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MARCH MAY 2018 2016
Drama Communication Performance
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MAr 2018
CONTENT Senior
WHOLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
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KELLETT NEWS
5-9
Welcome to our New Staff Staff Leavers Student Leavers Congratulations Kellett Cares
FEATURE 10-11 Modern Foreign Languages
highlights 12-15 Piano Festival Library Annual Fund
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Learning Technology Pok Fu Lam
HIGHLIGHTS 17-22 Head of Preparatory School School Council Reception to Year 6 Kellett Cares
Arts & languages 23-26 Modern Foreign Languages Art Music
Extras 27 ECAs Sport 28-29 Kowloon Bay
HIGHLIGHTS 30-36 Head of Preparatory School School Council Reception to Year 6 Prep Highlights Kellett Cares
Arts & languages
Modern Foreign Languages Music Art
Head of Senior School Learning Service Programme Maths History Geography Economics Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) Global Citizenship Sixth Form Design Technology Business Studies Science
Arts & languages
Preparatory
Prep Across the School
HIGHLIGHTS 42-54
37-39
Sport 40-41
Music English Art Drama Modern Foreign Languages
55-58
Sport 59
WHOLE SCHOOL
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE Across the globe there is a growing concern about the deterioration of student mental health and peer relationships. Hong Kong, the UK, Australia and the US, are all reporting growing pressures upon their respective mental health services and increasing diagnoses of clinical depression in children as young as seven years old. Sweeping claims are made to its cause; poverty, affluence, sense of entitlement, the breakdown of the traditional family unit, unrealistic expectations and social media pressures, to name a few.
Whatever the cause, schools are increasingly being asked to treat the symptoms, all too often without the essential resources they require to do so effectively. Based upon the adage ‘prevention is better than cure’, within education and young person services globally there is a growing movement to provide students of all ages with the skills and knowledge to support personal resilience and high self-esteem. There exists numerous well respected strategies, meditation, counselling, peer mentoring, social skill development, however, organisations advocating robust student mental health quickly realised the need for a programme encompassed not only well-being in general but also well-being within the context of education. Geelong Grammar School Institute of Positive Education (GGSIPE) has become a world leader in holistically addressing student mental health through ‘Positive Education’.
‘What is Positive Education? Positive Education brings together the science of Positive Psychology with best practice teaching to encourage and support individuals, schools and communities to flourish. We refer to flourishing as a combination of ‘feeling good and doing good’. Positive Education focuses on specific skills that assist students to strengthen their relationships, build positive emotions, enhance personal resilience, promote mindfulness and encourage a healthy lifestyle. Through teaching these valuable life skills, Geelong Grammar School provides its students with an increased capacity to learn effectively, as well as offering them a strong foundation on which they can build a successful life.
The Institute of Positive Education is a ground-breaking initiative by Geelong Grammar, dedicated to improving student and staff well-being. The Institute has the dual purpose of nurturing Positive Education at the School and assisting the growth of Positive Education throughout Australia and the world.’ Source; Geelong Grammar School Institute of Positive Education website
Two years ago, Kellett’s academic and pastoral leaders made the decision that the GGSIPE programme could offer enormous benefits to our community. Subsequently, under the auspices of the Kellett Annual Fund, the Prep Headteachers, Senior School Deputies, Head of Student Well-being and key members of staff have completed the initial Positive Education Training and are currently planning the rollout of the programme schoolwide. Thanks to the generous support of the Parents’ Committee, we are able to further accelerate our implementation plan. Members of the Geelong Positive Education Team are to provide training to all teaching staff next summer, prior to students returning to school. They will also lead a number of parents’ information sessions. Further information about the programme may be found in the respective Headteacher’s sections in this edition of ‘The Dragon.’ May I take this opportunity to thank the Kellett School Annual Fund and The Parents’ Committee for their most generous support as we move forward with this ground breaking initiative.
Ann Mc Donald Principal
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS
welcome to our new staff whole school Linda Chan Assistant HR Manager
Pok Fu Lam Preparatory
Anna Hopkins Class Teacher
Camilla Young EYFS Phase Leader
Elliott Suett Class Teacher
Harriet Green Class Teacher
Natalie Anderson Class Teacher
Dart Carroll-Lea Danielle Brannan INCO Teaching Assistant Learning Technology Teacher
Maddie Bavis Reception Class Teaching Assistant
Martina Ingrouille Teaching Assistant
Natasha Pearson Rebecca Marthinussen Sophie de Baecque Reception Class Teacher French Teacher Reception Class Teaching Assistant Cameron Tait Teaching Assistant
Liz Chow Teaching Assistant
Polly Havenhand Class Teacher
Sinead Brown INCO Teaching Assistant
Sowndarya Joseph Teaching Assistant
Virginie Rosier French Language Teaching Assistant
Sonia Manglanii Teaching Assistant
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
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WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS
Kowloon Bay Preparatory
Andrea Drumey-Grant INCO Teaching Assistant
Fatema Almardi Reception Class Teaching Assistant
Jamie Cannon Class Teacher / KS2 Phase Leader
Janine Higgins Class Teacher / English Subject Leader
Joe Vine Class Teacher / Mathematics Subject Leader
Katie Wreghitt PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER
Sarah Lineham KS1 Phase Leader
Sarah Marshall Class Teacher / Phase Leader
Xingpei Ren Mandarin Teaching Assistant
Irene Lo INCO Teaching Assistant
Kowloon Bay Senior
Allie Cho Sixth Form Administrator
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
Carolina Tirsina Head of Business STUDIES
ISSUE twenty march 2018
Chris Deplancke Mathematics Teacher
Helen John Physical Education Teacher
WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS
Kowloon Bay Senior
Jonathan Barton Head of English
Mark Beedham Business Studies/ Economics Teacher
Nicolo Staffieri Science Teacher (Physics)
Patty Kelly Science Teacher (Biology)
Linh Carpenter Henry Hargreaves Music / Theatre Techician Director of Swimming Lisa Mangles Language Teacher (German & French) Steven Fry Drama Teacher
Vanessa Hewitt Music Teacher
Rosie Alexander Learning Support Assistant
Victoria Walvis English Teacher
STAFF LEAVERS whole school
Abigail Birkett Assistant HR Manager
Pok Fu Lam Preparatory
Nicola Bruce Development & Communications Manager
Amy O'Connor Class Teacher
Shalini Roy Ghatak Teaching Assistant
Kowloon Bay Senior
Danielle Berthoud Deputy Head of Science (Biology)
Tina Hart Learning Support Assistant
Yvonne Lam Laboratory Technician III
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
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WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS
student leaverS A number of students left Kellett School at the end of the last term. We wish them all the very best with their future endeavours.
Pok Fu Lam Prep
Aarish Merchant
Ava Pepper
Conor Pepper
Cyra Merchant
Ethan Cohen
Felix Worthington
Jacob Ellis
Jessica Ellis
Joshua Herrmann
Lily Jesudason
Marc Cohen
Max Willoughby
Ruby Genesi
Sebastian Nacard
Kowloon Bay Prep
Dillon Tan
Ethan Tan
Harvey Burton
Lily Mae Hart
Nela Whiteman
Saran Clynes
Isabella Hamersley
Senior School
Adithi Phadke
Alyssa Hamersley
Anabelle Klintberg
Beatrice Yuen
Daisy Klintberg
Edward Chantrell
Elizabeth Nye
Ella Nicholls
Evania Klintberg
Jacob Williams
Jordan Alp
Josh Fabiani
Matilde De Francisco
Oliver Yau
Joshua Cohen
Liam Kiernan
Olivia Nicholls
Patrick Kiernan
Tommaso De Francisco
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
Victoria Lam
ISSUE twenty march 2018
Saskia Nacard
Tom Fabiani
WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS CONGRATULATIONS
BABIES •
Sabrina Chan – Keanna Au
•
Ali Herd – Lucy Ann Chiuchiarelli
•
Shalini Roy Ghatak– Natasha Roy Ghatak
Keanna Au
Lucy Ann Chi uchiarelli
Natasha
k Roy Ghata
Kellett Cares For many years, Kellett Prep School has been supporting ICM, a charity which, in its own words, “provides help, inspires hope and creates change for families living in extreme poverty in the Philippines”. We are proud of the relationship we have with ICM and the help we have given the Kellett Cares Kindergarten in Bacolod, through our fundraising initiatives.
In recent times, the Philippine government announced free public kindergarten places for every child, which moved ICM to review the education needs in the ultra-poor communities it supports. The fact that the majority of children already attend a public kindergarten means that the ICM kindergartens are no longer the most effective way to reach the children in need of help. Instead, the charity is developing its Transform programme and bringing education into the home by training mothers in the community to become their children’s first teacher, before they reach kindergarten age. Given that the Kellett Cares Kindergarten is no longer in operation, but that we wish to continue supporting ICM’s valuable work in the Philippines, Kellett Cares Prep has donated the money raised in Term 1 through pizza sales and at Sports Day to ICM’s Medical Mercy Fund. This was a fantastic combined total of HK$60,000, which will be used to provide life-changing health care to families who would otherwise not be able to afford it, including doctor consultations, surgeries, hospitalisation and transport costs, and medicine. As the year progresses we look forward to telling you the stories of some of the children we have helped with our donation. Please visit the ICM website if you would like to find out more: www.caremin.com
ICM’s Medical Mercy Fund helps children like Jayra who was born with the congenita l condition of clubfoot. She is pictured here while recovering from her recent operation in Hong Kong .
Thank you from the Kellett Cares team for your continued support, your donations, time and enthusiasm, which make it all possible.
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
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WHOLE SCHOOL
FEATURE
Modern foreign languageS Kellett School is proud to be able to offer specialist Language lessons from Reception through to Year 13. Languages at Kellett are provided as Modern Foreign Language programmes. Following the tradition of our 41 year old school, our curriculum is constantly evolving, always with ‘a love of learning and confidence for life’ as the central ethos. From Reception, all our students learn Mandarin with our specialist teachers and support staff. In Year 3, students may choose to take up French instead of Mandarin. They continue to learn this language until Year 8, when students add another beginner language to their timetable. In recent years, all language departments across both Prep Schools and our Senior School have worked closely together to ensure that we offer a coherent and comprehensive curriculum for every one of our students. Our languages programmes are continuously refreshed and redeveloped. We work with a spiral curriculum, aiming to make our lessons personal, engaging and challenging, with teachers and support staff always ensuring that there is time for feedback and support for students.
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Within our language lessons, students are encouraged to build their confidence in the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and to have an excellent understanding and appreciation of the language, culture and customs of the countries whose language is being studied. We also have a strong emphasis on resilience, social skills and self-confidence.
WHOLE SCHOOL
FEATURE
Outside of lessons, Kellett has strong links with a number of sister schools in Hong Kong and Beijing. We regularly exchange ideas, and students visit one another in order to spend time with native Chinese speakers. These are truly wonderful occasions for students to make new friends and to practice their language skills with children of their own age. Language learners at Kellett are very fortunate to be able to visit other countries and to learn about culture and language in these different settings. In Year 5, all students visit Beijing for five days. This is a fun-filled trip with many opportunities to sample the Chinese culture and language, as well as visiting their friends and pen pals from our sister school, Xin Xian Hutong Primary School. Not to mention, they enjoy trying lots of new foods!
Once students have decide on the language that they would like to study for GCSE, they have the opportunity to spend a week in the country of their language. This year, students visited Paris and Normandy in France, Xi’an in China, Barcelona in Spain and for the first time, Berlin in Germany. Visits include language lessons, cultural excursions and, of course, local food! These educational visits allow students to practice their language in real life situations and, perhaps more importantly, to build their confidence and love of learning languages. We are proud of our curriculum and of our students’ progress through their language learning from Reception to Year 13.
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ISSUE twenty march 2018
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WHOLE SCHOOL
HIGHLIGHTS
Piano Festival In November, we were thrilled to present Kellett School’s first ever Piano Festival, welcoming guest judges Tracy Mok, Charles Chuen and Jacqueline Leung. Jacqueline Leung, alumni of the Royal Academy of Music, also worked with some of our students in piano masterclasses and gave a performance. The festival featured students from Year 5 to Year 13, and was graded in two categories - Grade 4-6, and Grade 7 and above. The evening demonstrated the high standard of musicianship amongst our student body, including impressive displays of technique and expression, and some truly outstanding performances. Congratulations to all involved, it was a wonderful evening! Grade 4-6
Theo Bridge – Year 8
Commended
Anvita Verma – Year 6
Bronze
Samson Lee – Year 5
Bronze
Grade 7 and above
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Tomas Stoneley – Year 9
Silver
Lidiya Chernyavskaya – Year 6
Silver
Cameron Wong – Year 8
Silver
James Irwin – Year 9
Gold
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
Crystal Tian – Year 8
Bronze
Mandy Lee – Year 13
Bronze
Isaac Cheung – Year 13
Silver
Ryan Lee – Year 7
Silver
Lucan Flynn – Year 11
Silver
Kelvin Cheung – Year 11
Silver
Tiffany Sau – Year 12
Silver
Jacob Lo – Year 11
Gold
WHOLE SCHOOL
HIGHLIGHTS LIBRARY GENRIFICATION IN THE LIBRARY On entering our libraries in August our students were intrigued to see a complete change in the way we display and organise our fiction collections. Gone were the A-Z by author surname order they were so used to, and in its place colourful and enticing fiction collections organised by genre. It took us close to 3 weeks of the summer holidays to look at every fiction book and decide in which genre it should sit. In our Prep libraries, we have; adventure, animals, classics, fantasy, historical, humour, horror, mystery, realistic, science fiction, and sport. In our Senior School library, we have in addition; dystopian, war, and romance.
By shelving fiction collections by genre our users are finding it easier to locate reading materials that interest them and allows them to focus on a smaller sub section of books in our libraries – avoiding information overload! They are either finding undiscovered authors in their favourite genre, or deliberately expanding their reading to other genres. In addition, Senior School students are finding it easier to fulfil their English teachers’ challenge to read across genres, to find material to support their studies of particular genres (e.g. Gothic literature), and to find fiction material to support their learning in other subjects (e.g. historical fiction). So why make the change to genres? Studies have shown that the majority of library users locate materials by browsing the shelves (Baker, 1986). Anecdotally this is supported, as our users frequently request books in a particular genre rather than by a particular author.
