Dear Parents

We had another productive week with our students enjoying their second week of full day schooling. 

Next week, we are planning to pay tribute to Mr Hattam, who tragically passed away in December. The memorial event will be online at 10.20pm on Thursday, with students being with their tutor and tutor group for the occasion. Tutors will spend some time next week preparing students for this memorial, and ensuring they have the support they need to attend the online event. It is important that as a school community, we pay tribute to this great man, who inspired so many and contributed so much to our school.

The lunchtime activities have been very popular, especially with the Year 7 to 9 students. With the warmer weather, please encourage your child to bring a hat and a water bottle, and refill during the day. It is great to see all the extra curricular activities happening again, and igniting the KGV spirit.

For those that may be travelling over the upcoming summer holiday period and/or planning holiday activities, we can confirm the following 2021-22 term dates:

• Wednesday 30 June 2021 at 12.30pm - Last day for all students this term

• Thursday 19 August - First day for Year 7, 10 and 12

• Friday 20 August - All students at school (first day for Year 8, 9, 11 and 13)

At this stage, we are planning to be at school for full days. It is important that all families strive to ensure students are able to attend school face to face from the 19th or 20th of August. If we are at school face to face, there will be no Zoom lessons, but a summary of work completed will be posted via our Lionel system for students that may be delayed for the start of Term 1.

Have a good weekend.

Mark Blackshaw

Principal

Year 12 Message

Many thanks to all of our Year 12 students who have helped us with our work on Inclusivity and Equity this year. We are having an assembly on the 16 June which will be led by our students and will be discussing our work around Inclusivity and Equity and our plans for next year.

A reminder that the schedule for Year 12 assessments beginning on Monday 7 June is shared below.

Term 3 Assessments w/b 7 June

We would like to remind all of our Year 12 students to reach out to your subject teachers (or any of our Year 12 team) if you have any further queries over the coming days.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Many thanks to all of our Year 13 students who have helped us with our work on Inclusivity and Equity this year. We are having an assembly on the 16 June which will be led by our students and will be discussing our work around Inclusivity and Equity and our plans for next year.

Unfortunately, due to government restrictions, we are unable to proceed with our Graduation Dinner on 18 June.

Year 10 Message

It's been great to see students here for whole days this week, enjoying some time together at lunch break and being present for all five periods. With only a few weeks until the end of the year, students will have a number of final assessments due, so please talk to your child to check they are organised and feel they are prepared.

Year 11 Message

This week students have taken language exams and we only have a few remaining exams next week. 

All Year 11 students return to school to start the post-exam activities on Thursday 10 June next week. Please remind your child to attend school in uniform and to bring water and a snack. Year 11 will finish at 1:00 p.m on any day they are in school due to the COVID regulations we must follow. The activities are designed for all students regardless of the course or school they will be attending in Year 12.

Please see the full timetable of post-exam activities here. This is a live document and links will be added with details for each day.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week our Year 7s have been participating in some of the KGV House competitions and beginning to see what makes KGV School so special. We have completed the KGV Inter-House Ultimate Frisbee competition, where, as always, the focus is on participation and team spirit. A Year 7 student best summed up their experience this week when exclaiming to their tutor ‘Mr Baker, Mr Baker - we lost - we came last, but it was so much fun’. 

As communicated to you yesterday, please make sure your child is prepared for the lunch time session and tries to balance their time in the sun with time in the LRC or hall. The weather is hot and we are trying to remind students of the importance of rehydration amongst all the excitement of spending time with friends and joining in activities.

Next week, the KGV community will pay tribute to the wonderful Mr Hattam who tragically passed away in December. All students will watch the memorial with their tutors on Thursday morning. Tutors will spend time next week preparing students for this memorial and ensuring they have the support they need to attend the memorial.

Next week, a reminder that our timetables switch again, seeing Period 5 and Period 3 swapping. LIONEL will be updated to reflect this change over the weekend.

Don't forget that Monday is our early finish, with students leaving school at 1pm. Canteen facilities will be available for lunch between Tuesday to Friday. Drinks will be available on Monday in Leo’s cafe.

Have a great weekend.

The Year 7 Team

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week our Year 8s have been participating in some of the KGV House competitions and beginning to see what makes KGV School so special. We have completed the KGV Inter-House Ultimate Frisbee competition, where, as always, the focus is participation and team spirit. One of our  students best summed up their experience this week when exclaiming to their tutor ‘Mr Baker, Mr Baker - we lost - we came last, but it was so much fun’. 

As communicated to you yesterday, please make sure your child is prepared for the lunch time session and tries to balance their time in the sun with time in the LRC or hall. The weather is hot and we are trying to remind students of the importance of rehydration amongst all the excitement of spending time with friends and joining in activities.

