Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Guardians

It was great to see all the Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) activities start this week for the Term 3 programme. As part of this, we have seen our two new extra-curricular pilot projects commence, our KGV Sealions Swim Club and KGV Lions Chess Club. Both programmes are based on collaboration between KGV Staff and external expert coaches. The feedback so far has been positive from our students, who seem to be benefitting from:

• Outside coaches adding value through their knowledge and expertise

• Ongoing personal connection and support from familiar KGV staff to oversee and ensure continuity

• The sense of team and belonging from being part of a club.

We will evaluate both these pilot programmes at the end of the term with the plan to make necessary tweaks for complete implementation in the 2023-24 academic year.

As a school, we continue to engage strongly in the emergence of generative AI tools and large language models (e.g. Chat GPT) and how they can impact learning and our work in schools. We appreciate some of the risks involved in this emerging technology, and we also believe that:

• The technology is truly ‘game changing’, and we have made the choice whether to engage with this technology

• Investing in understanding this new technology is essential as we learn how it can benefit learning and our work productivity, as well as understand how we can manage risk

• This technology is shaping the world that our students will live in and we have a responsibility to help them understand how to leverage its value and mitigate risks.

• The technology can do some of the procedural work or ‘heavy lifting’ for our students and staff, enabling us to focus learning and work on critical thinking, analysis and evaluation-type activities.

• These new assistive technologies will improve the quality, detail, accuracy and personalisation of the feedback about learning progress in such documents as reports

We ran a parent webinar on this topic in February and would like to invite all parents to a follow-up presentation about changes in the AI landscape since then, the work we are doing, what we are learning about large language models and the impact they will have on learning and schools. Please come along to our webinar ‘Generative AI in our school context’ on Thursday 10th May at 7pm. Please Register for the webinar here. We will use this list to send you the Zoom link 24 hours before the webinar.

Have a good weekend.

Mark Blackshaw,

Principal KGV School

Year 8 Message

As mentioned last week, the system will re-open on Tuesday for students to confirm their Language Choices and make their Arts Choices. It will remain open until the end of the day on Sunday, 7th May. Mr Tranter has e-mailed parents and students today to remind them of this and provide an overview of the choices. Tutors will spend some time next week checking with Year 8s that they know what to do and have completed their choices on Lionel. 

As part of resetting our KGV expectations, we are looking to reward students in Years 7-9 for regularly meeting those expectations. We are trialling an Honours Award focusing on students’ attendance, punctuality and uniform. If they achieve the following during May and June, they will receive an Honours certificate for this term:

• 100% Attendance

• No lates to school

• No uniform slips

We will also recognise students who have done well but have not achieved 100%.

KGV School promotes excellent punctuality records across all years to ensure students and staff have the maximum possible time to enable effective teaching and learning. A reminder that every student needs to swipe in when they arrive at school. Students who swipe into school after 8.10 am are considered late. Two weeks into Term 3, some Year 8 students are accumulating many 'unexplained lates' to school. Please see our KGV Punctuality Guidelines for more information and our tiered response. 

Please remind your child that Mobile Phones should be in their bags and on silent between 7.30 am and 3.20 pm every day (2.05 pm on Mondays). 

Approaches to learning (ATL) are skills designed to enable students in the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) to “learn how to learn.” They apply across curriculum requirements and provide a common language for teachers and students to use when reflecting and building on the learning process.

ATL skills can become a common language at home between parents and their children. Challenge your child to reflect on the “I CAN” statements in the attached document. Ask your child to reflect on what they need to do to render this statement valid.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Year 9 Message

Teachers involved in the Year 9 Maths/Science/WIN Pathways have been conversing with students and recommending appropriate pathways. We plan to formally share this with parents and students at the end of next week and then allow them to select from a range of individualised pathways. We will also offer a Pathways online information/Q & A session before making final selections. Tutors will talk to Year 9’s about this and make sure they are happy with what is happening. For any subject questions, students should speak with the relevant teacher.

As part of resetting our KGV expectations, we are looking to reward students in Years 7-9 for regularly meeting those expectations. We are trialling an Honours Award focusing on students’ attendance, punctuality and uniform. If they achieve the standards below during May and June, they will receive an Honours certificate for this term.

• 100% Attendance

• No lates to school

• No uniform slips

We will also recognise students who have done well but have not achieved 100%.

KGV School promotes excellent punctuality records across all years to ensure students and staff have the maximum possible time to enable effective teaching and learning. A reminder that every student needs to swipe in when they arrive at school. Students who swipe into school after 8.10 am are considered late. Two weeks into Term 3, some Year 8 students are accumulating many 'unexplained lates' to school. Please see our KGV Punctuality Guidelines for more information and our tiered response. 

Please remind your child that Mobile Phones should be in their bags and on silent between 7.30 am and 3.20 pm every day (2.05 pm on Mondays). 

