KGV
Newsletter
November 2014
King George V School 2 Tin Kwong Road, Homantin, Kowloon, Hong Kong General Enquiry: (852) 2711 3029 Website: www.kgv.edu.hk Email: office@kgv.edu.hk
Volume 19, Issue 1
Introduction
Table of Contents 2 Principal’s Message 3-6
Student at Work
7-8
CAS Fair 2014
9-10 ESF Masterchef 11-12
Learning Resources Centre News
13-14
Middle School Curriculum
15 PTSA 16 Spanish Speech Festival 17-18
Opening of Fung Learning Resources Centre
19-20
Summer Music Concert
21-22 Lion Rock 23-24 Swimming Gala 25-28 Sports Update 29-30
Alumni News
31-32 Himalayas Expedition
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Principal’s Message This newsletter once again is filled with smiling faces representing the best of the KGV community across a wide range of activities. `The formal opening of the Fung Learning Resources Centre was a wonderful evening but this term the faces of our students as they learn to use the new facilities have given me just as much joy. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the LRC team led by Duncan Shiel who have done such a superb job in making the space so welcoming for all our students. We now want to build on the momentum we have established behind Development and Fund Raising. We are launching the LION Fund which gives you the chance to make a direct contribution to KGV’s progress. You will see we have some very clear plans for the future and I know you will support these initiatives. Every contribution helps and I hope many of you will show your support for KGV.
I would also urge you to explore the school archive through the paperark link: http://kgvhk.paperark. com/. We are so excited by what this allows alumni and students to find out. It is well worth spending a few minutes playing with it. We set new records in IB Diploma results again this year. All the headline figures improved and we had a record 4 students with the maximum 45 points. We were also delighted with our BTEC scores and the progression of so many of these students to the University of their choice, and the GCSE results by Year 10 and 11. My congratulations to all students, teachers and parents who made these results possible. The new year is now well underway and I look forward to working with you through the interesting times ahead. Best wishes, Ed Wickins, Principal
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Student News
Students at Work ESF Chairman’s Award for Excellence 2014 The English Schools Foundation (ESF) held the ESF Chairman’s Award for Excellence 2014 Ceremony to recognise the outstanding performance of 196 ESF graduates. The 44 KGV graduates included: • 5 students from last year’s Year 13 cohort with outstanding achievement in Leadership, Commitment and Contribution to Service, Embodying the Spirit and Values of the school, Sporting Achievement and Creativity; • 27 students who achieved the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma with 42 or more points (or a Bilingual Diploma with 40 or more points); • 12 students who achieved the equivalent of 420 or more UCAS points on the Applied Learning Programme (ALP). Three students have received double awards.
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Phil Barnes Prize Winner 2014 Cynthia Ha returned to KGV to perform in the Summer Concert and we took the opportunity to present her with the Phil Barnes Memorial Trophy which she was awarded at Speech Day in November. This stunning piece of artwork is now on display in the Archive Centre within the Fung Learning Resources Centre.
Guinness World Record of Most participants performing a Bleep Test We are delighted to confirm that we are now the official world record holders for the Most Participants of bleep test as well as Planking. Our efforts in April when we re-opened the school field have been acknowledged by Guinness World Record. Congratulations to everyone who made that afternoon a highlight of the year. Not many can claim two world records ‌ KGV can! The most participants in a bleep test is 575 participants and was achieved by us on 29th April 2014.Out of the 587 participants who started, 575 successfully completed the required number of intervals.
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Student News
Students at Work Carnegie Medal Shadowing 2014
Advanced Reading Group Presentations
On June 20th a group of twenty students from Sha Tin College and KGV met to discuss their pick for the winner of this year’s Carnegie Medal.
This year’s advanced reading group gave their fellow year 9 students a presentation of their work based on the final English unit of work. Year 9 English classes had been studying science fiction film in the last few weeks of term.
The eight shortlisted novels were chosen in March. Hundreds of schools then organize shadowing groups to read the nominees and make their choice – before the judging panel announce their decision. Since Easter at KGV, nearly four hundred books were borrowed and one hundred and sixty evaluations written as students made their views known. The popular choice at KGV was clearly ‘Liar and Spy’ by Rebecca Stead. The final combined panel with Sha Tin had a closely debated discussion between ‘Liar and Spy’ and ‘Rooftoppers’, with ‘Rooftoppers’ coming out on top! The judging panel awarded the Carnegie Medal to ‘The Bunker Diary’ by Kevin Brooks. This novel had been a close contender for second spot on the KGV poll and proved to be a controversial winner in the UK press.
