AUGUST 2012
KEEPING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY PRIMARY SCHOOL COUNCIL INTRODUCE PAPERLESS DAY CREATIVITY AT KELLETT
AUGUST 2012
CONTENT
WHOLE SCHOOL 4
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
5-9
KELLETT NEWS Congratulations Staff Leavers Welcome to Our New Staff Kowloon Bay Update Kellett Cares Kellett School Annual Fund 2012 Battle of the Books
10-13
FOBISSEA Games
24-25
Secondary HIghlights
30-32
SECONDARY FEATURES
32-34
SPORT Primary PE Extra Curricular Activities
ARTS & LANGUAGES Music Secondary Arts Evening Romeo and Juliet Drama Production Modern Foreign Languages
35-36
MATHS
37-38
HISTORY
ARTS & LANGUAGES Music French Primary 5 Visit to Beijing Minecraft Club Pokfulam Art Exhibition
Deputy Principal Student Council Global Citizenship It’s Electrifying Jungles Green Olympics Geography Design & Technology PE
PRImaRY HIGHLIGHTS Deputy Principal Paperless Day Reception to Primary 6
21-24
26-29
FEATURE ARTICLE
PRIMARY 14-20
SECONDARY
Junior Maths Challenge Asia Maths Challenge Year 7 Stock Market Simulation Remembering D-Day on H-Day Year 7 Medieval Monarchs Year 9 Debate
WHOLE SCHOOL
PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE
Once again as Kellett embarks upon the new school year, we reflect on the achievements of the last and look to the future. This edition of Dragon illustrates just how busy last term was and the range of opportunities that were availed of by our students in the classroom, on the sports field, in performing arts and socially.
The Parents’ Committee and the many extended roles it performs
I hope that Kellett’s tradition of friendship and support will equally
were again central in supporting the school. Thank you to all our
assist newly arrived Kellett families to establish themselves in
parents, friends and staff for such a successful and enjoyable
this new community. We as adults are constantly modeling
year... and so to the new year!
behaviours for our children; children who see the adults around
This is a time when we welcome many new families to the Kellett community. Some may already be quite familiar with Hong Kong while others are new arrivals. We often hear “We‘re only here
them reaching out the hand of friendship in an open manner then do likewise themselves, and by doing so widen their friendships, enrich their lives and learn valuable future skills.
for two years” which may bring a wry smile to the face of those
Children who have a broad friendship network thrive and in
who expressed a similar sentiment but are now permanent Hong
the international community these friendship circles also play
Kong residents.
an important role in protecting children when an especially
In common with many international schools,
Kellett undertakes to meet the needs of students whose families
close friend moves on. Children can then readily draw upon
are on both brief and extended stays in Hong Kong.
their peers and are less susceptible to feelings of isolation.
Expatriate life is multifaceted, with many exciting new experiences but also a distance from familiar faces and home comforts. For some Hong Kong may be one of a series of
Encouraging broad friendships, especially beyond a child’s class or tutor group can also have the advantage of discouraging the establishments of tight social cliques.
regular overseas relocations but it is not unusual for many of our
We encourage our students to stand out from the crowd, to be
families to be making their first tentative steps as expatriates.
their own person, to take the time to reach out to those who
My first overseas move was to Northern Nigeria as a volunteer
are new or less confident in order to build a community where
with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) and whilst it was
all are welcome and diversity is celebrated. I urge you, as we
exciting it was also daunting. Despite my extensive research
commence the new school year to get into the habit of asking
and preparation I was not prepared for the massive culture
your son or daughter how many new friends they have made this
shock I experienced. I remain indebted to my colleagues and
week?
neighbours who, in those all-important first weeks extended the hand of friendship and guided me through the early days of my relocation. Without their support I probably would not have survived for long.
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
Ann Mc Donald Principal
KELLETT NEWS WHOLE SCHOOL
Congratulations to Tina, John and Ethan Lily Mae Hart was born Friday 20 July at 4:17am (HK time) weighing in at 7lbs 10oz, 52cm long
congratulations to HANNAH AND MARK On their marriage. Hannah and Mark were married in the beautiful sunshine at Hampton Court House, England on Tuesday 24 July 2012.
congratulations to the gilbey family Isabel Margaret Gilbey was born on the evening of saturday 19 March weighing in at 71bs 8ozs.
STAFF LEAVERS Teachers
ESA’s
Wendy Crighton
Dinusha Seneviratne
leaving Hong Kong
remaining in Hong Kong
Maeve Mulvie
Jeanne Chiu Wing Sum
leaving Hong Kong
remaining in Hong Kong
Josephine Walton remaining in Hong Kong Ellena Batella remaining in Hong Kong
Sarah Watt
Florence Ip
Tina Hart
remaining in Hong Kong
remaining in Hong Kong
maternity leave to 31.12.2012
Anne-Rozenn L’heveder
Patty Lau
remaining in Hong Kong
remaining in Hong Kong
Admin
Susie Merritt
Poonam Jajoo maternity leave to 31.12.2012
remaining in Hong Kong
Hanisha Daswani remaining in Hong Kong
Alex Howell
Chrisda Yu
leaving Hong Kong – returning to UK
leaving Hong Kong for Australia
Mo Mitra remaining in Hong Kong
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
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KELLETT NEWS WHOLE SCHOOL
Welcome to our new staff!
Aaron Redman Classroom ESA
David Drew KS2 Teacher(PFL)
Honeylet Rigor Maternity Leave Cover ESA
Laurence Godfrey 1 to 1 ESA
Sophie Borduas French(PFL)
Ben Collie Biology(SKW)
Fiona Mcrobbie AP Inclusion(SKW)
Josephine Kasperbauer 1 to 1 ESA
Magi Chen Art/DT(SKW)
Terry Ferguson KS1 Teacher(PFL)
Binu Mary Kuriyan Classroom ESA
Hatty Leung Maths(SKW)
Kate Rossiter Music/ Drama(SKW)
Natasha Porter English/ Humanities(SKW)
Tracey Edwards Assistant Principal(PFL)
Danielle Berthoud Biology(SKW)
Helen Trethewey INCO Coordinator(PFL)
Laura Collie KS2 Teacher(PFL)
Soma Das Classroom ESA
PFL Campus
Gemma Chambers
Office Staff
Emilee Lee – Resources Room/Administrative Assistant – Replacing Chrisda Carrie Chu – Administrative Assistant (Development/ECA) Jimi Keyede – Music/Theatre Technician Elizabeth McNeilly – School Library Assistant
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
ESA
Classroom ESA Paul Tottle
1 to 1 ESA
Dorothy Chiu
Maternity Leave Cover ESA MaryAnn Tsang
WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS Kowloon Bay Update
Penta Ocean is now installing underground drainage and other services and started to pour concrete at ground level early July.
We last updated you shortly before we held our Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony in May. Progress on site has been steady since then, with the following key activities: • Load testing of our structural foundation was successfully completed. • We appointed Penta Ocean Construction Company Limited, as our Main Contractor, to erect our new school building atop the foundation built by Tysan Foundation Limited.
Because each floor is so large, they have decided to divide each floor into 8 different sections – each of which will be the size of our Pokfulam campus. This may give you some idea of how much space we will have in Kowloon Bay! It is also worth noting that one of the first things ordered by Penta Ocean was the movable floor for our new 25m swimming pool which will allow us to vary the depth of the pool from 2.2m all the way up to the pool deck level – all at the push of a button. This highly specialised equipment will be coming all the way from Sweden, where it will take them 40 weeks to build this for our project before it is shipped it over here for installation!
• We are pleased to be working with Penta Ocean, who built the Mountain Wing extension at our Pokfulam Campus.
