kellett dragon issue 15 - may 2016

CONTENTMAY 2016

SENiOrHIGHLIGHTS 40-47 Head of Senior School Student Leadership Sixth Form Learning Service Programme Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) Global Citizenship Business Studies Economics Science Geography English Maths History

ArTS & LAnGuAGeS 48-52 Design Technology Music Modern Foreign Languages Art HKAYP Drama

SporT 54-55

WHOLE SCHOOLprInCIpAL’S MeSSAGe 4

KeLLeTT neWS 5-6 Welcome to our New Staff Staff Leavers Student Leavers

HIGHLIGHTS 6-10 Kellett Cares Library Annual Fund Annual Concert Alumni News

KeLLeTT SuMMer SCHooL 11

FeATure 12-13 The Mindful Dragon

PrEParaTOryPreP Across the school 14-15 Preparatory French ICT

Pok Fu lAm HIGHLIGHTS 16-21 Head of Preparatory School School Council Reception to Year 6

ArTS & LAnGuAGeS 22-25 Music Art Chinese Studies

SporT 26-27

exTrAS 28-29 ECAs Easter Bonnet Parade

kowloon BAy

HIGHLIGHTS 30-34 Head of Preparatory School School Council Reception to Year 6

SporT 35-36

ArTS & LAnGuAGeS 37-39 Art Music Chinese Studies KLB Prep During Chinese New Year

WELCOmE TO Our NEW STaff

STaff LEavErS

One Senior School Headteacher spoke of the majority of their teachers teaching outside of their degree subjects at Key Stage 3 and increasingly at GCSE level. One primary colleague told of being unable to fill an Assistant Headteacher role for over a year, and there were anecdotes of advertising four or five times to fill vacant posts.

UK teacher training and related qualified teacher numbers have always been an inexact science. For the past five years, teachers’ professional associations have been warning the UK Government of a forthcoming crisis, whilst in response, the Department of Education continued to give assurances that this was not the case. In February this year, the UK Government reversed its position and Sir Michael Wilshaw, Chief Inspector of Schools, went as far as to say the crisis had been exacerbated by British Schools Overseas recruitment of British teachers for their schools.

Fortunately, to date we have continued to employ excellent, career-minded teachers with proven track records, however, over the past two years these have been harder to come by, as we haven’t enjoyed the strong fields we have had in the past. Both UK and overseas schools are actively pursuing career-minded teachers.

Retaining good teachers is equally as important as recruiting them in the first place. Historically, international schools were often guilty of taking good teachers and then starving them of Continuous Professional Learning (CPL). The UK National Qualification Pathway is a series of qualifications designed to take career-minded teachers from Post Graduate qualification status to Headship through a series of rigorously monitored and assessed CPL qualifications. Last year, thirty of

Kellett School’s teachers made the decision to embark upon either the UK National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership or National Professional Qualification for Senior Leadership (NPQSL and NPQML). In partnership with Edge Hill University, UK, the Kellett candidates are involved in face-to-face sessions, distance learning and action research projects leading to highly coveted qualifications.

Whilst historically, Kellett has had teachers participate in the ‘Pathway Qualifications’, they have never been in such numbers or so uniquely funded. All of Kellett’s participants are taking part on a co-funded basis; each is funding the course fee whilst Kellett is funding Edge Hill University Team’s two face-to-face delivery visits in Hong Kong and the final Assessment fees.

The willingness of our teachers to undertake NPQML and NPQSL on this basis demonstrates how fortunate Kellett is to continue to attract career-minded teachers and how seriously our teachers view their futures.

I have no doubt that maintaining the calibre of teachers that Kellett seeks to employ will only become more difficult, and the importance of offering National Qualification Pathways is just one of the many ways we can ensure Kellett School and Hong Kong remains an attractive career choice.

Ann Mc Donald Principal

Recently whilst in London, I took the opportunity to attend a training day related to ‘measuring’ student progress, however, the ‘networking’ aspects of the day were dominated by Heads telling of teacher recruitment and retention woes.

SHirLEy CHaN - HR Admin AssistAnt

Whole School

BHaWaNa GuruNG Book keepeR

ruBy CHEuNG HR officeR

Whole School

JuLiE Lai - mAndARin tA

Pok Fu lam PreParatory

rOSE LaO - tA

Liz DiCkiE - ARt tA

PiErCE WEST - tA

koWloon Bay PreParatory

viviaN WONG - House AdministRAtoR

NEriNa DaryaNaNi - House AdministRAtoR

iNDy Li - LeARning seRvices cooRdinAtoR

marTHa SO - LeARning suppoRt AssistAnt

Senior School

Pok Fu lam PreParatory

Livia NG mAndARin tA

mark HamPSON ResouRce Room AssistAnt

koWloon Bay PreParatory

aNNiE BENNETT ARt tA

rOxaNNE GrOvES incLusion tA

Senior School

mimi Li senioR scHooL secRetARy

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PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE

KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FIFtEEn May 2016

Tabby Bennett George Bennett Ashton Chin

Margot Connop Emma Green Tommy Green

Eva Leacock Ben Leacock Audrey Lee

Christopher Mountford Alice Mountford Cy Saunders

Remie Saunders Sophie Scott Charlotte Scott

Logan Wenger

STuDENT LEavErS

kELLETT CarES

Thanks to your generosity throughout Term 2, we have shown, once again, that Kellett cares.

Kowloon Bay and Pok Fu Lam Prep schools have had to a great start to 2016 with Coins for a Cause and the CNY Dragon Scales Sales. January also saw Year 5 and Year 6 students busy baking for the first CNY Fortune Cookie sale in Kowloon Bay. Huge thanks to all who purchased the cookies, and to the Mandarin team led by Virginia Man in KLB, who has been involved with many successful Kellett Cares initiatives this term.

The majority of these funds will help support the International Care Ministries with their work in the Philippines. Kellett recently welcomed Nicole McPherson from ICM who talked to the KLB Prep school children and parents about their work and the assistance given to them by Kellett Cares.

Meanwhile, the success of the Kellett Cares Pizza Sales and PFL Assembly donations continues. Look out for more Pizza Sales to come before the Summer break.

Over in the Senior School, the Senior Council, supported by a group of staff and parents, is establishing its branch of Kellett Cares.

To get the ball rolling in 2016, students and parents kindly baked a range of delicious snacks to help fuel the athletic excellence displayed at the Senior Sports Day. Thanks to all those who baked, and those who manned the stall.

It is still early days for the Kellett Cares Senior branch, but other plans include building a strong relationship with a local charity, starting a disaster relief fund and offering financial support to other local charities. Watch this space.

Thank you for your continuing support and enthusiasm for Kellett Cares, and to all the parent volunteers who help make all our activities such a success.

LiBrary

Jan latta, author, viSitS PreP liBrarieSIn March, 4-ML and Year 5 in Pok Fu Lam and Reception and Year 1 in Kowloon Bay were treated to a visit by author Jan Latta.

Jan is a wildlife photographer and adventurer, with a passion for protecting endangered animals. She has travelled all around the world including Africa, Borneo, China, India, Uganda and Sri Lanka to create books for children on endangered animals (including lions, tigers, leopards, pandas and chimps) photographing them in their natural habitats.

Students were treated to tales of her travels, and the many adventures she has experienced capturing the lives of the endangered animals.The books are full of fabulous photographs, interesting facts, maps and fun activities and are available to borrow either from our Prep Libraries or the Kellett eBook platform (www.kellettschool.wheelers.co).

reading aloudThe link between educational success and reading for pleasure is well documented*. However, according to the recent Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report UK, 2015*, reading for enjoyment drops significantly after age 11, as does the percentage of children being read aloud to at home.

We aim to foster enjoyment of reading in Prep School, beyond into Senior, as the pull of social media, screen related activities and the pressure of exams increases, whilst reinforcing parent efforts at home, by:- providing a wide selection of choice and different genres as

well as stocking the “favourites”- providing different delivery formats to suit different preferences –

eBooks and print- building into Prep library sessions time for students to choose

books they want to read, and most importantly time to read.

For good advice on reading aloud to your children we suggest:

Bring me a Book hong kongA great list of books to read with your child, crossing many age groups:http://www.bringmeabook.org.hk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Tried-and-tasted_FINAL_July-2012.pdf

Book trust:http://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-blogs/news/222/http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books/children/how-to-share-books/

available for reference in the kellett libraries:The Read-Aloud Handbook, 7th Edition, 2013, Jim Trelease The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child, 2009, Donalyn Miller Reading Together: Everything You Need to Know to Raise a Child Who Loves to Read, 2009, Diane Frankenstein

*references available on online version

A number of students left Kellett School at the last term. We wish them all the very best with their future endeavours.

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HIGHLIGHTS


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KELLETT NEWS

aNNuaL fuND

It is with great excitement that we are able to announce a number of projects that are being put into place as a result of the generous support to this year’s Annual Fund.

For the Kellett School Learning Service in the Community Programme, we have recently appointed Indy Li as our Learning Service Coordinator, who will implement Learning Service projects throughout the school, starting with the Senior School. Indy has been working with students to establish projects in which they can volunteer their time to serve different local communities in Hong Kong. The first Learning Service project has taken place at the China Coast Community, a care and attention residential home for English-speaking elderly in Hong Kong, where students will befriend and entertain residents. Future projects fall into the categories of animal welfare, arts & sports, educational, health and social issues.

aNNuaL CONCErT

The Annual Concert is an opportunity to see Kellett School come together to celebrate music through ensemble performance. From Stravinsky with our Senior Orchestra, to Latin choral music, Vivaldi for String Ensemble, the choral/instrumental performance of Les Miserables and even a spot of rapping in Glory, there was certainly something for all to enjoy. Hearing the combined efforts, across the whole school, was a testament to the talent at Kellett and a representation of the discipline, commitment and passion of our students—a wonderful evening of community music in action!

In Term 2 we were very lucky to host inspirational guest speakers Xyza Bacani and Adam Walker. Xyza, a Filipina street photographer who previously worked in Hong Kong as a domestic helper, shared her journey to success and her passion for photography with our Year 12 EPQ students, who gained valuable understanding of the process of developing a project. Adam Walker, renowned endurance swimmer, talked to Year 7-9 students about the countless challenges he overcame to realise his dream of swimming across the 7 toughest oceans in the world. Students were inspired by Adam’s messages around the resilience and determination required to achieve success.

