Principal's message

Dear Parents and Guardians

There was considerable excitement and anticipation in the lead-up to our Challenge week this week. Seeing the scale and variety of experiences our students engage in is wonderful. Activities range from Model Building, Charity Work, Aviation simulation, Self Defence, Film Making, Underwater Robotics, Creative Writing, Pottery, Cross Fit and App Development, to name a few. 

The Year 7 students also have an exciting Challenge Week ahead with the programme, including bike riding, coasteering, kite building and hiking. What an excellent opportunity for our Year 7 students to strengthen friendships and create new ones. This week is all about learning. We learn most by doing and when we are ‘in the moment’. Challenge week is about experiential learning focused on stretching student capabilities, attitudes, thinking, identity and relationships with others.

This time last year, I also wrote about how I believe that an important role for teachers and parents to seek opportunities to create meaning for our young people and to encourage them to reflect on their experiences during this exciting week. With this in mind, I think some reflection points to reinforce to our students as they head off to Challenge Week could be around:

·    Be in the moment. This is an amazing learning opportunity, and the challenges and experiences will be unique. Take time to stop now and then and ‘take it in’ and think about where you are and what a unique experience you are having.

·    Be grateful. Grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program and to have the support of parents, teachers and the school.

·    Be safe. Have a great time and be adventurous, but your safety and that of your group are the top priorities.

·    Be a team. The challenge experience is about the people you travel with as much as the people you meet. We encouraged our students to embrace the friendship opportunity, strengthen bonds, and create new connections. 

·    Be a contributor. The effort you put into something is usually strongly related to what you get out. We urged all to be contributors and not just passengers. Be positive, encouraging, proactive and supportive of each other and the KGV staff.

·    Be excited. Have some fun. Laugh with your friends and, most importantly, laugh at yourself.

·    Be a learner. We encouraged you to try and make sense of what you were experiencing. What did you learn, and what made you rethink your beliefs and perceptions?

I want to thank the parents for their support regarding Challenge week, as we provide this experiential learning opportunity for ‘your child, our student’ to help them ‘be their own remarkable’.

I want to thank our Vice Principal, Mr Carrell and Mr Ian Goth, our Challenge Week Coordinators, and all our staff trip leaders for their leadership and organisation of this significant event.  

All details about what is happening in each activity across the week are on the Challenge Week website https://sites.google.com/a/kgv.hk/cw/

EDB Announcement

Our CEO Belinda Greer sent a message to all parents on Wednesday confirming the  EDB announcement of a significant relaxation of the rules relating to Covid-19 in Hong Kong schools. This is good news, and we will work through the details of the EDB Position over the coming days.

KGV is also in a solid position to make the most of any relaxation of COVID rules, with now over 91% of our students meeting the Vaccine Pass requirements! Thank you to all parents and students for your support and for ensuring that we remain open to full-day schooling for the foreseeable future.

Government Grant Forms

We have been receiving and processing the $2,500 EDB Government Student Grant Forms over the past week. Thank you to all parents who signed and returned the form to the School Reception through their son or daughter. If you have not yet returned the form, please do so by the close of business on Tuesday 2nd November next week. If you have any questions, please email Kiran Budhrani at kiran.budhrani@kgv.edu.hk

Winter Uniform

Our Winter uniform period starts Monday, 7th November (straight after Challenge Week). The only significant difference is that students wear ties during the Winter months. Please see here for our uniform policy https://www.schooluniform.hk/         To avoid parents paying delivery charges for the ties, we have purchased a bulk quantity from our online supplier and will sell them to our students from our KGV Shop with no markup. However, you may also purchase them from the uniform supplier website. Please explore our uniform website for winter uniform purchases.

Speech Night

Importantly, we celebrated our 98th Speech Night last night in our School Hall. It was wonderful to have our parents and friends back in school to celebrate the diversity of achievements in our school. Congratulations to all our award winners for ‘being their own remarkable’.

Finally, a reminder that no CAS activities will not run over Challenge Week.

Have a good weekend.

Mark Blackshaw

Principal, KGV School

Year 8 & 9 Message

It has been an eventful week with Diwali Celebrations, Year 8 & 9 Assemblies, Year 8 Geography Trips, Cross Country, Speech Night and the final Challenge Week preparations put in place. 

