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JUNE MAY 2018 2016
JUNE 2018
CONTENT WHOLE SCHOOL
Senior
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
4
KELLETT NEWS
5-7
Welcome to our New Staff Staff Leavers Student Leavers Congratulations Kellett Cares
FEATURE 8-9 Annual Concert 2018
highlights 10-13 Library Annual Fund Alumni Event
14-15
Spring Term ICT
HIGHLIGHTS 16-21 Head of Preparatory School School Council Reception to Year 6
Arts & languages 22-25 Art Music Modern Foreign Languages Kellett Cares
Sport 26-27 Extras 28-29 ECAs Kowloon Bay
HIGHLIGHTS 30-36 Head of Preparatory School School Council Reception to Year 6 Kellett Cares
37-39
Modern Foreign Languages Music Art
Sport 40 Extras 41 Prep Highlights
53-55
English Modern Foreign Languages Music Drama Art
Extras 56-57
Pok Fu Lam
Arts & languages
Head of Senior School Learning Service Programme Maths Geography Global Citizenship Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) Sixth Form Economics Science History Business Studies Design Technology
Arts & languages
Preparatory
Prep Across the School
HIGHLIGHTS 42-52
Wellbeing Senior School Highlights
Sport 58-59
WHOLE SCHOOL
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE A Truly Preparatory Education On a cold and dark Friday evening in 1988, deep in the Cotswolds, I struggled out of school lugging two large crates of A4 binders. Heralded as a game changer, these hefty binders contained the new National Curriculum for primary schools in England and Wales.
With hundreds of ‘statements of attainment’ that teachers were expected to deliver for each subject, it quickly became apparent that this new curriculum was almost impossible to teach. Each subject had been developed by a team of specialists with little to no regard for the other nine subjects to be taught alongside.
In 2014 the UK government once again instigated a review of the primary curriculum. This time they wisely chose not to shut a team of academic subject experts in a room to rewrite the curriculum; rather they handed the task to the real experts, the teachers, who understood their students and how they best learn.
Whilst the thinking behind the curriculum was laudable, and one to which I subscribe to this day - an entitlement for every child to a broad rich curriculum - there were simply not enough hours in the day to deliver the requirements of each subject.
Being in Hong Kong Kellett had the advantage of being able to see how the revised Curriculum landed before determining how we would incorporate it into our diverse curriculum offering. Alisa White (KLB) and Luke Bromwich (PFL), both Prep Deputy Heads with responsibility for curriculum, have worked with their colleagues over the past two years to thoroughly review the Kellett Prep Curriculum.
It was a good twelve years before the National Curriculum, having been reviewed and refined on multiple occasions, became recognised world-wide as a relevant and comprehensive learning framework for primary schools. The focus remains on maximising literacy (English) and numeracy (Maths) as well as; • • • • • • • • •
science design and technology history geography art and design music physical education computing ancient and modern foreign languages.
Many schools, including Kellett through our tailor made Global Citizenship Curriculum, opt to include personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship.
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The new bespoke Preparatory Curriculum they have developed, described by our School Improvement Partners, the Buckinghamshire Learning Trust, as ‘exemplary’, is to be launched in August 2018. Our new Curriculum is academically robust, rich, broad and relevant, taking our students on an exciting learning journey through the school and preparing them for their chosen path ahead.
Ann Mc Donald Principal
WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS
welcome to our new staff WHOLE SCHOOL
Mary Chan Admissions Assistant
Laura Tyson Director of Development & Community Relations
Pok Fu Lam Preparatory
Valina Moolchandani Assistant Librarian
Senior SCHOOL
Seren Zhang Mandarin TA
Queenie Ho Laboratory Technician III
STAFF LEAVERS WHOLE SCHOOL
Connie Ma Admissions OfficeR
James Lo School Year Book Coordinator
Patricia Leung Site Services Manager
Pok Fu Lam Preparatory
Joanna Hart Assistant Librarian
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WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS
student leaverS A number of students left Kellett School at the end of the Spring term. We wish them all the very best with their future endeavours. Pok Fu Lam Prep
Senior School
Hugo Bolton
Max Bolton
Harry Lorentsson
Maggie Lorentsson
Alexandra Whittingham
Saffron Flowers
Rory Bolton
Lucy Kimbrough
Cherish Chan
Sinead Evans Tabitha Kinloch
Kowloon Bay Prep
John Hawkins
CONGRATULATIONS BABIES •
Isabel Hosgood – Kai Reuben Hosgood
•
Nerina Daryanani – Shayna and Shawn Daryanani
Kai Reuben Hosgood
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Shayn
a and Shawn Dar ya nani
WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS
Kellett Cares Whole School ‘Pizza with Purpose’ One thing Kellett Cares really wants to ensure is that students are involved with our fundraising activities, but that they are also aware of where the funds are going. This prompted us to rebrand ‘Pizza Sales’ and launch ‘Pizza with Purpose’ this term. All of the funds raised from each sale are dedicated to supporting Christian Action as they help refugees in Hong Kong. The Student Councillors have been excellent advocates for the event, presenting to the children the reasons why we do pizza sales and giving real examples of how each slice of pizza could help...
‘Pizza with Purpose’ is a hands-on fundraiser that takes place regularly throughout the school year, with each year group taking a turn at hosting the event. Students are selected to work alongside their parents, cutting up and delivering pizza around the school at lunchtime. At $15 per slice and approximately 170 pizzas sold each month across both campuses, that’s a lot of pizza with a lot of purpose!!
1 slice of pizza = Lunch for one refugee 4 slices of pizza = A tutoring session 10 slices of pizza = An Octopus card with $150 credit 13 slices of pizza = A kettle for a family 26 slices of pizza = A large rice cooker for a family These examples give the children a real sense of what their pizza money is doing in our community. Not only do Christian Action buy items for the refugees, they also provide training, counselling, support and meals. They work with people of varying age, gender, nationality and religion all over Hong Kong.
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WHOLE SCHOOL
FEATURE
Annual Concert 2018 Thursday 22 March saw one of the most exciting highlights of the Kellett year: the Annual Concert! This involved performances by over 250 students, staff and parents from across all three schools. For many of our seasoned Kellett performers, this has become a hotly anticipated event. Whilst for others, this was the first time they had performed to an audience of this size. All of the performers, however, demonstrated commitment and passion on stage as they delivered a high quality musical evening. One of the great joys of the Annual Concert is that it provides an opportunity for such a wide range of ages and experience to collaborate and come together through music. This includes from the youngest students in the Year 3 Prep choirs or orchestras, right through to those in Year 13 who may be working at or above diploma level performance, and of course, the many staff and parent performers.
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The planning and rehearsal process for this concert actually began several months ago, with all of the choirs and instrumental groups working hard to learn and practice their pieces in their individual ensembles at each of the campuses. In addition to the weekly rehearsals that take place in music ECAs, the final rehearsals themselves are an intense twoday process, involving transforming the sports hall into a performance venue, complete with a stage, video screens, cameras, sound equipment and over 1000 audience chairs. We also needed to bring in over 150 children from PFL by bus for the rehearsal on the Wednesday and navigate the logistical challenges of fitting all the performers on stage!
WHOLE SCHOOL
FEATURE
As the time approached on the concert day to open the doors to the audience, there was a nervous energy from many of our performers. However, as soon as the Senior School Jazz Band started their opening number ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’, everyone began to relax and enjoy the music. There were so many highlights of the evening. In terms of choirs alone, there were fantastic performances by The Combined Prep Choirs, KLB Choirs, PFL Choirs, Senior Choir, Kellett Voices and of course the Staff Parent Choir. These were received well by all, with the Kellett Voices leading us into the interval on a high with their rocking version of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the Staff Parent Choir performing acapella ‘Sigh No More’ by Mumford and Sons (a brave choice, which ended up as a great success!), the beautiful Senior School Choir rendition of ‘You’ll Be Found’ and the Prep Choirs appearing in a number of formations, from smaller year specific choirs, up to the massed Combined Prep Choir pieces ‘Why We Sing’ and ‘How Far I’ll Go’.
This year’s finale ‘This is Me’ from The Greatest Showman, was enthusiastically rehearsed across the school. The positive message of the song and the heartfelt performance from the combined forces of the Senior School and both Prep Schools, ended this memorable evening on a euphoric note and left everyone looking forward to next year’s event! After so much work by each individual choir or instrumental group, it is always a magical moment when all forces combine. When the students experienced this for the first time during the finale number, their excitement was evident. To be totally immersed in a collective sound like this is a truly unique and special experience, which I’m sure will stay with many of the students long after the end of the closing number.
The Senior School Orchestra then took us into space with their rendition of Holst’s ‘Jupiter’, followed later by ‘Benedictus’, whilst the Combined Prep Orchestra showed their versatility with a trio of pieces in contrasting styles, from a traditional folk tune, to the Taylor Swift classic ‘Shake It Off’!
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WHOLE SCHOOL
HIGHLIGHTS LIBRARY What are Kellett students reading? A recent survey by Renaissance Learning Inc. of pupils’ reading habits in the UK (http://whatkidsarereading.co.uk/) indicate that students stick with their favourite authors even after moving from Primary to Secondary school, with Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and David Walliams books dominating the most popular title lists. That led us to question whether that was true of our Kellett students. Do the most popular authors and titles in our Prep Schools remain so in Senior School? In Prep, the most popular authors are overwhelmingly those you see in the bookshops in Hong Kong with Francesca Simon (Horrid Henry) and Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants) at the top of our leaderboard. As in the UK, Jeff Kinney and David Walliams make an appearance too. The top titles borrowed indicates a glimmer of hope that our students do look beyond those authors, with ‘The Book with no Pictures’ by B J Novak and ‘El Deafo’ by Cece Bell cutting through the dominance of the established names.
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Most borrowed Primary authors
Aug - Nov 2017 Most borrowed Primary titles
1.
Francesca Simon
The Book with no Pictures – B J Novak
2.
Dav Pilkey
Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space - Dav Pilkey
3.
Jeff Kinney
El Deafo – Cece Bell
4.
Liz Pichon
Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets – Dav Pilkey
5.
Raina Telgemeier
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double down – Jeff Kinney
6.
H.I. Larry
Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants – Dav Pilkey
7.
Elizabeth Singer Hunt
Horrid Henry's joke book – Francesca Simon
8.
David Walliams
Dogzombies rule (for now) – Liz Pichon
9.
Rachel Renee Russell
The Adventures of Captain Underpants – Dav Pilkey
10.
Andy Griffiths
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Book 6 - Cabin fever – Jeff Kinney
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WHOLE SCHOOL
HIGHLIGHTS
However, once in Senior School, this pattern clearly breaks, with John Green, Suzanne Collins and Malorie Blackman entering our top lists; in fact, our top titles show a wide variety of books. So, take heart: even though your child may appear hooked on one author now, our data indicates that eventually students do branch out. The Kellett Libraries deliberately allow our library readers free choice of reading materials, while at the same time ensuring we place new and more challenging material in front of students, encourage the reading of a wide variety of genres and styles and offer guidance on what to read. This, in parallel with classroom required reading, aims to encourage and embed a love of reading for pleasure that remains with them as they move through school and beyond, for, as research strongly suggests*, reading for pleasure can result in increased empathy, and improved well-being, as well as improved academic attainment.
Most borrowed Senior authors
Most borrowed Senior titles
1.
Robert Muchamore
The Fault in Our Stars – John Green
2.
Liz Pichon
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
3.
Jeff Kinney
Noughts and Crosses – Malorie Blackman
4.
Cassandra Clare
The Recruit – Robert Muchamore
5.
John Green
Family, friends and furry creatures – Liz Pichon
6.
Malorie Blackman
One – Sarah Crossan
7.
Sarah J. Maas
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
8.
Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins
9.
J.K. Rowling
Paper Towns – John Green
10.
Lincoln Peirce
Wonder – R.J. Palacio
Source: OLIVER, Library Management System All data taken from August 2017 – March 2018 Data excludes all Battle of the Books titles * https://readingagency.org.uk/news/blog/why-is-reading-for-pleasure-important.html KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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WHOLE SCHOOL
HIGHLIGHTS Annual Fund Term 2 was a busy one for the Development Office, finalising details on enhancements to happen within the term as well as in Term 3 and beyond. The enhancements offered by Kellett School’s Annual Fund enable access to experts, inspirational individuals, courses, workshops, visits, resources and learning tools beyond the scope of the regular curriculum budget, and in doing so add an extra dimension to students’ education and knowledge. The personal finance talks delivered to Years 9 to 13 students by guest speaker Andrew Hallam in February were well received by the students who were challenged to prepare for managing their financial resources in their life after Kellett. Andrew also spoke with staff on ideas for building financial awareness skills into the curriculum. The evening session for adults was lively and engaging covering topics such as retirement savings and low-cost investment strategies. The emphasis on well-being at Kellett continued with KLB and PFL Year 6 students and some Year 9s completing ‘Mindfulness Matters’ training with Doreen Jowarsha. Students learnt the importance of empathy, adaptability and how to control emotions to reduce stress and promote personal balance.