So far in Term 3 we have welcomed guest speakers John Wood, Emma Rhoda, Forks on Wheels and Salvador Ching. John Wood, founder of the charity Room to Read, spoke at the Janice Kwan Memorial Lecture on faith and inspired our students, staff and parents with his story of leaving his well-paid job in the technology sector to start Room to Read, an organization that promotes literacy across Asia and Africa. Psychologist Emma Rhoda is running workshops with all Year 7

classes within their Global Citizenship lessons throughout term 3. The workshops cover social relationships, including forming healthy relationships with others and recognising healthy and unhealthy friendships. Both KLB and PFL Prep schools were visited by Beth Martin and Kellett Alumna Julia Mason from ‘Forks on Wheels’, sharing stories of their incredible 10,000 mile journey cycling from London to Hong Kong to raise awareness about food waste. Students discussed topics around preventing food waste and giving those that are hungry access to meals, as well as the many interesting challenges Forks on Wheels were faced with on their journey through 2 continents including 20 countries. Most recently, artist Salvador Ching worked with Year 10 Art students on print making, sharing his unique techniques as well as guiding students to produce their own creative works.

For the remainder of this term, we will be putting into place the initial stages of the Development of Computer Science project, as well as the The Books Go Walkabout project and the steel pans project Jumbie Jams.

Finally, we are very excited to announce that we have secured our Annual Fund Sports Speaker to visit at the end of the academic year. Dame Kelly Holmes, double Olympic gold medallist and holder of five separate British track records, will speak to both Preparatory and Senior Schools, as well as at the Senior School awards ceremony. Parents are invited to attend the Senior School talk and more information will be sent out in the eBulletin.

Thank you again for your support of the Kellett School Annual Fund and providing these wonderful opportunities for our students.

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After a successful alumni gathering in March 2013 & May 2014, we returned to London for the 3rd gathering. The Afternoon Tea was a great success. It was wonderful to see so many past students, parents and staff and to hear such a variety of wonderful stories and memories.

Keep an eye on our Alumni Page on the school website and on Facebook for information on upcoming alumni events.

If you are leaving Kellett School at the end of the year and would like to stay in touch with us, please visit the Kellett Alumni page on the school website http://www.kellettschool.com ➤ Development office ➤ Alumni to fill in the alumni registration form.

Follow the Kellett School Alumni page on Facebook to keep up with the latest news and events.

Finally, we have recently launched a brand new Kellett page on LinkedIn, which enables users to list Kellett School in the Education History section of their profile. We want to create a community in which alumni of all ages can communicate and network with each other, and this page presents us with such an opportunity. Search ‘Kellett School, The British International School in Hong Kong’ when editing your education section to add it to your profile.

Kellett School Alumni LinkedIn - https://goo.gl/AAm1Fv

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2016-05-11 Summer school3 Dragonwbleed.pdf 1 5/11/16 2:52 PM

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LiBrary

Steve the dragon was having a tough time at school. He had exams coming up, he was busy revising, attending ECAs, playing for his football team outside school and trying to keep up with all his other dragon friends. He was enjoying it most of the time, but sometimes it all felt rather much for him and he did feel a bit under pressure. Often he just went through all of his activities and tasks on auto-pilot and did not really think about what he was doing.

One day Steve stumbled into Ms Gibbs’ Year 2 lesson, whilst looking for his personal fire extinguisher that he had temporarily misplaced. He was surprised and impressed with how calm, quiet and focused the class were and he asked what they were doing. Ms Gibbs told him they were doing mindfulness practice and said he could join in if he liked. He was a bit skeptical at first, but he was not sure if he really wanted to go to his Geography class, as he had not done his homework for Mr. Sleeman. So, he agreed.

After listening to the soothing music and trying the breathing exercises for a while, he felt really relaxed, and a little sleepy. The voice told him to breathe deeply in and out and to focus on his breathing, to feel the weight of his belly, the contact between his tail and the floor and the sensation of the fire in his lungs. It told him to listen to the traffic passing in the street and to imagine his troubles were out there passing with the cars and, while he could acknowledge them, he did not need to focus on them too hard.

THE miNDfuL DraGON

After his session of mindfulness Steve felt good and he wanted to know more about why that was, so he went to Science class and asked his Biology teacher Miss Henderson about how mindfulness affected his brain. As it turned out, there have been a lot of recent studies that have taken an interest in mindfulness. These studies showed that mindfulness can not only make a difference to our self-perceived sense of wellbeing, but it can have an effect on stress and all its associated physical factors, improve our immune systems, and over time, it can shift brain activity to the left. This change in electrical function observed is believed to be due to an "approach state" in which people move towards difficult and challenging situations rather than away from them. Indeed, as mindfulness intends, allowing people to face, for example, social or professional situations that they find stressful. Again, mindfulness does not take away the fear, but it results in an acceptance of the normality of that fear and thus a significant lessening of its negative impacts. The neural changes seen have, in some studies, been likened to an improved neural basis for resilience.

Steve was fascinated and he wondered where the evidence was for the benefits of mindfulness in education, so he went to see Ms McRobbie and Nurse Justin to see what they thought about it. They seemed like good people to ask as they had attended an 8-week course on mindfulness and had asked an Educational Psychologist to run a Mindfulness ECA, which

was greatly enjoyed by all those who attended. After a few conversations sharing their experiences, they suggested that Steve should try asking some teachers who used it more about their experiences.

He spoke to Mr Lynn and found that he uses mindfulness very successfully after playtime, and finds that it really helps to bring the pupils back to a focused and receptive state, ready for their learning. On observing some more sessions and listening to more recordings on the Smiling Mind application, he saw that many of the sessions really help not only with relaxing the pupils and helping them to deal with any worries they might have, but they also have a real focus on using imagination and developing descriptive language. Some help to develop students' curiosity about the world around them, to respond creatively to their existing experiences, to become more aware of their own thoughts, and to think consciously about things they may have difficulty in verbalising. The sessions seemed very accessible and could clearly be seen to build on skills that would contribute to that mental resilience Steve's Science teacher had mentioned.

After hearing all this Steve was pretty convinced. He decided to download the Smiling Mind application and he started trying to use mindfulness in his everyday life.

The next week he had to go to a party, which he usually enjoyed, even though he was never allowed to help blow out the candles since, ‘the incident’. There would be limestone cake and super spicy gobstoppers to eat, and he did love the bouncy castle where he could use his wings to bounce a bit higher than everyone else. Despite all this, he always felt really nervous just before he arrived; the uncertainty involved in walking into a room full of people always made him a little anxious. Sure enough, as he reached the 42nd floor in the lift he had that feeling again, a little sinking sensation in the bottom of his tummy. So, he called on his mindfulness. He remembered that it was okay to feel like this and that other people probably felt the same. Just because these feelings

were present did not mean he was not a strong person or that he would not be a hit at the party or that he would not have a great time. The feeling got a little bit better, and, although it did not disappear, he found it a lot less stressful thinking about it in this new way.

That weekend he found it useful again. He had a race to run for his local athletics team, The Dragons! On the start line he used mindfulness to calm himself down and he put in his performance of the season winning a silver medal.

Steve was now fully converted. He was using mindfulness all the time and he really wanted to tell his friends how great it was, but he didn't want them to laugh at him and call him a hippy. So Steve came to me. He told me all about his experiences and he convinced me that mindfulness was nothing new, it had been practised in Eastern and Western cultures for centuries and this was simply a contemporary and secular re-imagining of something that people had benefitted from for a long time. He convinced me it would be a good idea to write an article about his experiences and to encourage other dragons, and people, to have a go at mindfulness and make up their own minds. So I did.

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FEATURE FEATURE

KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FIFtEEn May 2016 KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FIFtEEn May 2016

The children got off to a fine start in French this January.

In Year 3, the first topic this term was clothing. They learnt several nouns for familiar items and we began to introduce the concept of gender by colour coding them blue for masculine and red for feminine and looking at how the spelling of the colour changes depending on the gender. This topic culminated in a description of uniforms; take a look on the Photo Gallery on iLearn to see some! Our second topic has been food. The children learnt lots of vocabulary for breakfast food and drinks as well as some useful phrases to help when ordering food. They were lucky enough to enjoy their very own French breakfast in a class where they had to order in French, paying particular attention to their manners!

Year 4 began the year by exploring vocabulary to do with the world around them. This enabled them to learn to use a bilingual dictionary which is a vital skill for language learning. Following this, they learnt how to describe their houses. They have learnt French vocabulary for the rooms in the house as well as the different floors. They have also been practising the common structure, ‘il y a…’, within this context, turning descriptions into diagrams. Their teachers have enjoyed hearing all about their homes in Hong Kong and around the world! By adding in some common prepositions, Year 4 PFL have used an app on their iPads to showcase their wonderful spoken descriptions, whilst KLB imagined their ideal homes!

Year 5 in PFL began the term by studying the tradition of Epiphany which takes place in France on 6 January. We had some very creative lessons in which they split into groups to prepare and cook Galettes des Rois, typical French pastries which contain ground almonds and in which a charm is hidden for one lucky recipient! We played a game whereby the youngest member of the group decided who received each slice and whoever won the charm became King or Queen for

preparatory French ict

the day. We had great fun making our own crowns! Following this, they have studied how to describe someone else’s eye colour and hair colour, style and length. KLB made some videos describing each other – check them out on iLearn. We wrapped up this topic by playing the popular game Guess Who (Qui est-ce?) in French!

Year 6 have begun to study the present tense in French lessons in January. We concentrated on regular –er verbs and the patterns which have to be followed in order to use the verbs freely. We used online activities, giant foam dice,

pairs cards and a game based on the concept of the old TV show Blockbusters to practise the process. Our subsequent topic was descriptions of other people’s hair and eyes and they also added the irregular verb avoir to their repertoire to enable them to describe not just themselves, but groups of other people too. We have also looked at the verb être and described people’s personalities, taking care to use the correct adjective endings.

Make sure you up-to-date with the photo gallery on iLearn to see photos and videos of your child’s learning.

