CONTENTS
- Principal's Column
- Community Committee
- Schoolwide News
- German International Stream
- English International Stream
- Student Achievements & Initiatives
- Wellbeing Corner
- Highlights of the Week
Dear School Community
The recent press releases and official announcements have shown us all that the new virus variant will have a significant impact on our lives.
In the medium term, this will also have an impact on schools and teaching. We all have to take responsibility and do our best to manage the pandemic situation in a controlled way. Of course, we all hope that this renewed effort will finally result in an end to the situation.
As Principal, I am doing my utmost to ensure that the precautions and measures taken at the school against the spread of the virus are kept at the highest standards, so that classes can continue to be held in their usual face-to-face form (for details please see the “Whole School Updates and Announcements” section in this Gazette). Nevertheless, we must all be prepared for spontaneous changes.
The highly motivated and professional GSIS Faculty is working alongside the Administration team to prepare the smooth transition to hybrid and online formats.
For this purpose, I would like to ask parents to support their children in having all materials ready in the home environment for a transition to online learning that may be ordered at short notice. Our team of class teachers and heads of year will also support the children in this regard. I hope that these preparations will not have to be implemented so soon.
Together we can ensure that no important teaching time is lost through organisational measures. On that note, I would also like to ask once again that you respond by Sunday to the survey recently sent out by the school on the instructions of the EDB regarding the vaccination status of our students. I would also like to reiterate the importance of vaccination, as it protects us and the community and is becoming increasingly important to be allowed to participate in social activity.
I wish you and your families much strength and a safe and healthy passage through this new phase of the pandemic. Thank you for your cooperation.
.... and I almost forgot this due to the current developments:
I wish you and your families a wonderful and happy 2022.
With best regards
Dr Dirk Bennhardt Principal |
Happy New Year everyone! We hope you had a relaxing holiday filled with lots of fun times with friends and family.
We have plenty of activities planned for this term - we will continue with both the English and German Book Clubs, Hiking Trips, and Cooking Classes - watch this space for moore information and dates.
Also, as always, please let us know if you have ideas of activities you'd like to see us organise, or activities/events that you would like to organise for the community. Get in touch with us at: CommunityCommittee@gsis.edu.hk
Stay safe and take this time to enjoy HK's wonderful outdoors - thankfully the weather is perfect for it!
Community Committee |
To keep our school environment safe, the following will apply until further notice:
We would like to remind everyone to
Dr Dirk Bennhardt Principal |
The following events are suitable and available to all students and parents of students in Y10-Y13 and K09-K12:
Saturday 12 February 2:00pm-6:00pm HKT
Format: Zoom
Language: English supplemented by Cantonese
We are Executive Committee members of Asian Medical Students’ Association Hong Kong, Standing Committee on Public Health, composed of students from the Faculties of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong. We are organizing this online workshop for motivated secondary school students who are interested in knowing more about the role of public health professionals in managing health-related disasters and emergencies, and the applications of medicine within society. Students can learn from public health experts and interact with current medical students who will be leading the workshop.
We aim to enhance students’ understanding of what medical and public health professionals do in the event of disasters, as well as showcasing the diverse career trajectories within the health sector. We also wish to enhance students’ understanding of studying medicine in the local universities and assist them in making informed decisions about applying to medical school in the future. Students are bound to be greatly rewarded intellectually with professional insights and a certificate of participation.
Ritsumeikan University offers 5 English-medium programs in the fields of Liberal Arts, Asia-Pacific Affairs, International Relations, Policy Science, and Information Science and Engineering. We are here to help with a webinar series to answer questions students and their parents may have about the university and the application process.
Saturday 8 January 2:00pm JST (1:00pm HKT)
Register
Sunday 9 January, in Japanese
1:00pm JST (12:00pm HKT)
7:00pm JST (6:00pm HKT)
InvestIN is a London-based organisation led by a group of experienced professionals from some of the world's most competitive careers. We exist to provide students with an immersive experience of their dream career before they start university, so they can get a head-start over their competition.
15-16 January – ‘Live Online’ in Hong Kong time zone.