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The school’s Technology Hub was delighted to receive equipment for programming and computational thinking. In Term 3, Prep schools will see the launch of the Social Enterprise Programme with the Student Council student leaders, experience performing artists in residence and hear from an inspirational speaker from Medicin Sans Frontier. Senior School students can look forward to the return of the ISTA Drama in residence, career counselling and Part 2 of the Royal Institute Science Lectures early in the next academic year.
WHOLE SCHOOL
HIGHLIGHTS
Alumni Event After successful alumni gatherings in May 2013, 2014 & 2016, we returned to London for the fourth gathering. The Afternoon Tea was a great success. On 15 April, the inaugural Kellett U.S. gathering was held in Greenwich, Connecticut. Ann Mc Donald, Principal, Nick Miller, Deputy Head Pok Fu Lam Prep and Suky Lee, Admissions Director, had a fantastic brunch with past students, parents and staff. It was wonderful to see so many them and to hear such a variety of wonderful stories and memories.
Keep an eye on our Alumni Page on the school website and on Facebook for information on upcoming alumni events. If you are a leaving student, parent or staff member and would like to stay in touch with us, please visit the Kellett Alumni page on the school website http://www.kellettschool.com -> Community -> Alumni to fill in the alumni registration form. Follow us on Kellett School Alumni on Facebook to keep up with the latest news and events.
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PREP ACROSS THE SCHOOL
PREP ACROSS THE SCHOOL
Spring Term ICT 3D Printing with Reception In Term 2, Reception children studied the topics ‘Transport’ and ‘Countries’. In each school, children used what they learnt to create and draw some images associated with their topics so they could print them. However, with this particular project, the printing did not involve paper. We used our amazing 3D printers to print our creations! Children were fascinated by the whole process of turning their drawings into 3D objects and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the amazing printers at work and observing the process of transforming their drawings into 3D pieces of art. The creations were very impressive, and stirred up a lot of excitement amongst our older children. After seeing what the youngest pupils in the school produced, many are desperate to get started with their own 3D printing projects. We will keep you informed about what we print next!
Year 1 Book Creator App Year 1 children across both schools completed some fantastic work using the app Book Creator. This was a completely new app to almost all of the children, but they quickly grasped a good understanding of its features and how to use it effectively to present in a completely new format. Children in KLB used the app to present information they had found out during their ‘Amazing Animals’ topic, whereas children in PFL used it to show their recent learning about Forces in Science! Children are now confident changing background colours, formatting text by changing features such as bold, underline, font size and colour, and alignment. They also made their books extra appealing by inserting photographs and using drawing tools to add their own illustrations!
Scratch Jr with Year 2 Scratch Jr is an iPad app that proved to be very popular amongst our Year 2 children in Term 2. Children were tasked with the challenge of creating their own moving game over a cycle of lessons. To begin with, children spent time familiarising themselves with the app and gaining the understanding that in order to get characters, known in Scratch as ‘sprites’ to work, they needed to give them instructions and tell them what to do. We now know that when we give our characters instructions and commands to follow, we are coding them! In our first lesson, we learnt how to programme our sprite to make short movements as well as repeated movements, how to add a sprite, how to shrink and grow characters and also how to change the background of our games. We spent lots of time exploring the command buttons and figuring out what actions we could get our sprites to carry out. A big part of the learning in Scratch Jr was about being able to problem solve and use trial and error methods. We quickly learnt that coding doesn’t always work correctly the first time and that we needed to demonstrate perseverance and resilience in order to complete our games and get them working correctly. Once the hard work was done, we had great fun playing each other’s games and coming up with ideas for how we could improve and make them even better next time!
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PREP ACROSS THE SCHOOL
PREP ACROSS THE SCHOOL
Year 4 Google My Maps Year 4 got all geared up for their camp trip to Lantau by looking at locations they would be visiting using Google My Maps. Children created their own maps of the island and then used their itineraries to plot key locations they would visit. They furthered their learning by using the drop pin tool to mark key locations and customise them. They did this by adding text, images and colours to their pins after learning information about each location in previous topic lessons. Once all of their locations were added to their maps, children then used an additional tool to look at the routes they would take between each place. This helped pupils to familiarise themselves with the plans for the trip, which got them all very excited. To present their work, children then took screenshots of their drop pin information boxes and added them to a Keynote presentation. Here they were able to present their work and add information boxes explaining their task and also reflecting on their learning of using new technologies in class. Keynote was a completely new programme to many of the children, however by the end of the sessions, all were familiar with how to change backgrounds, add text, insert shapes and customise borders.
Scratch Games In the Spring Term, Year 4 and 5 children challenged themselves and their ability to solve problems by coding their own games using Scratch. We investigated various games and evaluated them; and thought about how good they were to play. This encouraged us to think about the features games have and what makes some more popular than others. We quickly established that for games to be popular, they needed to have a clear aim, have easy to follow instructions and be challenging. As well as thinking about what worked well in the games, we also needed to evaluate the elements we did not like and discuss improvements. We then used these ideas to construct plans for our own games. Some of the elements we included in our games were: movements, objects disappearing when collected, points systems, sounds and pop up messages. All children involved worked well and learnt so many new skills, and those who already had a strong prior knowledge of Scratch coding, set additional targets and aims to challenge themselves and come up with games that were not only fun to play, but also quite addictive!
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PREPARATORY
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM The importance of display Our physical working environment impacts our everyday professional experiences, which affect our levels of satisfaction, functionality, engagement and motivation. This is certainly the case in education where the feel, look and physical structure of a school influence the quality of learning taking place within it. Ensuring that the environment is safe, well maintained, fit-for-purpose and visually stimulating are some of the key aspects in providing a school that supports and guides students, staff and parents in their learning and general well-being.
A UK research study conducted by Salford University (P. Barrett, F. Davies, Y. Zhang, L Barrett 2014) attempted the complex task of identifying the effects of environment and design on student learning in schools. The study group identified three main aspects that affect the learning within a school building. They include: Naturalness (light, sound and temperature); Individualism (personalisation, flexibility and relevance of setting to age group) and Stimulation (engagement and aesthetics). The effective use of displays is a significant factor and supports the quality and impact particularly in reference to the second and third categories highlighted in the study. There has also been a significant amount of research regarding the importance of appropriate and effective displays. It has many functions, which when done well, has high impact on the learner. The purpose of classroom displays is multi-functional; it celebrates, stimulates, informs and encourages students to interact with their environment and can be used as a learning resource. In order to create visually satisfying displays, appropriate choices with regard to colour, shape and form, with clear engaging presentation and placement, need to be carefully considered.
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Visual displays can be decorative, making the classroom brighter and a more interesting and stimulating place, which can have direct impact upon the student. However, the use of effective displays goes much further than just aesthetics. A key purpose of effective displays is to provide a wide range of information which can remind, prompt, enrich and aid students in their day-to-day learning. For example, the reference to key language, exemplars showing step-by-step methods for maths problem solving, or a science flow diagram can all provide an immediate and accessible reference point. This material can support learning and create opportunity for students to work independently and autonomously, which in turn, helps the teacher to be more effective. Important information should be carefully presented to students in and around the classroom, for example, timetables and schedules, general notices, different groups they work in and general relevant notices. This promotes and supports simple self-help skills, which enable students to be organised and structured as they tackle their learning. Displays can be used to promote whole class management; simply including directions, providing labels and instructions, as well as sharing lists of routines, responsibilities, tasks and rules saving time and moving students forward.
Working walls should also be prominent and are an important visual reference tool to support the learning process. They can be used to highlight key learning objectives; share key questions that students have formulated, refer to vital vocabulary and link key teaching points, exemplars and annotations as the work progresses. Another important consideration is the sharing of work created by students. This is a means of sharing expectation in the quality of work and in raising students’ self-esteem in displaying their work for others to see, review and value. Of course, there must be a balance between the sensitivity of sharing students work so that all pupils experience pride and value from their peers and adults, as well as ensuring high-quality pieces are selected for the walls. Displays can be used to stimulate and create pupil interest. Books might be displayed on a shelf, and opened at an interesting page, to encourage pupils to read. The use of interactive displays encourages students to explore and experience enriched learning opportunities through kinaesthetic and visual interaction. Reward charts and positive ‘well-being buckets’ are also ways in which students can share positive communication and recognition of one another, communicating to others what the class is doing. This can include other students from a different class, other teachers and support staff, school visitors, parents, and members of the local community. We all want to share, celebrate and be informed about what our students are learning within the curriculum.
PREPARATORY
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM The evidence from the Salford study supports the hypothesis that providing appropriate, high level and well-designed classrooms based on the three categories highlighted above will have impact on the progress students make and quality displays are a critical part of ensuring that the environment supports learners. Therefore, it is vital that there is regular discussion and development with regard to this. Within our learning community we ensure that prep students contribute to the planning and organisation of where and how their work is best displayed. Teachers encourage their students to think about how information, individual and group work and content is presented and shared. This is all part of the process of student learning. The importance of quality displays are part and parcel of a teacher’s role and responsibilities. Clear guidance and policy supported by regular professional development opportunities enable teachers to discuss and share best practice which ensure that quality displays within the environment are at the heart of how we promote high quality student learning.
Ben Dixon Head of Preparatory School, Pok Fu Lam
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PREPARATORY
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM School council We had another busy and exciting term in the School Council! Back in January, we had an amazing time on our trip to the Hong Kong Legislative Council. We really enjoyed the tour of the building, learning about how important decisions are made and observing live debates. We even got to role-play our own debate all about waste disposal! What a fantastic day! Last term, Mr Bromwich asked us to consider a new award that could go alongside the Pok Fu Lam Promise award. After discussions in our School Council meetings and Class Council meetings, it was decided that we would launch the Assembly Award! The Assembly Award is given each Monday during Key Stage assemblies to the best behaved class. We had a great time introducing this award to our peers and sharing our behaviour top tips to help classes win this award. We continued to work with Mr Drew and think about our Global Goals, and in particular tackling climate change. We created posters to remind teachers to recycle paper and we are still looking into ways we can reduce litter in the playground. We also enjoyed helping Mr Drew lead the Feel Good Friday, ‘Feeling Green’ where we planned and organised lots of ‘green’ activities for our peers to participate in during break time. We also welcomed the charity Save the Children, to one of our assemblies and enjoyed learning about the important work they do. We felt very proud to be able to present them with a cheque raised by Kellett Cares from our Christmas Jumper day and candy cane sales. After lots of discussions regarding the playground, we thought we could help make it an even happier place by introducing a Friendship Bench! To raise money to purchase the bench we organised a Pyjama Day! We had so much fun; thank you to everyone who participated and helped raise money towards the bench!
Reception We had an extremely busy and productive Spring term in Reception. Our children were very lucky to have travelled to many places around the world and were bursting to share their experiences with each other. Our two topics during Term 2, ‘Transport’ and ‘Around the World’, enabled the children to share their adventures and talk about the things they saw whilst on their holidays. We started our Transport topic by thinking about where in the world we would travel to in a hot air balloon. All three classes then made their own hot air balloons and wrote sentences to explain where they would like to go and why. A highlight of the topic was our visit to the Maritime Museum. During the trip the children were able to look at artefacts, models of boats, pretend to steer a ship and see how busy Victoria Harbour is during the day. In the Covered Area, Kellett Airport was an extremely busy place to be! There were tickets being made, luggage being checked, air stewards making sure seatbelts were fastened and of course the pilots, who made some very serious announcements from the flight deck! This all led very nicely into our next topic - ‘Around the World’. We discussed how places are similar or different to one another. At Pok Fu Lam, the children were very interested in the animals 18
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found in different countries. It was wonderful to hear the children talking to each other about first hand experiences of going on safari, whale watching and visiting farms. Having had Earth Day near the end of the term, the children were upset to find a lot of plastic rubbish floating in the water tray with the sea creatures. They quickly sprang into action, using nets to fish out the plastic and making no litter signs. We then started to talk about pollution, recycling and what we can do to look after our planet. Well done for another great term Reception!
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM
We started Term 2 on our ‘Amazing Animals’ topic and had a fabulous visit from the people and animals at Jurassic Garage. We learnt all sorts of interesting facts about animals and were able to classify animals into groups such as mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians and fish. We complemented this work with our non-fiction writing in Literacy where we made posters about owls and booklets on an animal of our choice. Moving on from animals, we investigated different styles of poems, looking at rhyming and creating our very own Cinquain poems.
PREPARATORY
Year 1 In the second half of the term we started our ‘All at Sea’ unit where we looked at forces including pushes and pulls and also learnt all about islands. We explored what different physical and human features can be found and this culminated in an exciting trip to Cheung Chau island where we focused on what improvements had been made and what we could do to further improve the area. In maths we have been consolidating our understanding of place value using dienes and numicon as well as continuing to develop our addition and subtraction skills. We also learnt how to multiply using multiplication trees and divide by sharing.
