Issue No. 21 (1 February 2019)

It has been just four weeks between the Christmas Holidays and Chinese New Year – but what a special four weeks it has been! If you are in any doubt about how much our students have crammed into this short space of time, you will see a vast range of activities and special events in this week’s e-bulletin. Congratulations to our staff and students on achieving so much so quickly.

On a personal level, this is a very special moment for me. I am very privileged to be celebrating my first Chinese New Year in Hong Kong with the South Island School community. On behalf of South Island School, we wish you great fortune and happiness in the New Year.

With best wishes,
Tom Vignoles

Chinese New Year Assembly 2019.

School Photographs will be taken in the Hall on Monday, 18 February to Wednesday, 20 February 2019.

All students must come to school in the correct school uniform. We do not allow PE kit unless for the team photographs.

This year, no payment will be taken before the photos. Instead, parents will receive a set of proofs card & order form from Techni Photo 3-4 weeks after the photos are taken, and can order the photos online or mail directly to Techni Photo. Please see below detailed instruction about ordering photos online (revised 13 February 2019).

The timetable of Tutor Group and House photos is attached. There will be an opportunity for Sibling or Family photos to be taken on Tuesday, 19 February from 8:25 – 10:05am.

Please see attached for the full schedule below (revised 13 February 2019).

Annette Chapman
Vice Principal

On the afternoon of Friday 22 February, there will be a second Study Skills workshop called ‘Ace Your Exams’ delivered jointly with Elevate Education. This second session is specifically aimed at students who have sat mocks and are preparing for the final summer exams. During the workshop, students will be given tips and strategies for studying that will be monitored and reinforced by tutors and teachers in all subjects in the following weeks.

This is a compulsory session and it is important that all Year 11 students sitting exams attend. The workshop will start in tutor time at 12:35 and run over into the afternoon. I would ask that if you/your child usually attends a lesson, activity or tutoring session on a Friday afternoon that you make sure that you give notice that your child will be in school for that one day, in the same way that you would for inter House events.

Further details about the session will be sent after CNY.

Activity buses will be available for those who use the school bus service at 3:00pm.

Mrs. Crouch
Head of Post 14 Learning

Thank you for joining us at the Years 9 and 11 Options Fair last Wednesday evening. We appreciate your time and hope you have a better idea on your child’s options. As always, please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. A big thank you to administrators and all staff who helped make the event run smoothly.

Click on the images below to enlarge and view:

To mark the Chinese New Year, the school community is being treated to an amazing variety of Chinese cultural experiences on Friday 1 February. During the assembly, there were performances including a lion dance, Chinese martial arts, traditional regional dances, songs, a video compilation of greetings in different languages and dialects, as well as a surprise and multilingual appearance from our very own…Mr Tom Vignoles! Those inspired by the linguistic diversity of the day can look forward to the upcoming Mother Tongue Day (21 February) and the trilingual drama production Butterfly Lovers (11–13 March).

Photos below from the Chinese New Year Assembly 2019:

Students were practising hard on lion dance steps:

Here at SIS, we celebrated the Chinese New Year with a fantastic array of activities involving students in all year groups. From origami pigs to calligraphy, spring couplets to fan design and from peach blossom paintings to lantern making, students have been hard at work celebrating this extremely important event on the Chinese calendar! It has been a week to remember and we send warm wishes to all for the holiday period. 新年快乐!

Click on the images below to enlarge and view:

We ran a trial period between 21-25 January where we asked teachers to turn off lights in classrooms and use natural light instead. When running this trial, we wanted to get feedback on how it went, which would pave the way for future initiatives involving the whole school, all with the shared goal of reducing our energy usage in school. We believe that the trial period showed a sense of success as we managed to get across several details of how you should be aware of using energy and managed to give students and teachers a sense that lights are not always mandatory to be kept on.

Just by analysing the survey results, we found out that participants faced challenges from fear of their eyesight being damaged which is not true as there is still a similar amount of light coming in. However, what teachers found unusual or not normal was that the temperature in the room increased as the sun was very bright. Nonetheless, excluding the challenges most teachers and students, both supported the initiative and found it very normal in most days, which led them to back up their statements by supporting us to do more of these initiatives on sunny days as one has suggested.

Eldon Tse & Max Yuen
SIS Sustainability Council

44 students undertook a 24-hour famine from Monday morning to Tuesday. At the 7^th annual fast, the students slept in the Diploma Centre on Monday night. A big thank you to Mr. Trevor Wong and Ms. Kitty Yeung who stayed overnight with Mr. Paul Gardner to supervise.

Total amount of donations received will be announced when the information is available.

Click on the images below to enlarge and view:

International Evening was another event that encapsulated the idea of having a sustained link with a charity. We supported Arts with the Disabled Association, Hong Kong, which is a charity that strives to support and provide equal opportunities and an inclusive environment for all students in their pursuit of arts. Through our event, we celebrated and exhibited the cultural diversity in our school, while sustaining our link with ADAHK. The money that we were able to raise was in excess of $16000 and future plans are already in place to link this accoladed event with Mother Tongue Day next year.

This event would never have been a success were it not for the countless hours that students, performers, technicians and parents have invested in the organisation and planning of the event. We hope you enjoyed International Evening 2019 as much as we did and we cannot thank you enough for the support we have received.

The 2019 International Evening Head Team,
Vereta, Vanessa, Brian, Michael, Andre