This programme gives students aged 15-18 an immersive experience of Medicine through a series of role-plays, seminars, simulations and Q&A sessions led by a group of medical professionals over 2 days.
This is our most popular programme and we shall close registration on Monday 10 January.
We have career opportunities available in 20+ cutting-edge industries this term for students, all of which they can access 'Live Online' from the comfort of their own homes. Students will learn directly from some of the world's best professionals - doctors, forensic scientists, architects, MPs, filmmakers, engineers and more - through a series of live, interactive simulations which provide tailor-made, professional experience to ages 12-18.
![]() Claire Wilkins |
![]() Beatrice Ugolini |
Dear Parents
We would like to wish you a very Happy New Year. Trust you had a wonderful and festive Christmas in Hong Kong.
After the Christmas holidays, the first week of school went well, and the children came back to school full of energy.
We hope to continue with the face-to-face classes, given the current pandemic situation. In the possible event that this situation might change and the EDB’s directive to close schools and a need to return to online teaching, we will inform you of our plans on time.
![]() Sophie Burdel |
![]() Eileen Mah |
Dear Parents
I wish you a Happy New Year. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season and were able to enjoy your time with your children.
As you can imagine, we are closely monitoring the situation here in HK and trying to plan ahead as much as possible. But we have not yet received any official word from the EDB regarding school closure. Nevertheless, as a first step, we will again give home all the teaching materials with the students on Fridays. Of course, we hope that those materials can stay in the students' school bags and be brought back to school on Monday.
Of course, we are staying positive and hope we will be able to teach at the school in the next few weeks and also celebrate Chinese New Year in an appropriate way.
![]() Priska Erni |
![]() Beate Weinhardt |
Dear Parents
Happy New Year to everyone! I hope you enjoyed some festive family time over the recent break and that 2022 has started positively, despite the recent renewal of restrictions. We very much hope to avoid any further school closures but we are ready to shift to online learning if necessary . . .
I took some time over the break to reflect on what was a very busy term throughout the English International Stream; I was particularly pleased by the sustained efforts of faculty, administrative and operational staff, with additional support from the Community Committee, to ensure a return to a more familiar calendar of events. Our aim was to try to revive familiar activities as much as we could within the additional restrictions. And without listing the myriad events in all three Departments, I think we succeeded. Rest assured that we will be doing everything we can to ensure a similar experience for students this year, despite the recent news.
During the end of year assemblies in the Secondary Department we heard from a number of students who had led service projects to raise funds for a number of NGOs. I wanted to share some of these with you to highlight the commitment and community mindedness of our students as well as their leadership and resilience.
In March 2021, Jack Ryan, Gabriel Löwy, Jaden Cheng and Martin Lau raised more than $200,000 for the Child Development Centre by walking the demanding 100km MacLehose Trail over three days. Over the second part of last year, Jack Yang, Veer Gokhale, Dorothy & Maximilian Bergmair established an organisation called H.E.A.T. in order to raise money to purchase fans for Hong Kong residents living in cage homes. Through crowdfunding, in-school events and online donations they raised over $150,000 which far exceeded their initial targets. A group of students, Vincent Capol, Brigit Lee, Ashley Tam and Jaime Chan, designed and produced a range of beautiful cards and candles to raise funds for Operation Smile, an organisation that supports children with cleft lips and cleft palates by providing life-changing surgery, dentistry and psychosocial care. The merchandise was sold in school during break times and also the successful Christmas Markets organised by Mrs Surman during the final week.
The Pink Campaign, initiated by Victoria Chong, Kohana Wong, Victor Kampman and Philip Huang partnered with the Hong Kong Breast Cancer Foundation in October raising awareness and funds throughout the Secondary Department. They also introduced Pink Wednesdays when students and staff were encouraged to wear at least one pink article of clothing each Wednesday through the month of October. The following month was, of course, Movember and the Project Privates team promoted awareness of testicular and prostate cancer through the sale of specially designed masks, t-shirts and badges; we enjoyed watching the weekly growth of mustachioed members of staff and even had some international entries. Thanks to Nigel Ma, Jaden Cheng, Ken Liang and Justin Cheung for continuing this excellent project.