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The advanced reading group had explored the film ‘Moon’, directed by Duncan Jones, through a variety of lenses, with each student devising their own project. This included creative writing, a study of the science in the film, graphic interpretations, and ethical responses. A series of skilful and captivating presentations kept the audience of students, parents and teachers enthralled for the afternoon lesson. Duncan McIntyre, Head of English Department
No Ceiling Project 2014 Wednesday 4th June saw six Middle School students attend the annual celebration for the ESF-wide Gifted and Talented “No Ceiling project” at Sha Tin College. The project allows highly able students to collaborate with students of similar ability from across ESF on a project entirely of their choosing. Four schools are currently involved; KGV, Sha Tin College, Renaissance and West Island. The students who attended from KGV are Cherie Chun, Rahul Arya, Brendan Ng, Calvin Lam, Deepak Nair and Tiffany Yeung. The students presented their projects to parents and staff, and were awarded with certificates by Samantha Rodgers from ESF Centre. This year the projects students worked on included a Maths, Science and English enrichment website, an animal welfare website, an App that allows you to customise your Mac operating system with personalised themes, and an unusual facts magazine. As usual both the quality of the work and the originality of students’ ideas was impressive. Gillian Coull, Gifted & Talented Co-ordinator
Asia Physics Olympiad Award Ceremony Sunday the 11th to Monday 19th of May saw the culmination of eight months training at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology for Sampson Kwan (11N06S). During this intensive week, he represented Hong Kong in the 15th Asian Physics Olympiad in Singapore, going on to collect a bronze medal with his team mates. However, there is no rest for Sampson after this remarkable achievement. He is already back in training to prepare for the International Physics Olympiad in 2015. Congratulations, Sampson, and all the best for next year! Gillian Coull, Gifted & Talented Co-ordinator
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School News
CAS Fair 2014 The CAS fair this year was one of the busiest years we’ve seen yet! With the hundreds of students pouring in, the numerous school-based activities scattered around the room, and the many external providers who had come to excite our students with possibilities of biking, hiking, and “maximum CAS hours” (although we all know it’s not about the hours!), the room was packed with chattering students and teachers alike, taking in information about activities they otherwise may not have considered. During this fair, students were able to interact with their peers, alumni, and other representatives from their respective programs. This provided many with the opportunity to, firstly and foremost, decide which activities they’d like to participate in in order to better the community or better themselves, and secondly, to enhance their communication skills with people
they may or may not know. As observed from the fair, many students were anxious to approach the external representatives, and tended to shy up as a group, but after time, started to relax. We were fortunate enough to have a student-led CAS activity, Social Guitar Club, come down to perform during lunch to showcase the results of a particular activity, as well as showcase their various talents. The performances attracted a lot of students, and were enjoyed by all. Thank you to all those who made this event possible, and a big thank you to Mr Beard, Ms Ip, and Ms Lui, who have worked tirelessly to make sure that we students are able to expand our extra-curricular activities and make the most of the opportunities the school provides! Grace Chen, Year 13 student
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School News
ESF MasterChef KGV was delighted to host the annual ESF Masterchef Competition in June, with many talented young chefs cooking a wide range of beautifully presented and delicious food for the judges and parents based upon the theme of Iconic Hong Kong. The event brought together the winning chefs from individual school competitions and was an extremely successful and busy event. Everyone was amazed at the standard of the food the students produced. KGV seniors were represented by Christy Yip and Yu Sum Ma ( year 10) and the Juniors were Jessie Cheng and Yumi Horiba ( year 7) Congratulations to everyone who participated, the judges were certainly given a challenging task to announce overall winners. Congratulations go to Shatin College, for winning both the Junior and the Senior competition. Many thanks to our sponsors Bell and Brookes. Mel Walton, Head of Technology
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School News
Learning Resources Centre LRC Now Open! The new Fung Learning Resource Centre has opened to a great response from both students and staff. The first few weeks have seen a number of events including displays of Mid-Autumn poetry, IB research skills lessons and two days of Year 7 inductions. The Year 7 students arrived at KGV not knowing the huge transformation that had taken place on the first floor of the Peel Block but were wowed by the facilities which are now on offer to them. The induction involved students being taught how to locate resources and then completing a treasure hunt to show off their new library skills. They clearly learnt fast as Year 7 students are amongst the largest borrowers of books in the school. Year 12 students have also been given inductions to the huge range of resources on offer in the LRC.
