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GSIS Gazette – Issue #31

6th November 2020

Schoolwide News

University Guidance: Upcoming Events (External)
CAS Reports
Old Tech Donations Needed Please!

German International Stream

Kindergarten Corner

Primary Corner

Secondary Corner

English International Stream

From Head of English International Stream

Dear Parents & Students

A warm welcome back to school!

We continue to function under our physical distancing measures and everyone is doing a great job so that we can remain operational. In order to maintain a safe environment please do remind your children to observe the essential rules as exuberance and familiarity can have an effect on doing the right thing:

  • Wear a mask at all times.
  • Maintain distance inside & outside the classroom.
  • Avoid physical contact and the sharing equipment e.g. pens & balls.
  • Avoid talking directly to someone’s face from a close distance.
  • Gatherings of students should be no more than four people.
  • Observe the one-way system and entry systems as indicated by the signage.
  • Only eat in the designated areas and do not share food.
  • Wash and disinfect hands often – there are dispensers in every classroom and shared area.

Do review the need for these restrictions and ask your children how this has been for them; please do encourage them to share any suggestions they may have for improvements.

KPR Meetings

The Principal, Managing Director and Deputy Principals met with the KPR Secretaries before the break to discuss a range of topics that were raised through the KPR meetings. You should receive Minutes of this meeting through your KPR in due course.

EPD and Kindergarten KPR meetings will be held next week with ESD KPR meeting later this month. Thank you for using this system to provide feedback to the school as it helps us to stay responsive rather than reactive. If you have a particular concern to raise about your own child, please do contact the relevant Head of Department rather than pass on to your KPR as we will be able to deal with the matter much more swiftly.

Continuous Professional Development Day

On Monday, GSIS staff held the first of two Continuous Professional Development Days we provide each year. The morning started with Safeguarding & Child Protection training for all faculty, administrative and support staff on three campuses. The aim of these sessions was to remind staff of how to respond to and report a disclosure as well as to review key protocols that keep all our children safe.

This was followed up in the English International Stream with primary and secondary staff meeting in groups led by subject & curriculum leaders to discuss the qualities of outstanding and inspirational teaching. This was linked with a key feature from our Vision Statement. Feedback from these discussions will form the basis of a framework that we will share with all staff that expresses the expectations we have of ourselves as well as each other.

As part of this year’s initiative to launch a positive education approach at the school, we invited three visiting workshop leaders to provide some insight into personal wellbeing, coaching and mental health first aid. Chris Garvey (https://habitual.club/), Louise Penrice (https://www.openminds.ch/about-me/) and Shirralee Sisson (positivewellbeing) are all well-known practitioners in Hong Kong. The 90-minute sessions were introductory in nature with the intention for individuals to attend further sessions to suit their own professional development.

The afternoon was finished off with primary staff meeting to discuss reading strategies whilst secondary staff worked on developing curriculum content.

Recruitment

The ESD will be saying a sad goodbye to some staff at the end of this term, Hedda Schuurman will be returning to Canada, Brad Munt will be returning to New Zealand and Kerry Haines will be relocating to Japan. I would like to say a brief but heartfelt ‘thank you’ to these teachers on your behalf as they have made such a tremendous and sustained contribution to school life. Happily, we have now completed all the interviews for their replacements and will announce them once all the paperwork is complete.

After many years’ service to the school, Mini Franks, our Head of PE & Sports ECAs will be retiring at the end of this term. Mini has made a sensational contribution to the lives of so many GSIS students over her time here and we wish her well for the future. I know there will be a number of celebrations over the coming weeks to recognise Mini’s contributions to the school so please share your gratitude at one of these occasions.

We are pleased to announce that Andrew Champion will be taking over from Mini from January 2021. As Andrew has been with the school in a part-time role we will be interviewing for a suitable replacement in the coming weeks. Also in a new role, Nathalie Comty has been made the new Head of Student Support. Nathalie has been with us since last year and brings with her extensive experience from the UK and Australia. We will be interviewing for a main scale Student Support position in the coming weeks.

Secondary School Life website

Our current Head Students for ESD & GSD have launched a Student Life website that contains all the relevant information and key dates for our students to help organise their week plus additional tabs that link to an overview of examination courses, Academic Society websites, Music events and Merch. As this is an internal site please ask your daughter or son to show you . . . if you have any suggestions for improvement please pass them on through your child (but let them write the email!)

Another tremendous initiative from our senior students, under the guise of Project Privates HK, are the Movember Masks. Your child can purchase one or more for you in school ($30 for 1, $50 for 2) so you can wear it around Hong Kong to raise awareness of men’s health issues.

Also in the news this week is the wonderful children’s book Lily and Bodhi’s Sharktastic Adventure written by three of our Year 13 students to raise awareness of shark fin harvesting in Hong Kong. You can buy one or more copies here.

Have a great week ahead!

Kind regards

Simon Misso-Veness
Deputy Principal / Head of English International Stream
Email

Kindergarten Corner

Primary Corner

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