Dear Parents and Guardians,

I hope you had a good week. On Friday last week, we welcomed our new Year 6 into 7 students and parents into our school. We ‘opened up’ our classrooms and invited parents and students to wander around the school to see learning happening at KGV. I then spoke to parents about their vital role in the educational success, social-emotional competence, and resilience of our young people.

I spoke to our parents about a lecture I attended a few years ago by North American academic Dr George Otero, and he claimed that the impact on parenting could be up to 5 times greater than the impact of any school in influencing academic achievement! His research reinforced what I always knew, education is a partnership, and as parents, principals, and teachers, we all play a role in weaving the rich tapestry of experiences that shape and guide our young people.

Dr Otero spoke about positive parenting in straightforward and compelling ways. He claimed that sometimes we overcomplicate many things in life, and maybe we overcomplicate how we see parenting. He talked about simple acts of parenting that positively impacted student well-being and achievement. Examples he provided included:

·        Having dinner together around a table whenever you can and not having the TV on and devices beeping!

·        Spending time together reading, playing cards, hiking, board games, etc.

·        Ensuring consistent routines such as bedtimes, get-up times and eating breakfast every morning.

·        Influencing the amount of screen time and making sure electronic devices were off during sleep time.

·        Being involved in the life of our children by showing interest in their friends, schoolwork, sport and other interests.

·        Giving our children chores and responsibilities and making them accountable for them. 

As I said to the parents last week, I am not in any way handing out parenting advice as I feel I still have my parenting ‘training wheels’ on! My point is that our partnership with our families and school is critical. I know our teachers value the work of parents and the support that they receive in helping maximise learning progress. And as a school, we will always look for new ways to strengthen the connection between home and school.

If we continue to work in partnership and provide our young people with some essentials like care, safety, trust, challenge, opportunity, and feedback, then we can leave the rest to them and watch and enjoy some truly ‘remarkable’ things happening.

On that note, we look forward to seeing parents of year 9 students at the Year 9 Graduation and Exhibition on Monday next week.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Kind Regards

Mark Blackshaw, Principal, KGV School

Year 12 Message

The end of another busy week as our Year 12 BTEC students studying IB subjects and IB Diploma and Courses students managed to navigate through their assessment week.

Our students displayed great levels of determination with challenging papers, and the feedback so far has been that our students see the benefit of this experience as they approach the end of Year 12.

With now just 3 weeks to go until the end of term, it is vitally important that students engage with their subject teachers about what they need to revise and work through in order to hit the ground running in August when we return.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Year 7 Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We have only 3 weeks left of Year 7! Time has flown and we are starting to see signs of students needing a holiday. Please make sure they get the rest and space they need to show up effectively to school. 

Mr Wrigley is working with students in preparations for the Year 7 Spelling Bee and we look forward to celebrating the finalists and winners with you over the next couple of weeks.

Next week you will receive communication from Ms Pang asking you to check your contact information in preparation for Year 8. Please look out for this email and act as per the instructions. 

Have a great weekend.

Year 8 Message

It has been fantastic to see the number of Year 8 students representing the school in a wide range of KGV sports this week. Our U14 Netball and U14 Touch Rugby teams competed in inter-school competitions. Our U14 Cricket Team won the ISSFHK Cricket Tape-ball tournament. The Sea Lions held a Swimming Gala on Tuesday afternoon, where swimmers competed in individual races, and relay’s with a team BBQ to finish the event. 

Please see the information in the newsletter about the online Parent Talk -  “BeYOUtiful: blossoming conversations about body image”, to be held on Monday, 12 June 2023, 6.30 am - 7.30 pm. Join the Body Banter team in discussing the benefits of starting open conversations about body image for everyone in the family, and learn concrete ways that family members can work together to foster more accepting relationships with their bodies through compassionate and curious conversation. We will also hear from our student-led Body Banter discussion group at KGV for a youth perspective on the importance of sparking conversations about body image topics.

Have a great weekend.

Year 9 Message

We look forward to seeing you at the:

Year 9 MYP Community Project Assessment and Exhibition & Year 9 Graduation Ceremony on 12 June 2023, from 3.20 pm to 5.30 pm  

Important points to note: 

• Year 9 Students will stay in school at the end of the school day, 2.05 pm. From 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm, KGV Teachers will assess the Year 9 students' projects.

• From 3.20 pm, parents/caregivers arrive at KGV. 

• Maximum of two parents/caregivers from each family to attend the ceremony in the hall as we have limited space. 

• From 3.45 pm to 4.30 pm, Crozier and Nightingale will exhibit their Year 9 Community Project to parents/caregivers, and Rowell and Upsdell will have their MYP Graduation Ceremony in the Hall. 