During Individuals and Society lessons students have been taught how to search academic databases and reference in their written work. The students were keen to engage with the academic rigor of the IB and an overall approach which is much closer to undergraduate study. We hope these skills will lead to some fantastic extended essays being produced later in the year. This new demand for library resources has led to an appeal to the school fund to extend our current collection. We are waiting with bated breath to see if former students are willing to help us grow our collection to match a changing curriculum and increased demand. If you have yet to visit the LRC please do feel free to drop in and see what a fantastic facility the donation from Fung family made possible. Also if you would like to help support our book drive please contact the Alumni Relations Officer. Duncan Shiel, LRC Manager
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School News
Middle School Curriculum The launch of the new Middle School Curriculum began in August this year with our new Year 7 students experiencing it for the first time in all their subjects. The Middle School Curriculum has been developed over three years by the KGV staff, and becomes the basis of learning in Years 7 to 9 for all students. It is built around two important guiding principles: - Skills - Coherence Because the curriculum there to serve students while they are in the Middle School, the curriculum plays an important role in bridging the experiences of primary schooling and the later challenges of studying for qualifications such as iGCSEs, BTEC Vocational Qualifications and the IB Diploma. It therefore aims to provide students with a set of transferable skills that will form the basis of their success in their future learning, and lives, and this is why Skills is one of the guiding principles of what has been developed.
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The skills of the Middle School Curriculum are built around the IB ‘Approaches to Learning’ Skills framework, meaning that they are the same skills which are worked towards through the Primary Years Programme that KGV’s partner primary schools pursue, and also the IB Diploma which the majority of KGV students study in Years 12 and 13. The Middle School Curriculum therefore completes a continuum of skills-based learning, giving us the capacity to help develop students’ skills of Thinking, Social Skills, Communication, Self-Management and Research right the way through their time as ESF students. Because the Middle School Curriculum is planned around this framework of skills, subject content becomes the vehicle through which skills are acquired and refined. But rather than talking solely about students’ learning in each subject, we can talk about students’ learning of each skill. Subjects are therefore challenged to work together to identify where they teach the same skills as another subject, and work together to ensure students’ skill development occurs strategically across all subjects. This is what we mean by the principle of Coherence. So these two principles have been brought together in the new topics, assessments and resources that have been designed in our new curriculum. Year 7 students have begun to experience this newlydesigned curriculum and we are enjoying the process of seeing what they do with the learning experiences that have been designed for them. The curriculum is accompanied by a new reporting system and a series of interactive coursepages in our Virtual Learning Environment, LIONeL, and we are tremendously excited about how these aspects of our current work can help guide student learning over the coming years. To learn more about the development of the KGV Middle School Curriculum, you can visit our website: http://www.kgvmsc.com which features a variety of different resources which help to give an insight into how the new curriculum works. There is also a blog to which we post regularly and which you can follow to receive updates about KGV’s curriculum development. James Smith, Vice Principal
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School News
PTSA
Parents are reminded that one of the many benefits of your PTSA fee is the receipt of your son/daughters student Identity card. This card has been distributed to students in the new school year – upon payment of your yearly family PTSA fee. Not only is this used for student identification in public facilities such as public transport , theme parks, cinemas, museums etc it also provides the opportunity for exciting discounts at popular outlets.
