Kellett Dragon Issue 1 - August 2011

KEEPING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY PRIMARY SCHOOL COUNCIL INTRODUCE GREEN DAY CREATIVITY AT KELLETT

AUGUST 2011

CONTENT 4 5-7

8-9

10-15

WHOLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE KELLETT NEWS Congratulations Staff Leavers Welcome to our new staff Kellett Cares Kowloon Bay campus update Royal Wedding

FEATURE ARTICLE

Keeping up with technology

PRIMARY

PRImaRY HIGHLIGHTS Deputy Principal Reception - Primary 6 Chinese French Library School Council

16-17

ARTS

18-19

SPORT

20-21

PRIMARY FEATURES

Music Art

Beijing Educational visit Presentation Assembly Leavers’ Assembly

SECONDARY 22-29

29-30

SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS Deputy Principal English and Drama French Geography History Mandarin Maths Science

EDITOR’S NOTE Welcome to the first issue of the new Kellett Dragon.

You will notice that we have a new format and more diverse content. Much of the news is in bite sized chunks to give you an overview of what the students did in term three, both inside and outside the classroom. I hope you will enjoy the following pages and find the shorter, sharper content much easier to digest. Thank you to everyone who helped make this magazine possible and to all who contributed.

These days it is hard to read a newspaper or turn on the TV without learning more about the impact our choices are having on the environment. It has certainly had an effect on the students; in primary, the school council initiated our first Environment Day (read all about it on page 15); in secondary, the students held a ‘Dress Dark’ Day in support of Earth Hour. If you would like to make a small difference how about reading the Dragon online instead?

Scan the QR code below with your mobile device or type the web address into your browser. You will see that there is the option to opt out of the paper copy and only read it online. If you would prefer a paper copy, that’s okay, you will be pleased to hear that we print on 100% recycled paper. For those of you who came to our last Parent Technology Coffee Morning you will know what a QR code is, but if not, check out our cover story ‘Keeping up with Technology’ by Clive Dawes on page 8.

Happy reading!

Ella Hobman Editor ilearn.kellettschool.com/kellettdragon

CREATIVITY

Artist Workshops Artist Talks Art Show Secondary Arts Evening

31-32

SPORT

33-35

SECONDARY FEATURES Y8 Portfolio Presention Afternoon LEAP Mt Kinabalu Educational Visit Global Citizenship

Ruby Cheung Assistant Editor Thanks to: Emma Adams, Nick Miller, Jacquie Dawes, Lucas Cox, Anna Lockley, Liz Everett, Lee Marsh, Terri Li, Clive Dawes, Robyn Thompson, Suky Lee, Cathy Poole, Bernadette Walker

WHOLE SCHOOL

PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE Recently the Head of Human Resources of a large multinational company visited the Pok Fu Lam campus and commented, ‘In moving to Hong Kong our prospective employees will compromise on many things, but never their children’s education.’

Shortly after my visitors had departed a copy of ‘The Little School That Did,’ caught my eye and I found myself browsing its pages and reflecting how very true this was, both today and thirty years ago. Told through the eyes of the Kellett School Dragon ‘The Little School That Did’ chronicles the first twenty five years of our school’s history.

The school we know today initially opened as Starters School in Wan Chai, later becoming The Kellett School Association housed in a temporary campus in Taikoo Shing, barely a stone’s throw from the present secondary section transition site in Shau Kei Wan. The growth of Kellett is an inspirational tale of a dedicated team of parents who embarked with dogged determination, and against challenging odds, to open a British International School in Hong Kong.

Buried deep in the archives of the South China Morning Post may be found the reports of the activities of ‘Parents Together,’ Kellett School’s founding mothers and fathers who lobbied and fought until they achieved their school; although originally they envisaged opening schools on both sides of the Harbour!

When Kellett finally moved to Pok Fu Lam it was deemed almost an outpost of Hong Kong Island; an area of graveyards and hospitals accessed from across Hong Kong by long nonair-conditioned bus rides. Today, Pok Fu Lam is more usually referred to by property developers’ grander title of ‘Island South’ having grown to become a very desirable residential area, a mere fifteen minutes from Central.

Kowloon Bay, at first glance, may appear as equally an unusual location for a school as Pok Fu Lam did in 1979. The Kowloon Bay Plan tells another story-sitting at the head of the old Kai Tak Airport runway and formerly the heartland of Hong Kong’s industrial prosperity, Kowloon Bay today is at the centre of growth and regeneration. The old Kowloon industrial area and former airport is being replaced by a modern cruise terminal, luxury middle income and ‘affordable’ housing, numerous sports facilities, prime office blocks and commercial centres with purpose built transport links. Governed by new and ‘greener’ planning regulations, Kowloon Bay is arguably destined to

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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE ONE AUGUST 2011

become Hong Kong’s garden city; as witnessed by one of the first new blocks recently completed near to our site resembling more an aerial park than office complex.

Pearl Buck once wrote, ‘If you want to search today, you have to search yesterday,’ and so it is with Kellett School. Initially we were to be a kindergarten; as need dictated we grew to be a very successful primary school, and when it became apparent that there were no guaranteed secondary places for our primary six students, we embarked upon establishing a permanent secondary section.

We are about to enter a new chapter of our community’s history. It is a challenge and no less so than that faced by our founding parents and subsequent generations of parents. In reality our ‘little’ school has never stood still. In 1980 as the first children moved into the completed Phase 1, Phase 2 was being built around them and so on for a further six phases until the completion of the Mountain Wing in 2007.

In September we will break ground at Kowloon Bay and commence the building of the permanent home of the Kellett Secondary section; and the Kowloon primary school our founding parents first envisioned nearly forty years previously.

Unlike the primary campus it is not to be built in phases but rather as a whole. Scheduled to open in September 2013, our newest campus will embody the same vision and determination of our present community that was celebrated in the opening of Pok Fu Lam in 1980. Kowloon Bay will not only be a fitting tribute to the uncompromising vision of Parents Together it will also offer for the first time in Kellett’s history Families Together, and the option of a Reception to Year 13 Kellett School education.

Ann Mc Donald Principal

Copies of the ‘Little School That Did,’ are available from Pok Fu Lam reception office priced HK$100.

Congratulations to Verity Salomonsen and Eddie

Congratulations to Emma and Matt Lovell Congratulations to Emma and Matt Lovell on the safe arrival of their baby boy, Benjamin Rhys, born on 26 June.

Congratulations to Verity Salomonsen and Eddie who were married on 30 July.

Verity will return to school as Mrs Gilbey.