Year 2 What an exciting and busy Spring term Year 2 had! In our first topic, ‘You Are What You Eat’, we learnt all about healthy living and eating a balanced diet. As part of the unit we enjoyed investigating, designing, making and evaluating healthy smoothies and sandwiches – they were delicious! We learnt about the how the digestive system works, conducting experiments and writing an explanation text in English. We then moved onto another topic, ‘Who Changed The World?’, where we studied various significant people and the impact they have had on our world. In English we researched Florence Nightingale’s life, and why she is an important person, creating our own detailed biographies of her. Whilst learning about Alexander Graham Bell, we had a lot of fun making our own cup and string phones! We also enjoyed learning about other significant individuals, such as Christopher Columbus, Mary Seacole and Rosa Parks. This term Year 2 also showcased their superb class assemblies to the school and parents. 2LK based their assembly on ‘Holidays and Festivals’, 2EF shared the story of ‘Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Factory’and 2HG performed a fairytale called ‘The Mirror of Truth’. We had another fantastic term in Year 2 and look forward to more exciting learning to come!
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PREPARATORY
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM Year 3 Year 3 had a very exciting second term! We started off the year with a fabulous assembly by 3ML, where they reenacted the beautiful ‘Charlotte’s Web’, by E. B. White, having enjoyed reading it in class before Christmas. Following swiftly on were 3HH, who entertained us all with their ‘Light’ assembly, showing us the importance of light and how we ought to be very thankful to Mr Thomas Edison!
At the beginning of February, we all made our way to Cheung Chau to enjoy an exciting two-day camp! The children were wonderful and managed to survive the chilly temperatures. They all enjoyed the various activities, where they had to work as a team to build a catapult, navigate their way around the island, and create a human alphabet! In the evening, after the challenging task of making their own bed, they enjoyed a delicious barbecue, finishing up with roasting s’mores on the fire. It was a great two days and both the children and adults made many happy memories to take away with them. Finishing this term with a spectacular show were 3ES, who reenacted ‘Varjak Paw’ by S.F Said. The children were brilliant, acting out the story with such confidence and enthusiasm! What a busy Spring Term we had!
Year 4 To kick start our exciting Spring term, the children in Year 4, across both campuses, came together for a fun-filled and adventure - packed few days on Lantau Island. Although our first day got off to a rather wet and drizzly start, our spirits were certainly not dampened! After a short coach ride we arrived in Tai O Heritage Village to begin exploring this unique and aweinspiring part of Hong Kong. This trip enabled the children to develop their knowledge of different ways of life in Hong Kong and broadened our global outlook as responsible citizens. It was during our trip to Tai O Heritage Village that we experienced a true act of kindness when Tai O Hotel warmly welcomed us into their restaurant to provide shelter from the rain. We were so grateful for the opportunity to eat our lunch in such delightful surroundings and we thoroughly appreciated the warm water they offered – a true moment of gratitude.
The rest of camp went swimmingly and we relished the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities. The high rope course offered a wonderful chance for children to develop their resilience, employing admirable team work skills to coach and support one another. Finally, the delicious Jamaican food certainly spiced up our experience; the jerk chicken was a raving success! In preparation for our visit to the Tian Tan Buddhist statue and Po Lin Monastery, the children deepened their knowledge of Buddhism. Using the TASC wheel, children were able to develop their inquiry skills through self-led research which later culminated in engaging presentations, through various mediums. Once again, this process enabled students to enhance their global outlook and further understand the cultural relevance of Buddhism within Asia. Back in school, we continued to make several connections between our wealth of experiences and the Kellett Learner Profile.
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM PREPARATORY
Year 5 Term 2 started with a bang and a crack, as Year 5 flew into 2018 with some homemade parachutes and protection devices for the annual egg drop challenge! Surprisingly, the playground only needed a minor clean up as only a few eggs were harmed in the process. Through reading ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ by Michael Morpurgo, we have written some fantastic pieces of work, putting ourselves in the shoes of Michael, a boy lost at sea. The children learnt how to describe both Sydney and Hong Kong’s respective harbours, whilst expertly using wonderful phrases to create images of beautiful skylines and illuminating fireworks! Our writing took a new direction in the second half of the term when we explored the ‘Highwayman’ by Alfred Noyes. This mysterious, dramatic and tragic poem certainly caught our attention. We were shocked and astounded to find out the fate of the Highwayman and his beloved Bess our two star-crossed lovers. We then created our own verses to answer the many questions that had gone unanswered. What had happened to Tim the ostler? How did the landlord feel about his daughter dying? Why were the King’s guards so cruel? We returned after Chinese New Year with full tummies as we shared breakfast dishes from our own countries. This was a yummy introduction to our ‘Feed Me Now’ topic. As part of this topic, we learnt about the different food groups, the effect that sugar has on our body and how to identify food which is healthy and has low amounts of sugar. We concluded this topic with our own homemade smoothie creations with spectacular labels made with the help of the wonderful Learning Technology team.
Year 6 Year 6 tuned in to the writing of William Shakespeare at the start of the year, completing a 4-week unit studying Macbeth. Drama sessions in the Rutherford room led to a greater understanding of the complex characters and some of the Scottish accents were extremely impressive. The Year 6 teachers were particularly pleased at how quickly pupils overcame the difficulties of Shakespearian language. At the conclusion of the unit we designed and created individual dioramas depicting our favourite quote from the play. The second half of the term saw us enter the fantastical world of Philip Pullman, during which we travelled North, on a journey of discovery with Lyra and her daemon. Some superb writing ensued using figurative language, dialogue and action.
Our ‘Mad Scientist’ topic meant lab coats were donned and the science laboratory was in full use, as we investigated chemical reactions and observing material changes. More recently, in our ‘Inheritance and Evolution’ topic, we have been examining the theory of evolution by natural selection. Pupils have studied new trait variations that arise spontaneously and make an organism more competitive in the struggle for survival. Well done Year 6 on a very successful term!
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ARTS & LANGUAGES - POK FU LAM
Art Each year group created an artwork for the Kellett Fair that was inspired by something Hong Kong offers.
Y3 – Birdcages
Y1 - K ites
ldfis Y2 – Go
h
Y6 – L ante s Y4 – Dragon Boat
Y5 – Mong K ok Shop Sig ns
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ARTS & LANGUAGES - POK FU LAM Music Term 2 was an extremely busy term in the Music Department, with a number of exciting events to celebrate! We started back in January with the second annual PFL Eisteddfod, which combined some traditional Celtic songs from around the UK, with over 100 student instrumental performances, both as solos and as small group ensembles. It was a lovely two days of musical celebration, and we extend a huge thanks to our celebrity judge Mr Cox, for his crucial role at this event for the second year in a row, resplendent again in Welsh finery! Congratulations to absolutely everyone who performed in the Eisteddfod, and a massive thank you to Mrs Meenan for baking all the Welsh Cakes for our performers, they were hugely appreciated!
MADAGASCAR JUNIOR On the 1, 2 and 3 February, we had the pleasure of presenting this year’s Musical Production, DreamWorks’ Madagascar Junior. These performances were the culmination of a huge amount of work on the parts of the student performers, stage hands, scenery club and a whole host of staff and parents who were involved behind the scenes in many varied ways! We were incredibly proud of all the children who worked so hard to put on this show, from the set, the props, acting, singing and dancing, they all did a fabulous job. The sense of team work, enthusiasm and enjoyment throughout the whole process was delightful to witness, and we are sure that the memories of this show will linger long after the final curtain! In Music ECAs, we geared up for the two big events at the end of the term, the Annual Concert and FOBISIA Primary Music Festival. Meanwhile, in the classroom, Year 5 and 6 students worked on music compositions using both GarageBand and Sibelius software. Key Stage 1 studied units of work on Pitch and especially enjoyed using the boomwhackers (as you can see here!) and all of Key Stage 2 worked hard to gain their next recorder karate belts!
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ARTS & LANGUAGES - POK FU LAM Modern foreign languageS FRENCH studies Year 3 learnt about clothes, including use of colours in their descriptions with the correct adjectival endings! They then learnt about breakfast items, practising ordering and paying at the café. They finished this topic with a French breakfast, where a lot of French was spoken and croissants were eaten!
Year 4 looked at sports and hobbies, giving opinions and reasons of these topics. They also created very creative calligrams of their favourite activities. Students then studied countries and nationalities, presenting where they come from, what languages they speak and where they live.
In Year 6, students continued practising their writing skills by producing a recount of their weekend every Monday, adding more descriptive information, such as time, connectives and adverbs. They learnt about adjectives and adjectival agreements. Using these and the verb ‘être’ and ‘avoir’, students spent some time describing physical appearance and personalities of themselves and members of their family. They also spent time looking at reading and listening skills, in preparation for their language lessons in the Senior School. Don’t forget to regularly keep an eye on the iLearn pages to see curriculum updates, vocab lists, photos and videos. Well done on fantastic involvement and progress! 24
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In Year 5, students began the New Year by baking a Galette Des Rois to celebrate Epiphany. They then continued their Cooking unit by looking at the conjugation of ‘–er’ verbs in order to write their own recipes in groups. These were produced working very independently. Students proved to be well organised, very creative and able to use various sources of information. They then assessed their peers on the presentation of their cooking show, making fair and fruitful comments!
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Chinese studies Students at Kellett School were made aware of the significance of Chinese New Year as one of the biggest festive celebrations for Chinese people. To the surprise of many, the celebration lasts for 15 days. Year 6 students’ CNY project work was to find out what people do for each of the 15 days and traditional values and superstitions during CNY. Auspicious sayings and various traditional Chinese art and craft were taught to different year groups, which kept them busy for a couple of weeks hoping to deepen their understanding of Chinese culture and to experience the festive mood. This is the Year of the Dog. If you were born in the years of 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 and 2018, then you are a dog! The dog is sincere, independent and clever. They are extremely loyal and you can always count on them to stick by your side. This dog year will welcome harmony, peace and goodwill. During term 2, 59 Hok Shan students from our local sister school visited us, and enjoyed our Year 6 children reading to them. Year 4 Chinese students visited Hok Shan for their first reading activities and some commented that it was challenging to them as there were quite a few new words that they didn’t know. Overall, they enjoyed the experience of visiting their sister school and the reading activities.
KeLLEtt Cares Term 2 rolled around quickly and Kellett Cares continued on from Christmas with a giving spirit! Funds raised from our Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children in Term 1 were presented by Student Councillors at PFL after an insightful talk given to students by the charity. The sum raised across both campuses totalled $8,315 which was topped up by candy cane sales of $6,340 and rounded up with sales from our Kellett Cares merchandise, to give a grand total of $20,000 to Save the Children. Another cheque presentation took place at the St James’ Settlement Food Bank in Sai Ying Pun. This $30,000 sum was an accumulation of the funds raised from the generous donations given by families after the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Christmas shows at PFL and money raised at the KLB Christmas Carols bake sale. Coins for a Cause containers were upgraded and distributed around PFL, giving students the opportunity to bring in any spare Hong Kong Dollars or foreign currency left over from their travels. We decided to extend this event to one month, rather than the usual two weeks. All the coins collected this year will all be donated to UNICEF.
Our Chinese New Year Dragon Scales fundraiser is always fun, and the children love to have a guess where the secret spot hides on the banner. Unfortunately, our Dragon fun was cut a day short due to school closure this year, but over the two days we still raised a tidy total of $881. Our winning student was Noa Broere in Reception. Congratulations, Noa! The Student Councillors have been involved with the launch of Pizza with Purpose, raising awareness of how our pizza money helps Christian Action in supporting refugees in Hong Kong. More information can be found in our Kellett Cares section under Whole School. As always, Kellett Cares would not be successful without the loyal support of the volunteers and community around us. We thank you! KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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SPORT - POK FU LAM PE Cross Country On Friday mornings it can be tough to get the day started, but not for our 80+ students who are on the track at Stanley Ho ready to run at 7:30am each week! Well done to all the students who committed to the running club this year. We enjoyed participating in the GSIS v Kellett Champs which took place in February after much rescheduling due to weather and pollution. Great results from the race round the Valley. Results: Competition
1st
2nd
3rd
Year 3
Isaac Mistry
Ronan Smith
Year 4
Ben Bateman
Max Shaw
Simon Rowe
Year 5
Sam Sofoluwe
Year 6
Charlotte McAuliffe
Elise Keefe
Sienna Hunt
Year 6
Nick Murfin
On Saturday 10 March, Discovery College hosted the annual DC “The Race”, where over 500 children ran in the morning with 16 schools competing. In a tough field of competitors, we couldn’t have been prouder of the efforts of all the children who took part. One of the most exciting aspects of the morning was that Kellett PFL finished 3rd overall out of the 16 schools. A fabulous team effort and everyone contributing to the success. Sam Sofoluwe finished 2nd overall in his age group of 65 runners and Ben Bateman finished in 3rd place in his age group. Very impressive running from both boys! Also amazing team awards for the following year groups and students. Year 3 Boys – 1st Place team: Ronan Smith, Isaac Mistry, Theo Moskey, Josh Meenan, IIio Vlasov Year 5 Boys – 2nd Place team: Lukas Moskey, Sam Sofoluwe, Andy Ward, Max Fyfe, Charlie Smart Year 6 Girls – 1st Place team: Chloe Meenan, Ellie Lewis, Sienna Hunt, Molly Mackel, Elise Keefe Year 6 Boys – 3rd Place team: Dylan Mayaroon, Nick Murfin, Coen Moorrees, Bertie Fairclough, Ludo Clark. Well done to everyone!
