday) | CPD Day (No Classes) | —- |
| 21 March 2019 (Thursday) | Year 2 Cake Sale | 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. |
| 22 March 2019 (Friday) | Year 5 Macau Trip (Group 1 ) | |
| 29 March 2019 (Friday) | Year 5 Macau Trip (Group 2) |
Reading Workshop
By Therese Gallen, Vice Principal & Head of Literacy
Special Announcement!
January 18th, 4.00 – 5.30 pm
Save this date for a specialist workshop on supporting your child with reading
We have been fortunate to secure Dr. Misty Adoniou to conduct a workshop for interested parents here at school, after our staff professional development day with her, on January 18th. Dr. Adoniou is a recognised expert in children’s language learning, reading, grammar and the needs of ‘English as an Additional Language’ learners. She is always in great demand as a consultant and
presenter both in her home country Australia, and in a range of International contexts.
Dr. Adoniou is always an engaging and knowledgeable presenter. You are sure to gain great ideas and learn a bit more about how to best engage and support your child as a reader. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions. This is a ‘not to be missed’ opportunity. So be sure to SECURE YOUR SEAT. Please email or ring Ms Fritzi at the front office on fritzi.yu@bradbury.edu.hk or 25748249 to ensure that you don’t miss out.
Look forward to seeing many of you there.
Action Day Celebrations 2019
By Amanda Bremner & Carol Farrington, Action Coordinators
Bradbury Action day is a day to celebrate the action students have taken through Units Of Inquiry, independently and collectively as a staff/school. Although we encourage action to be happening all the time, big or small, this is an opportunity to share and celebrate what is happening around and across the school and to work alongside NGOs on community projects. It is also an opportunity for our Exhibition students to continue their work started through the Y6 Exhibition/ NGO Unit Of Inquiry and for all of our students to be involved in Participating in Action.
The IB has recently released new Action descriptors, which guide us in the range of Action for our students to take throughout the year and on Action Day:
Participation – Being actively involved in the learning community and showing commitment to contributing as individuals and as members of a group.
Lifestyle choices – Making positive lifestyle changes in response to learning.
Social entrepreneurship – Supporting positive social change through responding to the needs of local, national and global communities; applying prior knowledge and skills to identify and address challenges and opportunities in innovative, resourceful and sustainable ways.
Social justice –Taking action for positive change relating to human rights, equality and equity. Being concerned with the advantages and disadvantages within society, and with social well-being and justice for all.
For Action Day this year, as a school, and in conjunction with Sunshine Action, we will all be packing food bags to encourage Participation. As a school, we will begin collecting the supplies for the food packs over the next 13 weeks. We will collect: Healthy Drinks, Canned Food, Honey and Cooking Oil (no glass bottles). Some posters have been prepared which will be placed around the school as a reminder for our families and in the next few days we will give you small versions of the poster which we would appreciate is passed to each student to take home in their diary this week please.
This year Action Day will be run a little differently to in the past: All students in Years 1-4 & 6 will be packing food bags and Years 5’s will be going off site to help distribute these packed food bags in the community at estates. We will also be encouraging families to volunteer to help with jobs on some housing estates e.g. painting, fixing things, cleaning. Families will be able to volunteer via forthcoming newsletters. A timetable will be sent to staff after CNY to fill in for class/year group activities.
Please speak to the students in your class about this day and about why we are collecting food. I have attached the link to the Global Goals below and year group leaders have been given a copy of “Calling all Heroes” which has some ideas in it to start the action conversations and planning with students. 5F students have prepared a talk for Assembly this week and may visit classes to help promote the collection of goods over the coming weeks.
If families do not wish to donate the actual physical food items, they can make a cheque donation of $150 which buys one pack of items (1x cooking oil, 1x honey, 1x healthy drink, 1x can of food). The cheque must be made out to Bradbury School and have the students’ name, class and “Action Day” labelled on the back of it. The collection box will be located in the foyer opposite Ms. Fritzi and will be clearly labelled ‘Action Day Donations’. Lower School EAs may wish to collect these cheques and bring them down at a convenient time.