Kellett Cares In April, a group of Kellett families visited the Philippines with International Care Ministries to see the work they are doing in the slums there. We visited the pre-school Kellett Cares sponsors and played games with the children before rolling up our sleeves and repainting all their desks. Kellett Cares provides all the uniforms for the pre-school from donated second hand uniforms. We also helped at a feeding programme for the most malnourished children in one of the slums we visited. It was a fun and educational visit for children and parents alike and we all came back moved by what we had seen and much more appreciative of what we have here in Hong Kong. KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
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WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS Kellett School Annual Fund 2012 At the start of this new school year Development Office is looking forward to a busy year ahead, starting with the launch of Kellett’s first ever Annual Fund in the coming weeks. Before the Summer holidays a number of parents took part in the Annual Fund Advocacy Training provided by Brakeley Fundraising & Management Consultants. Further training sessions are currently underway and it is not too late to participate! Development Office would greatly welcome your interest and support. Kellett School is a not-for-profit organisation, operating on a break-even margin. With no financial assistance from public or private bodies, Kellett School is dependent on school fee and debenture incomes to meet all operating costs. The Annual
OPERATING BUDGET 2011/2012 INCOME
Fund seeks to augment the 6% allocation of the operating budget to Education & Training Expenses to help Kellett deliver more than is expected of an outstanding school and to help our students become all that they can be. We hope that all the members of the Kellett Community will see the benefits of a strong Annual Fund. As the Annual Fund is launched, all families and staff will receive more detailed information on the priorities and how to donate should a family or member of staff wish to do so. Development Office is always happy to provide information, answer any questions, and welcomes all feedback. Please contact Belenda Ryan by telephone at 2551 8234 or by e-mail bryan@kellettschool.com
EXPENDITURE
2%
6%
Staff salaries
6%
16%
Education Expenses & Professional Development
7% 8%
Premises & Utilities 82%
73%
School Fees Debentures Other The following are the priorities the school would like to implement through the Annual Fund 2012 with just a few examples under each heading:
Leaders in Learning - Effective leadership at classroom level fosters continuous improvement in learning. Implementing the most up to date pedagogy and collaborating with colleagues can transform the classroom/student experience at Kellett School. E.g., Oxford University Summer School programmes/Essential Skills Course for International School Counsellors/Supporting staff visits to outstanding schools, for example to observe Early Years practice Academic Enhancement - The academic enhancement programme aims to elevate the educational experience to assist all students realise the experience and skills necessary for academic success in school and beyond. E.g., Educators in Residence/Digitizing sections of Kellett library for easy web access and information retrieval/Purchase of Kindles & E-books for use by Battle of the Books teams
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
Other Operating Expenses Depreciation Building & Equipment
Student Leadership Development - Student leadership plays an important part in developing independence, understanding team and societal values and achieving success. E.g., High-profile Guest Speaker Programme for Secondary School/Singing Playgrounds- a playground mentorship programme for Primary School/School Council Training & Funding to promote the development of a student-led community outreach programme Music & the Arts - Kellett School wishes to develop the creative nature of all our students by providing a place of energy and inspiration together with high quality equipment. E.g., Grand Pianos for whole school performance space/School Radio as an ECA in Secondary School/School-wide TV programme Language & Cultural Development - Engagement in language & cultural pursuits develops confident students who will play an active societal role in Hong Kong and abroad and help build relationships in our new globalised community. E.g., Anytime, anywhere access to Mandarin learning through voice engine software that integrates with iLearn/MFL MyWorks a webbased package for French & Spanish homework, revision, testing and tracking students’ progress within groups/Expansion of the libraries to include dual language and foreign language classic texts and a focused Asia reference section
WHOLE SCHOOL
KELLETT NEWS
BATTLE OF THE BOOKS A Book Club with added competitive edge! Kellett School has been successfully running the Battle of the Books club for several years in both the Primary and Secondary schools. The main aim of the club is to encourage the enjoyment of reading, widen reading choices, and promote discussion of books. With 20 pre-chosen titles, the books represent a selection of quality literature by prominent authors and cover a variety of genres including fantasy, adventure, mystery and comedy. Each May a Primary team and a Secondary team is chosen to represent the school in an inter-school competition, where the students’ knowledge of the books is put to the test. Every year our teams amaze us by their dedication, diligence and enthusiasm by often reading all the titles, some several times over,
in an effort to maximize their knowledge. More importantly, they have read books they would not have thought of trying. In May 2012 both Primary and Secondary teams competed, after collectively reading upwards of 600 books between them during the year. Although they did not get through to the finals, both teams gave great performances. Whether your child participates in the club or not, or whether they read one book on the list or 20, we would thoroughly recommend you take a look at the chosen titles for 2013 listed below as a springboard to some great titles, and view past years titles at www.battleofthebooks.hk
SECONDARY
PRIMARY The secret history of Tom Trueheart Boy adventurer
Beck, Ian
Tales of a fourth grade nothing
Blume, Judy
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again
Boyce, Frank Cottrell
Shakespeare’s secret
Broach, Elise
Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism
Byng, Georgia
Al Capone does my shirts
Choldenko, Gennifer
Extra credit
Clements, Andrew
Bloomability
Creech, Sharon
The great wall of Lucy Wu
Shan, Wendy WanLong
White Crane
The wolves of Willoughby Chase
Aiken, Joan
Pastworld
Beck, Ian
The boy in the striped pyjamas
Boyne, John
Shakespeare’s secret
Broach, Elise
Obernewtyn
Carmody, Isabelle
Al Capone does my shirts
Choldenko, Gennifer
Bloomability
Creech, Sharon
The Maze Runner
Dashner, James
Inkheart
Funke, Cornelia
Shadow of the Minotaur
Gibbons, Alan
The midnight zoo
Hartnett, Sonya
Fussell, Sandy
Out of the dust
Hesse, Karen
Pictures of Hollis Woods
Giff, Patricia Reilly
The Black book of secrets
Higgins, F.E.
Boy overboard
Gleitzman, Morris
With a name like love
Hilmo, Tess
The Switch
Horowitz, Anthony
Red Scarf Girl
Jiang, Ji-Li
Which witch
Ibbotson, Eva
Inside out and back again
Lai, Thanhha
Pigs might fly
King-Smith, Dick
The Wind Singer
Nicholson, William
Inside out and back again
Lai, Thanhha
Jacob have I loved
Paterson, Katherine
Wolves of the beyond : Lone Wolf
Lasky, Kathryn
The Hobbit
Tolkien, J.R.R.
Aquila
Norriss, Andrew
Homeless Bird
Whelan, Gloria
Esperanza rising
Ryan, Pamela Munoz
A Book Club with added
Yep, Laurence
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
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WHOLE SCHOOL
FEATURE ARTICLE
FOBISSEA games Kellett has been a member of the FOBISSEA Schools group for many years. It was 7 years ago when our first Primary team competed in the FOBISSEA Games. The FOBISSEA Games are an annual event which offers those children who demonstrate excellence in sport calibre an opportunity to compete against children from other British International Schools around Asia. We are now successfully competing in the 3 different age groups U15, U13 and Primary, each year growing from strength to strength. Our promotion from our very first Primary Games where we competed in D group to the B group where we are successfully competing and winning now is a true reflection of the caliber of the students participating and the progress that we have made as a school. Mrs. Fiona Pratt
Primary FOBISSEA Games In May, 36 Kellett FOBISSEA squad members travelled to Beijing to participate in the B1 Group FOBISSEA Games. We had new competition this year due to our promotion into the higher division. Our hosts were British School of Beijing and we competed against Regents School, Thailand; Seoul Foreign School, Korea; St. Christopher’s, Penang and Dulwich, Suzhou. The Kellett squad performed incredibly and at the end of the tournament had done fantastically well. Overall an outstanding performance by the squad and lots of individual and team achievements. A big thank you to all the children for their dedication and enthusiasm as well as to all the teachers and parents who have coached and supported the children. Next year Phuket 2013 ……….
The results are as follows :
Swimming events (78 races)
Primary 4 team – Gold Medal
28 40
In the T ball competition each year group played in a round robin competition which then continued through to finals.
Primary 5 team – Bronze Medal
32
Primary 6 team – Gold Medal In the Football competition the format was the same. Primary 4 Boys – Silver
A whole host of medals and Gold, silver and bronze medals in nearly every event.