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SPORT - POK FU LAM
Swimming Our ECA swimmers worked hard in Term 2, improving their speed, stamina and stroke technique. They enjoyed a friendly gala against the KLB ECA swimmers in February. We hope this will be a termly event for our ECA swimmers to get together.
Netball Our Year 5 and 6 netballers worked hard, training away under the coaching of Ms Farrington. Term 2 is considered the netball off season, but it was great to see so many of our players opting to continue with their school training and also beginning to play club netball in Hong Kong. The Year 5s even started preparing for the next academic year which is great to see. Year 3 and 4 netball went from strength to strength. They enjoyed playing some friendly matches against French International School; all the players demonstrated great progress and it’s exciting to watch their development.
Rugby What an impressive season both the girls and boys have had! There have been three major tournaments so far this term and Kellett PFL have lifted the championship trophy on all three occasions! The first Kellett Boys’ Touch Rugby Tournament saw lots of schools competing at King’s Park. Both teams entered worked hard and got some great results. The ‘B’ Team did exceptionally well, winning against many other schools and playing for 3rd place overall. They were unlucky to be beaten by only one try by CIS ‘A’ Team. The ‘A’ Team fought hard and finished with a win against KLB to lift the trophy. The girls’ tournament was just as exciting and at the end of the pool games all teams had a share of results. The ‘A’ Team fought hard in the final games to come out on top! Well done to all the girls who participated in this event many of whom opted for additional touch rugby in their games sessions to practice for the event. The last tournament of the season was the HKPSSA Mixed Touch Rugby Tournament which was hosted by Kennedy School at Stanley Ho. The team secured a place in the cup competition with solid results in the pool stages. They went on to beat a strong Peak side in the semi-finals 6-5 and were up against a strong Kennedy team in the cup final. A tactical performance by the team saw them finish 6-5 when the final whistle blew! Well done to all the children who participated in the rugby ECAs this term.
FOBISIA Games FOBISIA trials were held in Term 2. Well done to all those children who took part. The standard was very impressive. The team results worked towards the event which took place in Phuket, Thailand in late May.
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EXTRAS - POK FU LAM ECAs The boys and girls of Knitting Club meet twice a week and are making great progress. Slippers, pillows and blankets have been proudly made for family and friends. Some students are so keen that they’ve been spotted knitting in the library at lunchtime too! A recent study shows knitting to be great for focussing and stress-busting, as well as developing fine motor skills - and of course the social aspect of group knitting.
Art Club
Pre or ches
tra
Astr
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Knitting
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Asia Pacific
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY An Inspector Calls Teachers, by nature, are quite nosey creatures! We love having a look in our colleague’s classrooms - at the displays on the walls, how they have chosen to organise the teaching space, the quality of the students’ books and pieces of work. Even more intriguing than a look around our teammate classrooms, is the chance to visit another school.
Eyes wide open, visiting teachers try and take in absolutely everything about a different school! What are the corridor displays like? How does lunch time run? How do they store their playtime equipment so that it isn’t a mess? What are the requirements of their Marking and Feedback policy? Do they have nice coffee cups in their staff room? I thoroughly enjoy visiting other schools to get fresh ideas and different perspectives. I try to do so regularly, both in Hong Kong and whilst I am in the UK on recruitment trips. FOBISIA conferences are hosted by schools within the region and attendance at these provides opportunities to take a close look at other British International Schools in Asia. In recent times, I’ve visited Tanglin Trust in Singapore, Prince of Wales School in Penang and BVIS in Ho Chi Minh. Whilst these visits generally satisfy my curiosity, I was absolutely delighted when I was offered the opportunity to do my British School Overseas Inspector training as part of my ongoing Continuous Professional Learning. What better way for a nosey Head Teacher to get an in-depth look at another school than by going in as an Inspector?
Completion of the training requires the participant to take part in an actual BSO inspection under the guidance of experienced inspectors. To my delight, in March 2018, I was asked to join a team who had been assigned to inspect a British School in Athens, Greece.
Pre-Inspection Approximately two weeks before the inspection, I was emailed the school’s Self Evaluation Form. This is a document in which the school compiles all the evidence to demonstrate that it meets the British School Overseas standards and outlines what it has done to improve and enhance provision since the last inspection. The team read the documentation, as well as look at any previous inspection reports and the school website, to identify areas they wish to look into more closely during the actual visit. I send my thoughts to our team leader for inclusion in the inspection plan.
Training I undertook my training over two long weekends through an organisation called Penta International, a leading provider of inspections for British Schools Overseas, accredited by the UK government. Alongside other school leaders, I was introduced to the standards outlined in the inspection framework. The purpose of an inspection and accreditation by BSO is so that a British school overseas will be able to reassure current and prospective parents that the education provided is on a par with its counterparts in the UK. The Department for Education wants to “help to inform parents of how the standards in these schools measure up against the standards that apply to independent schools in England”. Over the two training weekends we explored the process of inspection. This included the way evidence is gathered through observations, interviewing school leaders and from student and parent voice. We practiced filling in evidence forms, writing up our conclusions and learned how to feedback findings. We even practised having difficult conversations should the need arise!
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Pre-Inspection Meeting The evening before the inspection begins I meet with the other two inspectors on the team – our team leader Colin, a very experienced Penta Inspector, and Stephen, the Head Teacher of a British School in Georgia. We take time to decide how to divide up the inspection. We allocate who will observe teaching and learning in each Key Stage and which other standards,
for example Health and Safety, we will take responsibility for gathering evidence about during the inspection. I take on Key Stage 2 and 3 Teaching and Learning, (SMSC) Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development across the school and The Provision of Information for Parents, Carers and Others.
Day One We arrive at the school prior to the start of the school day and are taken to a staff briefing to be introduced to nervous looking staff. We introduce ourselves, and Colin explains to them how the inspection will be structured. As soon as the bell rings signalling the start of lessons, we head to classrooms and start observing teaching and learning and looking at student work. I visit a wide range of lessons including English, Maths, Greek, Physical Education, Arabic and Geography. In total, I drop into 14 lessons during the day and write up evidence forms for each. At break times, I enjoy chatting with students in the playground. The students are friendly, well-behaved and very eager to show me around the playgrounds, tell me about their lessons and share what they enjoy about attending their school. At the end of the school day we head back to the hotel and, although exhausted, go to a meeting room where we discuss and compare our findings from the day and plan our next day. We begin to draft some of the sections of the report.
Day Two Today we have scheduled meetings with various staff and stakeholders from the school and community. We meet with the middle leadership team, the Head Teacher, leaders in charge of Pastoral, Behaviour and SMSC, and a group of parents. My favourite meeting is with a group of students who speak enthusiastically and proudly and are quite simply fantastic ambassadors for their school. During the meetings we take detailed notes and ensure we ask specific questions so that we have evidence for each of the standards. Between meetings, I go around to other areas of the school that I didn’t have the opportunity to see on Day One, visiting Senior School Art and Science as well as the Early Years and Foundation Stage classrooms. I even make a visit to the nurse’s office. I go through some of the folders of evidence staff have left for us, looking particularly at school newsletters, information about community events, the PHSE curriculum, etc.
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY Back at the hotel in the evening, we go through each of the standards and make our judgements according to the evidence we have sourced. We have a long discussion about what we feel the key strengths of the school are and identify some areas that we suggest are priorities for development. We spend more time writing up the report.
Day Three The final day is about tying up loose ends and preparing for the feedback session to the school. The morning is spent chasing up any last pieces of documentation and asking any final questions to make sure a standard is met. Just after lunch, we meet with the Head Teacher and members of the Leadership Team and share a summary of our findings against each of the standards. For full details, the team will need to wait for the final report. We head back to the hotel, do a final edit, and submit our sections to Colin who will compile the final document.
Reflections on my Experience School inspection is a very intense process (not helped by jet lag!), but an enormously valuable exercise to take part in. I learnt a lot about the standards and the inspection process that will be vital in helping Kellett School prepare for our next BSO Inspection. It also gave me a very close look at the strengths of another school; lots of great ideas and good practice to consider. However, it was also heartening to have such a point of comparison – I walked away feeling validated about how well and to what a high standard we do things at Kellett School. As intense and as exhausting as it is, it is a rich learning experience and I would be keen to be part of an inspection team again.
Jo Laufer Head of Preparatory School, Kowloon Bay
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY School council Kowloon Bay Prep’s School Council worked hard this term to listen to people’s suggestions and implement ideas and changes around the school. We had fantastic feedback on our efforts to support the Feel Good Fridays and we very much enjoyed coming up with exciting ideas to celebrate each theme. Feeling Green was a big success – we hope you’ve been watering the seeds you planted to keep them growing! We think it’s fantastic that the whole school gets to spend Friday break times together on these special days and we are looking forward to thinking of more fun ideas to celebrate the themed days next term. In Term 3 we will be commencing an exciting project with an organisation called Design for Change. This will be an opportunity for the School Council to reflect on the needs of our local community (be that within the school or the local area) and devise and implement a plan to support positive change. We have already had our thinking caps on and we are looking forward to getting started on this after holidays. Should you have any suggestions for your School Council, please feel free to make use of the suggestion boxes located in each classroom. We are keen to do all we can to support your ideas!
RECEPTION We had an exciting Spring term in Reception. We started the term exploring our ‘Transport’ topic. The children began by completing a traffic survey of different types of transport that went past our campus at Kowloon Bay! Whilst exploring ways of travelling across water we went on a trip to the Maritime museum. The children enjoyed exploring all of the wonderful models of boats, watching the Star Ferry and finding out about different diving equipment from the past. We came back to school on a mission to make our own boats! Feeling inspired, the children designed and tested their boats to see if they could float. Disaster struck when they all sunk! The Reception children showed great resilience by trying to make their boats even better! A highlight this term was our Science afternoon! The children loved watching the coca cola explode from the bottle when we added some mints! We made lava lamps, tested different materials to see if they were magnetic and tried to free animals from frozen ice. It was an exciting journey of exploration and discovery! We finished the term looking at the world around us. We focused on the different countries and their cultures, music, art and landscapes. The story of Handa’s
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surprise was an exciting story that the children learnt about whilst exploring Kenya. They worked with a partner to draw a story map and retell the story. The children then changed one of the characters in the story and planned out their own. Their stories were fantastic and they loved retelling them with their friends! We have been involved in some exciting projects with our Year 6 buddies. They made and tested paper airplanes, researched different countries, read stories together and they finished the term with a great Easter egg hunt, organised by their buddies.
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY year 1 Term 2 started with a roar when 46 animals invaded the school. Dressed as animals we explored classification of animals, wrote “guess who” clues and participated in the annual Animal Olympics. We also put our ICT skills to the test to do some basic research and then used this information to produce posters using Book Creator. We loved the reading “Cock-a-Doodle-Moo” about made up animals and then using the book to develop our non-fiction report writing. Dan, the animal man, came to visit with his interesting array of animals. The children were very brave, letting the tarantula crawl on their hands and even holding the snakes. After Chinese New Year, we looked at the topic “All at Sea”. We learnt all about islands. We now know that islands are places surrounded by water and can tell the difference between human and physical features on islands. We thought carefully about what things you would need to pack if you visited a remote island and we got to know the compass directions to help us navigate! We put all these skills together in our fun filled trip to South Bay Beach. We hunted for treasure, followed
cryptic clues and also entered an island making competition. The pirate picnic was a great way to end the term and celebrate our learning. During Term 2, 1JV put on their class show called “All at Sea”. It followed the story of a young girl called Joana who wanted to discover some new islands and explore Hong Kong. On her journey, she met with some sailors who took her on their ship. They ended up dancing with animals in Madagascar, sharing with pirates on Treasure Island and finally being greeted by polite students from Kellett School! The children worked extremely hard on their lines and performed brilliantly. All of the children did their part to make it a successful performance. Well done!
year 2 Our learning throughout the first half of the term was focused on healthy habits while covering our topic ‘We Are What We Eat’. We learnt about having an optimal diet, how to look after ourselves, being safe with medicines and ideal levels of exercise. We were able to build on our knowledge with a visit from Sandra Traittel, a Clinical Dietitian, who shared her knowledge with us about the different food groups and how they can affect our health in the longer term. Once we had learnt about a balanced diet, we designed our own healthy pizzas. They were packed with vegetables and many of us tried new foods and new combinations! Meanwhile, in English, we wrote diary entries from the perspective of the ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’. We wrote in first person and imagined the emotional rollercoaster he would have been on, which lead to brilliant word choices. We then moved on to learning about persuasion and used our new skills to write a persuasive brochure to encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Our second half of the term focused on learning about significant people in our topic ‘Who Changed the World?’ We learnt how to research using a variety of sources and then use the information to create a non-chronological report. We discovered many facts about people whose actions have impacted our lives today, such as Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole and Alexander Graham Bell. A highlight for 2AH was performing their assembly on the Kellett Learner Profile. It was a great opportunity to show how each part of the profile is used within the class. They showed a variety of ways to fill each other’s invisible buckets to help develop a global outlook; cultivated well-being by learning how to maintain a healthy body; read diary extracts highlighting a transferable skill and shared something they were proud of as part of achieving personal excellence. A couple of catchy tunes helped get the message across too! KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY year 3 In Term 2, Year 3 were out and about exploring all over Hong Kong as part of our ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ unit. At the start of February, Year 3 had an exciting adventure to Cheung Chau for their first camp. The children were set a range of activities that challenged them both mentally and physically. From rock climbing, to creating catapults, to orienteering around the island, the children were certainly able to showcase their best skills. The teachers were so impressed with the children’s independence and ability to push themselves out of their comfort zones. After Chinese New Year, the children took part in a race to the Peak. The stakes were high, as each class competed to be the quickest and also gain the most points. Points were awarded for each form of public transport taken. The children designed some very creative routes, with 3PI crossing the harbour not once, but twice in order to gain more points! 3SM were victorious on the day, however, 3PI won on points. Since our race, the children created stop motion animations on the different types of transport in Hong Kong. All aspects of the animation were designed by the children from the scenery to the scripts. We are very proud of their final projects which have been showcased on YouTube.