STAFF LEAVERS It is that time of year again when we say goodbye to some of our colleagues and friends. Thank you for your contribution to Kellett School, it would not be what it is without the hard work and passion of its staff. Good luck with your next adventure and don’t forget to visit us!

Teachers

Emma Adams Katie Hitchcox Julie Doughty Clare French

Kathy Ponter Rosie Fletcher Sherrie Murray

Educational Support Assistants

Office Staff

Rachael Lawrence Nichola Adams Mary O’Brien Vanda Cole

Carmen Lai

Janet Schroeder Hamish Campbell Neha Chopra Waiyin Suen

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WHOLE SCHOOL

KELLETT NEWS

KELLETT NEWS WHOLE SCHOOL

Welcome to our new staff!

Ian Ridgeway Primary & Secondary PE Teacher

Jessica Sneath Foundation Stage Class Teacher

Stewart Brown Secondary Science Curriculum Leader

Xiao Wenli (Moneer) Secondary Mandarin Teacher

Hannah Wright KS1 Class Teacher

Katie Weily Secondary English Teacher

Joanne Laufer Deputy Principal (Head of Campus Designate Kowloon Bay Primary)

Matt Seddon Head of House and Secondary Mathematics Teacher

Anna Corbyn KS2 Class Teacher

Maeve Mulvie KS1 Class Teacher

Paul Dwyer Secondary Mathematics Curriculum Leader

Zhu Qi Secondary Mandarin Teacher

Chris Garvey Secondary Competitive Sport and ECA Coordinator and PE teacher

Linden Dwyer Secondary MFL Curriculum Leader and FrenchSpanish Teacher

Katherine Colquhoun-Primary Art Curriculum Leader Janet Walker-P6 ESA

Laura Tyson-P5 ESA

Karen Taylor-Reception

Chloe Li-Reception ESA

Judy Kwok-P1 ESA

Tina Hart-P1 ESA

Jeanne Chiu-P2 ESA Reni McMahon-P1 ESA Alex Howell-p1 ESA

Pauline Yeh-Primary Mandarin Language Assistant Polly Cheng-Primary Mandarin Language Assistant Sophie Li-Secondary Mandarin Language Assistant Natasha gragasin-Secondary learning support Assistant edwina mendes-Secondary latin tutor

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KELLETT NEWS WHOLE SCHOOL

Kowloon Bay Update At the Extraordinary General Meeting in June Eric Krantz showed us the latest designs of the Kowloon Bay campus.

Kellett Cares

Royal Wedding Day

Kellett Cares organised a group of children and their families to visit Crossroads one Saturday in term 3 to load a container headed to Israel. The children shifted mattresses, chairs, desks and other household items into the container. These items are needed by refugees and others without anything in Israel. Another group visited the Kellett Cares pre-school run by International Care Ministries in the Philippines. These children could not otherwise afford to go to school. Through the fund-raising work of all the children at school, $90,000 was raised this year to be given to these two charities and Birthday Happiness.

KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE ONE AUGUST 2011

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WHOLE SCHOOL

FEATURE ARTICLE

KEEPING UP WITH

TECHNOLOGY Ever thought about how hard it is to keep up with technology?

Feel like your children know more about how to use your phone and computer than you do? We are all familiar with that situation!

available, or is the home computer dominated by older siblings?

Also, if the home situation only has Apple computers, is the set work generic enough to be carried out on any platform? This type of information is invaluable to us as educators.

One of the key challenges for those who work with young people is keeping up with changes and trends in technology.

As soon as one technology becomes the next big thing it is immediately replaced with another apparently more significant and life changing. Education in general finds it hard to keep pace. Combined with an examination system that remains rooted in the 20th Century and plagued by outdated hardware it’s no wonder that a US Dept of Commerce survey into levels of IT intensiveness found that Education was ranked 55 out of 55 industry sectors, just below coal mining!

Our first step along this route has been the introduction of a series of monthly Parent Technology Coffee Mornings. These meetings, which currently take place on Friday mornings, have proven to be very popular, with up to 50 parents attending on a regular basis. Some parents have even managed to attend every single one. There really should be some kind of badge or certificate for them!

Our goal at Kellett is to enable us to keep up because we know that the world we are educating our students to lead in will be vastly different to the one we have inhabited during our own formative years. Skills previously held in high regard, such as the ability to recall facts or to produce neat handwriting, hold little currency in the tech-enabled, collaborative and creative industries that our students are likely to find themselves in; social learning and participatory technologies are driving change in forward thinking education systems. We are also aware that no matter how much we invest in new technology, our classrooms will often lag behind the technology-rich homes where our students live.

The combination of these factors encouraged us to look closely at how Kellett can move forward as a community, pooling the collective knowledge, expertise and experience of all users of technology. Many educators are not familiar with the opportunities and issues that technology-rich home access affords.

For instance, if homework is set that requires internet access, is it

For our first session we focused on Social Networking, looking at how the internet affords users the opportunity to connect and communicate. Whilst there are huge positive benefits of these connections, there can occasionally be issues, so our session not only outlined the positive aspects of sites like Youtube and Facebook, but also looked at issues such as privacy, with parents being taken through the Privacy Settings in Facebook.

The second session concentrated on Games Based Learning.

Each year group at Kellett has the opportunity to use computer games as a means of stimulating their learning and we spent time explaining the benefits of this as well as looking at some of the outcomes from different year groups. We also looked at the concerns that parents sometimes have about gaming, both in terms of the amount of time students spend on it as well as the inappropriateness of some games. Leading thinkers in the area, such as Marc Prensky and James Paul Gee, were also discussed.

More recent sessions have focused on e-safety, Mobile Learning and Emerging Technology. A recurring theme throughout these sessions has been the view that technology can be a hugely positive influence on the lives of young people. It can help facilitate learning, foster creativity and problem solving, and help students to express themselves and develop their own identities. At the same time we have considered the sometimes negative impact of technology and looked at ways in which these can be countered.

Feedback from the sessions has been very positive. When replying to an invitation one parent responded by confirming their attendance and saying that their own parents were in town so they would be coming too! It’s clear that many parents feel that this is a useful way to help them keep in touch with the latest developments and how they impact upon their children.

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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE ONE AUGUST 2011

WHOLE SCHOOL Although the sessions have been better attended than we had envisaged, we are aware that Friday mornings may not be suitable for everybody. That time was chosen as it tied in neatly with Class Assemblies and was one of the few spots in the week when the Pok Fu Lam Gymnasium was not being used for teaching purposes. For those that find this time inconvenient we have ensured that the presentations and associated literature are available to all online a few days after the event. In keeping with our attempts to make Kellett a little greener we have not provided print-outs at any of the sessions.