Number of loans
The goal of the reorganisation is to make the library fiction collections much more user-friendly and customer focused and this appears to be working. Overall borrowing of fiction is up just under 14% comparing Aug – Nov 2017 to the same period in 2016, and we are seeing very clear indications of which genres are most popular in each library.
Aug – Nov 2016
Aug – Nov 2017
996
1115
Pok Fu Lam Prep students
4969
5652
Kowloon Bay Prep students
3307
3756
TOTAL
9268
10541
Senior School students
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ISSUE twenty march 2018
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WHOLE SCHOOL
HIGHLIGHTS Annual Fund The generosity of the Kellett Community continues to support the delivery of amazing enhancement projects for all the students through the School’s Annual Fund. This year the Annual Fund, the school’s sixth, ran from 16 October to 24 November, raising over HK$2M and enjoying a 24% Community Participation rate. Thank you to everyone who supports the Annual Fund.
Enhancements funded through the 2016-17 fund rolled out over the term alongside projects enabled through the current fund. At the beginning of the term, the Cricket programme at Kellett School was given a huge boost with the opening of the Cricket Nets on the KLB Sky Pitch. Special guests, former English cricketer Mr Mike Gatting, OBE and Mark Wright, Director of the HK Cricket Association officially launched the nets and the Kellett cricket teams were privileged to enjoy a special coaching session by Hong Kong Cricket coaches.
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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We welcomed Artist in Residence Francesco Lietti to PFL Prep in September and KLB Prep in November to help the Prep students to bring a large collective painting of the Hong Kong Skyline to life. Artist, Sophie Munns worked with Senior School Art students in November inspiring amazing art using simple seeds as the primary material. Also in November Years 7, 8 and 9 had the opportunity to take part in creative writing workshops with author, William Hussey focusing on developing plots, characters and settings. Harry Baker, World Slam Poetry champion presented to KS3 students and conducted a small workshop with Year 7 students to delveop their poetry writing skills. Sandra Traittel, Clinical Dietitian, spoke to PFL Year 2 & Year 6 students on heathy eating. She returned to KLB Prep in January 2018 to speak to Year 2 & Year 5 students which strongly tied in with the curriculum theme ‘We are what we eat!’ and ‘ Feed Me Now’. Simon Wood, Head of the Design Technology department completed the Design our Tomorrow (DOT) Training at University of Cambridge, which will be central in helping the School adapt its DT programme to meet the new GCSE and A-level specifications.
The Annual Fund’s explosive highlight of the term was of course the Christmas Lecture presented by Royal Institution scientists, Dan Plane and Dominique Sleat and Kellett’s own dynamic science team. Students, staff and parents enjoyed a fun evening of science and learning. Earlier in the day, all Years 5 and 6 students were treated to their very own Royal Institution ‘Explosive Food’ show. Part two of this project will see this year’s actual RI Christmas Lecture being replicated at Kellett School in Sept/Oct 2018. This will be an event not to be missed!
WHOLE SCHOOL
HIGHLIGHTS
With student well-being being a key focus for the school and to help further the integration of well-being across all aspects of school life, five members of the Senior Management/ Leadership Team completed further Positive Education Training at a Geelong Grammer School course. This included Ben Dixon, Head of School, PFL Prep; Jo Laufer, Head of School, KLB Prep; Jacquie Hills, Deputy Head of Senior School; Matt Seddon, Deputy Head of Senior School (House and Pastoral Care), and Arif Ahmad, Deputy Head of Senior School (Inclusion and Learning Support – school wide). Year 9 students completed Mindfulness Matters training before the Christmas break and this training will be adapted and offered to Years 3 and 6 in the next term. There are many more fantastic enhancements to come over the current school year and into the next and we look forward to sharing them with you. Please ask your child about their enhancement experiences, we always welcome commentary and feedback.
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
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PREP ACROSS THE SCHOOL
PREP ACROSS THE SCHOOL Learning technology The Learning Technology department was a hive of activity with lots of exciting projects happening in Term 1. Alongside curriculum computing lessons, the Learning Technology suites are used regularly to support the teaching of other curriculum areas, and is a place where children are highly engaged in their learning and challenged to stretch themselves. Technology is a fantastic resource used daily at Kellett, to support and enhance everyday lessons and provide memorable learning experiences in real life contexts.
MineCraft
In Term 1, students in Years 3 and 6 particularly enjoyed their work using the programme ‘Minecraft’ to better understand the topics they were studying. This highly popular game has been used as a tool for demonstrating the amazing new knowledge they acquired in their topic lessons. Year 6 used the programme to create a digital environment showing the journey of a river. In order to do this, they selected an island from a couple of options and were required to build and create their river, ensuring they included the key features learned in their Geography lessons. Once they had mapped the journey of their river, they needed to navigate around their island and screen shot photographs of the various features. The screenshots were then input into a google slide where text boxes were created for students to add detailed annotations including names and descriptions of each feature. The students were very proud of their finished projects, and their teachers were very impressed by their breadth of river knowledge.
E-safety and Design Skills
Safe use of technology and behaving responsibly when online is an issue we have dedicated a lot of time to in recent Year 6 lessons. As the oldest students in Prep, we know that we are role models to the younger students in school and need to set an example of how to be sensible when using computers and the internet. In our E-safety lessons, we had interesting discussions around what it means to be responsible, as well as important dos and don’ts. Following on from these lessons, we used the programme Keynote to devise a modern, interesting and purposeful poster to target younger students in the school and inform them of various ways they can keep safe online. Within Keynote, we learnt a range of new skills and techniques to make our posters modern, attractive and fun but also clear and interesting to read. Skills included: using instant alpha to create image transparency to gain the effect of objects appearing like stickers, grouping and ordering objects for layering, borders and the edit mask tool to crop and customise images.
Photography with Mextures Year 3
In PFL our Year 3 students kick-started their topic on ‘Light’ by experimenting with a photography app called ‘Mextures’. First they learnt how to take the perfect portrait shot; by focusing the camera, ensuring a blank background and using the rule of thirds. They then imported their photographs into the app and experimented with adding different layers to create different effects. Within the app, students were able to add formulas and textures to their photos as well as customise the colours and shade of the layers on top of their photos. The students thoroughly enjoyed creating their own unique photograph, and understood the importance of trialing effects before making final decisions about their photo effects.
iStopMotion and iMovie
In KLB our Year 6 students were deeply fascinated by their recent work on the phases of the moon. They wanted to consolidate all that they had learned by creating an animation which they could also show to younger students in the school to share their knowledge. They used a combination of apps to create their final piece of work. First they used iStopMotion to capture images for their animation. This was quite a tricky task as it involved taking many shots of small movements that could be then added together to make a moving clip. Images captured in the app were then exported to iMovie and edited by adding text, transitions and effects to create the final polished version. If you would like to view some of our movies, visit prep and scan the QR code on our iMovie display!
Google Certification
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
Congratulations to Clive Dawes, Danielle Brannan, Cecilia Ngan, Catherine Chang, Phoenix Zhao and Cora Yang for all gaining their Google Certified Educator Level 1 qualification!
PREPARATORY
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM How do we ensure that our students thrive and flourish? When asked ‘What are you looking for in your prospective school of choice?’ most parents who are visiting the school refer to a list of desirable criteria which include: high aspirations and expectations, excellent academic standards, highly skilled expert practitioners, a broad range of curricular and extra curricular experiences, enabling environments with good facilities, to name but a few.
However, when pressed, most parents usually prioritise, as a ‘must have’ factor, the wish for their son or daughter to be happy and develop a sense of well-being. It will also be of no surprise that this is also important to all the staff who work at the school. Happiness and well-being is a crucial factor in delivering the other criteria on the list of desirable factors.
“The school’s open culture actively promotes all aspects of pupils’ welfare. Pupils are safe and feel safe at all times. They understand how to keep themselves and others safe in different situations and settings. They trust leaders to take rapid and appropriate actions to resolve any concerns they have.” (School Inspection Handbook, 2015)
There is a lot of research to support what most of us take for granted; the imperative that the right conditions for learning are set within a school in order for learners to thrive, be happy and realise their full potential. OFSTED has made reference to the learning ‘climate’ in which lessons and day-to-day learning experiences need to be set within in an atmosphere where conditions are set to maximize learning. At Kellett we believe that the best learning experiences can only take place when students and adults develop trusting relationships where they feel safe and are prepared to take ‘risks’. This in turn, enables them to respond to the challenges of the curriculum and school life.
The Student Councils continue to act as a voice enabling all students to have an opportunity to suggest ideas, share opinions and make decisions about school life with regard to behaviour, well-being and relationships. Our very recent council meeting highlighted aspects within the playground setting, which could be improved, and in response, teachers and senior managers are working on projects to help students action their excellent and well thought out requests. Look out for a new friendship bench in the Spring.
At Kellett, we have a commitment to ensuring that we create the right environment for learning. The recent introduction of our new commitment to cultivating well-being provides a clear pledge to ensure that students and staff have an environment where they can thrive. The introduction of ‘Positive Education’ is being delivered to ensure there is a clear approach and strategy that galvanizes a range of initiatives that we already have in place. There are a number of aspects that we develop that underpin this and they are all closely linked and intertwine. We apply a structured approach to nurturing positive behaviour, our policy sets out clear foundations, expectations and responses to how this should be delivered. The management of cultivating student behaviour is complex and interwoven into the everyday interaction and is very much part of ensuring that our students thrive. As part of this we are committed to ensuring that we tackle bullying in its different forms. We have a clear policy that defines what it is (and what it is not) and the procedures that underpin how we respond to issues that may arise. For example, some of our recent assemblies have focused on the role of the by-stander, clarifying through role-play, and enacting potential contexts where the situations may occur and what to do when it may be you. We have carried out a student survey and consulted with our school improvement partners (Buckinghamshire Learning Trust) in order to identify how we can improve our anti-bullying approaches and strategies.
Our Global Citizenship (GC) programme at Prep, continues to develop and become defined within the curriculum. The introduction of the Kellett Learner Profile has helped define this. The different aspects of the KLP have been shared during assemblies and our GC co-ordinators ensure that teachers are prepared and supported to enable students to explore and further consider themes, topics and concepts within their class settings. As a Head of School, I have the benefit and pleasure of seeing how students develop and grow, particularly in respect of their wellbeing and citizenship. I often see ‘random’ and ‘measured’ acts of kindness between pupils and adults on a daily basis. This, in my opinion, is as result of how we model, review and communicate our expectations across the school and this enables them to thrive, prosper and make the most of the wonderful opportunities that are on offer for them within and beyond the school community. Ultimately, creating well-rounded, ethically minded and responsible citizens is the job of the whole community. We may not always follow or agree on how this is executed but we all share and agree the principles underlying how we should guide our young people to make honest, appropriate and well informed decisions about how they interact with one another. This is key in delivering the aims of the school.
Ben Dixon Head of Preparatory School, Pok Fu Lam KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
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PREPARATORY
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM School council We had a busy and exciting start to our first term as this year’s School Council. We began the term by holding exceptionally high-quality hustings in class, followed by elections for each class’ School Council Representative and, finally, further hustings and elections were held by the newly formed School Council to establish the Executive Committee. We enjoyed getting to know each other and learning about the responsibilities of our new roles within the School community. We also enjoyed supporting Kellett Cares, our school charity. We helped Kellett Cares by collecting donations for St James’ Settlement, a charity that provides a wide range of community services across Hong Kong, and raising money through the sales of Candy Canes. In addition to this, we helped Kellett’s ‘Feel Good Fridays’, by organising fun activities for our peers to participate in. During our meetings, we discussed important issues and thought about how we can continue to make our school a better place. We worked with Mr. Drew and thought about how we can continue working on our Global Goals, particularly tackling climate change. We discussed potential new awards that could accompany the Pok Fu Lam Promise Award, which is presented during our weekly assemblies. Finally, we talked about how we can improve our playground. We look forward to sharing the results of these discussions in term 2.
Reception The children enjoyed a wonderful first term at Kellett! They settled in beautifully, and very quickly became increasingly confident, inquisitive and eager to learn.We focused on thinking about ourselves, our families and people who help us throughout the term. We were very lucky to go out on two trips; our first trip was to the Aberdeen Police Station. During our visit, we met and talked with police officers who told us about their jobs, their uniforms and also let us look inside a police van. The children were very excited and enjoyed pretending to be detectives back at school, working out who a mystery suitcase belonged to by thinking about the clues inside the case! Our second trip was a walk to the local Post Office in Wah Fu. Not only did the children get to see the local area, but they were also able to post their handwritten invitation for the Christmas show to their parents and see how quickly their invitation was delivered. The children also loved our dress up day where they were invited to come to school dressed as something they might like to be when they grow up. This was a fantastic opportunity for speaking and listening, as the children bravely stood up and talked to their whole class about what they had dressed up as and why. Following this, they were inspired to have a go at drawing and writing using their new phonics skills that they are so proud to have learnt throughout the first term. Well done Reception, a great start to school life!
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HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM PREPARATORY
Year 1 Year 1 had a great term learning all about ourselves in our ‘Super Me’ topic. We learnt about our super powers of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting, and set up a carousel to explore these senses. We had a wonderful Superhero Day where everyone, including teachers, dressed as Superheroes and took part in lots of fun activities. We also became experts at naming the different bones in our body and understanding how important our skeleton is, as well as knowing the names of different organs in our body. Our Hong Kong topic began with a fabulous tour around Hong Kong. We took the incredibly fast elevator all the way to the top of the ICC to visit Sky 100, taking in the view of Hong Kong from Kowloon, and then rode the Peak Tram all the way to The Peak to see the incredible view of Hong Kong from the top of the island. We learnt about the physical and human features of Hong Kong and also explored how Hong Kong has changed over time. Throughout each topic, we produced some fabulous writing and became better at using full stops, capital letters and finger spaces in our writing. We also continued to work on our maths topics and became much better at our number bonds. It was a great term and we can’t wait to start the next one!
