Issue No. 38 (21 June 2019)

21 Jun 2019

SIS came second at ESF Spanish competition!

Well done to our Spanish Speech team who participated in the annual ESF competition today. SIS came second overall, missing out on the top spot by one point! Our team came first overall in the group category (Sian Littlewood, Kiki Ko, Aashika Mamgain) and Saloni Sethi, Katie Kwok and Aiswarya Rambhatla all came second!

21 Jun 2019

Hong Kong Interschools ski challenge, December 2019

There will be a ski trip from 15-21 December 2019 to Beidahu, China for all students who are interested in competing in the Hong Kong Interschools ski challenge. This competition is supported by the Hong Kong Ski Association and is open to all students attending schools in Hong Kong. It is aimed at those who have skied or snowboarded before and have, or would like to have, some experience of slalom and giant slalom racing. The week will consist of instruction, race preparation and official timed races. There is the opportunity for those who show particular ability to be selected for the Hong Kong ski team.

Anyone interested in attending should contact Mr Redding at jredding@sis.edu.hk for further details.

21 Jun 2019

Sports Bulletin – 21 June 2019

Last Friday 14 June, we completed another successful Inter-House Swim Gala.  As always, our students were fantastic; they swam, they cheered and most importantly they had a great time! When students were not in the pool swimming, they were taking full advantage of the Swim Gala Photobooth. I hope they went home with lots of fun memories. This event was one of the most important events in the Inter-House calendar as it was an opportunity to win many House points! A special shout out to the following students who have broken swimming records this year:

  • Henry Chy who broke the Year 7 Boys 50m Freestyle record. He successfully swam in 30.43s, beating the old record by one second! Well done Henry – fantastic job!
  • Taka Leong broke the 50m breaststroke record by half a second creating a new record time of 35.08s. Well done Taka – awesome effort.
  • Emma Standing broke two records this year: firstly the Year 9 Butterfly record by over a second. She secured a new record with a time of 30.28s. She also beat the Freestyle record with a new time of 27.85seconds. Absolutely amazing job Emma – well done.
  • The Year 7 Bahay Boys also broke the Boys Freestyle Relay record with a time of 2.31.32s. The swimmers were: Admes Hung, Adam Au, Enzo Wong and Raphael Leung.

The races were close and all the swimmers gave their best. The results of the day were as follows:

  1. Namas
  2. Bahay
  3. Casa
  4. Kuca
  5. Shtepi
  6. Maison

Well done to everyone who took part in what was a truly fantastic day! We look forward to seeing what you can achieve in next year’s gala already!

 

On Tuesday, we were lucky enough to have Dream Sports Academy come and hold a basketball training for our students after school. We invited all Years 7-9 boys and girls and we had about 26 students participating, which was a great turnout! They did several drills and they all had a lovely time and learnt a lot during the hour session they had.

20 Jun 2019

PTA Office Hours – Summer 2019

As we are heading off into the summer holiday, I want to thank you for everything you have done to support the PTA in this academic year.

Thank you for your participation at our events and your reactions to our after-event surveys. Thank you for all your time volunteering at the PTA Shop. Thank you for your sponsorships at the raffle. Thank you to the Leadership Team, teachers, staff and of course to all of my PTA colleagues for your tremendous assistance to the PTA throughout this year.

Please check the special arrangements for the PTA Shop and Office during the holidays and do not hesitate to contact our staff by e-mail (pta@sis.edu.hk or uniformshop@sis.edu.hk), or by phone for any inquiry. Please understand it may take some weeks to answer your query whilst the shop is closed during the summer holiday.

 

Opening Hours: 

PTA SHOP – Opening hours during summer holiday

2 July & 3 July – CLOSED
4 July – 8:00am to 3:30pm
5 July – 8:00am to 1:30pm
6 July to 4 August – CLOSED (both dates inclusive)

 

PTA SHOP – Normal operation

The PTA SHOP will resume normal operation from 5 August 2019.
Monday to Thursday: 8:00am to 3:30pm
Friday: 8:00am to 1:30pm

 

PTA Office – Opening hours during summer holiday

2 to 4 July – 8:30am to 4:00pm
5 July – 08:30am to 2:00pm
6 July to 4 August – CLOSED (both dates inclusive)

 

PTA Office – Normal operation

The PTA Office will resume normal operation from 5 August 2019.
Monday to Thursday: 8:30am to 4:00pm
Friday: 8:30am to 2:00pm

 

I hope you have a relaxing holiday. I look forward to seeing you in August.

 

Best regards,
Karla Lee 
PTA Chair

18 Jun 2019

French & Spanish Spelling Bee 2019

Well done to all Year 7 and 8 students who took part in the French & Spanish Spelling Bee on 17 June 2019. A magnificent effort by those who made it to the finals, in particular our winners Karen Kan, Jason Au Yeung (an extremely impressive 30 words in a minute!), Emma Harvey and Britney Chan. A big well done to everyone involved!

18 Jun 2019

Dress Casual on last day of term – for a good cause!

The Dress Casual event on the last day of term will be in support of our whole school cause – our Family Academy in Bacolod, Philippines, which we have been supporting for more than 5 years now.

Thanks to the extremely successful Sponsored Walk in celebration of our 40th anniversary in September 2018, we have had funds to meet our HK$70,000 annual pledge. However, it is time to re-engage our community with this cause, so thank you in advance for your support!

18 Jun 2019

Congratulations to the Wing Chun Team!