Next week, the KGV community will pay tribute to the wonderful Mr Hattam who tragically passed away in December. All students will watch the memorial with their tutors on Thursday morning. Tutors will spend time next week preparing students for this memorial and ensuring they have the support they need to attend the memorial.

Next week, a reminder that our timetables switch again, seeing Period 5 and Period 3 swapping. LIONEL will be updated to reflect this change over the weekend.

Don't forget that Monday is our early finish, with students leaving school at 1pm. Canteen facilities will be available for lunch between Tuesday to Friday. Drinks will be available on Monday in Leo’s cafe.

Have a great weekend.

The Year 8 Team.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week our Year 9s have been participating in some of the KGV House competitions and beginning to see what makes KGV School so special. We have completed the KGV Inter-House Ultimate Frisbee competition, where, as always, the focus is participation and team spirit. One of our students best summed up their experience this week when exclaiming to their tutor ‘Mr Baker, Mr Baker - we lost - we came last, but it was so much fun’. 

As communicated to you yesterday, please make sure your child is prepared for the lunch time session and tries to balance their time in the sun with time in the LRC or hall. The weather is hot and we are trying to remind students of the importance of rehydration amongst all the excitement of spending time with friends and joining in activities.

Next week, the KGV community will pay tribute to the wonderful Mr Hattam who tragically passed away in December. All students will watch the memorial with their tutors on Thursday morning. Tutors will spend time next week preparing students for this memorial and ensuring they have the support they need to attend the memorial.

Next week, a reminder that our timetables switch again, seeing Period 5 and Period 3 swapping. LIONEL will be updated to reflect this change over the weekend.

Don't forget that Monday is our early finish, with students leaving school at 1pm. Canteen facilities will be available for lunch between Tuesday to Friday. Drinks will be available on Monday in Leo’s cafe.

Community Project update:

A big shout out to Poppy Wong and Jiana Karthikeyan who constructed this fascinating cage home installation in the LRC. This was a powerful reminder of the conditions some of our HK community face and an amazing demonstration of the learning which is taking place in the community project action phase.

The students are now entering into the final stages of the IPARD cycle, the framework that has helped guide the students throughout this project (Investigation, Preparation, Action, Reflection and Demonstration). This will involve students on Monday reflecting on all of the different aspects of their project and preparing for the final assessment that will happen later in June. I have been extremely impressed with the courage and resilience of the students to engage so well with the project during what have been challenging times.

Have a great weekend.

The Year 9 Team

Mon 7 June Period 5 and Period 3 swap (live on Lionel)

Mon 7 June Year 12 Assessment Week

Wed 30 June 12.30pm finish - Last day for all students this term

Thurs 19 Aug  Year 7, 10 and 12 - First day of 2021/2022 Academic Year 

Fri 20 Aug  All students at school (Year 8, 9, 11 and 13 - First day of 2021/2022 Academic Year)

Year 13

•  Our Y13 students’ exit plans presentation is available here on LIONeL. Students, please do share with your parents and do inform your HE counsellor of final destination choices.
• Final Transcripts. An email was sent to all Y13 students and parents on hardcopy collection and sending final transcripts to universities to secure students’ offers. Make sure you complete the Google Form to make requests.

Year 12

• H.E. presentations series. Now that we are back to full day of school, the presentations will start on Zoom at 1:15pm. Students can bring their lunch.
• Remaining H.E. presentations before the end of the school year.

o 9 Jun, Wed - Non-mainstream countries

o 15 Jun, Tue - UCAS Setup. Students planning to apply to the UK MUST attend this session.

o 23 Jun, Wed – Summer Action Plan. All students are expected to attend.

• University online events. There are a number of online talks, virtual open days and webinars by universities around the world. Please check the Careers calendar for more details.

Year 11

• Introduction to Higher Education as part of Post-Exams Activities. The Careers Team will be conducting presentations to Y11s on 16 June at Periods 1 & 2. Stayed tuned for communication from the Y10-Y11 Office for details.

Year 10

• Options Presentation, 21 June, P5, . This year, we are speaking to our Y10 students before they break for summer about their options in Y12. We aim at getting our Y10s to start thinking about what they would like to do and do some research over the summer break.

The KGV Careers Office also shares a lot of information on higher education via different channels/platforms.

• Our Career website is full of H.E. news & resources, scholarships, events, summer/enrichment programmes and many others. New items added this week include: summer/enrichment programmes around the world, scholarship offers and volunteer opportunities.
• This calendar, regularly updated, lists H.E. events and taster lectures offered by universities around the world.
• A number of Summer & Enrichment Programmes are added to the listing for students to research for programmes of interests.
• Virtual internships & work experience, and volunteers too!
• Do check out the scholarship opportunities listed on the Careers website.
• We also share other H.E. news and information on our Facebook page. You can find us here.