The PTSA has worked hard to continue to provide and expand the list of popular outlets for our KGV Student ID Card Privilege Scheme. We are proud to have on board our new vendors, Paisano’s Pizzaria , Arirang Korean Restaurant and Rapeeliving providing our students 10% discount upon showing their student ID card. Please find our updated list of vendors for the KGV Student ID card 2014-2015 on the KGV Website, PTSA section. Rishika Chandiramani, PTSA Administrator
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Spanish Speech Festival 2014 Last June, a group of hopeful Spanish KGV linguists set off for Island School to compete in the Spanish Speech Festival which is a new initiative inaugurated by ESF. Ian Hunter of Island School had put together a wonderfully friendly Speech competition and we were very excited to be there. All presentations were managed in both Spanish and English. Also there was great entertainment from a student band from Island School who managed to sing in Spanish, in spite of them not even studying it. We also had a talented and charismatic group category consisting of Georgia Desideri– Zigante, Yuti Khare, Bhavik Malkani, Rika Mio, Diva Saha and Selina Parmanand. Each category had to recite a poem, from Spanish literature, and they were marked on pronunciation, intonation and clarity.
The categories and representatives from KGV: Year 7: Owena Chau Year 8 / 9: Malhaar Vora Year 10 / 11: Aparna Venkitaraman Years 12 / 13: Celina Qiu Malhaar Vora was outstanding in his category and he managed to come first as a consequence. ÂĄFelicitaciones! Thanks in particular also go to Varina Parmanand and Riana Jhangiani Sakhrani who were kind enough to represent KGV as judges for this prestigious event. Their generous contribution of time and skill was essential in ensuring this event ran well. Although this was the first time that KGV had competed and we managed to come 3rd overall. Julia Block, Head of Spanish
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Development Update
Opening of the Fung Learning Resources Centre KGV celebrated the opening of the Fung Learning Resources Centre with an evening which gave over 100 guests the opportunity to explore the extraordinary new facility. The Fung family who have invested in the Centre were delighted to see what has been achieved in the creation of a light, airy, flexible, attractive and modern space which will support students in their learning. Victor Fung spoke eloquently about his family’s commitment to education and the importance he places on investing in KGV students who will be so important in the future of Hong Kong. Anne Dubuc, Community Development Manager
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Performing Arts
Summer Music Concert On the 18th of June, students, teachers, and family members abandoned their various “Dark Adventures” of school and work and “Came In Through The Firefly Darkness” to attend the music department’s annual summer concert! The summer concert was first revived by Mr Stanley two years ago, after we had “Let It Go” for quite some time. It was a great opportunity for students after the Carol Concert to demonstrate their skills, which “Flurries Through The Air Into The Ground” . With pieces ranging from Grease to the trichotillomania inducing Aboriginal Rituals, the blend of different musical styles, and Mr Stanley’s obsession with pieces performed in the order of certain keys and modes, students of various calibers came together to produce an amazing concert! The night was a great success, and we hope to be able to perform and showcase various talents in KGV more in the future!
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Thank you to the musicians from Year 11s and 13s for returning to school during your summer holidays/postexamination period to perform with us, and thank you to the Year 13s for entertaining us all with a hilarious rendition of ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ from Mary Poppins (even though the sound of it was something quite atrocious…)! Thank you so much to Ms Carlile, Ms Lee, Ms Yuen, and Mr Stanley for putting in so much time, energy, and years of your lives to put together this concert, and finally, thank you to all those who attended the concert, and we hope to see you again next year, because “You’re the one that I want!” Grace Chen & Phoebe Tso Year 13 Music students
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Performing Arts
Lion Rock Concert 2014 June 2014 saw the revival of a renowned KGV tradition: the Lion Rock Music Festival. After the discontinuation of the “Lion Rock” concert several years back, student musicians who were passionate for popular music longed for an alternative platform to showcase their talents. This served as a motivation for a group of volunteer students, led by the student council, to bring back the Lion Rock name and host one of the most anticipated charity music events of the school year. On June 20, nine of the best student bands and performers from all across Hong Kong’s international schools gathered at KGV, and performed to hundreds of excited students and fans. Sen6 from French International, U-Boat Highway from Kellet, and The Oxidizers from Discovery entertained the crowd with captivating performances of original songs as well as covers of popular hits. KGV’s very own Kimbap, 6126, and star soloist Tony Eum weren’t ready to be bested by the guests either as they had the audience cheering to their lively and energetic
music. KGV’s Zhango Unchained took the crowd on an emotional journey with the band’s unique rendition of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’, earning them second place in the night’s cheering competition. But the act that swept everyone away was Discovery College’s Emergency Exit, ending the concert at its climax with everyone hyped-up, singing and jumping to their song ‘Cops N’ Robbers’, after they received first place in the competition. It is without doubt that the concert’s performers were of exceptional skill and talent, and has once again put Lion Rock on a course to become a tradition that KGV will be proud of. The success of Lion Rock 2014 has also set new boundaries for what student led events can achieve, and has raised over $11,000 for Liberty Asia, a charity that combats human trafficking. Many thanks to Tom Lee for providing us with top-notch equipment, and to KGV PTSA, Heaven Music Studio and This Music Studio for sponsoring winner’s prizes. We wish our performers the very best, and look forward to next year’s even bigger and better show. Luk King Yeung, Y13 Student
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Sports Update
Swimming Gala 2014 The 2014 Swimming Gala, took place this year between glorious bouts of sunshine and grey rain clouds. But neither the high temperatures or occasional down pour prevented the enthusiasm and energy exuded from the students making this such an incredible KGV day. It is always a spectacular setting at Kowloon Tsai Pool, with the house colours reflected in the student’s attire, banner’s being waved and cheer leader’s pompoms. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those students, staff and parents who made this occasion, such a great start to the new academic year.
