Principal's message

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Thank you to all the completed our ESF KGV stakeholder survey. We had nearly 50% of parents completing the survey and doubled the participation from the previous survey two years ago. This data will provide some great feedback to help us make our school even better for the students and community we serve.

The survey data from parents, students and staff will directly inform our improvement priorities and goals for next year. This data importantly helps us reference against our KGV Vision which is about: ·       

• Creating a ‘school for one’ where each student feels that the school was created just for them. 
• Through a lived experience, we all feel a deep sense of belonging, identity, and purpose.  
• Seeking to personalise learning further so each and every person is supported and encouraged to achieve at a high level and to develop holistically to be the best person they can be.
• A school that thrives on a culture where a diversity of ideas and beliefs are equally cherished, respected, and heard. 
• Seeking to continuously collaborate, innovate, and improve to make a difference in the communities we serve and lead.

Our vision, alongside our “be your own remarkable” purpose, provides our ‘north star’ compass and reference point for all we do in the school. Like many organisations, large schools can be very complex places with complicated and interlinked systems and, at times, competing agendas. We feel that a clear and compelling vision focused on our students provides great clarity for our decisions and how we direct resources. When things get complex and cloudy, we always get back to how we act in the best interests of our students and make them feel like ‘the school was created just for them’. 

Next week, we are excited to promote ‘Mother Tongue’ week at KGV from the 20th to the 24th of February. Mother Tongue week is essentially a celebration and acknowledgement of diversity. The week encourages all students to partake in a wide range of activities that seek to cherish two essential aspects of our school identity: our linguistic and cultural diversity.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Mark Blackshaw

Principal, KGV School

Year 11 Message

Students will start to get back their mock exam papers and feedback next Monday. This will be an opportunity for students to reflect on their successes and consider the challenges ahead of them before the final exams. We hope to collate all grades and feedback into a mock report by Friday, February 24th. This will be a useful document for tutors and parents to use with students to support them in setting goals for the two months before their final exams.

Students have previously researched and entered their preliminary option choices for Year 12. On Friday 24th, the system will be reset, and students will make final option requests for Year 12. These choices are very important, and parents and tutors must sign off on them.

In year 12, students can follow any one of four pathways, and we have a degree of flexibility within pathways to match each student's capabilities, working style, interests and intended post-secondary destinations. If you are unsure about guiding your child, please reach out to their tutor in the first instance to start a conversation.

Year 11 students have received specific guidance about this process over the last few days. We will send out resources to parents next week.

In Year 10, students have Science and other subject assessments coming up very soon. We hope they are using the study and revision strategies taught last week to prepare for these. Please check in with your child to see how they are progressing.

A reminder of the email below sent to all Parents and Guardians of Year 13 students this week.

Graduation 2023

Dear Parents, Guardians and Students,

We are excited to announce that the Year 13 Graduation Ceremony will be Wednesday, 31 May, from 6.00 pm to 7.30 pm. Additionally, the date of our Graduation Dinner Dance is confirmed for Friday, 2 June, at Hotel Icon.

The formal graduation will involve students wearing an academic gown and receiving a KGV graduation certificate and a mortarboard cap embroidered with their graduate number from the principal on stage in the school hall. KGV school will cover the cost of gown hire; parents will be invoiced HK$120 to cover the cost of the mortar board, which the students keep.

Students may bring a maximum of 2 guests. We will ask parents to register so we know who will attend and can plan for numbers. We are asking students to provide us with their sizes for purchasing Mortarboard.

The link to the Mortarboard order is here: https://forms.gle/pXnSWfzz1wm3GAM7A

We will be in contact soon with invitations, registration forms and more details.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Changes to Late Arrival / Early Leave Privileges

Following a review of the above, lesson 3 is no longer available for Early Leave; our earliest sign-out is now 11.40 am on Monday and 12.30 pm from Tuesday to Friday.

A reminder that KGV is a ‘nut-free’ school.

With some of our students having potentially life-threatening allergies to nuts and related products; please ensure ALL food brought into school is nut-free.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Year 8 Message

Language and Academy Options for Year 9 will open for one week on Monday, 20 Feb. The focus is to collect preliminary language choices and for students to indicate if they are interested in music or sports academies. Languages teachers will explain the options available to their students during class, and the relevant departments will follow up on choices. Although the choices for Arts subjects will be open, students do not need to complete these at this point as they have yet to experience all three Arts rotations. The final option choices for Year 8 into Year 9 will be in May 2023. 

Next week, we look forward to having our first face-to-face assemblies for Term 2. Year 8 and 9 students continue to focus on and share examples of where they have shown our school value of Empathy at KGV and amongst the wider community. Through this focus, students' understanding of empathy has grown, and we look forward to celebrating these examples in our assemblies.  

Have a great weekend. 

Year 9 Message

The hall buzzed Wednesday afternoon with Year 9 students attending the Careers Fair. Students interacted with vendors to gain knowledge about how the different pathways, skills and approaches to learning that they experience at KGV can support their future career plans.

The Year 10 subject options system will close on Monday. Maths, Science and WIN options will be open later this term. 

Next week, we look forward to having our first face-to-face assemblies for Term 2. Year 8 and 9 students continue to focus on and share examples of where they have shown our school value of Empathy at KGV and amongst the wider community. Through this focus, students' understanding of empathy has grown, and we look forward to celebrating these examples in our assemblies.  

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

This week all KGV Students completed our well-being survey. This survey takes place twice a year and enables us to ensure we have the appropriate support for individual students; plus, it helps us identify topics and themes we need to explore further with students. Heads of Year and our Wellbeing Coordinators are currently looking at the data, and they will reach out to Parents and Caregivers as required.

