ApRIl 2012
CONTENT WHOLE SCHOOL 4
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
5-9
KELLETT NEWS Annual Fund Kowloon Bay Site update Kellett Cares Congratulations Staff Leavers Welcome to our new staff Kellett Olympic Fair Book Week Carolyn Landon Education Show 2012
10-11
100 Days in Reception Circus Week Book Parade Primary Maths Challenge Assembly
SECONDARY 26-27
Deputy Principal Student Council
28-29
PRIMARY PRImaRY HIGHLIGHTS Deputy Principal Reception Primary 1 to Primary 6
17-19
ARTS Artist In Residence Chinese Studies Chinese Painting Club Music ICT French
20-22 23-25
SPORT PRIMARY FEATURES News from the school council
ARTS Artist in Residence English GCSE Design and Technology GCSE Geography
FEATURE ARTICLE World Maths Day
12-16
SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS
30-33
GEOGRAPHY Geography HKAYP Outward Bond
34-37
SECONDARY FEATURES Global Citizenship History Maths Modern Foreign Languages Music
37-39
PE Physical Education Curriculum ECA’s Secondary Sports Day Science
WHOLE SCHOOL
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE The year is progressing at an astonishing pace and it is difficult to believe that we are already commencing the final term of the academic year. Progressing at a similar pace is the new Kowloon Bay campus. Since I last wrote twenty four kilometres of steel have been driven into the ground to form the foundations; and work is about to commence on the pile caps. Once these are completed the site will be handed over to a second contractor who will complete the school for the commencement of the 2013/14 academic year. I am frequently asked “will our new school be ready in time?” the answer subject to any major unforeseen circumstances, is of course, yes! Our target opening day is the 9 September 2013. Those in our community who recall the construction of the Mountain Wing at Pok Fu Lam may remember that for months the foundations were drilled and very little else appeared to be happening and then suddenly a grey concrete shell was transformed into the extension we know today. The Hong Kong construction industry is possibly unique in its ability to build to the highest safety standards within remarkably short time frames. Further confirmation of the speed at which building schools is accomplished may be seen adjacent to the Pok Fu Lam campus at the site of the new St Paul’s Boys Primary School. Less than a year ago work commenced on the superstructure and just before the Easter holiday the scaffolding started coming down; St Paul’s is scheduled to open this coming September. We are extremely fortunate at this time to enjoy an extraordinary breadth of expertise on the Kellett Board and its committees; not least on the financial, legal and construction fronts. This expertise and time so generously given is undoubtedly assisting the Kowloon Bay project’s progress as we interface with the myriad of consultants, organisations, and departments required to bring a project of this complexity to fruition in Hong Kong. On 10 May the Kowloon Bay Foundation Stone is to be laid by Mr Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, The Chief Executive; Mr Michael Suen Ming-yeung, GBS, JP, Secretary for Education, Mr Andrew Seaton the British Consul-General to Hong Kong and Macao and School Patron and Mr David Kidd Chairman, The Kellett School Association. It had been intended that this should be a ceremony to which the whole community would be invited. However, space limitations and the restrictions of a working site have prevented the occasion being as inclusive as we had hoped. It is our intention, therefore, to invite individual community representatives; for example the Parents Committee, student and staff members. Photographs of the event will be posted on the website. Given the restrictions on the stone laying we will certainly ensure that Kowloon Bay’s official opening will be a celebration in which all may participate. Thank you to everyone who supported the School Olympic Fair. I think you will agree that Alex Dickson-Leach and the Fair Committee, sponsors and volunteers each deserve nothing less than a gold medal for their time, energy and generosity. Not only was the Fair a very successful fundraising event, in excess of HK$370,000 was raised, it was also one of those occasions where we meet as a community, thoroughly enjoy ourselves and broaden our social links. Not only does the Parents Committee perform a fantastic role on the fundraising and ambassadorial fronts they are central to holding together the social fabric of our community. I believe it is imperative that as we grow the aspects
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE THREE APRIL 2012
of Kellett that we believe are unique to us and those values that lay at the heart of our community continue to be nurtured, not least high levels of parental involvement. Not only does our sense of community benefit our students it is also genuinely appreciated by staff. Continuing the theme of parental participation, I extend sincere thanks to Adam Osborn. On the 17 March Adam hung up his Saturday Soccer Boots for the last time. Rain or shine, October to April for the past five years Adam was to be found coordinating our students and volunteer coaches at Sandy Bay. Under Adam’s stewardship Saturday Soccer has flourished and the enjoyment of all the participants, players, coaches and those who supported from the sidelines alike is evident every time they meet. Thank you Adam! Adam has passed the Chief Coach’s whistle and flag on to Marcus Woodger who has generously volunteered to ensure our Saturday Soccer tradition continues. Thanks also are extended to Fiona Faure as she leaves our community; Fiona was instrumental in the founding of our primary section newspaper, Kellett Tellit! Sincere thanks to the many parents who have this year donated to Friends of Kellett School (FOKS) both directly and through matched giving by their employers. There have been many exceedingly generous gifts. Those unfamiliar with FOKS may be interested to know that it is a US Charity offering tax benefits to US nationals making donations. Further details may be found on our website. Kellett School through applications to the FOKS Trustees has successfully applied for funding to purchase and install the retractable seating unit in the primary auditorium, purchase and develop our Virtual Learning Environment and purchase training to support our student information system. Thank you to all our donors, and the FOKS Trustees; over the years your generosity has enabled us to accelerate and complete major enrichment initiatives and projects across the school. Kellett continues to thrive as this term’s edition of The Dragon illustrates. Simon Giddings unveils our ‘A’ Level programme. A programme we believe it to be the broadest range of subject choices offered in Hong Kong. Ciaran Harrington writes about technology and our ICT programme and David Kidd, Chairman introduces the Kellett Annual Fund. Needless to say the lion’s share of this publication is reserved for reports on the breadth of taught and extra-curricular activities in which our students participate, supported by their teachers and coaches with enthusiasm and commitment that is second to none. I’m sure you will find this edition an enjoyable and informative read!
Ann Mc Donald Principal
KELLETT NEWS WHOLE SCHOOL
Introducing the Kellett School Annual Fund The Dragon holds a special meaning to the Kellett community and the Year of the Dragon heralds happiness, success and good luck. It is therefore an auspicious year for us to launch our first Annual Fund. The Kellett School Annual Fund is a dedicated fundraising effort to enhance educational excellence at our school where our mission to create “a love of learning and confidence for life” is central to our community. A strong Annual Fund will strengthen the school’s financial position, increasing flexibility beyond the fee-dependant school budget to help Kellett School provide an outstanding educational experience in all areas. Each donation will be put to work immediately to benefit current students. One of the special strengths of Kellett School is the nature and extent of support provided by parents. I hope that the Annual Fund will be seen by all parents as a worthwhile additional means by which to support Kellett School. Some parents (in particular those from the US) will be more familiar and comfortable with this sort of venture than others. I believe that over time, all will accept that the Annual Fund plays an important part in maintaining and enhancing Kellett School’s ability to provide our children with the education that we want for them. We have identified two principal areas to benefit from the 2012 Annual Fund ‘Curriculum Enrichment’ and ‘The Kowloon Bay Campus’.
1. Curriculum Enrichment Programmes Educators in Residence Inviting internationally renowned authors/ artists/ scientists/musicians to run specialist workshops Mandarin Enrichment Supporting children’s immersion experiences and the purchasing of additional specialist resources Sports Development Funding specialist coaches; additional sporting activities; staff, transport and venue hire to support wider sports access for all students Technology and Innovation Enhancing technology resources in the classroom
2. The Kowloon Bay Campus Designed to support a world class education and academic curriculum, our new campus in Kowloon Bay will benefit each and every student, including our primary students in Pok Fu Lam who will be able to take particular advantage of the sporting facilities and the auditorium. The four form entry secondary section will guarantee all Kellett primary students a Year 7 secondary school place and the potential to extend their studies to IGCSE/ GCSE and A Level. The fund will support the purchase of equipment to be used by the entire school community in the specialist areas.