Track and Field Events (42 events)
Primary 5 Boys – Bronze Primary 5 Girls – Bronze Primary 6 Girls progressed to the semi-finals
21 13
10
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
I participated in Fobissea this year, as well as the two years before that, and I found the whole experience extremely exciting. The trials, the training, the trip and finally the actual competition, it is all great. Along with doing lots of sports, I have met students from many schools across Asia and have made several new friends. My abilities in all four Fobissea sports (swimming, athletics, tee-ball and football) have improved immensely over the past three years, as I have trained hard, especially at swimming and running. Fobissea is above all a team event, we train as a team and we compete as a team. Tee-ball, where the boys and girls play together, is always so much fun. My team won the tee-ball both in Taipei (P5) and Beijing (P6)!! Some of my favorite memories include doing a triple play in tee-ball in Taipei (awesome), the disco in Taipei and the crowd cheering for our swimming relay team in Beijing, it was so loud. Another highlight is that the pilot always wishes us good luck on the airplane intercom system. Fobissea has been one of my most favorite events in primary school and I would love to do it all again! Anna Levin
WHOLE SCHOOL
FEATURE ARTICLE
It has been a blast being part of three FOBISSEA teams each one has been unique and exciting. I have learned so much about pushing my limits, keeping healthy and being part of a special team. FOBISSEA takes a lot of dedication to sport and fitness – training with the team twice a week and then heaps of extra training outside of school – swimming three times a week, sprint training, football training on top of all the other sport I do. But it’s fun and it really pays off!!! This year FOBISSEA was an epic experience all round. The first event lined up for the athletes was track and field. The competition was tough but we tried and tried until we got the result we wanted. The first events for us boys were the track events while the girls did their field events. Year 6 placed second in the 12by 50m race which was good as we only lost first place by half a second or so. But, for the Year 6 Team, t-ball had to be the most exciting event of all. We made it into to the semi finals where we won easily against Dulwich College. We then advanced through to the finals to play the BSB Bears where we won again, this time by 8 runs! “Oh yeah!” Overall the whole team worked extremely hard brandishing at least one gold or more in the games. All the team tried their best and also had lots of fun. In the end the team came back to Hong Kong happy and seriously overtired. Oliver Spanton
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
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WHOLE SCHOOL
FEATURE ARTICLE ‘We swam, we ran, we conquered’ Swimming Gold, Athletics Silver, Girls Basketbal Gold, Girls Football Gold, Boys Basketball Bronze, 129
‘The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.’ Vince Lombardi
Captain’s Report
Captain’s Report
When we set out to Suzhou, we had confidence in our team that we would do extremely well. We were right. In almost every race someone from Kellett was up on podium, collecting a first, second or third medal and doing their school proud. Many of us didn’t just beat other people in the pool, but beating our personal bests as well. This amount of success was a great achievement after the amount of training we put in. We would have to be down at the pool for 6:55am and put in 100% effort to make it pay off (which it did). We would like to thank the Coaches Miss Hill and Mr. Garvey for putting so much time and effort into the squad to help us win overall in the swimming. We wouldn’t have got the first place without them!
Fobissea was truly amazing. Athletics was the second event, after swimming. In the Athletics everyone did great! In the end, we came second - woo hoo! It was scorching hot, and we were all tired from the swimming, but we all tried our best and didn’t give up, and ended with a silver medal! The girl’s track events went first, while the boys did their field events. We got many golds, silvers and bronzes from the girls. They were really tough races, but we did it! The track events for the girls were: 100m, 200m, 300m,800m and 1500. For each race there was an A and B. Later on, after the track events for the girls, it swapped over so the boys now did their track events, while the girls did their field. The field events were: high jump, long jump, triple jump, discus and shot put. Overall, it was a challenging day but we made it! We all didn’t give up! We all tried with our best effort! But most importantly, we all had a whole lot of fun!
Jack Robinson and Bessie Elliot
Georgia Thomas and Henry Luise
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
WHOLE SCHOOL
FEATURE ARTICLE
Boys’ Basketball – Captain’s Report The Kellett boys were determined to get there medal for the basketball. We started off with a great start to the day by beating the host, Dulwich College. We had a long break before we played our rival DBIS, the game was very tense but the Kellett boys came out with a win,10-9; if we had lost that game our semi-final position would not be secure. St Andrews Green valley were our next opponent, and they had beaten DBIS 30-9, so we were really worried going in to this game; but we ended up coming out with a win by over 10 points. Winning the group meant we had made it to the Semi-Finals playing the second
placed team from the other group, Kota Kinabalu school; they had this one really tall player who scored nearly all their points, end of half time we were 14 points down, end of the game it was 24-24 we had to go into extra time, the game was very tense, Kinabalu school Scored it was over, we weren’t going to get gold this year, but we still had a chance for bronze. We played Dulwich for our 3rd place playoff game, we knew there weakness, during that game we had a few injury’s but we still came out with the bronze. Well done team! Tom Bischoff
Girls’ Football – Captain’s Report On the last day of the tournament, the girls FOBISSEA team had football. It was extremely hot that day and the temperature was over 30 degrees. We were all very excited about the day ahead and hoping we would be as successful as we were in the basketball the day before. When we arrived at Dulwich College, we walked to the Astro pitches and thoroughly warmed up as our legs ached from the previous days. We learned that our two main rivals – DBIS and Dulwich College - had both won their first matches so we all began to feel a bit nervous, particularly as our first game was against Dulwich! Perhaps they would be trying extra hard to beat us after we defeated them in the basketball final the day before. Miss Hill sat us down 15 minutes before our first match and gave us a team talk, reminding us of our roles on pitch and our tactics. The first game against Dulwich was successful. It took us a while to get into the game and get over the heat and also the stiffness from the previous events but we soon scored our first goal. We then managed to score another goal, making it 2-0 at full time. Our next game was against DBIS who were the only other team also from Hong Kong. The week before FOBISSEA we played a friendly match against DBIS and they gave us a good game but we won 3-1. We were slightly anxious as we wanted to remain victorious against them. It was a great game as we won 4-0. At this point, we were beginning to feel more confident as we had beaten both of the teams we thought were likely to be our hardest challenge.
Next up were St. Andrews Bangkok. This game was very tough, as we seemed to be slightly over confident from our victories. St Andrews managed to get an early goal. Our heads dropped and we were not playing as well as the games before. We managed to score a goal making it 1-1 at half time. Miss Hill gave us a motivational team talk, telling us we needed to work extra hard in order to score one more goal to win. Although we did not play as well in this game, we managed to score another goal in the second half, making it 2 -1 at full time. After that, we played our last group game against St. Andrews Green Valley. We were determined to play better than the last game. We played brilliantly scoring six goals, making it 6-0 at full time! We had won all of our matches, making us 1st on the leaderboard and we were through to the semi – finals. The teams who finished 4th and 5th played each other in a playoff. We then played the winner of that game, which was St. Andrews Bangkok, in the semi – final. We were very determined to win this game. We played well and we won, which meant we were through to the finals. The final was against DBIS who had also won their semi - final. This was a very hard match, as both Kellett and DBIS were very keen to win. Although we were all very tired and had many aches and pains, our striker, Avery, scored a hat trick of three brilliant goals bringing us to a victory of 3 - 0 at full time. We had won! We were all incredibly pleased and proud to have the gold football trophy and our individual medals presented to us by the principal of Dulwich College, the host school and it was a fantastic way to end the tournament. Emma Baghurst
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
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PRIMARY
PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS
While London has been focusing on the Olympic Games this summer, another competition has been hotly contested amongst schools in the UK.
The Times Spelling Bee Championship has recently been won by a team of four eleven and twelve year old girls from a High School in Colchester. The competition is a team event, words are spelled aloud on stage, the rules appear very similar to our own “Battle of the Books” but with individual words to be recalled rather than books and authors. But how important is spelling? Especially in our technologically advanced world where spell checkers on devices can make sure that our text is all correct. Some suggest that spelling words correctly is unnecessary, the paragraph below has been in circulation on the internet for some time and many of us have probably been amused that we are able to read it rapidly and without mistakes, despite it being complete nonsense if you were to try to decode the sounds. Aoccdrnig to a rseearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. However, give this paragraph to a non-fluent reader and they will of course struggle. The debate over “phonics” versus “whole language” reading instruction has raged for many years, and will do so for many years to come. Most experts will now argue that both are vital in the reading process. The need for phonic instruction is however fundamental, teaching students the connection between letter combinations and the sounds
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KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
they represent, and is therefore held in the highest regard in the primary section. Indeed, as words are increasingly abbreviated to allow communication through Short Message Service (SMS) and Instant Message (IM) platforms, learning to read and spell correctly are more important rather than less in this modern world. Of course some words cannot be decoded using our knowledge of phonics. These words have to be learned by sight, and even from the first days of Reception class the most basic of these are introduced to the children; “I”, “the”, “no”, ‘go” and “into” being first. As for those of us who are more fluent? The thirty seven words below are some of those chosen for the Spelling Bee. Why not have a Spelling Bee at home? You could award extra points to those who know the meaning. Bivouac, diaphragm, vendetta, pupa, catarrh, coccyx, gnat, tarantula, crevasse, tyrannosaurus, seismograph, vengeance, exhale, genuine, incisive, cedilla, anemone, ubiquitous, gelignite, chipolata, maelstrom, viscount, synonymous, chiffon, myriad, argot, haiku, benign, jurisdiction, turquoise, succumb, chlorophyll, liaison, spontaneous, minutiae, connoisseur, apothegm. Ciaran Harrington Deputy Principal Head of Primary
PRIMARY
PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS
Paperless day by The school Council P6 representatives Kendall Dees On Friday 8th June that school council held a paperless day. As one of our main topics, the school council thought that by having a paperless day we could help everyone in the school realise what we are doing to our planet and that we can all help. Paperless day was a day where everyone in the school participated in fun activities teaching us about how we can save paper, fun facts about paper and most importantly what we can do to help save our planet! The School council is thrilled about how well the day went, how much everyone learnt and what a great time they had! We hope that paperless day helped everyone in the school realise that reducing, reusing and recycling isn’t as hard as you may think and that every little thing counts!