Consultant Visits Making a DifferenCeDuring the past few months, we have been visited by two different consultants, who have worked with students and teachers on aspects of learning. Both consultants focused on different ways of using technology within the curriculum to promote 21st Century Literacies.

Concepts and definitions of Literacy have changed somewhat in recent years with the realisation that what students need to learn in the 21st Century goes far beyond the traditional understanding of Literacy. In 2010, FutureLab produced a document called “Digital Literacy across the Curriculum” which began to formalise some of the terminology which would shape discussion around what exactly students needed to know. Whilst there have since been many variations upon this theme, the original visualization included here remains an important reminder.

Our two visiting consultants, whose visits were courtesy of the Annual Fund, were chosen to work with us because of their particularly strong abilities to help teachers and students master these new literacies.

First to visit was Tim Rylands and his partner Sarah Neild, globally acknowledged leaders in this field. Tim’s training session with staff was a rollercoaster ride of resources and experiences. He stressed the importance of writing as a creative art and gave us all ideas on how we could ensure student writing was that little bit more magical. Six months after their visit, it’s heartening to see their ideas in use; a Globe Photo here and there, some writing based upon a computer game and a general greater understanding of visual ways in which technology can enhance learning.

Our most recent visitor was Cathy Hunt, who worked with Art Departments across the school on her previous visit. On this occasion though, the award-winning author worked within a wider context, supporting teachers in the use of iPads across the curriculum.

Again, a few months after her visit it’s easy to see the influence she had, with teachers and students using visual ways of presenting their information: graphs, data visualisations, logos, photo collages, multimedia avatars all helping to bring student work to life.

A recent example of her influence has been seen in Year 5, where students have designed and created a smoothie after studying various aspects of food. This unit of work has now been enhanced by using the app Assembly to create a brand for their drink, some examples of which can be seen below. The final product is now much more visually appealing and has increased the authenticity of the work as the final product now looks much more professional.

This is just one example of the many differences that our visiting consultants have made this year and we’re very grateful that the Annual Fund has made this possible.

Finally, a mention to some members of Year 6 at our Pok Fu Lam campus who were able to use Minecraft as a means of showing their understanding of river systems. The resulting work certainly had the “wow” factor and even led to one student proclaiming that their presentation was “the best thing I’ve ever done at school.”

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HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM

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Social DevelopmentUse a range of social skills; participate in the local community; appreciate diverse viewpoints; participate, volunteer and cooperate; resolve conflict; engage with the 'British values' of democracy, the rule of law, liberty, respect and tolerance.

Cultural DevelopmentAppreciate cultural influences; appreciate the role of Britain's parliamentary system; participate in culture opportunities; understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity.

British ValuesAccording to OFSTED, British values are: Democracy; the rule of law; individual liberty; mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.

Within Kellett School, the promotion of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is considered to be a whole school commitment. This supports and reinforces the aims of our school whilst valuing all children and staff equally and as individuals.

In my relatively short time as Head of Pok Fu Lam, I have been evaluating and reflecting on what makes the learning context at Kellett such a unique and exciting experience. There are many factors that contribute to this. I believe that it is due to the commitment of the school community in delivering the vision of the whole school that drives this forward. But how do we do this?

At the heart of any outstanding curriculum and whole school learning experience is the framework that links aspects of the skills, knowledge and understanding that pupils need to master. Much of this is clearly defined within whole school policy and procedures, however there are elements that are less easy to define and, in some aspects, harder to measure. What commonly used to be referred to as the ‘hidden curriculum’, is now more clearly defined and explicit as, the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) aspects of school life. SMSC is the substance and glue that binds the curriculum together. This has been taught in schools for many years, but recent changes in many of the inspection frameworks, including that of British Schools Overseas (BSO), mean that they will feature more prominently in the classrooms of today and of the future.

SMSC are key ingredients of a successful school. At Kellett, we feel that these are important and vital aspects of the curriculum that nurture and develop the community. It is a process which provides quality to enrichment, reflection and inspiration. Below is a very brief definition and explanation of each of the aspects of SMSC.

Spiritual Development Explore beliefs and experience; respect faiths, feelings and values; enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world; use imagination and creativity; reflect.

Moral DevelopmentRecognise right and wrong; respect the law; understand consequences; investigate moral and ethical issues; offer reasoned views

What creates a positive, dynamic and engaging learning climate that encourages students to thrive in a high quality aspirational International School? SMSC?

SMSC is something that Kellett really excells in. There are an exciting range of experiences, events and enrichment activities that are delivered across the school which directly promote SMSC. The wide variety of trips, residentials and outreach projects are good examples of where pupils develop aspects of the ‘transferable skills’ which support, develop and grow all aspects of a pupil’s SMSC engagement. During my recent visits to the Key Stage 2 camps, there was a palpable sense of focus, excitement and commitment to team work, making good choices and challenging oneself.

The curriculum, as a whole, is mapped, planned, and further refined in order to create opportunities to develop interelated aspects of SMSC. A good example of this can be seen within the music curriculum. The high quality musical performances across the school ensure that musical excellence is developed and celebrated whilst further embedding aspects of spirituality through the experience of playing to and inspiring an audience. Thus, both performer and recipient of the performance experience a sense of social intercaction and at the same time reference the cultural content of the music through different styles and forms of musical repetoire.

If we want to see where our, ‘love of learning and confidence for life’ is nurtured and embedded, then SMSC is the clear platform that enables this to be developed across all aspects of the curriculum. It is a fundamental aspect of our curriculum which we whole heartedly acknowledge and celebrate.

Yours sincerely

Ben Dixon Head of Preparatory School, Pok Fu Lam

School council

The Reception children walked into their classrooms three weeks ago to discover that an alien spacecraft had crash-landed! We have had a busy time making sure that Alien Voki’s precious eggs were kept safe in our classrooms. We found out that the aliens want to launch a rescue mission, but have magnetic bodies, so the children have investigated magnets, metals and other materials to ensure that the eggs can be rescued safely.

The children have made the covered area into a Space wonderland. They have been making aliens, rockets, using the Make a Martian app on the iPads, and have spent time dressing up and roleplaying in the spaceship. The storytelling has been fantastic; we may have some budding astronauts in our midst!

The children have been so excited about our Space topic, fuelled by our venture into the Space Dome on the last week of term. We have learnt all about the solar system, the planets, and their features. We are looking forward to continuing their fascination into next term as our Space topic continues!

reception

The School Council have been working hard over the last few months.

We have made a rota to help keep the Lost Property boxes from over flowing, and we think that each class has been doing their job of sorting the lost property each week really well.

The School Council

Mr Dawes came to our meeting in January and talked to us about having an iLearn page for the School Council. We thought this was a great idea and a small team of us went along to talk about what the page could look like. This project is underway and we hope to give you more news about it soon.

In February, Mr Dixon came along to our meeting. It was great to discuss our ideas with him and he made us really think about the ideas we had.

We have been thinking of a fun way to raise money for new playground equipment. We would like to buy more footballs, balls for throwing and catching, hoops, skipping ropes, French skipping ropes and small football goals.

We will be letting everyone know about our fundraiser soon!

year 1

year 2

We kicked off the year with a healthy start by learning about the Eat Well plate and how to have a balanced diet. This incorporated design and technology, where we created our own smoothies as well as designing and making pizzas. We also recapped how to write instructions for our super smoothies and delicious pizzas. We also planned and conducted science experiments on how exercise affects our bodies.

To start our materials topic, Year 2 were extremely excited to have James, the science technician, over to show what amazing things can be done with everyday materials.

The children have been enthused and inspired by our topic on ‘Who Changed the World’. We closely examined the lives of Alexander Graham Bell and Florence Nightingale. The children used a range of media including information books, the Internet, and documentaries to research facts about Florence Nightingale, and then wrote their own non-chronological report.

Year 2 also dazzled the school community with their superb assemblies. The children performed with confidence, expression and fantastic intonation!

Our topic last term was called “All At Sea”. We did so many wonderful things to support our learning of this topic. In Science, we made boats and tested which boats would travel the furthest in the water with different forces. In Geography, we explored what an island is and even made our own 2D and 3D islands out of papier mâché. These were decorated and labelled with a key. We then went on a school trip to Cheung Chau to look at the different human and physical features of an island, and how the human features have resulted in improvements to different areas. In Literacy, we went on a journey with Max to “Where the Wild Things Are”, writing our own descriptions of monsters and fantasy forests and making our own wild things.

We also learnt about “Amazing Animals” and learnt how to groups animals into fish, mammals, insects, birds or reptiles. We studied so many different kinds of animals and even wrote our own non-fiction books about our favourite animal.

We finished the term with a lovely Easter Bonnet parade with so many children making wonderful hats full of colour, chicks and Easter eggs!

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year 3

year 4At the start of the term, our topic of ‘Moving and Growing’ was a superb example of the children using their skills across the curriculum. The children became real experts on our skeletons, measured the growth of children (and a few lucky adults!) across the school and then presented this data in a range of different tables and charts. As well as this, the children also researched how our bodies move to produce some very informative explanations of our muscles, using models, and were then able to share their learning by creating multi-media presentations. Our beautiful corridor displays really showcased this! After this very impressive start to the term, our thrilling hook day that launched our ‘Junior Navigator’ topic was a real success, with children having the chance to work creatively to problem solve as part of a team – skills that became very important as we enjoyed our annual residential trip to Lantau, as ever a real highlight of the year. The children demonstrated great maturity, resilience and a contagious sense of fun! With particular thanks to all the parents who accompanied us on this trip, we look forward to sharing our assembly performances with you all at the start of next term!

Year 3 extended their learning away from the classroom to the beautiful surroundings of Sai Kung on the annual camping trip. Two days of adventure were enjoyed by all those involved, with the fun beginning with a hike in the unexpectedly glorious sunshine. Fortunately, no one was too exhausted by the lengthy walk to miss out on the group activities. Year 3 proved themselves to be keen archers, with many children successfully aiming an arrow at a distant target. Dare devils ascended a climbing wall and everyone enjoyed a pleasant cycle ride around the camp grounds.