Tutors are currently conducting one-to-one conversations with their tutees, looking at their Semester One reports and identifying strengths and stretches. Please speak to your child to see if they can articulate the specific actions they need to take to continue to progress in their subjects.

Thank you to those parents who were able to join us at today’s Feedback Friday with The Principal. 

Have a great weekend.

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.

KGV Careers Fair 2023.  We had a very successful Careers Fair on 15 Feb.  We look forward to students’ feedback to make the next Careers Fair an even bigger success.

HE Resources via Google Classroom for Y12 & Y13. All resources for higher education applications are available via Google Classroom, including internal deadlines. Students should look out for announcements & reminders. Y13s should ensure they are keeping their paces with applications.

Student official full names are used on school transcripts. We want 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.

Year 13

• 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. Failure to communicate timely may delay in providing necessary support for applications, which may result in missed offers.
• Application Status & Offers. Applicants are starting to receive offer decisions. Students should have regular communications with their HE Counsellors on their application status.

Year 12

• 1-1 session with HE Counsellors. The 1-to-1 meetings are well underway.  Students should have received an email with their individual appointment details and preparation before the session. If students don’t know their appointment date/time, please contact the Careers Office.  There is a questionnaire for students to complete before they attend their appointment. It is important that they attend the session to discuss their post-KGV intentions.
• BTEC Internship (W1: 20-24 March; W2: 27-31 March). Correspondence on the Y12 BTEC internship went out to our BTEC students and their parents before term break. Students were briefed on 13 Jan with their placement details. The deadline for submitting application letter and CV is on 6 Feb. More sessions are planned for students to prepare them for the placements.
• Year 12 Parent information session on Wednesday, 15 Feb. Thank you to those parents who joined us on Wednesday.  Slides of the presentation will be sent to Y12 parents by the end of this week.

KGV School References

The KGV Careers Office is coordinating all references for students. KGV School has a closed reference policy. School references are treated with the strictest confidentiality and are sent only to the institution that makes a request. Students and their families do not get to see their school reference.

• Reference for Y13s’ higher education application: All current Y13 students have a school reference in place as one of the support school documents. There is no need for students to make a request. Students should work closely with their H.E. Counsellor for their applications.
• References for non-higher education purposes, including potential exit, summer school, scholarship, etc.: Parents should inform the Careers Office by email, providing purpose and contact for sending the reference. The normal lead time for teachers to work on school references is 4-6 working weeks.

University Events on the KGV Careers Calendar

Highlight of upcoming events:

University visit @ KGV, during lunch time at Senior Student Common Room

28 Feb: Exeter

1 Mar: Leeds, BIMM

2 Mar: EU Business School

15 Mar: Bath

17 Mar: Massey (New Zealand) & Falmouth

20 Mar: Leeds Beckett

21 Mar: Nottingham, York, Cardiff, Leicester, Durham, Exeter, York & Huddersfield

Hong Kong
5 Mar: HK Academy of Performing Arts Open Day

U.K.
Feb 2023 (various dates): Cambridge: Foundation Year Applicant Support Programme
Feb 2023 (various dates): Think Cambridge 2023 Webinar series continues

Europe
Feb 2023 (various dates): Carl Benz School of Engineering webinars

Singapore
25 Feb-6 Mar: NUS Online Open House

KGV Careers Team

Here are ten reasons why the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) encourages students to become creative, critical and reflective learners. 

Use these ten reasons to open dialogue with your child and learn more about their experience of the MYP at KGV.  

ESF Policies and KGV Guidelines

Our ESF Policies and KGV Guidelines are available to all parents through their Lionel login. The link is here: ESF Policies and KGV Guidelines. The policies and guidelines on Lionel are reviewed and updated regularly. As part of our 5-Year IB Review, we will ask for Parent Feedback on critical policies and guidelines. We will share more information on how parents can give feedback in an upcoming Newsletter.

Cross Country Championships

ISSFHK – Cross Country Championships

The KGV Cross-Country Running Team took part in a qualifying mini-meet in January, which was an exciting 4km trail run at Eagle’s Nest Nature Trail. All students ran exceptionally well; they were challenged by the terrain but all qualified. On Friday, 3rd Feb 2023, KGV took part in the ISSFHK Championships, where 26 Schools from HK took part, and KGV came a very creditable 3rd overall in the Schools competition (despite not having an Under 20 girls team and some runners not available due to Mock Examinations for the Under 16 age group).

The race distances for different age groups varied from 5.5km to 2.6km for the championships at Tai Lam Country Park. Race positions for each runner were combined, and KGV school produced the following excellent results against the 26 Schools; Under 20 Boys 2nd , Under 16 Boys 13th, Under 16 Girls 6th, Under 14 Boys 3rd, Under 14 Girls 1st, Under 12 Boys 2nd, Under 12 Girls 3rd. A special mention and congratulations to the Under 14 Girls team who were the Age Group Champions, and our individual medal winners were Alex Fisher (1st place in the Under 12 Boys race) and Rachel Xing (2nd place in the Under 14 Girls). Photos from the event are here. If you are looking to getting involved in running or would like a challenge of racing, please keep an eye on student bulletin for running opportunities. We are extremely proud of all our KGV runners who demonstrated real grit and competitiveness, with lots of personal bests run at the Championships.

For 20 - 24 February

As part of mother tongue week, we offer a different type of cuisine each day, honouring cultures of the languages which are most widely spoken in our community. (Menu pdf link below)