Lion Rock (2022) | Term 4 Volume 37

MESSAGE FROM THE AISFL BOARD CHAIRMAN

On behalf of your Board of Governors, welcome to the latest edition of The Lion Rock. In this issue, we provide highlights of the term with a festive focus. We share an overview of the annual Speech Day ceremony, during which awards were presented for student achievements. This issue also presents colourful imagery of the final event of the year, the Jingle Mingle Picnic, which brought together many of members of our community. Thank you to the Parent Association for the wonderful events throughout the year.

At the conclusion of Term 4, we farewell our present Head of School, Mr Howard West, who has been a valued member of AISHK since the school’s earliest years. Howard’s outstanding service and leadership has helped shape the school as we know it today. We thank Howard for his dedication to our school and wish him a very happy and fulfilling retirement.

I give my sincere thanks to the students, staff, and parent body. It is due to your support, generosity and loyalty that 2022 has been another successful year.

I hope you all enjoy a safe and relaxing break and I look forward to welcoming you back to AISHK in 2023.

With my warmest wishes for a joyous holiday season,

Professor Richard Petty | AISFL Board Chair

MESSAGE FROM HEAD OF SCHOOL Howard West

It is with great pride that I provide my final message for The Lion Rock magazine. The School year has ended in the most dynamic of ways, with a colourful array of activities and events for all members of the community. Despite some challenges this year, students and staff have remained focused on the learning outcomes required and have flourished in doing so. True to the unique AISHK community spirit, the school has also ensured that we remain conscious and active in supporting those less fortunate than us. This has been evident through multiple fundraisers for worthy causes this term, more recently the foundation of a new Extra Curricular Activity (ECA) – Kigali Co-Lab, whereby AISHK students work with and film science experiment videos for students from Umubano Academy in Kigali, Rwanda. Read more about this fantastic initiative in this issue.

After 25 years of service to AISHK, I take with me many precious and cherished memories and friendships. I thank each one of you for your contribution to the richness of my AISHK experience. I wish our school community a safe and relaxing break, a festive holiday season, along with healthy, hearty and prosperous next steps in life.

For now, Au revoir.

GUARD OF HONOR

Cheers and highfives greet Year 6 students as they pass through a snaking “tunnel” of classmates and friends bidding them well-done and congratulations.

On Tuesday, 22nd November, we held the first Year 4 Maths House Tournament.

The Year 4 students competed in mixed house teams of four and were assisted by our Year 9 Advanced Mathematics students.

The tournament began with a relay. Student teams were given a stack of questions and had to answer as many as they could in the time limit. The pressure was on to answer quickly but also accurately. Some questions were easy, but some were diabolically hard!

After a short break, Year 4 teams returned to the competition and visited math stations run by the Year 9s. There were many maths

activities including measuring volume using rice, guessing the height and weight of the Year 9 students and working out the answer to an equation involving chocolate!

Congratulations go to the winning team, ‘Team T-Rex’, consisting of Bella Wong, Matilda Kean, Ethan Leung and, Adwin Ho, and to Jacaranda who were clear winners on the day and are the first house to appear on the perpetual shield.

Our thanks to the teachers for organising, the Year 9 students for assisting and particularly to our Year 9 MCs Jesse Phillips and Vegas Puels.

Karin Bennett | Secondary Head of Mathematics

YEAR 11 DESIGN STUDENTS ENTER THE DRAGON’S DEN

Week 8 saw the return of the 8th annual AISHK Dragon’s Den. Eighteen Design students across HSC and IB pitched their 2023 major design project concepts to a panel of creative industry professionals. Dragon’s Den is modelled on Australia’s Shark Tank and each student presents to a panel of 3 Dragons and an audience of their peers. This gives students an opportunity to gain real-world experience in presenting and explaining big concepts. The feedback students receive from the Dragons is authentic and useful. This year, students presented to a panel of two interior designers, an architect, a journalist, a product designer, and an industrial designer / engineer. This level of professionalism and industry connection ensures that students present to a high standard, and responding to the feedback will help in future assessments.

Concepts presented this year showed a very wide range of design interests: from ergonomic gaming solutions to installations for special needs classrooms to sustainable fashion solutions… AISHK’s students showed empathy and consideration of stakeholders and the environment and presented their ideas with passion.

Many thanks to the Dragons for donating their time to our students. This activity is meaningful for students and cannot happen without involvement from the greater AISHK community.

The final major design projects will be completed in September of 2023.

Christina Carini | Head of TAS

1 with Click here or scan this QR code for a video playlist of this Mini Musical!

2 with

Year

Click here or scan this QR code for a video playlist of this Mini Musical!

Click here or scan this QR code for a video playlist of this Mini Musical!

Year 3 with

Kigali CoLab

Kigali Co-Lab is a Friday activity run by our Science Teacher Mrs Isabelle Power where students get to work with and film science experiment videos for students from Umubano Academy in Kigali, Rwanda, who don’t have access to the equipment required to conduct the experiments themselves.