Speech Night: Congratulations to Gemma Yeung (08R09) and Harry Zhang (09C09) who were awarded Ezra Abraham Scholarships for attainment and to Arnav Batra (08R07) and Bryce Wong (09N09) who were awarded Ezra Abraham Scholarships for progress. 

Assemblies: Our KGV Jazz Band performed two musical items for our assemblies this week, ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’ and the theme song from ‘Ghostbusters’. Congratulations to our Year 8 & 9 students who performed alongside the senior students in the band: Vena Yeung (08N09), Enoch Wai (09N06) and Max Chan (09N12). 

Winter Uniform: Winter Uniform for students starts from 7 November and includes wearing the School Tie. For further clarification, please check our Uniform Guidelines here. This is a reminder that if students feel cold, they should only be wearing approved KGV uniform items. 

Challenge Week: The students and staff are very much looking forward to Challenge Week 2022. The Challenge Week website and live blog can be found here. 

Challenge Week notes for parents:

• All information for your child's activity is shown on the page for that activity. Use the menu system to find it.

• School buses will run as normal except Monday is a 3:20 finish

• Send absence information directly to the staff member leading your child's activity

• To get information urgently to the staff member leading your child's activity, call KGV reception on 27113029

• In an emergency call the Challenge Week coordinator on 92090479

Please ensure you know which activity your child is on and have bookmarked the page.

Year 10 Message

Year 10 students are taking part in 50 different activities for Challenge Week next week. Please make sure you know which activity your child is undertaking and know how to access the Challenge Week website page for their activity.
We wish all Year 10 students the best for Challenge Week.

Winter uniform begins after Challenge Week. From then students should wear a tie and may choose to wear the school jersey, fleece or hoodie.

Year 11 Message

Year 11 students are taking part in 50 different activities for Challenge Week next week. Please make sure you know which activity your child is undertaking and know how to access the Challenge Week website page for their activity.
We wish all Year 11 students the best for Challenge Week.

Winter uniform begins after Challenge Week. From then students should wear a tie and may choose to wear the school jersey, fleece or hoodie.

Year 12 Message

Congratulations to all our prize winners who attended our KGV Speech Night.

Further to Mr Blackshaw’s message, we hope all of our Year 12 students have a wonderful Challenge Week experience and not forget to be in the moment, be safe and contribute all you can to get the most out of the experience!

Year 13 Message

Congratulations to all our prize winners who attended our KGV Speech Night.

We look forward to helping our Year 13 students get the most out of Challenge Week, whether it is getting caught up with your academic priorities or focusing on upcoming assignments. We are also excited and very much looking forward to our Year 13 Disney Experience next Friday.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Year 7 Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Congratulations to all Year 7s who participated in Inter-House Cross Country this week. Mr. Varty has added an item to this week’s newsletter, giving more details on what happened in the Cross Country events this week. It was great to see Year 7s taking part and supporting one another.

Next week we have Year 7 Challenge Week. Thank you to those parents and caregivers who were able to join us on Tuesday for our Information Session.  Please click here for a recording of the session.

Some reminders to help you prepare for next week;

1. All students should come to school at the start of each day and meet in the hall by 8.10 am. 

2. Each day the students will be able to take the school bus home. Monday, the school will finish at 3.20 pm. Bus companies have been informed.

3. Students should dress in House Colours. PE kit is perfect, but House Coloured clothes are also OK. Students should wear trainers and have a hat.

4. Students should bring

   1. Everything they need in a small backpack

   2. Sun cream

   3. 1.5 litres of water each day

   4. Hat

   5. Spare masks

   6. Towel (this would be useful for Coasteering and Trio day)

   7. HK$10 for the Trio day (to take the ferry)

   8. Octopus with HK$100 

   9. Mobile Phone (if they have one)

   10. Water shoes/flip flops (optional for coasteering and Trio)

5. If you live in SK and want your child to meet the bus in SK at the start of the day and/or go home from SK, please complete this form BEFORE MONDAY! 

6. If your child is sick and cannot come to school please email me (carole.beer@kgv.edu.hk)

7. Any questions in the week, please email me (carole.beer@kgv.edu.hk) 

Most importantly, we want your child to have fun next week and to challenge themselves with activities, making new friends and visiting new places. We hope to give you updates during the week.

