17 September 2021

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

School Improvement Plan 2021-22

Curriculum

Duke Award Information Session

Sign up for AAC Morning Meet Up

Total Communication at JCSRS

Vaccination Survey

Health Monitoring

Dear all,

As we are finishing the 5th week of this academic year we are proudly sharing some important numbers with you:

• 93% of our staff and regular volunteers are vaccinated which means we can continue with the full day schooling after September 30th.
• 60% of our families attended the Meet the Teacher event and then…
• 82% attended the online parent consultations with teachers and therapists; this means…
• 29 hours were spent by our teachers and therapist talking to parents about students’ learning, aspirations for your children, finding how they learn best, and building connections with you so we can effectively teach…
• 12 new Subjects underpinned by…
• 6 Global Competencies and delivered across…
• 6 Pathways.
• 9 School Strategic Priorities for 2021-22 to achieve…
• 1 shared vision – for every child to be the best that they can be!

Please read below to find out more about the JCSRS School Improvement Priorities and the curriculum.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Anna

We evaluate our work on an ongoing basis. This enables us to identify what we are doing well and what areas could be even further improved.

Our School Improvement Plan (SIP) sets out the school’s strategy and development planning with clear areas for development/improvement in the year ahead. The Plan is developed in consultation with staff, school council, parents and students. It is informed by the school self-evaluation and is reviewed regularly by the Leadership Team, school council and curriculum leads to identify progress, impact and next steps to improve the provision for our students.

You can find an overview of our School Improvement Plan 2021-22 here.

We are now over a month into the launch of our new curriculum. Anna wrote to you recently to share the rationale and structure of our new curriculum. Here I hope to share with you some details of how our teachers, therapists and EAs are breathing life into the written curriculum to ensure student learning is always at the forefront of what we are about. Below I share a snapshot of the learning within the 6 pathways.

Builders Pathway – Numeracy

Students in the builders pathway are looking into the concept of time. Students are exploring the way we structure time into times of the day, days of the week and months of the year. Our new Numeracy curriculum has Functional Numeracy embedded for all pathways to ensure that they use their knowledge of maths in the real world.

Integrated Pathway – Digital Literacy

Students on the integrated pathway are learning to use different types of technology in the classroom including keyboards, touch screens, eye gaze and even coding robots to support their learning across all aspects of the curriculum. We recognise the importance of technology in all our lives and wish to equip our students with the skills and knowledge to access the world of technology to enhance their lives.

Independent Living and Learning Pathway – Play, Recreation and Leisure

We listened to the aspirations of our students, parents and school staff when they said that they wanted students to leave JCSRS being able to access leisure facilities in the community. The Play, Recreation and Leisure curriculum is designed to support students to develop the skills needed to enjoy their free time. This includes teaching the social skills needed to participate and also offering students as many opportunities to try new things as we can.

Life Skills Pathway – Vocational Education

Vocational Education has been introduced as a subject for all secondary students and is included within the subject of Independence for our primary students. Our aim is to start developing the skills needed to enter the workforce from an early age. The new curriculum includes units on communication in the workplace, using technology in the workplace, job knowledge, earning money, career planning and problem solving in the workplace.

These are just a few insights into the implementation of our 12 subjects taught across the 6 pathways. Please do not hesitate to contact your class teacher if you would like further details on the subjects and themes that are being covered in your class this term.

During our ‘Meet the Teacher’ event, we shared information about a life challenges home programme called the Duke Award. The programme is designed to support independence and holistic development of children and young people through a series of challenges that students work on at home with their family over the whole school year.

This programme is entirely optional and open to all students. It comes with a work booklet that parents and students can work through together over the academic year, starting after the half term. On completion, students will be awarded a certificate and badge.

We would like to invite parents to attend a zoom information session to find out if this programme would be suitable for your child and details on what is involved before deciding if you would like to take part in the Duke Award.

Information session details:

Date: Monday 20th September 2021

Time: 5.00 – 5.30pm

Please contact karen.carmody(at)jcsrs.edu.hk for the zoom link.

Click above to sign up. Click here to enlarge.

Reading Using AAC

Sharing stories is a great way to build language and literacy skills. Thinking about core words mentioned in the previous newsletter, you can model lots of language to your child when reading to them.

Allow your child to choose a book they like. They can select from a whole collection or you can offer them a choice of two if they find free choices overwhelming.

When sharing the book, point to the words on the page as you read them. Talk about the picture and important words in the story to model on your child’s talker.

Here you can use the words ‘go’ ‘walk’ ‘quiet’ ‘scary’ ‘look’. You don’t have to choose the words written on the page.

Seeing other children use talkers can be important to AAC users. Here are some book suggestions with characters that use AAC.

By always following the EDB and CHP health guidelines, we are keen to move even closer to ‘normal operations’ over the months ahead, and we wish to work closely with our parent community to do this.

Part of this process is to gather information on current student vaccination rates, and also intentions regarding vaccinations.This feedback and information will help inform our planning, and possible next steps.

If your child is 12 years old or older, please complete this survey.

We would like to remind everyone that we have to maintain vigilance against respiratory tract infection at school.

Please remember that students should only attend school if they are feeling well.

Students with a fever of >37.5˚C forehead skin temperature, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezes, sore throat, coughs, headaches, muscle aches, or generalised malaise should rest at home and not be sent to school. If a student develops any of these symptoms while at school, the parent/guardian will be asked to pick the student up from school and it is recommended by CHP that the student seek medical advice.

Please continue to let us know if your child is ill by emailing our Nurse Christine (christine.cheung(at)jcsrs.edu.hk) with a description of symptoms. Also, if your child has seen a doctor and been confirmed with an illness, please send a copy of the doctor’s note.

Should your child or anyone in your household be confirmed with Covid-19, or confirmed as a close contact, please inform the school immediately by email.

If the child is being tested for Covid-19 because of a compulsory test requirement, he/she must not attend school until a negative result is obtained and sent to the nurse.

Thank you for your support on this matter.