Year 2 Year 2 had an exciting and busy first term! We began the year by exploring the topic, ‘Where in the World?’, using primary and secondary sources to help us investigate different places around the world and had a lot of fun making our own globes! We learnt about different climates and weather conditions and how this impacts on habitats. We especially enjoyed exploring local habitats and animal adaptations on our trip to Pui O. In English, we explored a range of genres, from nonchronological reports about penguins, to instructions on ‘How to make a Jam Sandwich’. We read a whole range of traditional tales which helped us create our own fantastic versions of ‘The Gingerbread Man’. We completed the term in style with our amazing show, ‘Santa and the Beanstalk’, which linked well with our ‘Traditional Tales’ unit of work. We had a fabulous time showcasing our performance skills and are looking forward to participating in our class assemblies in the new year.
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PREPARATORY
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM Year 3 At the start of the year, we discovered what a talented and eclectic bunch Year 3 are, as they produced some wonderful art which has been on display in our corridor, sharing with us all the thoughts that occupy their brains! We then had the chance to get to know each other much better with a shared ‘Hook’ activity day for our first topic, ‘I see the Light’, where the children completed a range of tasks. These included manipulating digital portraits using the app Mextures, as well as completing problem solving challenges whilst blindfolded. As part of this learning, we had a visit from the Wong Fai puppeteer company. Using this as our inspiration, the children then made their own shadow puppets and used this to perform play scripts, which they wrote together in small groups. After that, we travelled back in time, first exploring the medieval world of ‘Epic Citadel’, which produced some fantastic theories on the mystery of the missing statue and some most impressive stories about the Knight’s bravery and magnificent victory, which ultimately saved the citadel. The children have also been ‘Time Detectives’, using a range of different sources to find out about The Gunpowder Plot, The Plague and The Great Fire of London – lots of budding historians emerged in our classrooms!
Year 4 Fizz! Bang! Crash! Wallop! The Year 4 Pantomime takes the audience by storm! After just three short weeks, audiences were amazed by the awe-inspiring talent of the children in Year 4. Performing an abridged version of Craig Hawes’ sensational children’s musical, ‘The Amazing Adventures of Superstan’, the show was a whistlestop ride of wonderful choreography, first class acting, singing and non-stop puns. Featuring a host of characters including evil Candy Queens, Superheroes, a few old crumblies and sweet treats galore, this was certainly not a performance to be missed! Members of the audience could be heard saying, 'That was a real gobstopper of a panto!’ and ‘I can’t believe they were only eight and nine years old – what a triumph! We were blown away!’ In other news, students in Year 4 have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the influential Ancient Greeks which kick-started our exciting year. After learning about all aspects of Ancient
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Greek life, such as architecture, religion, inequality, democracy and, of course, the Olympics, our topic culminated in a wonderful Ancient Greek themed day. Our fabulous parents organised a delicious feast of Greek-inspired food while the children donned their finest Grecian garments. Towards the end of Term 1, children were incredibly excited to begin their Science learning as part of our topic, ‘States of Matter’. Just like true Scientists, the children conducted experiments and investigated the properties of various materials. We are really excited to embark on our Year 4 camp and take on the next opportunity to light up the stage with our wonderful class assemblies in Term 2.
HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM
The start of Year 5 came with much excitement and enthusiasm for what lay ahead. The year got off to a great start with each class performing their assembly. 5LG entertained us with an exciting assembly based around the villains that we find in fiction. We met the notorious Professor Snape and were terrified by the Grand High Witch from Roald Dahl’s famous story, ‘The Witches’. Following on from this, we were then engaged by 5NM’s assembly on prominent figures found throughout the Industrial Revolution, ranging from Sweeney Todd to Isambard Kingdom Brunel. To finish our assembly series, 5HW informed us of all the fascinating and educational stories and books we could find in our very own library. This included stories from Ancient Greece to outer space! Whilst rehearsing for our assemblies, we were also hard at work writing our own versions of Berlie Doherty’s ‘Street Child’. Each child created their own character and described the gruesome and hopeless world that many poorer children found themselves in during the time of the Industrial Revolution. We learnt how to manipulate many different writing techniques to ensure that our readers really empathised with our poor child characters. To finish this unit of writing, we celebrated with a publishing party. It was great to hear each other’s stories and be able to praise each other’s dedication to expression through writing. In November we took part in the Year 5 and 6 Sports Day at Stanley Ho. Not only were competitive spirits high, but also good sportsmanship as each class and group of children celebrated each other’s wins but also supported each other when a race had not gone to plan.
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Year 5
The gracious overall winners for year 5 however were 5NM. Here you can see them celebrating their win. Mr Miller looks especially happy! To finish the term, we were asked to create our own invention and present this to our class. The teachers all agreed that the depth of thinking and amount of effort and care that went into our inventions was of a very high standard. Three winners were each voted for from each class and these inventions went through into the Dragon’s Den final, which was then judged by the true dragons of Kellett, Mr Dixon and Mr Bromwich. Although initially intimidated by these legendary judges, it was Charlie Stewart, Jack Duggan, Isaac Tedja and Linnea Bergkvist who captured the Den’s audience and became our Dragon’s Den Champion for 2017! Well done to these four innovative inventors! All in all, term 1 was a time of perseverance, hard work, challenge, fun and achievement. We hope to learn even more about ourselves, each other and the world around us in term 2.
Year 6 What a busy term Year 6 had! Four months really did whizz past. Our Outward Bound topic kept us busy, in which we used digital technology to outline the basic topography of a river. The Year 6 residential week in Sai Kung was a huge success. We faced a lot of situations outside of our comfort zone and so many unfamiliar challenges at Outward Bound camp. The instructors helped us to push ourselves, reach our potential and we learnt how to care for ourselves, others and the world around us.
Sleeping under ‘canvas’ was the highlight for many, where monkeys and buffalo were extremely entertaining. The famous ‘jetty-jump’ was as popular as ever, and the teachers again proved to be the most stylish with their jumps! “Do we have to go home? I’d love to stay another week…” “This camp is so me…”(anonymous Year 6 students, Pok Fu Lam) Other Term 1 highlights included our three class assemblies and an ‘eye-opening’ lesson dissecting some eyeballs for a greater understanding of how we see. We have to finish by mentioning the great fun we had baking our Christmas Ginger biscuits! KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM KeLLEtt Cares The first term of the year is always very busy for Kellett Cares and this school year is no exception. Thank you to all of the volunteers for your time and the ongoing support of the Kellett Community, we hit the ground running at full speed! Year 5 and 6 ran their pizza sales with great success. Over the two lunchtimes, we sold close to 200 pizzas! This is one of our favourite fundraisers, giving students the opportunity to help out and work alongside the parent volunteers. Pizza sales so far, have raised a total of HK$10,046 at PFL and we look forward to seeing that total rise in the coming pizza sales. Our ever popular Diwali stall took place over two days in October, raising HK$12,786 for Kellett Cares charities. On the first day, the rain kept everyone inside, but that didn’t dampen the kids enthusiasm for creating beautiful diyas and colouring their rangoli patterned cards. The second day was just as busy in the playground, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Diwali celebrations. The Sports Day bake sales across the two sports days saw a generous amount of cakes being donated to the Parents’ Committee in order to be sold in support of Kellett Cares. Year 5 and 6
Sports Day, combined with Kowloon Bay Prep, raised a total of HK$11,150, with the rest of PFL prep school raising HK$14,050 in cake and coffee! The funds will all go towards supporting ICM’s Medical Mercy Fund, providing surgeries for those in need. Christmas fundraisers started with sales of student designed tea towels, Christmas cards and wrapping paper, which sold out in the first 3 days, prompting a second order to be made! Following that, we had coin collections for St James’ Settlement, candy cane sales, Christmas merchandise at Carols by Candlelight and finally Christmas Jumper Day on the last day of term for Save the Children. We definitely felt the spirit of giving at this festive time of year, and we can’t thank you enough for your generosity!
MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES FRENCH STUDIES
The new school year started intensely for pupils studying French, ending with some very festive activities wherein they made Christmas decorations and ate pain d’épices to celebrate Saint Nicolas. Year 3 began their French studies with great enthusiasm and curiosity. They became experts at conducting classroom surveys, giving and asking for personal information. They learnt how to greet people, count, and used this to say when their birthdays are. They had a creative few lessons learning their colours and studying some Matisse artwork, which concluded with the creation and description of their own masterpieces in the style of the artist. They also began to use the French alphabet and created a beautiful abecedary. Year 4 became whizzes in describing their families! They created magnificent family trees to present them. They also worked hard at learning how to describe physical appearances and describe eye colour and hair style using the verb ‘avoir’ with confidence. Pupils learnt to confidently name classroom items, follow commands and ask questions in French, making our lessons highly interactive!
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ARTS & LANGUAGES - POK FU LAM PREPARATORY
Year 5 mastered telling the time in French and added daily routine phrases to this to produce some wonderful comic strips of their regular activities. Pupils made bleuets to commemorate 11 November and learnt why the French soldiers were named after these flowers during WWI. They also studied the topic of school, finding out about the differences between the French and English systems, learning how to talk about their timetable and give their opinion on school subjects. Year 6 learnt how to talk about countries and nationalities and began to manipulate verbs to give information about other people. They also studied the topic of the town enabling them to describe what is in the town, its whereabouts, how to give and follow directions. Pupils wrote a recount of their weekend every Monday, creating their own journal in French. Please keep an eye on the iLearn pages to see curriculum updates, vocab lists and photos. Well done on a fantastic term’s work!
CHINESE STUDIES
The development of the new curriculum for both primary Chinese and French has one more year to go. This programme allows more flexibility in teaching and learning and lays the foundation for students pursuing IGCSE or a similar nature of coursework in secondary education. Students’ progress is recorded through a series of “I can” statements and an assessment task done on one of the 4 macro skills in each topic. From Reception to Year 3, students study topics like greetings and introducing oneself, numbers, colours, pets and family. Besides listening and speaking skills, Year 3 start to develop their sentences, reading and writing skills. Topics like physical descriptions, sports, hobbies, food and opinions, countries and nationalities, school and subjects, clothing, shopping, where I live and seasons and weather are taught to Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. We have two Chinese speaking sister schools; Hok Shan Primary School which is just a stone’s throw away from our PFL campus, and Beijing XinXian Hutong Primary School in Beijing, which Year 5 students visit every year during their 5-day Beijing educational visit.
Year 5 students had a games day at Hok Shan school in late November, followed by reading activities in early December. Recently, 60 Hok Shan students visited Kellett, and our Year 6 students read stories to them. Last January, our sister school from Beijing visited our PFL campus and in 2018, they are going to visit our KLB campus. Over the years, we have built up a strong cultural and friendly tie with these schools. In September, we celebrated Mid-Autumn festival with Year 6 students making and tasting mooncakes. Students from other year groups participated in various activities to remind them of this traditional and legendary festival. The next festive event is our favourite Chinese New Year which falls in mid-February. We are looking forward to the year of the dog! KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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ARTS & LANGUAGES - POK FU LAM Art Year 1
Year 1 had a very busy term. As first time art students in the studio, these young artists brought both enthusiasm and excitement to each lesson. We created several artworks influenced by different artists or artist styles, including Mexican Folk Art, acrylic self-portraits and Piet Mondrian. The end of term brought on the responsibility of creating the Christmas backdrop for the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 Christmas shows. Students had a wonderful time collaborating on this year’s Winter Village. Well done Year 1!
Year 2
Year 2 students started the year looking to Paul Klee for inspiration. In his style, we created oil pastel portraits made up of geometric shapes. This project was followed with contemporary Aboriginal paintings. We studied working artists in the Aboriginal communities of Northern Australia. Mimicking the process of creating ground paintings, we designed and painted our own Aboriginal painting. The results are beautiful. Students also studied buildings and structures in order to create their own mixed media cityscape. Well done Year 2!
Francesco Lietti
To start the school year, KS2 students had the privilege of working with artist in residence Francesco Lietti on a collaborative painting depicting the Southside of Hong Kong. This project was completed over three weeks. The image is a collaboration between the artist and each student in KS2, staff and teachers. If you look closely, you can even spot Mr Dixon on his bicycle! We want to thank the Annual Fund for providing a truly amazing experience of working with Francesco and creating a permanent painting for the walls of Kellett School.
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ARTS & LANGUAGES - POK FU LAM Year 3
Following the experience of working with this year’s artist in residence, Year 3 students participated in another collaborative project inspired by artist Rex Ray. We then used clay to create wonderful pinch pot animals. Students moved on to abstract landscapes inspired by Canadian artist Ted Harrison. We have had a fun, and very busy, start to the year. Well done Year 3!
Year 4
Following the experience of working with this year’s artist in residence, Year 4 students studied the illustrations of Japanese artist Suzuki Masato. Taking her ideas of stylizing a bird and creating a pattern by overlapping and repeating the same image, students drew beautiful illustrations. To complete the term, students looked at traditional teacups and saucers, creating a pair for themselves out of clay. We had a great start to the year!
Year 5
Year 5 looked to artist Gordon Hopkins as inspiration for their abstract still life paintings. Using paint sticks, students combined pattern, bright colours and everyday objects in their composition. The results were very striking. In addition to this term’s art curriculum, Year 5 students created the artwork for the Kellett Cares Christmas Cards and helped create the backdrop for the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 shows. Well done Year 5 on a wonderful start to the year!
Year 6
Year 6 experimented with using soft pastels as both a drawing and painting medium. Looking to Lisa Congdon’s drawings of stylized flowers, students created a drawing of flowers combining soft pastels and acrylic ink. The results are stunning. In addition to the art curriculum, Year 6 students created the artwork for the Kellett Cares Christmas Wrapping Paper and helped create the backdrop for the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 shows. We have had a wonderful start to the year, well done Year 6!
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Music
Term 1 was another busy term for the PFL Music Department! As soon as ECAs began back at the start of September, many of the groups began working towards our first official performance of the term, the Autumn Concert. You can see here some photos of the performances from that evening, which included the wind orchestra, string orchestra, nuevo ensemble, brass ensemble, flute choir and the Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 choirs. It was a lovely evening, expertly compered by Chloe Meenan and Luke Kiely and we were so proud of all the students! We were also treated to a beautiful harp solo by Tahlia Mistry, which was really magical. As well as preparations for this concert, we have also had several visiting artists in to perform for our students, the first being Dominic Peckham, who is a vocal expert and who came to work with students right across both Prep Schools for a week. This was really exciting and both students and staff had a great experience with him.