School Library Development Developing one library stock across all campuses
Annual Fund Arrangements In the coming weeks we will seek volunteers from the Kellett parent community to act as Parent Advocates, to play a leading role in promoting the school’s Annual Fund; consistent with the way in which similar funds are operated in Hong Kong and worldwide. Training will be provided to all our volunteer Parent Advocates within the summer term. The Annual Fund programme will run from September to November each year. Our aim is 100% participation by members of the Kellett community, at a level with which you are comfortable. Every gift matters! Every gift helps us offer greater opportunities which will make a real and positive difference to Kellett School’s students, families, teachers and community. Your support will also help the school to build a strong and lasting tradition of philanthropy for the benefit of not only present, but also future generations. Kellett School Board and senior management are accountable for the responsible expenditure of the Annual Fund. An Annual Fund report will be published in January each year, with the first report in January 2013. Further information on the Kellett School Annual Fund initiative will be communicated at the start of the new school year. For enquiries please contact Belenda Ryan at the Development Office on Tel: 2551 8234 or e-mail bryan@kellettschool.com Thank you in anticipation of your support for this initiative.
David Kidd Chairman
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE THREE APRIL 2012
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KELLETT NEWS WHOLE SCHOOL
Kowloon Bay Update
Site Progress Since our last update mid-January, our Foundation Contractor (Tysan Foundation Limited) has continued to make steady progress on site. Piling works are now complete, with nearly 500 steel H-piles driven 55-60m into the ground, for a total length of 27km. We have almost completed load testing these piling works. (You can see in the aerial site photo the meticulously arranged and very heavy “stacks” of concrete blocks and steel beams – carefully positioned above different foundation piles.) Next, Tysan will lay down the final Ground Level structure and dig the hole for our new 6-lane, 25m swimming pool before completing their scope of works. Under the careful guidance of our experienced site team, and through good teamwork and focus, we remain on track to complete the Foundation works as planned, after which the Main Contractor will complete the building superstructure in preparation for September 2013 opening.
Our exciting new neighbourhood As Kowloon Bay continues to grow, we note the following projects of interest surrounding our new state-of-the-art, 21st century school:
Kellett Cares
This term saw Kellett Cares’ first Chinese New Year project. Children could pay to buy a ‘scale’ to place on the dragon as we moved into the year of the dragon. Alex Mayall’s scale was closest to the secret mark so she won a book token. Over $2000 was raised for Kellett Cares’ charities.
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE THREE APRIL 2012
• ON THE SITE OF HONG KONG’s OLD KAI TAK AIRPORT……. The massive Kai Tak Development project continues to grow, perhaps most evident looking across the eastern part of Victoria harbour at the old runway, where Hong Kong’s new cruise ship terminal is beginning to emerge amidst a sea of cranes. For details and quarterly updates, log on to http://www.ktd.gov. hk/eng/publication.html. • RUNNING SILENTLY ABOVE THE STREETS SOMETIME IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS?……. The government is working on plans for a new monorail to integrate the Kai Tak Development with the rest of CBD2 (the government’s name for the rapidly emerging Kowloon Bay/Kwun Tong area). It may even have a stop very close to our site. • 2 BLOCKS TO OUR SOUTH……. Just in front of Megabox, an exciting new outdoor public park is currently being formed on a mammoth 14,000 sq.m. site, a corner of which has been allocated for a highly innovative lowrise structure - Hong Kong’s first zero-carbon building. • TO THE NORTH OF OUR SITE……. Just across Kai Cheung Road, hoarding has been erected for what we understand will be a new Grade A commercial development designed by a leading international architect.
KELLETT NEWS Congratulations to Annette and Ian who adopted a little boy, James
WHOLE SCHOOL
Congratulations to Poonam on the birth of her daughter Sahana on 3 March Congratulations to Reni McMahon on the birth of Siannen Lea on 24 March Congratulations to Ella who gave birth to oscar on 28 March – 7lb 3ozs
Congratulations to Ciaran Harrington and Catherine who were married on 5 April
STAFF LEAVERS MAGGIE WONG School Secretary (Secondary)
SINDHU NAIR
JASON HO Science Lab Technician
Welcome to our new staff! ESA Sarah Roberts replacing Poonam Jajoo who is on maternity leave Josephine Walton replacing Sharmila (moving to INCO ESA)
Caryn Banker working with the Art Department as Patty Lau is moving to work with Learning Support OFFICE
Belenda Ryan Development Director – Maternity Cover Mimi Li School Secretary – replacing Maggie Wong
Sharmila Rodricks moving to INCO ESA replacing Nicola Sawyer (moving to Communications OffICer) Thomas Adams replacing Jason ho for the remainder of the school year
Vicky Chong Purchasing Manager
Nicola Sawyer Communications Officer
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WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS Kellett Olympic Fair Children with hands full of sticky sweets and red tokens, teachers dripping wet after being ‘sponged’, gold medals proudly won at the loo toss or beanbag throw and players battling it out on the inflatable gladiator stage. Saturday, March 10 was the Kellett Olympic Fair! Enjoyed by over 1,000 eager competitors and their parents – the day was a huge success due to the efforts of many. Firstly, thanks must to go to the weather – after weeks of grey skies and squally showers, we were lucky enough to have a dry day (except of course, for those brave souls behind the sponge throwing stand), so everyone could get outside and enjoy the entertainment on offer. And what a huge range there was! The karaoke room was a hit with young and old alike, and children lined up in big numbers to visit the fake aid room and come away with a blood-spattered bandage or two. There were
also bouncy castles, bookshops, an old fashioned sweet stall, craft areas, raffles, auctions and more. Many of the wonderful Kellett Mums and Dads had spent their Friday afternoon baking scrumptious cakes and biscuits, tarts and sweets for us all to buy and take home – thank you! The secondary school students did their bit too - keeping the crowd enthralled with their Flash Mob skills and dancing prowess. Thank you to all those who took part! Of course, the talented and tireless Fair Committee worked incredibly hard in the weeks and days leading up to the Fair, bringing to life the fantastic stalls and events. Thank you to them all for ensuring the day was such a hit. And finally, thank you to Kellett parents and friends for coming along on March 10 and taking part – your generosity, saw us raise HK$370,000 – certainly a gold medal performance!
Book Week 2012, 12 – 16 March Primary Library hosted Book Week 2012 with an array of competitions, challenges and events to encourage and stimulate the students’ love of reading. Over one hundred children participated in a “Guess the book” competition created by our Library volunteers and all classes voted for their favourite Picture Book from a popular list of award winners from Australia, UK and the USA. Classes and staff were challenged to decorate their classroom doors as a book featuring a dragon (given we are in the Year of the Dragon). Congratulations to all participants as the doors truly impressed with their creativity, artistic skills and imagination. After a very difficult choice the winners were:
Reception: R1 – Red is a Dragon by Roseanne Thong
P1/P2: P2-1 – Zoe and the Dragon by Jane Andrews
P3/P4: P4-1 – Dragon Stew by Steve Smallman
P5/P6: P5-3 – Jeremy Thatcher, dragon hatcher by Bruce Coville
See the door created by your child’s class on our Library website. https://ilearn.kellettschool.com/index.phtml?d=272098
All Kellett Secondary students and P5/P6 students attended the Hong Kong International Young Readers’ Festival to hear authors Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) and Christopher Cheng (Great Australian Animals) excite, enthuse and entertain. Book Week at Kellett culminated in the ever popular “Dress as a Book Character Day” parade with some wonderful costumes and imaginative creations on display.
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KELLETT NEWS WHOLE SCHOOL
Carolyn Landon Oral historian and author, Carolyn Landon, visited Kellett Secondary on the 5th March to speak with Year 8 students about her biographies of ordinary people with extraordinary lives including “Black Swan: a Koorie woman’s life”, and “Jackson’s Track”. Weaving the experience of writing a biography of Aboriginal artist Eileen Harrison together with the stories Eileen recounts of her life, Carolyn talked to the group about the historical and current impact of British colonial activity on the indigenous people in Australia, the prejudice they faced, and the very personal story of Eileen’s childhood in a mission station, and her struggle to regain her Aboriginal identity most eloquently expressed through her artwork.
Education Show 2012 On Tuesday 13 March a team of six from Kellett left Hong Kong to attend the Education Show 2012 being held at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Birmingham.
opportunities and advertising possibilities and also to attend some of the professional development seminars that were taking place.