year 4 Wow! Another fantastic term in Year 4 comes to an end. A truly action-packed term with lots of learning and arguably, the highlight of the year was Year 4 camp. We set out on a cold, rainy Wednesday morning, boarding the ferry with excitement and anticipation. Along with Pok Fu Lam, we made our way to the YWCA in Mui Wo. Children unpacked and settled into camp life. Thursday began on a much brighter note with the sun sneaking through the clouds sporadically during the day. We set off early to the Big Buddha, exploring the surrounding areas and temples before a light snack, followed by a hike down to Tung Chung Fortress. The children thoroughly enjoyed
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the hike and a real sense of achievement spread through the year group when we made it to the fortress. It was then time to head back to camp to participate in the outdoor activities; orienteering, archery, wall climbing and rope course. Dinner that evening was provided again by the Jerk Hut. Friday morning came with a few tired children packing for home and tidying their dorms. It was an opportunity for children to participate in any activities that they still needed to complete following breakfast. There was one last photo opportunity and a chance to explore the camp before heading for the ferry to be reunited with their families. It was a great three days enjoyed by all the children and adults involved.
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY
year 5 After the festive spirit of Christmas, we were all refreshed and ready for the Spring Term ahead. Our schedule was already bombarded with plans! In English, we read Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, and did lots of descriptive writing based on this brilliant book. We also wrote letters to Michael (a character) and pretended we were survival agents. Since Michael was marooned on the desert island, we gave him survival tips by watching a Bear Grylls guide. We all hope that Michael can get off that island soon! Science was such an exciting subject for us! For starters, we learnt about plants and we even tried growing them in different conditions like soaking them in coca cola and using sugar instead of soil! Most of our experiments didn’t end very well! I think the science highlight of the term (and maybe the year) was watching James, the science technician, dissect a pig’s heart. The next week we did something even cooler for our Science afternoon. With the help of our class teachers, we cut up a squid in order to find out more about its body and compare its circulatory system to ours.
For most students, Topic has probably been the most exciting subject. At beginning of the term we studied ‘Feed Me Now’! It was based on food miles and where our food comes from; the best part was having our Year 5 shared breakfast. Everybody brought in food that they thought represented where they were from and where they lived. Some food that was brought in included waffles, cheese bread and bacon sandwiches. They were all delicious! We later made our own healthy smoothies and worked out the amount of sugar in them; this was something many people hadn’t done before. Then suddenly, we were kicked into something a little more serious. With ‘Feed Me Now’ already cleared and out of the way, we were in the Leap Van, a company providing hands on education for children. We learnt that it wasn’t good to smoke and what effect it has on our health. Contrary to our expectations, not many people smoke in Hong Kong. Only 10% of the population smoke, but if we more people stopped smoking, it would improve our city’s health. We then started learning about China, and all the students were so excited about going to Beijing in Term 3! We started off the subject by having China Hook Day, we all came in wearing red or Chinese outfits. The day was full of fun! We can’t wait for more excitement in the Summer Term.
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY PREPARATORY
year 6 In Term 2, Year 6 transformed into mad scientists, journalists, actors and focused on training their mind with the help of various mindfulness teachers. It was a very exciting 12 weeks, with so many fun activities, class assemblies and scientific discoveries. Year 6 have also started on their end of year selfportraits, which they thoroughly enjoyed painting. In our journalistic writing topic, we studied ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ by Roald Dahl. As a class, we were immediately suspended into a world of strange skills and funny scenarios. An amazing show was performed by 6JH, featuring Henry Sugar and his incredible ability to see without his eyes. Peculiar articles were written by both classes about him tossing money out of his balcony, which everyone, despite the preparations and planning sessions, loved reading about. During reading sessions, the class also debated whether Henry Sugar was a hero or a criminal.
We also became mad scientists in our Topic sessions, with exclusive science sessions in the prep lab every week! 6JC performed a fantastic show about time travel, scientists from the past and very competitive contestants at ‘Scientists Got Talent’. During Topic, Year 6 studied matter, evaporation and condensation, melted chocolate, wax and a very pungent piece of cheese. We also made dirty water clean, by pouring it through cotton and filter paper. In addition, Year 6 studied Archimedes and his discovery about the displacement of water. Overall, the classes found science sessions fun and intriguing. Moreover, we received mindfulness lessons and learnt how to train our attention. Every Tuesday, we did mindfulness exercises and discussions with the help of many teachers. We also wrote down our wishes and feelings in mindfulness folders which helped us be calmer and not so stressed. On the final session, Year 6 did the exercise in their very first lesson to see their progress and drew pictures of what made them happy. When learning mindfulness, we saw how important it is to be calm, not tense and nervous. We are really looking forward to the Summer Term and various activities that we will attend, such as transition day and graduation evening. Year 6 are eager to find out their Senior School houses and what their end-of-year show will be about!
kellett Cares
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Term 2 started in style and soon the fun activities for our Chinese New Year fundraisers were under way. While one set of our wonderful parent volunteers were helping the older students make fortune cookies, others helped sell Dragon Scales. This year, as well as the lucky winner whose scale was on the hidden spot, prizes were awarded to a KS1 and KS2 student for their penmanship. Well done to everyone who took part, the Dragon banner looked great!
Year 3 children took on the popular task of helping deliver pizzas for the first of our Pizza with Purpose sales in February and were closely followed by Year 2. The money from all pizza sales for the rest of the school year will be donated to Christian Action to help refugees in Hong Kong.
After the CNY break, students could be seen (and heard!) emptying their coins into jars for our Coins for a Cause collection for UNICEF. Each class collected Hong Kong coins, while communal jars located in the Prep Atrium soon filled up with currencies from around the world. It really showed how our collective efforts very quickly add up.
During the term, together with our friends from Pok Fu Lam, Kellett Cares was able to make donations to St James’ Settlement Food Bank and to Save The Children. We thank you for your continued support in our effort to help develop our children’s awareness in the area of social responsibility, while aiding others who are less fortunate.
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PREPARATORY
ARTS & LANGUAGES - KOWLOON BAY Modern foreign languages Chinese studies Year 5 children prepared for their Beijing Educational Trip through a range of planned cultural and language activities. Buddhist Chi King Primary School visited Kellett and the children enjoyed activities such as introducing our school facilities to their friends in Mandarin, playing Chinese board games, tasting English afternoon tea, and reading their Chinese pen pal letters to their Chi King counterparts. In addition to this, Beijing Xin Xian Hutong Primary School visited Kellett in January. The children spent a morning exchanging gifts, painting the Hong Kong skyline and they also sang a Mandarin song called Peng You. Our Kellett children loved the traditional musical instrument performance by their Xin Xian School friends. During the China topic hook day, children participated in fun and purposeful activities such as Mandarin tongue twisters, paper cutting, lunar calendar research, reading Chinese books, Panda painting and writing Beijing landmarks using Chinese calligraphy pens. One of the highlights of the trip is shopping at the Great Wall of China, so Year 5 children enthusiastically role-played their bargaining skills in Mandarin lessons to prepare! Both teachers and children looked forward to their Beijing Educational trip in May.
FRENCH studies Year 3 students learnt items of clothing in French. They completed many different activities to consolidate this language and combined clothing with colours to explore the concept of adjectival agreement. They also learnt the topic of French breakfast and had their very own “petit déjeuner” where they ordered in French, remembering their manners too! Year 4 learnt sports and hobbies in French, giving opinions and explaining why they like or dislike certain activities. They learnt to form questions and interviewed each other. Year 6 focused on the verb ‘être’ and adjectives in order to describe their own personalities as well as the characters of others. They completed “Wanted” posters. Students also practiced their reading and listening skills, in preparation for Senior school. Well done all on a great term!
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ARTS & LANGUAGES - KOWLOON BAY
Music The students of KLB continued with their musical journey with their learning of the ‘elements of music’. Reception children used the story of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ and learnt about the different pitched voices of Daddy, Mummy and Baby Bear. We then had fun composing our three bears’ music using different pitched instruments. Year 1 & 2 used boomwhackers to further extend their knowledge of pitch. There’s always a creative vibe in Year 3 & 4. Year 3 composed a pentatonic Chinese New Year greeting song using various tuned percussion instruments. Year 4 created group compositions based on well-known Chinese pieces such as, ‘The Horserace’, ‘In a Festive Mood’, ‘The Butterfly Lovers’ and ‘Spring on the Moonlit River’.
In Years 5 & 6, children used the music programme ‘Sibelius’ to notate and compose their own original pieces of music. The standard of their work has been particularly high this year. Also using technology, students shared their music online using Google Classroom and were able to give feedback on each other’s work. Do take the opportunity to check out their amazing music!
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ARTS & LANGUAGES - KOWLOON BAY PREPARATORY
Art Year 1 Year 1 had a very busy time learning about the elephants of art. Did you know that a very long time ago, some very clever elephants visited a gallery and listened to the way that the humans talk about art? The humans just seemed to walk around saying, “Nice… nice… lovely…” They were very unimpressed with our vocabulary and gave us some guidelines to help us to talk about it. There were seven special words and in Year 1 we created lots of elephants with different attributes! Ask us about line, texture, value, shape, space and colour. Our last ones had form, which meant that we got to create elephants from clay.
Year 2 We moved on to sculpture skills in Year 2 and created pieces on a balloon armature using the art of Henri Matisse for inspiration. We’ve loved learning about “drawing with scissors”. Our drawing skills have also improved and we used watercolour inks to create colourful Chinese lion dancers. Our latest project involved a photography trip to the park to search for textures as part of our work on the elements of art.
Year 3 Year 3 learnt a lot about printmaking in Term 2! We made and designed our own blocks to make a repeating pattern and then printed our own tea towels. We’ve been learning about ink drawing for the school fair art work as well as looking at the art of Sandrine Pelissier.
Year 4 We have worked on printmaking and created our own print blocks to celebrate the Year of the Dog. We did some work on layout and drawing and also learnt how to draw optical illusions and make them look 3D with the use of value shading in watercolours.
Year 5 We loved learning about different art with Chinese influences and inspiration, connected with our Beijing focus. We studied the willow pattern story and created our own rubber stamps which we printed in the shape of teapots and vases. We designed clay pieces in the shapes of Chinese temples and birdcages.
Year 6 Our printmaking this term has been centred around creating linoleum cuts of Chinese lanterns. We put in many studio sessions to paint incredible Chuck Close inspired portraits! We learnt a lot about working in acrylic. They are such a great souvenir of our prep school years; capturing ourselves as we looked at the end of our time at Kellett.
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SPORT - KOWLOON BAY PE PE Curriculum This term we covered the topic of gymnastics, with the pupils testing their balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, endurance and control. In KS1, children explored how they can move their bodies to create different shapes, rolls, balances and jumps, with the key focus being on how to do these movements with control and tension of their muscles. They then progressed on to looking at how to move onto and over different equipment, as well as jumping off them and landing safely with control. KS2 have continued to develop their knowledge of gymnastic shapes and their ability to perform balances, jumps and rolls with increasing control. In groups, they have worked on developing sequences of these movements; showcasing their creativity, use of equipment, teamwork and trust when supporting each other in paired balances.
Rugby Girls and boys from Years 3 – 6 worked hard in training and in competition this term, developing their ball handling skills, agility, speed and tactics. They played a number of friendly fixtures as well as three tournaments this season. The boys showed their strength as a squad at the Kellett Touch tournament, with three teams battling it out for the title. All players showed excellent team spirit and camaraderie throughout the afternoon, with one team’s determination taking them through to the final against home rivals Pok Fu Lam. It was a touch-and-go final, with Pok Fu Lam on this occasion walking away with the trophy and Kowloon Bay claiming the silver in a nail-biting final, with the result 2-3. Once again, this term the Year 5 and 6 boys and girls joined forces for the annual mixed tag rugby tournament. Kellett put forward two strong teams to battle it out for the trophy. Both squads really came together throughout the day and supported each other well, encouraging and cheering each other on through every game. This resulted in both teams being undefeated in the group stages. The ‘A’ Team finished strongly, winning the Bowl trophy, with special mention to Luca Mezey who showed his amazing speed and dodging skills as he ran the length of the pitch to score several tries in the final. The ‘B’ Team came runners up in their tournament, placing them 2nd out of 10 schools. A great end to a fantastic rugby season.
