Glenealy School Newsletter
16th January 2020
Remember Dress Casual Day tomorrow- Friday 17th January
Message from Chris
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
The first two weeks of 2020 have been extremely successful with children engrossed in their learning across the school.
On Monday our Year 6 children joined children across ESF to attend the Agents of Change conference, in preparation for their Exhibition later in the year. The children were given a whole range of ideas from organisations and professionals about how they might be able to improve the world around them. They have brought back plenty of fantastic ideas to help them make a real difference as part of their Exhibition unit later in the year.
The Year 6 Debate Team also took part in a friendly competition against the Peak School on Tuesday this week. They are preparing for The Hong Kong Primary Debate Tournament later in the year. The motion debated was “Private cars should be banned in Hong Kong” with both schools taking it turns to debate the affirmative and negative sides of the debate. The Glenealy Debate Team performed admirably under the stewardship and support of Ms Bott. We look forward to the debate team taking their arguments forward to the knockout tournament later in the year.
Last week we wrote to you about the 21 Day Benefit Mindset Challenge - providing a real life challenge for children to help each other, and in turn feel good about themselves. This week we reflected upon the challenge in our SEL assembly. We ask all parents to encourage your children at home to take small, positive actions to help them to meet the challenge. We also encouraged the children to become ‘Caring Global Citizens’. To this end we have some wonderful global citizens in our school who suggested, and are helping, organise our non-uniform day on Friday this week.
Dress Casual Day - Friday 17th January
As a reminder, the whole school community will be taking action on Friday to raise money for the disaster emergency fund to support those affected by the bush fires in Australia. Please be reminded to come in Australian themed casual wear tomorrow* Friday 17th January. With a $20 suggested donation, the boxes will be on the playground in the morning and after school on Friday.
*for safety reasons, children should wear closed toe shoes so please avoid flip flops, sandals etc.
Parent Consultations - Thank you!
On a different note I would like to thank all the parents who took part in the Curriculum, Wellbeing and Communication Parent Consultation Groups over the past weeks. The purpose of these groups was to co-create the questions we would like to ask on a survey to all parents. After Chinese New Year you will receive a survey incorporating questions that come directly from the parent consultations. The responses from the survey will help us when shaping our school development planning for the coming years. Thank you to all involved - I hugely enjoyed our engaging and open conversations about our wonderful school.
Chinese New Year Celebrations - Thursday 23rd January at 8.30 am
Next week we turn our attention to CNY celebrations. You will by now have received information for the various assemblies and events happening during the day. We look forward to seeing you all on the playground for the Lion Dance on Thursday 23rd at 8.30 am.
I wish you all a wonderful weekend and look forward to our CNY celebration next week.
Best Regards,
Chris
Dates for your Diary
Friday 17th January
Dress Casual Day
Year 5 Fundraiser - Playground 3:00 pm
Thursday 23rd January
Chinese New Year Celebrations - Playground 8:30 am
Friday 24th - Friday 31st January (inclusive)
Mid term break
Monday 3rd February
School resumes after Mid term break
Monday 10th February
Tetrapaks collection - Playground 8:00 am - 8:30 am
Wednesday 12th February
Understanding ISA and INCAS Assessment Data Workshop
(Years 3-6)
Friday 21st February
School Fair 5:30 - 8:00 pm
Thursday 5th March
Student Led Conferences 3:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Friday 6th March
Student Led Conferences all day- school closed for lessons
PTA News
We are incredibly excited to welcome you to the School Fair on 21st February. The Fair is the highlight of the school calendar and brings the whole community together for an evening of entertainment, fun, food and socialising.
What happens at the Fair?
Games - There will be a variety of exciting activities and games for your children to enjoy. Many are new this year including Soak the Teacher, Water or Wine, Glenealy Spa and remote control car racing.
Food - Volunteers at the unmissable International Food Court this year will be providing delicacies from India, Italy, Philippines, Korea, Japan and China. There will also be a sausage sizzle, popcorn, and of course, the ever popular dessert stall.