There will be class rewards for achieving a certain number of goods collected. We will get this magic number to the teachers by the end of the week but its roughly 4-5 packs per child.
The bags for the collected goods are located in the foyer and have been labelled in English and Chinese. We are also collecting reusable medium sized shopping bags to pack the goods into on the day.
We hope this information helps so you can get started in talking to your students about this upcoming day on Friday May 3rd. If you have any questions let us know.
Rewarding Collection of Items for Action Day
By Carol Farrington, Action Coordinator
ACTION DAY:
FOOD COLLECTION FOR POOR PEOPLE IN HONG KONG
Goal for the school: Collect 4,000 packs of food items, so each student collects 5 to 6 packs of the food items
(Each pack containing 1x honey, 1x cooking oil, 1x canned food, 1x healthy drink)
Goal 1: Each student in a class collects 4 packs of the food items
A reward will be given to the class when this class goal is achieved.
Goal 2: Each student in a class collects more than 4 packs of the food items
A reward will be given to the class when this class goal is achieved.
(Donation of a cheque for $150 is equivalent to one pack of food items.)
The rewards might be sweets / lollies / extra playtime for every student in the class.
Overall school goal is for each student: Collect 5 to 6 packs of the food items, then we will achieve 4,000 packs.
You may incorporate this into maths by graphing, entering data on a spreadsheet.
Students talking about taking action to support people in need in Hong Kong during assembly.
Music Activities—Term 2
By Gethyn Clothier, Head of Performing Arts
Upper Choir
The school choir for children in years 4 to 6 will continue to rehearse from 3.00 to 3.45 pm on Thursdays, beginning on 24th January. The Gateway registration has been extended so if your child is interested in joining the choir, please sign up on Gateway as soon as possible.
Orchestra
The school orchestra will re-commence on Tuesday, 22nd January, from 3.00 to 3.45 pm. Children who play an orchestral instrument to at least grade 2 standard are welcome to join. Registration for this activity is now open on Gateway.
Lower School Choir
The lower school choir rehearses in the music room on Wednesday lunchtimes from 12.40pm to 1.10 pm. All children in years 2 and 3 who enjoy singing are welcome to attend. There is no need to sign up for this and the children can just come along to the music room for the next rehearsal on Wednesday, 23rd January.
Dance!
By Amanda Bremner, PYP Coordinator
Bradbury students enjoyed experiencing dance with Move For Life. Through dance, which is part of the Arts curriculum, learners have rich opportunities to be creative and to experience inspiration and enjoyment.
Thank you to the PTA for sponsoring this Artist in Residence programme.
Library News
By Jane Thompson, Librarian Teacher, and Connie Leung, Librarian Assistant
READING IN UNUSUAL PLACES
We are running the Reading in Unusual Places competition again this year. We thought we would give the students plenty of notice so they can submit photos taken during the Christmas break or Chinese New Year Holiday. The competition opened on Monday January 7th and will close on Friday 15th March. The three winners will have their photos published in the Bradbury School Yearbook. All entries will be displayed in a photo gallery in the library. Please note that you can only submit one photo per student. We recommend that you do not alter the image in any away e.g. cropping or re-sizing. We will endeavour to acknowledge your entry via return email. Please check if you don’t receive this email.
Email entries to me at jane.thompson@bradbury.edu.hk.
A MESSAGE OF THANKS FROM SOUTH AFRICA MOBILE LIBRARY
Dear Bradbury School,
Happy New Year!
Thank you once again for your great support to the South Africa Mobile Library Project (SAMLP) under the South Africa Primary Education Support Initiative (SAPESI). Over 23,000 English story books, including the books donated by your school, were handed over to the Education Minister of Western Cape last November for the mobile libraries reaching rural area schools.
Currently, there’re 60 mobile libraries reaching approximately 800 schools in the nine provinces, offering learners, teachers, and schools free and easy access to books. South Africa Primary Education Support Initiative (SAPESI) is aiming to extend this service eventually to 100 mobile libraries, which will reach 2,500 schools mainly in rural areas.
