Dear Parents and Guardians,

There were many highlights this week at school, with performing and visual arts being a significant celebration. All week we experienced the immense depth of musical talent at our school as part of the Inter House Music competition. There have been performances in the Hall across lunchtimes and after school all week, and the event culminated today with the finals in period 5, with students watching in the Hall and also live streamed to classes. The variety and quality of student musical talent were demonstrated through the competitive categories of instrumental solo, vocal ensemble, vocal solo, chamber ensemble and live tech. Thank you to Ms Carlile and the Music Department for organising the event. May the best House win!

Last night, I attended the Year 13 IB Art exhibition, which students, parents and staff attended well. It was a privilege to witness first-hand the incredible talent and hard work displayed by our students. Over the two-year course, our students have demonstrated abundant creativity, tenacity, and a bold risk-taking mentality, resulting in a collection of artwork we are genuinely proud of. We are in awe of our student’s dedication and creativity and the expertise, commitment and support of our outstanding KGV Art teachers, particularly Mr Cockram, who teaches this group. The event exemplifies that great things happen when we combine student talent and creativity with quality teaching and feedback!

It was great to celebrate and promote International Women’s Day on Wednesday 8th of this week. Over 50 people attended the breakfast event, and we had the privilege of hearing from KGV parent Mehvesh Ahmed, the Global Head of Social Impact for the Rosewood Hotel Group. She shared her inspirational personal and professional story, which was very well received by staff and students. We also heard from seven students about their experiences attending Tuesday's SCMP Women Of Our Time conference. They spoke with such confidence and passion about what they had learnt and reflected upon 

We are excited to be launching a new KGV Lions Chess Club. This student-inspired and led club will soon partner with Scholastic Chess Hong Kong to enrich the coaching and competitive opportunities of our students. Through this collaboration with Scholastic Chess, we hope to bring increased expertise to the club and, with their support, manage the KGV on-campus Chess Programme with school tournaments and coaching sessions. 

We plan to hold an online information session for existing and new players on Wednesday 22nd March at 5 pm to explain the new programme and answer any questions. The programme is open to beginner, intermediate and advanced players. Please click on this GOOGLE FORM to register for the online information session about the pilot programme. If you can't attend the information session, please fill out the form as an expression of interest.

We have been getting some great feedback from parents regarding the frequency and quality of our recent posts on Facebook. The pictures and videos provide a snapshot of some of the great activities and learning happening at school every day. If you still need to, please join our page at https://www.facebook.com/KGVHK.

Kind Regards

Mark Blackshaw

Principal, KGV School

Year 7 Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

This week, staff, students and parents have had the privilege of watching some of most talented musicians in action.  As students throughout the school participated in Interhouse Music, in tutor time, break, lunchtimes, after school and for most of us, Period 5 today, it really felt like ‘normal times’. There was a tremendous sense of community around the campus.

The Year 7 team is so proud of the Year 7 students who performed. A big shout out to Nathan Guo, Muchi Shi, Chloe To, Stavya Sharma and Owen Xu. You were fantastic!

This week, we also celebrated International Women’s Day, where we acknowledged the role women play in our community and the allies who help move us all one step closer to equality and promote empowerment.

Next week, we are recognising Neurodiversity Week and Maths Week. 

Have a great weekend

Year 10 Message

Year 10 students have engaged in International Women's day and the inter-house music competition this week. We are looking forward to Maths and Neurodiversity week next week.

We were delighted t hear that Ariel Sun in Y10 won Best Delegate in her committee at the Renaissance College MUN last weekend!

Year 11 Message

Year 11 students have only 20 more days of school. They are making the most of their final lessons and are ensuring they are as prepared as possible for their final exams.

Tutors and the year group team have been busy checking in with students to finalise option choices and follow up on mock exam feedback.

We will have the final timings for all the exams available soon. In the meantime, here are the days on which the exams will take place. 

To help students prepare, they can use this list of syllabus statements. Please encourage your child to get into a routine where they are getting enough sleep and exercise over the next few weeks.

Year 12 & 13 Message

The Year 12 and 13 Team would like to congratulate Reiss Lau on winning Best Delegate in her committee at the Renaissance College Model United Nations last weekend. A tremendous achievement. Well done, Reiss!