The Education Show is the UK’s leading education event for the promotion and development of all learning and teaching. The event offers a selection of free professional development seminars, workshops and training; over 400 leading suppliers exhibiting the latest resources for learning environments.
We won’t of course know how successful this recruitment campaign was until we receive applications from teachers that spoke to us in Birmingham; there was certainly a great deal of interest and we hope that at least some of those we met will consider Kellett for their next teaching post.
Over 12,000 education professionals from Early Years right through to Secondary and Further Education attend the show, all looking for the resources and ideas they need to help pupils develop and to raise standards within their schools. The purpose of our visit was to heighten the profile of Kellett within the teaching community. In November 2012 recruitment begins for the additional teaching staff required to open the Kowloon Bay Campus in September 2013. We will need an additional 25 – 30 teaching staff for both Primary and Secondary. It was felt therefore that to attend such an event would assist in this process. We had over 250 teachers come and talk to us about the possibility of working at Kellett. We have compiled a database of contact information and will keep these people informed over the coming months about the recruitment process for the posts available for 2013. Posts will be advertised in October 2012. You can view the brochure prepared for the Show on the school website: http://www.kellettschool.com/upload/files/24/Recruitment_ Brochure_Final.pdf There was also an opportunity for our team to visit other exhibitors at the Show, discussing resources, possible training
The Kellett Team: Simon Giddings, Head of Secondary Campus Ciaran Harrington, Head of Primary Campus (Pok Fu Lam) Jo Laufer, Head of Primary Campus (Kowloon Bay) Cathy Poole, Human Resources Manager Elizabeth Everett, Secondary Teacher with Responsibility for History and Global Citizenship Chris Garvey, Secondary Competitive Sport and ECA Coordinator and PE Teacher
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FEATURE ARTICLE WHOLE SCHOOL
World Maths Day
Kellett Primary celebrated World Maths Day to the full and it proved to be an action packed day. The World Maths Day website proved very popular indeed. Each class had the opportunity to test their mental arithmetic skills by playing online challenges against children from all over the world, answering as many questions as they could within set time limits. The more challenges the children played, the more points they scored but the questions also became increasingly difficult. Well done to everyone for taking part so enthusiastically and especially to the children who scored the most points in each class. The winners from each year group were as follows: Reception: Jayhee Lee P1: Maya Doubleday P3: Nicole Lee P5: Oliver Corso
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P2: Veronica Paulus P4: Alexandra Paulus P6: James Hamilton-Kane
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE THREE APRIL 2012
Children across the school also looked at the artwork of the Swiss painter Paul Klee. He combined a range of artistic styles and because he loved colourful artwork created by children, he tried to mix similar colour, energy and simplicity into his own work. Inspired by Klee, the Primary children created their own artistic examples using his style with wonderful results, some of which you can see here. The children had a chance to learn and perform some mathematical card tricks. They managed to amaze their friends and were keen to try out their new found talents; we hope that some of you have been suitably impressed by their powers of magic! Matt Lovell
WHOLE SCHOOL
FEATURE ARTICLE
Wednesday 7 March
At the secondary school students celebrated World Maths Day by competing against each other in teams in a variety of challenges. The three rounds consisted of a Code-Breaking Treasure Hunt around the campus; a Group Carousel where teams had to cycle around 6 stations answering fiendish questions against the clock and a Relay Race where teams needed to answer a chain of questions and could only proceed if the previous solution was correct. It proved to be an immensely fun and enjoyable day which also challenged the students to improve their Mathematical thinking skills. Congratulations to the winning teams which were as follows:
In addition to the event at school the Secondary students also competed in challenges on the internet over a 48 hour period. In total our students manage to answer 69,773 questions and an impressive 39 students completed all 50 of the games possible. Chloe Kim in Year 7 managed to get the highest total amount of correct answers with 1948 points; she also managed the highest individual score on one game with 64 questions answered in a minute, well done Chloe!
Year 9 and 10 – Group E Matthew Hanselman, Freya Darnton, Rory Atkins and Henry Salmon Year 8 – Protons 1 Andre Hui, Maya Abuali, Matilda Andrew and Sebastian Ball Year 7 – Tudors 2 Chloe Kim, Fletcher Koder, Saffie Turl and Reuben Sweeney In Year 8 the form winners were Protons and in Year 7 there was a tense three way tie!
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PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY
I was at the BETT technology event in London last January when Michael Gove, the UK Education Secretary, announced that the ICT curriculum was to be replaced. Instead, he declared, there would be rigourous but flexible courses leading to Computer Science which would equip pupils with the skills employers want. These courses would enable children to create rather than just consume technology. “…we could have 11-year-olds able to write simple 2D computer animations using an MIT tool called Scratch. By 16, they could have an understanding of formal logic previously covered only in University courses and be writing their own Apps for smartphones.” Even a brief look at the National Curriculum for ICT shows exactly why he has made this decision. The programmes of study for all subjects have been through several reviews, none of which have been adopted as the government has changed. This may not be so damaging for some disciplines, but a curriculum written twelve years ago for ICT has little relevance to today’s world with the huge advances we have seen since the turn of the millennium. Some estimates place the number of tablets sold in 2011 at over 12 million, a technology unheard of in the year 2000. Indeed this was the year that I bought my Nokia 3310. The difference between that handset and my current smartphone is astonishing. The programme of study also refers to the use of e mail, a messaging system very much in decline for young people who now prefer instant messaging and social networks to stay connected.
strings and substrings as placeholders to me with great clarity, although I have to confess this is way ahead of what I can do with a computer. It is his ambition to learn Java Script. This is exactly what the technology curriculum needs, an opportunity for our pupils to engage high order thinking skills, creating not consuming, analysing not accumulating. This is creativity in learning at its best. Scratch can be accessed free at http://scratch.mit.edu/ and Codecadamy (also free) at http://www.codecademy.com/. A word of warning from Ethan, “it’s not as easy as it seems” he tells me. It sounds like fun though? “It is…trust me” Ciaran Harrington Deputy Principal Head of Primary
The MIT “Scratch” tool he refers to is one that has already been in use here in Kellett Primary Section for a number of years. Used in P4, our children have an opportunity to write programmes for games which they can play themselves. Having taken part in World Scratch Day in the past we hope to do so again on May 19 this year at Cyberport. The launch of the new Raspberry Pi computer in the UK couldn’t have come at a better time. Similar to the Picoboard, already in use with Clive Dawes, the Pi credit card sized computer has a processor, a memory chip, an Ethernet port and USB ports for connecting keyboard and mouse. Eben Upton of the Raspberry Pi Foundation wants to get children programming. Opportunity to do so has gradually been in decline, the computers of yester year such as my original Sinclair ZX 81 drew you into programming, while todays consoles have their programmability hidden with only a few “cheats” for you to alter how a game works. The Pi comes at a time when Eric Schmidt, the Google Chairman wants children to have an insight into how software is made. “If the UK’s creative businesses want to thrive in the digital future, you need people who understand all facets of it integrated from the very beginning.” One self-confessed encoding enthusiast, Ethan Chan in P6, has already completed his certificate in Scratch and has moved onto Codecadamy, a website which provides courses to learn computer code. Having learned the structure of code writing in Scratch he is now writing code of his own. He explains using 12
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Raspberry Pi
Picoboard http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00201864/harmful-ictcurriculum-set-to-be-dropped-this-september-to-make-way-for-rigorous-computer-science http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17192823 http://gadgetmix.com/news/raspberry-pi/
PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY
RECEPTION Term two has been a very busy time in Reception. Along with the curriculum and making fantastic progress with our reading, writing and numeracy we have had a number of extracurricular events.
Ocean Park Stay and Play Stay and Play was a huge success with so many parents and family members coming into school to share the learning and experiences in Reception at Kellett. The children took their visitors round the different classroom activities and many braved the cold in the reception garden to wash the cars and explore the cave by torch light.
Also in February, we visited Ocean Park to extend our learning in our Animal Unit and further investigate wild animals. The trip was thoroughly enjoyed by all, with adults finding out as much as the children about animals and sea creatures.
PRIMARY 1
Chinese New Year To celebrate Chinese New Year we all went to Wah Fu market. We took $20 with us and bought lots of Chinese New Year goodies. When we got back to school we worked out how much money we had spent and looked at all the different coins we had used.
