29 Jun 2018

29 June 2018

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

This year for the first time we shared the ceremony to acknowledge and congratulate our graduates and leavers with the whole school community. It was a wonderful event and we loved hearing and seeing the learning journeys of our students. Our graduates – Dara, Jimi and Sam have much to be proud of and we will miss them. We will also miss those who are leaving us – Hugh, Anna, Safika, Chi Long, Ethan, Marcus and Paloma. All the best for your future either in education or in the community. Thank you Carol and her team for organising this special event. Also to the parents who organised a fabulous party after school.

We have all benefited from and enjoyed our dance classes with Josh and his team. This has really been a favourite time of the week for many students and we are very excited to have them back again next school year. Dancing encourages physical and as well as mental health and well-being for both the students and the staff.

At our special assembly today we, once again celebrated student learning and achievements with the Principal Awards.

We also ‘launched’ our Vocational Education video that showcases the work our students do and (we hope) will entice and encourage other organisations to provide work placements and work experience for our students. This video was financed through the generosity of the Swire group, our PTA and our school. Thank you to John (videographer) who worked so well with all of us who participated and it was all superbly organised by Jenny. If you know of a business who may want to partner with us for work experience please do not hesitate to get in contact.

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We said a sad farewell to some of our valued staff – Elza retiring from the support staff team, Michael Ng from the ICT Manager role, Joanne Wu as music therapist and a number of our EAs. We also farewell some people who have contributed so much to our school. Alan Collins has been on our School Council for many years and made a huge contribution to the schools’ strategic planning and school improvement journey. Alan always asked the hardest questions to ensure we were making the very best decisions for our students and our staff. As his son Jimmi graduates this year and we wish his family all the very best with a hope that Alan will return to our school community in the future to continue his excellent work. We also acknowledged and thanked our PTA Chair this year – David Dickhudt. David did a wonderful job leading this group of dedicated parents with the support of Sandra Lee. David’s daughter Anna leaves us this year and we wish his family much happiness as they move to the USA.

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This term we have been having robust and timely discussions around home school communication and how we can make the information on your son/daughter’s digital evidence page more informative and user friendly. Feedback from parents is always welcome and indeed it has been very helpful for us.

Firstly, our communication with parents is very important and we need to balance this with teacher workload. At the start of the new school year we will have a consistent approach that includes a weekly email with timetable changes, highlights for the class and ‘alerts’ about updates to the evidence page as well as plans for the following week. Whatsapp messages will be limited to urgent (or personal) information.

For the last year (or two) we have been building our student’s digital platform that includes IEPs, reports, student portfolios and levels of achievement – we have certainly come a long way since our paper documents but it is now time to make this information clearer and more specific for parents. We have a plan in place and we have excellent ICT assistance through Carol and the ESF team. We will give you plenty more details at the Meet the teacher and Welcome Presentation on Thursday 23 August (see Dates for your Diary).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for being our partners in the education of our children and young adults. It’s always a pleasure to see the progress that is made over a school year. Also to say a huge thank you to all the hardworking and dedicated staff of JCSRS – best team ever!!!

Our regular meetings with our School Council through out the year keep us on track and provide us enormous support and guidance. Thank you for the many hours this group put in to helping us. A special thanks to our School Council Chair Virginia Morris. Our PTA organised a delicious morning tea for the staff – thank you and also thanks for your hard work this year and your contribution to the Art Exhibition. I encourage you to join this wonderful group who work so hard for our school. Come along to the AGM on Thursday 23 August (see Dates for Your Diary).

We all enjoyed the special disco organised by Liam’s parents Cecile and Oliver (thank you). As you can see from the photos below we had a huge amount of fun. You can see the photos posted below.

Every year the Rock Foundation put on their drama performance here at JCSRS. This year’s Magic Jam was full of drama and an opportunity to show off acting talents. Two of our students joined in the fun. We hope many more of you take up the offer of a place in the show next year.

Are you in Hong Kong over the summer? Would you be interested in the new Inclusive Multi Sports Camp that will be run by Breeze Sports at JCSRS? It looks like a fabulous program full of fun for all. Please see the poster below for all the details.

Now it is time for relaxation, family and friends. I very much look forward to working with you all again next school year.

All the best

Karin

Dates for your Diary

First day of the 2018-19 school year is 9.00-11.30 on Tuesday 14 August (full days from Wed 15th)

Meet the teacher (4.00-4.45), Welcome Presentation (5.00-5.30) and PTA AGM (5.30-6.30) – Thursday 23 August

Remember to go to our website calendar for the important dates for the school year

Curriculum Update

The final unit of this academic year has been a great success. We are the World has been a highly engaging, fun and practical unit based around living things and the environment.

During this unit, students have learned about plants and animals and how to take care of them. We have grown herbs and seeds and some classes have used these as ingredients in their cooking.

Everyone was enthralled by the Mobile Zoo visit which saw some amazing creatures in our school. Students had a chance to touch and hold exotic animals. We also had a visit from the amazing therapy dogs from the Dr Dog organisation. We explored life cycles up close with silkworms and mealworms in the classrooms.

Students were able to really get involved with the practical elements of taking care of the world through recycling programmes in school. We appointed eco-monitors in each class to turn off the lights and air conditioning in empty classrooms. We also all enjoyed workshops from the Jane Goodall institute to reduce plastic waste and look at how plastic impacts the environment and living things.

Many classes took trips out to Kadoorie Farm and other places to explore natural habitats and animals in Hong Kong.

We are very pleased that we have completed the third and final section of our ASDAN Module Using ICT. In this final project, students used various types of ICT to prepare for an event. Some students used iPads and cameras to take photos, some classes made online e-invites and others created slideshow presentations. All learners gained valuable skills around using ICT in a functional and meaningful way. ASDAN certificates will be awarded to students in the next academic year. We are always very proud of this achievement and the accreditation that comes along with it.

We are looking forward to the new unit, Express Yourself. This is the first time that we have come full circle to repeat a unit of the JCSRS curriculum. In this new iteration, we will be digging deeper into the social and communication aspects of expressive arts. Again we have some amazing learning engagements lined up such as weekly dance sessions, an expressive arts day with Merry Hamilton and African drumming.

Unit name Express Yourself

Central idea We express our feelings and ideas in different ways

Learning Intentions

Students will:

Explore ways to express my ideas and feelings
Make choices about how (and when) to express my feelings and ideas
Share my feelings and ideas with people
Notice how other people’s actions make me feel

Our next ASDAN module will run over 2 years and will focus on Numeracy. This will allow a whole-school curriculum focus on learning and teaching mathematics.

Karen Carmody

Lead Teacher – Curriculum

Graduation and Leavers

Thank you all the parents (with great support from Jenny) who put so much time and effort into making the celebration party happy, fun and full of joy. We all had the best time.