Principal's Message

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you have enjoyed a good week and it has certainly been a productive one at KGV. Well done to our Year 13 students as they complete their mock exams. This has provided an opportunity for them to move forward with their preparations for the summer exams, and they have certainly approached them with a great deal of positivity and determination. Good luck to the Year 11 students who start their mock exams on Monday 21st, and I am sure they will be as focused and determined during the next two weeks. 

With our aspiration of being a ‘School For One,’ making sure we know how each individual student is progressing and what we can do to support them is a key part of our work. Currently the Y10-13 tutors are engaged in a series of meetings to discuss what our current data tells us for each and every student. They will then use this information to meet with students individually so as to reflect on their success, and plan targets for their next steps in learning. This process will then be repeated for Y7-9 students in the coming weeks. 

As we move towards the half-way point of this academic year, we are well underway with our planning for 2024/25. A key part of this is the KGV calendar, which can be found in a separate message within this newsletter. Please take note of the starting date for students, which is Wednesday 14th August. 

Have a great weekend ahead.

Best regards,

Mark Poulsum

Mock exams begin on Monday and run for the next two weeks from January 22nd through to February 2nd. The mock exam schedule is here. We want students to take the exams seriously so that the experience prepares them for their final exams, however, they must remember that these results are for feedback only and there is no need to get over-anxious about them. Making mistakes or not doing well in some areas of the exams will lead to useful feedback and learning.

During the mock exams, Y11 students only need to come to school for their exams. They should look carefully at the schedule and ensure they are here at least 20 minutes prior to the start time. They can also use our study facilities at any time if they wish. Students have been given an exam pass to gain entry and exit from the school. Full uniform should be worn when they are in school.

Students have been reminded of the procedures for mock exams and had a reminder about revision strategies and managing stress.

Year 10 students will have tutor time to themselves for the next two weeks as Year 11 students sit their mock examinations. During this time we will focus on checking in on academic progress for our Year 10 students.

If you have questions or concerns, now is a good time to make contact with your child's tutor.

As I write this, I am watching a group of Year 10 students engage with the Crimson Collective. This is a leadership program where they learn skills like teamwork, communication and how to lead others. Right now they are role-playing a tricky salary negotiation process with enthusiasm and commitment. Our students are remarkable.

Our Year 13 IBDP Mock exams finish today and we would like to commend our students for their efforts over the past fortnight. The students have displayed tremendous levels of resilience and we hope they have a well-earned rest this weekend.

We had an inspirational guest speaker, Tony Bruno, deliver a talk to our Year 12 students in assembly on Wednesday this week and we encourage all of our students to sign up for Weez Walk 2024. Weez Walk's philosophy is to build an inclusive and resilient community. Since its inception in 2021, they have been firmly committed to creating broader awareness and conversations around youth mental wellbeing in Hong Kong. Students can register on the below link.

Register HERE

Wishing you a great weekend.

Week 2 Term 2 has been busy with lessons and broader school activities. 

Our first House Assemblies for 2024 with our new House Captain started this week, and we look forward to hearing about the activities they have planned for Interhouse and the House Cup this year. 

We continue to focus on wearing our Uniform correctly, and we thank you for providing and checking your child is wearing the correct uniform items. The weather is forecast to get a little cooler next week, so please remind your child that they are not permitted to wear other clothing on top of their uniform if they are cold. Please help them stay warm as temperatures drop by wearing base layers underneath their school uniform and/or investing in warm outer layers like our school jersey, fleece, hoodie, or jacket from the uniform shop. Our uniform can be purchased here:  uniform shop. 

Please remind your child to be careful with their personal belongings. A few things have gone missing this week, which has generally been because students need to put things away carefully. In PE and Drama, all valuables should be handed to the teacher; during break and lunch, they should make sure they know where their bags are (and they are watching them), and mobile phones should be in bags unless they have been permitted to check them.

Mr Carrell is seeking feedback on your feelings about Challenge Week trips out of HK in November this year. Some parents have responded, so this is a reminder for those who haven't responded or didn’t see Mr Carrell’s message.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0qNyz-85UhIT4sOruXRuY45zlBlELHDL95EZsLY6aZDj-3A/viewform?usp=sf_link

MYP Approaches to Learning (ATL) Focus for our Parent Newsletter: Communication Skills - Paragraph Building T.E.E.L.

When creating an essay, your child must use structural writing strategies. These strategies help them to organise information logically so it makes sense to the reader. 

