Primary Corner

Dear Parents, 

This will be my second last message, here I would like to give you a brief preview of the new school year.

Staff News

At the end of this school year, we have to say goodbye not only to many students but also to valued colleagues from the primary school who are leaving Hongkong. 

• Mrs Isabelle Vögelin

She moved back to Switzerland in the middle of May.

• Mrs Sabine Troll-Diefenbach

After four years her time here at GSIS comes to an end and she will fly back to Germany. 

• Mrs Lena Widmann

Unfortunately, we could only enjoy Mrs Widmann for two years. She will leave Hong Kong for a new adventure. 

We would like to thank you very much for your tireless and endless efforts in Primary. They have both contributed so much and will surely take their bag of experience and learning with them on their journey through life.

Our two volunteers Ella Weindel and Luke Frenken are also leaving us at the end of the school year. We wish them all the best in the next step of their future. They have experienced a lot in Hong Kong and are returning to Germany more mature and experienced.

As I mentioned above, many families will also be leaving Hong Kong or have already flown away. We wish you all the best in your new home and would be happy to hear from the families again. 

This change also has an impact on the Primary. With the declining number of students our classes are getting smaller and smaller and we decided not to replace a teacher and to merge the future K02 class.

Here is an overview of the future teachers.

DVOR A: Inke Donlevy and Tracy Donaghy

DVOR B: Barbara Kohl and Tracy Donaghy

K01A: Gerda Troy-Tretheway

K01B: Elvira Häberle

K02: Gabriele Wurm- Bussemer

K03A: Muriel Roquette

K03B: Lena Scharwei

K04A: Manuel Deingruber

K04B: Nadine Greuter NEW

Clippy class: Julia Wahlmüller NEW

We would like to welcome Ms Nadine Greuter and Ms Julia Wahlmüller to our team. They will introduce themselves before the start of the new school year.

School Newspaper

We are pleased to present the next issue of "Wir Schlaumeier".

Many thanks to all the students who have written a column. 

We hope you enjoy reading it!

Priska Erni Head of German Primary Department Email

Beate Weinhardt Deputy Head of German Primary Department Email

[TOP]

Departmental News and Announcements

From Head of Stream

Dear Parents

Our penultimate edition of The Gazette for this academic year includes a series of farewells to departing staff.

At the end of the academic year, we say auf wiedersehen to Kim Cunningham who will be returning to the USA to be closer to her family. We thank Kim for all her efforts in keeping the English Primary Department operational and productive during some challenging times. Please do review the list of staff leaving and arriving on the EPD page.

In the English Secondary Department, the following staff will be leaving us:

Nathalie Comty, Head of Student Support (3 years)

Nicola Culican, Subject Leader for Art (14 years)

Jessica McCarroll, Teacher of Mathematics and Head of Year 7 (4 years)

Vicky Ngo, ESD Secretary (1 year)

Sapna Ramanathan, Teacher of Geography (1 year)

Tanya Shindler, ESD Counsellor (5 years)

Shirralee Sisson, ESD Counsellor (maternity cover)

Julia Surman, Teacher of Geography and Global Initiatives Coordinator (7 years)

Chris Taylor, Subject Leader for Chemistry (11 years)

Mr Taylor will be retiring at the end of this academic year having been at the school for 15 years. We thank him for his contribution and service to learning at the school and wish him the very best for a well-deserved retirement.

New Staff

And as the page starts to turn to the next academic year, we congratulate Donna Morley on her appointment as Head of English Primary as well as the following staff who will be joining us in August.

Andrew Hull as Head of Art

Kate Moran as English Teacher

Helen Ta as Head of Student Support

Clara Tai as Mathematics Teacher

Philip Truman as Geography Teacher

Yenga Yan as Chemistry Teacher and Liz McCardle will continue as the Subject Leader

Discovery Week 2022

We have started to make plans for this year’s Discovery Week that will take place over three days prior to the mid-term break (19^th to 21^st October). The format will be very similar to last year with Year 7 and Year 8 enjoying some shared experiences in Hong Kong to build collegiality and friendship, whilst Years 9 to 11 will have the option for activities within school and Hong Kong. Years 12 and 13 will remain in school focused on university preparation and the IB Diploma Core. Further details to follow next term!

School events

Thanks to the parents and alumni who supported our Careers Day on Tuesday; this went very well despite some technical challenges and provided a worthwhile opportunity for students to meet professionals. Huge thanks to Claire Wilkins, Beatrice Ugolini and our amazing IT Support Team for hosting this event. Hopefully, next year we will be able to provide this in person.

Thanks also to Laura Maddison for running an excellent online event for parents on Cannabis Awareness and Prevention. We are grateful to Mehek Gidwani for speaking with our audience from the perspective of a person recovering from misuse. We are keen to offer more face-to-face events next year to support parents in meeting the needs of their children both educationally and social-emotionally.

Extended Essays

Our Year 12 have just submitted their 4,000-word academic essays as part of their IB Diploma and I just wanted to share a few of the titles with you so you can have an insight into the areas of research our students are engaging:

To what extent does the health pass violate the most fundamental French principles: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity of the national motto?