Anoushka Prentice On paperless day each year group had some wonderful activities to do. Key stage 1 had 4 activities to do whilst key stage 2 had 5 except for the lucky P4 and 5s who had the choice of 5 activities out of 10, lucky things! Therefore everyone had a fantastic paperless day because of the activities organised by our teachers. Here is a list of the activities done during paperless day.
Reception
Primary 1 • Baking gingerbread men. • Re-telling the story and recording on the video ipads. • Making puppets and role playing the story • Construction: Making a bridge out of marshmallows and spaghetti.
Primary 2 • Reading story of Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch and doing a retelling of the story on Voice Recorders (ipads) • Making electrical circuits. • Making a Lighthouse Keeper’s lunch. • Researching lighthouses on the internet and drawing and labeling a lighthouse on the tables.
Primary 3
• Making and using Playdough
• Making ships biscuits
• Maths parachute games
• Grid reference games
• Chinese number song/writing numbers in sand, chalk, water and brushes
• Search for a gem/directions treasure hunt
• Construction challenge in Covered Area – R4
• Finding out about explorers. Research using computers in the Library with Mrs Walker
• PE compass directions and team building activities i
KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
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PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS
Primary 4 & Primary 5 The P4 and 5 children were given the opportunity to choose their activities from the list below. Everyone got at least 3 out of 5 activities that they wanted to do. • Oceans - Mr Harrington - P5-1 - This session will focus on environmental issues concerning the oceans, especially looking at the problems of ocean debris • Environmental Music - Miss Ho - Music Room An opportunity to create an environmental chant and accompaniment using African instruments • iPhoneography - Mr Dawes - French Room - Students will have the opportunity to use a range of photo-editing apps to create visually stunning photos • Clay Models - Miss Colquhon - Art Room - Create your own clay bowl in the shape of different leaves from local trees, exploring their symmetrical properties and detail • Marshmallow Towers - Mr Lovell - P5-2 - A maths and DT challenge to see who can build the tallest freestanding structure out of a limited number of toothpicks and marshmallows! • Podcasting - Miss White - P4-1 - Feel teachers and pupils waste paper at Kellett? This session will provide you with the opportunity to create a persuasive podcast to help spread awareness of just how much paper we consume each school day. • Online Comics - Mrs Whelan - ICT Suite - You will have the chance to create your own online comic strip highlighting the importance of using less paper and being more environmentally aware. • Treasure Hunt - Mr Miller - P4-3 - How well do you know Kellett Primary? Find out for sure in this interactive adventure! • Environmental Drama - Miss Corbyn - Using a video clip or comparing different scenarios you will have the chance to act out some scenes on how using too much paper impacts on the environment.
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• Ballon Rockets - Mrs Nevin - Make a balloon rocket and get it to travel along a string guideline as far as possible. Use the equipment provided to modify your balloon.
Primary 6 • Performing Arts day • Singing medleys and solos • Dancing with Mrs Pratt • Sign language • Invitation work
Jemima Abate This year was my second time being a School Council representative and it was great fun. Paperless day was a wonderful idea as it taught us that we don’t need as much paper as we use. It encouraged us to protect the environment more and we learnt things about paper that we never knew! On the day P6 School Council reps visited each classroom and saw the many different activities, unique to each year group, taking place. It felt great knowing that we had made this day possible and that we were helping the school and the students. I hope you all had a great day too and learned a lot of cool things!
Jae Won Oh Paperless Day was a fantastic day. Here are some quotes from the children and staff of what they thought about Paperless Day. Tate-P3, Today has been an awesome day and I personally think that we should have more and more paperless days. Sean Yao-P5, The activities we did and are doing are all brilliant and delicious. The teachers did a great job thinking about the activities to do. Ms.Davies-P3, It is just wonderful working with children from all different classes all mixed up. I’m also really pleased to see the children having an amazing time.
PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY
Did You Know? FACTS ABOUT PAPER: by Thomas Marinko • Paper was created by the Chinese in 105A.D. • The word paper came from the Greek word Papyrus. • Half of the world’s forests have been cut down for making paper • The United States and Canada are the world’s largest producers of paper and paper products. • China, India and the rest of Asia are the fastest growing countries for using paper. • China uses more paper than the US • 10,000 trees are cut down annually in China to make holiday cards • 73% of all newspaper is recycled. • 48% of all office paper is recycled. • Recycling half the world’s paper would free up 20 million acres of forest land. • Half the world’s forests have already been cleared or burned, and 80% of what’s left has been seriously degraded. • The average British family throws away 6 trees worth of paper in their household bin in a year. • The average family uses 119 rolls of toilet paper each year • If each person in Hong Kong recycled 1 newspaper a week, we would save approximately 813,000 trees per year.
What Next? Paperless day is over and done with. What does this mean? Do we just keep wasting precious paper? No. That we cannot do. We need to keep saving paper, even after paperless day. Yes, we all know that it is impossible to live without any paper. But instead of using clean white paper, we can use recycled ones. In Ocean Park, some of the signs are printed on recycled panda poo! If you don’t know where to get recycled paper, use pieces of scrap paper. But of course, important pieces such as your homework should be done on A4 sheets! As you know, we often have pizza/food sales, and even though the pizzas come in cardboard boxes, which are another form of paper, it is recycled cardboard which will be recycled again afterwards. As for the paper plates, the School Council has thought of a fantastic solution! We have bought class sets of plastic plates for every class which can be used each time there is a pizza sale or any other types of charity food sales. By doing so, we can save lots of paper, not only for today, but for a long time. Think about where all your paper comes from. They come from trees. With every piece of paper you use, a tree dies. Isn’t that scary? So please try to use less paper. Can you imagine how many trees are cut down every day just so you can doodle, draw and write on it each day? And not only for you, but for everyone else in the world. That’s approximately 7.2 billion people, and 10 million trees! If you want to help save trees and the Earth, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! Yuri Hwang
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PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS Reception We all celebrated the London Olympics by making medals using ordinal numbers to present 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for the children in races during Big Outdoor Play. Each class had a sport, which they learned about. The children wrote Olympic poems and produced collages of their focus sport.
All of the Reception children have had a busy and productive final term. On our educational visit to Lions Education Centre the children had the opportunity to observe a wide variety of plants. The children then planted and grew their own seeds as part of our topic work on Growing.
• R1-Tennis
All of the children were fantastic in their class assembly and looked wonderful in their costumes.
• R2-Hockey
To celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee everyone dressed up as a king, queen or in red, white and blue. Each Reception class had a special buffet lunch with delicious cucumber sandwiches, scones and tea cakes. For Kellett Primary School Paperless Day the Reception children did a carousel of activities. All of the children practiced counting in Mandarin and painting numerals with water in the Reception garden. There was a construction challenge in the covered area where the children made a bridge and then tested the strength and talked about the construction materials they had used. In the big playground the children enjoyed playing parachute games and ran relay races. All of the children also made play dough, which we used in our classrooms afterwards.
• R3-Basketball • R4-Swimming It has been a fantastic year for Reception and we wish all of the children the best as they move up into Primary 1.