One writing strategy that works is called T.E.E.L.: 

Topic  - Explanation - Evidence - Link 

It is a dependable and easy strategy to apply when writing paragraphs in the main body of an essay. T.E.E.L. isn't to be used for the introductory and concluding paragraphs; there are other writing strategies for this. 

Topic -  the first or topic sentence explains to the reader what the paragraph will be about, so be clear about your paragraph's purpose and make it simple enough. 

The next step provides the details.

Explanation - expand on the Topic sentence and discuss your thoughts and perspectives about it to the reader: 

• explain why you see this topic as important 

• discuss your arguments and the topic 

Evidence - provide researched support for your thoughts, perspective and arguments. 

• if you are writing an argumentative essay, your supporting evidence would be in the form of trends, statistics, or supporting quotes from books/internet articles, etc. 

• if you are writing a comparative essay based on two characters from a book, your supporting evidence would be in the form of character quotes and references directly from the book. 

Link - one or two concluding sentences relating the paragraph back to the Topic sentence. 

The two E’s in T.E.E.L. can be reversed. This means you can provide evidence first, then explain, or explain first, then provide evidence. Once you have completed your paragraph, re-read it and check to see if you can find all of the T.E.E.L. points for a well-structured paragraph.

Additional Actions for Parents:

What are two things you can encourage your child to do to improve their paragraph building? 

Have a great weekend!

Week 2 Term 2 has been busy with lessons and broader school activities. 

Our first House Assemblies for 2024 with our new House Captain started this week, and we look forward to hearing about the activities they have planned for Interhouse and the House Cup this year. 

We continue to focus on wearing our Uniform correctly, and we thank you for providing and checking your child is wearing the correct uniform items. The weather is forecast to get a little cooler next week, so please remind your child that they are not permitted to wear other clothing on top of their uniform if they are cold. Please help them stay warm as temperatures drop by wearing base layers underneath their school uniform and/or investing in warm outer layers like our school jersey, fleece, hoodie, or jacket from the uniform shop. Our uniform can be purchased here:  uniform shop. 

Please remind your child to be careful with their personal belongings. A few things have gone missing this week, which has generally been because students need to put things away carefully. In PE and Drama, all valuables should be handed to the teacher; during break and lunch, they should make sure they know where their bags are (and they are watching them), and mobile phones should be in bags unless they have been permitted to check them.

Please ensure you and your child check the information that has been sent to you about Year 9 Consolidation Week. next week is when we have calendared together several events involving Year 9 students, including Community Project,  a Geography field trip and baseline tests in literacy and numeracy.

MYP Approaches to Learning (ATL) Focus for our Parent Newsletter: Communication Skills - Paragraph Building T.E.E.L.

When creating an essay, your child must use structural writing strategies. These strategies help them to organise information logically so it makes sense to the reader. 

One writing strategy that works is called T.E.E.L.: 

Topic  - Explanation - Evidence - Link 

It is a dependable and easy strategy to apply when writing paragraphs in the main body of an essay. T.E.E.L. isn't to be used for the introductory and concluding paragraphs; there are other writing strategies for this. 

Topic -  the first or topic sentence explains to the reader what the paragraph will be about, so be clear about your paragraph's purpose and make it simple enough. 

The next step provides the details.

Explanation - expand on the Topic sentence and discuss your thoughts and perspectives about it to the reader: 

• explain why you see this topic as important 

• discuss your arguments and the topic 

Evidence - provide researched support for your thoughts, perspective and arguments. 

• if you are writing an argumentative essay, your supporting evidence would be in the form of trends, statistics, or supporting quotes from books/internet articles, etc. 

• if you are writing a comparative essay based on two characters from a book, your supporting evidence would be in the form of character quotes and references directly from the book. 

Link - one or two concluding sentences relating the paragraph back to the Topic sentence. 

The two E’s in T.E.E.L. can be reversed. This means you can provide evidence first, then explain, or explain first, then provide evidence. Once you have completed your paragraph, re-read it and check to see if you can find all of the T.E.E.L. points for a well-structured paragraph.

Additional Actions for Parents:

What are two things you can encourage your child to do to improve their paragraph building? 

Have a great weekend!

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We continue to focus on wearing our uniform correctly, and we thank you for checking your child is wearing the correct uniform items. The weather is forecast to get a little cooler next week, so please remind your child that they are not permitted to wear other clothing on top of their uniform if they are cold. Please help them stay warm as temperatures drop by wearing base layers underneath their school uniform and/or investing in warm outer layers like our school jersey, fleece, hoodie, or jacket from the uniform shop. Our uniform can be purchased here: uniform shop.