South Island School’s Wing Chun class students took part in the 3rd Kung Fu Force Wing Chun Competition and won the merit award in the team competition in Siu Lim Tao on 13 May 2019. Congratulations to team members Nicholas Chang (8M1), Ethan Ching (7K1) and Aidan Lo (7N1).  Nicholas Chang also won the merit award for the youth group in the competition.

12 Jun 2019

Farewell Year 13

We have had three celebratory occasions for our Year 13 leavers. The first of these was ‘The End” which was performances and prizes from students and staff to mark the last day of school. On this day the students left messages on a giant banner and had a fantastic lunch which was organised by our PTA. This was a marking of the last day of lessons at SIS.

 

On Friday 24 May was the Year 13 Dinner Dance which was held at City Garden Hotel in North Point. This was a very grand affair with photographs and memories being shared throughout the evening. The evening was hosted by the Heads of House and many staff attended. Parents were invited for the first part of the evening.

 

Monday 27 May was Commencement which is the last official day the students would be in the school and it was a celebration of all they have achieved throughout their time. Ava Kim and Rahul Sharma were the Valedictorians for The Class of 2019.

 

Mr Andrew Gardner was our Guest Speaker. Andrew is an alumnus of 1993, who studied at South Island School for seven years, and in his final year served as Deputy Head Boy. Andrew’s family have been very active members of our school community with both parents being on the Parent Support Group and Mr Richard Gardner being the Chair for many years. Andrew is currently the Senior Pastor of The Vine Church, a multi-cultural and multi-generational international church based in Wan Chai.

There were several guests of honour including Mr Nick Phillips, Chair of School Council; Mr Adam Hughes, Director of Education at ESF; Ms Sandra Webster, Principal of Bradbury School and Ms Karla Lee, Chair of our Parent Teacher Association as well as all the Heads of House and Tutors.

All three occasions were very memorable and gave the year group a great farewell. We wish them success in their examination results in July.

 

Annette Chapman
Vice Principal

12 Jun 2019

Alumni updates – 14 June 2019

Kevin Pereira – The Class of 2002

Kevin Pereira came back to SIS on 11 June 2019 to give our current students an informative talk on the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI). Our students learnt so much about how AI can help businesses grow and change lives and industries, with far-reaching impacts.

With many interesting questions from our students, Kevin remembers his time at SIS where he met good teachers and developed good networks. In fact, he is still in touch with alumni from the same year, as well as his favourite teacher Mr Dave Stevens. He was involved in cricket where he improved his teamwork skills. Kevin also says SIS is very different from two decades ago with new buildings and facilities.

After leaving SIS, Kevin graduated at UPenn’s Wharton School, concentrating on finance, management and marketing. Kevin started his career in private banking in New York where he worked within both the investment and relationship management areas. He then moved back to Hong Kong to join Bank of New York Mellon’s asset management business, where he helped to build a new group that specialised in products tailored to High Net Worth Individuals. After going back to business school and studying at INSEAD, Kevin joined a technology start-up in Myanmar that was building an internet infrastructure which included fiber optic, cell towers and data centres.

As for tips to young adults? Kevin advised our students to follow their passion, and at the same time be aware of how technology and AI can impact them. Kevin is now a managing director covering financial services at a start-up AI consultant in Hong Kong. He is also a part-time lecturer at HKU and HKUST.

12 Jun 2019

Professional Development Days Summer Term 2019

Recently we have had two whole school CPD days where both have been used for Curriculum Development towards new courses and Years 7-9 MYP planning. At the end of this school year, all subjects are expected to have completed their Year 9 MYP curriculum planning and be ready for teaching in August. There have been lots of hours put into this and a great example of this planning is the recent Community Project which has been enjoyed by all our students in Year 9.

There are also some subject areas where examination syllabus have changed and again time has been dedicated to these. An example of this is the IB DP Maths course that has changed completely from the three-tier programme that they have at present. Now it will be just two choices on offer, each at HL and SL, and the Mathematics Department have therefore been busy planning four new courses:

Mathematics: Analysis and approaches is intended for students who wish to study Mathematics at university or subjects that have a large mathematical content; it is for students who enjoy developing mathematical arguments, problem-solving and exploring real and abstract applications, with and without technology. Mathematics: Analysis and approaches will be a development from the current Mathematics HL and SL subjects.”

Mathematics: Applications and interpretation is being designed for students who enjoy describing the real world and solving practical problems using mathematics; those who are interested in harnessing the power of technology alongside exploring mathematical models and enjoying the more practical side of mathematics. Mathematics: Applications and interpretation SL will be developed from Mathematical studies SL. The HL course will be new content including elements of the current HL statistics and discrete content.”

The IB English Literature and Language and Literature courses as well as first language Chinese have also undergone extensive syllabus changes, though not as complete as Mathematics.

At GCSE level the Global Perspectives course is also being relaunched as Global Citizenship.

A part of the CPD days was also set aside for the Self Study Working Groups to meet to support our School Development Planning. There are 11 of these groups who are reflecting on different aspects of the school, such as premises and physical accommodation, community and home partnership, teaching and assessing for learning, purpose and direction, curriculum, student learning and wellbeing, governance and leadership, and staffing. These groups include parents, students, School Council members and teaching staff who were all engaged in forward thinking for whole school strategies and developments.

Our dedicated CPD days are greatly valued by staff to give time for conversations, planning and self-learning of our teachers.

SIS staff carrying out CPD activity. (File photo)

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