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GSIS Gazette – Issue #12

22nd November 2019

Principal's Column

Dear Parents

Last week was again dominated by protests in Hong Kong. Neither for you, nor for the school principals, was there a minute without new WhatsApp messages and emails exchanging opinions and positions.

For the most part, I received positive feedback on GSIS's handling of the crisis, but also some criticism. The same is true for other international schools. It is not always easy to get everything right, because what is right and wrong is sometimes perceived differently. While some parents indicated that far too many online tasks had been set during school closure, others pointed out that there were too few tasks. While some parents were positive about the use of Google Classroom and Google Hangouts, others suggested alternative tools.

During my many years as Principal, the current situation is a reflection of typical forms of communication in daily school life. There is hardly a more emotional workplace than school, and also none that is more creative and diverse. Therefore your comments and feedback are important to us. We appreciate and value your input and also take it into account with regard to suggestions for improving the quality of our services.

Hopefully there will be no further school closures, as the direct and personal interaction of our students with their teachers can not or hardly be substituted. And it is reassuring that we are having this experience, because who wants to imagine a teacherless computer-controlled online school.

I would also like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to a small modification of the school calendar 2021. In order to align all Abitur schools in the region for the written Abitur exams, we have to change the Chinese New Year holidays 2021:

  • previous dates: 8th - 11th February 2021
  • new dates: 11th - 19th February 2021

The updated holiday calendar for 2020-2021 will be published shortly on our website.

Now, I hope this weekend will not be as exciting, but more restful and enjoyable.

With my very best wishes

Attachments

https://mygsis.gsis.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/GSIS_Calendar_2020-21_221119a.pdf

Ulrich Weghoff
Principal

Parents@GSIS

With the current uncertainties in Hong Kong, we hope that you and your families are staying safe and well. Please let us know if you have any ideas or thoughts on how we can best support the GSIS community - staff, students and families during this unsettled period. You can email us at parents@gsis.edu.hk.

Supporting Global Initiatives - 12 days of Giftmas

Last week I shared with you the fantastic Global Initiatives project - 12 days of Giftmas - to support Vision First which works towards improving the livelihood of refugees in Hong Kong. They would love for the GSIS community to join them by collecting and donating items between 2nd and 17th December:

  • Days 1-3: Clothes & Shoes
  • Days 4-6: Dry Foods
  • Days 7-9: Living Apparatus
  • Days 10-12: toiletries

For more information please contact Julia Surman (JSurman@gsis.edu.hk).

Advent wreath decorating

We are happy to be able to continue our annual tradition for parents and staff to get together over some Christmas treats and get in the festive mood by decorating advent wreaths. We have a couple of spaces still available for our Tuesday, 26th November evening session if you would like to join us - please sign up at http://bit.ly/2Knoqla so you don’t miss out. For the first time we will also be offering a session on alternative eco-friendly modern wreath designs on Wednesday, 27th November from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

Christmas dinner

We have had a great sign up to the Christmas dinner and have a few places left. 

  • When: Monday, 2nd December at 7:00 pm.
  • Where: The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, North Block, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central

The price of the dinner is 760 HKD per person including drinks (wine, beer, soft drinks, and more). We hope that you can join us, please sign up http://bit.ly/32nKQca. Partners welcome.

Attachments

https://mygsis.gsis.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/12-Days-of-GIFTMAS.pdf

Anouska Mutreja
Chair of Parents@GSIS
Email

Updates and Announcements

Updated Primary ECA schedule for term 2, 2019/20

Dear Parents

Please find the updated Primary ECA schedule for term 2, 2019/20 attached.

Best regards

Catherin Zondler
Activities Programme Assistant

Attachments

https://mygsis.gsis.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/ECA-Primary-Peak-Schedule-2019-20-Term-2.pdf

Kindergarten Corner

Updates and Announcements

No updates/announcements this week.

Primary Corner

Deputy Head GPD

We warmly welcome Inga Riedel-Narayan to our team.

She takes on the position of Deputy Head of German Primary Department. In the last few years, Mrs Riedel-Narayan has worked in the English Primary Department in the area of student support. In the Primary, she has already worked on projects such as "Sensory Path - Zen room" and "project week" and will continue to supervise them.

Congratulations to Mrs Riedel-Narayan on this new position and we are happy to have a committed, cooperative and experienced colleague in the German Primary Department.

ECAs/AAs

Dear Parents of Primary Peak Students,

Since the Crisis Management Team decided that, for the safety of the children, there would be no ECA/AAs from 11 to 13/ 20 to 22 November and school would dismiss all primary students at 1:15pm, the Primary Leadership Team made the decision to implement the procedure below at 12:30 pm.

This decision was made to ensure that all Primary children would have the opportunity to eat a snack or lunch, refill their drink bottles and visit the bathroom before going home, as we cannot guarantee how long the children may have to spend travelling.