PRIMARY 1 We had an exciting last term in Primary One. We completed our Pirate topic with an activity filled, fun beach party. We were very lucky that the sun was shining and to be joined by lots of parents. There were many scoundrels on the beach. Some were made to walk the plank whilst others were getting tattoos. A great day was had by all and it was a perfect ending to our topic. Later in the term our P1 corridor became alive with dinosaurs. We loved being paleontologists and digging for fossils, especially when the fossils were chocolate chips! We have learned lots of amazing facts and have created a great variety of dinosaurs.
PRIMARY 2 Commemorating the Centenary of the Titanic Disaster This was a very special year for Primary 2 to learn about the sinking of the Titanic. The children enjoyed getting into character as one of the passengers or crew. They learned about the different classes on the ship, its journey and the events on the night of the disaster. The children directed and starred in their own amazing silent movies.
Working Lighthouses Primary 2 children really enjoyed reading the Lighthouse Keeper stories. They were enthusiastic when designing and making their own lighthouse. They used their knowledge of how to build an electrical circuit to light the lamp in their lighthouse. The children were proud of their work and the lighthouses looked amazing!
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PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY
PRIMARY 3 It has been a busy final term in Primary Three! The children have learnt lots about Ancient Egypt and made informative and creative booklets on what they have found out about this ancient civilisation. They learnt how the Egyptians mummified their dead Pharaohs and the day Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb. Following on from Ancient Egypt, P3 looked into Explorers and Exploration. The highlight of this topic was the trip to The Maritime Museum in Stanley. The children were very interested in all the old ships and the weapons that were used hundreds of years ago. The Primary Threes have had a busy and exciting year and they are looking forward to being in Primary Four! We hope you all had a lovely summer holiday.
PRIMARY 4 Complete Madness? London Olympics? Mario Kart? A boy in a frock? That sounds so mixed up that it must be something to do with Kellett P4. It was Summer Term and, as usual, that meant assemblies for all the P4 classes. After their very successful Christmas Performance of “The Pirates of the Curry Bean,” the children were eager to perform again. Class mums helped with costumes. The children wrote lively scripts, with just a little help from their teachers. Suitably catchy songs were chosen, high energy and well-choreographed dance routines selected, lines practiced and then, after a week of rehearsals, the children were ready to strut on to the stage and perform. P4-3 kicked it all off, quickly followed by P4-2 and, finally, the whole year Four Assembly Festival was completed by P4-1. Mr. Miller’s P4-3 class began with an informative and topical assembly on the “Olympics” theme. We were all treated to a memorable Torch Procession that had been carried on throughout the school and then replayed to us on stage. Numerous interesting facts and figures were presented onstage that had been carefully researched by the class, in order to prepare their audience for the upcoming London Olympics.
Next, Mrs. Nevin’s P4-2 performed the amusing “Bill’s New Frock” based on the story by the authoress, Jill Fine. This hilarious tale is just one part of the genre issues and dilemmas that the students in Primary 4 study. The main character, Bill Simpson, wakes up to discover that he appears to have turned into a girl. The story follows his difficult day. It shows how he is treated, including the school bully, Mean Malcolm, and even the headmaster. The class performed songs such as ‘ABC’ by the Jackson Five and ‘Baggy Trousers’ by Madness. Surprisingly, there was no shortage of male volunteers to play the part of the boy who was dressed in a pink frock. This term, the P4 Assembly Season moved into ‘Top Gear’ with a bang through our very enjoyable Games Based Learning Topic of Mario Kart incorporating the Science topic of Friction. Ms. White and her talented P4-1 class drove everybody into a happy mood as they performed amazingly in a fun filled adventure with all the characters from Luigi and Mario to Bowser and Baby Peach (who wasn’t as innocent as she looked and was finally uncovered as the culprit who spilled oil on the tracks). You don’t have to be mad in P4, but it helps!
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PRIMARY HIGHLIGHTS PRIMARY 5 The summer term highlight for Primary 5 was the educational visit to Beijing as part of our topic on China. Prior to the visit, children learnt about the dynasties of Ancient China, carried out research into the famous landmarks and studied different political systems. The visit gave the children the opportunity to continue their learning first hand and included visits to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Particular highlights for the children were climbing the Great Wall of China and trying out their bargaining skills in Mandarin during a shopping challenge. There were a variety of interesting purchases which hopefully survived the journey home! During our visit to the Summer Palace, our Primary 5 children met up with a local school to play games and get to know each other. It was fantastic to see the children getting on so well together and communicating in both Mandarin and English. This culminated in a visit to the Beijing school where the children exchanged gifts and participated in art activities together. Once we returned from the visit, we had a busy week planning and preparing for our Beijing show to showcase what we had learnt. With a lot of hard work, the show was a great success and lots of fun for everyone.
PRIMARY 6
P1
Primary 6 had an incredibly busy summer term. We did lots of We haveforhad exciting term2 intests Primary One. Wethis will revision ouran end of Keylast Stage and hopefully completed our Pirate topic with activity filled, fun beach party. all pay off when we receive ouran marks back. It hasn’t all been We were very lucky that the sun were was shining and to be by work, work, work though as we also preparing forjoined our end lotsyear of parents. There were many scoundrels on the (a beach. of show. Primary 6 performed “Dragon beat” tributeSome to were made walk the20-22 plank whilst others gettingsuccess. tattoos. Glee) – it hittothe stage June and waswere a roaring A great day was had by all and it was a perfect ending to our topic.
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The students had all been looking forward to wet netball on Laterlast in day the term our and P1 corridor became alive with been dinosaurs. the of term set the challenge. “We’ve We lovedseven being paleontologists and digging fossils, training years for this!” – Wilson Koderfor (P6-3). Obviously especially when down the fossils chocolate chips! haveas the they knew deep that were they had no chance of We winning learned lots amazing factsAtand have greatavariety of teachers are of rather talented. least theycreated tried toascore dinosaurs. few points!
PRIMARY
ARTS & LANGUAGES Music The Primary and Secondary Schools performed together on June 25 for the Annual Concert at the Leo Lee Arts Centre. Over two hundred members of the Kellett Community performed for a sell-out audience. It was also an opportunity to say farewell to Ms Ip who had worked at the Pok Fu Lam Campus in the Music Department for over two years. Congratulations to all performers and the staff involved!
French On 5 June, a group of Primary 5 and Primary 6 students went to French International School to take their DELF Prim French exam. They started with a written exam (Listening, Reading and Writing) and then took the Speaking exam, where they had to converse in French for ten minutes with a French examiner. Whilst waiting for their turn to take the speaking exam, students enjoyed French bread and cheese! After the exam, they had a tour of the school and read some French comics in the library. “I can’t wait to see all of my scores so I can add them to my box of achievements. All of the past papers and practicing was really fun,” said one of them. “Revising for the DELF was great fun and really helped raise the standard of my French,” said another. Well done to all of them for entering the exam!
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ARTS & LANGUAGES Primary 5 Visit to Beijing The annual Primary 5 Beijing Educational visit provides an excellent ground for Kellett students to practice and use the Chinese language skills that they have acquired in the classroom. Meeting up with the local Beijing primary school students is always a happy and meaningful occasion. Students were excited about meeting each other and the bond of friendship was established within seconds through work and play. Whilst at the great wall the students were given tasked with a shopping challenge, known as The “Apprentice”. Each group of students was given $50 and a shopping list. Their challenge
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was to buy as many items on the list as they could in 15 minutes, using their language skills to bargain for each item. It was expected that each group would come back with four to five items however, the winning group surprised everyone by returning with nine of the items and $3 change! After returning to school the students and teachers put together a performance for the Beijing Evening where they replayed the bargaining scenes and performed dances, such as the Umbrella Dance which was choreographed by Miss Du and assisted by Miss Hoe. The students also sang two Chinese songs – “There will be a better tomorrow” and “Meeting in Beijing”.
PRIMARY
ARTS & LANGUAGES
Minecraft Club “So, do you think anybody’s going to sign up?” That was a question asked of me before we released information on our after-school Minecraft Club. I was pretty confident that I would get sign-ups, as some students had already requested we create a club based on the incredibly popular sandbox Lego-type game environment. In case you’ve missed it, Minecraft is a global phenomenon, beloved by gamers throughout the world. Increasing numbers of schools are using the platform in both informal and formal classroom settings, to teach concepts based on citizenship, problem solving and collaboration. So what happened? Optimistically, we offered 20 places, got nearly 40 requests, extended it to 24, and had to disappoint lots. Many apologies to all those students who didn’t get in. Each student was given their own full account and the game was added to all machines in the ICT lab. We also contacted a company to see if they were willing to give us some server space to allow us to work on a collaborative environment. As we gathered for our first session the excitement was incredible to witness. The lucky 24 couldn’t wait to get started. But it was all a bit of a disaster. The PCs in the ICT lab were built long before Minecraft was conceived and even the simplistic nature of the blocky graphics proved too much as virtually every PC crashed! We cobbled things together as best we could with iMacs and some newer laptops, but in truth we needed to think again.
