CONTENTS
- Principal's Column
- Schoolwide News
- German International Stream
- English International Stream
- Student Achievements & Initiatives
- Wellbeing Corner
- Highlights of the Week
Connect with GSIS
🏀 Led by Coach Tommy Vogel from ALBA BERLIN Basketball Academy, come and join us this Christmas holiday with our 4-day basketball camp where all skill levels are welcome! Improve your dribbling, shooting, decision making, and more. Plus, each participant gets an ALBA BERLIN T-Shirt, official camp certificate, and a chance to win ALBA BERLIN prizes! Register today.
🗓️ Date: 27 - 30 December 2023
📍 Venue: Lower Building Sports Hall (L401), German Swiss International School, 11 Guildford Road, The Peak, Hong Kong
For more information and registration, please visit docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfAqhThpHyK6T8s9mlkzoBKdB6THz11yRNzyyBCDOKLySmv4A/viewform
#GSIS #GermanSwissInternationalSchool #InternationalSchool #HongKong #EducationalExcellence #GSISEasterCamp @albaberlinacademy.asia
GSIS Gazette – Issue #89
16th November 2022Principal's Column
Dear school community,
Sometimes it's the little things in life that bring us special joy. Every day I enjoy the comfort of eating my lunch in our cafeteria. Recently, my food was served on a plate for the first time. After more than a year, this was a very special moment for me. I enjoyed the food, and it tastes much better this way. Watching the students return the dishes without creating a huge mountain of waste was an added plus. When the dividers on the tables also disappeared a few days later, the atmosphere in the cafeteria changed completely.
More normalcy will return to our school in a week's time through the Christmas bazaar. Although this year this event is only held for the school community, we already received many registrations. Parents, the Board, teachers and students all have shown a great effort to revive the Christmas Bazaar. I am very excited to be a part of this special event and wish you all a wonderful time in the school community. I look forward to seeing you all at the Christmas Bazaar.
I wish you a nice weekend.
| Dr Dirk Bennhardt Principal |
Schoolwide News
University Guidance Events
ADMISSION INFORMATION SESSIONS
1) University of York - Undergraduate Student Discovery Day
This is a chance to find out about the academic departments with talks on Biology, Computer Science, Economics, Education, Law, Management, Music, Politics, Psychology, Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media and the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology.
Date: Tuesday, 29 November 2022
Time: 11.30 am - 1:00 pm and 6.30 - 8:00 pm (HKT)
Register Here
2) College Tour Opportunities with TS College Tours
Six different summer 2023 tour programs: Northeast (2), California (1), Canada (1), Midwest (1), and the UK (1).
Register Here
3) GSIS PARENTS EVENT: Y07-Y12 / K09-K11 Parents Virtual Coffee Morning: Admissions Testing
Date: Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Time: 8:00 am
Join Here
4) GSIS PARENTS EVENT: Universities Information Evening for Y12 Parents
Date: Wednesday, 14 December 2022
Time: 5:30 pm
Link will be provided one week in advance.
ENRICHMENT & ADVANCEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
1) HKUST Business Youngstars 2023
One year program designed for students to explore and experience a full spectrum of business education and university life.
Target students: Year 11 and Year 12
Application deadline: Sunday, 4 December 2022
Application now open (please see flyer below this text).
2) CUHK “Popular Science Special Lecture Series: How Nobel Prizes Are Won"
The Faculty of Science of CUHK invites you to join the “Popular Science Special Lecture Series: How Nobel Prizes Are Won”. Three distinguished scientists in the Faculty will explain to you the science behind the award-winning scientific research, don’t miss out!
Date: Friday, 9 December 2022
Time: 4:00 - 6:30 pm
Venue: LT2, Yasumoto International Academic Park, CUHK (Seats are limited; first come, first served)
Registration deadline: Tuesday, 6 December 2022
Register Here
3) CUHK Knowledge Enrichment Programme
Date: Wednesday, 21 December 2022
Time: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Venue: CUHK (in-person)
Registration deadline: On or before Wednesday, 7 December 2022
Register Here
For tentative schedule please see attached flyer.
4) INVESTIN: The Young Photographer Challenge
Students should submit a photograph they have taken of an act of kindness, along with a short caption explaining what's happening. The competition is free to enter and for each submission Investin will make a donation to Mind, the mental health charity.
Deadline: Friday, 2 December 2022, 5:00 pm
Enter Here
 Claire Wilkins |
 Beatrice Ugolini |
Attachments
https://www.gsis.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/HKUST-Business-Youngstars-2023.pdf, https://www.gsis.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CUHK-Knowledge-Enrichment-Programme-2022-ePoster.pdf
Cafeteria - Lunch Menu December 2022
Please find the December 2022 lunch menus for our Secondary and Primary Students below. Alternatively you can also find further information on our website.