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Cross Country Kellett has had a busy cross country season with over 60 runners from years 2-6 taking part in cross country events across Hong Kong. They have worked hard in training to develop their running strides and understanding of pacing. All pupils have shown superb determination and perseverance when competing, improving with every event. The highlight of the season was when 38 of our runners descended on Discovery Bay early one Saturday morning to take part in the eagerly anticipated event known as ‘The Race’. The sun shone as over 500 pupils from 16 schools did a walkthrough of the course, strategising and identifying the important last bend, knowing they would have to dig deep and push towards the finish line. The atmosphere was electric with cheers and shouts filling the pier as each race began and the runners charged round the first bend of the course. All 38 runners did themselves and the school proud, pushing themselves until they crossed the finish line. Special mention goes to the Year 5 girls team who came 4th out of the 16 schools, and Charlotte McAuliffe in Year 6 who came 5th out of 54 runners in her age group.
EXTRAS - KOWLOON BAY PREPARATORY
PREP HIGHLIGHTS FOBISIA SHORT STORY COMPETITION Term 2 saw student creativity reach peak levels in the FOBISIA short story competition 2018. Writers from Years 3 to 6 considered the theme ‘watch’ and based creative writing efforts around the word’s various interpretations. The only limit was the children’s wild imaginations (and of course the strict word limit). The resulting stories will now be considered alongside writers from British International schools across Asia in the FOBISIA short story competition. The winning entry will be published so naturally we are keeping our fingers crossed for Kellett success! In the meantime, our young writers have been illustrating their entries and preparing to share their efforts with their classmates. Good luck everyone and congratulations to all the writers: your stories are truly fantastic.
Doctor Dolittle Musical Kowloon Bay Prep was proud to present to the Kellett Community, their musical production of Doctor Dolittle Jr. A total of 41 dedicated students between Year 4 – 6 worked tirelessly to learn their lines, dance steps and song lyrics to put together a truly fabulous show. Doctor Dolittle, who lives in the village of Puddleby-On-TheMarsh, decides that he would be a better animal doctor than a human doctor. He asks Polynesia, his parrot, to teach him all the animal languages she knows. After learning over 500 different animal languages, we follow Doctor Dolittle and his adventure to look for the giant pink sea snail. We are very proud of the students and many thanks to the parents and staff who were involved in making the show a success!
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS Developing a Parent Curriculum Next academic year will see a curriculum launched for Kellett Senior School parents. The Parent Curriculum will provide opportunities for Kellett parents to upskill themselves, be more informed and therefore better prepared to support their son or daughter as they go through the Senior School.
The curriculum will be delivered in a number of formats such as workshops where parents will have the opportunity to learn and discuss, fairs where parents can rotate around various stalls, briefings where information is shared and Q&A sessions can be facilitated and socials where an informal gathering can promote ideas and information sharing. The current academic year has provided many opportunities for parents to find out more about the school and learn how best to support their son or daughter. I provide a list below for reference. Next year the opportunities will be significantly increased and will be strongly promoted as a Parent Curriculum with an aim to get significant parent engagement in the curriculum.
This is an exciting opportunity to enhance the partnership that already exists between parents and the school and I believe, by publishing the curriculum at the start of the academic year, and by promoting it throughout the year, the increased engagement will continue to build a strong and supportive Kellett community, sharply focused on ensuring students love their learning and are confident for life.
Simon Giddings Head of Senior School
current opportunities for parents in 2017-2018 Term 1 Date
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Event
Type
Learner Profile Link
Category
29 Aug
New Parents to Kellett Welcome (hosted by Parents’ Committee)
Social
31 Aug
Global Outlook Week Information Briefings
Briefing
31 Aug
Parent Information Briefings
Briefing
18 Sept
University Fair
Fair
Achieving Personal Excellence
University and Career
29 Sept
Mindfulness Matters Workshop*
Workshop
Cultivating Well-being
Well-being
15 Nov
Parenting the Adolescent Child Workshop
Workshop
Cultivating Well-being
Well-being
23 Nov
Science Christmas Lecture*
Lecture
27 Nov
Year 9 & 11 Options Evening
Briefing & Fair
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General
Developing a Global Outlook
Curriculum General
Curriculum Achieving Personal Excellence
Curriculum
SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS Date
Event
Type
Learner Profile Link
SENIOR
Term 2 Category
22 Jan
Futurewise Parent Session
Briefing
Achieving Personal Excellence
University and Career
26 Feb
Andrew Hallam - Financial Literacy*
Workshop
Achieving Personal Excellence Building Transferable Skills
Curriculum
14 Mar
Breast Cancer Awareness Talk
Briefing
Cultivating Well-being
Well-being
20 Mar
Managing Teenage Exam Stress (Mindfulness, Sleep, Exercise ANTS, Gratitude)
Briefing
Cultivating Well-being Achieving Personal Excellence
Well-being
Term 3 Date
Event
Type
Learner Profile Link
Category
20 April
Examinations Briefing for parents
Briefing
Achieving Personal Excellence
Curriculum
23 April
Canadian University Fair
Fair
Achieving Personal Excellence
University and Career
26 April
Anxiety - 'Angst' Film Screening and Panel discussion
Workshop
Cultivating Well-being
Well-being
9 May
Year 7 Science Family Challenge
Workshop
Achieving Personal Excellence
Curriculum
4 June
Year 6 to Year 7 Transition Evening
Briefing
Cultivating Well-being
Well-being
14 & 15 June
University Applications (Sixth Form Induction)
Briefing
Achieving Personal Excellence
University and Career
*Event sponsored by the Annual Fund.
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS LEARNING SERVICE PROGRAMME MOTHER’S CHOICE YOUTH LEADERSHIP COUNCIL Anandita (12C), Harriette (12C), Vanessa (12M)
Feeling Loved for Valentine’s Day
Along with learning about social issues that affect our city, we have an opportunity to develop action plans to address these issues through service. This year for Valentine’s Day, we organised a ‘Feeling Loved’ Feel Good Friday, where we promoted the theme of love, the basis of the work of Mother’s Choice, through a bake sale, mini-games and card writing in the Atrium. It was a success with a truly wonderful atmosphere created around school, and we exceeded our fund-raising target.
SAI KUNG STRAY FRIENDS Tuesday after school has become a time that the team look forward to greatly, as they get to see their furry friends at the kennel, as well as take these adorable dogs for a walk. Not only on sunny days, but also on rainy and chilly days!
Flag Day This city-wide event of selling charity stickers throughout Hong Kong gave the public an opportunity to support Mother’s Choice by making a donation. Members of the service team together with Kellett students joined as volunteers and educated the public on the work done by Mother’s Choice.
ROOTS AND SHOOTS Francesa (10C), Molly (10B), Ritika (10C)
Feeling Fishy
In Term 2 we were thrilled to organise Feel Good Friday activities with the theme ‘Feeling Fishy’. We talked about how humans affect the lives of marine animals through a microplastic usage checklist, a Marine Lives quiz and an oceansimulation obstacle course in the Atrium. It was challenging for us to come up with fun but educational activities to engage students’ participation, especially when we only meet for half an hour a week during lunch. It actually drove us to strive better with time management and be more organised when planning activities. With the goals of raising awareness of the impact of fast fashion and reducing Kellett’s environmental impact, we organised a clothes drive with Redress (https://www.redress. com.hk) to reduce textile waste in Hong Kong. If you want to make important changes within your community and share our rewarding service experience, join our team or support our activities!
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SENIOR
SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS
ROOM TO READ Connor (7M), Harry (8C), Molly (10B) We have seen many new faces in BCKPS this term. It is great to see new Reading Rangers so involved in our activities to improve their speaking skills. Meanwhile, we also observed that there is a great improvement in our friendship with the children in BCKPS. We share more about our daily lives and interests before starting each service session. This creates a very comfortable learning environment. It is joyful to see BCKPS students enjoying the activities we plan to help them learn communication and English language skills.
A Bit of Reflection Molly: Over the last few terms I have been a member of this service team. I have learned a variety of important skills that are not just academic. My ability to interact with younger children has greatly improved. In addition, my organisational and leadership skills have made huge improvements. Those are skills that are not always easy to learn at school which is one of the reasons Room to Read is such a great ECA to be a part of.
CHINA COAST COMMUNITY Anandita(12C), Daniel(12Y), Ella(12C) Interactive games like bingo and quiz have become core activities when we serve in China Coast Community. This term, we incorporated festive themes of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Chinese New Year which the elderly really enjoyed. They are always so friendly to us and welcome us into their community with open arms. The most enjoyable part of our visit is undoubtedly being able to talk with the elderly and hear about their unique pasts and perspectives on life. We have made many mature friends and it was really interesting to talk to someone that has experienced so much that we have yet to experience ourselves. One of the most memorable people at China Coast Community was a gentleman called Nihal. We have never met someone as passionate about food as Nihal, with him completely lighting up every time we gave out biscuits during chat time and getting every question about food that we threw at him correct. Throughout service, we have learnt that teamwork, organisation and leadership skills are essential to lead an enjoyable service session. We also learnt to be attentive to individual differences like cognitive abilities, so that we plan our activities in greater detail to ensure that the activities can accommodate everyone. The elderly in Hong Kong is a group which requires our attention and care. We feel that joining this service is a truly fantastic way to give back to the community whilst also having a lot of fun learning about people which we usually do not have an opportunity to interact with.
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS MATHs FOBISIA Secondary Maths Competition – Shanghai 2018:
Year 8 Maths Trail – Ocean Park On 2 March, we took all of Year 8 to Ocean Park to compete in a Maths Trail. They had to use their observational and teamwork skills to find information around the park and then use the information to solve a mathematical problem. The answer told the students where to go next. The winners of the competition were Youde House! Congratulations to them and also well done to the rest of Year 8 for their hard work on the day.
Early Entry Results – January 2018 This January, eight students in Year 11 took their International GCSE Maths exam; we are delighted to say that they all achieved either an A or an A*. Congratulations to the following students on their success: Ivan Au, Sophie Allen, Dhruv Chaubal, James Hamlyn, Edward Jones, Jasmine Lau, Jasmine Turner and Charlotte Weener.
Intermediate Maths Challenge – 1 February Last term we entered four classes from Years 9, 10 and 11 into the Intermediate Maths Challenge. Over 4000 schools worldwide entered and students were faced with a series of tough, problem-solving questions. Congratulations to the following award winners: Gold: Jacob Lo, Jamie Li, Alexander Tsai, Andrew Knight and Hugo Chow Silver: Qi Jiang Ng, Matthew Tam, Christel Ko, Molly Hammond, Takano Kobayashi, James Barrett, Alistair Blair, Alana Crane, Hunter Bannigan-Davis, Madeline Dickie, Mia Hornett, Damian Jarrett, Alex Corner, Yves Yuen and Mirren Fitzgerald Bronze: Laura Bastos, Lydia Lane, Kelvin Cheung, Amelia Drew, Nico Denton Richmond, Barnabas Tam, Madison Slight, Ritika Mehta, Findlay Mayo, Victoria Leung and Arman Buffonge Congratulations to Jacob Lo who achieved the school’s highest mark of 104. Our top six students got through to the next round of the competition and we are awaiting their results! 46
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Eight students from Year 7 and 8 were selected to represent Kellett at the FOBISIA Secondary Maths Competition this year, hosted by the British International School in Shanghai, Puxi. Students were given the opportunity to stretch their mathematical and creative thinking skills, both at an individual level as well as in their teams, over two intensive days. Altogether, there were 224 students representing 28 International Schools in Asia. Our Team 1 came a respectable 14th place out of 56 teams and our Team 2 came 30th. Congratulations goes to the following students who worked extremely hard as a team and were great ambassadors for the School: Team 1: Ben Robinson, Aiden Hargraves, Christian Ko and Ryan Lee Team 2: William Holden, Shodai Kobayashi, Joseph Treves and Jason Wong
Dragon Maths On 8 March we took 16 students from Year 8 and 9 to the Chinese International School to take part in the Dragon Maths Competition. This is a Maths relay event and 24 International Schools from around Hong Kong took part. Although this year we were unable to overthrow HKIS to take the crown, our students did us proud and we would like to congratulate them on their hard work. Year 8: Jacob Abate, Alicia Wells, Crystal Tian, Matthew Jones, Jamie Barbour, Imara Crane, Dewi Simons and Ernest Chow Year 9: Yves Yuen, Damian Jarrett, Luke O’Boyle, Alex Corner, James Irwin, Jake Solway and Peter Whittington
SENIOR
SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS
Geography
It was another busy term for our Geography students, who were involved in many projects and creative lessons. Geography is a subject that encourages students to take the learning from the classroom into the real world. Students in Year 7 explored the Kowloon Bay area and conduction a Microclimate investigation. Students used digital barometers, hygrometers and thermometers okta charts to gauge the different conditions around the local area.