As the sun set, beds were made and the night time fun commenced around the barbeque pits. A feast of pizza was devoured by all in an effort to replenish our energy levels. Carefully toasted marshmallows and delicious hot chocolate accompanied songs, stories and games around the fires. When the embers died down, bed time approached and very quickly Year 3 were tucked up, dreaming of the fun that would be had the next day.

Everyone was raring to go on day 2 of camp and we were delighted to be joined by children from Kowloon Bay. New friendships were formed during an exciting morning of team

building games but all good things must come to an end, and after lunch, our intrepid campers headed back to Pok Fu Lam. On the coach journey back to school, the low sound of snoring suggested that an action packed camp had been enjoyed by all!

year 5

It has been another busy term in Year 5. In English, our persuasive writing unit began with a visit to Ocean Park. Based on our experiences of riding some of the rollercoasters, we created advertisements for the rides on iPads using photos, videos and persuasive language. Everybody had a great day!

We have been studying our topic unit Feed Me Now. Our initial studies looking at where our food comes from and the environmental impacts of increased food miles. After sampling and looking at branded fruit smoothie drinks, we created our own healthy recipes. Using ICT we designed logos, created slogans and wrote advertorials for smoothies of our own, considering very carefully how best to market our products. Making our smoothies in the cooking room was great fun, and we also had the opportunity to sample and evaluate each other’s delicious smoothies.

year 6

Year 6 had a ‘rockin’ start to the year, acting out the lives of the rich and famous. Through our Journalistic Writing unit in Literacy, students became overnight singing sensations and they were even interviewed by ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine! Another Literacy highlight involved discussing the controversial topic of graffiti. A whole class debate was held to discuss the motion, “Graffiti is art”, and everyone enjoyed taking on various roles to give their views on the subject.

This term Year 6 studied tourism as part of our ‘Destination Investigation’ topic. The opinions of Pok Fu Lam teachers were collected and analysed by students, so that they could plan and design the ‘dream eco-friendly resort’ that would appeal to all. Sustainability was a key theme that had to be incorporated into their designs. The project culminated with students presenting their research to their peers, using ‘Thinglink’, and the Year 6 teachers were extremely impressed by their persuasive and informative destination proposals.

Our Science unit on Forces included finding out about gravity, upthrust and friction. We also planned our own investigation, making and testing different parachutes to find out how the speed at which they fall is affected by air resistance.

We have now started our new topic of ‘Mad Scientist’, which has meant us spending lots of time in our science laboratory investigating dissolving. This will continue next term when we study reversible and irreversible changes.

Well done Year 6 for an extremely successful term!

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This has been another busy term for the music department, with several big events happening in quick succession!

The first of these was our instrumental evening, on 21 January. Over 100 children performed at this event, which is now split into two concerts; the Year 1-3 performance early in the evening and the Year 4-6 show later on the same evening. We were treated to some outstanding performances on this evening on instruments ranging from harp, marimba and bass guitar, along with the more traditional classical instruments!

Following the Instrumental Evening, the students worked extremely hard to prepare for the Annual Concert on the 4 February, as well as the cast of the Musical working hard on their preparations for our upcoming production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

In curriculum music, we have been lucky enough to receive a class set of 12 Music iPads from the Parents Committee. These have been absolutely fantastic for enhancing the students’ learning of musical theory and aural skills. Shown here are some of our Year 6 students practicing their musical notation fluency. Every single year group throughout Pok Fu Lam have also been using the marimbas this term, which are a legacy initiative originally introduced thanks to generous clonations to the Annual Fund.

In March, 16 students from Years 5 & 6 attended the FOBISIA Primary Performance Arts Carnival in the Ho Chi Minh City. As a part of this Carnival, they will be performing the ‘Bombie Samba’ from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, for the FOBISIA’s Got Talent concert. You can see them here, rehearsing their dance routine!

art

Year 1 & 2 We have worked on a number of different topics throughout the term, some of which have been linked to our class topic work and more recently Year 1 and Year 2 have been busy creating work for their ‘All at Sea’ class topic. We have really enjoyed working on our mixed media pictures, especially making sea monsters out of bubble wrap! Year 2s have been looking at the artist Vincent Van Gogh and created their own’ Starry Night’ skies showing us how lines can be used to create movement. We made up our own landscapes in the bottom of the picture and added windows for decoration.

Year 3Year 3 have been looking at sculpture. We investigated all the different ways you could make a sculpture and made our own out of wire and stockings! We painted the stockings with our own designs and patterns and we were really pleased with our final results. More recently we experimented with colour mixing and made some beautiful chameleons using our colour mixing skills. Well done Year 3!

Year 4 Shoes have arrived in the Year 4 art sessions. We have been drawing them, working on our 3D shading skills and most recently we have made our own designs using clay. We sculpted, molded, scratched and slipped our pieces for our 3D form together using the coils and slab building technique and finally glazed them! Come and see them on display in school!

Year 5 Mixed Media Art was a focus this term. We looked at how patterned paper and sheets of acetate could be used to create a self-portrait focusing on pattern, colour and line. We cut and pasted materials on top of a photograph which later was covered in acetate to bring the lines of our face back into the portrait. This created a layered image and was really effective to the eye. Well done Year 5!

Year 6Our artistic leaders of the primary school have been making all sorts of fantastic pieces of work this term. We started out with large scale cardboard monkeys which we cut out of cardboard using a craft knife. These filled the gym, much to Mrs Pratt’s delight! We also have been looking at the poet Robert Frost and we have used his poem to inspire our own imaginary woodland scenes using water colour paints. We looked at how we could use shadows and reflections in our work as well as perspective to make a landscape composition more complex in design. We now look to the artist Chuck Close for inspiration with our portrait paintings for the Year 6 show. Well done Year 6!

We had a great time celebrating the Year of the Monkey for Chinese New Year. Each year group tackled a different material and process and the school was filled with monkeys at every turn.

Well done to all involved!

MuSic

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Kellett students experienced various cultural arts and crafts activities and helped in the celebration of the Chinese New Year. You may like to browse the PFL Chinese iLearn page to see what our students did for the Year of Monkey.

During Chinese New Year assembly, Year 6 presented the legendary story, ‘Journey to the West, a research project done by them through collaborative learning in Google docs. The highlight of the assembly was the Lion Dance presented by our sister school, Hok Shan School. Five beautiful lions accompanied by the flamboyant drummers and cymbal players put on a fantastic show. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

During our recent visit to Hok Shan School for our joint-school reading programmes, our Year 4 students were joined by Mr. Dixon and Mr Bromwich. It is always pleasing to see how much students enjoy this purposeful and friendly interaction.

lion dance by Hok shan school during CnY assembly at kellett

flamboyant drummers and cymbal players

from Hok shan school during the kellett CnY

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Mr Dixon was chatting with students at Hok

shan schoolreception students enjoyed their own version of a lion dance

CnY sweet tasting by Year 3 students

students had a go at Chinese

calligraphy

During CnY, monkeys climbed all around the gym!

a glimpse of some of our CnY display

Year 6 designed and made cardboard monkeys to celebrate Year of the Monkey

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Cross CountrY newsAround 80 children have been training every Friday morning at Stanley Ho since September. We have experienced some friendly running events with CIS and GSIS where all our students have done exceptionally well. The CIS Road Race which took place on Saturday 12 March was an enjoyable event with 43 children representing Kellett PFL in the different race categories. All of our runners did an amazing job and all completed the course. Over 700 pupils took part through 18 different schools. We had many top 10 finishes and also some team awards which are highlighted below.

rugBY newsWe have had a very successful rugby season so far, and are looking forward to being involved in contact tournaments next term. We have enjoyed playing both touch and tag rugby against Kennedy School and our own Kowloon Bay counterparts in a couple of friendly encounters. On Thursday 18 February we entered three teams into the DBIS Touch Rugby Tournament; the Girls worked well and developed their skills throughout the mornings finishing with a win, draw and a loss. Both our A & B boys’ teams were unbeaten in the group stages of the tournament. The A team progressed into the cup semi-finals where they were up against a strong CIS team, who beat them 1-0 in a golden goal extra time where the teams had been whittled down to 3v3! The B team, who also entered the Cup competition in their division, played a strong Australian International School team. They were unlucky to lose the game 2-0 when the final whistle was blown. The CIS Touch Rugby competition again saw them as strong contenders in the group stages, and they went onto play in the Cup semi-finals against rivals Kennedy School. Both teams put on a great demonstration of determination and ability, however it was Kennedy who advanced into the finals.

Pe news – terM 2 We’ve had an action packed January through to March in all areas of the PE curriculum and our ECA sports and swimming programme.

In our PE Curriculum, the Year 6s have been continuing with their PlayMaker Award and they have been getting into the nitty gritty of lesson planning and teaching of some of our Year 1 and Year 2 students. They have shown good organisation and leadership skills, and have been reflective on their strengths and weaknesses. The younger children have thoroughly enjoyed being taught by their older peers.

Reception to Year 5 have been working on their Gymnastics units this term. We have been working through our proficiency awards and trying to pass the relevant level for our age groups. We moved into the second half of the term using our large apparatus and experimenting with climbing, rotation and inversion on and off a variety of different pieces of equipment. The standard of gymnastics has been impressive.

In games, Year 5 have completed their swimming unit, and as this goes to print they will be completing their time trials to look at progress and swimming awards levels. We look forward to working with Year 4 next term in the pool. Games will continue next term for Year 3, 5 and 6 where we will be introducing some of our summer sports including tee ball and cricket.

Year 5 enjoyed their inter-school sports events day on Thursday 3 March. They compete in their classes for the day; competitions included a swimming gala for all, followed by a football tournament for the boys and a netball tournament for the girls. Congratulations to 5-ML who won the swimming gala overall, and 5-CD who won both the netball and football competitions. An enjoyable, tiring day was had by all. We look forward to our Year 6 and Year 4 inter-schooll events days which will take place on Thursday 16 June and Thursday 23 June respectfully.

netBall newsThe final tournament of the netball season was rescheduled from December to Saturday 9 January.

The team did an excellent job finishing top of their group; they were unlucky not to win in the quarter finals to advance onto the next stages. Our Year 3 & 4 netballers have enjoyed three match days this term against French International School It is great for the children to put all their skills training into practice in some friendly matches.

foBisia newsIn January, 97 children took part in three weeks of FOBISIA trials. The standard, as always, was very high, and the children never failed to impress the teachers involved with their excellent attitude towards trying and supporting others. Congratulations to those who made the team, we are looking forward to a successful games in Vietnam in May.

