BRADBURY NEWSLETTER – 29 MARCH 2019
Dear Bradbury Community:
Greetings to you all,
At the beginning of this year the School Council met to determine our school’s strategic direction for the next three years. Over the year, we continue to refine this through a process of consultation and review. At our last meeting, we finalised the wording and formally accepted the following:
Bradbury School bases its strategic plan on five foundations of excellence:
1. High Quality Teaching and Learning
At Bradbury School, we will ensure that high quality teaching is embedded throughout the school so that all learners are prepared for their future.
2. Outstanding Staff
Bradbury School staff will be encouraged to engage in educational vision. Professional development will be a priority. Leadership development will be actively pursued.
3. Care for Health and Wellbeing
Bradbury School will purposefully create an environment that actively promotes wellbeing, is well cared for and ensures that our community feels safe and protected.
4. Strong Community Partnership
Bradbury School will ensure that we embrace partnership with our parents and community. Our communication will be effective, inclusive and reflect the needs of our community. We will ensure that our collective successes are acknowledged and celebrated.
5. Care for the Environment
Bradbury School will ensure that our environment reflects the needs of our learning community to be creative, challenging and joyful. We will be mindful of our impact on our world through the resources we use.
Note: The Strategic Plan is operationalised through the school Annual Plan, which is completed each year.
We are confident that this plan will serve us well as we move into the future.
Sincerely,
Sandra Webster
Principal
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 |
| 03 April 2019 (Wednesday) | Sustainability at Bradbury Parent Meeting | 8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. |
| 04 April 2019 (Thursday) | ESF Primary Choral Concert | 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. |
| 09 April 2019 (Tuesday) | Year 6 P.Y.P EXHIBITION | 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 a.m. |
| 12 April 2019 (Friday) | Spring Term Ends (12:00 noon dismissal) | 12:00 noon |
| 15 April 2019 (Monday) –
26 April 2019 (Friday) – inclusive |
Easter Break Holidays – No classes | —– |
| 29 April 2019 (Monday) | Year Book Cover Competition Deadline | 3:00 p.m. |
| 29 April 2019 (Monday) | School Resumes | 8:30 a.m. |
| 29 April 2019 (Monday) | Deadline for the Yearbook Cover Competition | 3:00 p.m. |
| 01 May 2019 (Wednesday) | Labour Day – No Classes | —– |
| 03 May 2019 (Friday) | ACTION DAY | 8:30 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. |
| 06 May 2019 (Monday) –
10 May 2019 (Friday) |
BOOK WEEK | 8:30 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. |
| 10 May 2019 (Friday) | Class 6G/6B Assembly (pls note date change) | 8:45 a.m. |
| 13 May 2019 (Monday) | Buddha’s Birthday – No Classes | —– |
| 15 May 2019 (Wednesday) | MMR & Hepatitis B Vaccination for Year 6 | |
| 17 May 2019 (Thursday) | Year 3 Market Day (pls note date change) | 9:00 a.m. |
| 16 May 2019 (Thursday) | Sausage Sizzle | 12:00 noon |
| 18 May 2019 (Saturday) &
25 May 2019 (Saturday) |
ESF CHINESE TALENT SHOW 2019 | |
| 23 May 2019 (Thursday) | Y5/Y6 Student Led Conference | 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| 29 May 2019 (Wednesday) | Y3/Y4 Student Led Conference | 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| 30 May 2019 (Thursday) | Year 1 Cake Sale | 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. |
| 31 May 2019 (Friday) | Year 6 Pastoral Day | 8:30 a.m. – 2:40 p.m. |
| 31 May 2019 (Friday) | Y1 Induction
(Incoming Students for 2019- 2020) |
TBC |
| 04 June 2019 (Tuesday) | Y1/Y2 Student Led Conference | 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. |
| 06 June 2019 (Thursday) | CPD Day – No Classes | —– |
| 07 June 2019 (Friday) | Dragon Boat (Tuen Ng) Festival – No Classes | —– |
| 25 June 2019 (Tuesday) | Year 6 Graduation Ceremony | 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. |
| 28 June 2019 ( Friday) | Summer Term Ends ( 12 noon dismissal) | 12:00 noon |
Relationship Sexuality Education Parent Survey Results
By Sandra Webster, Principal
Thank you for completing the survey on RSE (Relationship, Sexulaity Education) at Bradbury School. We gathered 221 responses and would like to share the ‘comfort level’ ratings with you. These are for the sample outcomes presented for the four phases.