In Key Stage 4, our Year 10 students were busy completing their IGCSE Geography coursework first drafts on changing land use and characteristics of the Hong Kong urban landscape. The project followed a day of data collection of both qualitative and quantitative data collection starting at Victoria Peak and finishing at The Center building in Central. The Geography AS students were also involved in fieldwork in preparation for their AS examinations in the summer. The students visited Stanley on Hong Kong Island and the Hong Kong Wetland Park in the New Territories, as they compared
the different coastal management techniques found in the two locations. Students particularly enjoyed visiting the Wetland Park for what they learnt about the multi-purpose landscape, which is key to flood protection, economic activity and home to a wide variety of endangered species including local and global species of flora and fauna. It has been a great term with diverse fieldwork opportunities with more to follow in the remainder of the year!
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS
Global Citizenship KELY Support Group As part of their Personal Literacy topics, Year 11 and 13 students had the opportunity to complete workshops with KELY Support Group in Term 2. KELY Support Group offer a number of school programmes focused on knowledge, resistance and harm reduction around drug and alcohol misuse. KELY help to equip young people with key life skills and resilience as they face various challenges growing up in Hong Kong. The Year 11 workshop ‘Beyond the Influence’ addressed the risks involved when young people binge drink. Students were encouraged to consider not only how it can affect the drinker but also those around them. The ‘beer goggles’ tool was used to mimic the sensory distortions caused by alcohol consumption and increased students’ understanding of the dangers that are associated with binge drinking. They also learnt how to reduce these risks, as well as what to do when they do happen, ultimately encouraging them to be a supportive friend and positive role model to their peers. The Year 13 workshop ‘Breaking News Drug Update’ focused on updating students on emerging drug trends in Hong Kong and beyond. The workshop was discussion oriented and went beyond the risks to the individual, to consider some of the wider societal impacts of drug use. We look forward to KELY working with more of our students across the school in Term 3.
Well-being Workshops Year 7 worked on a Personal Literacy scheme of work which focuses on personal, social and health education. They have been working on an ‘I am Healthy’ topic which has covered aspects of a healthy lifestyle, personal identity and friendships. As an important part of this topic, Justin McLaughlin (Head of Student Well-being) delivered a series of Well-being Workshops to each Tutor Group. This allowed Year 7 the opportunity to practice mindfulness and other stress and anxiety reducing activities, to improve their self-esteem and explore the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships.
Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) At the beginning of March, eight extremely talented Year 13 girls received some fantastic results for their independent projects. Vanessa Chan, Lucy Mann, Tayler Coates, Madeleine Walker, Georgina Jarrett, Simone Morris, Kirstie Taylor and Kea Herewini received an outstanding 7 A* and 1 A grade between them. The projects included Instagram photography, a documentary on Hong Kong food, a series of assemblies about British politics, photography, play writing, a charitable shoe designing project, a self-choreographed dance piece and the teaching of the Haka to younger students. The diversity of these projects is testament to the creative talent of the students and enabled them to gain UCAS points for British university entrance based around a topic that really interested and engaged them. 48
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The examiner praised the ‘detailed, reflective narratives’ and the ‘excellent student practice’, and we couldn’t agree more well done girls!
SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS SENIOR
Sixth Form Congratulations to our 2018 Student Leaders. Our 2018 Student Leaders have been announced and we wish them every success in their positions: Senior Pref ects (left to right): Ryan Whitti ngton (Bow en), Georg Slight (Bow e Burkett (M en), Katy C acLehose), ra wford (Bow Blake Jay Chow en), Barna (MacLehose by Jupp (Yo ), B ria ude), nn (Bowen), A a Thorp (M nandita M acLehose), alhotra (Cle Tiffany Sau menti), Ho lly Farrall (C lementi)
(Left to right): ti), House Captains elman (Clemen ), Hannah Hans en ow (B ey dl Samuel He Ngan (Youde) acLehose), Zoe Vanessa Kot (M
ht (Left to right): Elizabeth Knig Head Students Kim (Bowen), n ha Et , ti) ti), en (Clem oneley (Clemen Ella Haythorne oude), Ben St (Y rd he ep Sh Golly (MacLehose), (Youde) ey or St Daniel
EconomicS IGCSE Economics Year 10 students progressed well in Term 2 and completed the microeconomics section of their IGCSE course. They focused on supply and demand, elasticities, labour markets and theory of the firm. Students looked at the case for and against privatisation of the Royal Mail and discussed the use of policies to promote competition in markets.
A-level Economics
Year 11 students finished the IGCSE course and recapped the content and worked through banks of past paper questions in preparation for the final exam. Their focus was on how the individual economies work and how they interact in the global economy.
Year 12 students finished the AS Level course and spent time recapping the content and working through banks of past paper questions in preparation for the final exam. Their focus was on how markets and the economy as a whole work. They enjoyed completing a Harkness discussion on food sustainability. Year 13 students completed the A-level course. Their focus was on how firms operate and the global economy. The Year 13 economists particularly enjoyed completing a Harkness discussion on development in Burundi. KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS SCIENCE Once exam classes went on study leave, we were able devote our attention back to the things that we teachers love the most – practical experiments! Kellett students have lots of opportunity for hands on practical work, beginning right at the start of their time with us in Year 7 and continuing through to the end of their A-level studies. In this edition of the Dragon we are showcasing some of the practical work carried out by our Year 7 cohort. Students examined materials and their states, using lab equipment to warm ice and think about how much energy is required to power the change of state. Chromatography – students investigated a technique for separating the coloured pigments in ink from a felt tip pen according to their solubility, by allowing a solvent which can carry the pigments to run up a piece of filter paper. The results are often beautiful. Understanding electricity and circuits, particularly how to stay safe when working with electricity is something which all of our students enjoy!
Much of science happens on a scale that is too small to see with a naked eye. Our students used microscopes to help magnify insect feeding organs, parts of a leaf, onion skins and sometimes even their own cells. We like students to be aware of themselves as unique individuals in a wider population. Even Ms Cook helped out when investigating variation in our species. There aren’t any meadows around Kowloon Bay, so to support our students when learning about ecology and sampling, we made our own meadows in the atrium – complete with fake bumble bees, daisies and grass!
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS SENIOR
History Delving deep into the past in the field and in the classroom was the History Department’s focus for Term 2. Addressing the challenging concept style judging significance in History, Year 7 students delivered a TED talk about a medieval king and his impact on that time period and beyond. Year 8 worked collaboratively to produce their own magazine on the transportation of criminals to Australia. They worked together as writers, picture editors, designers and editors to produce a publication to a strict deadline. Year 9 hit the trail to discover more about the impact of WW2 on Hong Kong. Students visited three locations in Hong Kong including the Shing Mun tunnels and Stanley Military Cemetery. In order to prepare for the trip they completed research on five of the graves in the cemetery and gave presentations during the visit.
Business Studies This term Year 10 students learnt about People in Business how to recruit and retain high quality staff, organising training and motivating workers, as well as characteristics of effective leaders. They created a human organisational chart in order to gain an appreciation for how different people relate and communicate to each other in a business. They also researched employment laws that organisations have to be aware of and produced leaflets for small business owners. Just like last term, students took part in a group project which required them to conduct an investigation into what motivates staff at Kellett, interviewing teachers, Heads of Houses, support staff and members of the Senior Leadership Group. They then applied
what they learnt about motivation theory in order to analyse the main factors that contribute to staff motivation. Finally, they came up with recommendations of their own, drawing on real life examples of how businesses such as Disney and Google motivate their staff. In Year 11, students completed the entire Business course and prepared for their IGCSE exam. Best wishes to all of you with furthering your studies either here in Hong Kong or abroad. Year 12 Business Studies students completed their first year and sat first International A-Level examinations in May. Fingers crossed for good results to build on into the next year of the course. Year 13 students learnt about tools used by businesses to make strategic decisions, as well as how they adapt their marketing mix when trading internationally. To help develop their research and debate skills, they took part in a mock trial in which the merits and drawback of multinational corporations were brought before a judge. Students had to use relevant examples and persuasive arguments when making their case, developing their application and evaluation skills which will help them in their upcoming exam. Having completed the course, they are going on to sit their final exam in June. Good luck to all of you and enjoy your time at university!
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS Design Technology Year 7 Year 7 finished their extensive Computer Controlled (PIC Operated) Bug Project. Throughout Term 2, they learnt a range of both traditional and contemporary design and manufacturing skills. They soldered together their circuit boards and sublimated a design onto their acrylic mats before learning how to programme their bug.
Year 9 Year 9 took part in a high level ‘reversed engineering’ project this year. They had to build either a remote-controlled walking robot or an infrared activated toy from an existing kit. They then needed to study exactly how it worked. Finally, they were asked to re-design the product and improve it for a specific client. They then modelled their results using more advanced material and manufacturing techniques.
Year 10 (GCSE) Year 10 students learnt about inclusive design and took part in empathy exercises using resources produced by Cambridge University. Mr. Wood attended a DOT ‘Design of Things’ course devised by the university last November. The students then tried to experience what it may be like to do basic day-today tasks when you have a lack of visual acuity and dexterity e.g. problems caused by arthritis or cataracts.
Year 13 (A2) Kirsty Taylor developed a product to help provide an improved shopping experience for people who need to push/pull heavy shopping trolleys up and down the steep hills of Hong Kong. She spent a great deal of time developing and manufacturing using 3D printing and studied the reverse engineering of a child’s electric vehicle and a cordless power drill. This allowed her to rework elements of these machines in order to power and control her own electric shopping trolley. She then needed to add the handle and make the textile bag in order to complete it for her A2 project. Kellett DT students were extremely fortunate to receive a presentation from Thomas Heatherwick, who is arguably one of the world’s most acclaimed and influential designers. He came and talked about his life and projects from the Shanghai Expo (UK Pavilion) to designing aspects of the Pacific Place shopping mall here in Hong Kong. This was a real highlight for our students who were captivated throughout the entire presentation.
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ARTS & LANGUAGES ENGLISH English Faculty It was a busy Term 2 for many students studying English, not least our Year 11-13 students who sat Mock Examinations and worked on the advice given in order to strive to meet their goals in the forthcoming IGCSEs, AS and A-Levels. We wish them the best of luck. Year 10 also prepared for their Term 3 examinations. The showcase Key Stage 3 event was the Dragons’ Den presentations, in which Year 8 teams pitched their group’s products to our judge entrepreneurs, trying to convince them to invest. The culmination of a unit on persuasive language in marketing, this resulted in a lively hour of presentations, supported by a good turnout of parents. Congratulations to The Calorie Runner team (Ella Mackel, Johnny Aagaard, Luca Denton-Richmond, Katelyn Au Yeung) and Bliss Blocks (Imogen Henderson, Lola Laurent-Josi, Harry Maddren, Lincoln Wong), who impressed the investors the most on the day.
m the page ing Shakespeare fro Year 8 Students bring son led by our a cross curricular les to the stage during Drama Department.
RtHK Top Story Win Congratulations to Olivier Lee of 1OB, who won the Junior Section (ages 12-17) of the RTHK Top Story Competition with his short story entitled “Jia”. Among other prizes, Olivier received a copy of the photograph which the writing had to be based on, “Portrait of Hong Kong” by Fan Ho, and his short story was read out on the radio. “Jia” was written by Olivier in English class and at home following the visit of Gothic fiction author William Hussey. The students were asked to try to incorporate some of the ideas from his presentation into their own writing. Once again, thanks to the Annual Fund for making Mr Hussey’s visit possible.
tations Dragons’ Den Presen
Modern Foreign Languages Thanks to Chinese New Year, Term 2 is always a highlight in the Languages Faculty! Our Chinese department organised a lunchtime Chinese Carousel, which saw lots of exciting cultural activities, including some games, sports and puzzles. The atrium was also beautifully decorated with handmade lanterns and banners. Year 10 German students enjoyed a visit to a German restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui. This reinforced not only their love for German cuisine, but also the work covered in the classroom about ordering food; an essential life skill and one that will come in very handy on their Year 11 trip to Berlin! In Latin, Arthur Chong and Alex Fyfe were winner and runner-up respectively in the Key Stage 3 section of the Association of South East Asian Classical Teachers (ASEACT) Film Review competition. Other competing schools from Hong Kong included ISF Academy and the French International School. A Kellett whitewash! All our students continued to work incredibly hard and our classes continued to provide opportunities for role-plays and discussions, reflecting real life situations. Our exam classes, which range from Year 9 to Year 13, are focused on revision in the run up to their final exams. We wish all our linguists the best of luck in their upcoming language exams! KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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ARTS & LANGUAGES Music Senior House Music Competition 1 February saw the final of the Senior House Music Competition, which took us back to the 80s via such classic numbers as ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’, ‘Take On Me’ and ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’. The evening saw Key Stage 3 students from each house perform as a choir for the first time, along with the introduction of a wildcard round. The Open Round was judged by an audience vote, and the audience were entertained by a staff band playing ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’. The whole evening was a huge success and demonstrated the wide range and high standard of musical talent in the Senior School. Well done to all who took part! Overall Winners
Clementi
Open Winner
Clementi
Key Stage 3 Choir Winner
Bowen
Key Stage 3 Winner
Youde – Sophie Dixon
Key Stage 4&5 Winners
Bowen – Sam Hedley, Zachary Blacker, Lucan Flynn and Ethan Kim
Wildcard Winners
Maclehose/Youde – Isaac Cheung/Holden Kwong and Benjamin Wu
Up and Coming Performers
Clementi – Tomas Stoneley and Geneve Chu
DRAMA Another jam-packed term for the Drama department which included ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ workshop for Year 8, two overseas ISTA (International School Theatre Association) educational trips, and the introduction of House Drama – to name a few! However, it was also an important time for our exam classes and the focus of the term was on our GCSE and A-level students. Over the term we had two sets of exam performances that covered an array of texts, time periods, styles and playwrights. Year 13 A-level students performed in their final practical exam in front of a visiting UK examiner. Our four talented students performed monologues from ‘Five Kinds of Silence’ by Shelagh Stephenson. It is a harrowing play based around five women and their personal family ordeal. In contrast to this, the students also performed an extract from the absurd comedy ‘The Cagebirds’ by David Campton. The students performed with maturity and truly demonstrated their skill and talent.