Our Hong Kong Topic Outing To complete our Hong Kong topic we took a trip to Central to compare the old and new buildings. We then went on the Peak Tram and looked at the view from the top. We saw all the famous Hong Kong landmarks and had a perfect view of the harbour and famous skyline. We were also able to see how much of Hong Kong is actually green. We finished off with a picnic at the top – what a great day.
Discovery Dome During March we had a visit from the Discovery Dome. The children thoroughly enjoyed vising the dome and it helped to consolidate everything they had learned in our exciting topic about Space.
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PRIMARY
PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY 2
head for Cheung Chau On Friday 9 March, P2 set off to visit Cheung Chau as part of our topic, Comparing Islands. We had a great time exploring the island, visiting the temple, the harbour, the fire station and spending our money. We worked in teams to complete the Cheung Chau challenge booklet.
It’s a dog’s life! We used the Nintendogs game on the DS as inspiration for our report writing about pets. This games-based learning topic allowed the children to learn about taking responsibility for the care of a pet. It was great fun playing on the DS’s at school and the children produced really fantastic reports about their chosen pet.
PRIMARY 3
This term has been extremely busy for the P3s. We started off with our Class Assemblies and I think you will agree the P3s did an amazing job. Learning about teeth and the way we look after them was our first topic. The P3s were fascinated with the way children’s teeth develop, from baby teeth to growing your adult teeth. They also learnt how to properly clean their teeth and how damaging sugary drinks can be for tooth health. Recently the children have started a Literacy unit linked to Adventures and Mysteries. In order to stimulate creativity, the children have used an online game called Samorost. This has helped the children experiment with description and chronology when writing stories. As well as all of the learning in the classroom, the highlight of this term was the P3 Residential Camp to Sai Kung. The children had a really successful visit on which they cycled, hiked, wall climbed, toasted marshmallows and even learned how to use a bow and arrow. The enthusiasm from the children whilst at camp was exemplary and the P3 teachers were very proud of the children. 14
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PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY
PRIMARY 4 At the end of February P4 went to Camp on Lantau. They stayed at the YWCA hostel in Pui O for three days and two nights. During the camp the children visited Tai O, or Little Venice as it is also known. This is a small fishing village with houses built on stilts, called pang uks. They also visited the Big Buddha at Ngong Ping and the Po Lin Monastery. From there they walked down to Tung Chung and visited the old fort which contains cannons and a school! Time was also spent at the hostel where they participated in archery, a very demanding rope course, wall climbing and orienteering. With just a little assistance the children had to make their own packed lunches, however they did get to eat in The Stoep restaurant in the evenings. Over the three days the children were given opportunities to increase their awareness of local culture and religious beliefs. They improved their map reading skills and took part in a range of outdoor activities to further develop their independence and confidence. A successful and enjoyable camp was had by all.
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PRIMARY
PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY 5 Children from Hok Shan school visited P5 and together we all enjoyed making ‘fortune tellers’ to develop vocabulary and to stimulate conversation. Our recent literacy work on instructional writing helped the children explain each step clearly and concisely.
As part of our games-based learning unit in literacy, P5 had the opportunity to play Rollercoaster Tycoon as a stimulus for creating their own theme park using the Popplet application. Children custom designed their own rollercoasters and marketed their rides through persuasive adverts. They also included additional attractions, ride reviews and job descriptions. To witness a successful theme park in action we visited Ocean Park. The children were able to enjoy the thrill of riding the rollercoasters and they recorded their experiences using handheld technology. Their finished work can be seen through the P5 web pages on ilearn. To further enrich this topic, each maths group studied how to create a theme park within a specific budget. They looked at running costs against generated income in order to maximise profits. Our science topic on keeping healthy included looking at the structure and function of the heart. One of the highlights for the children was having the chance to take part in a heart dissection. This involved carefully cutting the heart open to compare the structure and appearance of chambers and blood vessels on both sides.
PRIMARY 6
Primary 6 started off the new year arguing like never before! Don’t worry, we all get along superbly (well, most of the time!), it was just part of our literacy lessons. We studied the art of graffiti and produced numerous pieces of work around this contentious issue. There was lots of debate in class and we even set up a “mini Parliament”. Undoubtedly, the part of the unit that was enjoyed the most was when we were allowed to graffiti on our desks! Luckily it did wash off. We have been researching rivers in Geography and gave presentations to the class about our chosen rivers in the last week of term. We also went to Mui Wo in that week to study the rivers that flow through Mr Ali’s home village. Some even knocked on his door to see if we could pop in to his house for a spot of lunch!
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ARTIST in residence In February the primary school welcomed the Australian artist Sarah Fordham to Kellett. Sarah worked with primary two and primary five and showed us how she worked in her studio in Australia and what particular materials she liked to use. Primary two had a great time making a collaborative piece using hot and cold colours. Each child made their own Hong Kong Building drawing and we created stencils with card that would allow us to have both a positive and negative shape. We worked in oil pastels and acrylic paints, and adopted Sarah’s techniques and style of work. This included making different patterns and working with fluorescent and neon paints. It was a wonderful three days and the final piece was a real triumph, well done to primary two! Primary Five had a different theme of self-portraiture. Sarah demonstrated how to draw a continuous line portrait without taking your pencil off the page. We all then drew ourselves from photos and made a linear portrait that would later become painted. Sarah then demonstrated how to divide the face into sections and to apply pattern and colour to the various shapes that had been created. We later used old pieces of wall-paper to make a patch-work background. Our final results were well worth the wait and we plan to skype Sarah to show her our completed portraits. A great end of terms work primary five!
Chinese Studies To celebrate Chinese New Year 2012, the year of the Dragon, Primary 6 designed and made dragons using boxes and fabrics. The children were organised into small groups to create the dragons which were then submitted into a school staff-voting competition. All the students put in a huge amount of effort and in total, 23 excellent dragons were created. There were many positive comments from the judges as they struggled to decide on the winners. In the end, first prize was awarded to Yuri Hwang, Anna Leven and Kendall Dees, second prize went to Maya Juszczakiewicz-Lewis, Millie Krantz and Grace Walker and third prize to Julia Murray, Jemima Abate and Christina Leung. Congratulations to all those students. A few P6 students volunteered to help with the CNY assembly. With less than 2 weeks of preparation during Chinese lessons, they staged a good show on ‘Zodiac animals and their characters’. Thanks to Yuri for writing the main script and well done to P6 for those who participated! Classes from Reception, P1 and P2 enjoyed lion dancing at the playground. Thanks to Issac Chan from P1 who demonstrated the dance to various classes with great expertise. Our joint school activities with our neighbouring local school, Hok Shan Primary School, have been meaningful and rewarding. Kellet Primary 4 students enjoyed visiting Hok Shan twice for their Chinese reading activities while Primary 5 attended a Game day at the school and had a great time. Primary 6 had the opportunity to host the Hok Shan students at Kellett twice, leading their English reading activities.
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PRIMARY
ARTS
Chinese Painting Club Young Kellett Chinese artists at work.
MUSIC Beauty And The Beast Our annual school musical was, once again, a sell-out! Congratulations to the 47 cast members for their fantastic performances over three nights in March. The actors had been working as a team for just 8 weeks to bring the show to fruition. A special thank you to Mr Cox, Ms Ho & Ms Charlotte for all of their hard work. Also – a big thank you to the 37 parents who assisted with sets, costumes, props, ticketing and photography!
FOBISSEA Primary Performing Arts Carnival Twenty-one students were accompanied by Mr Cox, Ms Ho and Ms Laufer to represent Kellett at the Primary Performing Arts Carnival. It was the first time Kellett had taken children to this new event. The Carnival was hosted by the British International School Jakarta. It was an incredibly worthwhile experience for our students participating in choir, orchestra, drama and dance. Additionally, the students participated in a wide variety of workshops focused around the theme of “Let’s Go Tribal”. We are looking forward to participating in next year’s carnival.
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ICT
iLearn Launch Our whole school learning environment was launched at the beginning of February this year. To help support the launch, a whole school training day was held at the end of January to support teachers in beginning to create content to engage learners. Six weeks on and many classes have really taken the bull by the horns and become engaged with the initiative, posting regularly and using the site to facilitate their learning outside of school. Students have been able to access photo galleries, engage in forums and personalise their own online spaces. They also have the opportunity to watch videos and comment on them in a password protected environment. As time progresses, iLearn will be used to facilitate learning across a greater range of subjects and areas, as well as being a focal point for extending learning outside of school and for home/school communications. A Parent Technology Morning has also been held to support parents in their use of the platform.
