Dear Parents and Guardians

Part of what makes KGV a great school is the extra-curricular and sporting opportunities that students can take advantage of, as part of the overall school experience. COVID-19 has significantly impacted on what we have been able to offer over the past couple of years, so the highlight of the week was definitely to experience first hand the excitement and fun of the KGV Swimming Gala!

For many of our students in years 7-9, this was their first experience at an event like this, and it was wonderful to see the Crozier, Nightingale, Rowell and Upsdell House spirit alive and well. Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, the event was held in smaller year level groups, as competitors cheered on each other producing some excellent sporting performances. A special thank you to our PHE department for organising and running the day, and to all staff who helped out. I know many parents used the live App to check the swimming results and times across the day. 

Our Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) program also started this week, with over 100 different activities happening across the week. Thank you to the CAS team for their leadership of the program and to our staff for offering all the extra-curricular options.  

Challenge Week is part of our curriculum that specialises in CAS and experiential learning. Student sign-up was completed this week and all KGV students have enrolled for activities that will run from November 1st to 5th this year. Invoices will be sent to parents in the next week. Please bookmark and monitor the webpage for your child’s activity in the Challenge Week website. All information for the activity will be made available there.

Today, we held our first ‘Friday Feedback’ session. The ‘Feedback Friday’ sessions are organised by our PTSA and offer an opportunity for parents to meet with me and other members of the KGV Leadership team. It is a great way to explain what is happening in our school and answer questions from our parents and guardians. At the moment we are meeting online, which is actually convenient for parents whether at work, home or out and about. It is great to see that we had over 20 parents signed up for the session today. Please keep a lookout for other  ‘Feedback Friday’ invitations across the year, as we like to hold the feedback sessions every couple of weeks.

These types of sessions also reflect our commitment to engage and connect with parents about our school and the work we are doing. The term ‘your child, our student’ symbolises how we see the partnership as we strive to achieve our mission for every student to ‘be their own remarkable’. We can only achieve this in close partnership with our parent community, and please continue to reach out in the first instance to your child’s tutor, if you have any feedback, support or have any questions.

Enjoy the weekend.

Mark Blackshaw

Principal

Year 10 students have signed up for Challenge Week activities and the sign-up system has closed. Parents will receive confirmation of choices and invoices over the next week or so.

We ran a student assembly today to explain the grades used in GCSE subjects and the reporting systems in Y10 and 11. We are running an online parent presentation on the same topics at 6:00 p.m. Monday 20 September. We are limiting participants to 100 to provide some ability to ask questions. Here is the Google meet link if you wish to add it to your calendar:
[Web Link]

We think 100 places will be enough, but if you can't get in, we will record and make the recording available to all.

One to one meetings between the tutor and students begin next week. This is where the tutor works closely with your child to make sure they are on track, have good work structures in place and to see where they may need assistance.

The sign up system for Challenge Week activities is now closed and activity placements are being finalised. You should expect confirmation of your child's choice and if applicable an invoice in the next week or so.

We ran a student assembly today to explain the grades used in GCSE subjects and how students can analyse their data to understand where they are doing well or where they may need more effort. We are running an online parent presentation on the same topics at 6:00 p.m. Monday 20 September. We are limiting participants to 100 to provide some ability to ask questions. Here is the Google meet link if you wish to add it to your calendar:
[Web Link]

We think 100 places will be enough, but if you can't get in, we will record and make the recording available to all.

Congratulations to all of our Year 12 students who took part in Wednesday’s Swimming Gala. It was a fantastic day and wonderful to see the House spirit in action at KGV. A special word of congratulations to Upsdell!

Wishing you a great weekend.

Congratulations to all of our Year 13 students who took part in Wednesday’s Swimming Gala. It was a fantastic day and wonderful to see the House spirit in action at KGV. A special congratulations to Upsdell!

It was great to see so many of our parents last night engaging and connecting with our Higher Education careers team.

We would like to reassure any parents that missed last night’s presentation that a recording will be shared with all parents soon.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Thank you to those parents who were able to attend this morning’s Friday Feedback session with Mr Blackshaw and members of the Year 7 team. Your feedback is important to us to help us understand how your children, our students are settling into KGV and how we can make their experience even better. Please reach out to us at any time if you have any feedback, positive or negative!

