Dear Parents and Guardians,

We come to the end of another term that presented many challenges for our students, staff and families. We are again proud of our students in the way that so many have engaged so strongly with online learning, and made an effort to stay connected to their peers and teachers. Our staff have been unrelenting in their support for our students, and remain committed to doing what it takes to ensure learning keeps progressing, and students feel heard and known. Finally, we never underestimate the challenges the current circumstances create for families and our community, and we appreciate the support parents provide for their children, and our students.

We are still awaiting final EDB guidelines so we can finalise return to school arrangements. We are expecting that the guidance will be provided over the Easter holiday break, so we hope to communicate in detail in the second week of the vacation.

At this stage, it is likely that:

• As we are yet to reach the 90% of our students with two vaccinations, we are not yet permitted to run a full day at school

• School will start as usual at 8.15 am each day

• Students will have four out of five lessons face to face at school each day, as well as tutor time

• Students will depart school after period 4 at 1.35 pm

• Students will travel home and engage in Period 5 asynchronous work

• Students will participate in a Period 5 check in and feedback lesson, from 2.50 pm to 3.20 pm each day

This current plan is based on previous EDB advice. The plan may need to be adjusted as information is released. We have other models developed and ready to be implemented, as required. We intend to update all our parents and students over the break,  as new information comes out. 

We are planning to send out a detailed update via the ESF App on the afternoon of Thursday, 14 April. We will also be sending an invitation over the break to parents interested in attending a webinar about back to school arrangements, booked for 5:00 pm on Thursday, 14 April. Even though there is information and guidelines still to come from EDB, we are confident to have plans in place so all students can start school face to face on Tuesday, 19 April. 

I also want to give a special shout-out to our Year 11 and Year 13 students who are busily preparing for exams that are scheduled to start early next term. We know our students will be studying hard across the holiday break, as they do their best to be ready for the exams. Our teachers are also holding over 70 two-hour online tutorials across the holiday period, to help our students in their exam preparations. We thank our teachers for supporting the students across the holidays, in the lead-up to exams.

I wish all our parents and families a safe and happy holiday. I do hope you all get some days off to spend some precise time with family and friends. Thank you again for your ongoing feedback, support and partnership. We will continue to do all we can to work together to enable our young people to be ‘their own remarkable’.

Stay safe.

Kind Regards,

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

What a term! Nine weeks of online learning are complete and our Year 7s have been, quite simply, amazing! Staff has been so impressed with their focus, commitment and maturity toward online learning. Please give them a big pat on the back this evening. They are superstars!

We are very much looking forward to seeing them in person on Tuesday 19th April. Unfortunately, we are not able to share specific details with you yet, as we are waiting for guidance from EDB. As Mark Blackshaw said in his message, we will be holding a parent webinar on Thursday 14th April, when we hope to be able to give firm details for our return.

In the meantime, please make sure your child gets some rest and time away from the screen. It has been a long term and we are all in need of a break.

Thank you for all your support during this online period. Wishing you and your family a Happy Easter Break.

The Year 7 Team

Dear Parents and Caregivers

What a term! Nine weeks of online learning are complete and our Year 8s have been, quite simply, amazing! Staff has been so impressed with their focus, commitment and maturity towards online learning. Please give them a big pat on the back this evening. They are superstars!

We are very much looking forward to seeing them in person on Tuesday 19th April. Unfortunately, we are not able to share specific details with you yet, as we are waiting for guidance from EDB. As Mark Blackshaw said in his message, we will be holding a parent webinar on Thursday 14th April, when we hope to be able to give firm details for our return.

Following the Easter break, we will be holding a Year 8&9 Parents Information Session, looking at pathway choices in the Senior School. We want to provide parents with information on our BTEC Extended Diploma pathway and the IB Diploma pathway. Both pathways are globally recognised qualifications and have given our students direct access to Universities around the world. We would like to start talking to you about these pathways and how each of them offers students a unique preparation for University and beyond. Please click the link here if you would like to join us on Thursday 21st April, 5:00 pm to hear from our Careers Team, current and past students and their parents, about their experiences.

In the meantime, please make sure your child gets some rest and time away from the screen. It has been a long term and we are all in need of a break.

Thank you for all your support during this online period. Wishing you and your family a Happy Easter Break.

The Year 8 Team

Dear Parents and Caregivers

What a term! Nine weeks of online learning are complete and our Year 9s have been, quite simply, amazing! Staff have been so impressed with their focus, commitment and maturity towards online learning. Please give them a big pat on the back this evening. They are superstars!

The students have worked exceptionally well this term progressing their Community Projects, despite the challenges of online learning. It will be great to see the students engaging face-to-face on the next follow-up day on April 26th. During this day, students will spend most of their time finalising their plans for taking action. Over the break, students should take the opportunity to make sure their process journal is up to date and have a clear idea of how they can make the most of this upcoming planning day.

We are very much looking forward to seeing them in person on Tuesday 19th April. Unfortunately, we are not able to share specific details with you yet, as we are waiting for guidance from EDB. As Mark Blackshaw said in his message, we will be holding a parent webinar on Thursday 14th April, when we hope to be able to give firm details for our return.

Following the Easter break, we will be holding a Year 8&9 Parents Information Session, looking at pathway choices in the Senior School. We want to provide parents with information on our BTEC Extended Diploma pathway and the IB Diploma pathway. Both pathways are globally recognised qualifications and have given our students direct access to Universities around the world. We would like to start talking to you about these pathways and how each of them offers students a unique preparation for University and beyond. Please click the link here if you would like to join us on Thursday 21st April, 5:00 pm to hear from our Careers Team, current and past students and their parents, about their experiences.

