Principal's message

Dear Parents and Guardians

We had a great day at our first KGV Swimming Gala since before Covid in 2019. The day was full of incredible swimming performances and vibrant house spirit. Congratulations to Upsdell House for taking out the Champion House, followed by Rowell, Crozier, and Nightingale. A spectacular part of the event was the House Cheer Squad competition. This was a fiercely competitive event, with the mighty Nightingale coming out on top this year.

An event like this reminds us of the value of community as we come together to compete, laugh and have fun. This instils a sense of belonging in all of us and a realisation that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.

I commend our students for their outstanding participation and exceptional behaviour at the Gala. Thank you to all our staff for their work and our PHE Faculty for organising the event.

We look forward to participating in further school events this academic year.

Have a good weekend.

Mark Blackshaw,

Principal, KGV School

Year 10 and 11 Message

Swimming gala was quite the spectacle today with cheerleaders, chanting and students giving their all for their house. Well done to all those students who participated.

In assembly this week we celebrated the success of the following students:

• Zoie Chan - Hong Kong Open Amateur Golf Champion
• Eunis Man - Competing at the World Junior Aquatics Championships
• Kaitlyn Wong, Ariel Suen, Sophia Xing, Maya Yan and Megan Zhang, our students who have been successful at the World Scholars cup in Bangkok

Mr Fisher further worked with students to develop their understanding that they are leaders in the school and they play a key role in making it a place where they want to be. He talked about showing and encouraging behaviours that respect each other and support each other.

Year 10 sat the Yellis test on Wednesday morning and we will send home the results as soon as we have them for the whole year group.

Unfortunately, the weather got in the way of regular classes on Thursday. We have now missed three full days of school already this term.

Year 8 & 9 Message

The KGV Swimming Gala was a resounding success, leaving everyone in awe of the incredible talent and determination displayed by the swimmers. The atmosphere was electric, celebrating the achievements of the top performers and emphasising the importance of teamwork and participation through our KGV house system. It was a day filled with camaraderie as Year 7 to Year 13 students came together to support and encourage one another, socialise, and engage in activities outside the regular academic curriculum. After a long break from the calendar, the Swimming Gala’s return is a positive development, bringing back a sense of normalcy and enhancing the overall KGV experience. 

The Year 8 & 9 Student Development Team has recently invested in various Tutor Time Games for students to use during tutor time. The Year 8 and 9 students enjoy this opportunity to have a dose of healthy competitiveness while building their relationships and sense of belonging to their tutor group.     

Next week, we have a Year 8/9 Assembly and the first of our Challenge Week Meetings. We look forward to these opportunities to come together as a community. Year 8 & 9 Students will soon have the chance to put themselves forward for our Year 7-9 Student Council. Each tutor class selects one representative per tutor group. Meetings are held with the Year 7 representatives once every two weeks. 

MYP Approaches to Learning (ATL) Focus for our Parent Newsletter: Communication Skills - Note-Taking

For your child, effectively recording the information they receive is vital. As a learner, your child should learn their preferred modes of information processing, storage and recall. Doing this will allow them to develop their system for making effective notes in class, which will help them to feel organised when it comes time to study. 

When taking notes, students should: 

• Always use their own words

• Use headings to group main points to organise information logically

• Use keywords to trigger important ideas 

• Use abbreviations to save time

• Use different colours for different purposes

Encourage your child to use the 80/20 Principle:

• Actively listen 80%

• Note take and passively listen for 20% 

Encourage your child to pay special attention to concepts, words and areas their teacher emphasises - these are vital and may be assessed. 

Encourage your child to be actively involved in the subject when note-taking. Please encourage them to think about how their learning connects with what they already know and transfers into other subjects. 

Laptops and tablets can be helpful for note-taking. 

There are many different note-taking styles, and your child needs to find the method that works for them. 

One suggestion is that if they have the time, they rewrite the notes they have written in class to make them neater and more readable. 

Actions for Parents: Discuss with your child two things they will start doing to improve how they take notes in class.

Year 12 and 13 Message

Congratulations to all of our swimmers who competed and cheerleaders who took part in our swimming gala today.

We are looking forward to our joint assembly for Years 12 and 13 next week where we will be celebrating our students’ successes as well as highlighting the need for all of our senior students to help us in continuing to ensure our school is a safe and welcoming environment for all members of our KGV community.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Year 7 Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We gathered as a full school for the first time in many years today, at the KGV Swimming Gala. The students were incredible and the support for their School House was evident throughout the day. Well done to all students who participated and congratulations to Upsdell House for winning the overall competition. Thank you to those parents who were able to attend the event. We hope you enjoyed it.

Next week we will hold our Year 7 Challenge Week Student Meeting. We will run a Parent Challenge Week session the following week.

I wanted to thank you all for your resilience and support over the last couple of weeks as we have navigated schooling around extreme weather events. Your understanding as we have moved to online learning and done our best to communicate with you in a timely manner has been hugely appreciated.

Thank you to you all for your feedback on the ESF App. Your comments, observations and frustrations have been communicated to the App developers at ESF. What we do know is that;

1. There was a lag time in delivering messages on the morning of Friday 8th September. This situation improved as the day went on.
2. We have found and fixed an issue that was preventing messages being delivered. Some parents are now receiving messages that have been held up for a number of days.

As many of you were sharing, it is possible to have your App messages ‘pushed’ to your emails. Go into the ESF App, and on the dashboard, click LIONEL 2 VLE. Scroll to the bottom and follow the instructions for turning on ‘auto-forwarding of App messages.