Whilst we feel that these events have been successful, we are currently looking at how we might develop them in the future.

Certainly we are considering an occasional change of venue so that we can run the sessions on the secondary campus too.

During our sessions on Mobile Learning we were lucky enough to have Katrina Hall present to us on her innovative use of mobile devices in the classroom. Hopefully we will be able to involve more members of staff showcasing their work in the future, and possibly even some students too.

We would also like to explore the possibility of holding a number of smaller workshop sessions which will allow parents to explore technology in a more hands-on, interactive way. Some of these sessions may be software based, such as how to use video editing software like Movie Maker or iMovie, whilst some may be designed to enable parents to support student learning at home, by navigating our soon to be launched iLearn learning environment, or saving work on Apple devices.

What are QR codes?

“They come to us from Japan where they are very common.

QR is short for Quick Response (they can be read quickly by a mobile phone). They are used to take a piece of information from a transitory media and put it in to your cell phone. You may have seen QR Codes in a magazine advert, on a billboard, a web page or even on someone’s t-shirt. Once it is in your mobile phone, it may give you details about that business (allowing users to search for nearby locations), or details about the person wearing the t-shirt, show you a URL which you can click to see a trailer for a movie, or it may give you a coupon which you can use in a local outlet.

How does the mobile phone read the code?

The mobile phone needs a QR code reader. Visit your Apps store to download one or search online if you are not sure which one to download for your phone. It takes literally 1 minute for someone with an iPhone or Android phone to find and install the reader.”

Lyne, M, 2009. What Is A QR Code And Why Do You Need One [online] Available at: http://searchengineland.com/what-is-a-qr-code-and-why-do-you-need-one-27588 [Accessed 14 July 2011]

We will be releasing more information about how our Parent Coffee Mornings will develop during the Autumn Term, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those parents who have been able to attend throughout the year and for their contributions to what has been a vitally important strand of our 21st Century Learning strategy.

Clive Dawes Primary ICT Curriculum Leader

KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE ONE AUGUST 2011

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PRIMARY

PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS Thinking is so important…

I still remember clearly the first episodes of the then new “Blackadder II” being broadcast in the early months of 1986. To me and my friends (all at the time teenagers) the content was hilarious. It still is of course even now and I own every series on DVD. In one of the episodes Blackadder is trying to teach his hapless sidekick Baldrick “advanced mathematics”.

level of thinking within the framework is suitable for the age group.

Blackadder –“What is two beans add two beans?”

Bloom’s Taxonomy follows six progressive steps. The explanations are my words.

1. Remember; information can be recalled.

Baldrick –“Three beans…and that one.”

Moving on, Blackadder desperately tries to get Baldrick to think for himself, rather than repeating Blackadders thoughts as his own. He does not have much success.

2. Understand; understand the meaning of the information.

3. Apply; use the information in a new situation.

4. Analyse; separate concepts within information so that the organization of the information can be understood.

Blackadder –”What do you think? Try to have a thought of your own Baldrick. Thinking is so important. What do you think?”

5. Evaluate; make judgments about the value of information.

Baldrick –“I think thinking is so important my Lord.”

This taxonomy helps us to progress learning by choosing suitable activities according to the age of the children. While very young pupils in reception classes may be recalling numbers up to twenty in their numeracy sessions, older primary children may be analysing long multiplication to understand how the number system works. Young children may learn important dates from their lives and the lives of people around them; older children will be looking at different historical sources and judging which side of the story they are representing.

Everybody generally accepts that thinking is indeed very important. In our ever developing world employers are looking for employees who have critical thinking skills, are able to problem solve and who are creative. A look at the National Curriculum however shows that Personal Learning and Thinking Skills are not introduced into the framework until secondary school. At Kellett Primary we take a very different view–thinking for us is at the core of what we do. I have written before about the “Thinkers Keys” developed by Tony Ryan in Australia. The keys introduce students to new and different ways of thinking, and are a support tool for the progression of thinking skills.

There are a number of “thinking frameworks” that can be used as a base for the teaching of these skills. Two of the most widely used are de Bono’s Six Hats and Bloom’s Taxonomy. In the primary section we use Bloom’s Taxonomy when planning units of work to ensure that progression in thinking is present, and that the

6. Create; build your own information.

So when you are talking through ideas with your children at home, keep this taxonomy in mind. Children all develop their thinking skills at different rates, but it’s worth keeping in mind what the next step in thinking progression is. After all, thinking is so important.

Ciaran Harrington Deputy Principal Head of Primary

RECEPTION Green Day

Darcy Goulston’s Mummy had a new baby boy on our Green Day!

Post Office Visit Growing

Our topic was growing and we have been busy planting beans and seeds.

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Reception went to the post office to post their invitations for their class assembly. Some parents came and we all had a lovely time.

PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY

PRIMARY 1 Peak Trip

At the beginning of May P1 went on our trip to the Peak. We stopped in Statue Square to admire the buildings and compared the old buildings to the new ones. We had a great time on the Peak tram and enjoyed our lunch looking over the whole of Hong Kong. It was a very fun day.

Dinosaurs

In P1 we have had a great time exploring the world of dinosaurs. We made moving dinosaurs, found fossils and challenged ourselves to spell their very complicated names. If you are passing our corridor pop in and challenge us to share what we have learnt.

P2 celebrates the Royal Wedding in style!

We had a great day on 29 April. The children looked fantastic in their Royal attire. We made flags, invitations, and even though it rained, we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the hall. The children loved the wedding cake and danced the afternoon away.

Going back in time: The Titanic

The children have really loved learning all about the Titanic and its journey. They found out lots of interesting facts; they painted, made models and wrote letters and reports. This was a special year to learn about the Titanic as it is the 100th anniversary of the launch and 2012 will be the centenary of the disaster.

PRIMARY 2 11

PRIMARY

PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY 3 This term the P3 team changed their Design and Technology projects and introduced two new projects:

The 3D Box for their Pet rocks

As part of a cross curricular approach to learning the P3s were asked to find a large pebble from a beach. They then had to clean it, decorate it with googly eyes, paints etc. After that they gave their pet rock a name and wrote about its personality. In the meantime, the children were learning in maths about 3D nets and box design, so through a process of construction and deconstruction gained an understanding of how box nets work. The children were then set the task of making homes for their pet rocks.

The Sushi Project

This project involved the children looking at ingredients that went into making sushi and the aesthetics and tastes associated with sushi. It culminated in making different types of sushi and a tasting session. It was all very scrumptious!