We have thoroughly enjoyed our KGV Inter House Music Competition this week, and our students performed superbly throughout the week during lunchtime and after school. Audiences were blown away by the standard of the performers, which culminated in this afternoon’s highlights session.

Huge congratulations to our Year 13 IBDP Art students on their fabulous exhibition held at the GLT this week. Their talent and hard work have certainly come to fruition, and everyone has been amazed at the quality of the work on display.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Year 8 Message

Congratulations to Chris Huang (Year 8) who has successfully finished the 10-month program of AIoT Coding, Engineering, and Entrepreneurial Skills Education for Gifted Students offered by the Department of Electrical Engineering of City University of Hong Kong. Chris finished the program with a final AI project called “Book Sort,” which uses machine learning algorithm coded in Python to recognise and categorise used and damaged books.

Chris’s project exhibition, and all other gifted students’ final projects, are located at Purple Zone of 4/F, Yeung Kin Man Academic Building, CityU (outside LT-15/16). Interested friends and classmates are welcome to take a look. Chris’s family are particularly thankful to KGV teacher Ms Chia-yao Chu, who introduced and recommended this program to Chris and helped him apply to the program last year. Chris became the youngest student ever admitted to this program, and he enjoyed it for ten months.

Next week will be the first in-person Maths Week we’ve been able to hold since 2019. Students can engage in several competitions, activities and events across the week. 

Many Year 8 students have participated in InterHouse Music this week. Performing in the Instrumental Solo section from Year 8:

• Hailey Sit - June “Barcarolle” from The Seasons by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

• Bridget Wong - Concerto in D Minor BWV 974 (1st and 3rd Movement) by J.S. Bach

• Tiffany Lai - Nocturne Op. 9 No.1 by Frederic Chopin 

Congratulations to everyone involved.  

Have a great weekend.

Year 9 Message

Next week will be the first in-person Maths Week we’ve been able to hold since 2019.  Students can engage in several competitions, activities and events across the week. 

On Thursday, 16 March, Year 9 students will have Community Project Follow-up Day #3 during periods one and two. During this time, students will work on developing a proposal by reflecting and reviewing, considering risk and contingency plans and refining the Proposal for ACTION. 

Many Year 9 students have participated in InterHouse Music this week.

Instrumental Solo performances from Year 9:

• Rola Huang

• Max Chan

• Enoch Wai

Vocal Solo performances from Year 9:

• Monique Wong

• Alva Yeung

• Ysabel Choi

• Bernice Cheng

• Alex Lee.

• Chesney Yim

Year 8 & 9 students were also involved in the Vocal and Chamber Ensembles. Congratulations to everyone involved.

This week, we also celebrated International Women’s Day, where we acknowledged the role women play in our community and the allies who help move us all one step closer to equality and promote empowerment.

Have a great weekend.

Next week, we are delighted to be running our first in-school Maths Week since 2019, and thus a new experience for all our students in Years 7 – 10! The week will be filled with events, activities and competitions to nurture a love of mathematics outside the classroom – you can see all the details on our LIONeL MathsWeek Course page here. Alongside our favourite daily challenges such as Sudoku and Carl the Kangaroo’s Problem of the Day, we have two new activities you may particularly enjoy doing with your child: 2023’s “2048” and the “Famous Mathematician Daily Wordle”.

An integral part of the week is the Interhouse Maths Competition, in which students participate in house teams in a maths relay to win points for their house towards the House Cup. These usually take place during one of their scheduled maths lessons in the week, and we’d appreciate your help in supporting your child to find their relay date, time and teammates at the "Interhouse Maths 2023" link here.

Note that students do not need to bring in their maths equipment when they have their relay, and if you’d like to go through the rules with your child, you can find them on the LIONeL MathsWeek course page linked above.

Many thanks, and wishing you a Happy Maths Week!
From the Mathematics Department

On Friday the 3rd of March, a group of sixteen year 8 and 9 students left KGV and travelled to Harrow International School to take part in a mathematics competition. It is the first time this competition has been run since 2019 and the students were very excited. We were joined by 17 other schools with nearly 300 able mathematicians.

Below are a few words from one of the students who took part.