We asked you to indicate how you would feel on the scale of 1 – 5 about these outcomes being taught to your child at each phase. The majority of respondents rated the outcomes as 4 or 5 indicating that they are comfortable with the outcomes being taught to their children at each phase. Please see the responses below.
We also asked for comments, and while we received many comments that were very supportive of these outcomes being taught, we also received comments which indicated you would like to know the following:
- information about how these outcomes will be taught;
- language used when teaching;
- further clarification on some outcomes; and
- whether the outcome was appropriate to the phase.
We would like to follow up this survey with a parent meeting to act as a focus group to help understand any further concerns our community may have, and to also clarify further our teaching approach to RSE.
The meeting will be held at Bradbury School at 5:00 P.M. on 21st May, 2019. Please RSVP to attend meeting. If you have any expertise in this area, we would love to hear from you.
We are taking introducing this curriculum area slowly and sensitively as we want to ‘get it right’ and ensure that we have your support and understanding. In the end, it is an ESF requirement to teach this curriculum area and we may not be able to please everyone but listening to your voice as parents is important to us.
Preparing for Bradbury Action Day
By Carol Farrington – Action Coordinator and Amanda Bremner – PYP Leader
It’s Getting Close To Our ACTION DAY… only 3 school weeks left until May 3rd!
So that the day can be a success by giving the students many opportunities for service within our community we need many volunteers. The action that the children take transforms this day uniting our whole school community together. You can sign up to join us in the experience here:
There will be many events on Action Day, which will be communicated to you soon. However, a pivotal part is collecting and distributing packs of food. All Year 5 students will take about 2000 packs to public housing estates on Action Day. The remaining packs will be collected by NGOs on the day and distributed by them. Our initial goal is for EACH STUDENT TO DONATE AT LEAST 4 PACKS OF FOOD.
Our total collection to date is:
- Nutritious drinks 815
- Cooking oil 733
- Tinned food 1794
- Honey 694
We are 3,000 packs short of our total goal – but, we do have 3 school weeks left!
PLEASE – NO GLASS BOTTLES OF HONEY OR OIL (they are easily broken)
We are collecting only the 4 items and are not collecting noodles
If you are wondering how your own child / children can have a proactive role in the preparation, here are some examples about how our families are involving the children:
Ikram: For Action Day I paid about half of the of the money and I went with my mum to buy the packs.
Caton: Aaron, my brother, and I went to the shop with our aunty to buy 4 Action Day food packs.
Zahra: I save my money up to $35 so me and my dad can go to the supermarket and he tops up the amount so we can buy a pack of food.
Thank you very much for your help in engaging the children in the preparations.
On this day we also need lots of volunteers. If you are available to help in any way can you please add your name to the Google form link here. Carol and I will assign jobs over the coming week and be in touch before the Easter Holidays.
Feeding People In Need In Our Community
By Amanda Bremner and Carol Farrington, Action Leaders
Bradbury families, staff and students participated in feeding people in need with Sunshine Action last night around the streets of Nam Cheong. This community event helped students contribute to collective action and reflect on and be thankful for their personal circumstances.
PE Update
By Ally Maclay, Head of PE and Samantha Nicholls, PE Teacher
Hockey
On Friday 15th March 2019 Bradbury school hockey team were in action once again, this time at the Hong Kong Football Club. The tournament was hosted by GSIS and saw over 16 teams compete in mini hockey (6-a-side) The games were action packed but lacked in goals and as a result we were waiting on results from the other pool game to see if we qualified to the cup. We received the good news that we had qualified but this meant we were to play Kennedy School A team in our first cross-over game. This was never going to be an easy game as they are a very strong team and sadly we went down 1-0. This meant our road to the final was over and we had no further games to play. Even though we did not progress in this particular tournament the students certainly made huge progress over the weeks of playing hockey. Congratulations to all involved and I hope you continue to play!
HKPSSA Tag Rugby Championship
On Thursday, 19 of our finest rugby players took to Sandy Bay to take on the rest of the Hong Kong Primary Schools in HKPSSA at their TAG rugby championships.
Both A and B Grade came into the tournament confident after their exploits in the Island Schools Tournament. Both started off very well with some excellent wins against Kellett Kowloon Bay and Peak respectively.
The A Grade lost their second game to a well organised RCHK side. Little mistakes costing the team possession which in turn RCHK scored. That wasn’t to say our A grade didn’t play well, they just made less mistakes inevitably giving them a 2 try win. The final group game against DBIS was crucial to ear a place in the Plate Semi Final. Some excellent tries by Louis McLaughlin sealed the win.