The overall championship for this year, saw one house dominate all proceedings, with regards the preliminary swimming heats, achievement of timing standards and success on the final gala day.
The gala itself ran very smoothly and when the final medley relay finished, we had watched 56 individual races, 14 relays and a total of 880 competitors race. 5 individual records had been broken and 3 new relay records set.
Well done to all!
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The clock has been turned back 25 years and CROZIER have established themselves as the new 2014 Swimming Gala Champions. Congratulations to all those students, staff and parents involved, maybe this is the start of a new dynasty and many more are to come.
Congratulations go to: Harry Wang Y12N – 50m Freestyle: 25.20 seconds (old record 25.50 -Jonathan Paul 2002) Boris Yang Y11U – 50m Breaststroke: 33.22 seconds (old record 33.50 – Billy Law 1996) Boris Yan Y11U – 50m Backstroke: 32.15 seconds (old record 34.12 – Jeffery Cheung 2013) Yi Go Y12R – 50m Backstroke : 36.47 seconds (old record 36.49 – Catherine Li 2011) Ryo Ishikawa Y12C – 50m Backstroke : 33.53 seconds (old record 33.54 – Joshua Manuncia 2007) Charles Riding, Head of PE
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Sports Update
Triathlon World Triathlon Edmonton Grand Final We left Hong Kong on the 22nd of August, a week before my individual race, the Junior World Triathlon Championships. We spent the next week preparing for the race, we got to swim in the lane next to all of the London Olympics medalists, the Brownlee brothers, and Javier Gomez. It was pretty cool being around so many professional triathletes; we even got to get our photos taken with them! Eventually, race day came around, and as usual, I was pretty nervous, a lot more than usual because I knew how strong the field was and how tough the race would be. The temperature all week was just within the wetsuit temperature, so I was hoping for the water to warm up just a little bit so that it would be a non-wetsuit swim because I absolutely hate swimming in a wetsuit. Sadly, luck wasn’t on my side that day, and the water temperature was 19.6 degrees, just 0.4 degrees below non-wetsuit temperature!
