Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

The excitement continues at KGV, and we hope you have been able to join us for the Winter Festival. It was also a privilege to see the incredible Evening of Music and Dance that happened on Wednesday. With over 100 talented performers creating a memorable occasion, it was clear that months of hard work truly paid off. A particular thanks to Carole Beer and her team for providing this opportunity for our students. 

I would also like to congratulate Eric Kwok who was elected PTSA Chairperson during the AGM. The PTSA has always been an engaged and supportive group who provide so many opportunities for our community, and I am sure Eric will continue with this tradition as we move forward in exciting new directions.

Looking ahead to the last week of term, please be reminded that schools are closed on Monday 11th December due to local elections. The last day of term, Friday 15th December, will be a dress casual day and students should bring a voluntary HK$20 charitable donation. We will finish at 12.15 pm next Friday and school buses will be arranged accordingly.

Have an enjoyable weekend ahead.

Best wishes,

Mark Poulsum

Congratulations to our Year 8 & 9 students who performed in our Evening of Music and Dance on Wednesday, 6 December:

Invitational Dance Items: Harper Wang (08UO6), Sanaah Jain (08U07), Amira Mahtani (08N11)

Crozier,  Theme - Lost in Time: Allison Chang (08C09). Ella Wong (09C09)

Nightingale, Theme - Lost in Hollywood:  Hitomi Takeuchi (08N09), Vandita Chugani (08N10), Salma Hession (09N10)

Rowell, Theme - Lost in Jungle: Charissa Chin (08R09), Annisa Lau (08R10), Maika Au (09R06), Isla Reid (09R08), Gabriella Cagliarini (09R12) 

Upsdell, Theme - Lost in Stories: Sanaah Jain (08U07) 

With extra layers of uniform worn due to the cooler weather, we now have large piles of lost property items. Please check that all your child's belongings are named to promote accountability, organisation, independence, respect for property, and a sense of ownership. Teaching your child to care for their belongings teaches them organisation and respect, habits essential for their growth and development and preparation for their future responsibilities. 

Our Sports Day on Wednesday, 13 December, will involve all Year 8-9 students in the morning. Students should come in their PE kit for the day.

Just so you know, the last day of term, Friday, 15 December, will be a casual dress day. Assembly will occur at 11.15 am on the field, and we will finish at 12.15 pm.

We have another exciting event this evening, the Winter Festival, from 5 to 8 pm. Please join us this evening for what promises to be a fun-filled occasion. 

MYP Approaches to Learning (ATL) Focus for our Parent Newsletter

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 their progress in Term 1 and what they need to do to render this statement valid.

We have had another hugely successful and busy week and would like to congratulate all of our Year 12 and 13 students who took part in EOMD on Wednesday evening. All 4 Houses produced incredible performances and a special congratulations to Crozier whose time travel production ensured they were worthy winners!

We are looking forward to our KGV Winter Fair this evening and our annual sports day next Wednesday, 13 December, held here at school.

A reminder that we have no school on Monday and the Year 13 IB Mock exam schedule is below.

Year 13 Mock Exam Schedule

Wishing you a great weekend.

Year 7 Message

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

What an awesome KGV week! So much going on and so much enthusiasm and KGV spirit around the campus.

Wednesday was our Evening of Music and Dance, where Crozier were crowned champions for their winning student-choreographed dance. A big shout out to Abbie Chu, our Year 7 representative in this dance group. Rowell and Upsdell also had Year 7s performing. Well done to Kimberly Lee in Rowell and Sophie Ip in Upsdell.

Our Y7 students participated in their first IDU (Interdisciplinary Unit) of their MYP journey this week. This IDU combines knowledge, understanding and skills from Media and Music to make their masterpieces. They spend half a day creating stop-motion animated films as part of the IDU called "Telling Cultural Stories". We look forward to inviting the parents of the Media and Music rotation to KGV to watch these animations on 25 January 2024. Morning information about this will be sent to all parents next week.

Today, as I write this newsletter, the school is preparing for this evening’s Winter Fair! It promises to be a fantastic evening!

A reminder that

1. Next Monday school is closed, as schools are used for balloting stations.
2. Wednesday, 13 December is our KGV Sports Day. All students are to wear PE kits for the full day. Year 7 students will participate in Periods 1 and 2 and will need to have water bottles, hats and suncream. They will need their materials and equipment for Period 3-5.
3. Friday, 15 December is our last day of term. This is a dress casual day, with a Christmas theme. Students are asked to bring HK$20 each to contribute towards our school charities. School will finish at 12 pm, with school buses departing at 12.15 pm.

We have a lot of lost property still outside the PTSA shop. Please ask your child to come and collect their missing items.

One week to go, until a well-deserved rest! Have a great weekend.

The Year 7 Team.

We have almost made it to the end of a very busy term 1. This week we have had Learning reviews all day Tuesday and EOMD on Wednesday evening where there were amazing performances by students in Year 10 and 11. 

We have the Winter fair this evening and then a 3 day weekend. Next Wednesday is our internal sports day and then Friday is a half day where we finish at 12.30 pm.