Please remind your child to be careful with their personal belongings. There has been an improvement in octopus cards and wallets remaining in the possession of the correct owner. As highlighted in previous weeks, in PE and Drama, all valuables should be handed to the teacher; during break and lunch, they should make sure they know where their bags are (and they are watching them), and mobile phones should be in bags unless they have been permitted to check them.

A reminder about the opportunity for current Year 7 students to have the opportunity to participate in a small range of overseas trips in next year's  Challenge Week. Please see the recent message from Mr Carrell. 

We have worked with a range of parents this week and put in place targeted support and care for individual students. The Year 7 team would like to thank all parents for working together so positively with us to find the best outcome for your child, our student.

2024-2025 KGV Calendar can be seen further down this newsletter.

Have a great weekend.

School References

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.

To facilitate a smooth reference process, parents are suggested to contact the Careers Office (careers.office@kgv.edu.hk) with a list of institutions and names of teachers nominated to write references. 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

Careers & H.E. Guidance

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

Year 13
- Our Y13 IB students finished their mock exams today. Hope they now have some time to rejuvenate.
- Universities have started sending out offers. Students are most welcome to chat with their HE Counsellors any time.
- If students plan to take a gap year after graduation, we would appreciate it if they can inform their HE Counsellors about their plans.
- In the coming months, we will be doing an exit presentation for students and parents highlighting important action points.

Year 12
- ESF University Fair on 2 Feb @ South Island School - KGV: 3.30pm-5.00pm. An email to all Y12 parents was sent earlier to give their consent by 6pm on 24 Jan for students to attend the Fair.  The Careers & H.E. Team will be taking our Year 12 students to the Fair by bus, leaving school around 2.45pm.  Students without their parent consent to attend the Fair will need to stay in KGV for Period 5 lessons as normal.  The Fair brochure is accessible via Student Bulletin or the ESF app.
- Y12s’ 1-to-1 meeting with their HE Counsellors. Sessions are being scheduled during students’ non-contact periods. Individual appointment emails will be sent to students by end of next week.
- Term 2 is when we start engaging our Y12s on post-secondary aspects, including presentations, individual 1-to-1 meeting with HE Cousellors, parents evening, etc. Stay tuned.
- Google Classrooms. Our HE Team has set up Google Classrooms for Y12 students for communication on higher education issues.

Enrichment/Summer Programmes
- Students may start thinking about their plans for enrichment/summer. Our Careers website has a page that lists known opportunities by region. Check this page for ideas.
- KGV does not take responsibility for the content or quality of external events and courses.
- If students need school references to support their application to enrichment/summer programmes, they should email careers.office@kgv.edu.hk. Our normal lead time for teachers to work on recommendations is 4-6 working weeks.

KGV Careers Calendar
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.

2 Feb: ESF University Fair @ South Island School.

Visit @ KGV
25 Jan: University of Exeter
22 Feb, after school: UCL, KCL & Imperial. This session will be open to students and parents from Y10 and above. Please look out for sign-up invitations.

U.K.
Jan-Feb various dates: University of Cambridge Subject Masterclasses (Online)
23 Jan: University of Glasgow – Future Undergraduate Student Live Q&A

Europe
20 Jan: Hanze UAS Webinar: Study & live in the Netherlands
23 Jan: Studyin in the Netherlands – Joint webinare by Avans, Buas, Fontys, HZ and Saxion
25 Jan: IESEG School of Management Webinar: Bachelor in Management & Tech Design

U.S.A.
21 Jan: Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineer: Info Sessions & Event

Japan
27 Jan: Ritsumeikan University – How to apply to English-medium Undergraduate Programs

KGV Careers & H.E. Team

Music Academy Info session for current Year 7 families

Save the date: Thursday 1st February, 7:00pm.

Online google-meet link to follow.

The Music Academy at KGV offers extension opportunities for our gifted and talented musicians, with a holistic programme that will allow them to reach their full potential.

In Year 8, KGV students normally choose three art subjects out of Music, Drama, Media, and Art (on a rotation). However, Music Academy students will only focus on Music for the year (they will not take drama, media, and art) to give them the opportunity to fully take advantage of the accelerated curriculum. 

Please complete this short form to express your interest in finding out more about the Music Academy pathway for year 8 (August 2024) FORM LINK HERE.

Updated KGV Calendar for school year of 2024 - 2025.

22 - 26 January