We are pleased to announce that hot lunches are served on plates again and lunch table partitions have now been removed, based on the latest EDB guidelines. Individual packed hot lunch-boxes are still available on request. Each day Secondary students can choose between four different hot dishes, including a vegetarian option. The prices per each meal remain at HK$35, HK$ 37 and HK$39 respectively for this academic year 2022/2023 and are payable by Octopus card only when lunch is collected. No cash payment will be accepted. In addition to hot lunches Secondary students can also choose from a wide range of ciabattas, croissants and other snacks including smoothies at our coffee corner. Social distancing rules while eating and drinking still apply and need to be obeyed at all times.
Primary parents are welcome to pre-order hot lunches for their child / children who are participating in courses in lesson 9 and 10. Pre-ordered lunches for Primary Students will be delivered to the Upper Building each day at 1:15 pm. Please click on the link below for your respective pre-order (deadline is Friday, 25 November 2022).
Primary Pre-Order Form December 2022
For further questions please contact directly Mr Ariel CHAN, Operations Manager, Compass Group Hong Kong Ltd, or Mr Baric SO, Unit Manager Chartwells, Compass Group Hong Kong Ltd via gsis@compass-hk.com.
|
Angelin, Emily, Minerva and Conny STUDENT SERVICES TEAM |
Attachments
https://www.gsis.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GSIS_Lunch_Primary_December-_2022.pdf, https://www.gsis.edu.hk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/GSIS_Lunch_Secondary_December-_2022.pdf
Revamped Student Life Website
Exciting news: The revamped Student Life Website was officially launched last Tuesday, 8 November!
It will be updated weekly with all the information, key dates and links that students will need during the school week. Please bookmark this page! Here is a video link that highlights its key, new useful functions. Students can also access the website via their core class' Google Classroom and the online.gsis.edu.hk landing page. We hope you can find answers to any questions you may have as a GSIS student on this website.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to email us at headstudent@learning.gsis.edu.hk.
GSIS Head Student Team 2022-23
| GSIS Head Student Team 2022-23 |
German International Stream
Kindergarten Corner
The Kindergarten students and staff have been very busy with different activities and events in the past two weeks. This includes the GKG rescheduled outing to the Science Museum, Parent-Child Lantern making, Fire Drill, St Martin’s Festival and the Drum Jamming Workshop.
We thank all our parents and students for their generous donations towards the Box of Hope. We collected a total of 182 boxes!
We look forward to the Festive Season and hope to see many of you at the GSIS Christmas Bazaar Games Alley, where our Kindergarten staff will also offer two age-appropriate games for our children.
Look out for our next issue in the Gazette, where you will find an overview of the upcoming festive events in December.
 Sophie Burdel |
 Eileen Mah |
Departmental News and Announcements
No updates / announcements this week
Primary Corner
Thank you all for supporting our charity project, “Box of Hope” it was nice to see how many kids brought their boxes back to school the last week. The children and teachers were overjoyed to see the desk dividers being removed after the latest government announcement - such a small thing. Still, it has made a world of difference to how the children feel in class and opens up more collaborative ways of learning again.
Vorlesetag
Today we had our “Vorlesetag”. At this event, adults come to school and read to our students. By listening to stories, our students will be even more adventurous in reading and exploring the world of words. Thanks to all the parents who came to school and also a grateful thanks to Ms Muriel Roquette who organised this wonderful event.
GPD Learner profile - Be responsible / Take ownership
During the next few weeks, our teachers and students will focus on the next goal in the learner profile of primary. It is essential to us that all our students are aware of the importance of being responsible. This can start already when they are very young. They will learn step by step to look after their belongings, take ownership of their learning and look out for their classmates in class. Working on this goal is not one job and done, but with every task we master, we will grow throughout our lives. Students in Primary are very proud if they are given responsibility and succeed. Therefore, as parents, we hope you will also provide your children opportunities to take on responsibility and learn how to deal with it.
Upcoming events
- 26 November: Christmas Bazaar (please support your class at the activity at the game alley)
- 29 November: Pok Fu Lam Parents event (all about St. Nicholas)
- 6 December: St. Nicholas is coming to school
- 14 December: Christmas Arts and Crafts
 Priska Erni |
 Beate Weinhardt |
Departmental News and Announcements
No updates / announcements this week
Looking for what's been going on in class this month?