U8 Boys – Team award 2nd Place out of 18 schools

Callum Arnaudy

Sam Sofoluwe

Lukas Moskey

Elliott MacLeod

Harry Aeroporos


James Han

Jack Davies

Jonathan Aagaard

William Dingley

Jack Seddon

U11 Girls – Team award 3rd Place out of 18 schools

Jacky Moorrees

Katie Allen

Abigail Fleming

Gayatri Singh

Amanda Kee


U8 Boys Callum Arnaudy 1st Place out of 75 runners

U8 Boys Elliott MacLeod 4th Place out of 75 runners

U8 Boys Sam Sofoluwe 5th Place out of 75 runners

U9 Girls Emma Green 8th Place out of 72 runners

U11 Girls Jacky Moorrees 7th Place out of 63 runners

U11 Boys James Han 8th Place out of 77 runners

U11 Boys William Dingley 9th Place out of 77 runners

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ecas

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knitting

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eaSter Bonnet parade

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Looking after our futureThis term we have focused on the world around us. The beginning of the term took us to the corners of the world, focusing on different countries and their cultures, music, art and landscapes. We were also lucky enough to have a large number of parents volunteer to come and speak about different places, and the children presented their own projects about those countries that are important to them. We then started to think and learn about how we can look after our own planet, and we became mini environmental activists! Experiments about rising sea levels, the effects of green house gases and constructing our own inventions to save our planet, have helped us to focus on how each of us all have a part to play in looking after our world. Our term ended with learning about growing, particularly focusing on plants, before moving on to people during the start of the summer term. In between all this great learning, we have also had a visit from the police to talk about road safety, an interesting presentation by a wildlife photographer and a trip to the Leap Van to learn about staying healthy!

This term, the buddy programme between Reception and Year 6 children has gone from strength to strength. With joint collaborative work being our focus, we have seen the communication skills of our Year 6 children develop as well as the listening skills of our Reception children! The term finished with a great Easter egg hunt and bunny ear making extravaganza, all organised by our buddies.

This term has been a busy one, seeing us planning the future of the School Council. We have established links with a local charity, with whom we will support financially as well as socially. A whole school questionnaire was designed, and all students had their chance to say what they felt about the school. From this we have thought about an event that we will hold, and what can be developed further around school. A pyjama day topped the table, with playground equipment also a priority for students. All these things will be taking place next term so watch this space!

School council

Many schools also choose to connect themselves with another school, either within their local community or abroad. With the similar aim to broaden students’ views and understanding of the world, the hope is to also establish a collaborative partnership that benefits the learning goals of both schools.

At Kellett School, we have been keen to make links with other schools, both within Hong Kong and beyond. As we strive to help our students ‘develop a global outlook’, building relationships with other schools provides a relevant and accessible way for even our youngest students to enahnce their appreciation of the similarities and differences between their lives, values and beliefs and those of other children.

At Kowloon Bay Prep we enjoy connections with three other schools.

Xin Xian School - BeijingKellett School’s relationship with the Xin Xian school has been ongoing for many years, and time spent with their students is central to our Year 5 visit to Beijing. Kellett children have the opportunity to form friendships whilst trying out their Mandarin and helping their Chinese peers test out their English skills. A trip highlight is time spent playing together at The Summer Palace. Skipping ropes, footballs and hacky sacks quickly cut through any shyness, and fun games provide an instant connection and common ground. Last year, Kowloon Bay Prep were delighted to host a small group of students for a reciprocal visit, and we enjoyed showing them our school, playing board games and creating art together.

Buddhist Chi King Primary School – Hong KongWith a large number of English medium international schools in Hong Kong, it could be very easy for us to interact only within the expatriate community and for our students never to connect with students from the local school system. We want our students to really know and understand the country they are living in and become a real part of our local community. Last year, we began our link with Buddhist Chi King Primary School – a school located a mere five minutes walk away from us! Already, through a series of reciprocal visits, students

Creating Connections – Sister Schools

Many cities and towns around the world take part in ‘twinning’ or ‘sister city’ programmes in which they are matched and connected with another town or city somewhere in the world. The programme’s goals are to foster global understanding, respect and responsibility across borders as well as to form commercial ties and encourage trade and tourism.

have enjoyed reading, crafts and sports together. Recently, we were invited over to celebrate Chinese New Year and shared food, crafts and were fare welled with an energetic Lion Dance performed by their older students.

ICM Jumpstart School – Bacalod, Philippines.With many of our families having helpers from the Philippines, its great to have a connection with Jumpstart School in Bacalod, Philippines. Through International Christian Ministries, our Kellett Cares fundraising helps them financially. We also provide second-hand uniform and donate equipment. Our students are able to see the results of their fundraising efforts through photographs shared in assembly. A yearly visit is organised for families. Recently, some of our students visited Jumpstart and were delighted to be able to meet students and deliver some of the school resources personally.

We look forward to our connections with our sister schools going from strength to strength and to the growing benefit they bring our students in terms of their understanding and appreciation of others.

Jo LauferHead of Preparatory School,Kowloon Bay

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What a busy Spring Term for Year 1! Returning after Christmas, all the children (and teachers) completely fell in love with their new topic, Amazing Animals! Transforming themselves into mini David Attenboroughs, the children became avid readers, presenters and researchers, on their quest to find out more about several different types of animals. From green sea turtles to cheetahs, from poison dart frogs to seahorses, the Year 1 children filled their brains and wrote several non-fiction texts with so many fun facts about animals’ habitats, appearances, diets and offspring. They learnt how to categorise animals into each of the main scientific groups and even became experts on insect metamorphosis! Stemming from such enthusiastic learners, both 1JL and 1BN presented animal-linked assemblies and were able to share their impressive knowledge with the school. To finish off the topic, and perhaps the most exciting highlight of the term, Year 1 welcomed Goatee Tony from Jurassic Garage, and several of his animal friends along to school. Snakes, albino hedgehogs, a giant tortoise and a tarantula - brave Year 1 children held them all! Wow!

We are WHat We eatIn the first half of the term, healthy living, and especially diet, was our focus. We learnt about the different food groups and how they can affect how we feel and how healthy we are in the longer term. Once we had learnt about a balanced diet, we researched (someone has to do it!), designed and made our own healthy pizzas. They were packed with different vegetables and fruits and the apple, banana and yoghurt was a particularly pleasant surprise!

As well as that, nurse Sue talked to us about the safe use of medicine and how much sleep we should get, and we had some smaller visitors with their mummies to help us learn about how we grow up and change over time. Looking after a toddler didn’t sound easy!

Meanwhile, in English, we wrote diary entries by the Hungry Caterpillar showing our ability to get into the mind of a character and use the first person to write. Later, we learnt about persuasion so that, at the end of the term, we could create beautifully presented and very persuasive leaflets about healthy living.

WHo CHangeD tHe WorLD?Before half term, children were set the challenge of researching and presenting information about their chosen significant person. We had amazing information about everyone from Thomas Edison and Dr. Sun Yat-sen, to Neil Armstrong, Helen Keller, Coco Chanel and Ole Kirk Christiansen. The variety and standard was fantastic!

This kicked off a brilliant half term of learning about significant people. We decided what the difference between ‘significant’ and ‘famous’ was, and also talked about people who are significant in our own lives. We studied Alexander Graham Bell, Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, and explained how each of them has changed the world in a non-chronological report about them. This involved lots of history and a spot of science too.

Somehow, we also managed to squeeze in some rhyming poems based on ‘When I was One…’, and all the children made super progress and looked forward to their weekly tables challenge!

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Year 4 thoroughly enjoyed the ‘hook’ activity for their Junior Navigator topic. The tasks involved activities as diverse as carrying marshmallows with chopsticks, to walking as a group on giant planks! The afternoon culminated in a challenge to construct a brand new Kellett School campus with spaghetti and marshmallows. The ever-willing Mr Keeling acted as a truly impartial judge!

The Year 4 classes had a fantastically successful camp adventure to Lantau. The children took part in a variety of activities, such as climbing up to the Big Buddha, visiting Tai-O and hiking to Tung Chung Fort. The children represented Kellett School brilliantly – a credit to the school. All five Year 4 classes, across both Prep campuses, thoroughly enjoyed the three-day experience and have created beautiful memoirs in the form of camp books on iPads. A fabulous time was had by all! Many thanks to all the staff involved and to the brilliantly helpful parents for accompanying us on our adventure.

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open WiDe!How much do you know about teeth and how to take care of them? Following their unit, ‘Smile’, Year 3 are quite the experts! Whilst eating an apple, we learnt the names, positions and functions of our teeth. In order to highlight the damaging affects of liquids and our diet, we planned a fair test in Science and used hard-boiled eggs to represent our teeth and their enamel. We were quite shocked by the results – as orange juice is both sugary and acidic, it dramatically destroyed the eggshell!

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roCk ‘n’ roLLThis topic began with an Amazing Race to The Peak! Both classes planned a route, using as many forms of public transport as possible. This was a great way to begin learning about Hong Kong’s transportation network and history of the Star Ferry and Peak Tram.

Within this topic, we have also learnt about land use and how land has been reclaimed. We were fascinated by Chek Lap Kok airport, even more so when we discovered how terrifying the airport used to be at Kai Tak!

During this time, Year 3 have also been on camp in Sai Kung. For two days and one night, we tried new things, pushed ourselves to new limits and became more independent. We were incredibly proud of all we achieved and look back on our time very fondly; it was the best camp ever!

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This term has been a very busy and exciting one in Year 5. Students have been exploring the wonderful world of food. Our learning about this interesting topic started with a breakfast at school from the countries our families are from. With such a diverse student population, we tried many different delicacies! Children spent time analysing what they had eaten over a one-week period, determining what they need to be healthy, and creating some recommendations. Thinking about the nutritional components of a meal, they then applied their knowledge to design their own healthy smoothie, writing nutritional labels and designing packaging. With a visit from iPad Artist Cathy Hunt, made possible through the Annual Fund, Year 5 explored the persuasive tools used by advertising agencies and designed their own logos. Through this project, students developed their literacy skills by writing instruction texts, descriptive pieces and using persuasive techniques.