The Year 7 WhatsApp group is a great resource and helped many of us with important messages last Friday. The effectiveness of this communication channel, however, can be limited if we have too many messages which could either be answered by reading newsletters or emails or by using the CAS FAQ. I have received many emails from parents asking for some more guidelines on the use of our Year 7 Parent WhatsApp. Please can we ask

1. We all commit to reading our emails, newsletters etc. before posting a question.
2. When thinking about posting a question, please scroll up to see if the question has already been asked and answered.
3. We commit to using the Year 7 Parent WhatsApp between 6 am – 6 pm on weekdays and only in emergencies over the weekend.
4. Use your child’s tutor as the first point of contact. They will have all the information you need – or will certainly find this information.

Thanks and have a lovely weekend.

Our email address: careers.office@kgv.edu.hk.

A very exciting September in KGV!

KGV University Fair, 18 Sep (12.30-15.30). Check here for the latest list of participating institutions.  KGV parents are invited to join from 14.30 to 15.30. Due to security & safety, only registered KGV parents will be allowed at the Fair.  No walk-in allowed.  Registered KGV parents will receive final information before Fair day.

H.E. Visits @ KGV School (13.30-14.15). Due to the short duration, H.E. visits are open to students only.

21 Sep, Lunch @ SSC1-2: Rhodes College
26 Sep, Lunch @ GLT: London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE)
27 Sep, Lunch @ GLT:  CUHK Faculty of Medicine
28 Sep, morning break @ SSC1-2: Boston U
28 Sep, lunch @ SSC1-2: McMaster University

Year 13

• Y13 1-1 HE Session. We would appreciate parents’ help to remind students to attend the session on time. If students had their timetables changed where their appointment are no longer during their non-contacts, they should inform their HE Counsellors immediately. They cannot miss lessons to meet with HE Counsellors.

Year 12

Students are welcome to find us in the Year 12-13 Office, if they would like any help from the Careers & H.E. Team.

• Google Classrooms. Y12 students should have received invitation to join their respective Google Classrooms with the H.E. Counsellors.  Google Classrooms are used for communication on higher education issues. 

Our KGV Careers Calendar lists known H.E. events.

KGV is not responsible for the quality of any external events. All information is subject to change by event organisers.

Check our Careers Calendar for event details.  Some highlighted events:

International
21 Sep: Unifrog University Fair (student can log into Unifrog for details)

H.K.
18 Sep: HKU Online Talk for Non-JUPAS Students & Parents
14 Oct: HKUST Info Day for Undergrad Admissions

U.K.
18 Sep: UAL Creative Art & Design Workshop
19 & 21 Sep: UAL Portfolio Review Session
21 Sep: UAL: Tips on how to get a UAL offer? (online seminar)
23 Sep: UK Unifest (Hong Kong info day)
27 Sep: Imperial College London info session for students

U.S.
18 Sep: Cornell, Emory, Pomona, Rice & WashU on Zoom
20 Sep: Session with Brown, Columbia, Penn & Princeton (Virtual)
21 Sep: West Virginia University – International Application Workshop
28 Sep: NYU/Northeastern Info Session for ESF Students @ Sha Tin College

Canada
16 Sep: SFU Information Day (Hong Kong)

KGV Careers & H.E. Team

KGV Sporting Stories
 

We would like to extend a huge congratulations to Zoie Chan in Year 11 who was crowned the Hong Kong Amatuer Golf Champion! Even more impressive was that this was for the open category. This is a remarkable achievement by one of our elite athlete students. Zoie also had some great results overseas in the holidays where she was placed in the top 10 in 4 out of 5 tournaments in the US. A highlight being Zoie winning the Cog Hill Junior Championship in Chicago.

Zoie is certainly someone to watch on her golf journey and we will be following her career with keen interest. Well done Zoie!

Congratulations to Eunis Man who has broken the Hong Kong Junior Woman’s 13-14 age group record and the HK youth record in the 100m breast stroke. Eunis completed the race in an amazing time of 1:10.61 beating the previous record of 1:11.30. Eunis is currently a member of the Hong Kong national swimming squad. She is certainly a swimmer with incredible potential and we look forward to seeing her progress over the years to come.

Well done to the Leung brothers who achieved some amazon results at several cycling events on Europe over the summer. Andre (year 9) and Jeremy (Year 7) have both shown to have a big future in road cycling. In Europe Andre, who was 2023 national champion in Hong Kong in individual road cycling and time trial, boys 11-13 category, competed in 4 races coming 2nd, 5th, 6th and 12th across the U14 races through Belgium and Netherlands. His younger brother Jeremy, claimed a 1st, 2nd and two 4th place finishes in his races for U12 category. Amazing results for both boys competing against very strong cyclists from around Europe. We are all looking forward to seeing their progress over the year and years to come.

PTSA Annual Fee

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As the new school year is underway, we would like to inform you that we are now collecting the PTSA Annual fee. We kindly request your contribution of 200HKD per family, which plays a vital role in funding the operation of the PTSA shop and facilitating various parent activities and events that are scheduled to take place throughout the year. For more information, please refer to the attached letter.

You will soon receive an invoice from the accounting department. Once your contribution has been made, your child/children will receive their Student ID Cards in late November.

We sincerely appreciate your support and cooperation in this matter. We are excited about the opportunity to work together with you and look forward to a productive and successful school year.

Thank you once again for your continued support.

KGV PTSA

Dear parents,

You may have heard that the student grand application process has begun. Please note, that ESF Schools and Kindergartens are NOT included in the e-submission channel (using the "iAM Smart +" App). Paper application forms are still required this year.

KGV is instructed to collect the hard copy forms in late September, and we will inform you as soon as they are sorted and sent to tutor groups. Please look out for the updates on the parent bulletin and newsletter, in which more details and collection deadlines will be shared.

Thanks for your attention.

18 - 22 Septmeber