La Galette des Rois Primary 3 pupils have learnt about the delicious French tradition of the Kings’ cake : La Galette des Rois. They decorated their own crown and then made cakes using the metric system and following the recipe in French. Pupils really enjoyed eating their Galette des rois at lunch time and finding the hidden “fève” (a nice porcelain figurine) in the cake!
FRENCH
ICT In primary, ICT is used to enhance the teaching of French. Children can find many resources to practise at home on the Primary French webpage on the school website. In September, French will be embedded in the ilearn platform.
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SPORT
Mixed Netball In January Kellett held our annual Mixed Netball tournament. We had 12 ESF and International schools participating and it was an enjoyable tournament for all. The Kellett team were unlucky to be knocked out in the semi-finals. Thanks to all the Kellett staff that helped with the scoring, results and umpiring during the tournament.
FOBISSEA Trials and Squad A great turn out again from students for the FOBISSEA trials. A different format this year meant that the trial process started in November/December during games lessons. Approximately 100 children participated in the trials and it was hard to choose our squad of 36 with such a wealth of talent available. Well done to those who succeeded in gaining a place, many had worked extremely hard in the off-season in their own training. We are well under way with our training and looking forward to travelling to Beijing in May/June for the 2012 games.
P5 swim gala It was fantastic to see so many children participating in our P5 swim gala in February at West Island School. Each child gets points for their class for participation, depending on the number of races that are entered. The participation points amounted to many more than last year when our P5’s were in P4 and competing for the first time! Lots of individual events, as well as class relays, made for a great afternoon’s competition for all.
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STORT PRIMARY
Athletics meet Tai Po Kellett along with 15 other International and ESF schools took part the Inaugural International Schools athletics meet which was held on Wednesday 15 February at Tai Po Sports Stadium. Approximately 350 students were involved. Kellett was represented by a team of 20 Primary 6 students who performed fantastically on the field and the track. It was a great event and wonderful to see so many children participating in athletics. A few notable finishes from the Kellett squad. Jake Woods – 1st place overall Long Jump (3.75m) Oliver Spanton – 2nd place overall High Jump (1.21cm) James Orchard – 2nd overall 800m (2m 46) Raff Dale, Oliver Spanton, Ben Henchman, Jake Woods – 1st place overall 4x100m relay Matthew Wright and Jemima Abate were placed in heats and went into the 100m finals William Davidson was placed in the 200m heats to make the finals An enjoyable event and we are looking forward to competing again next year.
Cross Country and CIS Road Race Friday mornings have been early ones at Stanley Ho and around 45 runners from Primary 4, 5 and 6 have been congregating and being put through their paces! It has been great to see runners of different levels coming down and setting personal targets to improve! We have enjoyed a friendly race against HKIS at Tai Tam Country Park, a friendly with GSIS and two morning runs against Kennedy School. The highlight of our training was preparing for the CIS Road Race where we had 25 students participate. We had a few top 5 finishes and our P6 girls won 2nd place in the team awards.
Rugby We entered 3 rugby tournaments in the run up to the Hong Kong 7’s weekend! The boys played well at the DBIS Beach touch tournament at the end of February. They were unlucky to be knocked out in the semi-finals. We had a good run in the CIS mixed touch tournament on the 1st March, however the cold, wet and misty weather was not conducive to our playing style! At the recent ESF Mixed Tag tournament we were unlucky to be beaten in the bowl final!!
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SPORT PRIMARY
Saturday Soccer Another successful season of Saturday Soccer has come to an end! What will everyone do on a Saturday morning between 8-9am (have a lie in I hear parents say). Saturday Soccer is a great Kellett tradition and one that we hope will continue to grow for many years to come! I would like to extend my thanks to all the coaches who organise the children each week. A huge thank you to Adam Osborn who is “hanging up his boots” at the end of this season after 5 years at the helm! Adam has worked tirelessly to ensure that everything runs smoothly for the sessions and everything is in place at the beginning of each season. Adam has passed the baton onto Marcus Woodger who I am sure will be out recruiting for both children and coaches soon.
Looking Forward We have enjoyed lots of friendlies this term in netball, rugby and cross country. Next term Wednesday sports will be cricket and t ball. Swimming continues on Thursday morning and Biathlon training starts for the ESF Aquathon which takes place in June!
News from the School Council Over the past months we have done lots of things to help the school like getting new playground equipment to give you a better play time. For the equipment we finally found a solution to get you to play with it properly… RULES. The whole school were asked to think about rules and the school council reps chose the best ones. We have been thinking about the environment and have decided that we would like every class to recycle as much paper as possible. All classes from next term will have a recycling bin to put their paper in. We are also going to buy new paper recycling bins to store the paper before collection in the playground. We are now preparing for an idea we came up with - Paperless Day! Paperless day will be a special day when we will move around classes in our phases and do things without using paper. We are encouraging everybody to think about the environment so thought a whole day without using paper would be a great idea! In the April School Council meeting we brainstormed lots of ideas to give to the teachers to help plan the day! Watch out for the date for Paperless day…coming soon! James Barber 22
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As we all know, Kellett School did our own small Earth Hour from 12:00-1:00 during our lunchtime on Thursday, March 29. We did this because the real Earth Hour is on Saturday, March 31 and we would not be able to do it together. Earth Hour is a worldwide event aimed to inspire people to reduce their use of energy every day, not by sitting in the dark for an hour each night, but by taking little steps, which can make a huge difference. The first Earth Hour was inspired by a demonstration in Sydney, Australia on 31 March, 2007. At that event, more than 2 million Sydney residents and 2,100 businesses switched off their lights and non-essential electric appliances for one hour. The idea was to make a powerful statement to save electricity. Since then, Earth Hour has become a global event. Earth Hour is held every year on the last Saturday of March, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour or longer. In 2011, Earth Hour grew to include 135 countries. This year, Kellett families, go beyond the hour and make a difference. Kiera Moran
PRIMARY
PRIMARY FEATURES 100 Days in Reception In February we celebrated 100 days at Kellett with lots of 100 themed activities like bouncing a ball 100 times, seeing how many jumps we could do in 100 seconds. This gave the children a fantastic understanding of the size of 100 and what an achievement 100 days in Reception is.
CIRCUS WEEK In January we held our first themed week across the primary school. The circus was the theme with year groups and subjects immersing themselves in all things circus during a number of lessons. Reception, Primary 1 and Primary 2 enjoyed performances from the Cheese brothers and a rundown of different aspects and skills of the circus. They developed the theme further in class by producing art work and did lots of math’s skills using the Circus theme. In PE they were able to practice some Circus skills and dancing. Primary 3 and 4 were working on the art of plate spinning; many picked up this difficult skill in about 20 minutes! In class, Primary 4 went on to do video tutorials of how to plate spin and presented these to their class. Primary 5 and 6 worked on learning to juggle. With perseverance most were able to juggle at least a couple of rotations by the end of their workshop. These classes made their own juggling balls during their Art lessons and went through the process of following instructions and ensuring that the correct methods were adopted to make the perfect set of juggling balls. Lots of extension literacy was done back in the classroom, with some classes producing some great poetry. An enjoyable week and great to have the whole school immersed in the one topic. We are eagerly planning the next one!
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PRIMARY FEATURES PRIMARY
BOOK PARADE
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PRIMARY FEATURES PRIMARY
Primary Maths Challenge Many children in P5 and P6 took part in the Primary Maths Challenge, a competition organised by The Mathematical Association in the UK. It requires the children to use and apply their mathematical understanding and test their skills to answer some very difficult questions. The children pictured are those who achieved sufficient marks to receive a bronze, silver or gold certificate. The top-scoring student was Edward Salmon who managed to qualify for the even more challenging Bonus Round, where he received a Bronze Medal Well done to Edward and to all the children who took part.
