Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week, we hosted the ESF Marketing Competition, which involved teams of Year 12 students from our seven ESF secondary competing at KGV. Ruby Tuesday Restaurants sponsored the event. It was wonderful having their CEO, Vicky Bahrunani and Managing Director, Leslie Bailey, at our school to introduce and support the marketing challenge. The challenge required the students to apply their business and economics knowledge and skills to real-world scenarios for the Ruby Tuesday business. A huge shout out to our Year 13 BTEC Business students who led the competition and organised the event across our ESF schools.

Notably, our two KGV teams finished 1st and 3rd in the competition, making it a great day of learning, community connection, and celebration for KGV school.

Next week is a big week for the school, with the Evening of Music and Dance (EOMD) happening on Thursday evening. This annual showcase of student talent is always well attended by students, parents and staff.

Next week also, our Year 13 IB DP students begin study leave on Friday as they head off to study for their exams in April and May. All our Year 13 students will engage in celebrations across the week, especially on Friday, with their ‘march’ down the school driveway in front of the rest of the school.

This a reminder that teachers will be available online and face-to-face for Year 11 and Year 13 tutorials to support exam preparation in every timetable lesson leading up to the exam date for each subject. We will remind students to reach out for support across the study leave period. Our BTEC students will be working hard at school in term 3 as they complete their coursework to ensure they receive the highest possible grade to help secure their university choices.

Please see attached the latest ESF KGV School calendar version for the 2023-24 calendar year.

Have a great weekend.

Mark Blackshaw

Year 11 Message

Year 11 students have only 10 more days of lessons before their study leave starts. Friday 21 April will be their last day of timetabled lessons.

During study leave, students can use the LRC as a study venue if they prefer to study at school. They will have access to their subject teachers at the time they would normally have their lessons, either in person if they are in school or via google meet if they are studying from home.

The fully detailed exam timetable is available here. Please do not print this out; changes are inevitable as it is a complex document. For an overview of the exam dates, you can refer to this "exams at a glance" document.

Personalised timetables for all students who have clashes or will use different venues will be distributed next week.

Please continue to check in with your child to ensure they are in a good place and feel like they are in control of the revision process. Reach out to their tutor if you have any concerns.

Year 10 Message

Many Year 10 students got into the spirit of "Wear a Hat" day today in support of brain tumour research.

There is one more week until a well-deserved two-week break. We have noticed that many students are tired. Please encourage your child to get enough sleep and to understand that when they are tired, particularly towards the end of a term, they need to make an extra effort to be kind to themselves and to the people around them.

Year 12 Message

Congratulations to the following Year 12 students. They attended the Pearson Edexcel Outstanding Learner awards last weekend.

Maahi received the award for the top IGCSE Physics grade in Asia

Teresa received the award for the top grade in Hong Kong for GCSE Art

Charlotte received the award for the top grade in Hong Kong for GCSE Art

Huge congratulations also go to our 2 excellent KGV teams for achieving first and second place in this week’s ESF Marketing Competition. We hosted the event in our hall this week, which was organised by our Year 13 BTEC students. Well done to all involved!

As we approach the end of term 2, we want to thank our Year 12 students for their efforts and remind them of the need to be respectful in not only their interactions with each other but also with the entire KGV community. Our Year 12 students will soon be the most senior students in our school, and the need has never been greater for them to be the best role models they can be for all of our younger students.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Year 13 Message

Firstly, we want to congratulate our Year 13 BTEC students for organising the superb ESF Marketing Competition, held in our school hall this week. Purely coincidentally, our KGV teams achieved first and second place! Well done to all involved!

Please see below the schedule for our Year 13 students as we farewell them next week:

• Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 will be normal lessons
• Wednesday 29 - normal lessons with themed dress-up (Cartoon Characters and/or Celebrities)
• Thursday 30 - normal lessons with themed dress-up (Future Careers)
• Friday 31 - Farewell activities (below) with no normal lessons

- Breakfast served for students in Canteen from 7:45 am

- Chalk the Quad from 8:30 - 9:15 am

- Photo on the field as a year group 9:25 - 10:25 am

- March Past during Tutor time (rest of school to watch)

- Year 13 Assembly (Year 13 only) 11:15 - 12:15 pm.