Year 11 students need to keep up some revision over the winter break. A small amount of regular revision will make a big difference. Students should be ticking off syllabus statements and working for solid chunks of 25 to 30 minutes at a time. The mock exams start two weeks after the break. The timetable will be shared with students next Tuesday and I will add a link to it in this newsletter next week. You can already see an overview of the final exam timetable for May/June here.

New KGV Sports Tops

As you may know, we are now working with Tsunami to supply our sports teams with new kit for their competitions. Tsunami is now able to offer students the opportunity to purchase training/competition tops for some sports.

There is an option of a black and yellow training top which is also used for badminton, ultimate frisbee and hockey competitions (it is not a numbered top so not appropriate for other sports). There is also a white polo available which is used for cricket, tennis, golf and equestrian.

These tops can also be worn for your team training sessions so you don't need to use your house/PE top.

Please note, these tops are not acceptable for PE classes.

To purchase a top, please visit this link: https://kgv.tsunami-sport.com/

The store will remain open until Monday, 18 December. The tops will then be delivered to school week beginning 22nd January.

We are aiming to add more sports kit to the store in the future.

The PTSA Annual General Meeting was held on 4 December 2023. As the Chair Ms. Purvi Shah is retiring after her 6-year term therefore a new chair was elected.

Nomination of the existing nine committee members:

Chair – Eric Kwok

Vice Chair –Sanyukta Gupta

Honourable Treasurer – Monika Khatwala

Committee Members:

Rajmathie Jeerasinghe

Fabrice Khlok

Saloni Melwani

Livia Tang

Isabella Tong

Suzanne Yiu

Nomination of the new committee members:

Paul Chan – Year 9 parent

Shweta Dugar – Year 10 parent

Manderly Ho – Year 7 parent

Florian Schneider – Year 9 parent

Teresa Tse – Year 7 parent

Teacher Representative:

Martin Cockram

Student Council Representatives:

Suryansh Agarwal

Veer Shah

Senior Leadership Representative:

Carole Beer

Prinicpal:

Mark Poulsum

The PTSA would like to thank Purvi for her long and dedicated contributions to the committee and KGV in the past six years and wish her every success in the future.

CAS Activities - Update

What an incredibly busy and fun-packed Term 1 for CAS Activities, with record numbers of student participation. Under our activities term blocking format, most Term 1 activities end today,  Friday 9th December. 

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. A few numbers in brief:

• Number of CAS activities this term: 200+
• Number of students engaged in CAS: Approximately 1400 students 
• Most active Year group: Year 7 with over 280 students engaging in some form of CAS
• Number of Student-Led CAS Activities: 53, 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 2. Students will be able to sign up for Term 2 activities from Monday 11th December and this will remain open until Friday 5th of January. 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 waiting list and be notified when a space becomes available. If students have a problem managing their CAS activities, then please encourage them to come and speak to the CAS office.

Remember to check the KGV CAS Activities website for all things related to the activities program (https://www.kgvcasactivities.com/). For information about signing up, withdrawal, allocation and parental approval click here.

Finally, I would like to thank parents for your support in allowing students to take part in the CAS program. I would also welcome any feedback or suggestions you have to 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

KGV SHOP at the Winter Festival 2023

8 December, 4.30-8 PM

Come check out the new items selling at the KGV Shop!

Christmas Card: $10/set of 3, $3.4 each *NEW ITEM*

Foldable Umbrella: $90 each *NEW ITEM*

Drawstring bag: $18.6 each *NEW ITEM*

Blue Cup: $13.2 each *NEW ITEM*

Alumni Black Cup: $36 each *NEW ITEM*

*Pay by Octopus only

Careers & H.E. Guidance

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

Year 13
- Y13 students should stay in communication with their counsellors and keep up to date with google classroom for materials and announcements.

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. Our HE Team has set up Google Classrooms for Y12 students for communication on higher education issues.

Check our KGV Careers Calendar for known H.E. events. Some highlighted events are:

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

International
9 Dec: UnivAssist World WebiFairs

U.K.
9 Dec: University of Law Christmas Legal Workshops (in Hong Kong)
12 Dec: University of Sussex – Law Sample Lecture

U.S.
Various dates in Dec: UCSB Virtual Presentations for Future Freshman Applicants
Various dates in Dec & Jan 2024: Minerva University Info Sessions

Canada
9 Dec: UBC – Virtual Info Session

Europe
10 Dec: Glion Masterclass: Luxury Services in Private Banking
13 Dec: IESEG’s Bachelor in International Business: Online Info Session

KGV Careers & H.E. Team

School reference (non-higher education purposes) (Link to policy on Lionel)

The KGV Careers Office coordinates all our student references including exit & summer schools.

For students’ privacy, parents must give KGV their permission to release their child’s reference to a specific list of schools they are applying to.  KGV only liaise directly with those schools with parents' permission.

All requests should be directed to careers.office@kgv.edu.hk. Please allow at least 4-6 working weeks for teachers to work on school references. School references for higher education applications are done in a separate process.

If students are pursuing gifted and talented programmes outside of KGV, they should contact Mr. Krishin Hotwani directly.

KGV Careers & H.E. Team

As Term 1 approaches its end, get a head start by enrolling in our Term 2 programmes! Make use of our lovely football pitch and tennis courts for football and tennis at various levels. We cater to 5 to 12-year-olds. Check out the schedule for King George V School here.

11 - 15 December