The first week back after Challenge Week is our winter uniform transition week. During this week, students should start wearing their school ties. All students will be expected to wear ties from November 14th.

Have a great weekend.

The Year 7 Team.

Careers & H.E. Guidance

Our email address: careers.office@kgv.edu.hk.

KGV Careers Website is another platform where we share information and resources on higher education, scholarship, external events, enrichment programmes and many more.

Year 13

• 1-1 H.E. meetings. Most of our Y13 students should have met with their HE Counsellors to discuss their post-KGV moves. If they haven’t done so, they should get in touch with the Careers Team at the soonest.
• Close communication with HE Counsellors. Apart from keeping to internal deadlines, students should work closely with their HE Counsellors and keep informed of their HE applications. Any missed communication may result in delays in providing necessary support for applications, which may result in missed offers.
• Student official full names are used on school transcripts. We would like to ask parents to check that their children’s official full name in the school record matches that on their identity documents. This is especially so when students are known in school by their preferred names which may not be their official names. Unmatched names may cause difficulties with university offers.
• Google Classroom. All resources for Y13 higher education applications are available via Google Classroom, including internal deadlines.
• Next upcoming internal deadline: 9 Nov for UK & USA regular applications.  By this date, UK regular applicants should have completed their UCAS applications, while US regular applicants should have informed their HE Counsellor of the institutions they are applying to and entered the list into their Unifrog account.

University Events on the KGV Careers Calendar

Highlight of upcoming events:

Hong Kong
29 Oct: HKU Info Day
29 Oct: Education University Info Day
5 Nov: HKUST Info Day

U.K.
28 Oct: The Medic Portal Webinar: Introduction to Med School Interviews (2023 entry)
28 Oct: Cambridge Applicant Webinar Series
29 Oct - Nov: University of Bath: Webinars on various subject courses
31 Oct - Nov: University of Edinburgh: Virtual sessions on various subject courses
2 Nov: LSE Discovery Sessions

U.S.A. / Canada
2 Nov: UC Application Workshop for ESF students
2 Nov: Colgate University Webinar: Important Financial Aids Tips

Japan
29 Oct: Ritsumeikan University Mini Lectures Series

Europe
30 Oct: Virtually Orange (Dutch virtual university fair)
3 Nov: EU Business School: Webinar
5 Nov: Study in Austria hybrid education fair

Australia
Nov: Charles Darwin University: various webinars
5 Nov: University of Sydney: Meet Sydney Virtual Information Session

KGV Careers Team

We had some interesting results for our Lionel Poll this week about student’s eyesight!

Please have a chat with your child to see if they are one of the 103 students who said they need to get their eyesight checked or start wearing their glasses/contact lenses regularly. 

It can make a huge difference to learning in school and also to general safety when out and about.

Dear parents,

Please be advised, we will be using the November 2022 series IBDP papers for our mock exams in all Mathematics courses. These papers are scheduled to be released from next Monday 31st October, and we ask you to support your children by ensuring they avoid seeing these papers before our mock examination period (in January). This will help ensure they have the most authentic experience during our mock exams, to best prepare them for their real exams in May.

Please also note that achievement in the mock examinations cannot be used as evidence for raising predicted grades.

Thank you for your support and as ever, please don’t hesitate to reach out should you have any queries.

Alexandra Streeter
Learning Director of Mathematics

St John’s Cathedral Life Enrichment Centre is offering a free Webinar for parents on:

“It's time for you to talk to your child about Cannabis and Vape”.

Cannabis is one of the most reported psychotropic drugs used among youths in Hong Kong. Since it has been legalised in some countries, the inconsistent message can be confusing for young people who are still in their developing stage. Therefore, awareness of this controversial topic is essential for teaching professionals.

Jointly organised by Life Enrichment Centre and the Hong Kong Government Narcotics Division - Beat Drug Fund, these workshops hope to equip teaching professionals and parents with knowledge about preventative strategies and how to enhance youths’ health in body, mind, and spirit.

The speaker is Dr. Young (Clinical Psychologist, HKICP, DCP HKPS) who has worked in the child and adolescent mental health services for over 10 years and has rich experiences in the assessment and intervention of various developmental disorders. She is also experienced in collaborating with schools on student mental health support.