Dragon Maths was an amazing experience for me and my team. It is a highly competitive challenge against schools from around Hong Kong which gives a chance to improve critical thinking, cooperation and time management skills. Getting to compete against different schools was a really nice experience, especially since this was my first face-to-face maths competition representing KGV. In a tight race for first place in our year group, our team was held back from placing by just a few points due to entries made at the last minute that, unfortunately, did not register. Overall this match was an extremely fun and unique opportunity that I am so glad to have gotten the chance to be a part of! Suhani Methi [09R10]

Although we didn’t win we came within I mark of 3rd place missing. Hopefully, with more practice, we’ll be successful in 2024 and bring home a trophy.

Well done to the competitors:

Year 8 - Vivaan Kumar, Thapas Nandan Rajeswaran, Oscar Zhen, Hailey Sit, David Wang, Hilo Chen, Ethan Jiang, Anson Wai

Year 9 - Kasper Wu, Adrian Wan, So Fung Wong, Yujun Lim, Justin Wang, Daniel Wang, Bernice Cheng, Suhani Methi

Scroll down  for the answer

AP = 4

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.

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 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.

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. Any missed communication may result is a 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.
• IBO Result Service.  Students doing IBDP or IB courses are recommended to subscribe to the IBO Result Service that sends student’s final results to the institution they specify.  Students were briefed at Tutor Time on 2 Mar on how to do this.  Our Exam Office is coordinating this service and an email was sent to Y13 students about subscribing to this service.  For queries about IBO Result Service, please email exam@kgv.edu.hk.
• Y13 Exit plan.  The Careers & H.E. Team will be briefing our Class of 2023 next week.  A parent presentation is planned after Easter.

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). Deadline to submit parent consent (via this link) and “Code of Conduct” (signed by both parent & student) is 10 March, Friday.  There is still a small number of students who are yet to submit parent consent and/or signed “Code of Conduct”.  Without either of the form, students won’t be allowed to do the internship.  Please refer to email of 7 March for details.

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
14 Mar: Brunel
15 Mar: Bath
17 Mar: Massey (New Zealand) & Falmouth
20 Mar: Leeds Beckett
21 Mar: Nottingham, York, Cardiff, Leicester, Durham, Exeter, York & Huddersfield
18 Apr: Calgary
19 Apr: Keele

Hong Kong
19 Mar: HKOSA Youth Summit 2023
26 Mar: HK Aspiring Medics & Scientists Conference
1 Apr: BEC x NESS Green Jobs Fair

Europe
Mar-Apr (various dates): Carl Benz School of Engineering webinars
14 Mar: IESEG School of Management webinar: Bachelor in International Business

Canada / U.S.
March (various dates): Toronto Metropolitan University various sessions
14 Mar: NYU Virtual Session exclusive for ESF students

Australia
1 Apr: U of Sydney – Meet Sydney Virtual Info Session

KGV Careers & H.E. Team

SIGN UP NOW! A few spaces left!

I would like to invite Parents and Students to be part of a very exciting but worthwhile opportunity.

In collaboration with the Mekong Club Hong Kong and CNN in support of CNN’s Freedom Project (March 16th), we are inviting parents and students to take part in the ‘Freedom Day Sweatshop Challenge’, offering participants a taste of what it is like to experience a sweatshop situation and to raise awareness/funding for the Mekong Club and its aim to reduce modern slavery across the globe.

• Date: Tuesday 14th of March
• Time: 3.30pm - 6.30pm

We are looking to recruit 30 - 50 student/parent teams for this event and will allocate on a first-come, first-served basis. Please complete the following form to express an interest in the event. Sign up Form

Due to COVID restrictions, we ran this event online last year but are excited to bring this event back in person. To see the coverage and snapshot of the event, please see the linked video: KGV Sweatshop Simulation.

Kind regards

Promoting Healthy Sleep

The School Social Workers organised another lunchtime activity promoting mental health awareness.

They partnered with Levelmind@JC to promote sleep hygiene.

Students participated in a sleep assessment and a sleeping farm activity to assess their sleep quality.

Students who would like to improve sleep quality are encouraged to participate in 6 sessions of CBT workshops to learn ways of improving sleep health in March and April 2023. Students can sign up through the student bulletin.

For 13 - 17 March