Kigali is the capital city of Rwanda, a country in East Africa, and Umubano Academy is a nursery, primary, and secondary school in Kigali supported by the British NGO, A Partner in Education (APIE).

Mrs Power worked at APIE & Umubano Academy a couple of years ago which is how she got into contact with them.

Some experiments we have conducted over the course of the term include the effect of amylase on starch, osmosis in potatoes, food testing (for glucose, protein and fat), electrical circuits, flame tests for elements, and carbon dioxide production. The flame tests and carbon dioxide production experiments were done during our live Zoom meeting with the school, while the rest were edited into videos that we sent over to Umubano Academy and shared on USBs. The amylase

and starch experiment kept failing and after 3 lessons of trying we decided to scrap the investigation, but luckily all the other experiments were very successful.

Our meeting with the school was extremely rewarding! We met them on zoom, but hope to meet them in person sometime. During our meeting, we got to meet the students, the Science teacher, who they called Teacher Joseph, and the Head of School, who they called Head Teach. We demonstrated the experiments live and had the students and teachers actively participate during the flame tests, as they had to guess the unknown metals after being sprayed into the fire. We also did the carbon dioxide tests where we mixed hydrochloric acid with some marble rocks to produce carbon dioxide and placed it under a lit candle to extinguish it.

Afterwards, the students chatted with us about their school and their science curriculum. They also taught us basic words in Kinyarwanda such as “murakoze” (thank you) and “siyansi” (science). We hope to see them again sometime soon, and hopefully, we can see their musical performances as well!

Even though this activity has only been running for one term, we thoroughly enjoyed it as we were able to directly assist fellow students and help them pursue further education. We highly recommend more students to participate if this activity continues in 2023.

Success Celebrated! SECONDARY SPEECH DAY 2022

On Tuesday 13 December, AISHK held the annual Secondary Speech Day awards ceremony. Speech Day provided a formal opportunity to recognise the highest levels of academic achievement by our Secondary students after a year in which we faced many varied challenges.

Thank you to the staff, parents, students and our esteemed guests who attended the

event, including AISFL Board representatives, Vice Chairman Mr Andrew Macintosh, Mr Tom Corkhill, Ms Winnie Elbl, Ms Kym Fortescue; Consul-General Ms Elizabeth Ward, Deputy Consul-General Mr Alistair McEachern, President of The Australian Association of Hong Kong, Ms Ivy Wong and President of The AISHK Parent Association, Mrs Joanna Hartnett.

Well done to all students who performed and were awarded. We look forward to reporting on the outstanding achievements of our students, including their IB and HSC examination results, in the new year.

Jingle Mingle Picnic Rain, Hail or Shine!

Not even some cold December rain could stop the Jingle Mingle Picnic from forging ahead this year! Despite the drizzly start, the festivities took place complete with tasty treats at the Bake Sale, cosy popcorn stand and a special appearance at Santa’s Grotto! Our wonderful, dedicated Secondary students hosted a range of activities for children of all ages to enjoy, and their various bands and ensembles took to the stage for their musical stylings –

keeping guests on their toes and dancing all evening. With donations welcome in return for their hard work, all proceeds from Secondary activities will go towards charity Stop The Traffik, which raises awareness of and disrupts global human trafficking and modern slavery networks. Thank you to the AISHK Parent Association, staff, students and parents for giving of your time, donations and efforts to ensure a fantastic, final community event for 2022. Onwards and upwards – we look forward to more exciting events in the coming year.

Farewell to Head of School, Mr Howard West!

In 2022, we bid a fond farewell to Howard West. Howard has been a key member of the School since 1998, across various roles over the years including Assistant Principal, Head of Secondary and Head of School.

Howard has made significant contributions to AISHK since its earliest days.

With congratulations on reaching 25 Years of Service, thank you Mr West for your leadership and dedication!

Year 8 Activity Week, Vietnam, 2002

Empire State of Mind, 2016 Alumni Reunion, Sydney, 2008

1998 Whole School Photo The Wattle in the year Howard started!

Portrait of Mr West, by Year 10 Visual Art student Jenny Chow, 2005

"Agent West" Lion Rock, 2018 Mr West, 2022 1999 HSC Information Night

20 th Anniversary Celebration Consul General's Residence, 2015

At the 15th Anniversary Circus Fair, 2010

With His Excellency General, the Honourable David Hurley, 2017 Year 2 Sandilands Camp, 1999

Alumni Reunion, Melbourne Australia Howard West & Margaret Merrell, 2007

Alumni BBQ at AISHK 2008 With Jackie Chan, 10th Anniversary Welcome BBQ,, 2005

Creative Industries Staff with their "Howard West in the Multiverse" T-shirts, 2022

Taj Mahal with Students

New Uniform Planning, with designer Jonathan Ward, 2013