Silent Auction - This year's Silent Auction sees the return of much loved favorites such as "Principal for the Day" and "Movie Night in the Library" alongside new offerings including" Be a Pop Star" and the opportunity to bring your toys to life in their very own movie.
Entertainment - Mr Benzie has been working with our children, who will provide entertainment on the evening of the Fair. Each year group will perform a number of songs. The schedule will be published in next week's Newsletter.
How can I help?
Donate – time for a clear-out! The week of the Fair we will be collecting for:
● Second Hand Books - please no VCR tapes, CD’s or DVD’s.
● Pre-loved Accessories - Gently used, pre-loved handbags, scarves, sunglasses, belts & jewelry.
● School Uniform – We welcome your donations of gently used school uniform for resale at the Fair.
● Water or wine - New bottles of wine, champagne, olive oil, juice, cordial, vinegar, Perrier etc.
Volunteers – we need help to set-up and run the games and stalls on the night of the Fair. Please sign up using the Google Form here. Even if you completed the volunteers form for the Fair in November we ask that you please complete this new Form. Given diary commitments we are aware that those that signed up previously may not be available on 21st February.
Volunteer your teenager – if you have older students at home, we’d love to have them come and help out on our games stalls. Please sign up using the Google Form here.
Year 5 Fundraiser - 17th January 3:00 pm
Year 5 invites you to join them at their fundraiser after school on Friday 17th January. There will be lots of delicious food to enjoy and a great selection of pre-loved toys starting from $10. Remember to bring your snack containers and shopping bag!
Interested in joining the PTA? One of the things that makes Glenealy such a special school is its sense of community. Join the PTA and bring your skills, ideas and enthusiasm to the heart of our school community. This highly rewarding role offers the opportunity for you to provide your input and help organise some fantastic events whilst working in a team of dedicated parents and staff.
If you would like to find out more please contact Becky the PTA administrator on PTA@glenealy.net.
Tetrapaks Collection Update
Tetrapak Collection Update
We ran our 6th collection on Monday this week and collected 56.3 Kg of tetrapaks. That adds up to 282.3Kg of tetrapaks saved from Hong Kong landfills since we began our collection drive in June 2019.
Huge thanks to all the kids and families who brought their packaging, our recycler relies on schools as collection points. A special mention to 4M, the class with the highest number of families participating, closely followed by 3K. We wonder which class will have the highest uptake next time?
Please cut open, remove the plastic lids, wash and dry your tetrapaks ready for the next collection. Take time to watch the video link to see how to prepare your tetra paks.
Preparing Your Tetra Pak For Recycling
The next collections this term will be
Monday 10th February
Monday 16th March
Before school on the playground
We have amazing results to share from the Redress Clothing drive. You might remember that in October, we helped the charity Redressed HK collect second-hand clothing from our community. Our school collected a total of 208.2 kilograms of clothing! This contributed to a total of 15.4 tonnes of clothes collected by Redress from other communities in Hong Kong. These clothes went to charities such as Crossroads, Hong Kong Dog Rescue, Ronald McDonald house, Oxfam and Friends of the Earth.
Thank you for donating your second-hand clothes! Your help has made a big difference to others and your donations have contributed to less waste in our landfills.
Parents as Partners 2019/20
We would like to thank parents for their survey suggestions for our Parents as Partners events this year. We may add to this programme over the year, but wanted to share the initial schedule with parents at this time.
Details of timings, and registration for each workshop, will be announced closer to each event.
Understanding ISA and INCAS Assessment Data Workshop (Years 3-6)
Workshop
Wednesday 12th February 2020
Inquiry at Glenealy
Parent Circle
Wednesday 4th March 2020
Social Emotional Learning at Glenealy-Building Resilience
Workshop
Wednesday 29th April 2020
Understanding the Teaching of Language at Glenealy
Parent Circle
Term 3 - Date To be confirmed
Important Reminder
Has your child's visa status changed?
As a reminder, all children attending an ESF school need the appropriate and valid visa status to do so. Please inform the school if your child's visa status changes. For more information, you may refer to the Immigration section on the ESF website.
Useful School Forms
Medical Authorisation Form - required should your child need to take medication whilst at school, on a school trip or camp