I had spent some time in the run-up to launching the club learning the basic techniques of the game; mining and crafting, so I thought I was prepared for supporting students. In truth, I had hardly scratched the surface. I was amazed at the level of skills virtually every student had. Their fluency around the environment, driven by the mouse and the keyboard, was astounding. They were able to create, build and interact on the screen much faster than I was and the complex knowledge they possessed spoke volumes about the way even our young students learn today. As the weeks progressed, we tried out different activities and challenges, including a treasure hunt, but the lack of a community server meant that although we were having fun and creating within the game, the bigger picture aspects of community and collaboration were lost. Having given up on the company we approached, we bit the bullet and purchased our own server space. Having 24 students all working in a collaborative space added many dimensions to our game play and raised huge issues around our understanding of online communities. As the term drew to a close, we were still working on how we could collaborate and co-operate to enhance our environment, but this is likely to take time. Running Minecraft Club has been a demanding and time consuming affair, but worth every moment! The enthusiasm and expertise that our young players already have shows that they will have no problem contributing to their increasingly digital future!
During the next week, Freeman Li and Tessa Bull carried out some extensive research and testing, coming up with a solution that would allow the game to run. Week Two we were firing on all cylinders! KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOUR AUGUST 2012
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ARTS & LANGUAGES Pokfulam Art Exhibition Throughout the month of May, fifteen Kellett primary children from various year groups decided to take part in a local art exhibition that was inspired by the environment of Pokfulam. Children could paint, collage, take photos or use any other medium to create their own individual 2D piece of art. All of this hard work paid off when the children exhibited their work in Cyberport, alongside other local community based schools showcasing their ideas and inspirations. It was a fantastic exhibition that the children thoroughly enjoyed being a part of. Well done to all who participated!
Primary PE It was another busy term and end to a very successful year on the sports front. In the summer term we competed in rugby, biathlon, netball and cricket.
Primary Cricket The Kellett cricket team has enjoyed a very successful season. In the Island School’s Competition, they found themselves in a very tough group. They managed to beat FIS in their first match and this was followed up with a last ball victory over GSIS and another close win against Kennedy School. After finishing at the top of their group, Kellett played Bradbury School in the grand final and managed to beat them by 27 runs, to become Island Schools Champions 2012. This ensured their qualification for the Cup Competition which was held at KGV School. The Kellett team was again in fine form, enjoying superb victories over Bradbury and Kowloon Juniors. However, persistent rain brought a premature end to the event which was unfortunately unable to be rescheduled. The boys and girls end the season undefeated. They can all be very proud of their cricketing achievements and they should be commended for the wonderful spirit in which they have played the game. Well done to you all!
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Rugby We had two teams attend the CIS contact rugby tournament in May. The Kellett A team did very well to reach the finals and finished 2nd place, being beaten in a close game by DBIS. The B team also faired well with the boys making it into the semi-finals of the competition.
Biathlon Monday mornings were brightened up in the summer term, by a quick swim and run to start the day off! Our biathlon squad were an enthusiastic bunch and worked hard to improve their times each week during training. An unfortunate sports injury meant a bit of team reshuffling a couple of days before the ESF Aquathon event. All the athletes rose to the occasion on event day. Some fantastic individual performances and the Kellett A team managed to finish 4th out of 23 teams! A great result!
PRIMARY
SPORT EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
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SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS ‘A global economy recovering from a deep recession is making the job market increasingly competitive at all levels, not least for school leavers and graduates. This is why expert career guidance and student careers advice is absolutely essential.
Work Placements and Career Education
‘A global economy recovering from a deep recession is making the job market increasingly competitive at all levels, not least for school leavers and graduates. This is why expert career guidance and student careers advice is absolutely essential. There are radical changes afoot to the educational landscape, particularly in relation to the costs of higher education in the UK and careers guidance support in schools. For young people, the need to develop the right skills to stand out from the crowd and make informed career and educational choices has assumed an even greater significance. Consequently, it has never been more challenging for them or for the schools and parents trying to support and provide them with effective careers guidance and expert student careers advice. The Inspiring Futures Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation which, for over 70 years, has been working with young people in partnership with schools in the UK and internationally, providing expert careers guidance that includes a 1-1 personal interview, psychometric profiling, work-related learning and much more. ‘We help them with these transitions and motivate them to unlock their potential by understanding the issues and helping with a range of impartial, personalised and flexible ways so that they can make educated career choices.’
The Inspiring Futures Foundation www.inspiringfutures.org.uk The Year Ten students have been using ISCO, the independent schools careers guidance service from The Inspiring Futures Foundation, to help them think about their futures. As part of the Global Citizenship Programme, career education and guidance begins in the third term of Year 10 and is a constant thread for Year 11 and Year 12 students. Our Year 10 students have completed psychometric profiling which identifies some of their specific strengths and areas of interest. John Broadbent from ISCO visited the secondary section for four days and undertook 1:1 interviews with the Year 10 students, interpreting the profiling results and giving some initial guidance on possible career choices and A Levels which will lead into these areas. In Year 11, students will focus on interview skills, will make a curriculum vitae which they can use to apply for a job and be interviewed for it. At the same time careers of interest will be investigated further and guidance given on suitable A Level choices.
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Each Year 10 student is a member of Futurewise until they are 23 years old. Futurewise is one of the services offered by the Inspiring Futures Foundation and used extensively by ISCO. This is what UCAS says of Futurewise: ‘As well as supporting the whole application process, each year UCAS helps thousands of potential students find the right course at the right university or college. As the competition for places becomes more intense, making the right choice becomes even more important. The earlier in the decision-making process young people are given advice and information, the better and more thorough their research will be. Futurewise provides a personalised port of call for students. Complementary to UCAS services, it is tailored to the individual when it comes to choosing the right career; researching and planning a gap year; finding information on the qualifications that provide entry routes into HE; and wider information on applying to study at universities and colleges. It provides a broader view on all the available options. There is nothing like taking a fresh look at the options available when faced with a multitude of different paths, and the specific, oneto-one advice provided by Futurewise can help do just that.’
Mary Curnock Cook - Chief Executive, UCAS www.myfuturewise.org.ok Relevant and meaningful work placements are of great value to university applications, particularly in the more vocational degree courses such as medicine. The Year 11s will be encouraged to undertake their work experience after the I/GCSE examinations in June 2012. I will be calling on our vibrant and professional parent community to help offer meaningful experiences to our Year 11 students. The collaboration between our broad parent community and the school in providing highly valuable support, advice and inspiration to our older students will, I hope, be another defining feature of the Kellett School community. Simon Giddings Deputy Principal Head of Secondary
SECONDArY
SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS Student Council This year’s Secondary Student Council looked at different challenges to help make Kellett Secondary a better community. We discussed and planned a variety of events including a pizza sale to raise money for the ‘Living with the Tiger’ charity. The Student Council meets every week to discuss suggestions from each Tutor Group. Most recently we have been researching school ‘house’ systems in order to recommend what we believe is the best design criteria for our ‘house’ system in Kellett, Kowloon Bay. Being this year’s student council secretary has been unforgettable. Although I felt the role carried great responsibility, it was also a thoroughly enjoyable experience helping to boost both my confidence and my people skills. I feel proud to have been the Student Council Secretary and I urge others to become involved next year. Chloe Ng 8 Electrons
Global Citizenship Year 8 Drugs Information Centre As part of their Global Citizenship Unit on Addiction, Year 8 visited the Hong Kong Drugs Information Centre. Learning about a variety of drugs and their harmful effects, the trip involved the pupils working on tasks in the interactive-information zone and recording their findings. Afterwards, they attended an interactive video story show in which the pupils collectively decided the fate of a fictional character. “It was really cool. I learnt a lot and liked all the educational games” Year Eight Student. “I was surprised at how dangerous so many drugs are. It’s really important we learn about the dangers” Year Eight Student
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Y9 Animals Asia visit On the 23rd May, Animals Asia representative Jasmine Nunns, accompanied by a therapy dog visited Year Nine as part of the Global Citizenship Animal Rights module. We learned about Animals Asia work in China to end Moon Bear bile farming and the cat and dog meat industry, which causes so much suffering to animals. Animals Asia has bear sanctuaries in China as well as Vietnam and has convinced dozens of pharmacists to stock products that are free of bear parts. In addition, some animal welfare charities, with the help of Animals Asia, have successfully campaigned for some restaurants to drop cat and dog meat from their menus. We enjoyed hearing about the Dr Dog programme, which sees well behaved dogs bringing joy to people in hospital, children in orphanages, and to people whose building managers do not allow pets. It seems that Animals Asia has a knack for turning horror into stories of hope. As Jasmine Nunns said “If you are thinking, I can’t make a difference I am just one person, think again! Jill Robinson was just one person and Animals Asia is making a huge difference!” For more information about the work of Animals Asia or how you can help, please visit: http://www.animalsasia.org/
Year Nine Animal Rights On Wednesday 20th June, Year Nine were privileged to welcome a Hong Kong Dog Rescue (HKDR) volunteer, Cactus and two rescue dogs. Cactus explained the work of HKDR to save and improve the lives of dogs in Hong Kong, encouraging adoption or foster care, coordinating volunteers and educating younger generations in dog care. Although there are some laws that help to protect animals in Hong Kong, for volunteers like Cactus it is an uphill battle. A dog has only a four day window of opportunity in which to find a home from a Government run kennel (AFCD) and Hong Kong pet ownership laws can hinder rehoming efforts by HKDR. If owners abandon a microchipped pet but do not legally relinquish their ownership there is nothing that HKDR can do as the dog is someone else’s legal property, and these dogs are put to sleep. Thousands of young, friendly, and healthy dogs are euthanised every year simply because they have been abandoned.