In the B Grade they won all their group games whereby they disposed of ICHK, Kowloon Junior and Kellett Kowloon Bay. An impressive series of performances from Skye Semple ignited the team to their success to proceed to the Semi Final of the B Grade Cup.
In the B Grade Semi Final, they met Quarry Bay who were very well drilled and had an exceptional Year 4 player who ripped through our team several times. But our team showed a lot of grit to lose by 2 tries. Despite the loss in the final, the strength and attitude of this B grade really made our A Grade stronger and it really impressed me.
The A Graders went into their Semi Final against Peak School confident as they had played against them earlier but they were warned not to take them for granted. They took this on board and showed off all their abilities to take them to the finals. In their last game, the Plate Final, they met ICHK. Despite playing the better rugby they allowed their one player who proved very difficult to beat run through 4 times to score untouched. If ICHK scored, Bradbury responded but could never get a try up. As fatigue set in, the final whistle blew and they lost the final by a try.
The effort by all the players throughout the term has not been short of excellent. The last session of the year proved this with the non A and B Graders proving themselves to challenge when playing in our internal tournament. It is really impressive to see and the effort did not go unnoticed.
The Race
We had a full compliment of runners compete in the race with 40 runners racing against HK Primary school’s best. The fact we had that many runners really shows how far along we have come and the fact we are achieving to get more students being active in such events.
To understand what the race, this is 580 students from across 20 primary schools taking part in a road race. At U8, they are running 1.3km, U9, the course is 2.2km and at U10/11/12 it’s 3.3km. All distances are challenging for the kids involved.
Both the U.8 boys and the U.11 boys gained recognition with 3rd place as a team. That’s a huge achievement across the board from all those involved in the teams. Individually, the following came in the top 10 in their respective age groups. In the U8s, Chester Ting – 5th. U9s, Sophie Hufton came 5th and Adrian Ting came 6th. U10s, Siena Poulton came 7th and Tor Man came 5th. The quality of some of the contemporaries in the age groups is not short of exceptional so these placings are very good.
I hope that this will inspire the next generation of runners at Bradbury to get out and start practicing.
Check out the event video here.
Basketball
On Thursday, 28th March, we had our final tournament of the term with our basketball team hitting the courts of Kowloon Junior School to compete against 20 teams from across Hong Kong.
The team changed a little from the last tournament at RCHK where they performed admirably. This time round it was a different setting on smaller courts but similar opposition. The first 2 games they took on Discovery College and Quarry Bay playing well together and showing great strength in defence working hard to get back. They won both games. This set them up nicely to play against a very talented and big Renaissance College team. Bradbury started well leading for the first half of the game but tired early and were caught making a few mistakes and the RCHK team got in behind them and scored easily on the break.
This qualified the team in 2nd place to take a quarter final spot against Beacon Hill School. A tightly contested affair with Adrian Lin putting in a great shift to contain their main player and stop them from many attacks. The game ended 8-6 to Beacon Hill but the players were much happier with the performance after their previous match.
A special mention to Matthew Li who won an award voted by coaches and refs to be the MVP of Bradbury which is exceptional as there were many talented players across the teams.
A big thank you to Travis from Adventure Sports Academy who has been coaching the children through term 1 and term 2.
ESF Cricket Tournament
Last Wednesday, a team of Bradbury boys went out to represent the school at an impromptu Cricket tournament hosted by HKCC. The team thrown together with 4, Year 6s and 2, Year 4s performed very well with little practice but they tried their best and really impressed.
The team progressed through to the 3rd/4th Play off against Japanese International. On the way they came up against Nord Anglia, Discovery Minds and Victoria Shanghai Academy. They managed to get past NA and VSA but struggled to compete against a very organised Discovery Minds.
In the final, they met the Japanese School. But the star of the team, James Walker (Y4) proved his worth and managed to claim a hat-trick of wickets in his 1 over bowling. Moreover, he had the batting skills to match. A really impressive display from a young player.
But across the board, the team represented Bradbury very well and showed great energy to come 3rd over all. The cricketing future looks bright too.
Last word…
PARENTAL ACTIONS INFLUENCE THE ACTIVITY OF THE CHILD
Run2Cambodia
By Samantha Nicholls, PE Teacher
When was the last time you ran to Cambodia??!
This year during our Action Day on Friday 3rd April you will have the chance to help Bradbury school run to Cambodia!