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In November, Year 5 and 6 also had the pleasure of watching a performance by the visiting chamber music group the Sousaphonics. This was a really excellent concert and a great chance for our students to see a Sousaphone being played as part of a group! Our final visiting artist was actually a regular at our school in Nick Cope, who comes to Hong Kong once a year to perform at Clockenflap Music Festival. All our KS1 and lower KS2 students thoroughly enjoy Nick’s performances; he is a brilliant singer and songwriter of children’s songs and it was lovely to welcome him back for the 5th year in a row!
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EXTRAS - POK FU LAM
ECAs
Mini sports
mandarin
b story clu
astro club
pre orchestra
robotics
speech and drama
DUMMY TEXT
art club
move for life
n gym
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PE Term 1 was action packed during PE lessons. All classes enjoyed an athletics unit of work in preparation for the annual Sports Days. Well done to 5NM and 6SL who brought home the class trophies to Pok Fu Lam. It was wonderful to see our Year 6 sports leaders getting involved with Key Stage 1 sports day, leading and demonstrating the various events. Reception children worked on their games skills and using a variety of different types of equipment to improve their throwing, catching and kicking. I was very impressed with the energy they showed during their lessons. Year 1 and Year 2 also focussed on their games and fundamental movement skills, developing their play through small-sided games, beginning to think about the different components of attack and defence. Year 3 and 4 enjoyed working through their athletics unit as well as a unit of work on fitness, where they have explored the different aspects of fitness, speed, stamina, strength and suppleness. They worked very well learning a variety of different yoga poses and performing sequences. Year 5 and 6 worked through their baseline tests, producing some great results. It was pleasing to watch the students challenging themselves and target set, focusing on progress and development. In games sessions, the children worked hard improving their football, netball and rugby skills. Year 6 took part in swimming in term 1, developing and improving technique, speed and stamina.
Football
Kellett boys and girls participated in a variety of different tournaments and events with lots of success across the board. The first tournament of the year was the International Schools Football tournament which Kellett hosted at King’s Park. Both of the PFL teams had a great tournament and the A team went on to lift the cup at the end. We were then hosted by Harrow, when all our ECA boys played and enjoyed an afternoon of friendly football against other schools. At the DC girl’s tournament, the Kellett team played extremely well and made it through to the final which they were unlucky to lose. They also made it through the finals of the Kellett Girls tournament. ICHK have hosted two tournaments this year that all of our teams have played in. Kellett were again successful in lifting the cup, and our other teams made it through the group stages to the semifinals. Our Year 3 and 4 boys’ teams played exceptionally well at Hong Lok Yuen, with both teams coming home with the silverware. Lots of great opportunities and success!
Netball
The netball girls had a fantastic season; it was great to watch their progress from the first pre-season tournament at Aberdeen through to the end of season finals at KGV in December. The girls who train on Mondays have been enjoying participating in the friendly International Schools Netball League. They have enjoyed playing in the Island School Tournament, the Kellett Mixed Netball and the International Schools Finals. In the Mixed Netball they finished joint 2nd overall, in an exciting all Kellett final. In the International Schools tournament, they were 3 wins out of 5, with a loss to FIS in the quarter finals. It was great to see so many girls playing, with many continuing with club netball outside of school. Our Year 3s and 4s have enjoyed hosting FIS for some friendly netball matches and we are hoping to get more girls signed up in term 2!
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SPORT - POK FU LAM Sports Events
The inaugural AFL Schools Blitz took place at the end of September, hosted by Kennedy School. A combined PFL and KLB team entered ably coached by our very own AFL expert Mr McLaughlin! The team did extremely well in the competition on a very hot day! Some of Kellett’s budding young cricket stars were lucky enough to attend the opening of the Kowloon Bay cricket nets, where they met cricket legends and got the opportunity to be put through their paces by members of the Hong Kong National Cricket Team. Mr Lovell and Mr Suett were also very impressed trying out the new nets and high-speed ball machine! PFL also enjoyed participating in the first of many Feel Good Fridays! The first feel good Friday was “Feeling Active” and we certainly all did well being active that day, enjoying lots of activities in the morning and during break times.
Operation Santa Claus
Kellett's Saturday Soccer contingent entered a team in the U9s Operation Santa Clause charity football tournament at Sandy Bay on Sunday 10 December. A tough draw in the opening match against a very fast Asia Pacific Soccer School side saw the team start well before conceding a few breakaway goals at the end of the match. Some slight tweaks to our defensive formation saw us blitz the rest of the group, winning our games against Hong Kong Football Club and Dreams to qualify for the cup competition. This brought us up against Kowloon Cricket Club in the cup quarter finals in what turned out to be a defining match for the team. KCC had won all of their group games and the game was very tight. There were posts hit and last-ditched tackles made from both sides but in the dying moments Simon got a shot away which their keeper half-saved and with the two players ending up on top of each other the ball bobbled over the line in slow motion to clinch a stirring victory. This put us in the cup semi-finals where we ran into a good HKFA team and, with a bit of misfortune, we ended up losing 3-0. As one of the losing cup semi-finalists we contested the Plate final (effectively the 3rd place play-off) where another brilliant team performance saw us win 2-0 against Chrome Hearts in a tight match. Wilfred scored our first goal with a deft lob, but the opposition came back at us hitting the post and creating some good chances before Javier scored on the break, beating their keeper in a classic one-on-one to clinch the trophy, much to everyone's delight. It was a fantastic team-performance throughout the tournament and every single player played their part and contributed at key moments. Wilfred was named our MVP for his wonderful all-round contribution.
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY Recently, I found myself in Auckland, New Zealand, engaged in deep discussion with a teacher I’d just met about her passion for Flamenco dance. Animated and enthused, she described to me how she loved the rhythm of the music, how immersed she would become in learning new steps and the enjoyment she felt putting together sequences of moves. She explained how she was always surprised at how the time spent dancing would literally fly by. At the conclusion of each dance class, she would feel enormously energized and have a profound sense of accomplishment.
As we talked, we established that Flamenco dance was, in fact, a ‘flow’ activity for her. ‘Flow’ is a term that was first coined by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, explored in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990). He describes ‘flow’ as the state a participant enjoys when their skills and capabilities are fully stretched and the challenge level is so well matched to them, that they experience complete immersion in an activity and lose track of time. His research showed that during this “optimal experience” an individual feels “strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities.” Csikszentmihalyi believes that experiencing this state of complete satisfaction is essential to happiness and that one’s happiness levels can be increased by recognizing and actively building in more opportunities for ‘flow’. In our discussion, the teacher sadly revealed to me that she hadn’t taken part in a Flamenco dance class in over two years and couldn’t possibly imagine that she would find the time soon. We tasked ourselves to explore ways she could fit this pastime into her life and thus increase her happiness.
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After a thorough exploration of her week, we hit upon a solution with minimal impact on her family or work time; there was a window of time on a Sunday afternoon when her husband and son often enjoyed watching rugby together where she could fit in a dance class and the marking she would usually do during this time could be done by getting up an hour earlier. She enthusiastically committed to researching classes that very evening. The focus of the conversation then turned to me and we began to explore and identify my ‘flow’ activities and ways I could build them into my life more regularly to increase my own happiness. This discussion was just one short session out of a four-day ‘Discovering Positive Education’ course run by trainers from the Institute of Positive Education, an organization developed by Geelong Grammar School in conjunction with psychologist Martin Seligman. Positive Education is the bringing together the science of Positive Psychology with best practice teaching. The model developed at Geelong Grammar outlines that “Positive Education focuses on specific skills that assist students to strengthen their relationships, build positive emotions, enhance personal resilience, promote mindfulness and encourage a healthy lifestyle”.
Kellett School has committed to adopting the Positive Education approach for our students. Although pastoral support has always been at the core of our provision, the adoption of this model will equip us with a wider, deeper and more systematic approach to ensuring our students ‘flourish’. Geelong describe ‘flourishing’ as a consequence of living a life in such a way that nurtures one’s individual well-being and contributes to the well-being of others. During the course, I had many and varied opportunities to reflect on, and take positive steps, with regard to different aspects of my own well-being. Not only did I identify my ‘flow’ activities and ways to build more of them into my life, I also learned about my character strengths and how I can better utilize these in my work and personal life. I examined effective models of communication and reflected on ways that I can be a better communicator. I explored my values and had time to think about contributions I would like to be making to others and the community. I was also able to take time to recognize what I am grateful for in my life and how actively practicing gratitude and mindfulness on a regular basis can support my own well-being.
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY Rather, it requires the embedding of a culture that reaches every member of the school community and permeates every aspect of school life. With our Positive Education team in place, our School Aims revised and the Kellett Learner Profile now firmly at the centre of all that we do, I feel we are well on our way to building that culture.
Jo Laufer Jo Laufer Head of Preparatory School, Kowloon Bay
It felt rather indulgent to spend four days exploring aspects of my own well-being and the question must be asked - how will this time spent self-reflecting serve to help the students of Kellett School? The premise of the Positive Education training is that staff need to feel the impact of the training on their own lives in order to model and enact the principles in their everyday actions with students. Geelong Grammar sees the process of building a Positive Education culture is firstly to ‘Learn it’ and ‘Live it’ then to ‘Teach it’ and ‘Embed it’. I walked away after four days of ‘Learning It’ equipped with a much greater understanding of the skills required to ‘flourish’ and with a deep commitment to improving my own well-being by ‘Living it’. It became very clear to me how I will help our students understand the importance of valuing and cultivating their own well-being and how to teach them strategies that will enable them to actively build the skills to ‘flourish’ in their own lives. Most importantly, I learned that for a Positive Education approach to be successful, it must go far beyond the teaching of a set of specific skills and strategies.
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY School council Our new Student Council made an excellent start to the year. It’s not easy to put yourself forward as a candidate and present your ideas to a whole class of children, but our chosen representatives did so with great enthusiasm and passion and were quite rightly rewarded with their spot on the Student Council. Our meetings were full of ideas and energy and we enjoyed implementing many of them already, making our impact around the school. One of our proudest achievements so far was our involvement with the new Feel Good Friday initiative. Our KS2 reps organised and led break time activities up on the Sky Pitch and children from across the school enjoyed taking part in a whole host of wonderful games and crafts, through which they actively improved their wellbeing! We made and delivered School Council suggestion boxes to classrooms and we look forward to receiving ideas we can action throughout the school. We chose and purchased a collection of new play equipment for the play areas (by popular demand!) and also thought about ways to help out in our local community. We look forward to the next two terms and we promise to keep busy in order to make the school an even better place to learn, make friends and have fun!
RECEPTION It was an exciting first term in Reception. The children had a fantastic start to their time at Kellett. We began the year finding out about each other and our families. They loved exploring both the classrooms and covered area. We were also fortunate to celebrate Diwali with a group of our Reception parents. The children enjoyed making cards, decorating Divas and the children finished the celebrations by dancing to Bollywood music. A highlight of Term 1 was our visit to the Police station, as part of our ‘People who help us’ topic. The children tried on the police uniform, watched a dog handler and his dog, and explored the police cars and vans. The children came back to school bursting with enthusiasm, investigating crime scenes and writing a recount of their trip. The highlight of the trip was watching the police dog jumping over his handler! Christmas in Reception began with our Christmas Craft morning. We had a wonderful team of parents who helped us to create some beautiful Christmas craft. The children made shepherds, wreaths and snowmen, then covered everything in glitter. It was a great way to start our festivities! To finish the term the children performed ‘Shine, Star, Shine’. It was wonderful to see just how confident the children have become in just one term. Confident children loving every minute!
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY year 1 Year 1 flew into their learning in Term 1, starting with Superhero Senses Initiation Day. They carefully used their eyes, ears, noses, hands and even mouths to complete science experiments. We learnt a lot about how we taste food and how sound changes through different materials. Our superheroes progressed into learning about our Super Bodies - exploring the life size skeleton was a particular highlight. A lot of fun was had learning to label the different parts using scientific terms and our fact-finding mission about the human body taught us some very interesting facts. Did you know the brain is the size of a cauliflower? Our superheroes turned into super geographers, learning all about Hong Kong. We travelled up the tallest building in Hong Kong, the ICC, to view the city and surrounding islands. Once we had identified the key buildings and parts, we then explored Hong Kong’s past and how it has developed into the Hong Kong that we know today. We used pictures of the past and present to compare and discuss the differences; we were amazed to see the change to the famous Hong Kong skyline! We discussed how it has changed in shape due to reclaimed development and advances in construction. The busy first term was capped off with a trip to outer space for our wonderful Christmas performance enjoyed by many!
year 2 Where in the World
Year 2 made an enthusiastic start to the year with a very full and fun first term! Our keen Geographers relished the topic ‘Where in the World’. Learning about the continents of the world, we located places of personal importance and located different climate zones on maps. To help us learn about different ecosystems we went ‘On the Buffalo Trail’ in Lantau Island. Observing the native and introduced animals, children articulated how they exist in a state of codependence and considered how they were adapted to their own habitat. A real highlight was the number of fiddler crabs swarming through the mangroves. A very rare sight as they are normally so timid! What an amazing time we had! Before half term our focus turned to plants and how they grow. We planted seeds to investigate what was needed for them to grow. In English, we wrote excellent instructions on how to plant a seed.