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The Year 11 students also shared the spotlight this term with their Component 2: Performance of a Text. The students performed a mixture of monologues, duologues and group extracts from a selection of contemporary plays. The students did amazingly well dealing with the themes of the plays and again performed with a sensitivity that struck a note with all those who came and supported. A Drama Department’s work is never done and we also gave students the opportunity to see ‘A Man of Good Hope’ and ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’. Both performances were breathtaking in their own way and the students left feeling inspired and moved by both ensemble pieces.
ARTS & LANGUAGES SENIOR
Art Annual Fund - Sophie Munns Artist in Residence Australian artist during Sophie Munns launched the ‘Homage to the Seed’ project during a Residency at Brisbane Botanic Gardens after an introduction to the Queensland arm of the global Millennium Seed Bank Partnership set up by Kew Gardens of London. The Seed Bank project has since taken her on many residencies, working with seed scientists and botanical gardens in diverse bioregions, in search of further knowledge on how science contributes to conservation programs, shifting climate conditions and awareness of all kinds of current impacts at force on the planet’s vast seed inheritance. Sophie shared this diverse knowledge of seeds and her art practice with each of the Kellett Senior School Art classes and conducted observational drawing sessions from her collection of seeds. Sophie also worked closely with Kadoorie Farm to collate a collection of Hong Kong seeds as part of the project. Year 7 Art students created a series of seed pod motifs in class and were all involved in the creation of a final large-scale painting. They embraced the opportunity to work closely with Sophie throughout her residency and worked hard to paint with control using her brush techniques. We are grateful to the Annual Fund for such an amazing opportunity to work with an internationally renowned artist and to be able to provide authentic and meaningful experiences. The final artwork was mounted and displayed in the Kellett Senior School atrium area as a celebration of the diversity of seeds found in Hong Kong. “You have to really look at seeds... often appearing so small, so humble & easily unnoticed, yet so profound as to shape the natural world and history of human culture on the planet.” - Sophie Munns
STUDENT TESTIMONIAL - Sophie Munns Art WORKSHOP
“
What did you learn? I learnt about the different brush strokes and the effects they make; for example you can make a painting have a rough texture by swiftly stroking your brush upwards or a smooth texture by slowly bringing your brush across the page. Sophie Munns taught us many different techniques, like fast brushing, smooth, hard, soft, towards the roof and straight down. I also learnt a lot about the importance and constant recurrence of nature in many successful artists’ pieces.
What was your favourite part and why? My favourite part of her residency was when we all worked together to complete the 16 metre art work because it was very satisfying seeing all of our hard work paid off.
What impact did the speaker have on you? The impact this whole experience had on me was that I found that I appreciated the way that every seed is important to our planet.
What techniques/information did you take away with you? I took away many things from this experience because this has been an amazing project for me. I know that seeds are a broad and amazing topic to focus on in art because to each and every seed is beautiful. The techniques are not only about the different brush strokes but how you can overlap different colours and shapes to create a masterpiece.
Did you have any concerns/thoughts/hesitations before the event? Before this project, I thought that seeds were a small topic to cover, but afterwards I now know that seeds are important because they are what so much in nature starts as. I also thought that I wouldn’t know how to practice my different brush skills as well as draw as well as a professional artist but during the event I realised as long as I tried my best it would be great. - Anna Jaeger (7B) KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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Extras WellBEING Feel Good Fridays have been an undeniable hit at Kellett School. A regular fixture in the calendar of all three of our Schools, student and staff feedback tells us that they have made a significant difference to the levels of happiness in our community. As we continue to look for opportunities to further develop our Feel Good Fridays, don’t be surprised if you start to hear about them further across the globe, thanks to a recent opportunity which saw Kellett’s Matt Seddon and Kirsty Whitwood present on their impact at the Positive Education Schools Association (PESA) 2018 conference. ‘Positive Education’ was born in 2007, when Geelong Grammar School, Australia was the first school to take evidence based principles of Positive Psychology and embed them from head-to-toe throughout their school ethos and curriculum. The impact on both student well-being and academic attainment has been profound, and schools across Australia have been coming together over the last decade to learn about Positive Education.
This April saw over 800 delegates come together at Geelong Grammar School’s Corio Campus, to learn from a myriad of international experts in the field, including the founder of Positive Psychology, Dr Martin Seligman. The opportunity to learn from leading experts in an array of keynote presentations, masterclasses and workshops, on prominent themes such as relationships, resilience, strengths, hope and compassion was incredibly inspiring. In line with the conference theme of ‘Connect’, Matt and Kirsty took every opportunity to talk and share ideas with countless educators from around the world who are incredibly passionate about the work they do in supporting the well-being of young people.
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Student wellbeing has always been at the heart of everything that Kellett does, so we are delighted to collaborate with Geelong Grammar. We have been learning from Geelong Grammar for over three years now, and it is thanks to the relationship which has now developed between our two schools that Matt and Kirsty were invited to present their workshop; ‘Feel Good Fridays - A Practical Way To Implement Positive Education at Whole School Level’. The workshop was a real hit with the full and eager international audience, who appreciated the easy to implement strategies and activities that were shared with them. We look forward to continuing the valuable connections that were made with many schools at the workshop and sharing inspiration with them for future Feel Good Fridays. This August sees our collaboration deepen with the launch of our ‘Positively Kellett’ initiative. Geelong Grammar will join us in Hong Kong to work with, inspire and educate our whole community on Positive Education, as we take the next exciting steps on our journey. Save the date - Saturday 25 August - Positively Kellett launch, with Geelong Grammar. All families and students are warmly invited to join us at the Kowloon Bay campus.
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Extras SENIOR SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS ISTA High School Festival Mumbai: A Student’s Perspective On 15 March, 17 students set off to take part in the International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA) High School festival in Mumbai, India. The festival was a four-day event, which threw students into the colourful world of Mumbai. The title of the festival was Mumbai’s Shadow City and raised up questions of the city’s infamous slum, it’s function and the people who live and work there. Following on from this, students had the opportunity, along with ISTA artists, to visit Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi, and used this as a starting point to devise and create an ensemble piece. ISTA is not only about drama; it is also about the host and other visiting schools. Our students had the opportunity to stay with families, work alongside students who live in other slums within Mumbai and really connect through the medium of drama.
Hosting - Ben Stoneley A major part of ISTA festivals is the fact that one has the opportunity to stay with families from the hosting school. As well as making new friends for life, it was a great way to learn about Indian culture first hand. The students from Dhirubhai Ambani School welcomed us with open arms and helped make the festival engaging and exciting. It was the perfect opportunity to experience Mumbai, speak to other students who have a passion for drama and made the festival extra special to us all.
ISTA Drama festival - Cristina Fisher During the workshops and ensemble meetings, we had the opportunity to work with amazing artists and students from countries around the world. Armed only with a love for drama and a thirst for more knowledge and experience, we set to work creating snippets of drama that we eventually went on to weave into an ensemble performance together. We started to develop a trust between each other, shared ideas and talents, and displayed our creative skills to one another. ISTA was such a great experience and there is no doubt that we would love to return to another festival next year.
What did we learn? - Ben Stoneley This ISTA trip was a wonderful opportunity to deepen our understanding of drama. Not only was it enlightening to see how universal the art of drama is, but it was fascinating to see how it is performed. We all learnt something new and all gained from the wealth of experiences we were presented with in Mumbai. I look forward to returning to another ISTA festival or hosting one in the near future.
Dharavi - Calyn Da Silva Dharavi is Asia’s largest slum. It houses over 700,000 people in two square kilometres. As a part of this ISTA festival, we had the opportunity to visit Dharavi and through doing so, we gained a mass of information from local guides. It was really interesting to see how society worked together in harmony and changed my idea of what ‘a slum’ is. The size, smells and trades were fascinating and the complexity of the place was evident everywhere. What I really took away was how happy everyone was and this made us all reflect on how we live and feel within our everyday lives. KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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SPORT
Sport ISSFHK Cross Country On Friday 9 February, the ISSFHK Cross Country Championships were held in Lam Tin Country Park, hosted by Harrow School. Kellett took eight full teams of athletes. Prior to the championship over 80 students had run in mini cross country meets in order to qualify for selection. The running conditions at the championship were excellent, with clear blue skies and a good temperature. The course itself was on a hard surface, but was very challenging as there were a number of very steep climbs. Team results were consistently good. The U20 Girls’ Team placed 7th, but to their credit not one of the team is a regular distance runner so to even agree to represent the school was commendable. The U14 Boys’ Team placed 6th, the U12 Girls’ Team were 5th and the U16 Girls’ finished 4th. All other teams finished in the top 3 of their event with the U20 Boys coming 3rd, the U12 Boys and U14 Girls coming 2nd, while the U16 boys won the title.
The consistency of results and the fact that Kellett were represented at every age group secured the school an overall second place in the championship. All students represented Kellett with pride and should be congratulated on how hard they ran, but three students must be applauded for their individual excellence: Loughlin Davidson won the individual bronze medal in the U16 race St John Smith won the individual silver medal in the U12 race Adam Kiely won the individual gold medal in the U16 race Congratulations to everyone! 58
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Boys HKSSF Cross Country Boys C Grade
A consistent set of good results for the Boys C Grade team saw the whole team finishing in the top 35. Tom Fabiani finished in an impressive 14 minutes and 24 seconds, enough to secure him a brilliant 7th place. Reza Bayat wasn’t too far behind in 10th place with a time of 14 minutes 33 seconds. Geoffrey Hughes just missed out on a top 20 spot, in 21st position, less than a minute after Kellett’s top finish. Byron Doughty and Jamie Ireland weren’t far behind either with Byron finishing in 27th and Jamie in 34th position. A great performance from the C Grade Team who finished in under two minutes of each other.
Boys B Grade Even better performance from the B Grade boys with three athletes finishing in the top 4, with Adam Kiely finishing on top in 1st place with a time of 23 minutes and 28 seconds. Laughlin Davidson was not far behind him in 2nd with a time of 24 minutes and 1 second, Matt Wood only just missed out on a top three finish, coming home in 4th with a time of 24 minutes 23 seconds which was only one second after 3rd place! Findlay Mayo was also in the top 10, finishing in 9th position with a time of 25 minutes and 3 seconds. Nico Denton Richmond also ran very well, finishing in 40th position and securing the B Grade boys their overall 1st place in the team competition. Rory Crombie competed very well, finishing in a very respectable 148th position with a time of 34 minutes.
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SPORT Boys A Grade Unfortunately, insufficient numbers meant the A Grade Team couldn’t compete for a team medal. This meant the boys were running for personal glory and pride. An early lead from Tom O’Dell gave us hope of another 1st place finish, but it wasn’t to be, as Tom eventually finished in a brilliant 2nd place — a great improvement from his 60th finish the previous year! Liam Doherty wasn’t too far behind finishing in 13th position with a time of 26 minutes and 14 seconds. A late replacement saw Ed Chantrell run up an age grade and secure himself an impressive 64th place finish. And not too far behind him came Alex Spurr, finishing in 90th position with a time of 30 minutes and 47 seconds.
Girls HKSSF Cross Country The cross country championship was run in Aberdeen Country Park on Wednesday 22 November. The weather was perfect; clear blue skies and not too hot. Those that ran and placed are listed below along with the team results. Well done everyone! An overall second means that the girls remain in Division 2 next year, which was the aim as the boys winning Division 3 will join them next year. *For more details, please visit: http://www.hkssf-hk.org.hk/ hk/sec/events/cross-country/circulars
Girls B Grade
Result
Sophia Tang
4
Isabella Nichol
10
Sophia Grandolfo
34
Katy Wood
43
Pui Ching Middle School
11+12+20+31+32+45 = 151
Beth Caves
49
Po Leung Kuk Ngan Po Ling College
5+14+21+24+37+70 = 171
Zara Mukherjee
59
Kellett School
4+10+34+43+49+59 = 199
Girls C Grade
Result
Sienna Dawson
4
Jacky Moorrees
5
Madeleine Sabella
8
Alexandra Fyfe
11
Emily O’Dell
14
Sara John
15
Katelyn Tang
33
Team Results
Team Results Kellett School
4+5+8+11+14+15 = 57 KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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