Australia

This term, P4 have been exploring Australia’s geography and history. Part of this topic involved children examining some of the themes in Dream Time stories of the Aboriginal people. In turn, the children created their own Dream Time story and as a group, they transformed these into play scripts. Their Design Technology project was to then design and make shadow puppets to accompany their play script. The final play with shadow puppets was acted, videoed and reviewed as a class.

Mario Kart Wii

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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE ONE AUGUST 2011

P4 used Mario Kart Wii as a stimulus for their learning.

The children wrote character and setting descriptions of Bowser and Bowser’s Castle. For homework, children created their own character to race against Bowser. These stories set in an imaginary setting were a scorching success, their writing was extraordinary and our P4 children thoroughly enjoyed sharing their final stories. Mario Kart extended into Maths too, with a series of Maths activities based on race times in different cup competitions. The children were challenged to order decimals, round decimals to the nearest tenth of a second and whole second and to calculate race winnings based on race position.

PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY

PRIMARY 5 Making Movies

Having wrapped up our Rollercoaster Tycoon projects in Literacy we then moved on to studying film narratives. P5 learned all about making movies and produced our own films, which were shown at the Kellett P5 Film Festival.

A busy term for P6

P6 had a tough start to the term, working hard on our end of Key Stage 2 assessments. Next up, our river presentations. We were very impressed by the general standard and the variety of rivers chosen, not to mention the exciting ways they were presented.

Secondary school beckons, so most of P6 (soon to be Year 7) spent a day being Secondary pupils.

Wet Netball

The P6s always look forward to the wet netball game versus the staff on the last day of term. As usual, the staff won; Mr. Miller was scorekeeper and referee again this year!

PRIMARY 6

P6 Production

The end of term culminated in our P6 Production which was kept a surprise until the night. Mums and Dads were invited to the show and the P6’s were presented with their Kellett School albums.

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PRIMARY

PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS FRENCH

P2 had a great time learning their colours on the Active White Board at French Club.

Congratulations to our P6 who all passed their DELF Prim French exam!

P5 had fun writing and playing out their role play "Le café de Paris". They are now very confident at ordering food in a café in France.

Miam! Miam! The French Club children made delicious "Pains au chocolat"

P3 and P4 have been using the Mindsnacks App on the iTouches to memorise their numbers in French. Here’s what the children had to say: “I am very good at my numbers now and my spelling has improved a lot".

“I think Mindsnacks is a great game because you play and learn at the same time”.

CHINESE P5 Students visit Hok Shan School

A Game Day was organised for the P5 students with students from Hok Shan school.

It was a great opportunity for our students to practise their Chinese speaking skills before their trip to Beijing and it was a lot of fun!

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PRIMARY

PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS LIBRARY Battle of the Books

Congratulations to our BoB team for a great effort in this year’s competition. The standard was incredibly high, and the team was only narrowly pipped at the post in the semi -final. Congratulations also to the whole of the BoB club for reading over 500 books between them this year.

SCHOOL COUNCIL

School council presentation assembly

green day

Ever since the School Council started in September it has been our dream to dedicate a whole day to the environment because we know that this is an extremely important matter in today’s world and we thought that Kellett as a school could do more to help the environment. On Friday 6 May all the Kellett school children learnt about the environment. The children came to school dressed in green and they then moved within their year group learning about different aspects of the environment; from what people have told us it was a smashing day with lots of fun and learning. Remember, many little things can make a big difference.

Erik Henriksson & Kirstie Taylor

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PRIMARY

ARTS

MUSIC Annual Concert

Over 200 performers gathered together at the Leo Lee Arts Centre to make music together at the Kellett School Annual Concert.

The ever-popular Parent and Staff Choir performed some Michael Buble hits. The concert opened with a combined Primary Choir item called ‘Dance, Love, Sing, Live’ written by Greg Gilpin.

The end of the programme featured the Secondary School Band playing ‘Mamma Mia’ and ‘Bad Romance’. The Primary String Ensemble and Wind Band joined the Secondary band to perform Mozart’s ‘Overture to Magic Flute’. All performers gathered on stage at the end to perform ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’ and ‘Raining Sunshine’.

Seussical Jr

Forty-six students from P5 and P6 performed three shows of ‘Seussical Jr’ – our 2011 School Musical.

The cast had been rehearsing for three months and delivered a superb performance.

The musical was light and bright – full of colour and fun!

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PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY

ART Seeing is Believing

Our Primary Four children recently took part in the “Seeing is Believing� arts project and exhibition. This annual project, which has been running since 2003, is organised by the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, in aid of the charity ORBIS and with support from main sponsor Standard Chartered. The aim of the project is to raise awareness and funds for ORBIS. Over one hundred Hong Kong schools were involved this year equating to nearly 10,000 children who created art work for the exhibition.

This year the focus for the art project was to create designs for butterfly wings, based around the naturally occurring eye pattern. The children prepared their butterfly designs for the ORBIS and YAF Butterfly Exhibition in City Plaza which opened on 8 June 2011. The children thoroughly enjoyed the project saying that it gave them freedom to concentrate on the pattern designs as the butterfly shape was provided for them, as well as learning interesting facts about butterfly wing patterns and revisiting and applying symmetrical design.

ORBIS is a nonprofit organisation committed to preventing and treating blindness in developing countries. For more information about ORBIS and their work please visit www.orbis.org.hk

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SPORT PRIMARY

Cricket Team What a season it has been for the Kellett Cricket Team! In May they took part in the Island Schools Tournament, coming 3rd overall out of eight teams. They had victories over FIS and Peak School, only losing one match to a very strong German Swiss side.

This meant they qualified for the Plate Division of the ESF Tournament, held at KGV School.

There, the team batted, bowled, caught and fielded brilliantly, managing to win all three of their group matches against the schools from Discovery Bay, Bradbury and Clearwater Bay. Each match was a very close affair, but the boys always played with great spirit.

They encouraged and supported each other and showed great sportsmanship towards the opposition. The Kellett team finished the tournament as Plate Division Champions which was a fantastic achievement. Congratulations to all the players and thanks to all the spectators for their support. Good luck with all of your cricket in the future.

Netball P5 netball has been well attended on a Friday.

This has been in preparation for the netball team next year. We have enjoyed friendly matches against French International School and Bradbury.

A highlight this term was the ESF Aquathon.

Sixteen children committed to the early morning training sessions at Stanley Ho over a 6 week period. The course was a 250m swim followed by a 1km run. At the event, 25 teams took part, which involved 150 children. Kellett A team finished 3rd overall and Kellett B team finished 6th overall.

Fantastic performances by both teams and individuals.