Other projects have involved students establishing links with Mothers Choice, Kids4Kids, Refugee Union, Suits for Success, HK Redress and the HK Shark Foundation. Many of these connections evolve from the Creativity, Activity & Service (CAS) component of the IB Diploma with which our Diploma students embrace. But social responsibility is not just the preserve of Year 12 and 13 students, we have active student groups throughout the school as part of our Global Initiatives group and the Environmental Protection Committee as well as involvement with groups such as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. One of our Y11 students, David Won, is an active member and will be leading school-based projects focused on the UN Sustainability Goals.
Our Academic Societies were also very active last term; we enjoyed an array of visiting speakers, competitions, debates and seminars from the Geography, Economics, Film Societies, Law, Mathematics and ChromoX, the Feminist Society. These Societies are established to give students the opportunity to explore their particular subject passion beyond the curriculum through arranging activities and discussions to inspire and engage peers and younger students. This term the Year 12 students will be given the opportunity to take on the running of these groups and explore their intellectual curiosity. Look out for the upcoming TEDxGSIS event in March that has been initiated by Nicole Huang and Nehal Lodha.
Social responsibility, leadership and a passion for learning is flourishing at GSIS. My thanks to all the students, teachers, parents, visiting speakers and donors who continue to make this happen. And if you would like to get involved, get in touch!
Best wishes for an optimistic and productive 2022!
Simon Misso-Veness Deputy Principal / Head of English International Stream |
Dear Parents
We would like to wish you a very Happy New Year. Trust you had a wonderful and festive Christmas in Hong Kong.
After the Christmas holidays, the first week of school went well, and the children came back to school full of energy.
We hope to continue with the face-to-face classes, given the current pandemic situation. In the possible event that this situation might change and the EDB’s directive to close schools and a need to return to online teaching, we will inform you of our plans on time.
![]() Sophie Burdel |
![]() Eileen Mah |
Dear Parents,
Transportation changes need to be communicated to the teacher, primary_secretary@gsis.edu.hk, busccordinator@gsis.edu.hk, and the bus company with the full name of the child and the teacher.Please communicate these changes prior to 7:00am, as teachers do not always have time to check their emails during the school day.
Teachers will be sending home select learning materials each Friday. Although we have not received any government updates, we want to be prepared should a school closure be announced. Please have your child return to school with these materials on Monday morning.
Ms Marquard will be holding a coffee morning on 25 January for all parents at 8:00am. She will send out information regarding this next week.
Year Three and Year Six parents have recently received the GL Education CAT4 testing results by post, and we have had some questions about the interpretation of the scores. As can be seen in the bar graph below, the ‘shaded’ area represents the ‘Average range’ of scores. For more information about your child’s performance and the CAT4 tests in general, please see the GL Education link noted in the results’ cover letter, as well as the report summary section. Finally, should you have any questions about the CAT4 results or the GL achievement tests (conducted each May), please contact Mr. Davidson (rdavidson@gsis.edu.hk).
Have a great weekend,
![]() Kim Cunningham |
![]() Donna Morley |
Sadhbh McCarrick (English and History Teacher)
At the end of November, over the weekend of 20/21, three GSIS teams successfully took part in the Fall League International History Bee & Bowl. One of the Middle School teams, who had trained together in the evenings online since September, came Third Runner Up overall and qualified for the Asian Championships in June.
Congratulations to Jai, Chloe, Austin, Adrian and Ruby.
Happy New Year!
A new year signals a time for change and a sense of starting anew. Some of you may have set resolutions, and, if so, hopefully you’ve chosen some balanced, positive and empowering approaches to the changes you’re looking to make. When considering your goals, it’s useful to remind yourself to go at your own pace, make sure they’re realistic, avoid putting pressure on yourself to achieve everything at once, and to subdue your inner critic. Remember, every day can be treated as a new start so be kind to yourself along the way and take each day as it comes.
If you’re looking to make some changes for self-improvement this year, this article offers some good advice: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/blog/new-year-theme-for-yourself-2022
All the best for the year ahead,
Your school counsellors