Now, for the actual race. We got introduced one by one and once everyone had chosen their positions, the crowd went quiet, and war music started playing in the background. The first couple hundred metres were crazy, it was like a 200m sprint race, punches were thrown in every direction. After the first buoy, most of the fighting stopped but the pace of the swim stayed high throughout the entire swim section. The bike course was probably the most challenging course I’ve ever been on. It was a 4-lap course, with a very steep hill that had a 30m elevation gain over 400m. As for the run, it was completely flat, and I managed to pick off athletes one by one over the 2 laps of the 5km run. It was a pretty tiring race! It was a fantastic experience, getting to witness and race against the best athletes in the world and I can’t wait for next year’s world championships in Chicago. Vanessa Ng - Year 13 student
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Youth Olympic Games Triathlon During the summer I represented Hong Kong and participated in the Youth Olympic Games for Triathlon. But before I was able to participate at the Youth Olympic Games I had to go through a series of selection races that included the 2014 Zhenjiang ASTC Triathlon Premium Asian Cup where I had to come top 2 and the 2014 Burabay ASTC Triathlon Asian YOG Qualifier where I had to come top 5. After successfully qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games I had a goal of coming top 10 out of 32 other competitors, which at the time seemed very hard to accomplish but after three months of both physical and mental training and support from my team, my goal seemed very realistic. On race day I felt very relaxed and pumped up and this allowed me to compete at my top form. During the 750m swim I came out of the water in the leading group which allowed my to cycle in the first pack for the 20 km bike leg. But as I finished my first lap of the bike leg it started to rain and I
knew that I would be very dangerous for me, riding on a dry weather bike setup. This would mean that I would have to go around the corners and turns more cautiously and slowly. On the second lap of the bike leg I was just able to avoid a crash in front of me that took out an Austrian athlete and a Mexican athlete but unfortunately on the last lap an American athlete skidded around a turn, which lead to me crashing into him and having to put my chain back on. After the crash I had fallen back around 10 positions and entered the run at 16th place, which I managed to maintain for the duration of the 5km run. Overall I felt that I was able to meet a lot of different people and make a lot of new friends and most importantly I was able to gain a lot of experience that would help me perform better in ever larger competitions in the future. Michael Lam - Year 12 student
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Sports Update
Skateboarding, Swimming Skateboarding through Europe This summer I travelled to Europe to compete in the European section of the IDF World Downhill Skateboarding circuit after my success in Cebu earlier this year. I travelled across seven countries and competed in three races. The first race was ‘Sector 9 Almabtrieb’ in the south of Germany. This was my first ever world cup race where competitors could easily reach speeds of 100km. Unfortunately I was taken out from behind in the second round of the junior competition which meant that I finished 10th. After Germany I drove up to the Czech Republic for the 2nd race called ‘The Kozakov Challenge’ that was about 2 hours north of Prague. The track was 3 km long, super narrow and lined with a 1000 hale bales that you try not to crash into while flying around the corners at extreme speed. I finished
47th out of 158 in the men’s division and once again reached the semi finals of juniors after some confusion with course marshals waving yellow flags. The final leg in France was ‘Peyragudes Never Dies’ which was in the location of the film set of a James Bond film.This was arguably the most challenging track in the world with the bumpy pavement, crazy tail winds and shear cliffs on either size of the road. I managed to finish 40 out of 130 in men’s and won the “consi’s” in the Juniors . At the end of my months adventure in Europe I was ranked 2nd in the world for the under 18 bracket and 46th in the Open Mens. I hope to continue my racing career with races in Asia throughout this year and return to Europe in 2015 to compete as an adult in the Mens Opens. Harry Clarke - Year 12 student
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Hong Kong National Swimmer This February, I was admitted into the Hong Kong National Swimming Squad. I was both nervous and happy at the same time. I was nervous because I did not want to be late for morning practices. For me swimming has always been a stress reliever. Whenever I swim I forget about all my worries, problems and most of all, homework. Even after a hard training session, I always feel refreshed and relaxed. In March, I participated in the Hong Kong Age Group Swimming Championships. It was down to how much time, effort and dedication I would put into swimming that made me win three gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal. All the hours I put in had paid off and I ranked second overall in the boys 13-14 year-old age group in the swimming championships in Hong Kong. I hope that my achievements can be recognized by my fellow students and will be able to inspire people to be better swimmers. Jonathan Tse - Year 11 student
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Alumni News
Alumni News KGV Online Digital Archive KGV values its heritage and traditions. We also welcome continuing contact with Alumni of all generations. We have established an Alumni Community that gives free access to our archive resources and provides an easy opportunity to develop or regenerate old networks and friendships. In recent years we have invested in both the management of our school archives and their digitalisation to make them available to Alumni remotely. This new service has been facilitated by a group of KGV Alumni who have developed the programme that allows it. The online archives website http://kgvhk.paperark.com/ is now launched and you will be able to log in with the same ID and password of the alumni website.
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In 2014 the “Welfare League Archive and Heritage Centre� is being developed as part of the school development work. It provides a facility for all members of the school community to access our archives. We have also included an archive space in the Fung Learning Resources Centre which contains important old documents such as LION Yearbooks and various heritage items. We hope you will be able to visit the school and see for yourself that we retain many of the special elements that have always been important at KGV in a modern and attractive contemporary site that suits the needs of contemporary students. I look forward to meeting you.