ESF Aquathon 18

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PRIMARY

Swim Club Swim Club has again been very well attended and it has been pleasing to watch the progress over the year of all the swimmers. A huge thanks to Janet Humphries from FLOAT+ who assists me with the swim programme. I hope that those children continue to attend next year and we can encourage others to come and improve their stamina and stroke technique.

FOBISSEA Games – Taipei 2011 In June, 36 children and 6 teachers attended the Primary FOBISSEA Games in Taipei, hosted by Taipei European School. The children who attended demonstrated the highest level of competitiveness and sportsmanship. Overall Kellett did an outstanding job in the pool, on the track and on the pitch.

There is not enough space for me to list all of the individual achievements but below is a brief round-up of results.

In the swimming pool, the squad collected over 90 medals.

A special mention to the P5 boys, P5 girls and P6 boys who managed to get gold in nearly every race that they entered!

On the tee ball pitch the competition was very tough. The Primary 4 team improved with every game. The Primary

5 team were unbeaten to clinch gold and the Primary 6’s fought well to finish in the silver medal position! On the track and field, Kellett were very strong specifically in the long distance races and there was a host of medals in all of the field events. Football is usually the last event of the competition. Going into the event I was confident that we would do quite well, but the teams exceeded my expectations. The teamwork and attitude definitely contributed to the overall success. Primary 4 boys and Primary 4 girls won the gold medal, Primary 5 girls and Primary 6 girls won silver and Primary 5 boys and Primary 6 boys won gold.

Thank you Thank you to all the children who have attended clubs, extra training and have competed with enthusiasm and passion for the school this year. I would also like to thank all those teachers and parents who have contributed to the success of the ECA sports and FOBISSEA programme.

Fiona Pratt Head of Primary PE

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PRIMARY

PRIMARY FEATURES

Primary Five Beijing Educational Visit P5 went on their Beijing Educational Visit the week of May 16. We had a great time and it was incredible seeing first hand all the places we had learned so much about. We had so much fun shopping for bargains, depending only on our language skills to get good deals! Highlights were; meeting our new friends at The Summer Palace and then joining them at their school; touring The Forbidden City; climbing The Great Wall; dancing with the fan dancers in the park; walking in Empress Cixi’s footsteps through the Long Corridor; exploring The Temple of Heaven; marvelling at the Acrobatics Show; riding through the Hutongs in our rickshaws; the list goes on! We had so many new and exciting experiences. We tried to give everyone a taste of what it was like during our Beijing Evening performance. We hope you were able to come along and enjoy the show.

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PRIMARY

LEAVERS ASSEMBLy

PRESENTATION awards ASSEMBLy

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SECONDArY

SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS When should students start thinking about the subject or course they wish to study at University? What impact does the choice of subjects students choose to study in Year 10 and Year 11 (I/GCSE) and in Year 12 and Year 13 (A level) have on the courses they can study at University?

The UK’s Russell Group (www.russellgroup.ac.uk) addresses these questions and many more in its new guide called ‘Insight’. The Russell Group ‘represents 20 leading UK universities which are committed to maintaining the very best research, an outstanding teaching and learning experience for students of all backgrounds and unrivalled links with business and the public sector.’ ‘Insight’ aims to help students, parents and advisors make an informed decision when choosing courses at school to best support your university applications. The guide has been well received and sheds light on issues relating to ‘soft vs hard’ A levels, the impact I/GCSE grades have on University offers and so on. In the context of more and more students recently applying to UK universities from around the world as higher education ‘goes global’, and the dramatic rise in the cost of following a higher education course at an English University, the guide is a must read for any parent considering a UK university for their children. Selected extracts from the guide are listed below.

I/GCSE (Year 10 and Year 11) When applying to a competitive university and especially for a very competitive course at a competitive university, it is important that you consider all the aspects of the entrance requirements, including the I/ GCSE requirements.

Universities may ask for a specific number of I/GCSEs. For example, a number of medical courses ask for five (sometimes more) A* grades.

I/GCSE English or another standard level equivalent is very often required at Grade C at least. At many universities, this is a universal entry requirement for any course. Mathematics is only slightly less commonly asked for. Occasionally, a university will require a foreign language for entry to any course, for example, University College London is introducing such a requirement from 2012 entry.

For many courses a B grade at least in I/GCSE English is needed with science and engineering courses in particular often specifying this.

Equally, courses such as Business and Psychology, which may attract applicants who aren’t necessarily strong mathematicians, commonly ask for a B grade in Mathematics and, in some cases, sciences.

The summary below gives an idea of some of the I/GCSE requirements that you might come across for certain degree courses. Remember that these are only examples. It’s important to check university websites for detailed requirements before applying.

• Applicants to study Medicine are usually required to have very good I/GCSE results in Maths, Science, and English.

• For a degree in English, universities often look for applicants to have a I/GCSE in a modern or classical language.

• For a Business degree, a grade B in I/GCSE Maths is often required.

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A Levels (Year 12 and Year 13) Although there are common themes, entry requirements (even for very similar courses) can vary from one university to another so you should only use this information as a general guide. All Russell Group universities provide more detailed information about entry requirements on their own websites or in their prospectuses. As your plans become firmer, it’s essential that you check these to be sure that you are aware of the most up-to-date entry requirements for your chosen course.

Getting your Year 12 and Year 13 subject choices right is an important first step towards university but it won’t guarantee you a place on your chosen degree course. Entry to Russell Group universities, in particular, can be highly competitive and academic background, while vitally important, is only one of several things universities will take into account when they consider your application. They will also want to select students who are clearly well-motivated and passionate about their subject. In some cases, they may even ask you to gain some work experience in a relevant field.

There are many rumours about subjects being regarded as ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ and different people will have differing opinions on the matter.

In general, subjects referred to as being ‘hard’ are more traditional and theoretical subjects, for example: English, History, Physics and Chemistry. In fact all the facilitating subjects listed earlier can be considered ‘hard’ with the addition of others such as Economics and Politics.

‘Soft’ subjects are usually subjects with a vocational or practical bias, for example: Media Studies, Art and Design, Photography and Business Studies. However, there is no set definition of a ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ subject.

Generally speaking, students who take one ‘soft’ subject as part of a wider portfolio of subjects do not experience any problems applying to a Russell Group university.

If you wish to study Music or Art at university A Level qualifications in Music or Art are usually required. Some Mathematics courses may require both Mathematics and Further Mathematics.

Insight can be downloaded at: http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/uploads/InformedChoicesupdated.pdf Entrance to UK, US, Australian and HK Universities are discussed at the ‘Pathways to University’ Information Evening which Kellett runs in the first term of every academic year. ‘Insight’ is a welcome addition to the information available to schools, students and parents about course choice and UK university entrance.

