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- DVOR visit Pok Fu Lam Resevoir
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- DVOR visit Pok Fu Lam Resevoir (2)
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- Dylan wins at Archery
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- Farewell Ms Franks 2
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- Farewell Ms Franks
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- Mr Gill – Movember
Connect with GSIS
Our Y13 leavers took to the roof for a friendly, yet competitive, football match ⚽ against a team of cross-stream faculty. There were goals and tackles, but most importantly, laughter and handshakes all around. Best of luck to our Y13 final-year students as their journey in Secondary soon comes to an end.
#GSIS #GermanSwissInternationalSchool #InternationalSchool #HongKong #EducationalExcellence
GSIS Gazette – Issue #33
20th November 2020Highlights This Week
IN THIS ISSUE
- Principal's Column
- Managing Director's Update
- Schoolwide News
- German International Stream
- English International Stream
We Hong Kong residents certainly have an affinity for the nautical. Surrounded by bays and the sea, Hong Kong offers numerous water activities. While I myself like to go kayaking every now and again, I also marvel at the surfers on the waves as well as the shiny yachts, whose owners enjoy the dolce vita on board.
Also the school is often compared to a large ship that sails through calm or rough, sometimes stormy waters and is kept on course by the captain, ship's officers and other helping hands on board. What would be the nature of this ship? A shiny luxury liner, a speedboat, a tanker, a heavy container ship?
A ship of its own quality is the Seaexplorer, an 18-meter-long racing boat with which Boris Herrmann set sail to take part in the Vendée Globe, the world's toughest and longest sailing race. Born in Oldenburg in northern Germany, Boris Herrmann is the first German sailor to take part in this race across the oceans of the world, alone, non-stop, for almost three months, covering some 27,000 miles.
The Vendée Globe is the "Everest of the Seas". Only a few people take this risk every four years, and even fewer manage to complete the race. Boris Herrmann will cross regions so remote that the people nearest will be four times as far away as the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit. It would take a ship two weeks to come to Herrmann’s aid.
Why would someone do that? Why would someone take such risks? How can one person alone muster this energy, this courage? We can only guess. But it must be connected to a long-term dream. At age 15 already Herrmann showed videos of his sailing heroes to his fellow sailing students, showing washed-out images of yachts plowing endless, cold seas. And it was clear to everyone that he wanted that too. A former classmate of his once reported that he had 'built an intellectual challenge around sailing', 'so this makes him happy'.
By the way, Boris Herrmann is the sailor who sailed Greta Thunberg to New York in August 2019 for her big performance at the UN. His sailing is intended not only to fulfill individual motives, but also to support climate research. For this reason, he has a 20 kg CO2 measuring device on board, which scientists have developed to create the first coherent data set around the world.
We are all looking for personal fulfilment in some way. And for some of us, a great journey begins very small. I also hope that our GSIS students will seek intellectual challenges. GSIS offers some impulses for this, but where the journey then leads depends on each individual and their attitude. Key is to identify your own dream and to follow it before it is too late.
As many people's Christmas travel plans have changed by the altered circumstances, we will be adjusting our programme in the first week of school after the Christmas vacations from 11–15 January, as already indicated. In the entire PokFuLam campus (Kindergarten/DVOR/Y01) as well as in the Primary Department of both streams (GPD/EPD), no online learning will be necessary and instead the School will offer lessons on campus unless the Hong Kong government will impose further school closures. Only in the German Primary Department small adjustments have to be made due to the quarantine status of teachers.
However, if your family will be traveling and will be in quarantine during the week of 11–15 January, please contact your Head of Department directly by email.
For the Secondary departments of both streams (GSD/ESD) we expect to go online in the week of 11–15 January in the already established way. Here it has become apparent that many teachers will be in quarantine and that it will not be possible to logistically implement face-to-face teaching.
I think that with this option we have found the maximum compromise and can best meet the often different interests.
Have a nice weekend
Ulrich Weghoff
Principal
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Schoolwide News
German International Stream
Kindergarten Corner
Dear Parents
The first week of the two-week closure by the Hong Kong Education Bureau has come to an end and the transition from regular face-to-face classes to online learning went smoothly. We also successfully held our Parents’ Teacher meetings online this week.
As Advent is a very special time in Kindergarten, we hope that Kindergarten will reopen on November 30th. Look out for the coming events for the month of December in the next issue of the Gazette.
Till then, please stay healthy.
With kind regards
Updates and Announcements
Primary Corner
Updates and Announcements
Secondary Corner
Dear Parents
Many of you have taken the opportunity to exchange ideas with the teachers during the two PIDs last week. Even though the online format worked very well, we hope that personal meetings can take place again in the school in the foreseeable future. Thank you very much for your valuable feedback!
Mediator training
Last Friday eight students of K05 and K06 started their mediator training under the supervision of Ms Dellinger.
The offer of the mediator training project gives the children in the Secondary department the opportunity to solve their conflicts independently but supported and to complete the training as mediators.
Course of the training:
Every year 8 to 11 students of grade 5 and 6 are trained. Attention is paid to a balanced participation of boys and girls and there is an application procedure. Criteria: acceptance in the class community, social competence, reliability, sense of responsibility. Every year in November, parallel to the PID, the children are trained for one full day. A further 8 to 10 afternoons follow until the training is completed. Afterwards, the mediators continue to meet regularly with the School Counselor.
Training objectives:
- Involvement of the students: The solution of everyday conflicts is up to the students
- Implementation of the children's right to grow up without violence
- Stronger identification of the students with the school and their class
- Violence/ mobbing prevention
- Strengthening the social competence of the students
- Strengthening of self-efficacy and self-esteem
- Promotion of resilience
With this programme, children learn how to deal with conflicts adequately. This includes two important insights:
- A conflict is nothing negative, but contributes to change and "reorganisation".
