30 June 2017 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
Graduation
End of year fun
Diving Adventure updates
Sai Kung super sale
Day Sail on Spirit of Outward Bound Hong Kong
Dara and Jen’s trip to a classical music concert
Special Olympics basketball skills competition
Dates for your Diary
Principal’s Message
The end of the school year…. already! We have lots to share and celebrate as well as some sad farewells.
Congratulations to our graduating students Padraig, Johnathan, Ernie, Brandon, Hon Shan and Stef. We are incredibly proud of all that you have achieved and wish you well in all that they do in the future. You will always be part of the JCSRS family.
Last week we said farewell and thank you to some very important people. John Greene has been PTA Chair for many (many) years. I wonder how many hours John has volunteered over the years? It must be an extraordinary number. John has always had the best interest of students and families at heart and we cannot thank him enough for all the ways he has supported our school. We wish John and his family all the very best – you too will always be part of our family John.
We were also sad to farewell Dr Ed Wickins who, as Executive Principal of the Kowloon Learning Campus, has joined our JCSRS family. He enabled many inclusion opportunities, promoted professional sharing for our staff and I personally benefited from his many years of experience, his keen intellect and sense of fun – thank you Ed, our Christmas shows will not be the same without you.
Yet another farewell was for Lorna Banfield who has been a class teacher here for seven years and in a formal leadership position this year. Lorna is an outstanding teacher and she has been key to the development of our school curriculum and so much more across the school. Lorna returns to the UK with her family and we wish her all the best. We will miss you Lorna.
Holly Manning from KGV Learning Support Centre joins us as a class teacher next year – welcome Holly.
We say a big thank you to Anita McDonald Pang who has been a class teacher part time this year. Next year this position will be taken up by Katherine Kam who was an EA here some years ago.
Our first JCSRS Yearbook is looking fabulous. It is a wonderful way to celebrate our year. Thank you to all the families who have ordered a copy. Due to unforeseen circumstances we will not have this ready to give to you at the end of this year but look forward to sharing it with you at the beginning of the new school year in August.
Congratulations to our hard working students, Steph, Hon Shan, Dara, Hugh, Brandon and Padraig who celebrated their year of work experience at SWIRE hotels and restaurants. They have finished the year more skilled, more experienced and more confident thanks to this excellent partnership. Huge thank you to staff on both sides for your effort and commitment.
Also congratulations to the Rock Foundation drama group “We All” who put on their performance here at school recently. Many students from JCSRS are part of the team and, as usual, it was lots of fun and very creative.
Staff will be returning to school on Friday 11th August. The first day for students new to our school is Monday 14th between 11.15-12.30 and all students return on Tuesday 15th August. I will be back at school from 3rd August if you have any questions.
We are incredibly fortunate to have a team of hard working, dedicated and professional staff at JCSRS. I thank them for all that they do every day in the classroom and in the school.
I wish you all a relaxing, safe and happy summer holiday. I also thank you for being great partners with us to ensure every student can be the best they can be.
Karin
Graduation
End of year fun
Diving Adventure updates
Many of you are aware that in November of last year three of our intrepid students, Lok, Hugh and Maxx (Maxx is now at KGV) embarked on a fantastic learning adventure where they learned to dive here in Hong Kong and then went out to The Philippines to practise their new skills.
The brave three have continued to extend their diving prowess and in May I accompanied them on their second trip to The Philippines.
Led and organized by the fantastic Oceanway team – Paul, Adrian and Phil, we headed out for three nights and four days which were action packed and full of challenges and fun.
Accompanied by Lok and Maxx’s fabulous mums, we headed out in to the blue every day and dived with whale sharks, turtles, shoals of sardines and numerous other fishy wonders.
We also did a night dive… which involves leaping in to the inky dark with only a torch to guide you….. exciting stuff indeed !
As part of the skills development, the three boys have started using underwater photography equipment to record their fishy adventures… All three captured some spectacular video footage and wonderful pictures to keep as memories and share with their family and friends.
It was a great honour to accompany the boys on the trip and an extra special treat to be Hugh’s ‘buddy’; he was very patient with my rusty signing skills – (thank you Hugh!)
I’m sure the pictures below tell the story much more vividly and clearly than my words ever could…
Next steps… or more to the point – next splashes
The second cohort of dive explorers has now started their great adventure. This new team includes five students from JCSRS, two students from KGV LSC and two service users from The Nesbitt Centre. Under the excellent supervision of the Oceanway team, all of the new divers have completed a try dive in the KGV pool and all will progress to the next step of an ‘open water’ try dive at Hoi Ha on Saturday 24th June. This will be followed by another open water dive in early September and a trip to The Philippines at October half term
We will keep you fully informed of the group’s progress and post plenty of photos via this newsletter !
I am very excited to be part of this fantastic project and extremely proud of everyone who has elected to be involved.
The new JCSRS students are Josh, Rowan, Katie,Eva and Brandon . Ask them about their adventure so far – I’m sure they will be delighted to share their stories!
Sai Kung super sale
On Saturday 3rd June, supported by a team of tenacious students and parents, Daphne and I braved the extraordinary heat of the day to head out to Sai Kung to run a stall at the water front market.
The event was part of one of our JCSRS vocational initiatives which involves students spending a day a week at Sai Kung Community Centre. The students fulfill various administrative roles at the centre and make jewelry that the Sai Kung team then sell to raise funds to support their charity projects.
To support jewelry sales, we intend to run a series of market stalls and this was our first venture into the world of the external merchandising !
