Newsletter- 20/01/21
Kowloon Junior School’s latest newsletter is available to read now.
Dates for Your Diary
Tuesday 2 February Parent Workshop – Y3 & Y4 Relationships & Sexual Education
Friday 5 February ESF Chinese Assembly
Wednesday 10 February Day before Mid-Term Break – FULL Day Learning
11 – 19 February Mid-Term Break
Tuesday 2 March Parent Workshop – Triple P Seminar 2
1 – 5 March Book Week
Thursday 4 March World Book Day
Tuesday 16 March Parent Workshop – Y5 & Y6 Relationships & Sexual Education
18 & 19 March 3 Way Learning Conferences
22 – 23 March Y4 Camp
Thursday 25 March ESF Evening of Dance
Friday 26 March Last day of term – Half day (finish at 12pm)
29 March – 9 April Term Break
Dear Parents,
By now you will have received the special notification that I have formally tendered my resignation to ESF effective at the end of this academic year. As I have mentioned, I will be very sad to leave the incredible KJS learning community filled with passionate and highly skilled staff, awesome children and such a supportive parent community. Conversely, I look forward to being back with my children and grandchild in New Zealand. In the meantime, I can assure you my passion, care and dedication to the students and staff of KJS remains and I will be working tirelessly with the team and yourselves to ensure “Success for Every Child”.
Thank you for the feedback in the most recent parents feedback survey. The results reveal that the number of parents who ‘Agree’ are ‘Strongly Agree’ with the survey questions were;
- 96% My child’s wellbeing has been appropriately supported
- 89% My child has found the learning engaging
- 80% My child has made progress in their learning
- 84% My child has received useful feedback that has helped them to make progress
- 80% My child has found the learning appropriately challenging
- 91% School’s digital systems and processes support my child’s learning during periods of distance learning
- 93% ESF App has made it easier to access information from the school
- 96% Communication from the school has been effective and timely
- 93% Communication from my child’s class teacher has been effective and timely
- 40% The balance of live Zooms and independent offline learning is meeting my child’s needs
- 44% selected ‘neutral’ for this question
- 72% The class website has made access to links, timetable and information easier (25% neutral)
There are some obvious stand out items that require some more information.
My child has made progress in their learning and has found the learning appropriately challenging.
There is no question that online and face to face learning are different experiences for all. Teachers are regularly assessing learning and providing feedback to students. To ensure we maximise the distance learning opportunities, we ask parents to reach out to their child’s teacher if the learning is not sufficiently challenging, or too difficult so that further investigation can be undertaken and where appropriate more learning is adjusted.
The balance of live Zooms and independent offline learning is meeting my child’s needs
This response is consistent with previous feedback and highlights the complexity of the current situation for families. Of the 44% neutral and 16% ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree,’ responses some wanted live Zoom face to face all day, some wanted live Zooms to finish at midday, some wanted small group Zooms (which by definition means others are not on Zoom) and others wanted more pre-recorded lessons that parents could access on the weekends or evenings. Additionally, the feedback from parents also varied depending on the year group. The current provision has been developed with comprehensive parent, staff and student feedback so we will continue with this provision for the meantime and will review the situation again after Chinese New Year.
Some wonderful news over the Christmas break. The school staff welcomed five new members of the KJS family with the arrival of Florence (to Ms Simpson), Amalya (to Ms Knapman), Teddy (to Ms O’Riordan), Imogen (to Ms Grant),and Ivy (to Mr Hine)! We are delighted to welcome these beautiful babies to our school.
Thank you for your continued support and ongoing feedback. The senior leadership have been getting into classrooms, both the virtual classes and face to face, and we continue to be so impressed with the energy, professionalism and passion of the staff as they strive for “Success for Every Child” at KJS in 2020/21.
Kind regards
亲切的问候,
सधन्यवाद
Neill O’Reilly
Principal
Kowloon Junior School
20 Perth Street
Kowloon
Year of the Ox!
To help us celebrate the Chinese New Year, we would like to invite KJS students to create artwork for KJS and the ESF Year of the Ox Virtual Card Gallery.
Format: The submission will be an original artwork with a Chinese New Year blessing message in Chinese or English. Students may use watercolour paint, coloured pencil or crayon as the medium. Digital artwork is also acceptable.
Submission: Each school can submit up to 20 pieces of work so please email your submission to your Chinese teacher. We will celebrate all submissions and choose 20 to send to ESF.
Important Step: Provide a high-resolution image in jpg/peg format, at least 300dpi. Please digitalise the artworks by using a scanner or digital camera and to provide us with the images.
DEADLINE: Monday, 25 January, 3pm (email it to your child’s Chinese teacher)
We look forward to seeing the amazing works of art very soon!
KJS Chinese Team
Library News
Invitation for More Reading Pictures
Thank you for sending in all your wonderful pictures of students reading their favourite books over the holidays. It’s not too late to have your picture on our KJS Virtual Library and to see it prominently displayed at school. Here is a link to the pictures that we’ve received so far.
Please send your pictures to Ms. Lau at macy.lau@kjs.edu.hk and let us know your full name and class. Looking forward to seeing all your pictures.
Scholastic Book Orders
If you’re looking to order books to read at home, Scholastic book orders are now available online. Please look at our KJS Virtual Library homepage for more details.
Student Success
The celebration of student success will channel to our Facebook page. You can find the school’s Facebook here. Please keep the photos and stories coming of our children shooting the AAROW’s of Success!
Disclaimer:
- Kowloon Junior School, English Schools Foundation and its affiliates shall take no responsibility for any activities, events, and services, that are organised by other organisations or individuals and are mentioned in our newsletters.
- If you do not wish to receive our newsletters by email, you may contact the school office at office@kjs.edu.hk to opt out. Our newsletters will still be accessible on our website https://kjs.edu.hk/kjs-news/.
- In accordance with our Personal Data Handling Policy, Kowloon Junior School and English Schools Foundation may place your child’s photos, name, school work, activities and accomplishments in our newsletters or other publications (including but not limited to our websites and social media sites). If you would like to opt out, please email the school office at office@kjs.edu.hk.