We are very lucky to be partnered with a school called Khe Krom which is situated in the Steung Treng province of Cambodia. Here they provide an education for children who have no opportunity to attend a Government run school. In partnership with United World Schools (UWS) we can help support the continued development of Khe Krom school, within the local village, to provide access to education for all.
It is as a result of this partnership that ‘Run to Cambodia’ has been born! During Action Day 2019 all students will have the opportunity to run laps of the tarmac playground. These laps will be recorded, counted and collated and hopefully in just 1 day the students and staff of Bradbury school will be able to collectively run the distance from Hong Kong to Steung Treng province. A total of 1,303km. We will mark out a track of 100m. This will mean as a school we have a target of 13,030 laps to complete! Do you think you are up for the challenge? If so please download a sponsorship form HERE and start collecting! Any money we raise will go directly to Khe Krom school and support the fantastic work being carried out in the rural communities to ensure all children have an opportunity to access education.
Please contact Miss Nicholls for more details samantha.nicholls@bradbury.edu.hk
For further information on United World Schools and their work please follow this link: https://www.unitedworldschools.org/
Library News
By Jane Thompson, Librarian Teacher, and Connie Leung, Librarian Assistant
READING IN UNUSUAL PLACES: WINNER—Brandon Cheng (4A)
Congratulations to Brandon on winning the Reading in Unusual Places competition this year with this awesome photo! Once again a big thank you to all the parents who have shared photographs of their children reading in some amazing and highly unusual places.
OVERDUE BOOKS AUTOMATED EMAIL:
We have now set up our library computer system to generate overdue email notices. The emails will go out every two weeks to alert parents if their child has an overdue book. You are able to reply to the email if you have any queries or questions regarding the book. Please be reminded that there is a fee of $100 for every lost or damaged book.
Immunisations: MMR for 1ZC
By Lauren Lau, Health Professional
Due to a number of absentees in class 1ZC, the MMRV vaccinations has been postponed to May 15th. Thus all medical records will be kept till this date. If you are interested in the MMRV vaccination and your child is in year 1, please fill in the consent form and hand it to the medical room before MAY 6th, 2019.
Cyber-Safety Presentation— ‘Growing Up Online’
By English Schools Foundation
Cyber-safety Presentation – ‘Growing Up Online’
You are cordially invited to an informative and entertaining presentation, ‘Growing Up Online’, by Australian cyber-safety expert Susan Mclean. The session will be delivered with Susan Mclean’s famous ‘no-nonsense’ approach and cover the positive benefits of technology, as well as what parents need to be aware of in terms of children’s cyber-safety. Topics include:
- What are kids doing online– The popular social networking sites and apps such as Secret Calculator, Musical.ly, Instagram and Yubo as well as live streaming sites.
- Online Grooming– What is it and when/how does it occur? What are the warning signs and what to do if you suspect this is happening to your child.
- Cyberbullying– What it is, where it happens, what it looks like, how to prevent it and what to do if it occurs. Also the legal consequences and the possible criminal charges.
- Sharing Nudes– The taking and sending of explicit images. The social and emotional consequences as well as the Law.
- Top Tips– How to assist the children in your care to stay safe online via parental controls and restriction
passcodes. - Problematic Internet use and gaming issues.
The session will conclude with time for questions. Tickets are HK$200 per person and they can be purchased from the links below:
- Monday, 8 April 2019: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pmat ESF Centre – http://bit.ly/ESF_CyberBully2019
- Tuesday, 9 April 2019: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pmat West Island School – http://bit.ly/ESF_CyberBullly_WIS2019
- Thursday, 11 April 2019: 6:30 pm– 8:00 pm at King George V School – http://bit.ly/ESF_CyberBully_KGV2019
P.T.A. News
By Kelly Xu, P.T.A. Chairperson, and Lin Gong, Bradbury School P.T.A. Limited
The PTA, with support from the School, will produce a Bradbury School 2018-2019 Year Book. The Year Book is a beautiful memento of the school year and records the variety of activities your child has and will continue to experience at Bradbury school.
The book will be predominantly a colour publication in A4 size. It will feature photographs and pictures with a contribution from every class in the School. The book is due for release in June 2019.
Each of our Bradbury families will receive their first copy of the Year Book as part of their PTA
Membership Fee. If you would like to have any extra copy, please complete the form (click to download) and return it to your class teacher by Friday, 10th May 2019 so that the print run can be arranged. The cost of each extra copy of our Year Book is HK$150.
Bradbury School Draft School Calendar 2019/20
By Sandra Webster, Principal
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.