- Year 13 students leave school at approximately 12.30 pm

Wishing you a great weekend.

Year 7 Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As I write this newsletter, I see a group of our amazing Year 7 students energetically engaged in a PE lesson with Ms Chan. They are working their way through a series of activities, which they have designed themselves, ranging from burpees to shuffle runs, and push-ups to jumping jacks! Their determination and engagement are reflective of the way they are continuing to approach their Year 7 experience. 

Today, we are supporting the “Wear a Hat Day” campaign, designed to raise funds and awareness for brain tumour research. Thank you to our Year 7s who got involved and raised money for this cause. There were some very original hats out there. Next week we will be ending the term with a Dress Casual day on Friday, 31st March. Donations collected on this day will go toward all of our school charities. We will finish next week at the usual time of 3.20 pm.

Next week, we will be spending time with our Year 7s, reminding them of school rules and expectations. We want to start term 3 strong and to make sure our students are clear about KGV rules on uniforms, device usage and behaviour. We will explain why we have these rules and clarify our expectations and consequences. We will communicate these details to you too next week and would appreciate your support on these at home. 

Have a great weekend.

Year 8 & 9 Message

In our Year 8-9 Assemblies this week, HOY’s Ms Gallie and Ms McDonald focussed on Social Media Responsibility. As part of this presentation, they asked the students: What type of person do you want to be?

Points raised in the presentation were: 

• What you want to be in the real world and how you want to be perceived must match how you behave online.

• It relates to our KGV school values of honesty, courage and empathy.

• Inappropriate use of social media is causing unnecessary anxiety; be part of the solution and use social media for good only.

The video that they showed students is here: Social Media, Social Life: Teens Reveal Their Experiences

Please take the time to watch the video and discuss the content presented in the assembly with your child. Conversations about this topic will strengthen our messaging and build home-school relationships. 

We also celebrated the recent achievements of our students in our Assembly: 

HKSSF Interschool Athletics:

• Isaac Man: 1st 100m and 200m

• C Grade Boys: 1st 4x100m relay (Isaac, Elvin, Max and Anson)

• Georgio Cagliarini: 6th 800m and 1500m

• C Grade Boys: 4th overall

• Overall Boy's result was 10th out of 24 teams

• Chloe Chiu - 9th High Jump 1.25m 

• Heer Donda - 16th Long jump 3.92m

• Momoka Kobayashi - 9th 100m Hurdles 19.07s 17th Long jump 3.83m

• Suie Tanaka - 7th High Jump 1.30m

• 4x400m Relay 5th place (Poppy, Rachel, Emily, Brianna and Khloe)

• 4x100m Relay 9th place (Sophia, Sophie, Prisha and Chloe)

Cricket Hong Kong - U13 All-Star team members:

• Hong Kong Islanders - Rishi Butani

• Kowloon Lions - Aarohan Chugnani, Pransh Kalathiya, Atharva Bisht

• New Territory Tigers - Veer Khunt and Ishan Pandey

Congratulations to Bhavya Prathap Nair [08U11], who participated in a "Talent Show" organised by Caritas Youth and Community Service and Commissioned by the Education Bureau. She presented her digital artwork during this event: "The road to success comes through hard work & determination".

The final Maths Week results were released. Congratulations to the following winners: for Samurai Sudoku: Claire So of 9C05 (who got the correct answer Wednesday, Thursday and Friday); Solve It Forward: Vivaan Kumar of 8R06 and 2048: Hans Liu of 08R05 (4096).