Therefore, Sony HK continues to support the South Africa Mobile Library Project (SAMLP) in 2019 by holding the book donation drive of ‘ENGLISH BOOKS’ among colleagues of Sony Group companies, schools and members of the public.
It will be highly appreciated if you could continue to support this good cause.
Best regards,
Fiona
Public Relations and Brand Communications Section
Sony Corporation of Hong Kong Limited
Thank you to all the families who have donated books in the past year. Bradbury will continue to support this worthwhile charity. If you are clearing out any English story books and would like to give them a good them home then please bring them to the library and will send them onto Sony Corporation.
P.T.A. News
By Kelly Xu, P.T.A. Chairperson, and Lin Gong, Bradbury School P.T.A. Limited
Year 4 Cake Sale
The Year 4 cake sale will be held on Thursday, 17th January 2019. We would be grateful if each year 4 Student could contribute one dozen (only) individual sized cakes for this event. Please have your child deliver the cakes to the school hall on Thursday morning. If you would like your container returned, please clearly label both the top and bottom with your child’s name and class. Please remember no nuts or nut products.
Although brownies and cupcakes are very popular, there is a school wide focus on health this year. To encourage children to make healthier choices we would love to see some alternatives that more nutritious and lower in sugar.
Volunteers – we require 9 helpers on the day between 9:30am and 11:00am, please email your class parent or the PTA at pta@bradbury.edu.hk or call 2893 2256 if you can help.
If you would like your child/children to buy a cake, please provide them with $10 and they will have an opportunity to buy a cake at morning break on Thursday.
Environmental/Sustainability Expert
By Amanda Bremner, PYP Coordinator
WANTED!
A parent or member of the Bradbury School Community with expertise in Greening, Sustainability or Environmental knowledge to help lead the school forward in their efforts to become a green school.
Please contact Ms. Fritzi in the school office if this is something you are interested in helping us coordinate.
The ESF “Run for Our Future” is the major community engagement event organized by the English Schools Foundation (ESF) among the annual ESF calendar of events. It will be comprised of a running course of 1km to 10km, with adjacent community activities and carnival at Hong Kong Science Park.
The ESF Hong Kong Run:
Date: Saturday, 26th January 2019
Time: Start from 0830
Venue: Science Park, HK
Distance: 1Km, 3Km and 10Km
Open to: Students and families, teachers, support staff and their families and friends
Registration fee: Individual $200 / Family Run $450 (shuttle bus service from University Station to Science Park)
Online registration: https://hkrun.esf.edu.hk/en
Third-Party Organised After School Activities
Dear Parents,
The following companies are currently hiring our facilities to provide extra curricular activities for students. You may browse the school website under “LIFE AT BRADBURY” for their programs and enroll your child directly to the company:
ESF Sports, contact 2711 1280 or sports@esf.org.hk website: www.esf.org.hk
Soccer & Basketball Training – Adventure Sports Academy Ltd, contact Eilis Cheung at 3998 4042 or info@adventuresportsacademy.com website: www.adventuresportsacademy.com
Fabric Art, Fabric Design, Crafting & Creative Sewing – Alifya Kasubhai, contact at 9281 5290 or contact@fabricart-hk.com website: www.fabricart-hk.com
Sanskriti/Hindi Language Class – Brilliant Learning International Ltd., contact Geetanjali Dhar at 3563 4300 or info@sanskritiglobal.org website: www.sanskritiglobal.org
Singing, Acting, Dancing – Ballet, Jazz, Tap Dance – CentreStage Studios HK Ltd., contact Imogen Taylor or Kaijah Bell at 5236 7960 or 2689 2272 or admin@centrestagestudioshk.com website: www.centrestagestudioshk.com
Chess Class & Camp – HoYinPingChess, contact Yin Ping Ho at 9215 2682 or hoyinpingchess@gmail.com website: www.hoyinpingchess.com/index/lesson.html / www.hoyinpingchess.com/index/camp.html
Swedish Language and Culture – Swedish Cultural Society, contact Linda at 9316-6599 or
svenskaskolanhongkong@hotmail.com Website: www.svenskaskolan.hk
N.B. 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 liability 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.