• From 4.45 pm to 5.30 pm, Crozier and Nightingale students will have their MYP Graduation Ceremony in the Hall, and Rowell and Upsdell will exhibit their Year 9 Community Project to parents/caregivers.   

• If you still need to register, please register here.

Have a great weekend.

Year 10 Message

Year 10 students are continuing with their 1:1 meetings with tutors. This is where they consider everything that is going on for them, set goals and seek guidance.

There are still a few assessments over the next two weeks so please look out for your child and ensure they are balancing rest, sleep and exercise with their revisdion.

Year 11 Message

As I write this, there are 90 students in the Hall doing their Biology GCSE exam. We have another exam starting at 7:30pm this evening.

Some of our students have completed their exams this week and it was lovely to see their smiling faces and talk to them about how much they are looking forward to a break.

Next week we have the following exams:

• Tuesday: Triple and Single award Chemistry
• Wednesday: Economics
• Friday: Triple and Single award Physics

Join us in celebrating student creativity at our upcoming ESF Art Exhibition 2023

Beautiful sunrises, imaginative self-portraits and a six-metre-long rainbow-bright collage - these are just some of the amazing student creations featured in our upcoming ESF Art Exhibition 2023, which takes place at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre from June 7 - 11. Across ESF, our students have been truly inspired by this year’s art theme, which is Reimagining: New Beginnings.

In response to this thought-provoking topic, our talented children have created an outstanding collection of artworks spanning painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and mixed media.

Please do join us for this wonderful celebration of creativity. The venue address is Exhibition Gallery, Level 4, Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. The exhibition runs from June 7 until 11 (6pm - 8pm on 7 June; 9am until 8pm from 8 - 10 June and 9am until 6pm on 11 June).

KGV Sporting Stories

C Grade Touch

Well done to the C-grade boys and girls touch teams who won their ISSFHK competitions. The girls went through the season undefeated winning their semi-final 3-2 in a close game. In the final, they came back from being 2-1 down at halftime to win the final 4-2 over ICHK, with Katie Lee scoring two tries.

The boys won a close semi-final 3-2 over NAIS and played ICHK in the final. ICHK had beaten them 9-2 during pool play, so they knew the game would be challenging. The boys saved their best game of the season for last and beat ICHK 2-0 in a very impressive win over the top team in the grade, with Ryder So scoring both tries for KGV. Well done to both teams.

D Grade Volleyball

The D Grade volleyball team were victorious in the ISSFHK playoffs this week. The team has been training hard and playing well through the season. The team won 10 out of 12 matches during the season, beat NAIS in the semi-finals, and played a strong Island School in the final, winning in great fashion. This continues the strong year KGV volleyball has had with numerous championships. Well done to this team!

Junior Cricket

Congratulations to our U14 boys for winning the ISSFHK Cricket Tape-ball tournament!

At the start of the tournament, the boys started well with the bat and ball, winning their first game against HIS. The superb bowling and wicket-taking restricted HIS to a score of 0 which made the win for our boys very comprehensive.

In the second match, the KGV boys were up against AISHK. After electing to bat first, AISHK put up a decent total of 47 runs in 6 overs. In the second innings, the boys were struggling with the bat losing quick early wickets at the start, but the middle and lower-order batsmen, helped them recover to the cusp of victory by needing 3 runs off the final ball. However, the match was not in favour of our boys as they lost the match by a nail-biting 1 run.

The boys then regrouped themselves and won the 2 final group stage matches against Discovery and Malvern’s College. Outstanding bowling performances by Arjun Kapur, Veer Khunt and Pransh Kalathiya, followed with terrific batting by batsmen Aarohan Chugani, Jaival Patel and Rishi Butani, allowed the boys to go through to the finals with great momentum.

In the final game, the boys faced AISHK again. AISHK opted to bat first, however, they couldn’t replicate their batting in the first match as superb bowling from Veer Khunt, Arjun Kapur and Pransh Kalathiya again, limited AISHK to 2 runs. AISHK kept on fighting till the end by taking a couple of wickets at the beginning, however, the match remained in the hands of our boys as the two 4’s in the final over scored by captain Rishi Butani secured the KGV boys the winners of the ISSFHK Tape-Ball tournament!

U20 Rugby

We would like to congratulate both Josh Bailey and Fritz Mahn for their selection in the Hong Kong U20 rugby team to compete in the Kenya U20 World Trophy competition in July. This is a massive achievement for both players considering their young age with Josh in Year 13 and Fritz only in Year 12. Some KGV alumni, Josh Eustace, Ollie Pyle, Blake Elliot and Billy Rigby are joining the boys in the team. We wish the boys the best of luck for the tournament.

