Glenealy School Newsletter
12th December 2019
Tomorrow is the last day of term - School closes at 12:00 noon!
Message from Chris
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
As always, time has flown past here at Glenealy and we find ourselves at the end of Term 1. The children have had a fabulous term with some exceptional experiences. In the past week we enjoyed the school Pantomime, Christmas parties, success with in an inter school Netball competition, a parent consultation session, a Christmas Carol concert and tomorrow we have our end of term assembly. Alongside this packed schedule in school, we continued with some great learning experiences - an example of this being the pleasure this week of our Year 3 children as they shared their learning, knowledge and understanding with their Year 5 buddies at the end of their Sharing the Planet unit. Altogether it is a busy time of year, with a great atmosphere in school, with the business of teaching and learning continuing right until the end of term!
It has been a rewarding term in many ways. Our newest members of the Glenealy Community, our Year 1 children have settled brilliantly into the school and are making great progress. Camps were able to go ahead as planned with children in Years 3, 5 and 6 having fantastic experiences with a range of challenging activities. In amongst the various challenges we have faced as a community in HK, we have done all we can to ensure the daily life in school is a positive and uplifting one for our children. In amongst Book Week, admissions events and parents evenings, we have also been able to run a number of Parents as Partners events and provided the children with a fabulous experience in school.
It is a good time for us to reflect as a school on our successes and the direction we might like to take as we move into the new year. This is especially important as we develop a new long term plan for the school. To this end, I would like to thank the parents who attended our Curriculum Parent Consultation group on Tuesday morning. We will be using the group’s input to generate a survey for all parents about all aspects of our school. This survey will be launched after Christmas and will give us a great chance to reflect on parent views, as we begin to create a new strategic plan for the coming 5 years.
The New Year provides us with much to look forward to. We will be running our previously postponed School Fair on the 21st February, and our postponed Sports Day. Soon after we return we also have our fabulous Chinese New Year celebration on Thursday 23rd January. The Mandarin Department will be sending letters out regarding the order of the day as soon as we return. As with previous years, different classes are performing at various times during the day - details to follow. For now, we look forward to seeing our whole community on the playground for the Lion Dance between 8.30 am and 9.00 am on Thursday 23rd January.
I would like to quickly say a sad farewell to our leavers. It is this time of year where families in our community often leave the school - often returning to home countries, or moving on with work. This year we say a sad farewell to a number of children and families in our community and we collectively wish you all the very best for the future. You will always be welcome here at Glenealy should you wish to return and pay us a visit!
Finally, I would like to thank the whole community for making this term such a success. In particular I would like to say a personal thank you for the very warm welcome and ongoing support you have shown for me in my first term at Glenealy. The school really does live up to its reputation as ‘the small school with the big heart’. I am looking forward to all we can achieve together as we move into 2020 and beyond.
I wish our whole community a wonderful holiday season and look forward to seeing you all upon return on 6th January ready for the new term.
Best Regards,
Chris
Dates for your Diary
Friday 13th December
End of Term 1 - school closes at 12:00 noon - Dress casual
Monday 6th January 2020
School resumes for Term 2
Monday 13th January
Tetrapaks collection - Playground 8:00 am - 8:30 am
Thursday 23rd January
Chinese New Year Celebrations - Playground 8:30 am
Wednesday 12th February
Assessment at Glenealy Workshop
Friday 21st February
School Fair 5:30 - 8:00 pm
PTA News
Gently used uniform collection and sales
Trading was fast and furious at last week’s uniform sale. We have new stock of Gently Used Uniform this week and look forward to seeing you after the Carol Concert.
Uniform Collections - Clear out your cupboards and be more sustainable at the same time! The PTA will be holding further sales of second hand uniform next term. Please drop any unwanted uniform in good condition to the PTA office (1st Floor) or contact Becky to arrange a suitable drop off time.
As the weather has cooled, please remember that we have fitting samples of all winter uniform items. Contact Becky at pta@glenealy.net to arrange a fitting. You can order the new uniform online from www.schooluniform.hk and delivery will be to your home.
Tetrapaks Collection Update
Great news! Our recycler published his results for the top 10 recycling schools in HK, and Glenealy School are in 3rd place!
We would love to improve on this so encourage all families to collect tetrapaks at home ready for our next collection in January. If you would like to collect from friends and neighbours too, this would save even more packaging from landfill and help our planet.
Please make a note of the collection dates for next term:
Monday 13th January
Monday 10th February
Monday 16th March
Preparing your tetrapaks for recycling: please remember to open, flatten, clean and leave them to dry. Please also remove plastic caps - thank you.
The best gift you can give your children this Christmas is a healthy planet.
Message from Green Team
Our top tips to have an environmentally friendly Christmas
Send an e-card or a Christmas message by phone instead of a paper card.
Keep any Christmas cards and re-use them next year as labels or other decorations. Make sure you recycle cards or wrapping where possible.
Consider giving eco-friendly gifts. You could give the gift of an experience, a donation to charity or shop for second-hand presents.
Donate old toys or clothes that you don’t want anymore to charity so that someone else can enjoy them.
Think about how long you have your Christmas lights on for. Please turn them off if you don’t need them.
Reuse your Christmas decorations each year instead of buying new ones.
Think about how to wrap presents without using wrapping paper. Could you use a fabric, fabric bag, newspaper (you could decorate this), old boxes etc?
Thank you!
From Green Team
(Written by: Yasmeen, Anwen, Justin (4W), Muthia (5S) and Anya (4M)
School Sport
This past Saturday morning, Ms. Chainrai and I had the pleasure of accompanying our girls’ netball A-team at the HKPSSA (Hong Kong Primary Schools Sports Association) Netball Championships at Harrow International School. The team was also very well supported by a strong contingent of parents and other family members. We finished the tournament with four wins and one loss, scoring 11 goals in total and conceding just 5. The full results are below.
The girls’ efforts over the past few months of training with Ms. Chainrai after school and Mrs. Rutkowski at lunchtimes were reflected in their performances throughout the whole morning. Glenealy had two morale-boosting victories against RCHK and Kennedy School followed by a fantastic display against the tournament hosts. These results ensured that we would finish as the well-deserved top seed in our group.
The team then kept their second consecutive clean-sheet against FIS, showing that they had as much steel in defence as they had potency in attack. DBIS was our quarter-final opponents, and although the girls kept up their great attacking record of scoring at least two goals in each game, conceding two early goals left them with too much do to come back for the win.
Having witnessed the amazing journey this team has taken in terms of both performance and results since the pre-season tournament in September, Ms. Chainrai and I could not be more proud. Their resilience, perseverance, and positive team ethic was a real shining light.
Glenealy School 2 - 1 Rennaisance College
Glenealy School 2 - 1 Kennedy School
Glenealy School 3 - 0 Harrow International School
Glenealy School 2 - 0 French International School
Glenealy School 2 - 3 Discovery Bay International School
Andy Pattison
P.E. Lead Teacher
Counselling updates at Glenealy
In January we will be saying goodbye to Erin Donohue who has worked with us for the last two years. She and her family are moving back to the US. We will miss her and we would like to thank her for all the support she has provided the Glenealy community over the past few of years. Although we are sad to see Erin leave we are excited to welcome Theresa Tang to Glenealy. Theresa is a registered psychologist who holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from McGill University and a Master’s degree in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University in the city of New York. Theresa speaks English, Cantonese, and Mandarin and specializes in working with children and adolescents. She uses evidence based practice techniques that draw from the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) model in her sessions. We look forward to working with Theresa in the New Year!
Please contact Jennine Harding if you need any further information.
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.
Assessment at Glenealy - Building Understanding for Parents
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