In the meantime, please make sure your child gets some rest and time away from the screen. It has been a long term and we are all in need of a break.

Thank you for all your support during this online period. Wishing you and your family a Happy Easter Break.

The Year 9 Team

Our Year 12 students have had a flurry of assemblies over the past three days. We had a joint Year 12 and 13 assembly on Wednesday where we were treated to superb musical performances from our individual House finalists.

Today’s whole school assembly celebrated all the wonderful efforts of our whole school community over Term 2 and was expertly presented by our Head Prefects Molly Worthington and Eric Wang alongside our recently appointed President and Vice President of KGV Student Council, Kunal Panjabi and Rheana Dhusia.

I will continue to share updates with students and parents over the holiday period if and when we receive any information from EDB regarding returning to face-to-face learning in school on 19 April.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Year 10 students will be looking forward to a rest over the break. We will release summary reports at the end of the first week. Our first day back is Tuesday, 19 April and at this stage, it looks likely that this will be face to face for some or most of each day. Term 3 is 10 weeks long and we hope to return completely to normal attendance at some stage during the term.

Spread the word if you know someone who is interested.

Join our upcoming webinar on 4 May at 6:00 pm, for admissions information to our Year 12 & 13, Extended Diploma Qualification, BTEC pathway. 

Register here

Parents will be able to access an audio recording of the weekly newsletter in Mandarin, Korean and Hindi. These audio recordings will be available to parents by the Monday following the issuing of the newsletter. Please click here to access where the recordings will be stored. This is a new initiative and we are very much in a trial stage. If you have any feedback on how we could improve, or indeed could offer a translation service for us in another language, please email me at carole.beer@kgv.edu.hk.

School references

School reference (non-higher education purposes) (Link to policy on Lionel)

The Careers Office coordinates all KGV student references including exit & summer schools. All requests should be directed to careers.office@kgv.edu.hk. Please allow at least 4-6 work weeks for teachers to work on school references. School references for higher education applications are done in a separate process.

Y13 Higher Education applications
Communication between students & their H.E. Counsellors are key. This is especially so when application deadlines for many institutions are fast approaching. Submitting an application without informing the H.E. Counsellor in advance may result in missed relevant documents to support applications. Students are reminded that they MUST inform their H.E. Counsellors of applications they are making, to ensure that supporting documents are sent in time.

Y13 Parents Information Evening, 18:00 on 12 May. Mark your calendar. In this session, we will take parents through on supporting our Y13s with their offers and applications post-exams. The session is going to be on Zoom. Please make sure you sign in with your Zoom account. Details for signing up will be available closer to the date.

Y12 1-1 H.E. meeting
The HE Counsellors are continuing the 1-1 meetings with our Y12 students. The meeting is an opportunity for students to discuss their post-KGV plans and intentions. Students have received their appointment details. They need to complete a questionnaire at least 48 hours before their meeting to facilitate a meaningful and constructive conversation with their H.E. Counsellors. Parents are reminded that students will be individually online with their own H.E. Counsellor during these one-to-one conversations, please reach out to the Careers Team (careers.office@kgv.edu.hk) if this is of concern.

So far, we’ve taken our Y12s through an HE Refresher, UK&HK Personal Statements, UK Applications & HK Applications. Students are reminded to attend other H.E. presentations that are scheduled on upcoming Wednesdays at lunch break.  More presentations will come in Term 3.

Careers Website is full of information on summer/enrichment programmes, scholarships, careers & higher education resources, etc. Check this link for more.

External Events
Our Careers Calendar lists many university events. Refer to the Calendar for event details and registration links. Some highlights in the coming weeks:

General
- 5 Apr: BridgeU Webinar: Scholarships & Funding in World-Leading Destinations
- 17 May: Unifrog University Fair

U.K.
- 30 Mar-22 Apr: University of Cambridge Subject Masterclass Series for Y12 students
- 6 Apr: Discover Undergraduate Study in East England
- 7-8 Apr: Oxford: International Parent/Guardian/Carer Sessions
- 8 Apr: University of Bath Engineering Taster Lecture 1
- 23 Apr: St John’s College, University of Cambridge Webinar
- 27 & 28 Apr: Meet the Russell Group, UK

Europe
- 11 Apr: Tilburg University – Student for a Day Bachelor’s Programs
- 14, 20, 21 & 22 Apr BIMM Institute – web sessions

U.S.A.
- 1 Apr: College Board Digital SAT Update for International Students
- 15 Apr: College Board UniTalk: Preparing to Study in the United STates

Japan
- 9 Apr: Ritsumeikan University Online Session

Australia
- Various dates in April: Charles Darwin University webinars
- 9 Apr: Meet University of Sydney

KGV Careers Team

Fri 1 Apr Last day of Term 2

Tues 19 Apr First day of Term 3

Fri 22 Apr Year 11 on study leave

Friday, 6 May 2022 at 10:30 am

We are committed to supporting our parents through their journey at KGV, therefore have created several opportunities for you to engage with the school.  ‘Feedback Friday‘ is one such opportunity for you to engage in a personalised, small group session on a Friday morning, to chat with the Principal, Mark Blackshaw on various topics or areas you would like to discuss.

Sessions will run online from 10:30 am to 11:15 am, and are limited to 15 parents.

Our upcoming session will be on Friday, 6 May 2022.

Once you sign up for a session/s, a link will be sent to you closer to the time of the meeting.

If you would like to attend this or other sessions this term, please sign up on this form.

For enquiries contact Kiran at kiran.budhrani@kgv.edu.hk