Toy Story
After half term, we launched into our topic ‘Toy Story’. At home, children created timelines of toys and we considered how our play needs have changed. We explored toys through history, created chronologies of toys and learnt about the materials and technologies that have influenced them. We practiced persistence and developed some fantastic sewing skills when we designed and made our very own puppets. During English lessons, we learnt about traditional tales with a focus on Little Red Riding Hood. We all wrote our own creative twisted version of the tale. The use of figurative language to set the scene was a highlight and the children greatly enjoyed playing with words to have the most impact. We concluded our term with our highly successful rendition of ‘Party in a Pear Tree’, the story of the characters from the twelve days of Christmas. The children performed a tale of how team work and caring for each other can lead to great things. KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY year 3 Year 3 had an enlightening start to the year with our topic ‘I See the Light’! We learnt all about natural and man-made light sources, shadows and Thomas Edison. We were inspired by Thomas Edison’s approach to dealing with challenges and how he used a growth mindset and resilience to tackle them. We also had a visit from the Wong Fai Puppeteers who came in to perform a traditional Chinese shadow puppet show for the children. The children were able to have a go at using the puppets and see how they moved. This gave us ideas for our own shadow puppet shows which we based on the story ‘Funny Bones’. In their class assemblies, both classes chose to explore the themes of resilience, perseverance and using a growth mindset from the Kellett Learner Profile. We were so impressed with the children’s performances and acting skills, especially because we were some of the first classes to perform our assemblies this year! A big thank you to all the parents who supported us with costumes, hair and make-up. In the second half of the term, we travelled back as Time Detectives to explore the 17th Century. We learnt all about The Plague and The Great Fire of London. The children particularly enjoyed learning about the many weird and wonderful remedies used to try cure The Plague! We even made our own plague doctor masks. We are so pleased with how the children settled into their first term of Key Stage 2. They showed real maturity and developed their independence. We are really looking forward to the remainder of the academic year!
year 4 What a term Year 4 had! We began the year with our topic, ‘Let The Games Begin’ learning all about the Ancient Greeks and how they have impacted Western Civilisation. In English the children studied and analaysed a range of Greek Myths identifying how they differ to other fictional genres, finishing with the children writing their own versions of a Greek Myth. During Topic lessons, Year 4 worked hard to create their own books about how the Ancient Greeks have shaped society today. Areas that we looked at included Western medicine, democracy and Ancient Greek inventions. 4JL started the year off with their class assembly on Ancient and Modern Olympic Games followed by 4PS’ class assembly, ‘Greeks Got Talent.’ We finished for the October break on a high with Greek Day. The children all came in dressed in their togas ready to taste Ancient Greek and Mediterranean dishes, the honey cake was a huge hit! The children also made their own Ancient Greek theatre masks.
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Pantomime fever hit Year 4 the second half of this term, this year’s theme was ‘Ali Baba and the Bongo Bandits,’ a comedy take on ‘Aladdin’. The children all worked extremely hard, using a growth mindset attitude and their teamwork skills to create a show that both their parents and teachers were proud of. We would like to say a massive thank you to our Class Parents who helped out with the costumes and the set, to all of the parents who helped out with hair, make up and photography on the night. We also wouldn’t have been able to do it without all of the support from parents both at home, helping the children practise their lines, and coming to watch and support us on the night.
PREPARATORY
HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY year 5 Who would have expected Year 5 to be so fun and offer so much in the amount of opportunities and challenges? A lot of things were new to us, such as: meeting our buddies every week, taking 5 library books instead of 4 and also being included in other ECAS, but after a while everyone started to get used to it. To start off the academic year, we began reading our chosen class book ‘Street Child’ which reflected and was based on our main topic, ‘The Industrial Revolution’. After being greatly intrigued by the book, 5CD decided to create a similar version to perform as an assembly. Moving on with our topic, we were asked to make a google document to explain a chosen invention and how the inventor came up with the idea to make a world-changing phenomenon. In order to enhance our understanding of the Industrial Revolution, we designed and built structures such as a workhouse or a factory that represented the Industrial Revolution period. During the making of the structures, we had to go to the Senior School to get all the materials we needed, and that trip alone was very exciting. It was so much fun and very stimulating trying to use all of the machines. Some machines appeared to be dangerous, but we were given careful instructions and no one got hurt.
In science, we started with the topic of ‘Sound’. We used a number of instruments and objects to explore pitch and we learnt all about how the ear works. Our next area of exploration was ‘Forces’. We experimented with a force meter to see how different types of surfaces require different degrees of force to pull shoes across and we more recently experimented with air resistance and up thrust. Towards the end of the term, we watched an inspiring Sousaphonics concert. We had a chance to conduct the band and also got to practice beats with them while they played some of the music which they had written. We also had our sports day which went really well. KLB are determined to win next year! We clearly had a busy start but it is only the beginning as we are scheduled to go to Beijing, our famous Year 5 trip destination, next May. I am sure it will be full of fascinating experiences and we just can’t wait.
year 6 We had a great blast off to the year on a mission to space! As well as learning about the fantastic wonders of our universe, we all got excited for Senior School (a year early) which we shared with our Year 6 Pok Fu Lam friends as we attended our first transition day. During the day, we got a feel of what it was going to be like with four fun-filled subjects: Science, where we made mini rockets out of Alkaseltzer tablets and water; Music, where we learned a few chords on the Ukulele; Drama, where we performed still images and finally Design & Technology, where we made spinning tops and raced these against each other. It was a great way to get a taste of what we are going to expect next year.
Finally, we took a challenging trip to an inspiring and adventurous place called Outward Bound, where we did various activities such as, speedy canoeing, a frightening jetty jump, an exhausting 6-hour hike to a campsite and a terrifying rock climbing challenge. After our great trip to Outward Bound, we celebrated the last week of term Hong Kong style, having a fun party on the beach.
We were fortunate to have a range of guests visit us including interesting musicians who talked about unusual instruments like the Sousaphone, as well as the entertaining Henry Evans, an explorer from the UK. He came to talk about the Antarctic, Marine life and the effects of climate change on the world. He had great stories and we enjoyed him visiting our school, we have also even given him a special Kellett Dragon hat to wear on his next adventure! Year 5 and 6 took to the stadium in our annual sports day. Kowloon Bay Year 6 excelled in running but were pipped to the overall post by Pok Fu Lam. We came back with pride, knowing we had done our best. KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY PREPARATORY
Prep Highlights In November, four of our best Year 6 mathematicians were challenged to their limits by taking part in the annual FOBISIA online Primary Mathematics competition. They had to complete 3 demanding tasks: a video challenge, a group problem solving challenge and an individual on line test. The video challenge involved independently creating an engaging video to explain the mathematics behind Pascal’s Triangle. After researching Pascal’s Triangle at home our team came up with the innovative idea of using Scratch programming to make an animation. It was both entertaining and informative, we hoped it would impress the judges! The problem solving challenge involved working as a team to solve 30 problems in 2 hours. This challenge definitely required stamina and determination as many of the problems seemed almost impossible to crack at first. The team had to be willing to look beyond the obvious solutions and try a range of approaches. They successfully completed 18 of the problems which was a great achievement.
Finally came the individual online test where the team each had to stretch themselves to work out 30 questions independently in an hour. It required them to apply a wide range of mathematical skills and knowledge to new situations and questions. Again, lateral and original thinking was needed to succeed. It was a tough competition against 38 other schools in Asia. We are very proud of our team who scored solidly in all areas and came 12th overall, an improvement on last year’s result.
kellett Cares What a busy term it was for Kellett Cares, and an exciting one too, with plans underway to expand the ways in which we help our chosen charities. One of the biggest changes has been how we support the charity ICM in the Philippines, through which Kellett has proudly supported the Kellett Cares Kindergarten in Bacolod. You can read more about how things have changed and our transition to the Medical Mercy Fund under the ‘Whole School’ section of this issue. We also had three pizza sales, hosted by Years 4, 5 and 6, and collected a pile of Box of Hope donations that was as high as ever. Our thanks to everyone who contributed by purchasing pizza, donating filled boxes or volunteering time to either project. Kellett Cares was brilliantly supported by organisers and spectators at the Reception to Year 4 Sports Day, with proceeds from the bake sale, merchandise stall and pre-loved uniform sales totaling a fantastic $15,500! This total, together with the money raised by PFL Prep, and the combined campus Sports Day for Years 5 and 6, will go to ICM’s Medical Mercy Fund, providing life-changing surgery for those living in ultrapoverty in the Philippines. Many thanks to all of you who took the time to help - by volunteering on a stall, baking or buying!
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As always, Christmas was a fun time for Kellett Cares, with many opportunities for families to get involved. The Reception students designed their self-portrait tea towels, while Years 5 and 6 helped make the reindeer candy canes, and created images for our Hong Kong Transport-themed Christmas cards and wrapping paper. Carols by Candlelight was another chance for Kellett families to prove their skills in the kitchen! What a night it was for our bake sale which raised HK$8,350 to benefit the Hong Kong charity St James’s Settlement. To finish off the year, the last day of term coincided nicely with Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day when students were invited to wear a festive top to school for a donation. Thanks to the School Council who helped with the collection, while running their own activities for Feeling Christmassy Friday!
PREPARATORY
ARTS & LANGUAGES - KOWLOON BAY Modern foreign languageS Chinese studies
In Kowloon Bay Prep, children were busy learning about the Legends of the Mid-Autumn Festival story. Key Stage 1 children explored festival related artifacts and customs and enjoyed making paper lanterns, making Mid-Autumn greetings cards for their families and reciting festive poetry. Key Stage 2 children recounted the story using comic strips, and learnt to recite a Tang Dynasty poem, as well as researching the Tai Hang Fire Dragon celebration. The children also learnt to read a Chinese mooncake recipe and make both ice cream and traditional mooncakes to celebrate the festival. We also introduced an interactive online learning game called Linguascope for the children to explore and consolidate their language learning. In addition to this, Year 6 children learnt new topics such as Physical Descriptions and Personalities. Towards the end of the term, they began learning how to say where they live, different rooms in their homes and directions.
FRENCH studies
The new school year started brilliantly for children studying French, and moved towards a very busy end of term, when they learnt Christmas vocabulary and made beautiful decorations. Year 3 learnt how to introduce themselves and greet each other in French. They can count to 31 and learnt how to say when their birthdays are. They created a lovely display work with frogs greeting each other. They then learnt the colours and created their own masterpieces in the style of Matisse. Year 4 returned to French with enthusiasm and energy. They learnt to describe their families, and produced a lovely family tree display. They also learnt how to describe their own and eachother’s physical appearances, including eye colour and hair styles, confidently using the verb “avoir”. The unit culminated in playing a game of “Guess Who” in French. Well done on a fantastic term!
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ARTS & LANGUAGES - KOWLOON BAY
Music There is definitely never a quiet nor dull moment in the music department at KLB Prep. After returning from the long summer break, activities and learning picked up very quickly in the music room! In August, we welcomed our Reception children. They settled in very quickly and amazed us with their enthusiasm for singing and music making. Year 1 and Year 2 showed us that they are composers in the making, and made a start in conducting and writing down their compositions. There was a lot of concentration and focus to ensure that their music was performed exactly how it was intended! Year 3 and Year 4 expanded their knowledge and understanding of music literacy. There are certainly quite a few students who would happily give you advice on how to read music. Year 5 and Year 6 used GarageBand as a tool to develop their music technology skills and creativity. Year 5 arranged pre-recorded sounds to accompany a short film. Year 6 upped their skills by using midi keyboards to compose original music to accompany their short film. Both of these projects required our students to use the elements of music as a starting point to develop their ideas. For the first time too, students shared their completed work on Google Classroom and were able to give eachother positive feedback on their music. Do check the KLB Prep music iLearn page to listen to some of our students’ wonderful compositions. At Kellett School, all our students in Years 3-6 learn to play the recorder. As well as consolidating music reading skills, playing the recorder provides the opportunity for our students to experience playing as part of an ensemble, improve listening and enhance co-ordination. Research also shows that learning an instrument can boost one’s memory, develop perseverance and sharpen our concentration. It is no wonder that many of our students go on to learn other instruments too! Students in Year 6 have developed their ensemble skills by introducing the treble recorder and our Year 5s focused on playing different parts together.
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In Term 1, we were very fortunate to have visiting musicians come and work with us. Dominic Peckham, a choral specialist and conductor came in September to work with all our students. He also led our first choir session and gave lots of very helpful advice on the importance of using air to support our singing. In October, The Sousaphonics led a workshop and performed to the students in Year 5 & 6. Nick Cope also came to perform his brand of catchy but original songs to our students from Reception to Year 3. Thanks to the Annual Fund for allowing us to have such wonderful musicians come and visit us!
PREPARATORY
ARTS & LANGUAGES - KOWLOON BAY
Art We had a thrilling first term at Kellett KLB because artist Francesco Lietti, financed by the Annual Fund, had a threeweek residency with us. We learnt about his inspiration and what it is to be an artist. He began the residency with Year 1 and Year 2, grounding the canvas and planning beautiful buildings, transport and Hong Kong elements to add to a huge collaborative piece. All students worked alongside him and in Studio Time we all helped with the painting too. We watched our giant art piece progress quickly in the upper atrium with Francesco. Each child had a chance to paint on the huge canvases. Back in the art studio we created the elements that make up our Hong Kong. Transport, buildings, trees and road signs were drawn and painted ready to be collaged into our beautiful background in week three. By week three, the painting took on a whole new life, with so many buildings and boats being added. Back in class, the students were drawing, pastelling, painting and colouring their own pieces. Everyone chose their own favourite things so we ended up with an awful lot of hot air balloons, rocket ships, junks and buildings that some of our parents work in! The collaging stage involved much resizing, cutting and pasting all the additional elements into place. The piece is rich with detail and tiny, intricate portraits of Hong Kong life. Students around the school were able to choose to help Francesco at breaks and lunch times and the community created around our artwork was a joy to see.
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SPORT - KOWLOON BAY PE PE Curriculum
In Term 1, KS1 were busy exploring different ways of moving. They worked on their balance and coordination, using this to improve their agility and jumping. They also developed their throwing and catching technique and started to explore using this skill in different team games. KS2 looked at the different components of fitness and developing their knowledge of the different muscles in the body. They looked at the importance of warming up and cooling down correctly and how they can adapt this for different sports. Year 5 and 6 all completed the bleep test, with strong scores produced and above all tremendous perseverance shown by all.
Netball
Both boys and girls had a fantastic netball season last term, competing in multiple friendly fixtures and tournaments from Year 3-6.
Kellett Mixed Netball
On 1 November, nine excited Year 6 players attended the Kellett mixed netball tournament. For many of them, this was the first time they had played with each other, but they did not let this phase them. They gelled together as a team in the group stages going from strength to strength and came out undefeated. To add to the excitement, they then went on to face home rivals Kellett Pok Fu Lam in the final. After being neck and neck throughout the match, Kowloon Bay came out on top and were crowned Mixed Netball Champions; an outstanding team effort from all the boys and girls who played!