Finally, we ended our topic on a pulsating and beating high. We learnt about the circulatory system, which included heart beat investigations and dissecting pig hearts! We have many

Year 6 became architects and designers through the launch of our ‘Destination Investigation’ topic. A visit by architect Mr Connop, inspired the children to consider eco-friendly designs. They surveyed the staff to find out more about why people travel and what influences their decisions. The project culminated in a debate about tourism and the creation of fantastic resorts including some made from cake and 3D models! The children demonstrated their knowledge to Ms Laufer and Mr Keeling, as well as discussing their resorts with Reception buddies and their peers.

In Literacy, we rocked out, literally! Year 6 adopted alter-egos as rock star legends. Through role-play they learnt more about what it was like to be a rock star. Mr Maitland helped us to find our inner-journalist and the result was an amazing written interview for ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine. As rock stars, we also learnt that keeping the fans happy is an integral part of the job. By replying to an email from an irate fan, we practised our persuasive techniques.

budding future medical professionals in Year 5! Using our new knowledge, we taught our Year 1 buddies about how their hearts pump and the impact exercise has on a healthy body.

Concluding our ‘Feed Me Now’ topic, we moved swiftly on to our topic ‘The First Emperor’. We had a great China Day where the children took part in a range of activities such as learning about Emperor Qin, making our own terracotta warriors and learning about their history, playing Mandarin games, painting in traditional Chinese style and eating a Chinese buffet. Continuing to explore the reign of Emperor Qin, children researched his reputation and achievements to present a balanced argument. A great start in preparing our knowledge for our Beijing trip next term!

CurriCuLum pe Lessons This term we have been focusing on Gymnastics. Students have had the chance to attempt several different ways of travelling, jumping and balancing. Reception to Year 2 have started to look at how it is possible to link several different movements to make a short routine. Year 5 & 6 have been able to put together routines to music using several different pieces of equipment. Some exceptional work has been produced, very well done everyone!

Year 6 have had the opportunity to lead games and sports for Year 2 this term. They have used the skills learnt in the first term to deliver high quality sporting sessions. They have shown a real maturity in their delivery, resulting in Year 2 making some good progress. Well done all of Year 6!

touCH rugby This term has seen some fantastic results, with two pieces of silverware to add to the trophy cabinet. We have seen a huge number of KS2 students take to the field to play against some of the top schools in Hong Kong. Our first major tournament was held at Kings Park. The Boy’s team performed very well, finishing the group stages second in the table. We then faced AISHK in the semi final, and unfortunately came out second. To finish fourth overall was a great achievement for the boys. The Girl’s teams performed strongly throughout the morning, with the A team qualifying for the plate final. The girls played courageously and recorded a great win in the final to take home the plate. Well done to all involved!

The mixed touch rugby tournament at CIS saw some strong performances once again. We finished the group in third and went on to win the plate with three fantastic victories in a row. Well done all!

A final well done to the Year 3 & 4 boys who played against Harrow, Nord Anglia and Pok Fu Lam, coming out with some very strong victories. The future is bright!

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HIGHLIGHTS - KOWLOON BAY


running A huge effort was made by the runners this term. Some very early mornings and a lot of hard work have ensured we turned up to the three races we had as well prepared as possible. Some very strong performances in the RCHK and GSIS running meet allowed us to go into the road race with some very high hopes. Forty students represented us on the 12 March at the annual CIS road race. Everybody put in a huge amount of effort as we saw our runners give their absolute all to finish as high as they could. After all the scores were toted up, Year 6 boys managed to secure a third place on the podium. Also, for a second year running, Erwan Kermaidic came first place out of 85 runners, well done all involved!

sWimming This term we have attended a number of new swim meets for students, allowing more chances for new school representatives. We swam against GSIS, FIS, Pok Fu Lam and RCHK. All students involved have given their best when representing the school, and are now much better swimmers as a result of it. Well done to those swimmers for showing their commitment and enduring very early morning wake up calls to go swimming before school!

basketbaLL After a term of ECAs last term, we were prepared for our first basketball tournament. We travelled to RCHK to take on other schools from Hong Kong. The competition was tough, however we recorded some good wins throughout the day, and came home happy with the effort we put in, well done all involved!

inter- sCHooLs Competition Year 5 from both campuses came together to compete in swimming, football and netball. A great day was had by all, with students experiencing competition at the correct level to benefit from it. 5CD took the award for football and netball, with 5ML from Pok Fu Lam swooping for the swimming title, well done all students!

year 1Year 1 have had such a creative year thus far. Our artist focus this term was Gustav Klimt, and we looked at the beautiful, earthy and metallic colours he used throughout his life. We created our first textiles art, weaving a gorgeous piece, and then painting our own trees of life to hang with them. We also celebrated the Year of the Monkey with our textured painting and created our own monkeys using paper sculptures to make the arms, legs and tails.

year 2In Year 2 we opened the term looking at the work of Henri Matisse. We took our inspiration from this amazing artist’s collage work, or as he called it, “drawing with scissors”. We’ve had a big focus on clay and, inspired by Henri Rousseau, created jungle backgrounds for a sculpted monkey. We also had our first photography outing. We took our cameras to Kowloon Bay Park and searched for opportunities to photograph different textures in our environment. We have taken the pictures back to school and are working on replicating them in our painting. We are learning that texture is an important element of art and to talk about it when we work on new projects!

year 3Year 3 have worked extensively on colour mixing this term and we were able to produce large scale peacocks in amazing colours, all of which we mixed ourselves! We can talk about changing the value of a colour, which is important because value and colour are elements of art. We moved onto sculpture and used fabric on a wire armature to make amazing shapes, which we then painted in the style of Kandinsky. We took his Farbstudie as a starting point and made our own designs based on his circles and colours.

year 4Years 4 have had a long sculpture unit where they have learnt a range of clay skills. We started by drawing our own shoes and learning about creating form in a sketch. We looked at shading and gradients and highlights and tried to capture them. The next step was to create a pattern for cutting out shapes to help with the sole and uppers. Then we started in clay. We learnt about working the clay to get rid of any air, how to use the scratch & slip technique for joining, creating designs in relief and imprinting and smoothing and embellishment. Finally we leathered the shoes and after Easter we will get them glazed and send them to Pok Fu Lam to be fired in the kiln. Amazing!

year 5We started our term looking at close ups of monkeys and created portraits in clay pastels. Our next focus has been on acrylic painting skills and we have learnt how to create a wash, then to use damp brushes for detail and finally to create texture through this versatile medium. We took our knowledge into a second project, where we looked at the work of Vincent Van Gogh and tried to work out his brush strokes and techniques. We are now working on a diorama of his blossom paintings.

year 6Our term began in the chilly winter days, painting winter watercolour landscapes. We went into our Chinese New Year project, making huge monkeys with relief embellishments for character. They are dancing round the Prep atrium! We have been studying the American artist and photographer Chuck Close, who has an amazing portfolio. We looked at his “cell” paintings and learnt to use a grid to replicate images. We are using this technique to replicate our own portraits from a photograph onto a canvas and are using his style to paint the “cells” in several colours.

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This term, the focus in the Kowloon Bay Prep music department has been using the marimbas to learn new musical skills to build on their previous musical knowledge. This has meant that every student from Reception to Year 6 has been playing marimbas in their lessons. It was wonderful to see the progression that the children made. Some past students may recall a few years back that Jon Madin, our Annual Fund musician in residence from Australia, spent a fortnight with our students to make the marimbas from scratch. These marimbas are indeed a valuable resource that continues to enhance the learning of our students.

Below are some of the comments from our students:

Nela (RAM), “I really enjoy playing songs on the marimbas.”

Alex (3BF), “We were able to play songs with steps and leaps on the marimbas.”

Flavia (2KG), “I can play octaves using two beaters.”

Emily, Jocasta, Imara (6SS), “We learnt how to play chords and triads and in our group performance, we were able to play the melody, harmony and bass part.”

Kowloon Bay Prep students have been busily engaged in Chinese New Year celebration activities this term. They learnt about the Chinese culture, values and beliefs, just to name a few! In Key Stage 1, children enjoyed a lion dance and Chinese New Year greetings role-play. In addition, the children made finger-printed cherry blossoms, Year of the Monkey masks and paper fire crackers. Year 2 children performed confidently at our Chinese New Year assembly by singing a Mandarin song. Year 3 learnt to write New Years couplets with Chinese calligraphy. Year 4 visited Buddhist Chi King Primary School and attended their Chinese New Year cultural day celebration. The children tasted festive food, made fortune bags and exchanged them with their buddies in both Mandarin and English. Chi King also visited Kellett in January and enjoyed an afternoon with our children through board games, a Mandarin school tour and an English drama workshop. Year 6 children participated in our Chinese New Year assembly by giving out red packets to all classes and performed “The Story of Nian” drama. They also read out New Year’s blessings and good wishes at the assembly.

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Does luck have anything to do with success?

I was delighted when I read this piece of writing by Jasmine Lau, Year 9 Clementi. It speaks for itself. Enjoy.

Simon Giddings Head of Senior School

During their final term in office on the Student Leadership Team, our diligent student leaders have been working closely together in order to achieve the goal which they set for themselves - raising HK$90,000 towards the Kellett Cares Senior fund. The most recent event was a student-run Valentine’s Day Party, which was attended by students in Key Stage 3. The event was a wonderful success and raised a tremendous amount of money.

You will be aware that Kellett Cares has been raising money tirelessly within the Kellett community for years with a great deal of success - changing the lives of many people. One of the great successes of the current student leadership team has been the articulation of how they will work with Kellett Cares, creating a model which can be sustained going forward, whilst allowing future student leaders the opportunity to help in the areas which matter to them. It is hoped that this model will be published in a glossy brochure for the next academic year, ensuring that the whole Senior School can be confident and clear in how they are raising money for those who need it.

The team decided that it would be more productive for them to fund raise into one Kellett Cares Senior “pot”, rather than confusing their peers with different events for different aims. They were also very clear that this should not be a House event - rather that the whole school should come together for this. They have decided that the pot will be split between three ‘strands’

Home: An identified Hong Kong charity that will change each year, nominated by the student leadership team.

