7 Sep 2016

Peak View – 9 September 2016

Peak School’s latest newsletter is available to read now. Find out the latest news around the school and upcoming events.

[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  PTA News
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  PYP News
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  Chinese News
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  Planet Peak
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  Library News
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  Student Leadership at Peak School
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  Message from the School Nurse
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  Key Dates
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  Others
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  Extracurricular Activities
[wc_fa icon=”angle-right” margin_left=”” margin_right=””][/wc_fa]  Disclaimer

PTA News

Dear Parents,

I hope you and your family are settling into the new school year well.  We had an enjoyable and well-attended welcome evening for new parents to begin getting to know the PTA recently, and it was a pleasure to meet new families entering our community.

Celebrating Lantern Festival:  30 September

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Lantern Festival happens on Friday, 30 September this year, and we look forward to having you and your family there.  It’s a great event, and an excellent way to get involved in the school community by volunteering and getting to know other parents.

We need volunteers to help us staff stalls, as we run the event ourselves as a school.  A link will be available for you to sign up for a slot to volunteer, and we make this convenient with multiple time slots available so you can enjoy time with your family as well.

PTA Committee Roles

Jane Peters as Vice Chair will be stepping down, as will myself as Chair at the end of our current terms.  We’re keen to have people willing to commit to the roles and get involved join us later this year at our AGM.

One of our Parent Representatives, Pei-Pei Chum has stepped down from the committee.  A thank you to her for being on our committee and her contributions to our team and community!

If you’re interested in joining the Committee and would like to know more about what’s involved, please get in touch with me via Jackie, and I can meet you to talk with you further.

Best regards
Brian Schroeder
PTA Chair

PYP News

PYP Attitudes:  Curiosity and Cooperation

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Artwork by Berenice Coelho http://mrsberenicesartroom.blogspot.hk

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Artwork by Berenice Coelho http://mrsberenicesartroom.blogspot.hk

Over the past two weeks our students have displayed curiosity and cooperation in various ways. Read up on some of the highlights of the past weeks:

Discovery Time

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We’ve enjoyed exploring and investigating through Discovery Time in Years 1 and 2.  The children have been engaged in activities that allow them to collaborate and cooperate with each other.  They are learning to share their ideas as well as listen to others.  Check out Mrs. Ainsworth’s blog to see Discovery Time in action by clicking HERE!

Our Y3s will soon begin their STEAMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Mindfulness) lessons. Through the STEAMM lessons, we hope to enhance inquiry across the curriculum areas.  Lessons will be linked to the units of inquiry or other areas of the curriculum, targeting specific learner profile attributes, attitudes, concepts and skills.

Y3 Peak Walk

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Our Y3s showed curiosity as they took a walk in the Peak neighborhood, looking out for systems in the community.  They visited the Peak Galleria and the Post Office.  If you know anyone in Y3, ask them about what they learned and whether they came back with even more questions!

Y4 and Y5 Guests

Y4 and Y5 had special guests this week.  Mr. Tim Conroy-Stocker (from ESF Centre) and Mrs. Victoria Fouladi (mum of Soraya) helped the Y4 children with their inquiry into healthy lifestyles by offering a mindfulness workshop and a yoga session.  Thank you, Mr. Conroy-Stocker and Mrs. Fouladi!

We also met some people from NGOs this week.  In Y5, Ms Joanne Lai of Unicef talked to both classes about Children’s Rights while Kids on the Block entertained our Y4s with a puppet show about health & safety.

Y6 Trip to LegCo

Our Y6s visited the Legislative Committee to learn about how a bill is passed.  They displayed curiosity as they asked questions and took part in a role play.  Through the role play, the children also expressed their ideas for or against a proposed bill.  This trip has given them a peek into their upcoming unit on government systems.

Chiqui Colet
Vice Principal and PYP Coordinator

Chinese News

Parent workshop: Learning Chinese at home

We are offering a workshop for parents on Thursday, 29 September from 8:45 ~ 9:45 at the hall.  The workshop will focus on how you can support your child at home by learning how to use different learning tools.  We will be introducing the different apps that are used in class and other ways you can enhance your child’s Chinese language learning.

Congratulations to Y3 Piggy Group!

Congratulations to the Y3 Piggy Group for coming up with Peak School’s very first Chinese tutorial!  Their slideshow presentation was shown at assembly on Friday.  We look forward to more tutorials throughout the year.  Our Y3s have set a high standard for others to follow.  Well done!

The Chinese Team

Planet Peak

We have been building Planet Peak from the ground up, and Mr. Mac and I appreciate your patience. We are very excited about the new platform and have been spending so much time building it we now consider ourselves to be Moodle experts. We welcome any suggestions as we would like to make our new Planet Peak as accessible and user-friendly as possible.

Acceptable User Agreement (Cyber-safety)

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We have been going into classrooms and talking about Digital Citizenship and Cybersafety. On Monday, September 12th we will be sending an e-notice for you to read through our Gateway. Please take some time in the coming weeks to have a conversation about this with your children.  There will be at least two parent presentations next term, but please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Here is the link from last year’s presentation: http://psdigitalcitizen.weebly.com/

Best regards,
Mr. H

Library News

Please click HERE for the latest Library News.