- The search for win-win solutions helps both conflict parties.
Emily (K10) wins Deutschland Schreibt Contest
Competitions (report by Robert Hahn)
At the beginning of November, Emily Arisandy from K10 won the "Deutschland schreibt" spelling competition in the student category with hundreds of participants and won an iPad as her prize!
The 210-word text about a mission to Mars was dictated via an online platform. It included 58 complex language challenges, such as the "anthropomorphen Wesen in Grün" or "Spintisiererei".
Emily was certainly helped by the fact that she can type more than 400 characters per minute in German, which allowed her to concentrate on the complex spelling in her dictation.
The competition report "From Frankfurt to Hong Kong" and the list of winners can be accessed here . If you want to try it out for yourself, you can also have the final text dictated on this page.
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Wiebke Langer |
English International Stream
From Head of English International Stream
Positive Education
Dear Parents
‘The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.’
Peggy O’Mara
KPR Meetings
A core feature of school leadership to establish a meaningful and trusted partnership with parents and our KPR system provides an excellent forum for honest dialogue. We are very grateful to the parents who give of their time to coordinate the myriad concerns that will inevitably arise as part of school life. We see this is very much as a collaborative relationship and wish it to remain so. Thank you to all the KPR Secretaries who attended the Kindergarten and EPD Meetings last week; I’m looking forward to the ESD KPR meeting next week.
EIS Curriculum continuity
The curriculum in the EPD shifted its focus last year to a more inquiry-based approach that is designed to promote deep learning and mastery. This shift appears to have led to some concern amongst parents about students’ readiness for the secondary curriculum. One of our core aims this year is to review the curriculum continuity at the point of transition between Year 6 and Year 7, a process which will extend to the preparation and progression of students in the earlier primary years.
I will be working with subject & curriculum leaders from secondary and primary departments over the coming months to ensure there is a clear understanding about the continuity of our curriculum as we ensure that our Year 6 students are academically prepared for Year 7. This is not just in terms of knowledge, skills and understanding but also in terms of self-management, self-regulation, resilience and motivation, essential skills for learning. We have a great belief in our programme, from Kindergarten through to the IB Diploma, and wish to continue to support students to achieve high standards as we know that this meets the aspirations of our students and the expectations of our parents.
Positive Education
Working towards this high achievement, surrounded by high expectations, may induce anxiety and stress amongst students, which will have an impact on their wellbeing. Young people cannot function effectively if they are not feeling good about themselves or their work. They may be able to continue temporarily if they bottle things up but this will overflow at some point; we want to avoid this eventuality by providing early support and intervention as well as teaching about self-management and resilience. Our staff are highly attuned to children’s wellbeing and we have specialist staff in the school to help support anyone who might want to talk things through. There is a structured, coordinated Personal, Social Education (PSE) programme throughout the English International Stream that is focused on the needs of children from exploring what friendship looks like in the primary department to consent education and digital citizenship in secondary. Susan Hood, our Deputy Head: Pastoral, will be leading the launch of a Positive Schools initiative this year based on successful programmes grounded in the work of Martin Seligman and the Positive Schools Institute based at Geelong Grammar School, Australia. A great deal of work has already begun around this approach and we will be bringing this together over the coming months.
Have a great week ahead.
Simon Misso-Veness
Deputy Principal / Head of English International Stream
Email
Kindergarten Corner
Dear Parents
The first week of the two-week closure by the Hong Kong Education Bureau has come to an end and the transition from regular face-to-face classes to online learning went smoothly. We also successfully held our Parents’ Teacher meetings online this week.
As Advent is a very special time in Kindergarten, we hope that Kindergarten will reopen on November 30th. Look out for the coming events for the month of December in the next issue of the Gazette.
Till then, please stay healthy.
With kind regards
Updates and Announcements
Primary Corner
Updates and Announcements
Looking for what's been going on in class this week?
Secondary Corner
The week past
I hope that you found the Y12/13 Parents Information Day on Wednesday to be informative and efficient. We have had quite a bit of feedback on this, and the previous week’s PIDs, and it appears that the online format is quite popular with parents. Food for thought as we move into 2021.
If you were unable to meet with a particular teacher, or would like to engage in more extensive discussions, please email the teacher to arrange or make a consultation lesson appointment through our ESD secretary.
Thanks to the HKAYP silver team for a successful two days of hikes. Unfortunately, the overnight camp was not possible this year, but the hikes themselves were challenging enough by all accounts.
The Week(s) to come
A busy few weeks of assessment ahead. Next week sees the very highest achievers in certain spheres take part in the DSDII Exam and the UKMT Olympiad. Good luck to all involved.
Next week, we hold our 1st departmental KPR meeting of the school year. I look forward to hearing your feedback and suggestions via the KPR volunteers. Thank you, as always, to those parents who have stepped forward to take on the role of KPR.
As we draw near to the finishing straight of term 1, there are inevitably a lot of in-school assessments and deadlines. For Y07-11, please see the Test Planner and for Y12-13, the IB Assessment Calendar for details.
Managing deadlines and preparation for tests and other assessments is one of the most challenging aspects of school for many students. Of course, we all want to see our children and/or our students achieve the best possible grades, but this desire does need to be tempered with a regard for their wellbeing. Research (here, for example) and experience shows that short, focussed and regular study is far better than long hours of cramming. Similarly, for assignments such as coursework or the dreaded IAs, procrastination followed by panic is not an optimal strategy - far better to plan ahead and work at a steady pace. Please try to encourage rest and relaxation time (away from screens) and emphasise the importance of healthy eating, exercise and a good night’s rest.
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Ken Stevenson |