Challenge Week reminders and updates:

• Year 7 students will participate in their own Year 7 Challenge Week activity. This will run from Monday 1st to Friday 5th November. 

• I have sent an updated Parent Information Slide deck for your reference. Please note, I have highlighted in red a line of the final slide about camping. We will NOT be camping this year due to COVID restrictions.

• Parents will have been sent an App message regarding payment. Please settle this at your earliest convenience.

• There are still a handful of parents who need to complete the KGV Year 7 Challenge Week Questionnaire. Please click here if you haven’t completed this yet.

• Our External Provider, who will be working with our students on the Coasteering Day and the trip to Kadoorie Farm needs information from parents. Please click on the link here and complete asap.

A reminder that we have a Public Holiday next Wednesday.

Have a great weekend.

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Thank you to those parents who were able to attend this morning’s Friday Feedback session with Mr Blackshaw and members of the Year 7 - 9 team. Your feedback is important to us to help us understand how your children, our students are settling into the new year at KGV and how we can make their experience even better. Please reach out to us at any time if you have any feedback, positive or negative!

Well done to those students who participated in this week’s KGV Swimming Gala. It was lovely to see House Spirit alive again at KGV! Congratulations to Upsdell House who were the overall winners.

Our CAS programme is up and running with lots of students taking advantage of the wide range of activities on offer. From horticulture to fencing, our Year  8 and 9 students are taking risks and trying new things.

Our weekly push on uniform standards! Standards are particularly high at the moment and thank you for your support in making sure your child meets the dress code expectations. Two areas which still need improvement are the wearing of belts with shorts and trousers. The second is the type of footwear, which needs to be black and polishable. Please read through the dress code expectations on our website and reach out if you have any questions. 

A reminder that we have a Public Holiday next Wednesday.

Have a great weekend.

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Thank you to those parents who were able to attend this morning’s Friday Feedback session with Mr Blackshaw and members of the Year 7 - 9 team. Your feedback is important to us to help us understand how your children, our students are settling into the new year at KGV and how we can make their experience even better. Please reach out to us at any time if you have any feedback, positive or negative!

Well done to those students who participated in this week’s KGV Swimming Gala. It was lovely to see House Spirit alive again at KGV! Congratulations to Upsdell House who were the overall winners.

You will be aware that the Year 9 PTM assessment was postponed this week due to technical difficulties. We will reschedule this for next week and let you know once the dates and times have been confirmed.

Our CAS programme is up and running with lots of students taking advantage of the wide range of activities on offer. From horticulture to fencing, our Year  8 and 9 students are taking risks and trying new things.

Our weekly push on uniform standards! Standards are particularly high at the moment and thank you for your support in making sure your child meets the dress code expectations. Two areas which still need improvement are the wearing of belts with shorts and trousers. The second is the type of footwear, which needs to be black and polishable. Please read through the dress code expectations on our website and reach out if you have any questions. 

A reminder that we have a Public Holiday next Wednesday.

Have a great weekend.

Year 11-13

- Many university events are being arranged. Do check the Careers Calendar for updated details. Some of the events are specific for ESF students.
Highlights of events in the coming week:

U.K.

13-26 Sep - Cambridge Virtual Open Days
18 Sep - Imperial College London Undergraduate Virtual Open Day
18 Sep - University of Essex 2021 Open Days
20-25 Sep - Study in the UK Virtual Week by UK universities

Hong Kong
25 Sep - HKUST Virtual Info Day for Undergraduate Admissions & Online Admissions Talk for International Qualifications

U.S.A.
20 Sep - UC San Diego Y13 application workshop (for ESF students)
21 Sep - NYU / Northeastern Virtual Session (for ESF students)
22 Sep - UCLA International Info Session
22 Sep - College Board Webinar: “Study in the US – University Talk for Students & Parents”
22 Sep - East vs. West Coast – 6 US Universities Panel Event
24 Sep - US Northeast Public Universities – Preparing You to Apply
25-30 Sep - UCLA Fall Open House

SoPac
16-18 Sep - University of South Australia International Virtual Fair

Europe
20 Sep - Jacobs University, Germany (for ESF students

Multi-regions
19 Sep - Cambridge, Hopkins & Toronto – Student Events

- We welcomed CUHK School of Medicine and UBC this past week on campus when they spoke to our senior students about their admission requirements and process. Many students attended, it was wonderful to see students speak to university representatives face-to-face. More on-campus visits are coming up:
29 Sep: University of HK @ LRC2, 13:30-14:15
22 Oct: HKUST Outreach Team @ GLT, 13:30-14:15
27 Oct: HKUST School of Science @ GLT, 13:30-14:15. Keynote speaker: Prof. Angela WU (Assistant Professor, Division of Life Science, HKUST & KGV alumnus – Class of 2011)

Year 13

- We had our Year 13 parents evening on 16 Sep at 18:00. Our sincere apologies for the technical difficulties. Recording of the parents evening can be found here.