ASSEMBLY
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SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS The annual British Council “Going Global” Conference is the largest gathering of Higher Education policy and decision makers in the world. This year 1800 delegates representing 80 countries attended the three day conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London. For the last two years I have attended the conference and have listened with great interest to governments, universities and industries articulate their successes and discuss the challenges they face in a rapidly changing world. A number of conference themes have a direct bearing on Secondary Education:
Physics
Chinese
Chemistry
Art
The growing global demand for Higher Education is resulting in an ever increasing emphasis being placed upon an applicant’s non-academic achievements (their Personal Profile) in securing a place on a degree course. The concern being expressed by employers that graduates do not have the necessary skills and experiences to be functional in the global work force. The debate over the relative value of ‘academic’ degrees vs. ‘vocational’ degrees to graduates and employers
Biology
Product Design
Physical Education
Music
History
Drama
To ensure Kellett students are best prepared for their futures, and to support them in presenting a distinctive and competitive Personal Profile on application to universities, a robust and highly relevant Year 12 and Year 13 Global Citizenship Programme is being developed for study alongside a rigorous Academic Programme based upon A Level qualifications. Our graduates will enter the global workforce with the confidence and skills necessary to be successful at work and in their personal lives. They will be equally at home in any world city, be it Beijing, London, New York or Sydney. They will benefit from a strong global social network, founded on the friendships established whilst studying in an international educational environment. Kellett’s first Year 12 students will embark on this two year A Level Programme in September 2013. Each student will follow an Academic Programme (made up of 3 or 4 A Level subjects) and the Global Citizenship Programme. In Year 12 it is typical to study four A level subjects and then in Year 13 to continue three of the four subjects to the final examinations (some students will have the option to continue all four subjects). Each A Level subject is taught for five hours a week and there are thirty hours of lessons in the school week. The table below illustrates how the thirty hours of weekly lesson time is divided between the Academic and Global Citizenship Programmes. Academic Programme
Global Citizenship Programme
Year 12 Term 1
20 hours
10 hours
Year 12 Term 2
20 hours
10 hours
Year 12 Term 3
20 hours
10 hours
Summer
2 to 6 weeks
Year 13 Term 1
15 or 20 hours
15 or 10 hours
Year 13 Term 2
25 hours
5 hours
Year 13 Term 3
Revision and External Exams
The Academic Programme The following subject choices are to be offered to our first Year 12 students. English Literature
Economics
Mathematics
Business Studies
Further Mathematics
French
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Geography As we grow the range of A Level subjects will be extended and could include: Media Studies
Information Communication Technology
Latin
Spanish
English Language
Textiles
Food Technology
Psychology
Philosophy
Music Technology
The Global Citizenship Programme The following are indicative of the literacies that will be focused on in the Year 12 and Year 13 Global Citizenship Programme: Sport, Health and Fitness Literacy: participating in a weekly sport programme and developing a thorough understanding of good body stewardship Art Literacy: participating in a weekly Arts programme and developing an appreciation of the Arts in general Critical Thinking and Philosophical Literacy: questioning assumptions and knowledge, investigating ethics and philosophical argument Statistical Literacy: understanding how numbers and statistics are used to support a point of view and influence opinion Financial, Business and Entrepreneurial Literacy: understanding macro financial issues and personal finance, setting up and building a business and identifying business opportunities and the qualities of an entrepreneur Public Speaking and Sales Literacy: understanding what to say and how to say it with impact and persuasion Digital and Media Literacy: being fluent with cutting edge technologies and applications such as social media advertising, making sense of and being able to use effectively the many different “channels” of information which now dominate society Group and Team Dynamics Literacy: understanding group, team, leadership and follower-ship theory and application Research Literacy: understanding research methods and writing extended pieces using primary and secondary sources University and Career Literacy: understanding the pathways into and through the huge range of careers which are now available. Supporting these literacies will be a broad offering of extra-curricular activities such as Silver and Gold Hong Kong Award for Young People, Model United Nations and the Sport Leadership Award along with a lively guest speaker programme and work shadowing programme where
the Hong Kong professional community will be able to add real value to our students. The balance of the Academic Programme and the Global Citizenship Programme will ensure our students present not only compelling and competitive university applications, but that they are also supported by a broad repertoire of knowledge, experiences and skills that will support their higher education studies and prepare them for the world of work. However, there will be some tough decisions to be made by our students about their use of time beyond the school day and particularly in the extended school holidays. A summer beach holiday in Bali will probably be more attractive and certainly less challenging than spending six weeks teaching English in rural China. The question is not only which of these pursuits add the most to the Personal Profile, but which will add most to an individual’s life skills, preparation for adulthood and ultimately the international workplace.
Kellett is no longer a fledging school, we are just 18 months away from the start of our first Year 12 and in preparation we are offering our students an extensive range of A level subjects supported by an exciting, challenging and highly relevant Global Citizenship Programme. Simon Giddings Deputy Principal Head of Secondary
student council On the last week of term before Easter, the secondary Student Council rang up a very pleased Pizza Box and ordered 40 large pizzas for the Pizza Sale. We had worked out the maths- buy one get one free on all pizzas, with each slice a profit of about 2 or 3 dollars. All the profits are going to “Living With the Tiger” which is a charity for children with HIV based in Thailand. Its charity work makes many people’s lives much better. A film was made about it and the film’s director came into Shau Kei Wan to talk to us about it. The story focuses on three of the orphans over a period of three years, and highlights the problems they encounter as they try to re-integrate back into their communities. Although the pizzas arrived much later than we wanted, we had a very successful sale with massive queues outside! We raised $2,216 and are very pleased to donate this to Living With the Tiger. Prior to the sale, we had a fantastic time deciding what to do to raise the money and when the day came it was well worth all the drama! Emily Swindin
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SECONDArY
ARTS Artist in Residence
Sarah Fordham
As part of the Kellett Artist in Residence program Australian artist and educator Sarah Fordham spent a week working with both secondary and primary students in February. The secondary students created a work on canvas exploring the theme of structures, strongly influenced by Sarah’s luminous colour palette and use of text and layering techniques.
ENGLISH Film project As part of the Kellett iPad trial, Year 7 worked collaboratively to produce a short movie based around the horror genre. The pupils were visited by Ants Media to help them hone their planning, production and camera skills. Half the groups worked using laptops, whilst the others used the iPad. Pupils were then asked to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of the two technologies. The task allowed the pupils to express the narrative of the horror genre in a creative and inspiring format.
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ARTS SECONDArY
GCSE Design and Technology Under Sevens Project As part of their GCSE project work, the year ten secondary Product Design students visited the Child Development centre at Matilda Hospital in January. They met with the staff and gathered primary research for their projects. Below is the project Brief set to the students and some sample work from Henry Salmon and Storm Roberts:
Design Task Children’s development in the first few years of life can have a dramatic impact on the later adult. You are required to design and make a product which would help in the physical and/or intellectual development of children in the under-seven age range. The product should be suitably packaged in the same house style of the company you have investigated and should include parental guidance. Your focus area should be educational toys for students with special needs. You will need to conduct both primary and secondary research to support your initial specification.
GCSE GEOGRAPHY Year 10 IGCSE Geography Students can now breathe a sigh of relief as they have completed their coursework. It makes up 27% of their final grade, the students took a transect from the peak to Centre building and were testing a set hypothesis ‘Residential Value increases with distance from the CBD’. The students then generated their own hypothesis by looking at the Bid Rent Model and Burgess’ Concentric Ring Model and used an ilearn forum to discuss their ideas. Confused? Perhaps this extract from Henry Salmon will help. Well Done, Year 10 for your fantastic efforts, next stop Year 11 Exams! Introduction Our coursework is based on results gathered from a transect between Central (the CBD) and the Peak (the residential higher class zone), on Monday 3 2011.
Hypothesis The first hypothesis is ‘Residential values increases with distance from the CBD.’ The second hypothesis is ‘Quality of service decreases as you travel from the CBD.’
The Burgess model is a concentric ring model of the zones of a settlement. The model is based around Chicago in 1925, with occupants of houses becoming wealthier, and age of houses decreasing towards the edge of the settlement. It is based around the idea that land values are highest in the CBD, and decrease towards the outskirts. The Burgess model on the whole is good as it allows geographers to describe, distinguish, and categorise different settlements. The downside is that not all settlements follow the same pattern; for example, Chicago was ‘planned’ (deliberately built from the centre outwards), and on flat land, whereas Hong Kong was built upon in different areas simultaneously, with hills and mountains affecting location of different settlement features.