Secondary Corner
Upcoming Dates
26 November: Christmas Bazaar, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
8 December: Interhouse Basketball, L5/L6: Senior Boys, L9/L10: Open Girls
12 December: Film screening about Andrei Ivanovich, IB-Hall, 1:20 - 3:20 pm
13 December: Christmas concert
16 December: Last school day of the semester; reports K12; Interhouse Basketball Finals
Film screening
The Head of the German Chamber of Foreign Trade in Hong Kong has made a documentary film about one of the last survivors of Buchenwald concentration camp, Andrei Ivanovich. More information about the project you can find here. The film will be shown to the K09 – K12 as well as ESD students on 12. December from 1:20 pm to 3:20 pm in the IB Hall. There may be an opportunity for a Q&A session with Mr. Ivanovich afterwards via Zoom.
 Udo Krebs |
 Arnold Leitner |
Departmental News and Announcements
No updates / announcements this week
English International Stream
From Head of Stream
Feeding HK
Thank you to all families who donated food for the recent food drive. Thanks to our collective generosity the team collected 372 kg of food to pass on to disadvantaged groups in the HK community. The students achieved a very commendable second place and will soon visit the Feeding HK warehouse in Yau Tong to receive their certificate and trophy that we will display at the entrance of the Lower Building.
TEDxYouth@GSIS
On Friday, 11 November we were treated to four excellent TED talks and three wonderful performances of original music. Congratulations to Gwyneth Chu, Anusha Muralikrishna, Melinda Chan and Samara Sakhrani who shared their ideas on planning sustainable cities, Gen Z’s pursuit of happiness, the cost of sustainability and the weight of the word ‘sorry’.
And to Charlotte de Jong, who performed her own song, Change, Madison Man who performed her original arrangement and the band Art is Not Limited - Emily Pong, Sonja Wong & Syrus Sum - performing their own song, Naive. The whole event was superbly organised by Nehal Lodha & Nicole Huang who overcame many challenges before we were able to produce the event. Have a look at a recording of the event on this link using your @learning email address.
Student Life website
Our Head Students have worked hard to revive the Student Life website for the Secondary Department. This is a one-stop shop for all information for ESD & GSD students for important dates, reviews of past events including sports competitions, links to Academic Society websites, Wellbeing pages and an overview of I/GCSEs & the IB Diploma.
Emergency Evacuation
On Wednesday, we conducted our first Emergency Evacuation in Watford Road. Usually, we use Mansfield Road but due to the building work there we changed our muster points. Late last week a similar practice was held at the Pok Fu Lam campus and the Primary Department evacuation is imminent. Everything went very smoothly with all procedures carried out so far and we anticipate similar success for Primary.
Town Hall video & KPR Meeting
We very much hope you enjoyed watching the Town Hall video that was recently shared with the community. If you have any comments or constructive feedback about the format or content of this, please pass it on to your KPR or contact one of the Senior Leadership Team directly.
Christmas Bazaar
I hope you have bought plenty of tokens to avoid the inevitable queues on the day! It already promises to be a memorable day. Thank you to all the members of the Parents' Committee, operations staff, teachers and students for their contributions to this much-anticipated event.
| Simon Misso-Veness Deputy Principal / Head of English International Stream |
Kindergarten Corner
The Kindergarten students and staff have been very busy with different activities and events in the past two weeks. This includes the GKG rescheduled outing to the Science Museum, Parent-Child Lantern making, Fire Drill, St Martin’s Festival and the Drum Jamming Workshop.
We thank all our parents and students for their generous donations towards the Box of Hope. We collected a total of 182 boxes!
We look forward to the Festive Season and hope to see many of you at the GSIS Christmas Bazaar Games Alley, where our Kindergarten staff will also offer two age-appropriate games for our children.
Look out for our next issue in the Gazette, where you will find an overview of the upcoming festive events in December.
|
Sophie Burdel |
Eileen Mah |
Departmental News and Announcements
No updates / announcements this week
Primary Corner
The children and teachers were overjoyed to see the desk dividers being removed after the latest government announcement - such a small thing but it has made a world of difference to how the children feel in class and opens up more collaborative ways of learning again.
Camps
The year 4 camp was another joyful experience with the added bonus of fully vaccinated students being able to take part in mask off sports activities. The children had a wonderful two days developing their team skills, solving creative problems together, bouldering, raft building and pier jumping. We look forward to more camps for other year groups in the Spring term.
Sports
We have also seen a return to ‘near normal’ with our sporting events. Our children have taken part in netball, football and tennis tournaments in the last week and we have several more events planned before Christmas. Please visit the PE Google Site using your child’s log in to find out more.
PIDs
It has been wonderful to see parents in the building again this week as many of you have opted to come in for a face to face Parent Information Meeting. Please remember, if you are coming in person you need to:
- Scan the ‘Leave Home Safe App’.
- Show a ‘Blue Code’.
- Show proof of a negative RAT from that day.