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International College Hong Kong Tournament
Kowloon Bay gave strong performances at both U10 and U11 ICHK tournaments this year. The U11 teams stormed through the group stages with the A team achieving three convincing wins over RCHK, Beacon Hill and Harrow, with just one narrow loss against eventual winners Discovery Bay, where despite multiple shots, we could not quite get the ball into the net! The A team then went on to become runners up in the Plate Final. The B team who were fighting it out in the other group in fact had to make a hybrid team with Discovery Bay B team players due to another team dropping out. They bonded well with each other on court and showed true sportsmanship, supporting each other and came together as a team. This team spirit led them to be undefeated in their group and as a result they qualified for the cup final. Despite an outstanding performance and the crowd being on the edge of their seats, Discovery Bay A team clinched the title; a commendable performance by both teams. The U10 team went back a week later and found victory in the Bowl final against home team ICHK, bringing home a fine piece of silverware for the Kellett Trophy cabinet. The team showed true commitment in every game and supported each other as a team.
PREPARATORY
SPORT - KOWLOON BAY Kellett Football Tournament
Football
It was a very busy term for both the boys and girls football teams, with boys and girls from Years 3–6 representing the school in 14 friendly fixtures and four tournaments throughout the term. The teams have come from strength to strength, coming together as a team with their skills and passing improving, as well as their camaraderie growing on the pitch.
This year we hosted the U11 girls’ annual football tournament. The girls did Kowloon Bay proud winning four out of their first five games in the group stages, beating RCHK, Kennedy, Sha Tin Juniors and Kellett Pok Fu Lam, only conceding one goal against the group winners Discovery Bay. They then went on to play a very tough Beacon Hill side in the Cup semi final where they narrowly lost. The girls walked away very proud of their effort coming in the top four out of 14 schools.
Sports Day
On Wednesday 15 November, Year 5 and 6 Students from both Kellett Prep Schools descended on Stanley Ho Sports Centre for a day of running, jumping and throwing. It was clear to all that attended, our Kellett students showed an abundance of effort and determination to do their best. On this occasion PFL took the victory for both Year 5 and year 6 classes. Well done to all involved! The Reception and KS1 sports day was a real celebration of what students had been studying during their PE lessons this term. There was plenty of evidence of their fantastic progress. The brilliant support from parents gave the whole event a real celebratory feel. The Year 3 and 4 Sports Day followed in a similar vein in the afternoon. With gold, silver and bronze awards up for grabs for each pupil it gave it a real competitive edge as well engendering camaraderie between classes. A fantastic effort to all those involved.
International College Hong Kong Tournament
The U11 and U10 boys took to the stage first in the ICHK tournaments ready to put into practice all the hard work they had done in training and to battle it out against the 20 teams they were up against. The U11 boys showed some superb passing and speed down the wing, resulting in some amazing passes into the box and shots on goal. Despite their hard work they got knocked out in the semifinals of the plate, after their shots on goal could not quite find the back of the net. The U10 team managed to make it to the bowl final where after 10 minutes of intense play it went down to penalties to decide the outcome. The boys stayed composed and calm throughout, but despite some strong shots and saves from the goalie this time they came out as runners up. The U8 boys had a tremendous tournament with goals even being scored from the half way line. They showed true grit and determination in the Cup final against Kellett Pok Fu Lam, where despite their best efforts they lost 3-2. The team showed real promise for the years to come at Kellett. The U8 girls’ team had a sensational tournament, improving so much as a team through the afternoon. They clinched a well deserved 3rd place.
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SENIOR
SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS Well-being in the Senior School Cultivating Well-being has been added into the School’s Aim statement. This significant step reinforces the importance Kellett places on well-being - ensuring our students are happy and ready to learn and thrive every day. Well-being is going to continue to be a major focus for this community. Arguably the pressures on young people has never been greater. To support and nurture our students, the collaboration between school and home is vital. The Kellett Community does this well. Of course it could always do better.
The Behaviour review undertaken by Kate Rumboll from Buckinghamshire Learning Trust judged ‘the quality of provision of behaviour and welfare to be outstanding’. The report (Executive Summary found in the eBulletin 1 November 2017 - see Letter from the Principal for the link) highlights many strengths of the school, some of which I share below. Recommendations are focussed around ensuring parents are well informed of the excellent practices, policies and procedures on going in the school. I am using this Dragon article as an opportunity to focus on our current practice.
Welfare and Pupil Development
This aspect is exemplary across both campuses. There are very strong systems in place to ensure that each pupil is treated as an individual and their needs responded to swiftly. The structure in place around well-being means that information is reviewed weekly by a wide team involving up to 10 professionals. The team continually reflects on what would most help individuals or groups experiencing challenging times. There are strong examples of where the school has intervened with a programme of support to help a pupil or friendship group. The school has the benefit of three trained nurses able to be active listeners and counsellors. They are able to signpost additional services if more specific expertise is needed. Pupils feel very confident that the school provides a whole range of support, they like the fact that they can in their words, “Just go and talk to someone about things that worry them”. “We are given lots of opportunities to seek support”. The school has taken proactive steps to actively provide staff with additional time to prioritise pupil well-being and effective communication with parents. Staff have time allocated to allow a focus on following up concerns, opportunities to meet or communicate with parents and time to provide individual or group support to those that need it. Time is built into the timetable to allow house tutors to meet with their students at least three times a year to discuss both academic and also personal development. Pupils report that they find this really helpful… (Page 3 & 4 of the Executive Summary)
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In the Senior School, the Well-being Team meet weekly to triangulate information that is coming to them about our students. The team consists of The Deputy Head of School (House), the Head of Student Well-being, The Deputy Head of School (Inclusion), the four Heads of House, The Head of Global Citizenship, The Head of Sixth Form and the School Nurse. The team agree on a joined up response across the various areas of the school to support individual students or groups of students who are in need of additional support and care at this moment in time, and plan any medium and long term support as required. This is a powerful model of information sharing and collaboration which enables us to proactively support our student body. The House structure in the Senior School provides the platform: 1.To ensure that all students feel happy, safe and valued 2.To support students in fulfilling their academic potential 3.To create a healthy atmosphere of competition through House events The House competition is the icing on the cake. The main focus of the school Houses are points 1 and 2. The Heads of House are well resourced to lead their Houses and support students and their families. The Deputy Heads of House and the House Tutor and Support Tutor teams help the Heads of House and provide every day assistance to the monitoring of students. Kellett will always remain focussed on our individual students. We are proud of our small school feel and structure and how well our students are known.
Behaviour
Pupils and parents feel that behaviour is very good across the school, and this is borne out by observations during the visit. Expectations are high and pupils are self-disciplined, confident and self-assured learners. They have excellent attitudes to learning and are proud of their achievements and their school. Pupils discuss and debate issues in a considered way, showing great respect for others’ ideas and points of view. Pupils value their education and their impeccable conduct reflects the school’s effective strategies to promote high standards of behaviour. Pupils are self-disciplined and incidents of low-level disruption are extremely rare. The Kellett Behaviour Policy clearly lays out expectations for both pupils and staff; there is a real focus on positive reinforcement. (Page 2 of the Executive Summary)
The Student Planner contains the Senior School Rules. I encourage parents to discuss the rules with their children and become familiar with the expectations. It is important to note that the Student Council formed these expectations a few years ago, and the standards they wish to hold each other to, is impressive and indicative of the positivity our students feel about their school. This clearly comes through in the Kirkland Rowell survey data students undertook last year, (see eBulletin 6 September 2017) and in the PASS data collected from all Senior School students over the last two years. Robust research shows that students who do not have high self-belief tend to underachieve significantly compared their ability. The Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) survey is a short self-evaluation survey that we use to gain insight into attitudes which could be hindering achievement. The PASS all-age attitudinal survey helps us detect possible barriers to learning, including issues around confidence, resilience, motivation, concentration, disaffection and alienation. The data from Kirkland Rowell, PASS and our own student voice surveys consistently demonstrate that our student body have very positive attitudes towards their school and school community. The data paints a very familiar picture, because we know our students well. Where the data reveals new information, our Tutor Team, Heads of House and Well-being Team begin to explore and develop strategies to support our students.
SENIOR
SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS The Global Citizenship Curriculum
The school has worked hard to look at how the curriculum can contribute positively to developing pupils’ welfare. The Global Citizenship programme which operates across all age ranges, aims to ensure that there is a strong programme in place to support pupils. It helps students become informed, critical, active citizens who have the confidence to work collaboratively, take action and try and make a difference in their communities and the wider world. The Global Outlook visits, for Kellett Senior School pupils, provide a rich and valued opportunity for students to look beyond Kellett to the outside world to develop an understanding of themselves and their responsibilities within the global community. Students and parents speak warmly about the opportunity such visits create to build transferable skills and develop a confidence for life. In addition the school is always looking at ways to respond to pupils’ needs; Feel Good Friday has recently been introduced to support pupils and staff to focus on well-being. The practice is being introduced across all sites and is receiving a very positive response from pupils, staff and parents. The Global Citizenship curriculum is one of the avenues the school uses to support student well-being. On page 49-51 of this Dragon you can read more about the Global Citizenship Programme.
In Summary
The school has a strong and robust focus on student well-being. We are proud of this focus and the resources we have in place to work with students and their families. The continued cooperation between school and parents and the building of a shared understanding of the work done by the school with its students will only enhance the support our students receive - allowing the development of a love of learning and confidence for life.
Simon Giddings Head of Senior School
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS LEARNING SERVICE PROGRAMME Mother’s Choice Youth Leadership Council
A youth-centred advisory group that brings high school students together to discuss social issues encountered by Mother’s Choice services, and how their collective voices can be used to make a difference in our community.
What you have been doing in Term 1? Christelle Ko (11M), Ria Harjani (11Y) We volunteered at the Mother’s Choice 30th Anniversary Walkathon to help with fundraising. Also, we have been planning future Feel Good Friday events which will raise awareness and funds for Mother’s Choice. Gayatri Singh (8M) We have been planning a toy drive – at which Kellett students will donate toys to children at Mother’s Choice. We have also made a video based on Mother’s Choice advocating “choices”. In the video, we used symbolism (baking a cake) and we hope it helps to promote the idea that “you always have different choices in your life”.
Roots & Shoots An educational programme which aims at empowering young people to care for the environment, community and animals through action.
What you have been doing in Term 1? Molly Hammond (10B) We have been planning our “Feeling Fish-y” Feel Good Friday activities in order to promote awareness of marine pollution and micro-plastics. So far we have planned numerous fun and educational activities for Kellett students! Hunter Bannigan-Davis (10C) We chose this topic because this problem is getting worse and we hope to educate people about it. Cristina Fisher (10Y) I am the newest member and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here. It has been a fun experience raising awareness and learning about marine wildlife. Sarah Bellis (10Y) It was fun to work with the team and I enjoyed it thoroughly!
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China Coast Community A care and attention home for English-speaking elderly in Hong Kong.
What is the most impressive moment during your service in Term 1? Alex Spurr (12B) Personally, the highlight of my experience at China Coast Community was listening to an elderly lady’s hilarious story. She told me that she went to visit her friend, who said that they were going to see a beautiful park in the countryside. It turned out that the lady’s friend actually took the her to a cemetery, where there was a hole in the ground. The lady’s friend told her that that was the place she was going to get buried when she died. The sense of humour of some of these elderly people was fantastic. Minnie Poon (12B), Katrina Song (12C) I enjoy talking and playing games with the elderly. They are adorable and fun to talk to. I really like spending time with them! Anandita Malhotra (12C) It was extremely interesting to hear about older people’s lives and to even talk to some of them in Putonghua. Zoe Ngan (12Y) Playing balloon basketball with the elderly! It was really fun to see them get excited and engaged in the competition with their friends. Cristina Fisher (10Y) Teaching the older people the Macarena dance. It was really fun and we had such a great time. These elderly are so preserving and love our company. William Hanlon (8B), Ella Haythorne (12C) Watching everyone’s face light up when they win Bingo. The pure joy and excitement is amazing to watch.
SENIOR
SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS Sai Kung Stray Friends (SKSF) Funded by donations from the local community, SKSF is a group of volunteers who rescue stray dogs and puppies in Sai Kung, providing them with shelter, food and medical care to help them have a better life.
What do you enjoy most when you are doing service at SKSF? Tom Mowbray (11B) Walking the dogs is fun because sometimes we get different dogs to walk. It provides a challenge, which keeps the service fun. Matthew Kiely (11C) I thoroughly enjoy seeing how excited and lively the dogs are, especially knowing some of them were abused and treated badly in the past. It is good to know they have a safe environment to walk and I am proud to be involved in helping the dogs.
Room to Read Collaborating with Room to Read, the service team tells English stories to local students in an interactive way through games and activities to share their love of reading.
What is the most impressive moment during your service in Term 1? Divina Samtani (10C) I enjoy seeing the kids learn and find interest in what we teach them. Ritika Mehta (10C) I enjoy doing service all the time since it is so fun. If I had to pick my most impressive moment, it would be: chanting “I like banana” loudly across the entire class.
Harrison Bowdern (11Y) I really love walking the dogs at SKSF. They are all really cute, friendly and great to interact with. At first, they appeared to be timid but after a couple weeks they became friendlier and enjoyable to be around. Benjamin Cochrane (9B) Walking the stray dogs gives me joy because I feel I am doing something to positively affect a dog’s life. Esme Cavanagh (9Y) The thing I enjoy most is the fact that walking the dogs makes them happy and they enjoy it.
Harry Nye (8C) How well the kids understand what we are saying in English and how much fun they have. Connor Mair (7M) One of the most impressive things about the service is how the kids are ready to learn and play with us. That is one of my favourite things about all the kids.
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS SENIOR
MATHs Kellett Maths Day – 10 November 2017
On Friday 10 November, our students had a change from their normal lessons to celebrate Kellett Maths Day! This is our annual competition that encourages students to get involved and have fun doing Maths outside of the classroom! Students from Years 7 to 9 competed in House teams in an action packed Maths relay. Students had to demonstrate their problem solving, number crunching and sprinting skills to win points. Year 10 students also competed in House teams but instead of a relay, they completed a carousal of six activities. This included Tangrams, Logic puzzles and Tarsias to name a few. The winners for each Year group were: Year 7: Clementi 7 – Carys Choi, Aada Niemi, Tom Prest and Jonty Stoneley
Senior Team Maths Challenge and UKMT
In Year 10, the scores for each house were combined and left Bowen with a large gap on their rivals.