A reminder that if your child is going to be away from school for more than three days for a Planned Absence, they need to follow the procedure below:

1. Parents are requested to report the Planned Absence via the ESF App (on the first page of the ESF APP - Absence button)

2. Complete the Planned Absence Form (student will have to get the signatures from the missed subjects’ teachers)

3. Students should hand in the completed form to the Year Group Admin, Ms Pang, in the Year 7-9 office one week in advance.

4. Your Head of Year will review and approve the leave accordingly.

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.

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. Careers & H.E. Team briefed our Class of 2023 on exit plan at Tutor Time on 16 March. A parent presentation is planned after the Easter break.

Year 12

• 1-1 session with HE Counsellors. The 1-to-1 meetings are completed, except for those who missed their schedule appointments. These students should reach to their individual H.E. Counsellor at the soonest.
• Higher Education Presentation Series. Our Year 12s a refresher on higher education by the Careers Office last week. More higher education presentations are in plan starting Term 3.

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

17 Apr: BMHS
18 Apr: Calgary
19 Apr: Keele

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

U.K.
Mar-Apr (various dates): UCL Spring into STEM Lecture Series
28 Mar: World Class Study in London Webinar – Engineering
29 Mar: World Class Study in London Webinar – Medicine
30 Mar: World Class Study in London Webinar – Law
Apr (various dates): Northumbria University International Webinar Series
11-14 Apr: Screen & Film School Easter Series
20 Apr: U of Sussex International Law Masterclass

Europe
Mar-Apr (various dates): Carl Benz School of Engineering webinars (Germany)
24 Mar: Tilburg University Webinar for Bachelor Programs (Netherlands)
25 Mar: Hanze University of Applied Sciences Online Open Day (Netherlands)
5 Apr: Audential International Virtual Open House (France)
20 Apr: Bocconi Taster Lecture: Populism: From Genesis to Revelation (Italy)

Canada / U.S.
March (various dates): Toronto Metropolitan University various sessions and mock lectures

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

KGV Careers & H.E. Team

Please click on the link below for the KGV Draft Calendar for 23-24. Please read the notes below the calendar.

It’s been another fun packed term for CAS Activities with the return of many big-ticket events such as Lion Rock. Under our activities term blocking format, most Term 2 activities end today,  Friday 24th of March. 

It has been great to see so many students embrace the opportunities on offer, see our creative arts groups perform and watch our sports teams compete again. A few numbers in brief covering the year to date:

• Number of CAS activities this year: 200+
• Number of students engaged in CAS: Approximately 1450 students 
• Most active Year group: Year 7 with over 1100 activity sign ups made by Year 7 students (which is great)
• Number of Student Led CAS Activities: 48, so a huge thank you to KGV student leaders

Parents and students will have received an App message this week explaining the timeline and process for Term 3. Students will be able to sign up for Term 3 activities from Monday 27th of March and this will remain open until Friday 14th of April. During this time, students can enrol and withdraw from activities to plan their program. Following this, we will go through the allocation process and students/parents will be informed via App message if they have been successfully placed and if not allocated, they will remain on the wait list and be notified when a space becomes available. Term 3 activities will commence from Monday 24th of April.

Information about signing up, withdrawal, allocation and parental approval click here.

I also look forward to seeing how our new initiatives go next term as we welcome new areas of expansion:

• KGV Sea Lion swimming club
• KGV Lion Chess club
• KGV Golf programme

Finally, I would like to thank parents for your support with allowing students to take part in the CAS program. I would also welcome any feedback or suggestions you have to both improve the CAS program by identifying particular activities that you would like to see offered at KGV.

Dean Beard

CAS, Service Learning and Activities Coordinator

Artist in the Making

We are delighted to invite you to view Anay's artwork in the 'Artist in the Making' student art exhibition this Sunday, 26 March 2023, from 11.00 am to 6.00 pm at United Service Recreation Club, Jordan. This exhibition is an excellent platform for young artists to showcase their talent and inspiration, organised by Kashunutz Art Studio. Let's come to support Anay from Y7 and join us in this celebration of creativity and art!

Menu for 27-31 March