KGV Alumni Interview
Rowan Varty - 2004 Alumnus • My childhood dream job was…Professional footballer! • My current job is…professional rugby player (so almost there) • My best sporting match was…at school it was winning the Bill Williams 7s. We coached ourselves and had a team made up of a bunch of old mates who had been at KGV from the start, it made it extra special. • A word of advice I would give to the current KGV student would be…work as hard as you can in school and in everything else you do; you’ll get what you deserve and earn what you get. • I am still friends with…all my good mates from school. • I am proud of being a KGV alumnus because… the school keep pushing forward but retains its pride in history. Anne Dubuc, Community Development Manager
Launch of the Lion Fund The Lion Fund was established to finance the school programs that not supported by tuition income. Every donation makes a difference no matter what the amount is. Gifts have an immediate and direct impact on each student’s education in 3 areas of development: environment, language & culture and building enhancement. The Lion Fund 6-weeks intensive campaign will start on the 29th of September and will end on the 10th of November. Any gift is greatly appreciated during this time but also at others moments of the year, according to each person’ means. To know more about the Lion Fund and the projects related to it please see the attached brochure and contact Anne Dubuc at Tel: +852 2711 3029 Email: anne.dubuc@kgv.edu.hk
Editors Blog I am happy to present the Alumni page of the KGV Newsletter… the first of a long series to come! This month we are happy to launch our online archives website which is an amazing tool to stay connected with school friends from any graduation year! Hundreds of pictures form the 50s until now as well as publications and an impressive database of Lion Yearbooks starting in the 30s. Sign up on the Alumni website and you’ll have access to the treasure of KGV history! Each issue will also show an interview of one of our Alumni, please see above for the short interview of Rowan Varty! The last but not the least we are glad to launch our first annual fund, the Lion Fund, from the 29/09/14 until the 10/11/14. This intensive 6-weeks campaign aims to raise as many unrestricted gifts as possible among the KGV community. Every donation counts no matter what the amount is. Thank you and I hope you’ll stay tuned by registering on our Alumni website! Anne Dubuc, Community Development Manager
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Trips & Activities
Himalayas Expedition Expedition to Ladakh, Himalayas While students of KGV began to relax as the start of our summer holidays arrived, Joe Wu, Ditte Juel and I embarked on a three-week expedition to Ladakh in the Himalayas, as part of an expedition team selected by the Youth Endurance Network. As a team, we set out to face challenges and break our physical and mental boundaries, as well as a world record - the youngest team to summit the 19,000 feet Parangla Pass. Throughout the couple of months leading up to the expedition, we worked extremely hard in preparation; the team of fifteen was first selected through a selection process of over fifty candidates, where we hiked for a total of 60 hours over one weekend. A rigorous training regime followed, with a purpose-specific gym program four days a week,
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and weekend hikes in various trails in Hong Kong. Being thrown into the unfamiliar expedition lifestyle, we were faced with numerous challenges, including trivial ones such as cramming inside a tent each night for dinner and being disconnected from civilization. There were greater challenges as we progressed - fatigue from ten-hour hikes everyday on rough terrain, persevering through grueling weather conditions, and dealing with the physical and mental effects of high altitude. We were also presented with absolutely breathtaking views of pure nature, untouched by human civilization: snow-top mountains looming over our campsite in Thaltak; the magnificent Spiti valley; the untainted beauty of Tso Moriri lake.
The climax of this expedition was the ascent to the Parangla Pass. At the high altitude and inside snowstorm conditions, where every step was a conscious decision, we ploughed steadily through the snow. Finally, standing at 19,000 feet on the top of the Parangla Pass, we were overwhelmed with the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment; not only did we break a world record, but we pushed ourselves and surpassed our physical and mental limits. This expedition has taught us countless lessons that could not only be applied in a physical sense within natural conditions, but also as far as school life. We discovered the extreme extent of endurance and perseverance, adapted to unfamiliar environments and situations, and created the synergy within the team to support one another in order to complete the expedition. Yu Xuan Su - Year 13 student
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