Simon Giddings Deputy Principal Head of Secondary

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English and Drama Drama with Jodi Gilchrist

‘Faust’ member Jodi has been coming into school to work with Years 8 and 9 in Drama. Working on a variety of scripts and role plays, she has helped the pupils develop their skills in improvisation, mime and script work.

Shakespeare project

Year 7 were instructed to research the life and times of William Shakespeare, with groups also asked to focus on individual plays; Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Mid-Summer Night’s Dream, Henry V and The Tempest. Working collaboratively to produce their presentation, the groups also selected and performed scenes from their allocated play.

Myst game

Videogames have rocketed in popularity since their introduction in the early 1970’s. However, they have moved on considerably since ‘Space-Invaders’ and many people are now recognizing their value to education. Following on from the P6 work on ‘Samarost’, the Year 8’s took on the computer game ‘MYST’ in an attempt to help develop their creative writing, team-work and communication skills.

Working together, they had to try and solve the challenges of the game. A mysterious and puzzling encounter, MYST submerses the players into a confusing and complex environment of beautiful surroundings. Asked to write to describe the journey of the game, the Yr 8’s responded with some powerfully emotive work.

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SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS French Food

During their work on the Food topic ,Year 8c celebrated the French Chandeleur with crepes they prepared themselves as part of their homework, following a recipe in French.

A beautiful surprise cake also turned up and the chef explained her recipe to the rest of the class in French too!

FRENCH French Drama workshop – Stephane Lam

All KS3 French students took part in a French Drama workshop with Stephane Lam, a French artist from Lyon.

The students learnt how to improve their tone, pitch and body language to convey a message in another language.

Data Collection

Year 7 have been using a range of skills new and old to collect data about the local area.

GEOGRAPHY Countdown to 2012

With the press full of talk about next year’s London Olympic Games, the year 8 Geography students have also been gripped by Olympic fever. As part of their Olympic Module, the students have been learning about branding and selling and how the Olympics will have an impact on the people and the environment of South East London. The final ‘hurdle’ for the students is to create their own Olympic bid for a city of their choice, using Google Earth to find a good location and applying the elements of Sustainable Development to their ideas.

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H Day / Normandy Day Picnic

The 6 June was the anniversary of D-Day and, to commemorate the day, all students took part in the ‘Normandy Day Picnic Movement’. The picnic is part of a now international movement. On the 6 June in towns, villages and schools across the world, including France, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium and Canada, people participate in picnics to commemorate D-Day. Kellett School was the only school in Hong Kong, and indeed China, to take part in this movement.

Following an assembly on D-Day by the Year 9 students, the children enjoyed a French inspired picnic complete with French bread and cheese. The table cloths that are used at the picnics worldwide feature two red bands which symbolize the blood shed by the youth of yesterday for our freedom today. After lunch the students battled it out in a History/Geography quiz.

Here’s what the students had to say: • There were lots of challenging questions - Clara • I have learnt lots about D-Day - Sadie • I am excited to be part of Asia’s first D-Day picnic Maddie • The Geography questions were so hard! - Matthew

Medieval Monarchs

Year 7 show Miss Everett how it’s done with their Medieval Monarchs student- led History lessons.

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SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS Voice Thread – collaborative multimedia slide shows

Skype Conference with Shanghai Using our Kellett Skype accounts, Year 8 students applied the Chinese they had learnt to communicate with students at the Shanghai American School. We then reported back to the class about the students we met and listened to the recordings of our conversations. It was a great learning experience and a lot of fun.

Students in Mandarin classes have used various online platforms to support their learning, including GoChinese (which gives extra support to students through exercises related to their class learning), New Pepper (which analyses students’ pronunciation and tones), and Voice Thread. The Year 7s have been using Voice Thread to create presentations that introduce their families.

Magic Cough Medicine – stops all coughing and sneezing

Mylo – a new way to learn languages

After learning how to communicate in Mandarin about sickness the Year 9s scripted, produced and edited a television advertisement for a magic cough medicine.

In Term 3 Kellett joined the online learning platform Mylo, and our Year 8 and 9 students pushed Kellett School into second place out of eighty nine schools in the overall school league. As well as fun games to help students learn a wide range of Chinese language, Mylo also includes some creative challenges, like designing a new brand of ice cream.

Mandarin

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Junior Maths Challenge

The UKMT Junior Maths Challenge is aimed at the top third of pupils in Year 8 or below in England and Wales. The challenge involves answering 25 multiple choice questions in one hour and is sat in school under normal exam conditions. The top 40% of students nationally receive a gold, silver or bronze certificate.

This year was the first time Kellett Secondary entered the UK Mathematics Trust competition. The whole of Year 7 and Year 8

6+65 67 26

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puzzled over questions individually for an hour on Friday 6 May, 2011. In total, 3 Gold, 9 Silver and 9 Bronze certificates were awarded.

X 65 36 = Well done to all certificate winners and to everyone who participated.

5 6 + 6 5

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Maths Acceleration Congratulations to William, Arthur, Henry and Cameron in Year 9 who have successfully completed their first year of the IGCSE Mathematics course.

They are well on track to completing the whole IGCSE course and sitting their exam at the end of Year 10. Thereafter, they will study another IGCSE Mathematics course for one year in Further Pure Mathematics and therefore attain two IGCSEs in Mathematics at the end of Year 11.

Scholarship Success Congratulations to Annabelle Barker, India Davies and Francesca Doughty for their recent scholarship successes.

by an Old Oundelian and is named after G. W. Stainforth who was Headmaster of Oundle from 1945-1956.

Annabelle Barker has been named the Stainsforth Scholar 2011, and India Davies awarded a General Scholarship at Oundle School, Northampton.

Francesca Doughty has been awarded the ‘Headmaster’s Scholarship,’ at Repton School, Derbyshire.

Oundle awards twelve General Scholarship annually to candidates of good academic ability who will contribute significantly to school life. Selection took place at Oundle school where Annabelle and India were required to undertake a variety of group and individual tasks, designed to allow Oundle to assess such qualities as: social and communication skills; mental dexterity; physical dexterity (including a sports assessment); influencing and leading others by argument and example; where appropriate a music and/or drama; plus genuine interest in two or three activities outside the school curriculum. Early in their assessment week-end the girls were required to write a personal profile.

The title of Stainsford Scholar is awarded every other year to a General Scholarship candidate who is deemed to have done particularly well in the assessments. It is funded

Annabelle, India and Francesca are to join Year 9 of their respective schools this September. Not only do the awards of the scholarships reflect an outstanding personal achievement by each of the girls, their achievement also reflects the quality and relevance of Kellett School’s curriculum and academic standards when benchmarked against UK sector schools.