Details are as follows: 

Parents Talk

Date:              18 November 2022 (Friday)

Time:              7:00-8:00pm (HKT)

Format:           Zoom

Language:      English

Speakers:    Dr Young (Clinical Psychologist, HKICP, DCP HKPS)

Registration: https://forms.gle/uxq3GYG2MdbPF6b49   (A confirmation email with the Zoom link will be sent to you before the talk)

Should you have any inquiries, please contact Ms. Arvinder Kaur at 98170782 or arvinder@sjclec.org 

Life Enrichment Centre

St John's Cathedral

Telephone: (852) 2523 0531

Fax: (852) 2523 1581

Website: https://www.sjclec.org

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/stjohnlec/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sjc_life_enrichment_centre/”

Geography, ESS and Global Perspectives Trips

Dear Parents and ESF Community,

What a perfect week of weather to have for our first round of Geography, ESS and Global Perspectives Trips for the academic year 2022-23 here at KGV! This week, we took all Year 8 students out to Long Ke Wan Beach and High Island Reservoir to investigate coastal, climatic and tectonic hazards as part of their Hazards and Change MYP unit of work. This involved students collecting primary data to investigate the coastal process of Longshore Drift, but then the enquiry expanded to discover how our amazing city is actually located within what was once an active super volcano! Students were exposed to landscapes once created by this volcano and learnt about the geological processes that formed this region, and the associated hazards that come with this. Finally, students considered the needs of the reservoir and the purpose of the East Dam, in response to water security needs and protection against typhoons.

Here are some photos from the trip for you to enjoy! On behalf of my team, I’d like to thank the KGV staff who helped run the trip, our students for their exemplary behaviour, and our parental community for supporting our students’ engagement with outdoor learning.

I do hope you have a lovely weekend and upcoming Challenge Week.

Jim Schofield

Head of Geography, ESS and Global Perspectives.

This week saw the return of our Interhouse Cross Country competition. The return of competitive sport to KGV has breathed life back into our house competition, and it was fantastic to celebrate very high levels of participation, as well as some exceptional running from our talented athletes. 

The weather obliged, with the heat instead being brought by the runners on the course. Each year group competed in a boys and girls race across a new 2 kilometre course which wound its way around our campus. The positions of the top 6 finishers from each house in each race, as well as overall participation, were used to determine the winning house in each race. 

In addition, as has become a tradition at KGV, our Year 13 students completed their event in fancy dress, and 2022 marks the first year that not 1 but 2 inflatable dinosaurs were able to complete the course. 

Sophia Montefiore and Marcus Fu - both of Rowell House - led the way in the Year 7 competition. Upsdell hit back with both Alex Fisher and Rachel Xing winning their races. Rachel’s time of 7 minutes and 24 seconds was the fastest girls time across all years, a phenomenal achievement for a Year 8 student! 

The Year 11 race saw a 3-way sprint for the finish line between Aryan and Arjun Moorjani of Nightingale, and Devansh Punjabi of Crozier. The winning time of 6 minutes 37 seconds looked hard to beat until Nicolas Ortega of Year 12 (Crozier) produced an equally stunning run of his own to complete the course in 6 minutes 33 seconds. Kiara Malkani (Upsdell) ran the second fastest girls time of the week - 7 minutes and 29 seconds - in the girls Year 11 competition. 

But it was not until Friday that we saw our fastest time, with Ryan Schroeder of Upsdell completing the course in an incredible 6 minutes and 30 seconds to win the Year 10 boys race and set a new course record. 

The overall results were incredibly close, with Rowell finishing just ahead of Upsdell, followed by Crozier and Nightingale. Congratulations to Rowell!

We are incredibly proud of our students for their effort in taking part in this years’ cross country event, with almost all students taking part and representing their house. The top 3 finishers from each race were awarded medals, please use this link for their photos, in full they were:

* course record

31 October – 4 November:       KGV Challenge Week

14 November – 18 November:  KGV Pride Week

21 November - 25th November: Colours Ceremonies

23 November:                            Learning Review 1           (Students will work from home on this day)

28 November:                            KGV Sports Day

1 December:                              Learning Review 2 (Students will work from home on this day)

5 December – 9th December:    KGV Creative Arts Week

8 December:                      KGV Christmas Carol Concert

16 December:                             Last Day of Term 1 (Dress Casual)