28 October 2016 Newsletter
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
Special Olympics Indoor Rowing
Showcase – Ruby Class
Dates For Your Diary
Workshop for Parents
Principal’s Message
Students have had some shorter weeks recently with our professional learning days for staff followed by the typhoon. It’s nice to be back in the routine of school and to see some sunshine. I really enjoyed joining the primary students on their excursion to the playground in Tsim Sha Tsui. After the playground they ate lunch at a local restaurant. Taking the MTR helped students to learn more about transport systems.
On the professional learning days we held a two day Team Teach workshop here at school. A number of our staff participated in this excellent event led by experts from the UK. Team Teach is a structured approach to behaviour management and support. It compliments our Positive Behaviour Support Policy and will help to ensure we are being consistent in our approach across the school. In addition to this on Monday our therapists and EAs joined ESF colleagues to attend ESF run workshops. On Tuesday they spent the day with MJ from Active Communication sharing strategies and ideas around aligning, collaborating and engaging.
This weather makes it the perfect time to plant seedlings and students have enjoyed getting their hands dirty with soil, plants and pots. I know they look forward to watching their flowers grow and bloom. Thanks to Jackie Newman for organising this annual One Pot, One Plant activity.
Another of our annual events is the fundraising Walkathon that we held on Wednesday. This is a healthy and fun way for us to give back to the community. Half of the proceeds will go to our regular recipient Masarang who work tirelessly to enable sustainable living in Indonesian villages and the other half will go to a charity to be chosen by the student council. We were well supported by the students of KJS. Thanks again for donating generously and to Jackie and Kelly for their passion and leadership.
Many students returned to school last Thursday with a medal around their necks and big smiles on their faces. They were lucky to participate in the Special Olympics Indoor Rowing competition. Thanks to Mike for leading this with the team. You can read more details below.
After months of planning our secondary students are ready for over night camp next week. The schedule looks packed with challenges, learning and fun. I have the privilege of joining them on Tuesday and I’m looking forward to it. Again thanks to Mike for all the planning and all the team who put in a huge amount of time and effort for this to be a success. We also greatly appreciate the support of parents. Look out for photos on our website and in the next newsletter.
Special Olympics Indoor Rowing
We were lucky with the weather and managed to compete in the first day of the Special Olympics Indoor Rowing competition. The second day was cancelled due to the typhoon.
We took 12 very excited students to the event and 9 of them received medals for their efforts.
For the first time, we also entered the relay event. This was a 250m row for each of the four rowers in the team. While each rower was rowing another 2 students were holding their feet. It was challenging but they did well.
We had a few parents supporting which we always love to see.
Well done everyone and the next Special Olympics event is Track and Field in January 2017.
Showcase – Ruby Class
Ruby Class have had a very exciting week preparing for our transportation trip. We talked and wrote about our route which included travelling by Star Ferry, tram, MTR and school bus. We also talked about how to line up and how to stay safe when using public transport. On Thursday we were all very excited to go on our trip. For many it was their first time using some of these modes of transportation and they all really enjoyed travelling around, topping up their Octopus cards and having a picnic lunch in Hong Kong park before heading back to school.
In maths this week, we have been getting to grips with using dienes to represent numbers both with the dienes and on the interactive whiteboard. Knowing that numbers are made up of tens and units will increase our understanding of the value of a number.
Dates For Your Diary
Secondary School Camp – Monday 31 October to Wednesday 2 November
Primary Sports Day – Tuesday 15 November
Secondary Sports Day – Thursday 17 November
Christmas Show – Friday 9 December
Last Day of Term 1 – Tuesday 13 December (finish at 11.30)
Workshop for Parents
“What about Me? Supporting Siblings of Special Needs and/or High Needs Children,” co-organised by Adoptive Families of HK (AFHK) and Special Needs Network HK (SNNHK).
The event will be on Thursday, November 17, 2016 from 19:00-21:00. Please see details below.
SNNHK received feedback from parents that they wanted to better understand how to support the siblings of special needs children, so we organised this talk to address this important issue. Often, we spend so much time on our special needs children that our other children feel forgotten.
To REGISTER for this talk, use the link below.
http://www.afhk.org.hk/event-2348010
Warm regards and thanks
Kim Anderson and the SNNHK Volunteer team