From KGV Careers & H.E. Team

Our PTSA shop has been serving our parents and students with uniform and stationery supplies since the conception of the PTSA.  We thank our parents and students for their ongoing support. However, things are changing in terms of our operations. 

Due to EDB requirements, all PTSA across ESF schools will be moving the selling of school uniforms to an ESF central procurement process, a centralised online platform where parents can purchase uniforms. Presently we are working on a transition to the new online shop, where parents deal directly with the supplier and the PTSA no longer sells uniforms. The new platform will be in service from 19 July 2021 onwards.  

The PTSA shop at KGV will be in service till 30 June 2021, Monday to Friday, 8am-3:45pm. We encourage our parents to seek to purchase uniform items before then, and to take advantage of the personalised shop experience, direct pickup and multiple payment options.  Once our stocks run out, parents will need to purchase the equivalent version of our uniform, from the new website and supplier.  Please note, we have kept the uniform range as close to the present one as possible. Please be reassured that students can continue to wear all uniform items (current and new version) into the future.

Y11 students - all students are expected to wear senior uniform in Y12 and Y13.  All Y11 students are requested to purchase their senior uniform from the PTSA shop before 30 June. 

Exchanges - all exchanges must be done before 30 June 2021, provided sizes are available. 

Thank you for your continued support, and we encourage you to visit us before 30 June and take advantage of our personalised shop experience.

This morning we held our final feedback session for the academic year 2020-2021.  Principal Mark Blackshaw and Vice Principal Carole Beer joined me and parents for the session. Thank you to the parents who attended to chat with us on topics of interest. It was lovely to know that parents are pleased with the work our staff has done over the last year despite the difficulties and challenges.  

Challenge week was discussed and we are pleased to share that planning for the next academic year is underway. We have scheduled 2021-2022 challenge week for November. A website will be launched soon for students to explore activities on offer and to sign up.  We are offering a wide variety of exciting activities in Hong Kong. 

It was nice to hear that students are enjoying the food offered by our catering provider Sodexo, which resumed operation this week. Only the Bowl, Hut and Leo’s cafe are in service for now.  The main canteen will remain closed. Please see the Sodexo notice below for details.

We discussed the recent announcement of COVID-19 vaccinations for 12 year olds.  This information will be shared. However all vaccinations are an optional decision by the parent.  The vaccination takeup rate amongst KGV teachers has been very high. 

Students' digital gaming was discussed.  We reminded parents of our ‘disconnect to reconnect’ policy in place to ensure students are not gaming during break and lunchtimes.   However we will focus more on this in the coming academic year.

With the long challenging times, IB students have been stressed.  As we approach the summer break, there are concerns regarding physical and mental wellness for students and support for parents.  We will explore workshops to address time management, stress relief and overall well being.

Thank you to all parents who have joined us during our Feedback Friday sessions over the past year.  Your feedback is valuable to us. We are looking forward to more in the coming year. 

Sodexo service

We are pleased to inform you that our catering provider Sodexo, has resumed a catering service for our students from 1 June and will continue till 30 June 2021, albeit in a limited capacity. Due to Covid restrictions, and the need to closely supervise eating, food is only served at lunchtime. Eating areas are designated and teachers assigned to ensure social distancing and hygiene measures are closely followed. Please note all hot meals will be served prepacked in disposable packaging as required by the guidelines.

Sodexo will be providing beverages and lunch at three of their outlets. All transactions will be with Octopus payment - Please ensure your child has enough value added to their card before coming to school.

The service will be as follows: Open Monday- Friday :

• Leo’s café – serving beverages and meals, 7:30am-3pm (lunch available at 1:00-2:15pm)
• Bowl – break time 10:40- 11:00am (drinks only) and lunchtime 1:00-2:15pm
• Hut – serving lunch only, 1pm-2:15pm

The Main canteen will remain closed until Government restrictions are lifted. A menu for next week is attached for your reference.

Yuyu Kitamura (Class of 2015) made and starred in ‘Invited In’ to highlight the anxiety and fears many of today’s young people face while socialising online during Covid-19

The film centres around a shy girl called Annie (played by Kitamura) who finds herself mid-pandemic realising how lonely she has been her whole life. Forced to step out of her comfort zone, she makes her first “real” friend through social media with Emmy (Haley Wong), a brash lifestyle influencer, and soon realises how fake online friendships can be.

The film is an all-women collaboration including producer Alicia Sing (Class of 2016). The women behind this project hope that the film will help to start a conversation about the way we connect and react to each other online. 

To read more, please click here.