- Year 13 1-1 H.E. meetings have started. We would appreciate parents reminding their children about the meetings. They will be discussing the progress of their H.E. applications and how we can support them in the process.

Wed 22 Sep - Mid-Autumn Festival Public Holiday 

Mon 27 Sep, Tues 28 Sep & Wed 29 Sep - Individual School Photos Schedule Here 

Mon 11 Oct to Fri 15 Oct - Half Term Break 

Today we held our first Feedback Friday session of this year. It was wonderful to see over 20 parents join us, mainly Y7 parents.   Principal Mark Blackshaw, Vice Principal Carole Beer and MYP Coordinator Rowan Turner attended the online session, to answer questions and provide updates.

Mr Blackshaw updated this week’s happenings:

• CAS activities have started and we can already see the excitement in our students.

• Swimming Gala took place on Wednesday 15 September.  The winning house was Upsdell (red). 

• Challenge week choices have been made by all year groups. 

• Vaccinations status is, 75% of students have been vaccinated or had at least one dose or made an appointment for the first dose. In the coming months we aim to make things more normal.

It is wonderful to see how well our Y7 students have adjusted to KGV life, settling in well and finding their way around the school.  Please be reminded to name your child’s items so they can be found if lost.

CAS activities are allocated on a random basis and students do not have a maximum number of activities they can enrol. There are three, ten week blocks running around one hundred activities.  If your child wasn’t allocated to an activity or for specific CAS questions, please contact Activities Manager Scarlet Ip,  scarlet.ip@kgv.edu.hk

With regard to Challenge week, safety is most important along with student experience. Each activity is risk assessed for the safety of our students. Y7 Challenge week details are posted in this newsletter. There are 2 forms to fill in.. 

The MYP curriculum does not follow specific textbooks.  As such, each subject draws from various resources. Only some subjects have textbooks such as Maths, Chinese and European language all of which are provided by the school. 

Y7 Chinese classes are grouped according to data from primary schools. At present our chinese department is in the process of reassessing Y7 students in their grouping. 

English and Maths PMT tests will take place next week. 

General organisational issues were discussed, school bags, lockers and change of uniforms.  Students are encouraged to bring their laptop daily and not to leave it in the locker.  Y7s are allocated house coloured lockers with a large capacity.  It was suggested to store sports gear and books to lighten their school bag. 

Swimming is part of the PE curriculum and it will be offered throughout the year. Y7 students who do not do swimming in term one will do so in term 2 or 3. 

Students are not permitted to remain in school after school hours to use the school field unless they are enrolled in after school activities due to social distancing regulations.

Parents expressed their appreciation of school activities offered.  We hope to build on our parent partnership as we move forward in the year. 

Student Health Service – Forms Available
The Student Health Service of the Department of Health is now conducting enrolment exercises for the 2021/2022 school year. The annual health assessment will be arranged for all primary and secondary day school students. The service period starts from November 2021 to October 2022.

Enrolled students of the Student Health Service will be given an annual appointment at a designated Student Health Service Centre according to the location of the school.

The Application and Consent Form is now distributed to students. Please also see attached documents from Student Health Service Centre. 

Please return the Application and Consent Form back to the Year Group Office by Monday 20 September.

Thank you.

For next week menu, please view in the attachment.

Please charge up your Octopus Cards with credit before coming to school.

Our Remarkable Story

A massive congratulations to Jenson and Shreyash(Y10) who competed in June Scholastic Chess Tournament and achieved the championship for their division!

KGV School wishes you a joyous Mid-Autumn Festival
Dear Parents,

On behalf of the KGV School, we wish you a joyous Mid-Autumn Festival with your family members!

KGV Communication and Development Office