Dear Parents and caregivers

One of the greatest strengths of ESF is an organisation is our commitment to continuous improvement.

Every few months I have the opportunity to meet with my colleagues from ESF secondary and all through schools. The meetings are always a rich opportunity for me to discuss the ESF strategic priorities with colleagues and senior officers from ESFC. Have input into policy making and implementation, and collaborate with colleagues on projects that will have positive impact on students and families.

The focus of the recent meetings has been benchmarking the well being of students, evaluating the effectiveness of our current initiatives as well as identifying the focus of future work.

ESF has the following 9 ambitious strategic priorities:-

We are in the last stages of implementing our strategic initiatives. Reports on progress will be presented to the school council next month and will be published for your perusal in the Annual Report.

Best wishes,
Mr. Stephen Loggie
Principal, Island School

IS Celebration Back to Borrett Hoodie

It is nice to see some students around school wearing their Back-to-Borrett Hoodies!  Deliveries are ongoing and should be completed by next week.

Operations Update

Parent Engagement Survey

We are committed to parental engagement and work to improve the means by which we do this. Parent Conferences (PCs), Tutoring for Learning (TFL), Coffee Morning Zoom Sessions and Parent Luncheons are all means of engaging parents in their child’s education and life at Island School.

In our efforts to improve our provision, we are seeking your feedback. We would be most grateful if you could complete THIS survey. 

You will notice that this survey is structured a little differently to our usual survey, as it is ipsative. Research has shown that ipsative surveys can be particularly fruitful in extracting greater detail, which can be of practical value.  

ECA Review

Similarly to our review of Quest Week this year, we are currently reviewing our ECA program. We have an enthusiastic student steering committee who will be central in this process and who want to explore how we can maximise opportunities for students at Borrett Road. 

Our student leaders have made a number of excellent recommendations and are currently working on a number of proposals. Whilst their voice will be central in a redesign of the program, we would also welcome your feedback. With this in mind, please complete: THIS survey. 

Quest Week

Fortunately, there has been an overwhelming response following the Quest Week sign-up. We appreciate that these experiences come at a cost for you and your family, so we greatly appreciate your support. We firmly believe that the experiences being offered are great value, as they represent such meaningful and profound learning experiences. 

For the students that have signed-up for overseas trips, we will require a deposit to be paid on Monday 8th of May. This deposit will formally secure your child's place, with flights booked and places confirmed with service providers. In this regard, an invoice will be shared through your E-Payment account today (5th of May). Payment is required by Monday 8th of May (17:00). Unfortunately, we will not reserve flights for your child if the deposit is not received. If this is the case, your child's place on the program will be in doubt. Any further bookings, should they be available, are likely to come at an additional cost, plus an administration fee of $500. It is important to note that the deposit is non-refundable as flights will be purchased, and payments made to our respective service providers. 

Thank you in advance for your ongoing support and your prompt action in this matter. 

Classroom Arrangements During Non-Curriculum Time

From Monday, we are making changes to when students can access classrooms during the school day. This video message from Mr. Jobling is being shared with students to outline our expectations and the rationale for this change, which is to ensure that we are interacting positively with our environment and with each other.

Events: 
8th: AYP Assembly for all Y09 students
8th - 12th Book Week
May 9th: IB Chemistry Statistics Workshop
May 9th: Y9 Parent Consultation 2:00PM-6:00PM (School Early Finish) 
May 11th: Y12 Parent Information Evening (via Zoom)
May 12th: Y10 Volleyball Inter-House
May 12th: Y9 Parent Lunch

Sports Fixtures:
8th May: ISSFHK U12 Girls Netball @IS - AW
8th May: ISSFHK U14 Girls Netball @IS - RT
9th May: ISSFHK U12 Boys Volleyball @IS - GB
10th May: ISSFHK U12 Boys Football @IS - MS
11th May: ISSFHK U12 Girls Volleyball @DC - 14:40 departure (18:00 return) - SL

Gavin Fausset, Vice Principal Operations

Message from the Middle Phase
 

Year 10 English Language Examinations
Congrataulations to our Year 10 students who have completed their iGCSE English Language Examinations this week. Our conduct in preparing for, and taking, these public examinations has been exemplary and should give us confidence in preparing for our Year 10 Practice Exams at the end of May. Further information about these practice exams will be shared in next week’s newsletter.

Year 9 Parent Teacher Conferences
We were delighted to host over 1600 parent-teacher conferences with Year 7 families yesterday and look forward to meeting with our Year 9 students and their parents on Tuesday 9th May. These are invaluable opportunities for teachers to share feedback on learning and we appreciate your support and engagement.

 

Message from the Senior Phase

The first sessions of public exams have gone very well and students should be commended for the way they have conducted themselves.  As a reminder, students should arrive on campus at least 30 minutes before the start of an exam and should be outside the exam room, ready to enter the room 15 minutes before the exam starts. 

Revision sessions for Y11 and Y13 during study leave
Please click here to access the schedule of revision sessions taking place on campus next week.

Year 12 Zoom Parent Information Evening
Please use the link below to register for the term 3 Year 12 Zoom Parent Information Session at 6 pm on May 11th. During this session, the Senior Phase Team will share information about term 3 including practice examinations, the Extended Essay, university-predicted grades and Year 12 Tutoring for Learning. The webinar will be recorded and shared via the newsletter.

Time and Date: May 11, 2023, 06:00 PM
Topic: Y12 Parent Information Session
Click here to register in advance for this webinar

Year 13 Awards and Graduation - May 23rd 2023
Year 13 parents should have received information about Graduation. Please complete this Google Form to confirm you will attend, how many seats you would like reserved and whether you would like to use the school bus service. 

Islander
The Islander is available for pre-order via this form. 
We are expecting the books to arrive early in June, and we will write to you nearer the time regarding collection arrangements.

Beth Hall, Vice Principal, Senior Phase.

HE Events 

Unifrog Training Session hosted by the HE Team: Y7-12 Parents Save the Date

You are cordially invited to attend the upcoming Unifrog Training Session hosted by the Higher Education Team, which will take place on Thursday, May 18th, 6-7p.m. via Zoom.

Zoom ID: 95672073290 or please click this URL to join: https://zoom.us/j/95672073290  

Unifrog is a whole-school careers and destinations platform for students that is used across all ESF schools. We encourage parents to conduct independent research in order to have a better understanding of what career and university options are available for students. During the session, parents will be able to log in to Unifrog and explore the main features: personality tests, subjects, and careers libraries, various resources ranging from assistance in writing personal statements/essays to access to virtual undergraduate lectures and webinars, study options around the world and many more.

The Higher Education Team

Click here for the HE website and to register for HE events

Stay tuned to see the Spring Fair photo album in next week’s newsletter capturing the smiles, cuisines, games and stalls.

Looking Ahead: Getting Involved

Our successful events such as the Spring Fair are possible with the help of our dedicated parent volunteers. Next academic year, we will be in full swing with our cultural events and there will be many opportunities to be involved. Please fill out this online form if you would like to help and at the same time meet other parents and feel more connected to school life. We will be in touch!

You can see previous news items at http://island.edu.hk/island-news/. 

Don’t forget to Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/islandschool/ for more photos and videos of school life.