Away: International charities linked to our global outlook week. These are ongoing relationships which the students will be able to see up-close every year, as they go abroad and work within the international community during our Global Outlook week.

The Future: A ‘disaster relief’ fund, which is saved for times when tragedy hits, so that the Kellett Community can respond swiftly in times of need.

I am sure that you would like to join me in congratulating the Student Leadership Team on a job well done. I am really looking forward to working with the new student leaders, as they seek to develop this vision further and see it through to fruition.

Matt Seddon Follow me on Twitter @ www.twitter.com/kellett_ms

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SixTH FormOver the course of the last few months, Year 12 students have submitted applications to be considered as part of the Student Leadership Team. Following a series of interviews and meetings we are delighted to confirm the Sixth Form Student Leadership team whose tenure runs from April 2016 to April 2017.

During a formal Senior School assembly, the retiring team handed over responsibility for the positions to the incoming team. We are delighted to welcome our new Head Girl and Boy and their Deputies as well as our four House Captains and their Deputy House Captains. We wish them the best of luck in their new roles.

Congratulations to our new student leadership team.

Student Leadership team

Head Boy Oliver Overman

Head Girl Lily Pettifar

Deputy Head BoysJonathan Crawford (PFL) and

Harry Ginns (KLB)

Deputy Head GirlsEliza Kidd (PFL) and

Chloe Ng (KLB)

Bowen House Captain Sophie Krantz

Clementi House Captain Catherine Martin

MacLehose House Captain Emma Destexhe

Youde House Captain Anisha Turner

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“When people succeed, it is because of hard work. Luck has nothing to do with success. We are not all born to be successful; we only become successful through hard work and persistence. There are no shortcuts or cheats for being successful; you must do your part to be able to achieve your goal.

Some people are born into a rich family, or they are just good at everything. Some people are spoilt because they are wealthy, or they just seem to live a perfect life. You know that kid that stands out of the whole class, getting straight As and getting the top mark? That slick colleague that gets his work done nice and neat? But, how do you know if they go for multiple hours of tuition? How do you know if they have massive debts? How do you know if they have ever stumbled across a problem? The answer is, you don’t. A successful person is the result of a hardworking mindset, a mindset that always tries its best and doesn’t give up easily.

Maybe they won a gamble or the lottery, maybe they were born wealthy, maybe they stole money. However, those people are not “successful”, they are just lucky people. Just because you are rich does not mean that you are successful. The word “successful” is when you have accomplished your goal through perseverance and determination no matter the obstacles you face or the difficulties you meet.

Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein. These people were not even close to achieving good grades or being a good player at school, but that didn’t stop them from being successful. Steve Jobs dropped out of college after just six months, but look where Apple is today with products that are being used worldwide. Michael Jordan didn’t even make it in the school basketball team, he had to train for an extra summer just to be picked. When his coach told him he didn’t shoot accurately enough, he went for hours on end, practising every day, shooting more than 100 times just to perfect his shot. Now, he has become one of the most skilled basketball players and the idol of young children.

Albert Einstein was considered the “weird kid” at school, and some of his teachers thought he lacked communication skills. He couldn’t speak properly, even at the age of nine, but he was utterly fascinated by science and the laws of nature. Nevertheless, his poor profile and skills didn’t stop him from creating his famous formula of E = mc2 which opened the door to a whole new level of physics.

Do you still think luck is the key to success? Do you think a young boy who couldn’t even speak properly when he was nine suddenly got his wish from a shooting star? Do you think just dreaming about scoring a three pointer can transform you into a professional basketball player? The only road to success is through determination, no matter how many mistakes you make or the problems that get in your way.”

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Kellett School learning Service in the community ProgrammeThrough generous donations to the Annual Fund, we have been able to set up the ‘Kellett School Learning Service in the Community Programme’ this term. The aim of the programme is to engage students with the wider Hong Kong community, to raise awareness of local issues and to develop a culture of ‘service’ within the school community, allowing students to learn about themselves and develop transferrable skills whilst helping others. Projects will build service skills in students such as problem solving, communication, leadership and self-reflection, which will be transferrable to their daily life and future learning.

Through the appointment of a Learning Service Coordinator, we have been able to establish various projects starting with the Senior School. Student volunteers have visited the China Coast Community, a care and attention residential home for English-speaking elderly people in Hong Kong. Ahead of their visits, students enjoyed working as a team to create detailed schedules for their time at the centre, devising suitable activities to interact with residents including talent shows, musical performances, building stories with picture cards and putting together puzzle pieces to create a giant Kellett dragon logo. After each visit, students reflected on what went well

and what activities needed amending, as well as taking on board feedback from the residents on what they enjoyed the most and what they would like to participate in next time. We have seen huge leaps in our students’ confidence and communication skills with every visit, and judging by the smiles and laughter in the room, the residents have really enjoyed the visits too!

Throughout Term 3, students will continue to visit the China Coast Community and a new project will be starting at the Sai Kung Stray Friends dog shelter where students will help walk and take care of dogs. All future projects will fall into one of the six categories of animal welfare, arts & sports, education, environment, health and social issues.

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The Extended Project Qualification at Kellett has made great strides since its humble beginnings, having started with seven students in August 2013. The current Year 13s have just completed their fantastic and diverse projects, and the 2015/16 Year 12 cohort is now 21 strong and are undertaking an extremely impressive and exciting array of creative projects.

The qualification allows students to choose an element or area of interest outside the A-level curriculum to focus on and develop – the outcome of which may result in a performance, artefact, dissertation or investigation. During the research project, the student engages independently with their work and with the aid of a Kellett staff mentor they manage their project through the research stages to realisation and beyond to evaluation.

The EPQ is looked upon favourably by universities, who sometimes voice concerns of a lack of independent thought in their undergraduate cohorts. It is for this reason that it is worth half the UCAS points as a standard A-level subject. This is particularly useful for those applying to British universities.

This term, the Year 12s welcomed Xyza Bacani, a wonderful Filipina street photographer, whose visit was made possible by the Annual Fund. Xyza talked to the group about her photography projects and how she aims to make a difference and raise awareness through her work. The students enjoyed

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hearing about her background and inspiration and seeing her fantastic photographs. It was particularly insightful for the photography students in the audience.

Elsewhere this term, the Year 13s have been busy putting the finishing touches to their projects, and Year 13 student Oliver Edmonds impressed all with the bass guitar he designed and built from scratch. James Baghurst, another ex GCSE musician, focused on composition for his project – the final version can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/user-466275000

Finally, a very special mention to the immensely talented and hard-working Sophie Woolf and Markian Benhamou who received their results in March, having been entered for the early January assessment window. They both received A* for their performance based projects, and, like us, are delighted with the results.

igcSe BuSineSS StuDieSYear 10 Business Studies students had the opportunity to demonstrate their presentation and communication skills when they were set the task of explaining the marketing mix of any product they liked. All of the groups delivered a concise, interesting, and informative presentation. It was really pleasing to hear the students relate their knowledge and understanding of marketing to everyday products we see all around us.

Year 11 Business Studies students recently completed their second and final IGCSE mock examination. All of the past papers for this specification have now been covered extensively through end-of-section tests and mock exams. It was very encouraging to mark many of the students’ papers and to see that their knowledge, understanding and examination skills have vastly improved.

international a-level (ial) BuSineSS StuDieSYear 12 students are close to competing Unit 2 – Business Structures and Processes. They have completed their second mock examination and have been given specific targets to work on to improve their performance.

Year 13 students completed Unit 4 – Making Business Decisions in February and have been busy revising content in class and practising their examination skills by focusing on time management, skimming and scanning data from the case study and improving how to structure and write their answers to low, medium and high mark questions.

A sample of a student’s work Olivia Sewell http://goo.gl/7RE4Q6

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FuturewiSe This term all Year 10 students had the opportunity to work with the Inspiring Futures Foundation, an international organisation which offers personalised careers guidance and advice to young people in schools and colleges around the world.

Students were introduced to the Futurewise programme by Mr Chris Conway, and completed in-depth psychometric profiling, designed to identify abilities, aptitudes, personality traits and interests. Following their profiling sessions, students received a detailed report which included suggestions on a number of career paths based on their profile results.

They subsequently attended an interview with a career guidance professional in which they discussed their profile report and their academic and vocational aspirations. These discussions have been followed up in Global Citizenship lessons and have really provoked students to begin thinking about their future choices!

BoDy image As part of the Year 9 ‘I am Healthy Topic’, students had the opportunity to investigate and discuss a range of issues relating to body image and the media. This scheme of work culminated in a visit from two Hong Kong based professional models. They talked to students about the pressures they face, the impact of Photoshop and other image altering technology on young people and strategies for building self-esteem. They also spoke out against bullying and left students with advice and tips for dealing with difficult situations.

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Students have been learning about the effects of magnetic fields, understanding more about resistors and what they are used for and learning about the organs. Others have been using trolleys and cars to model acceleration and using chemicals to learn more about pH and indicators. We even managed to set some students on fire, but this was mostly for their teacher’s amusement!

DragonS DenThe Senior English Faculty hosted another highly successful Dragon’s Den event. The students were all very focused and impressive in presenting their own products to staff, peers, parents and the Dragon judges using persuasive devices. The winning group were Molly Hammond, Olivia Lloyd and Christina Fisher with ‘Zushi’.

Senior geograPhy SPring termIt has been a busy term for our Geography students this term at Kellett Senior School:

At the end of January, all Geographers in Year 10 embarked on a transect walk of Hong Kong Island as part of the research phase of their IGCSE coursework. The students walked from the Peak through Mid-Levels, finishing at Queens Road in Central. The urban landscape of Hong Kong provided our students with a fantastic location to investigate the application of traditional land use models and Bid-rent Theory to some of the residential environments of Hong Kong Island.

The Year 7 Geographers have been discussing the concept of Development, looking at reasons for differing levels of development between countries. The students particularly enjoyed the Trade Game in which they were given the opportunity to simulate the condition of Free Trade between countries.