Coming up:
Christmas Bazaar
We are all looking forward to the Christmas Bazaar on Saturday, 26 November, please remember to register and pre-purchase your coupons to avoid long queues on the day. Your class teacher or KPR will be reaching out for support to run the games alley activities.
Concerts
Mrs McLachlan emailed all parents on Monday with information about the upcoming class concerts. Please note the dates of your child’s performance below and we look forward to seeing you in school for these exciting events.
YO2B Friday, 9 December, 10:05 am
YO2C Friday, 9 December, 9:25 am
YO3B Monday, 5 December, 11:15 am
YO3C Monday, 5 December, 10:05 am
YO4B Monday, 5 December, 8:15 am
YO4C Monday, 5 December, 11:55 am
YO5B Friday, 9 December, 11:15 am
YO5C Friday, 9 December, 7:40 am
YO6B Tuesday, 29 November, 8:15 am
YO6C Tuesday, 29 November, 9:25 am
 Donna Morley |
 Eleanor Cowling |
Departmental News and Announcements
Looking for what's been going on in class this week?
Secondary Corner
In a few weeks we will be asking Year 9 and Year 11 Students to begin considering their subject options for the I/GCSE and IB Diploma programmes respectively. More information will follow in due course.
At the other end of these programmes, Year 11 (again) and Year 13 students will begin preparing for the mock examinations in January. Students have already received the schedules for these and, in the coming weeks, teachers will be offering advice on preparation and revision. It is important to note that these mock exams are a step on the journey and not an end in themselves. The purpose is practice and preparation. If students are becoming overly stressed by these exams, then they do not need to be. Please reach out to your child's Class Teacher or Head of Year if you observe your child having difficultly in this area.
For our younger students, the theme of this year is very much on establishing the routines of school, social learning norms and the importance of responsibility, resilience and a degree of independence and initiative. Whilst the disruption of the past few years has had little impact on academic learning, these other important skills are in need of focus and development. As above, please get in touch if you have concerns.
The weather continues fine, sport is back, ECAs and music are now fully in swing and the school is a happier place for all that.
 Ken Stevenson |
Departmental News and Announcements
Student Achievements & Initiatives
Sabrina Chiu at the Stars Academy
Stefan Tueger (Deputy Director of Advancement)
Sabrina Chiu has ranked in the 3rd place out of over 3,000 competitors in the singing competition Stars Academy, which was held by Television Broadcasts Limited. And in just a few months, she learned a new language - Cantonese.
During the competition, Sabrina was only 13 years old, she had to compete with other adult competitors. It was a great test of her strength of will. She always thought that she could not get the award without the GSIS support and encouragement. What’s more, Sabrina got A - A* in 10 courses in the final examination, which proved that her study was not affected by the competition.
Please see the videos of her performances below.
https://youtu.be/5qZlNqu7dxs
https://youtu.be/rAGLQSY8skE
https://youtu.be/LpVajn34Dm4
https://youtu.be/-4jvkWthyb4
https://youtu.be/K4lhLMKQEFc
https://youtu.be/1VOXpdu41bM
https://youtu.be/aMiIfOaoPJo
https://youtu.be/RLodLsilB9s
https://youtu.be/ZD3KB2ucNIE
Go Chess Competition
Justin Choy ()
Congratulations to Jaren Choy (Y02B) who was undefeated and came first place at the Hong Kong Chess and Go Academy’s 2022-Q3 competition. Amazing job, Jaren!
U20's Netball Tournament
Emily Hill () / Elise Kelly ()
The U20's squad played in the Kellett Round Robin tournament on Monday, 7 November. The team did very well during the games despite the long hiatus of netball due to Covid. They won one of their five games with the rest remaining very close in the point score. Ms Hill and Ms Kelly are looking forward to future inter-school match opportunities with the U14's and U12's squads later this year.
Wellbeing Corner
Trust Your Intuition
"Which option should I choose?" situations which are challenging to make a decision, is known among adults and children. Often, we would decide on the rational option and neglect our intuition. The Neuro-Scientist António Damásio shows in an experiment, that we should trust our intuition more.
One way to make intuitive decisions would be the Tetralemma-Method:
- Define two options on two cards and put them opposite to each other on the floor.
- Add a 'neutral' card, write your name on it and put it on the floor.
- Position yourself on these options one after the other and put yourself into the situations. The name card can also be used to take a break.
- Add two more cards and name them 'both' and 'neither nor' and put them east and west of the first options. Now put yourself into these situations.
- Put a fifth option 'something totally different' on the floor and put yourself into these situations.
- Reflect how you felt the different options and follow your intuition.
This method allows us to let go thoughts, trust your intuition and explore new possibilities. Give it a try!
Source: fritzundfraenzi.ch “Ich kann mich nicht entscheiden!”
Alexandra Neumann-Hillebrand
