04 October 2019

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

  Principal’s Message

 Dates for your Diary

 Showcase – Sapphire

 Whole School Sports Day

 KGV X-Country event

 Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)  Awareness 2019

 SNN Shares: Transitioning to Adulthood – Workshop

 8-week Mindful Parenting course

 World School Camps at RED DOOR

 International China Concern- WALK THE WALL Hong Kong

Principal’s Message

We all love our annual whole school sports day and this year was no exception – in fact the feedback is that it was one of the best. All students participated with enthusiasm and courage and they were so well supported by our staff, parents and the fantastic KJS students. Thank you to the many, many parents who came along to cheer and assist. You really added to the community feel of the day. Of course it all ran smoothly as a result of Mike’s great planning and leadership with his assistant Sidney – congratulations to you both.

Another sports event that a number of students were able to join was the KGV cross-country. Well done to all those students who participated and to Mike for liaising with the KGV team. You can see some more information below from Mike.

This Monday all staff participated in professional learning. Teachers joined their ESF colleagues to share expertise and knowledge. You can see our two star presenters (Occupational therapists Daphne and Jon)  below. I joined our EAs at the ESFC for a presentation on the brain and behaviour. It highlighted to me how skilled and knowledgeable our team is – we are so proud of them. The therapists also had a day for their professional development.

Thanks parents for coming along to chat about your son/daughter’s IEP. We hope you are now finding it easier to use the VLE to access all the achievements and learning of your child or young adult. Remember you can always email carol.li@jcsrs.edu.hk if you need technical help.

October is Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Awareness Month. We have a number of students who are non-verbal or have difficulties with speech and require an augmented or alternative means of communication. We are so fortunate to have two fabulous speech therapists who work with us to promote and enhance communication for all our students. On Friday 18 October we are holding our first AAC Lunch Hour where we will all use other means to communicate instead of speech. Our speech therapist Cheryl has more details below.

We always enjoy and benefit from having ESF students join us for the Community Action Service (CAS) week. From Sha Tin College we had Stephanie, Belle and Arthur this week. To finish the week today we reflected together on their learning and their feelings about spending time with our students. Congratulations to all three of them for their positive attitudes and excellent contributions.

At our school assembly this week we had a special guest. Adrienne from the Masarang Foundation talked to us about the great work they do to protect the wildlife and support the people in a number of countries. From our recent Walkathon we are able to donate $7,140 to this wonderful organisation. Thank you again to all the families who supported this. The other half of the money raised will go to a local charity chosen by our student council. Also at assembly a number of students received awards for participation across the curriculum. I will share those in the next newsletter.

We have a wonderful PTA committee who continue to volunteer their time and skills to fundraising and supporting our school. As you can see below we can all contribute to the PTA by purchasing a coffee in our Sensations cafe. Only $5.00 and you have a delicious coffee using the latest Nespresso machine (we recycle all the coffee pods). A huge thank you to Isabella’s mum Margaret for organising this. The PTA will be meeting again in November and are planning some more social events for families – keep an eye out for invitations in the near future.

Finally a quick up date on the principal recruitment. We still expect to have candidates at JCSRS on Tuesday 22 October for interviews with several panels and classroom visits. Remember there will be community presentations by the candidates that evening (expect 5.30pm start)  in the hall. Please note this important event in your calendar.

Safe and happy holidays to you all. See you again on Monday 14 October.

Kind Regards

Karin

Dates for Your Diary

Return from mid-term break on Monday 14 October

AAC Awareness Month AAC Lunch Hour, Friday 18th October

Secondary student community learning visit to Science Museum – Monday 21 October

Candidates for the principal position presentation to the school community – Tuesday 22 October (details to follow)

Showcase – Sapphire

Sapphire gained one new student this year – Welcome Seth.

We are so proud and excited of all our amazing achievements already and it is only half term! We have a number of very sporty students in our class. We had a great time at KCC this term playing 10 pin bowling and building up our skills in tennis and badminton. We have a student accessing Horse riding with RDA and another out Sailing each week which is great for confidence and motor skills. Sapphire class students were amazing during Walkathon and brought back many medals from Sports Day. 

In the classroom, we quickly got back into the rhyme of language, maths and therapy rotations. These are a great way to group students for short, intense, small group activities which helps to keep everyone focused and challenged. We have been focusing on healthy snacks in Cooking and the quinoa and apple bites were a bit hit with students and staff alike.

Sapphire students have really embraced the ‘Material World’ unit. We have been exploring lots of construction materials and thinking about their properties and what makes them suitable for a purpose. We investigated why we don’t use paper to make rain boots. We all agreed that these boots were terrible! We have made small characters out of modelling clay and these creatures are now about to embark on some adventures. We will need the Sapphire students to use their knowledge and skills of materials and building to help solve some problems. So far we have helped make homes for our creatures. Coming up after half term, we will be helping them to cross rivers on boats, cross gaps with bridge structures and help them to land safely with a parachute. Students and staff are really motivated by the hands-on nature of this unit!

Whole School Sports Day

KGV X-Country event

We had another fabulous inclusion opportunity for our students this week by running in the KGV inter-house X-country race. Thirteen students chose to take part in the 2.2km race which turned out to be quite a hot event. Congratulations everyone.

Every student finished the event with a big smile and of course the look of sustained effort.

Thank you to all the staff and helpers who ran with our students. It would not have been possible without your efforts.

Please remember that for any student wishing to improve their running and fitness there is the KGV run club on Wednesday starting at 3.30pm on the KGV field.

Mike Watson

PE teacher

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)  Awareness 2019

October is internationally recognized as AAC Awareness Month and it is a wonderful opportunity to promote how we support students with complex communication needs at JCSRS. At the start of this year, we created the Communication Bill of Rights bulletin board outside the therapy office. It reminds us that “all people with a disability of any extent or severity have a basic right to affect, through communication, the conditions of their existence” (ISAAC). At JCSRS, we believe all students have the following specific communication rights in their daily interactions.

AAC is used by children and adults for a number of reasons. AAC could be the use of Makaton signing for children who are not developing or need to supplement their talking. It could also be a sophisticated electronic computer that recognises where a person’s eye is pointing to enable them to speak.

We will celebrate AAC Awareness Month on Friday October 18, 2019 by having our 1st AAC Lunch Hour. Staff and students will use multimodal forms of communication during lunchtime and playtime. Instead of spoken language, staff and students will use gestures, facial expressions, signs, and various high-tech and low-tech forms of AAC to interact with each other.

Don’t forget to take advantage of these deep discounts on AAC apps!

SNN Shares: Transitioning to Adulthood – Workshop

8-week Mindful Parenting course

World School Camps at RED DOOR

International China Concern- WALK THE WALL Hong Kong