Community Project

The Community Project is now into its fourth year at KGV, with all the previous year’s being disrupted in some way by COVID. However, this year it has made for a welcome change for the students to be able to collaborate face to face for the entire process.

The Project serves to celebrate the students' learning across the three years of the MYP and helps develop the students in line with our school vision for taking ‘Principled Action’. This being: “Creating sustainable partnerships that have reciprocal benefits within our community. Fostering the desire, confidence, and ability to make a difference”.

The students have engaged if various kinds of ‘Taking Action’, some choosing to run fundraising events at KGV towards the end of May. Through the process of the Community Project, we want our students to: become effective project managers, use design thinking to solve problems, embrace responsibility and appreciate the consequence of actions, develop the ability to empathise with others and to be able to communicate and connect with others in their community.

The students will now celebrate their achievements (and failures) during their Assessment and Exhibition next week, as part of their MYP Graduation.

Please see the attached photos and the link to the KGV Community Project Padlet

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.

Year 13

• Home address update by 12 Jun. All uncollected final transcript from the Collection Day will be posted to students’ home address on Lionel record. Parents, please check your Lionel record and email stephanie.shum@kgv.edu.hk with updated your home address if you have moved.
• 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.
• KGV Final Transcript Collection Day: 7 July, 08.00-15.00 at the Careers Office.
• 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 application status & offers. Any missed communication may result is a delay in providing necessary support for applications, which may result in missed offers.
• Official IB Diploma & BTEC Certificates: Look out for correspondence from our Exam Office.

Year 12

• Higher Education Presentation Series. We have covered: UK apps., Personal Statement, HK apps, Oxbridge, Medicine, Dentistry & Vet, USA apps, USA Personal Essay, Canada apps, and Non-mainstream. Upcoming topics:, UCAS setup, and Summer Action Plan. Detailed presentation schedule is shared to all Y12 students via their H.E. Google Classrooms.
• Y12 – Parent presentation on Wednesday, 28 Jun (via Zoom). This session for our Y12 parents on how the Careers & H.E. Team supports our students and students’ action plan over the summer break. The meeting link will be emailed to all Y12 parents on the morning of 28 Jun.
• Talk by Cambridge Professor, 28 June. Professor Matthias Dörrzapf, Director of Scholarships & International Programmes at St. John’s College, University of Cambridge, is visiting KGV on 28 June. He has worked in a number of areas in Mathematics, including Representation Theory, Financial Mathematics & Theoretical Physics. He will be conducting a session (students only) sharing his expertise, on top of general admission, the Collegiate University, Opportunities at Cambridge & careers pathways.  Students will be informed of time and venue by email.

KGV School References – All KGV students
The KGV Careers Office is coordinating all references (except extension/gifted & talented programmes) 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.

Planning for the summer?
If you are looking at enrichment programmes over the summer break, Our Careers website has a long list of programmes listed. That would be a good starter for ideas.

University Events on the KGV Careers Calendar list known H.E. events. KGV is not responsible for the quality of any external events. All information is subject to change by event organisers.

Highlight of upcoming events:

H.K.
15 Jun: Lingnan University Exploration Day
16-17 Jun: VTC Hospitality Fun day 2023

U.K.
13 Jun: Northumbria University: International Webinars Series
23 Jun: U of Strathclyde Virtual Info Session
30 Jun-1 Jul: UCL Undergraduate Open Days (in-person)
6-7 Jul: Cambridge Undergraduate Open Days

U.S.A.
16 Jun: College Board BigFuture Live: All About College Loans for Students & Parents

KGV Careers & H.E. Team

Parent talk -  “BeYOUtiful: blossoming conversations about body image”

Monday 12 June 2023
6.30 - 7.30pm online

Have you ever felt insecure or unhappy about your physical appearance? Have you ever wondered whether you’d be happier if you looked more like that model on the MTR advertisement? For most of us, the answer is yes. And yet, despite how common these concerns are, many of us hesitate to talk openly about them even with the people who are closest to us. 

Join the Body Banter team in discussing the benefits of starting open conversations about body image for everyone in the family, and learn concrete ways that family members can work together to foster more accepting relationships with their bodies through compassionate and curious conversation. 

We will also hear from our student-led Body Banter discussion group at KGV for a youth perspective on the importance of sparking conversations about body image topics. 

 Let’s bring on the Banter!!

To register sign up here. 

Enquires contact Kiran, Kiran.budhrani@kgv.edu.hk

Friday 16 June 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 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

For 12-16 June