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GEOGRAPHY The Bid-Rent model/curve shows how the zones/rings are separated: by what the rent different groups are willing to pay. Retail is more likely to pay higher rents for land in the CBD, whereas the Industrial and Residential groups will pay progressively less, and so occupy the middle (industrial) and outer (residential) zones of the settlement. The model is very closely linked with the Burgess model, as Ernest Burgess’ work was based on the Bid-Rent curve. The concentric rings of the Burgess model come from the intersection between rent values of different groups (on the Bid-rent curve), showing the division of the groups in the settlement. It shows land is cheaper further out, so consequently you would expect to find larger residential buildings close to the CBD. Historical function plays a big part in the way cities develop, and thus the way the models are shaped around them. Hong Kong used to be a major port, which is why it has developed from the sea then inland. In the 1970s, higher income led to the first private housing estate being built in Taikoo Shing. On the other hand, in-line with the hypothesis, the Peak become a very popular place for the wealthy Europeans living in Hong Kong around 1888, when the Peak Tram first opened (this allowed much easier access to the Peak; there used to be just a steep path). Two hotels opened—The Peak Hotel and the Mount Austin Hotel, making it a high class place, only for the people rich enough to afford the houses there.
GEOGRAPHY Getting to Grips with what is below our feet. This term year 8 have been focusing on Natural Hazards. The students’ start off by finding out what is below their feet, and just how this can cause tectonic hazards such as Tsunami, Earthquakes and Volcanoes. The students were set a challenge to create a comic strip which would be suitable for younger students to learn about the layers of the earth, and an educational game to support this. The students learnt that the best way to learn is to teach! The Geography department looks forward to reading the essay which is the final part of the module. Well done year 8 for such creative work!
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HKAYP Hong Kong Award for Young People Final Assessed Bronze Expedition The students had a challenging time on the HKAYP final assessed overnight expedition on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 February. The Hong Kong Award for Young People is the Hong Kong equivalent to the UK Duke of Edinburgh Award. Now that the expeditions have been successfully completed, participants are finishing off the ‘Skill’, ‘Service’ and ‘Physical recreation’ sections of the award. Here are a few of the best and worst moments of the final HKAYP expedition…
Best Moment(s)! Henry Salmon I had two best moments from our walk, one from each day. The first was after lunch, when we played an hour of cops-androbbers, fuelled by our awesome tuna sandwiches! This was incredible, as we had a massive beach to play on; combined with forests and shrubs behind, with the added excitement of finding a skull buried in the bushes (we still haven’t identified the victim!). My second favourite moment was after we got lost, on the second day. We had just begun to struggle with finding a path, and were coming downhill towards where we thought a path might be. For a bit of fun, I jumped down from a small rise in the path. Seeing as I didn’t realise there was a bend in the path, I continued to fall, straight through a bush. This was hilarious to everyone, even me once I saw the funny side of it. A major bonus of me flying through the bush was spotting the path we had been searching for! Whilst lying down in the bushes, I could see, literally right in front of my face, a clearing leading off into the bushes as a path. This provided further merriment to the group, realising that my ‘fortunate’ accident had actually helped us out.
Freya Darnton Throughout the final expedition on HKAYP, we had many good times… and some bad times. On the first day it was quite easy, we arrived at school all ready to go. At 9.30 we arrived at the head of the trail in Sai Kung then had a walk that took us about five or When we got to the campsite we set up our tents, and cooked our meals. On the second day we woke up bright and early to start our walk. We walked along the beach, and along the coastal path, missing two of our turnings we decided to go through the bushes. This was, to say the least, interesting. After we found our path again, we went looking for another contour path that would take us around the south side of the mountain … sadly there was only a beginning and an end of the path, so we went in to the undergrowth again. After about five minutes we decided that it would probably be a good idea to turn back. We then climbed up the steep mountain, and came back down the other side again. After this we had a phone call from the other group, saying that they were lost in the undergrowth, so we waited for them to locate themselves, after locating Henry up a tree and waving his orange bag cover around we told them to try and back track. We all met up at the top of the mountain then turned back and took the clearer route back to the road.
Best Moment Richard Atkinson When we made it to the campsite after getting lost for a while, I enjoyed putting up the tent and cooking the garlic noodles. It was fun to chat with the other group and to talk about our day compared to theirs. The next day my favourite part of the day was the breakfast which was sausages, eggs, Rusty’s potato and English muffins. This was my favourite meal of the trip because it was hot and nice for a camp meal. When we set early off we didn’t know what would happen in the future of our expedition. When we reached the lookout point we knew we were lost. We turned back and went up a path that was extremely overgrown and we had to go through whole trees and thorn bushes that had grown over the track. This is one of my favourite parts of the expedition because I enjoyed the challenge of clearing a path by pushing small trees to the ground and crawling on the ground to find the exit point.
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Worst moment Michelle Jang My worst moment was when we were hiking on the second day around Tai Mun Shan. We started walking on a path when we hit a two way junction and we thought it was the right route. After walking on that path for ten minutes, the path came to a dead end but we kept walking. Because there wasn’t a path anymore, we literally had to hang on to trees on the side and make our own paths. At one point I was hanging on to a small tree and the tree broke; I slipped and slid downhill. I held on to another tree and I was getting help from my team members. But I realised that there were loads of red ants on the tree I was holding on to which were starting to bite me. They were all over my arms and they stung. I have the biggest phobia of ants and I didn’t know there were ants on that tree and I could not get them off me because I would have fallen if I stopped holding on to that tree because it was a steep hill. I just had to wait for my team members to help me get out of there to get the ants off my arms.
Best moment Alex Mortensen My favourite moment of this trip was when we finally got on top of Tai Mun Shan. The climb was nearly an hour long through dense foliage and crumbling rocks. When we got to the top we lay down our bags and just dropped to the ground, after basically acting dead for a couple of minutes I got out my bottle and downed a near half litre of water. I had never thought water could taste so good, the soothing cool swashing round my mouth rolling down the back of my throat, the minerals tingling on the top of my tongue. Soon after I got out my snakes sweets (no artificial flavours!) and started jamming then into my mouth, the sweetness dissolving ever so slowly. I savoured that moment. My second favourite moment was when I got home. I ripped off my bag and jumped into the shower with the steaming hot water rushing down my back. As soon as I got out I went to the dinner table and dug into my favourite, homemade teriyaki beef with fried rice. When done I got on my pyjamas and hid under my duvet and immediately fell asleep. It was the most relaxing sleep I ever had, especially after sleeping in a 2man tent. By the next morning I was fully recovered.
outward boUnd
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GEOGRAPHY
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SECONDARY FEATURES year 7 Year 7 are enjoying a practical course in First Aid delivered by School Nurses Sarah and Justin. They practised their bandaging techniques on each other as part of this hands-on module.
global citizenship year 8 Mr Wallace Chan, a weather forecaster and scientific officer from the Hong Kong Observatory came in to talk to our Year 8 students about Climate Change. He explained the science behind renewable energy and the impact climate change has on the urbanisation of Hong Kong. Thanks to studying the topic of environment for a number of weeks with their tutors, a few of our bright young students were able to answer some tricky questions posed by Mr Chan during the presentation!
year 9 As part of Year 9 GC the students took a trip to a Hindu temple, following a very informative talk from Hanisha at the Primary School. The students had a fantastic experience and learnt much about the religion whilst seeing people from the public worshiping and using the temple as part of their daily lives. Year 9 would like to express their thanks to Hanisha for the talk, and all of the wonderful delights that she shared with us.
Year 9 Self-Defence Class. As part of the current personal safety module in Global Citizenship, year 9 students were invited to take part in a selfdefence class. The students learnt lots of moves with the real star of the show having to be Oliver Edmonds who used his martial arts experience to always help the instructor demonstrate the moves. Well done Year 9 and Oliver!
HISTORY Year 7 with their motte and bailey castle models
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SECONDARY FEATURES SECONDArY
maths
Intermediate Maths Challenge – 2nd February All students in Year 9 and 10 took part in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, which is the biggest Maths competition in the UK with over 600,000 students and 4000 schools taking part annually. The 25 multiple-choice questions challenge student’s mathematical thinking but do not rely too heavily on specific subject knowledge. Congratulations to the award winners who were: Bronze: Henry Salmon, Arthur Hui and Charles Orchard Silver: James Baghurst and William Munro-Greaves Gold and Best in School: William Robinson Year 7 and 8 students should look forward to the Junior Event on April 26.