It is worth noting that these particular scholarships are awarded to students who can illustrate a breath of skills at a very high level across all aspects of the curriculum. High academic standards, curriculum breadth and rich extracurricular opportunities underpin the Kellett experience.

Feedback from our receiving schools consistently comments on Kellett student’s academic preparation, breadth of abilities and the ease at which they settle and achieve within their new schools.

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SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS Year 9 start IGCSE Science

Year 9 students have started their IGCSE Science work this term. Owing to the early start there will be lots of opportunities for investigation and extension.

The student are taking on the challenge and getting into the work.

science Vegetable garden

Year 8 students have been tending to their school vegetable garden and are starting to see the rewards of their efforts with a bumper crop starting to ripen. Their secret is good soil and organic fertiliser made from soya bean. The students intend to make pizza and salad with their harvest.

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CREATIVITY Creativity at Kellett The concept of Creativity at Kellett was born from the desire to celebrate, publish and promote the Art, Design, Music and Dance and Drama work produced by the secondary students throughout this school year. As this was the first year at Kellett for Paul Barker and Sue Perks it was important for them to define the culture of celebrating the Arts and to have a platform on which to build, leading towards showcasing I/ GCSE and ‘A’ level work. The Creativity Website and Creativity at Kellett Book both designed, produced and edited by Sue Perks were launched at the Secondary Arts Evening on the 27 May 2011.

Artist Workshops

Two full day Artist workshops with Dr Grace Tang and Stella Tang were a great success, with all of the Year 8 and 9 students fully engaged in their day and producing some quality wire sculptures and painting on canvas work which were all exhibited at the Secondary Arts evening.

Artists Talks

The Art and Design departments have held a series of guest speakers to show their portfolio and talk about their careers. Kacey Wong, Adrian McCarroll, Victoria Leigh, Sam Keylock and Kate Bryan have all inspired and enlightened the students to the potential of a career in the Art and Design world.

Secondary Art Show at Saffron Bakery Café The opening of the Secondary Art Show at Saffron Bakery Café on the Peak was a great success with 26 reprints of the students work sold on the opening night. The aim of this event was to raise funds for the Red Cross appeal for the Japan Earthquake victims and to give the students an authentic experience as exhibiting artists.

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CREATIVITY

This event was an excellent opportunity to showcase the Art, Design, Drama and Dance work of all students from Years 7 – 9.

The event was an informal gathering in the form of an exhibition with intermittent performances.

The Art works on display featured a selection of the works produced in drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture by each year group.

The musical items featured the 30-strong Kellett Band performing repertoire from Mamma Mia and Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons. Edward Mayall, Rosie Howl and Rebecca Lim prepared outstanding solos and the Year 8 Panthers, led by the master drummer George Tuckwell, composed music for an African Drum Circle.

Secondary Arts Evening

The DT section of the exhibition included works from all year-groups. The Year 7 students’ Mobile Home phone holders reflected the outlandish patterns, colours and shapes that Ettore Sotsass and the Memphis group were so famous for. The Year 8 bookends reflected the colour and shape of the German design school Bauhaus and the related design movement De Stijl, and the Year 9 students exhibited card-net based speaker containers for their Beat-Box project.

Two pupils represented the drama element of the evening with a performance of ‘Interview With a Vampire’ – a comedic piece featuring an increasingly frustrated Vampire who wants his victim to ‘join the ranks’ of the undead, and a human who would rather keep his options open. After studying Animal Farm and the power of rhetoric, Year 9 pupils produced a powerful persuasive speech for their class political campaign, and produced an imaginative video to accompany their work.

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SPORT PE in Term 3 Following on from the successes of last term, Term 3 is typically a much quieter term for sport. Term 3 in the PE Department has seen the Secondary pupils acquiring and developing their groundstrokes, volleys and serving in order to hold a rally or beat their opponent on the tennis court. They have learnt the correct shot to select and apply in Volleyball such as the dig, set or spike. They have consolidated their knowledge of the rules in

Rounders as well as understanding the importance of communication and working as a team. Towards the end of term they learned the basic skills required to become a Lifesaver and also what to do if they are ever in difficulty when in the water. This term has culminated in Inter-Year Tennis Tournaments and an Inter-Form Rounders Tournament which has tested all the skills learnt in class.

Netball At the end of the Spring Term there was reason to celebrate in the PE Department as the Girls’ Netball Teams were victorious in the Hong Kong Schools Netball League in all age groups in which they played. During the course of the season the girls from Year 7 and 8 had played in several friendly tournaments and Kellett had entered three teams into these – one Year 7 team and two Year 8 teams, which meant that every girl in Year 8 at Kellett was playing netball for the school! In the final championship tournament Kellett outplayed the opposition and were triumphant in all three sections, winning every game they played and beating some of the bigger schools such as West Island, South Island and Island School. The girls had played well all season and their commitment and effort was a credit to themselves and Kellett School.

On Sundays a group of Year 8 and 9 girls played in the Hong Kong Netball Development League playing one hour games against some very tough opposition including Discovery Bay International School. The girls won all their pool games and moved on to play the Hong Kong Cricket Club in the final where they put on an amazing performance of team work and skill with some outstanding shooting and defending to win the match 30-9.

Francesca Doughty was named Player of the Match for her all round performance. Congratulations must go to the following girls - Sadie Gray, Lauren Lockett, Katie Hinde, Francesca

Doughty, Isabella Thompson, Charlotte Russell, Maddie Neuville, Annabelle Barker and Olivia Sherry for bringing home another trophy for Kellett.

Sadie Gray, Lauren Lockett, Francesca Doughty and Charlotte Russell were also selected following trials to join the U14 Hong Kong Netball Development Squad, the focus of which was to develop more advanced netball skills and strategies in game play. This was a ten week programme which culminated in a tournament in the last week. Congratulations to these girls as they begin to move forward to playing netball at a higher level.

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SPORT Hartpury College Interschool Equestrian Challenge The Hartpury College Interschool Equestrian Challenge is the biggest Hong Kong equestrian competition for young riders. This year, 20 schools and over 80 riders competed in the first round, and Kellett Secondary was among them for the second year running.

Dressage is a test of control; judges score the rider on how precisely each movement is carried out and on how well the horse is moving.

The score is a percentage of the average given by two judges.

In Show jumping, the horse must jump over a number of obstacles in a defined sequence within a set time without knocking any down.

Jumping faults and time faults are deducted.