On Thursday 21 September, we took a group of our best Sixth Form students to Harrow International School to compete in the Senior Team Maths Challenge. The purpose of the day was to promote Mathematical reasoning, team work and communication skills. Kellett took 4 teams of 4 and competed against 20 other teams from international schools across Hong Kong. Students were challenged over 3 tough rounds. These were a set of 10 problem solving questions to warm up, a Cross-number round and finally a task that required students to solve a problem using their team mates’ answers.
Overall, consistency was key and the congratulations goes to Bowen who were the 2017 Kellett Maths Day Champions!
Our students battled bravely through the rounds but unfortunately were unable to place near the top.
Year 8: Youde 4 – William Holden, Katelyn Tang, Ella Phillips and Lola Laurent Josi Year 9: Clementi 4 – Yves Yuen, Alex Whittingham, James Stoneley, Mia Duncan
Many of the students also took part in the UKMT individual challenge, and congratulations go to Edmond Lo and Edison Chan for achieving Gold Certificates. Our Key Stage 3 students will be competing in similar competitions later in the year and we wish them luck! We have many more exciting events coming up over the next few months including the Individual UKMT Maths Challenges, the Year 8 Maths Trail at Ocean Park and the FOBISIA Maths Secondary Competition in Shanghai. Look out for the next issue of the Kellett Dragon to see how we get on!
Year 10 Early Entry Results – May 2017
Top set International GCSE Mathematics students maintained Kellett’s fantastic record of 100% early entries achieving an A* grade at the end of Year 10. These students are now in Year 11 and are currently studying the International GCSE in Further Mathematics course with the aim of achieving an additional International GCSE certificate in Mathematics by the end of Year 11. Congratulations to Laura Bastos, Florence Clifford, Amelia Drew, Andrew Knight, Christelle Ko, Lydia Lane, Jamie Li, Jacob Lo, Qi Jiang Ng, Ansh Sahay, Matthew Tam, Kelvin Cheung, Isabella Chong, Nico Denton Richmond, Madeleine Jaeger, Beth Simons and Alexander Tsai.
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS
We were so busy inside the History classrooms that we had to share some of our fantastic work outside of it too! Year 9 students brought some of the events and emotions of WW1 to life with an exhibition of poems and extended project work on the conflict, such as the role of animals in the trenches and the stories behind the key battles. This took the form of essays, TED Talks and artwork completed to a very high standard.
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History The Middle Ages were in the air when Year 7 presented their interpretation of a medieval celebration. Senior School students were treated to not just food, dancing and music – but a passion play, photo booth, medieval magic and recitals from the Canterbury Tales. It’s become something of a rite of passage that Year 7 Historians start the year with some independent work on Hong Kong. The class of 2017 didn’t disappoint – with two winners Celeste and Tanisha.
Geography Our Geography students creatively engaged with the physical and human Geography around them in many diverse activities this term. All Kellett students from Years 7 to 13 had an opportunity to enter the prestigious Geographical Association’s Young Geographer of the Year Competition, which this year was titled “My Favourite Place”. From over 150 entries at Key Stage 3 and 50 entries at Key Stage 4, six posters were chosen to be sent to London to represent the school in this year’s competition. A further three entries were chosen from Key Stage 5 students in the essay competition for 16-18 year olds. Certainly a highlight of this term for our Year 8 students were the presentations of ‘My Favourite Place’ in the Tourism Unit, in which many found a diverse range of tasty and often smelly objects to demonstrate their knowledge of place in their assessments!
Year 7 students were busy practicing their map skills, and demonstrated their new knowledge using scale and distance in producing scale drawings and sketch maps. They showed fantastic creativity in making large scale contour models from materials including papier mache, foam, and Lego. Students in Year 9 got a taste of things to come as they journeyed to Cheung Chau Island to conduct Coastal and Tourism fieldwork. A range of data was collected by the students with ranging poles, clinometers and digital anemometers on a sunny day in October, on the East beach.
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS EconomicS A-Level Economics
Year 12 made a fantastic start to the A-level course, and studied how markets work, how they fail and how governments intervene to prevent this market failure. They enjoyed discussing the economic effects of current issues such as the decline of fisheries, the impact of the meat industry and global warming. In the lead up to Christmas, Year 12 got into the Christmas spirit by creating economics-themed carols and raps! Year 13 have been looking at international trade and development as well as theory of the firm. They have applied the economic theory they learnt in class to numerous news articles relating to different industries, trade and development.
IGCSE Economics
Year 10 made an excellent start to the IGCSE course, and studied how markets work, how they fail, and how governments intervene to prevent this market failure. They read numerous news articles relating to the course and discussed the benefits and drawbacks of the division of labour, free market economies and government intervention in markets. Students researched examples of the Tragedy of the Commons and wrote an extended essay on overfishing and the future of the oceans. Year 11 looked at how economic performance is measured and the macroeconomic objectives and policies of government as well as issues relating to global trade and development. They created a short video aimed at attracting FDI to Hong Kong and have discussed how to balance the US budget while ensuring continued economic growth.
Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) Term 1 saw many Year 13 students madly prepare for January entry! They were busy delivering final assessed presentations about what they have done and what they have learnt about themselves during the process of completing an independent project. We have seen some truly inspiring and diverse projects including TED Talks on politics delivered in House Assemblies, a short film on Street Food in Hong Kong, a piece of original dance on the theme of restlessness, and a play based on the infamous ‘milkshake murderer’, plus a range of sports focused projects and many others. The Year 12s began researching a similarly eclectic group of projects and whilst we look forward to seeing in which directions the new cohort will develop, we also wish our Year 13s the very best of luck with their results.
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS Global Citizenship Year 9 - Mindfulness Matters
Year 9 had the fantastic opportunity in their Global Citizenship lessons to participate in a seven-week Mindfulness training programme. Led by Angie Bacu and Doreen Jowharsha, the programme is called ‘Mindfulness Matters’, the Eline Snel method. The training took place once a week for one hour and the students had followup exercises in a workbook to complete at home, and short mindfulness guided exercises to listen to at home. “Training our attention on the present moment with curiosity, kindness and compassion may be relatively simple but requires well-informed guidance and practice to cultivate positive habits of mind.”
21st Century Futures
Year 9 and Year 11 focused on Careers Literacy during Term 1 and explored their personal profile, future options and career paths. We were extremely grateful to a large number of parents and members of staff who volunteered their time to hold career talks for Year 9 and conduct mock ‘Entrance to Sixth Form’ interviews for Year 11.
Global Challenges TED Talks
Year 10 focused on the topic of ‘Global Issues’ and worked in small groups to produce informative and engaging TED Talks, based on the United Nations’ Global Goals. Students spoke confidently about a range of issues including Teenage Well-being, Gender Equality and Overpopulation. Using the Kellett SPEAK UP presentation criteria, a winning talk was chosen from each House, who then went on to present to the whole year group. Mr Giddings and Ms Neale had a difficult job as judges, but awarded first place to Clementi who spoke about ‘Poverty in Hong Kong’.
Box of Hope
Almost 300 Kellett Senior students put their Global Citizenship skills into action in Term 1, and produced a Box of Hope filled with exciting, educational gifts, for less privileged children in Asia. Well done to MacLehose House who collected the largest number of boxes! Kirsty Whitwood Head of Global Citizenship Department KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
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How the Global Citizenship Programme supports Student Well-being The Global Citizenship curriculum is one of the avenues the school uses to support student well-being.
Global Citizenship at Kellett Senior
Global Citizenship at Kellett School is an adaptation of the UK Department for Education’s Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHEE) and Citizenship programmes of study. In today’s fast paced and evolving society, PSHEE helps students to manage the significant challenges, opportunities and responsibilities they will face growing up. It helps them to build their personal identities, relationships, confidence and self-esteem, make career choices, and understand what influences their decisions including financial ones. Further, Citizenship equips students with the knowledge and skills needed for effective and democratic participation. It helps students to become informed, critical, active citizens who have the confidence and conviction to work collaboratively, take action and try to make a difference in
their communities and the wider world. It equips students with the knowledge, skills and understanding to play an effective role in public life; encouraging them to take an interest in topical and controversial issues and to engage in discussion and debate. We are proud of our high quality and comprehensive Global Citizenship programme which is delivered to all Kellett students from Year 7-13 for one hour every week. The Global Citizenship programme is adapted to fit the individual needs of the students and events that occur within school, Hong Kong and around the world throughout the academic year. It is extremely important that the program is adaptable enough to fit the academic and social needs of the students that are being taught as well as the ethos of the school. Global Citizenship from Year 7-11 is organised into four literacies which draw on various aspects of PSHEE and Citizenship. This is to enable students to identify which area of Global Citizenship they are currently covering and provide them with a greater ability to reflect on how this is impacting their learning, personal development and well-being.
Global Citizenship Curriculum Map Years 7-13 Year 7
Block 1
Block 2
Block 3
Personal Literacy ‘Our Community’
Global Literacy ‘Hope in the World’
Personal Literacy ‘I am Healthy’
Block 4
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Global Literacy ‘World Religions’
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11
Careers Literacy
Global Literacy
Careers Literacy
‘Cambodia’
‘Future Options’
‘Global Challenges’
‘Preparing for Post - 16’
Personal Literacy
Personal Literacy
Skills Literacy
Personal Literacy
‘Addiction’
Global Literacy
‘I am Healthy’
‘Preparing for Examinations’
‘Adult Issues’
Global Literacy
Personal Literacy
Global Literacy
‘Does God exist?’
‘My Healthy Relationships’
‘Rights and Responsibilities’
Skills Literacy
Careers Literacy
Skills Literacy
Global Literacy ‘Environmental Issues - Active Citizenship’
Personal Literacy ‘I am Healthy’
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‘Revision Skills’
‘The World of Work’(Work Experience)
‘The Final Countdown!’
Year 12
Year 13
Sixth Form Skills
University Applications
Philosophy
Preparing for life after school
Exploring Character Strengths
University Prep Workshops
Future Options
Revision
Year 7 and 8
Personal Literacy - focuses on Personal, Social and Health Education. (E.g. Bullying, Cyber Safety, Mental Health, Healthy Lifestyle choices, Relationships, Rights and Responsibilities) Global Literacy - focuses on Citizenship, including aspects of Religious Studies, Philosophy, Charity, Service and Global Issues.
Year 9-11
In addition to Personal Literacy and Global Literacy, Years 9 to 11 also cover: Skills Literacy - supports students with Revision Skills and Techniques, and Preparation Skills for transition into IGCSE/Alevel years. Careers Literacy - supports students in making the correct choices as they prepare to move into the next level of education and aids students with careers planning and work experience.
The focus on well-being, behaviour & relationships
Specifically looking at how the curriculum focuses on wellbeing, behaviour & relationships
Year 7 Our Community • Rules for Talking (Students formulate their own agreement) • What does it mean to be part of the Kellett Community? • How should we behave within the online Kellett Community • What could go wrong in our community/our online community? (Different types of bullying) • How can we prevent things going wrong in our community? • How should we respond to bullying in our community? Friendship Workshops • What does it mean to be a good friend? • How should we respond to difficult situations? • I Messages – Being Assertive • Saying sorry and forgiveness • What kind of friend am I? Well-being Workshops (Led by Head of Well-being & Head of Global Citizenship) • Expressing Gratitude • Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships • Challenging Automatic Negative Thoughts • Random Acts of Kindness
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Year 8 Digital Citizenship • What is my digital footprint? How can my digital footprint be helpful or harmful to my safety and reputation? • Making online choices • The Online World vs. The Real World I am Healthy • Healthy Relationships • Dealing with Peer Pressure • Self Esteem and Building Confidence
Year 9 Future Options • Making Choices (Scenario based discussion) • Introducing random drug screening programme I am Healthy • The Party – Risk and Peer Pressure • Healthy Relationships
Year 10 My • • • • •
Healthy Relationships Challenging Stereotypes Gender, Sexual Orientation and Identity Relationship Abuse Consent Sexting
Work Experience • Making the right impression • Work Experience Code of Conduct Safeguarding
Year 11 Preparing for Post-16 • What does it mean to be Sixth Form ready? • Interview skills Adult Issues • The Party – Making Choices • Drugs and Alcohol • My Online Footprint
Year 12/13 Sixth Form Skills • Sixth Form SWOT Analysis – Self-reflection • Working in a Team • Being Assertive • Independent Learning Exploring Character Strengths • Students highlight character strength in themselves and others • All students complete VIA Character Strengths Survey
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS SENIOR
Sixth Form University Offers
Year 13 students (Class of 2018) have been busy preparing and submitting their university applications and we are delighted to give details below of current offers held by Kellett students. Year 12 students (Class of 2019) will be starting on their research and application process in January and we are looking forward to further guiding our students towards their first choice university or career.
University
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Course Title
University
Course Title
Aberystwyth University
Criminology with Applied Psychology
University of Kent
History
University of Bath
Economics
University of Kent
Sport Management
University of Birmingham
Geography
Loughborough University
Economics
University of Bradford
International Business & Management
University of Leeds
Geography
University of Bristol
Economics and Management
University of Leeds
Philosophy and Economics
Cardiff University
Physics
University of Leeds
Physics
City, University of London
Business Management, Digital Innovation & Entrepreneurship
University of Leeds
Sustainability and Environmental Management
Durham University
Law
University of Manchester
Management (Sustainable and Ethical Business)
University of Edinburgh
Sociology and Politics
Nottingham Trent University
Criminology
University of Exeter
Economics
Nottingham Trent University
International Business & Management
University of Exeter
Geography
University of Newcastle
Politics and Sociology
University of Exeter
Management with Marketing
University of Nottingham
Economics
University of Exeter
Politics and Sociology
Oxford Brookes University
Criminology
University of Glasgow
Economics and Social History
University of Southampton
Criminology
University of Glasgow
Pharmacology
University of Surrey
Economics
King's College London
History and International Relations
University College London
Applied Medical Science
King's College London
Management and Economics
University College London
Mathematics
King's College London
Mathematics
University College London
Philosophy and Economics
King's College London
Pharmacy
University of Warwick
Mathematics
University of Kent
Economics
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
SENIOR
SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS Design Technology Year 5 Using the Senior School Workshop
Year 5’s project was based on the Industrial Revolution. Students learnt a lot about urbanization and the changes that took place during the latter part of the 18th Century. During the workshop, they designed and put together buildings from that time in history, for example, a workhouse, factory, or stately home.