Dragon Maths – Thursday 22nd March For the first time Kellett took two teams from Year 7 and Year 8 to take part in the Dragon Maths competition which this year was held at the ISF Academy in Pok Fu Lam. The teams faced stiff competition from 15 other international schools but managed to hold their own in a manic relay race, solving as many problems as they could within the 45 minute time limit. Congratulations to the two teams of Chloe Kim, Taylor Coates, Oscar Mclean and Georgina Jarrett for Year 7 and Rosie Howl, Andre Hui, Meg Barber and Emma Baghurst for Year 8; they put in a great performance and represented the school fantastically. We look forward to attending again next year at Renaissance College.
Year 9 following in the footsteps of the Japanese invasion and occupation of Hong Kong, with historian Jason Wordie.
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SECONDARY FEATURES Extra-Curricular Activities in the Languages Department Have a read about what students at Kellett Secondary have been doing outside of lesson time in languages and also how we celebrated Chinese New Year.
Playing a memory game with Latin words “The best thing about Latin Club is that you get to study the Romans as well as the Latin language.” (Cameron Taylor)
Performing a role-play at the market “The best thing about Spanish club is that you learn useful language that will come in handy when I visit Spain” (Mao Nakano)
”Latin Club helped me grasp the basics of Latin, giving me extra time to go over what I may not have fully understood in class.” (William Robinson)
“Spanish club is fun and interesting” (Rose Ewins)
modern foreign language
Students playing the Three Kingdoms card game “I joined Chinese Games Club because I like games, especially strategy games, so I have especially liked learning how to play the Three Kingdoms card game san guo sha.” (Francis Coghlan) “I love learning Mandarin and I love playing games. Playing new games in a different language helps me learn new characters and phrases.” (Sophie Taylor)
During lessons this Chinese New Year, students learnt a lot about Chinese culture beyond that which is covered in their Chinese text books. This helped to build upon their interest in learning Mandarin. Amongst other things, they learned to sing Chinese songs, cook dumplings and make Chinese New Year lanterns.
Ms Zhu’s Year 7 group performance of a Chinese song during Secondary Assembly “I think it was very useful and fun. We were able to learn Chinese characters while singing songs” (Chloe Kim)
Mr Allen’s Year 7 group learning to make and cook dumplings
Ms Xiao’s Year 8 group leaning to make Chinese New Year lanterns “I enjoyed making the lanterns because it was very different to what we usually do in Mandarin Lessons. It was interesting to learn more about the Chinese New Year.” (Lauren Wood)
MUSIC International Schools Choral Music Festival- Beijing 2012 Kellett Secondary was proudly represented at the ISCMS festival by 20 students accompanied by Mr Barker and Ms Shek. The world famous composer, Karl Jenkins worked with students on some of his most famous compositions such as ‘Gloria’ and ‘Te Deum’. We also premiered a special commission composed by Karl Jenkins for this special occasion inside the Forbidden City Concert Hall. Auditions for the next event will take place in August this year with a few more surprises in store- watch this space! 36
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE THREE APRIL 2012
SECONDARY FEATURES SECONDArY
Secondary Inter-Form Music Competition II This year saw another magi ver 450 people in the Auditorium Year 7 10 students performed everything from the Irish Folk song Danny Boy to the latest smash hit by One Direction. Adjudicated by three professional musicians, the winning tutor group 8 Electrons collected the Inter-Form Trophy.
Recital Awards 1st Place
Matilda Bishop (7 Tudors)
2nd Place
Rosie Howl (8 Electrons)
3rd Place
MJ Ma (Year 10)
Choir Awards 1st Place
8 Electrons
2nd Place
7 Stuarts
3rd Place
7 Windsors
Glee Awards
Outstanding Music Captain Award Sam Tuckwell Sophia Mortenson Katie Howell Harriet Adams Rosie Howl
Audience Award
1st Place
7 Windsors
Max Rosgen
8 Protons
2nd Place
8 Protons
Clara Peirce-Finken
Inter-Form Music Trophy 2012
3rd Place
8 Neutrons
Oscar Hocking
8 Electrons
physical education curriculum Term 2 in the P.E Curriculum has been a busy time with our website going live. This has allowed the PE Department to enter the 21st Century with our PE forum and online assessments. Netball, Hockey, Rugby and Badminton have been the sports that have dominated the Curriculum in Term 2. PE Department Website.
The introduction of Rugby into Year 8 PE lessons has been a very welcome addition to the Curriculum especially with the boys!! We are very much looking forward to hosting our first ever Kellett Tens Tournament which will be held at Kings Park on Tuesday 27 March. At the moment the Year 8 PE lessons have been split into girls and boys groups, the girls are carrying on with Netball to further develop their match play skills while the boys are working on their basic rugby skills. Hockey lessons have been taking place on the water based pitches at Kings Park the home of Hong Kong Hockey and at the Valley. The pupils have shown excellent work rate and effort which has resulted in a great improvement in both their fitness and skill levels. This is very promising and getting Miss Hill very excited especially with the introduction of a Kellett School Hockey team next Academic Year. Our resident Badminton specialist Mr Arbiser was very impressed with the progression that all the pupils made throughout the Badminton module. Pupils are becoming very familiar with the National Curriculum levels and are able to selfassess and evaluate their own performance using these levels. On our return from our Easter break we will be turning our focus to Tennis and Rounders where pupils will not only improve their skill level but will also acquire the skills needed to officiate both of these games.
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PE ECA’s Kellett Riding The Kellett riding team has been very busy lately with the Hartpury Interschool competition this year. This included 2 practices for the B team (riding Bubbles, Apache, Olympic Dreamer, Cream Cup with team members Harriet A, Harriet M, Katie H and Robyn M) followed by a competition on February 8 (In which they came 1st in their division and 7th overall!). This was a fabulous performance from them and a great team effort, as well as this they showed great sportsmanship. The A team also did well after 4 trips to and from Tuen Mun to ride their ponies (Wavy Peak, Puzzle, Elegance and Starlight with team members Sophie K, Clara K, Matilda B and non-riding Emilia B {Due to injury 3 days before!}) and followed by the competition on the 3 March in which Kellett A rode really well and came 2nd (a few miss-haps in the dressage!). And also rode very well even after battling with stubborn horses and eventually managed to get lots of points! They all rode exceptionally well and also put in a great effort! Matilda Bishop Year 8
Athletics I am very proud to have achieved 2nd place in the 200m in my first ever event for the Kellett athletics team, It was an amazing opportunity and experience. I am new to the school and it was fantastic to be there alongside such competitive and supportive teammates, who cheered for everyone the whole athletics meeting. Although it was a rainy and dull day, I believe everyone did magnificently and pushed themselves in their events however; I must work on a better start and push myself more to achieve 1st place. We all did well in the 4x100metres relay. The shock of the day was when the Yr7 girls beat the Yr7 boys!!! I am looking forward to the next athletics meet, packed full of more good results. Reuben Sweeney Year 7
Basketball Basketball ECA is an amazing opportunity to have fun with your mates, and to get to play in competitive tournaments. We came 3rd this year so we are proud owners of a Bronze Medal, which was this highest finishing position out of all the Kellett Basketball Teams. The team has bonded really well which has created a really good team spirit both on and off the court. The Year 7 Basketball team is just about to challenge the Year 8 team. I am not too worried to be honest, because the Year 7’s are going to win!! Sam Tuckwell Year 7
Secondary sportS day
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PE SECONDArY
Science A combination of Jelly, pigs and chemical reactions! It has been a mixed and varied term where Year 8 students have learned about rock formation and geology – through the medium of chocolate and jelly models. Lots of jelly was eaten in the making of this photo! Year 8 students have also been learning about respiration – including observing a pig lung dissection carried out by Mr. Brown and Mr. Chin. Student observers were generally fascinated by the texture, feeling and smell of a set of pig lungs! Year 9 students have been slightly more sensibly engaged, learning IGCSE analytical chemistry techniques to help determine end points in acid and alkali reaction.
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