The Economic Implications of Legislation to Reduce the Inequalities Caused by Algorithmic Bias

A Bourdieusian Reading of Pygmalion and Symbolic Violence: How does George Bernard Shaw depict issues of marginalised identities in Pygmalion?

Does the economic status of a state within the US impact the degree to which CRISPR (gene editing) is an effective treatment protocol?

These extended essays are a core feature of the final diploma and are written in the style of an academic paper, which is a tremendous preparation for life at university and a major bonus of an IB Diploma education.

After two huge misjudgements on the nature of the weekend weather in my previous two articles, I am just going to wish you all a wonderful weekend.

[TOP]

Primary Corner

Dear Parents,

We are approaching the end of our school year again. We have been fortunate to welcome back some of our programs, such as camps and ECAs. We are looking forward to resuming our music and sports programmes next year if allowed!

We will be wishing Kris Cayrouse well on her retirement, sending our good wishes along with Don Benson as he takes a year’s sabbatical, and unfortunately saying goodbye to Jamie Tsang as he moves to a full-time position as a Secondary PE Teacher. 

I am also sad to be saying goodbye to Hong Kong and GSIS. The past four years have been an incredible experience, working along with some of the best educators in the world and teaching the most engaged and enthusiastic children! I am grateful that I had this opportunity and excited for the future of the EPD.

As was announced earlier this year, Donna Morely has been named the new Head of EPD for the 2022/2023 academic year. Donna will be fabulous in this role with her background at GSIS and her extensive experience within Hong Kong and the UK. In addition, our new Deputy Head has been appointed, and two new primary level teachers. Please join me in welcoming them to GSIS. 

Donna Morley

Donna has been the Deputy head of EPD for 6 years. She has over 26 years of experience in both international and UK schools, including 12 years in senior leadership.  Her leadership roles have included: Two deputy headships, IB Primary Years Programme coordinator,  Head of Key stage 2 and Pastoral care, Maths Leader, Assessment Leader and Professional Development Leader.

Providing the highest quality learning to students is Donna’s passion and she has successfully taught all ages from Year 1 to 6, being consistently judged outstanding by inspectors and colleagues.

She has been invited to consult on curriculum development in several schools both in Hong Kong and the UK and has led professional development at schools and conferences in Europe and Asia.

She gained her teaching degree from the University of Leeds in 1996 and achieved the National Professional Qualification for Head teachers in 2016. She was recently awarded the Certificate in School Leadership and Management from Harvard Graduate School of Education and is a member of the Chartered College of Teaching.

She enjoys outdoor activities with her family, is a keen amateur photographer and printmaker and loves learning languages. 

Kerry Dandie

Kerry has been teaching in Hong Kong for 8 years and is joining us from Kingston International school, where she has worked for the last 5 years. At Kingston she taught year 4 and year 5 and also had responsibility for leading ICT. Prior to working in Hong Kong, Kerry spent 2 years teaching in South Korea.

She is originally from Scotland and has a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in Drama from the University of Hull in the UK. 

Her interests and passions include outdoor activities, playing sports, theatre, reading and travelling.

Laura Truman

Laura is joining us from Dunraven primary school in London where she is a Year 2 teacher and head of writing and creative arts. She has written art schemes of work for the local education authority and has experience in leading maths mastery workshops in London.

She has also worked in the corporate world as a project manager to develop financial literacy programmes for schools. 

Laura is moving to Hong Kong with her husband, who will be joining ESD as a Geography teacher, and baby Ted.

Eleanor Cowling

​​Eleanor joins us from Generations Christian Education where she has been working as Vice-Principal for Strategic School Developments for the past year. Prior to that, she worked at Island Christian Academy for five years. During her time there she taught Year 3 and 4, was "Learning Leader" and became Vice-Principal for Curriculum and Assessment and gained the National Professional Qualification for headship.

Eleanor is originally from Reading in the UK. She trained as a teacher at Oxford Brookes University and taught in the UK before moving to Hong Kong. Eleanor loves planning fun and engaging learning experiences and working creatively to solve problems. She has a wide range of leadership skills and is passionate about the effective use of data to support and reduce teacher workload. She also loves organising timetables and schedules! In her spare time, she enjoys eating good food, baking and doing craft projects. 

As is normal with the EPD, we shift staffing around every few years. We ensure that new staff are placed with GSIS teachers who have been here for a few years so that they have a great induction to our expectations and culture. We have made a few adjustments for next school year:

Year 1      Anna Cooke and Maggie Marsh

Year 2      Jang Yoon and Jessica Varty

Year 3      Stephanie Gilchrist and Laura Truman

Year 4      Dan Crowther and Mica Rasborn

Year 5      Suzanne Haynes and Kerry Dandie

Year 6      Anushka Abraham and Resham Premchand

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kim Cunningham Head of English Primary Department Email

Donna Morley Deputy Head of English Primary Department Email

[TOP]

Departmental News and Announcements