Year 6 Transition Day
Year 6 students came to the DT workshops as part of their Transition Day carousel. They manufactured spinning tops that were cut on the laser cutter, and then used hand tools to make the points on the wooden dowel. Finally, they added decoration to the disk to make them look amazing, before competing in a ‘spin off’ in the Atrium.
Year 8 High Quality Design Sheet
These are two examples of high-quality design sheets that were produced by Year 8 students Isabella Barclay and Kathryn Paul. Both students started this year learning graphic skills, which they have put to excellent use. This level of work is approaching GCSE standard - very well done! Two design sheets can be read by scanning the QR code:
Year 10 New GCSE Course
Some of Mr Smith’s GCSE Design & Technology class doing an investigation in to the properties associated with Composite Materials.
Year 13 A-level Product Design
Lucy is working hard producing a prototype space-efficient cabinet, which she has designed with the helper community in mind. The photograph shows her modelling a flip door that she hopes to put onto the front of the unit.
D&T ECA
Rachael and Harry proudly showing off their completed electronic memory games which they have made in DT ECA this term. They soldered together the electronics kit, tested it, and then designed and manufactured the products casing using the laser cutter.
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ISSUE twenty march 2018
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SENIOR HIGHLIGHTS SENIOR
Business Studies In Term 1, Year 10 students started their IGCSE Business course by conducting an investigation into how successful businesses such as Dyson, Apple and 7-Eleven add value. They worked collaboratively to gather, analyse and present evidence on how their chosen added value method contributes to the success of the business, setting them apart from other firms in the market. Students did an outstanding job selecting appropriate data and presenting it using an engaging and informative style that captivated the audience. This helped them develop their communication and collaboration skills in time for their next presentation at the end of term. Here, students had to conduct an investigation into Kellett’s main stakeholders, analysing their objectives and the influence they could exert on Kellett’s ability to achieve its aims. Head of Senior School, Mr Giddings, attended the presentation, and found it very informative and interesting. The students benefited from being able to apply what they have learnt in lessons to real business scenarios, demonstrating real understanding and evaluation of the impact of various stakeholders on an organisation. In Year 11, students covered the Human Resources area of the syllabus. They developed a strong core knowledge of how businesses are organised, methods of recruiting and selecting workers, as well as different financial and non-financial motivators. They also participated in a Harkness-style discussion focusing on the extent to which higher pay actually helps increase motivation.
Year 13 students began their journey into International Business by investigating a real business event, analysing and evaluating the implications of this event on stakeholders and on the long term success of a business. Presentations ranged from the impact of Bitcoin on the business world, to how the fight between Mayweather and McGregor might affect sponsorship revenues. Alongside learning about the main issues facing global businesses (such as growing economies, ethical considerations and the impact of trade and globalisation), students worked in small groups to create the first edition of Kellett Business World magazine which will be published after Christmas. Students spent many weeks gathering research, analysing statistics and data and writing reports on the attractiveness of a country as a production or market location for a multinational corporation. This type of collaborative learning will prepare students for the more rigorous Unit 4 exam at the end of the year, as well as for university life.
In Year 12, students started their International A-level course by learning about characteristics of entrepreneurs, market research, sources of finance and measuring business performance. Students worked hard on their exam skills, focusing on applying their knowledge to real business examples and practicing exam style questions. They also developed their interdependent learning, research and communication skills by preparing and delivering a presentation on appropriate sources of finance.
SCIENCE Science lessons in Term 1 were underpinned by the theme of ‘discovery’. Students were pushed to experience new learning and application of that learning in novel situations. Year 7 students found out about cell biology, using microscopes to identify and draw parts of a cell. Year 10 students researched their own bodies, finding out more about the power of a human being. They calculated the amount of energy transferred in a certain time when running up the stairs. Year 11 students discovered more about density in order to answer questions about why they float in water. Year 12 students learnt a test for deducing whether a liquid is polar by measuring whether the liquid bends around a charged acetate rod. Year 13 students learnt about and using the ‘right hand rule’ to build their own motors. 54
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
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ARTS & LANGUAGES
Music The House Recitals in September were a huge success, and saw over 70 students perform a wide variety of music over four days. Each House chose two performances to represent them at the House Music Final on Thursday 1 February. The standard this year was so high that we decided to introduce a Music Teacher’s Wildcard round, which saw an additional performance per house chosen to go through to the final.
The winners from each recital were: Bowen
Ethan Kim
Libby Rose
Madeleine Narrainen
Lucan Flynn
Sam Hedley
Zachary Blacker Clementi
Ben Stoneley
Jacob Lo
Geneve Chu
Tomas Stoneley
Maclehose
Tina Ma
Isaac Cheung
Jay Chow
Elizabeth Knight Youde
Sophie Dixon
Sarah Bellis
Benjamin Wu
Holden Kwong
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ARTS & LANGUAGES ENGLISH Stop press: Year 10 Student wins RTHK Top Story Competition Olivier Lee of 1OB has won the Junior Section (ages 12-17) of the RTHK Top Story Competition with his short story entitled “Jia”. He won 20 books, $1800 worth of dining vouchers and a one-hour consultation session with a Hong Kong based author. He also receives a copy of the photograph which the writing had to be based on, “Portrait of Hong Kong” by Fan Ho, and his short story will be read out on the radio.
favourite among some years was his parody of an Ed Sheeran song, ‘The A Team’ about the weighty topic of desserts! He also ran a poetry writing workshop with selected students from Year 7. This fantastic experience for the students was made possible by the Kellett Annual Fund. The learning will be followed up by the students writing and performing their own Slam Poetry for Book Week in March.
“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. Olivier’s winning entry “Jia” can be read at the following link: or by scanning the QR code: http://www.rthk.hk/radio/radio3/programme/hktopstory2017
English Faculty Annual Fund Events William Hussey In early November, Author William Hussey joined our Year 9 and 10 students in school courtesy of the Annual Fund. He delivered an engaging lecture on the history of Gothic literature and even managed to terrify our students with a reading of a ghost story of his own - particularly apt given it had just been Halloween! Students then completed small workshops where they got to hone their planning and writing skills. Starting with the question “What if...” and centering on one of the key gothic themes - transformation, science gone wrong or fear of the future - they generated ideas that they could develop when back in class. This proved particularly beneficial for our GCSE students, who immediately put their skills to the test by entering a local writing competition using a photograph as inspiration.
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Year 7 Events Future Schools Group Presentations The Year 7s showed teachers, parents and peers that they were off to a flying start when they presented their pitches endorsing their schools for the future. Although some of the designs for these fantastic places of education were truly awe inspiring, the focus was on persuasive language and that is the area in which the students excelled. It certainly seemed as if there were some estate agents of the future among them.
Poetry Performance Afternoon
Harry Baker
In December, inspired by Harry Baker’s visit, selected Year 7s performed a range of poetry to parents and their year group. The poems ranged from Joseph Yap’s ‘Depressed’ to Mia Sofoluwe, Molly Hughes and Chloe Davies’ ‘Christmas Time’. Some, like the aforementioned, were original compositions and some were published poems. The one thing they all had in common was the high quality.
Hot on William Hussey’s heels in mid-November, World Slam Poetry Champion Harry Baker performed his poems to Years 7, 8 and 9 in The David Kidd Theatre. These included Paper People, the poem that won him the Slam, and a range of others. Although most of his poetry has some sort of a message about the way we treat each other, a particular
Outside of these events, it was a productive, hardworking and fruitful start for all of our year groups. Keep up the good work!
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
Olivier Lee receiving his RTHK HK Top Story Award
ARTS & LANGUAGES SENIOR
Art Australian artist Sophie Munns launched the Homage to the Seed Project for a Residency at Brisbane Botanic Gardens, after an introduction to the Queensland arm of the global Millennium Seedbank Partnership set up by Kew Gardens. The project has since taken her on many residencies, working with Seed Scientists and Botanic 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 Art classes, and conducted observational drawing sessions from her collection of seeds. Year 7 students created a series of seed pod motifs, and were all involved in the creation of the 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.
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The final artwork will be mounted and displayed in the Senior School Atrium 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
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DRAMA Term 1 was a busy term for the Drama department. As a team we have grown, and this has extended into a greater numbers of opportunities available to the Senior School students this year. The Key Stage 3 students worked on topics covering Drama skills, trestle masks, The Odyssey, and The Way West. Year 9 have been exploring the genre of Soap Opera and have been working towards a House competition on who will take the title of ‘Kellett’s Best Soap’. Our Year 12 Drama students led the Year 7–9 Drama Clubs, and really honed their own understanding of Drama along with teaching their younger peers what it means to be ‘dramatic’. Term 1 brought a new feature to ‘Feel Good Fridays’ with the introduction of Feeling Dramatic! Students were greeted with a red carpet, Oscars, a costume area, make up and Drama Games led by our new Drama Forum representatives. It was a fun filled day with students and staff taking part. A highlight was the flash mob that the cast of ‘Return to the Forbidden Planet’ performed in the atrium!
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ARTS & LANGUAGES SENIOR
Modern Foreign Languages The Languages Faculty had a very busy first term. Year 11 went on their Global Outlook week trips to France, Spain, China and, for the first time, Germany. We look forward to adding a Latin element to one of our trips in the future.
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Students’ accounts of their visits are here: Fui a Barcelona en un viaje escolar. La idea era que hablamos español para progresar y mejorar nuestra confianza. Me encantó la enorme cantidad de comida, la gente y la cultura de España. Barcelona está situada en el noreste de España y tiene una población de un millón y medio personas. Hemos visitado la Sagrada Familia, donde saqué demasiadas fotografías porque es bastante impresionante. Comimos alimentos locales como paella, tapas y mi plato favorito churros. ¡Lo he pasado bomba, y por eso estoy planeando volver! Ansh Sahay
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” Edward Jones
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In Oktober sind wir mit dem Flugzeug nach Deutschland gefahren. Meiner Meinung nach hat es zu lang gedauert aber ich konte Film ansehen. In Berlin gab es viele Sehenswürdigkeiten , zum Beispiel das Brandenburger Tur und der Fernsehturm. Außerdem am besten denke ich dass, die Currywurst sehr lecker war. Letzten Endes habe ich die Reise, die allerbeste Ausfahrt gefunden. Kelvin Cheung
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Je suis allée en France. J’ai appris beaucoup de Français et j’ai fait beaucoup d’expériences nouvelles. J’ai caressé des chèvres et des lapins et j’ai fait de l’escrime. C’était très intéressant ! A Paris, j’ai vu beaucoup de monuments et ils étaient vraiment beaux. J’ai bien rigolé avec les mecs! Florence Clifford
In other news, Mandarin students entered a young writers’ writing competition, ‘Chinese Teenager Essay Contest’ ( ), organized by Ministry of Education of China, Confucius Institute and six other educational institutions in China. Massive congratulations to Geneva and Jasmine (1st Prize), Zoe and Holden (2nd Prize), and Shannon (3rd Prize) for their achievements. In Latin, entries from two Kellett students were chosen to represent the school in the Association of South East Asian Classical Teachers’ annual photography and meme competition. Well done, Layla Furlong (photography) and Arhaan Haridas (meme). Layla cleverly found some Classically-inspired architecture in Hong Kong and Arhaan created an original meme. 58
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
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SPORT
Sport Grade A Netball
Overall, the Girls A grade netball team had an amazing season. As captain, I found the team spirit, and commitment to training and matches, was what helped to boost our team work on court. There were many team and individual strengths within the team. However, the natural relationship between the girls was what made the season exciting and something we all looked forward to. We are all very competitive and were determined to win every game we played. A number of players were voted MVP’s during the season for their efforts: Jenna Doherty against SPS; Golly Shepherd against Island School and Holly Farrell against DGS. We had a number of injuries during the season as well. Sadly, we lost Julie Destexhe (WD/WA) at the very start due to a serious knee injury, Kate Donowho (GA/GD) was injured towards the end of the season and Emily Harber (GS/GK) carried an injury throughout. However, we managed to win the majority of our games with our toughest test being the game against West Island School. We were determined to win, but due to nerves the game sadly ended as a loss. For Emily, Kate, Charlotte and I, this was our last season representing Kellett. On behalf of the other girls, I would like to thank Mrs John and Mrs Mayo for supporting and coaching us throughout the season. Mrs John would like to thank the girls for their commitment and wishes those that are moving on all the very best for the future, and keep playing!
B Grade Netball
During Term 1, the B1 girls played extremely well, working hard together to secure three out of four victories during league games. Our first game was very close against Island School, losing narrowly 18-22. The girls then worked hard in training to learn how to play effectively together as a new team, and came back strongly in the league. They beat Harrow 41-26, and were victorious over DGS and SPS, both games producing large scores for Kellett. Sadly, the B Grade season came to an end in the play-offs with a hard-fought match against HYS. A strong start saw us take the lead but the one early loss in the season meant we had a tough draw and HYS came out victorious, going on to become HKSSF B Grade champions. Special mentions go to Issie Sherlock, who was a great new asset to the team moving brilliantly in and around the circle at GA, and scoring some amazing goals, as well as Claire and TK who worked hard to learn how to defend in netball, (it’s not the same as basketball!) and had great seasons in the defensive circle. A huge thank you also to Beth, the captain, who led from the front with very impressive and determined performances at centre - her work rate and interceptions were a major help to the team. Congratulations to everyone on a great season, well played girls!
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER
ISSUE twenty march 2018
59
6 DAYS
Musical Theatre Masterclass from the heart of London’s West End ... Work with some of the most celebrated West End Stars… Learn some of the West End’s biggest hits… Develop new skills in the Performing Arts… Make friends with people who share your passion for Musical Theatre!
SUMMER 2018 16-21 Jul 2018 $9900HKD
8-18 years old
$7900HKD for all Kellett students Discount code: KELLETTVW
Visit the Starlit Voice website to register! www.starlitvoice.com