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HKDR suggests the following ways that we can help: • Adopt a dog or puppy (never buy one from a pet shop as supporting pet shops supports breeders who contribute to the surplus dog population) • Foster a dog until it can find a permanent home • Join the volunteer team of dog walkers, or volunteer at dog homing days or other fundraising events • Support HKDR by donating money or supplies (E.g., dog food, old bedding, sheets, towels, leads, collars, shampoo, detergent, bin bags, Frontline, Heartguard, Preventic collars, worming tablets etc.) • Forward information about HKDR to all your contacts • Vote for HKDR initiatives at http://www.loveideas.hk/
SECONDARY HIGHLIGHTS SECONDArY
It’s electrifying… While Kellett’s theatrical production of Greese is well on its way, in the Science Labs we’ve been busy with our own rendition. Year 10 students enjoyed learning about and demonstrating the hair-raising effects of the Van der Graaf Generator.
Jungle, waterfalls and leeches…oh my! Year 7 students survived an exciting week in Borneo, rich with scientific discovery in the rainforests of Mount Kinabalu. The week was filled with insecteating plants, high-flying canopy walks, and night hikes into the depths of the jungle. For some students, this was their first time away from parents and home. Students had a memorable and science-rich experience – some even returned with trophy leech bites.
Green Olympics In conjunction with London 2012, students competed in the 2012 Green Olympic Games to ‘Reduce, Reuse & Recycle’. Green Ambassadors (and their little helpers) did their part for the environment by recycling more than 500kg of paper, plastic and metal. Well done Kellett Green team! Tudors: Timothy Breuer
Stuarts: Priya Chhaya
Windsors: Yorke Pittar
Electrons: Athina Hostelet
Neutrons: Anna Bowring
Protons: Lauren Wood
Leopards: Matthew Hanselman
Hawks: Henry Salmon
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SECONDARY FEATURES Geography Year 7 Geography Year Seven have again been brushing up on their map skills this term. Within teams, they worked through a set of challenges on an OS map of Sandbanks and Poole to understand the area. They then used the information they had obtained from the map to take part in a council meeting to decide if a bridge should be built from Sandbanks to Brownsea Island.
Year 10 Geography As the photos show, Year Ten braved the rain and mosquitos of Shek-O to collect data for a local field study to test if tourism was a positive or negative for the area. Susanna Kidd’s conclusion and evaluation below gives us an insight into how the Hong Kong weather can affect data collection and results.
Conclusion Despite the inconsistencies in the data we collected during our visit I suggest that tourism is a positive for Shek O. There was very little litter on the beach and it is apparent that the government makes a huge effort to manage the area with bins on the beach, regular cleaning of the beach area and nice sitting areas. There are a lot of shops and restaurants in Shek O that can be enjoyed by both visitors and local residents that create opportunities and bring money to the locality.
Evaluation Many factors impacted our data collection in Shek O on the day of our visit. These included the rainy weather; the time of day; the time of year; the day of the week. The rainy weather meant that neither visitors nor locals were interested in coming to the beach or restaurants (where there was not a lot of shelter). It was a week day and a Friday afternoon which is not a peak time for local visitors to Shek O as people are still at work or school. It is our opinion that all of these factors provided us with incorrect data. For example had we visited on a sunny day, the weekend or during the Summer when Shek O is a popular place to visit, we may have observed quite a difference in the amount of litter or vehicles present which might have produced greater negative data. We would also expect more positive data in the use and enjoyment of the beach and facilities, regardless of the time of day or day of the week. We believe that the weather was the main factor that impacted our data collection. We would need to visit Shek O on a number of different occasions to get a clearer set of results.
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SECONDARY FEATURES
DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY Team Fith Gear tops the podium at the Kellett 2012 F1 in Schools event! Team Fith Gear – Taylor Coates, Christian Paris, Stevan Zhu, Rose Ewins and Kirstie Taylor cleared up at the event winning ‘Best Pit Display’; ‘Fastest Car’; ‘Most Innovative Car’ and of course ‘F1 in Schools Kellett Champion 2012’. Their balsa wood models raced down a 20-metre track at over 50kph! Fith Gear’s jet-propelled, catamaran inspired vehicle powered by a small canister of CO2, was designed by the team’s design engineers Kirstie Taylor, Christian Parris and Stevan Zhu. Coming in a close 2nd place was Team Fast and Furious followed by Team Incredibles in 3rd. Team Soup A Stars won the ‘Best Engineered Car’ award sporting a rocket shaped top pod with a smart racing green finish. As well as gaining points from each race won, all 16 teams that took part were judged against criteria for their display work and car quality. Spanning age ranges of 9 to19, the main objective of F1 in Schools Worldwide Programme is to help students learn about engineering, science and technology by creating a fun and exciting team based learning environment. Young people develop an understanding of engineering, science, marketing and technology.
is textiles, so I was in charge of the outfits. We had black t-shirts with yellow piping around the sleeves and the bottom, and we also had soft yellow hood with black piping attached to the t-shirts. Many of the Year 8’s said we looked like we came out of Assassins Creed! I am very proud of our outfits and I am glad I had the privilege to make them for us. They were fun to make and were very successful in the long run.” “Hi, my name is Christian Paris. The design process we went through focused on aerodynamics. We looked at drag and the most aerodynamic shapes then we came up with a catamaran style as our unique idea to make the car faster and lighter. We sanded it down, painted and varnished it to make it as smooth as possible to minimise drag…In this experience I have learnt that working with friends boosts enjoyment however working with new people decreases chattiness and increases speed of work. If I had the chance to do this again outside of school as an ECA I would go for it!” Thank you to all the parents who came to watch the races and support the teams. Will Hughes-Caley Design and Technology
Here is what two of the Fith Gear members had to say about the activity and event: “Hi. My names Tayler Coates, and I was the graphic designer for this year’s F1 in Schools champions, Fith Gear. My speciality
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PE PHYSICAL EDUCATION AT KELLETT SECONDARY It was a very busy year for the Physical Education Department at Kellett both within the curriculum and the extracurricular programmes. The students finished off the year with a combination of Tennis, Gymnastics, Cricket and Personal Survival. As well as developing a sporting skill level, students were encouraged to understand and engage in tactical strategies which can provide an edge over components in competitive situations. The Kellett Olympics were a resounding success. Students had the opportunity to take part in a variety of Olympic sports as well as Paralympic events, such as seated Volleyball and Goal Ball. Through participation in these activities students learned that there is no difference in motivation, skill level or athleticism between the athletes in the Olympic or Paralympic Games. The Olympic and Paralympic values represent those that underpin the Physical Education Curriculum at Kellett School and all students are encouraged to demonstrate these values throughout the year.