Approaches to learning (ATL) are skills designed to enable students in the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) to “learn how to learn.” They apply across curriculum requirements and provide a common language for teachers and students to use when reflecting and building on the learning process.

ATL skills can become a common language at home between parents and their children. Challenge your child to reflect on the “I CAN” statements in the attached document. Ask your child to reflect on what they need to do to render this statement valid.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Year 11 Message

GCSE exams began this week with 67 of our Year 11 students sitting the Reading, Writing and Listening components for second language Chinese. Almost all students were on time and I was proud to see them prepared and wearing their uniform well.

All Year 11 students will be focussing on managing their time to prepare for more exams over the next month and a half. The full timetable is here.

Please help your child to be organised and get to school 20 minutes before any exam. If your child is ill or tests positive for COVID then please get in touch with myself or Mr Kent.

Students can study from home or in school and their teachers are available to help them in person or online according to their normal timetable.

Year 7 Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Our  shout-out this week goes to the Year 7 students who were involved in this week’s Drama performance, which was coordinated and produced by our Year 12 BTEC students. It was wonderful to see the following students in the Fidget  Performance; Sophia Montefiore, Louis Broggi, Dhiraj,  Daniel  Ho Yan Yeung and  Hayden Kim.

Students are working hard in lessons to earn KGV recognitions. These recognitions are given to students who have demonstrated commendable levels of attainment and achievement. Teachers will award these throughout the term, culminating in Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards being presented to students who reach the benchmark totals for these awards.

As part of resetting our KGV expectations, we are looking to reward students in Years 7-9 for regularly meeting those expectations. We are trialling an Honours Award focusing on students’ attendance, punctuality and uniform. If they achieve the standards below during May and June, they will receive an Honours certificate for this term.

• 100% Attendance

• No lates to school

• No uniform slips

We will also recognise students who have done well but have not achieved 100%. 

Have a great long weekend and we will see students back in school on Tuesday 2nd May.

The Year 7 Team

Year 10 Message

Year 10 have a number of assessments coming up over the next few weeks. In assembly this wee we reminded them of the study techniques we worked through earlier in the year and encouraged them to be organised and to use their time efficiently.

Year 10 were also reminded that they are now the second oldest students in the school and that they play an important role in setting the tone and standards. We hoped to focus them on taking responsibility for interactions within the school, presentation and behaviour.

Year 12 & 13 Message

Our Year 13 IB students began their examinations today and we wish them the very best of luck over the coming weeks.

We held a Year 12 assembly yesterday and explained to the students how the schedule of Core Week will work for them next week. Please see the link below for the schedule of the week.

Core Week # 2 2022-23.xlsx

These 4 days from Tuesday to Friday next week afford IB students and BTEC students studying IB subjects an opportunity to produce further work on their CAS, TOK, IA data collection alongside enhancing and developing their Extended Essay.

Have a great extended 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 – Parent presentation. A Zoom session is planned at 18.00 on Monday, 8 May, for Y13 parents. No pre-registration needed. Zoom link will be sent to all Y13 parents in the morning of 8 May. Login with a Zoom account is required with this session.

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. The H.E presentation series kicked off in Term 3 with the one on UK apps. Detailed presentation schedule is shared to all Y12 students via their H.E. Google Classrooms.

Y12 – Parent presentation.  We are planning a Zoom session before end of this school for our Y12 parents on how the Careers & H.E. Team support our students and students’ action plan over the summer break.  More details will follow.

KGV School References – All KGV students
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

Highlights of upcoming events:

Unifrog Webinars (Student login to Unifrog required.)
2-5 May Unifrog Global Universities webinars for students
15-16 May: Managing Your Wellbeing During Exams

U.K.
3 May: UCL Laws Event in Hong Kong

U.S.A.
5 May: College Board BigFuture Live: How to Pick a Major
5 & 10 May: EducationUSA Seminar: U.S. Community College – Secret Weapon to U.S. Higher Education (sessions are in Cantonese)
17 & 22 May: Engagin Distinctive Universities (Emory, Michigan, Rice & Washington)
19 May: College Board BigFuture Live: Pro-Tips for College Visits

Australia
4 May: ICHM Webinar: Work-integrated learning at ICHM

KGV Careers & H.E. Team

Feedback Friday with the Principal

Friday 5 May 2023, 10.30 - 11.15 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 personalized, small group session on a Friday morning, to chat with the Principal, Mark Blackshaw on various topics or areas you would like to discuss.

Our upcoming sessions will be on: 

-Friday 5 May 2023, 10.30-11.15 am.

-Friday 19 May 2023, 10.30-11.15 am

-Friday 16 June 2023, 10.30-11.15 am

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

Yearbook payment

The Yearbook orders are now closed.  We have billed parents who have ordered the yearbook, through the epayment system.  Please check your account via the ESF app for ease of payment.

For enquires, please contact Elaine Chan at elaine.chan@kgv.edu.hk

For 2-5 May