The horses are selected at random, and riders do not know which horse they are riding until competition day. Though we did not make it to the finals, Kellett riders were a credit to the school and for most riders it was their first ever official competition. Our riders were also noted for being by far the youngest (we were up against some very experienced 17 year olds).

secondary candids

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SECONDARY FEATURES Year 8 Portfolio Presentation Afternoon The Year 8 Portfolio Presentation took place on Wednesday 29 June at the Shau Kei Wan campus.

The students were presented with their portfolio by Head of Secondary, Mr Simon Giddings and their form tutors. The portfolio contains work done and certificates that they have received since joining the secondary section.

LEAPing from one Campus to Another!

In Primary Six Cameron Taylor wrote an article for Kellett Tell-It about the role of the Life Education Activity Programme in educating primary pupils about healthy choices and looking after yourself. At the end of the article he wrote “The LEAP van is a great place for learning, perhaps one of the greatest. Not only is it educational, it is full of funloving characters: Karen, Holly, Harold and more! Now in Year Nine, he is recording the voice of Harold along with Henry Salmon!

Earlier this year Henry Salmon and Cameron Taylor successfully auditioned to record the voice of Harold. Harold is the giraffe mascot of LEAP’s Primary programme and a popular character with the primary students who visit the van. The boys were really pleased to have been successful and have really enjoyed recording the audio for the LEAP website. Henry Salmon felt the use of the puppet really helped to make it a more realistic conversation and animate the sessions. “We even had some lessons on how to use the puppet! We had to make our voices very happy and enthusiastic, the type of voice that Harold would have. It was great fun and an honour to know that we would be Harold’s voice on the LEAP website.”

Jacquie Dawes Assistant Principal Secondary

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SECONDARY FEATURES Mt Kinabalu Educational Visit This May, the Year 7 students, their tutors and Science teachers left Hong Kong city life to explore the jungles of Mt Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia. We were met by local guides from Borneo wildlife and were well looked after along the way.

The purpose of the trip was to practice biological sampling techniques and there is no better place to do this than the pristine rainforest of Mt Kinabalu. The students were kept very busy with the different sampling methodsthere were opportunities for them to collect data through: pitfall traps, quadrats and line transects.

Some of the other highlights of the trip were:

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T h e ca n o py wa lk a su sp en sio n brid ge 30 m a bo ve th e fo re st f loo r

N a ba lu m a rk et so uven ir sh op pi ng

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Below are some recounts written by the students:

“Walking up the stairs, my heart was beating so fast. As soon as I saw how high the bridge was, I trembled with fear. I stepped out.

The bridge started to wobble but then birds distracted me and I looked around at the enormous, emerald green trees that towered over me. I felt as tiny as a mouse but surrounded by beauty!”

Eliza Kidd – The Canopy Walk “The anticipation was killing me! I wanted to run but it was too slippery on the path. We burst into the rainforest, pushed past the overgrowth and there it was – my pitfall trap! What had we caught?”

Benjamin Forbes – Checking Pitfall traps “We switched our lights out. It went as black as coal. Everything went silent for a second and then the wilderness came to life.

Many creatures shouted to us, all around. Then we turned our lights back on and we were safe.”

Max Chalk – The Night Walk

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On the 17 of May, Year Nine were visited by Animals Asia representative Jasmine Nunns, a therapy dog named Goldie, and her owner, Florence Ho, as part of the Global Citizenship Animal Welfare in the Media module.

We learned about their work in China to end Moon Bear bile farming and the cat and dog meat industry, which causes so much suffering to animals. We also enjoyed hearing about their Dr Dog programme which sees well- behaved dogs like Goldie bringing joy to people in hospital, children in orphanages, and to people whose building managers do not allow pets. It seems that Animals Asia has a knack for turning horror into stories of hope.

It was inspiring to learn that Animals Asia began by a chance encounter with Moon Bears by just one person. Jill Robinson, the founder of Animals Asia, stumbled upon a basement full of Moon Bears in cages no bigger than their own bodies, when she was in China as a tourist. She was so moved by the sight of one bear in particular (later named Hong), who seemed to reach through the bars and hold her hand in her paw, that she vowed to work to release her.

Animals Asia is keen to stress that it works closely with the Chinese government and that their work is not about attacking a culture, but about addressing animal cruelty concerns that are also shared by people within China. It has bear sanctuaries in China as well as Vietnam. In 2000, Animals Asia signed an agreement with the Chinese government to rescue 500 bears from bile farms and by the end of 2010, a total of 277 bears had been brought to their Chengdu sanctuary. In addition, 33 Chengdu pharmacies have placed stickers in their windows declaring themselves free of bear parts.

If you would like to help Animals Asia in their work to promote animal welfare, they suggest: • checking any medicine products for bear bile which, contrary to popular belief, can actually cause harm to the consumer.

• never wearing fur or fake fur (cat and dog fur is cheap to produce as a by-product of the meat industry and often contains fur of stolen pets, so real fur is also passed off as fake fur to the consumer) • considering whether tourist attractions that involve animals are in the best interests of the animals involved. For example, circuses and theme parks that involve animals may capture wild animals and use tactics of torture behind the scenes to make the animals perform an unnatural act. Indeed, controversy about this issue made the headlines in May, in relation to the release of the film Water For Elephants.

• selecting a pet from an animal shelter as opposed to a pet shop. Pet shops are often supplied by breeders who use animals as breeding machines. It is not unusual for the parent animals to spend their whole lives in tiny cages, and for the offspring to be unhealthy.

• sponsoring a bear • saying no to shark fin soup As Jasmine Nunns, said “If you are thinking I can’t make a difference, I am just one person, think again! Jill Robinson was just one person and Animals Asia is making a huge difference!”

For more information about the work of Animals Asia or how you can help, please visit: http://www.animalsasia.org/ Elizabeth Everett Teacher with Responsibility for Global Citizenship

We were saddened to learn about the trade in cat and dog meat, which sees animals (including stolen pets) rounded up and put in overcrowded tiny cages without food or water on their way to food markets. Not only do the animals experience unspeakable suffering, but people consume meat from diseased animals and suffer themselves too.

As usual, however, there is hope here. Local animal welfare groups from within China, as well as spontaneous community gatherings, have called for an end to this cruelty and have forced some restaurants to drop cat and dog meat from their menus.

Finally, on a happier note, we met Goldie, the therapy dog and her owner Florence, who told us that not only does a therapy dog bring love and joy to those who are sick or have no access to animals, but it also teaches people about animals: that they feel happy, sad, lonely, and feel pain if they are beaten - just like humans.

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Global Citizenship – Animals Asia