Assisted by Brandon, Hugh, Padraig, Sze Yan (and their fabulous parents), we set up the stall and the students practiced communication skills and functional literacy and numeracy as they managed the sales process.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped out and special thank you to Lok and mum Michelle who came out to Sai Kung, but who didn’t get involved in the sales as the heat drove us to retire slightly earlier than expected!
Please come and support us when we run stalls in the future – we expect to run a stall at Discovery Bay and The Hong Kong Cultural Centre in early September.
Dates to follow !
Day Sail on Spirit of Outward Bound Hong Kong
On Saturday 10th June 2017, an extraordinary day sail was organised for four students and their families from the Jockey Club Sarah Roe School on Outward Bound Hong Kong’s flagship sailing vessel; ‘Spirit Of Outward Bound Hong Kong’ (Spirit), a Challenge 67, twice round-the-world sail racing yacht.
Meeting sharp at 0900, all families had arrived on-time and ready to go, displaying faces full of smiles, excitement and uncertainty !
After meeting with the crew onboard, the courageous group of 12 were prepped with safety briefings, fitted with life jackets, stowed away their provisions securely and after given a final chance to step off the vessel, they cast off by 1000 for the open sea.
Whilst navigating their way out between the small islands that dot Sai Kung’s waters, the group were invited to assist with hoisting the ship’s mainsail, a well and truly daunting task of tug of war with a half tonne sail . With the help of some volunteering members and a series of in-tune heaves, the mainsail was hoist with ease, resonating achievement across the group having learned they performed far better than some Outward Bound course participants who have been on board recently.
The group was then invited to help the vessel on the way out towards the waters of Port Shelter being taught by the crew how to steer on a steady course and also steering relative to the wind.
After a few rotations through the helm, the crew rigged and hoisted a smaller head sail to then proceed sailing back and forth across the wind whilst inviting the group in taking command and steering the vessel on various wind angles. Many jumped at this opportunity, including parents!
It did not take long before some got too good at this and the crew decided to hardened up into the wind and thus creating a more exciting environment as the ship began to heel 5-10 degrees over whilst lightly beating out towards the Clearwater Bay Peninsula.
Shortly after 1200, ‘Spirit’ changed course to duck in behind Shelter Island and the crew subsequently handed the Stay sail to allow for a comfortable and suitable period on deck under the beautiful blue skies for a windswept lunch whilst cruising, ‘champagne sailing style’ on a reach under the ship’s mainsail.
After lunch, the crew hoisted once again. the stay sail, and proceeded to sail back, this time downwind in the direction of Outward Bound Hong Kong. During this passage, the crew checked in with the seafaring group to see how they were doing, discovering some were happy to head back but the majority (especially Hugh’s family) had not yet had enough! After a brief consensus the ship changed course heading back out into Port Shelter with a new course set to sail around the bottom of Jin Island across the waters into Rocky
Harbour for an alternative yet scenic approach back to Outward Bound Hong Kong’s base.
Rounding the bottom of Jin Island shortly before 1400, the wind was less consistent and lightened up. Promising to deliver the adventurous sailors back by 1500, the crew handed the sails and began cruising back to base under motor as the general feeling showed that everyone was now ready to return and step back on solid ground.
The group was safely off the ship by 15.15 and given the opportunity to change with some sneaking in a quick shower. Shortly before 16.00 the everyone was well on their way battling through the typical weekend busyness on the roads heading for home or to other agendas arranged.
All in all a fantastic day out on the water on a lovely day with an even lovelier group!
Donovan Chow
Ship Operations Manger
Outward Bound Hong Kong
Dara and Jen’s trip to a classical music concert
On Sunday 11th June I went to a music concert with Jenny. There were lots of people in the orchestra. Some people played the violin, and in the orchestra there were also some double bass and cello players. There were other instruments as well.
The orchestra played lots of different pieces of music, my favourite was the bit that went with the ping pong at the end.
Two people came on to the stage with the orchestra and they played ping pong while the music played. Sometimes they hit the balls very hard and in to the audience. It was very funny.
At the end of the concert they threw balls everywhere- it made us laugh.
After the concert we went to Starbucks and I had an iced chocolate.
I hope to go to more concerts with Jenny and she wants to go to more concerts too.
Dara – Jade class
Special Olympics basketball skills competition
On Friday 16th we took 9 athletes to Yuen Chau Kok Sports Centre in Sha Tin.
Following the test day in May athletes were grouped by ability.
The morning consisted of 3 tests: a timed basketball dribble, basketball shooting from 6 different positions and a target practice.
Our students had mixed results in the shooting as everyone had to shoot from the same 6 distance spots and same height hoop but we did make some baskets which was a joy to see.
We competed well in the target practice and dribble and ended the day with most students getting a silver or bronze medal.
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41st Hong Kong Basketball Competition |
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| Name | Group | Result |
| Jonathan Yuen |
16-21 year group (Boys) |
2nd place |
| Brandon Yuen | 3rd place
3rd place 3rd place |
|
| Russell William | ||
| Gavin Ma | ||
| Stef Kwakman | 5th place
5th place |
|
| Cole Purdie | ||
| Katy McEwan | 8-11 year group (Girls) | 3rd place |
| Joshua Wixon | 8-11 year group (Boys) | 2nd place |
| Rowan Ng | 3rd place | |
Thanks to all of our helpers and EAs who supported the student on the day.
We shall look to expand those numbers attending next year and possibly enter the 3v3 competition competition too.
Dates for your Diary
Staff return to school – Friday 11 August
New students visit – Monday 14 August 11.15-12.30
All students return to school – Tuesday 15 August