12:30 procedure:

  • Collect ordered lunch from the kiosk
  • Eat lunch / snack in the homeroom
  • Go to the toilet
  • Fill up water bottles
  • Go to the bus at 1:10pm to ensure Primary children are seated before the Secondary students are dismissed (on days when Secondary are also dismissed at 1:15pm).

If you would like to consider providing extra snacks for your children to eat, please feel free to do so.

Our priority is, as always, the safety and wellbeing of the children and we appreciate your understanding.

Updates and Announcements

No updates/announcements this week.

Priska Erni
Head of German Primary Department
Email

Inga Riedel-Narayan
Deputy Head of German Primary Department
Email

Secondary Corner

Dear Parents

We are very glad that classes resumed on Wednesday and that we are able to hold lessons live on site again. The days during school closure were a challenge for all involved; being a mother, I know very well what it means to support the children in organising their work. These unusual circumstances required all of us to make special adjustments beyond normal procedures and routines. While this went well and smoothly overall, we also identified areas for improvement in terms of organisation and planning for such special situations, which hopefully do not recur anytime soon.

Thank you very much for your patience and cooperation!

The school closure last week has also affected our calendar. As you already know, we decided to move the outing day scheduled for 3rd December to the second half of the school year. In some classes, class tests and exams had to be rescheduled as well and we have informed your children about these changes. The updated class test schedules are also available in the GSD section of the GSIS Parent Portal.

I hope next week we can all continue with regular school life and I look forward to seeing many of you at the 50th Anniversary celebrations of GSIS!

Warm regards

Updates and Announcements

No updates/announcements this week.

Wiebke Langer
Head of German Secondary
Email

Kindergarten Corner

Updates and Announcements

KG1B - Teddy Bears' Picnic

Primary Corner

Dear Parents,

We would like to congratulate Inga Riedel-Narayan on her appointment as Deputy Head of the German Primary. Inga Riedel-Narayan has served as a SEN teacher for the English Primary since 2016. She has worked with primary students across all year levels and has been instrumental in introducing several new programmes such as our sensory trolleys and “zen” room for breaks. We are disappointed to lose her as an English Stream teacher, but are delighted to work with her as part of the Primary Leadership Team. In the spirit of cross-stream cooperation, Ms Riedel-Narayan will continue working with EPD students until the Christmas break, while we interview for her replacement. Please join me in congratulating her on her promotion.

ECAs/AAs

Dear Parents of Primary Peak Students,

Since the Crisis Management Team decided that, for the safety of the children, there would be no ECA/AAs from 11 to 13/ 20 to 22 November and school would dismiss all primary students at 1:15pm, the Primary Leadership Team made the decision to implement the procedure below at 12:30 pm.

This decision was made to ensure that all Primary children would have the opportunity to eat a snack or lunch, refill their drink bottles and visit the bathroom before going home, as we cannot guarantee how long the children may have to spend travelling.

12:30 procedure:

  • Collect ordered lunch from the kiosk
  • Eat lunch / snack in the homeroom
  • Go to the toilet
  • Fill up water bottles
  • Go to the bus at 1:10pm to ensure Primary children are seated before the Secondary students are dismissed (on days when Secondary are also dismissed at 1:15pm).

If you would like to consider providing extra snacks for your children to eat, please feel free to do so.

Our priority is, as always, the safety and wellbeing of the children and we appreciate your understanding.

Updates and Announcements

No updates/announcements this week.

Kim Cunningham
Head of English Primary
Email

Donna Morley
Deputy Head of English Primary
Email

Secondary Corner

Just a brief note this week to wish all students, staff, parents and families the very best during these challenging times. I hope that you are all safe and well.

Clearly, it is not ideal to have classes suspended for four days (at the time of writing, hopefully no more!).  Unfortunately, some valuable activities and events, not to mention lessons, have had to be postponed or cancelled. I would like to thank the teaching staff for all the work that they have put into providing imaginative, interesting and varied online learning activities for their students.

Thank you also to the students & parents who have offered feedback on the provision for online learning. We are currently reviewing our systems and procedures for this, should classes be suspended again (hopefully not). Teachers are exploring, evaluating and trialling technologies and strategies to augment and enhance our online learning, should it be necessary to work in this way again. Please continue to feedback any suggestions and ideas to me via email.

Please also be reassured that, for the examination years in particular, our subject leaders are carefully monitoring the progress through the IGCSE, AS Level and IB Diploma Courses and that we will ensure that all courses are completed in time to provide our usual thorough revision and review prior to the final examinations. Currently, the situation in all subjects is that, whilst the days "lost" are far from optimal, the progress through the courses has not been materially jeopardised and our students are meeting their checkpoints and milestones.

I fervently hope that the situation calms down and we can get back to some semblance of normality in the coming weeks.

Stay safe.

Updates and Announcements

Y12 & Y13 Parent Information Evening
Y07 Geography Field Trip
Y08 Geography Field Trip

Ken Stevenson
Head of English Secondary
Email

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