Olympic and Paralympic Values RESPECT – fair play; knowing one’s own limits; and taking care of one’s health and the environment EXCELLENCE – how to give the best of oneself, on the field of play or in life; taking part; and progressing according to one’s own objectives FRIENDSHIP – how, through sport, to understand each other despite any differences
MUSIC Examination Choir Congratulations to the Secondary Examination Choir on the success of passing the Associated Board Choral Singing Examination. The choir achieved a high merit and was commended on an ‘Ability to Sing with Real Energy and Communicative Commitment’, ‘Corporate Enthusiasm’ and a ‘Well-Prepared and Enjoyable Programme’. Next year we will introduce the intermediate level (Grade 5) as our next standard and welcome new students to join us.
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ARTS & LANGUAGES Secondary Arts Evening
Romeo and Juliet Drama Production Year Seven and Year Eight students took part in a Drama extra-curricular activity after Easter where they worked very hard to put on a short, humorous production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The piece was performed in front of Secondary staff and students in a school assembly, where Sam Tuckwell’s suave Romeo and Lili Banks’ angelic Juliet were very well received. Hand -picked from over 30 auditionees, the talented cast then worked with the English Department and Jodi Gilchrist who were all very proud of their achievement! Watch out for more mini productions in 2012-13…. “It made Shakespeare really fun – I’m looking forward to studying it for iGCSE next year!” Year 9 Student “It has been an amazing experience”! Year 8 Cast Member
Cast List Romeo: Sam Tuckwell Juliet: Lili Banks Paris: Sophia Mortensen Tybalt: Clara Peirce-Finken Lady Capulet: Rosie Howl Mercutio: Jeffrey Turner Nurse /Monk: Catherine Maddren Narrators: Matilda Bishop, Milly Harvey, Alex Barker
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ARTS & LANGUAGES Modern Foreign Languages Ipads in MFL Years Seven, Eight and Nine started using iPads in French and Mandarin with much success and showed a real interest in exploring what a new technology can offer them in language class. The iPads offer a range of new possibilities for individual and group learning, both in and outside of lessons. The Apps are designed for learners to navigate easily and the feedback they provide encourages learners to persevere. Here’s what students had to say when comparing iPads and other technology or books: “It is easy to add French accents as you just have to slide your finger on an iPad, but you would have to type lots on the laptop just for one letter with an accent!” “I like sliding and tapping better than using a keyboard and mouse” “I think using iPads are good because it is quick and easy, and is good for remembering the stroke order. I really enjoyed using the iPads it was a lot more fun than using a Chinese dictionary.”
Un Atelier de Poésie Just before the Easter holidays, Mrs Dwyer’s Year 8 class took part in a two hour French Poetry Workshop with the Swiss Poet, Claude Darballey. Delivered in French from start to finish, they learnt about how poetry works and they even tried it out for themselves… changing a verb here and there to create their own interesting poems.
Year 10 Curriculum Visits May 2012 marked the very first language immersion programmes for Kellett School with visits to France and China, two of the countries of languages the students have chosen to study…and what a success the visits were! Students were surrounded by French or Mandarin morning, noon and night, experiencing the culture and learning more about the history of the country. Students took part in daily language workshops, a range of traditional and cultural activities, various excursions and organised evening entertainment. Here’s what a couple of the students had to say about their experience: Storm Roberts - China “There were so many enjoyable things such as visiting the village school to talk, draw with, and teach the students who couldn’t speak much English or visiting the cave dwellers and their cave homes, and the countryside around them. I also enjoyed meeting, and giving food to the homeless people when we were volunteering at the soup kitchen.” Amelia Brady - France “I learned loads of new French vocabulary everywhere I went and in all the activities both in and outside of the Château. Even on the bus journeys when we told to wear our “ceintures de sécurité” everyday!”
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MATHS SECONDArY
Junior Maths Challenge – 26 April All students in Year Seven and Year Eight took part in the Junior Maths Challenge, which is the biggest Maths competition in the UK with over 600,000 students and 4000 schools taking part annually. The multiple-choice questions challenge students’ mathematical thinking but do not rely too heavily on specific subject knowledge. There was a great improvement in results from last year with thirty one certificate winners. The award winners were: Bronze : Robyn Ma, Danyal Christy, Benjamin Forbes, Maya Abuali, Hayden Bajpei, Emily Swindin, Naomi Carey, Tayler Coates, Oscar Mclean, Mao Nakano, Cameron Ewins, Georgina Jarrett, Ethan Sherry, Kate Mason, Nabil Schwarzwalder, Francis Coghlan, Alec Drew-Prior, Hamish Bowdern and Jeffrey Turner. Silver : Emma Baghurst, Andre Hui, Lauren Wood, Rosemary Howl, Harriet Adams, Meg Barber, Chloe Kim, Kirstie Taylor, Priya Chhaya and Harry Mowbray. Gold : Nathanial Greene and Savannah Dixon Congratulations to all the award winners, and an additional congratulatory note to Savannah Dixon who achieved the Best in School accolade.
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MATHS Asia Maths Challenge – 2 and 3 May ‘Mathletics’ launched the first ever Asia Maths Challenge in May with Kellett being one of the 159 participating schools. The challenge worked in a very similar way to the World Maths Day competition held in March with students competing online over a 48 hour period to get the best possible score. Some students took the competition very seriously staying up until the early hours of the morning to maximise their chances of getting into the hall of fame! With an average score of 2,483 per student, we just narrowly missed out on the prizes coming fourth over-all in the Secondary School category. Miss Shek’s group, 7Ma1 did particularly well scoring 128,091 class points, which earned them fourth place out of all the classes registered.
William Robinson - 82nd (8,001points); Kate Mason – 77th (8,291 points); Timothy Breuer – 72nd (8,585 points); Kirstie Taylor – 69th (9,037 points); Georgina Jarrett – 64th (9,698points); Oscar Mclean – 50th (10,863 points); Tayler Coates – 31st (12,430 points). Mao Nakano reached 10th place in the Hall of Fame with 17,100 points and Chloe Kim repeated her stellar World Maths Day performance coming 2nd with an outstanding 18,460 points. Both received their prizes from Paul McMahon from ‘Mathletics’ in assembly. Well done to Chloe, Mao and everyone who took part.
There were many notable individual performances, too many to mention all, but the following are the students who made the top 100 out of the 5,159 participants.
Year 7 Stock Market Simulation – 11 and 17 May ‘Whilst half Year Seven was in Sabah enjoying the rainforest, the remaining half stayed in school and competed in a Stock Market Simulation in their Maths lessons. Split into teams of three, each team traded shares with the other teams in sixteen companies across four sectors. Each student had an opportunity to be the team leader responsible for making the big decisions, the accountant managing the finances and the trader haggling for the best deal. The teams had to respond to changing share prices and breaking news (read by a particularly handsome news reader!) that rapidly affected the stock market. It proved an immensely enjoyable day and revealed some budding cut-throat traders amongst the year group! Congratulations to the winners who were: Week 1 – Brianna Thorpe, Sam Tuckwell and Saffie Turl Week 2 – Matilda Bishop, Hamish Bowdern and Lucas Chalk Insider Trading Award – Hamza Apabhai, Josh Cohen and Emily Gobel
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HISTORY
Remembering D-Day on H-Day On the 6th June, Year Nine delivered an assembly on the significance of D-Day, which marked the beginning of the end of the Second World War in Europe. Year Nine incorporated the Year Ten French students’ reflections on D-Day that were recorded during the MFL visit to Normandy, France.
After the assembly, Years Seven to Nine enjoyed a picnic with a French theme. This is part of a worldwide commemorative movement, which remembers the sacrifices of all those who were involved in the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944. After the picnic, Years Seven and Eight competed in the Inter-Form Humanities Quiz, the results of which were revealed at the end of term assembly!
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HISTORY Y7 Medieval monarchs lessons Year Seven History students show Miss Everett how it’s done! Year Seven were each assigned a medieval monarch and produced a thirty minute lesson for their class. Each lesson had to include an activity with students’ learning in mind, and a way for the “teacher” to test the class’ learning. Every student rose to the challenge and there were many original ideas!
Y9 DEBATE Year Nine debated whether President Truman’s decision to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima was justified.
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