The Library Team

Student Leadership at Peak School

At Peak School we offer students the opportunity to take on greater responsibilities and to have a voice in what happens at school.  In recent years our Student Council have organised fund raising days, held and organised special celebration or commemoration days for events such as Remembrance Day, Diwali and World Peace Day; they have helped the PTA with fundraising activities and been responsible for decisions made to improving the playground.

Last week eight talented Y6 students gave presentations in front of Y3-6 trying to persuade them why they should be elected as one of the four students for this role.  Each year these presentations get better and better.  The students created props, designed presentations, made movies, interviewed students and dressed up to get their message across.   They used persuasive techniques such as rhyme, alliteration and emotive language.   All of the students were well prepared, organised and demonstrated successful communication skills.  These are all essential skills for any leader.

Y3-6 children had a hard task voting for only four students using an excellent on-line voting system designed by Mr. Hollingsworth.  All of the Y6 students would have been hard working reliable members of the Student Council and each and everyone one of them should be very proud of the work they did with their presentations.    Congratulations and well done to Katie Butler, Elizabeth Bower, Anson Li, Ethan Ko, Gauri Saxena, Olivia Nicholls, Giorgia Lyden and Laura Liu.

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The elected Y6 Student Councillors for 2016 are: Katie Butler, Anson Li, Olivia Nicholls and Georgia Lyden.

This week more Y6 students will give presentations to Peak School children as we have the elections for House Captains.

Further leadership positions for Student Council, House Prefects, Green Group and Librarians will be offered for students in Y3-5.  Each class will be responsible for electing some of these leadership positions for their own classes and student leaders will buddy up with Y1 and Y2 classes to ensure every class has a voice at Peak School.

I would like take this opportunity to thank all students who are about to be risk takers trying out for these positions.  I do know how hard each of you work and how seriously you take these leadership opportunities.

Thank you for your hard work.

Tiphany Bloomfield
Student Leadership Co-ordinator

Message from the School Nurse

Student Health and Dental Scheme

A reminder that you can retrieve a form for the Student Health Service from school now, closing date September 12.

For the Dental Scheme: Please obtain a form directly from MacLehose Dental Centre at 286, Queen’s Road East, Wan chai from mid-December.  Please call 28922125 for details.  You will need a proof of attendance letter from the school with the HKID card (original and photocopy)/passport with a valid visa (original and photocopy) for an appointment.

Michelle Buckley
School Nurse

Key Dates

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Others

South Island School: Open Day

South Island School will have an Open Morning from 8:30~13:15 on September 21 (Wednesday).  Parents have a chance to observe lessons and talk to teachers and students about life at SIS.  Click HERE to find more information.

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Island School Redevelopment Update September 2016

At the start of the academic year 2016-17 it is timely to reflect on the current state of play with regard to the redevelopment of the Island School campus. We are pleased to report that both the detailed designs of the temporary school buildings and the new school itself are coming on very well and are near completion. All the preliminary drawing submissions have been approved by the relevant government departments and we are well on the way to achieving Gold Beam+ status for the new designs commitment to sustainability.

We have benefited hugely from being able to work so closely with TCA architects. They have been so committed to listening to our needs, wants and ideas. Having said all this we are no nearer receiving a final confirmation that the project can go ahead starting June 2017 and therefore cannot be 100% sure that we will be relocating for August of the same year. We are hoping that the redevelopment project, and the government funding towards the project, will be ratified by the end of this month. As soon as we have had this confirmation, we are confident that we are on track to plan a very successful approach to temporarily relocating next year.

An invitation

As we embark on what is hopefully our final year in this building prior to decant, it is vitally important that we A, plan supportive, safe and efficient strategies for student travel to and from the temporary school sites. And B, that we become more strategic and anticipatory in our planning for sustaining our school ethos and community cohesion throughout the decant period. On top of that we need to be mindful that a sensitively planned community engagement programme is essential if we are to integrate with the Tai Wai communities and develop a reciprocally beneficial relationship with the people in the areas around the temporary school sites.

We already have a small group of primary parents that wish to work with us as we contemplate the concrete details of a transport plan, but we need more prospective parents to get involved. We need to hear your views and work together with you to ensure the complete success of the temporary relocation arrangements. Please email me on gareth.stevens@online.island.edu.hk if you wish to be involved. Also if you wish to accompany us on a visit to one of the school sites on 21 Sep 2016 please let me know. The campus we will be visiting is for Years 7, 8, 12 and 13.

Junior Chess Star Invitational Competition 2016, Quarry Bay School

We are pleased to announce that Quarry Bay School PTA LTD will be hosting the 5th Junior Chess Star Invitational Competition 2016, sponsored by Quarry Bay School, on Sunday, 25th September 2016.  We invite all students studying in ESF & PIS primary schools, for the academic year 2016-17, to join the event.

See here for more information on the Poster.

Please click here for online registration.

Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular Activities Timetable

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From ESL

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From External Provider

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Disclaimer

Peak School (PS) reserves the right to accept or reject any advertisement submitted for PS publications and on its websites. However, PS does not attempt to investigate or verify advertisements appearing in PS´s publications and on its websites. The appearance of advertising in PS´s publications and on its websites in no way implies endorsement or approval by PS of any advertising claims or of the advertiser, its product, or services. PS disclaims any liability whatsoever in connection with advertising appearing in PS´s publications and on its websites.

 

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