The awe and wonder of Plate Tectonic Movement and associated hazards has been a focus for students in both Year 8 and 9 this term. In addition, both year groups have been

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igcSe economicSYear 10 students have progressed well this year and have completed the microeconomics section of the IGCSE course. Their focus so far has been on supply and demand, elasticities, labour markets and theory of the firm. Students have written essays on the case for and against privatisation of the NHS and discussed the sustainability of growth in China.

Year 11 students have finished the IGCSE course and have been recapping the content and working through banks of past paper questions in preparation for the final exam. Their focus this year has been on how the individual economies work and how they interact in the global economy.

a-level economicSYear 12 students have finished the AS Level course and have been recapping the content and working through banks of past paper questions in preparation for the final exam. Their focus this year has been on how markets and the economy as a whole work.

Year 13 students have finished the A-level course and have been recapping the content and working through banks of past paper questions in preparation for the final exam. Their focus this year has been on how firms operate and the global economy.

getting creative combining the worlds of food and Geography to make ‘river cakes’ and ‘coast cakes’ in the classroom.

Students in Year 11 and 13 have been working hard preparing for their summer examinations and have recently completed their mock examinations.

A trip to the Lung Hang River in the New Territories of Hong Kong has been a focus for the Year 12’s this term. To prepare them for the Paper 2 exam, students investigated the changing characteristics of this small river near in the Sai Kung National Park. Methodologies accumulating data on variables such as channel velocity and bed load size were practiced in this two day fieldtrip.

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year 8 mathS trail – ocean ParKOn Thursday 18 February 2016, the Kellett School Mathematics Faculty took the Year 8 students to Ocean Park. They had to apply their knowledge from the classroom and combine this with their observational skills to complete a series of specifically designed challenges. The students proved themselves to have keen eyes and a head for thinking outside the box! The competition was very close and the winners were Bowen group 2 (Madison Slight, Mia Hornett, Kirsten Wong, Mathias Katsuya and Sebastian Clifford). Well done – you answered questions with great speed and accuracy and your entries for the photo competition were very creative!

Students and staff had a great time and we look forward to taking next year’s challengers!

Photo comPetitionStudents were asked to take photos of images inadvertently creating letters of the alphabet. For example:

This is the letter W.

See if you can guess which letters are being photographed below.

History students have been deepening and extending their knowledge and passion for the subject in a number of interesting ways.

A reading list aimed specifically at History students in Year 7, 8 and 9 was launched in the New Year. The aim of the list was to allow budding historians to extend their contextual knowledge of the periods they are studying through historical fiction. Congratulations to Josh Fabiani in Year 7 Clementi who truly challenged himself by reading all the books on the list in record time.

Two Year 11 History IGCSE students have benefited from the wisdom and experience of their Year 12 peers, with a mentoring scheme designed to help them prepare for their final exams in May. Sixth Form students Lily Pettifar and Emma Destexhe met up with Orien Daly and Fatepreet Kaur on a weekly basis to tackle any issues they face with learning the course content and also exam technique.

Year 9 students finished a busy term studying the causes of WWII and the Pacific War with a local History visit to some important sites literally on their doorstep. The three different groups were guided on their tour by local historian and writer Jason Wordie, who really brought the people and events of Hong Kong’s WWII story to life. Year 9 visited the Shing Mun tunnels, the pillboxes at Wong Nai Chung Gap and finished the day at Stanley War Cemetery, where they learnt the story of Hong Kong’s significance in WWII and the personal stories of some of the people caught up in the conflict.

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intermeDiate mathS challenge – 4 FeBruaryStudents in Year 9, 10 and 11 again took part in the Intermediate Maths Challenge which, as a reminder, is the biggest Maths competition in the UK with over 600,000 students and 4000 schools taking part annually. Congratulations to the award winners who were:

Silver – Matthew Bennett, Jay Chow, Ethan Kim, Harry Fullwood, Joe Rabey, Tom Brookes, Jacob Lo, Jamie Li, Dhruv Chubal and Abigail Riggs.

bronze – Kate Kielty, Sam Panjiwijaya, Adam Mclean, Jethro Wong, Chin Kiu Pak, Alex Carey, Ben Stoneley, Daniel Storey, Tom Angell, Ansh Sahay and Charlotte Weener.

Congratulations to all the award winners listed above but in particular to Matthew who achieved the Best in School accolade with a score of 60.

FoBiSia mathS – 25 – 27 FeBruary – elc international School – Kuala lumPurThis year’s FOBISIA Maths Competition saw seven of our best Year 7 and 8 students head to Malaysia. We were graciously welcomed by the host school, elc International, and our students were very excited to get stuck in.

With 43 teams competing, we started the first day strong, having four rounds including individual (4th), logic puzzles (11th), puzzle strategy (13th) as well as a maths trail (17th). Max Peel performed admirably in the individual round achieving 8th place out of 198. The night was capped off with the Kuala Lumpur Night Tour.

The second day involved more competitions including data handling (top 10), Cross Number (4th), Pass it Across (18th) and Construction (4th). The final addition of the scores meant that Kellett finished outside of the top 14. However, all the students thoroughly enjoyed the experience and partied well into the night at the closing ceremony which had a magician and laser dancers as well as a lot of One Direction and Taylor Swift being played!

Well done to Alistair Blair, Molly Hammond, Takano Kobayashi, Neel Mehta, Quincy Ng, Max Peel and Kento Waugh. They did Kellett proud!

early entry reSultS January 2016Year 11 International GCSE Mathematics students maintained Kellett’s amazing record of 100% early entries achieving an A* grade. Well done to Kalina Benhamou, Matthew Bennett, Kimberley Grisdale, Kate Kielty, Adam McLean, Chin Kiu Pak, Samuel Panjiwijaya and Jethro Wong.

Andre Hui, Jon Crawford and Donald Leung, the Year 12 Further Mathematicians, celebrated achieving A grades in their first AS module, Decision 1. Donald Leung also achieved a commendable A* grade in the Core 34 exam. The Year 13 Further Mathematicians added to their success with Tomson Pong and Yan To Or achieving an A* grade in their Mechanics 2 exam and Markian Benhamou and Sally Chan achieving an A grade.

Congratulations to all students on their outstanding exam results.

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JoSh FaBiani, year 7“This is the CAD drawing for my Formula 1 car. In this topic, we have to design and manufacture a model F1 car for our group and then race it against 19 other year 7 teams. My car is aerodynamic because it has a smooth design which enables the air to easily flow over it. I have enjoyed designing my F1 car using Computer Aided Design”

iScmS & the annual concert 2016 started with a bang in the Music Department. Our students were immediately immersed in preparations for the Annual Concert and the upcoming International Schools Choral Music Society Festival in Zhuhai, China. Those students representing Kellett Senior School at the festival rehearsed diligently. Such works as Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances and Parry’s Blest Pair of Sirens featured in the repertoire. It was most pleasing to see our very own Sophia Mortensen chosen to sing a solo during the Jazz Band Concert, giving a nod to the chilly winter weather, with the classic Baby It’s Cold Outside. Year 10 student Holden Kwong also wowed the audience with improvised saxophone solos, alongside bandleader and renowned Jazz performer/arranger, Mike Vax. Indeed, such was the challenge of the repertoire, that students spent long hours in preparation at sectional rehearsals, in order to deliver a truly outstanding concert. All students in attendance were highly commended for their efforts.

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Juliet Quinlivan,year 7“We have been working on producing our own ‘Memphis’ clock out of acrylic. We have also been researching designers such as Ettore Sottsass and learning how to use Computer Aided Design. This topic was a great start to senior DT because it has allowed us to familiarise ourselves with the different tools and materials available to us. I have really enjoyed the Memphis topic and am very excited to display my work with all the other great clocks”.

taKano KoBayaShi, year 8This picture shows Takano drilling the final few holes to enable her to secure the beech wood to her aluminium ‘Modblock’. She designed and manufactured a contemporary product to a high standard – well done.

year 9Some of the Year 9 students enjoyed designing and making a new chocolate bar with Miss George. They also made the packaging to go with it, although their favorite part of the project was eating it at the end!

year 11The Year 11 students have just completed the manufacturing component of their Product Design Course. These pictures show some innovative work from Aretha Teh and Kate Donowho. Aretha has been working closely with Hatton Studios in order for her to realise her beautiful ring design. This has been meticulously manufactured in silver and includes an inset stone. Kate has designed and packaged a high quality illuminated display unit that utilized a broad range of skills, ranging from traditional wood joints to 3D Printed components.

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curriculum muSic Curriculum studies continued in earnest, with increased numbers of students opting to study Music at GCSE and A–level. African Drumming, Club Dance, Music & The Moving Image, The Orchestra and Gamelan have been some of the projects covered in Key Stage 3. Key Stage 4 and 5 have been diligently preparing for their examinations, covering everything from Baroque concertos to Blues compositions.

The open layout of the Music Department often gives Mrs. Tang and myself an opportunity to watch many of our students ‘in action’ during break, lunchtimes and after school. There are numerous impromptu ensembles, across the Key Stages; students joining together to make music. One such example was a group of Year 7 boys. They came together after school, using their instruments and the technology at their disposal, in order to rehearse their ‘band’. It is a pleasure to see such joy for music. The School Fair is fast approaching and I would urge you all to ‘watch this space’, where Kellett Senior musicians are concerned…

Ms Gomaa Director of Music, Senior School

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The Bronze HKAYP groups completed their final expedition despite some torrential rain and extremely challenging overgrown paths.

They trekked through Sai Kung over two full days with full rucksacks and camped out on one of the wettest nights of the year.

They were exemplary in their conduct and deserve to be very proud of themselves.

year 11 anD year 13 art excurSionAs part of the Year 11 and Year 13 elective Art coursework, the students visited galleries in Central to photograph and analyse contemporary artworks and meet the gallery curators.

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artiSt ProFileName Yi Ting Year 13 Kellett Senior SchoolA-level Art student

Yi Ting has been exploring the theme of movement through the fluidity and motion of fabric. As a dancer herself, Ting has explored the theme from a personal perspective, capturing the sensation of movement in a series of intensive photo shoots of her dancing with a variety of fabrics. Having worked with Ian Murphy, our artist in residence, and studying the works of the great masters, Ting’s artwork explores the motion of fabric using a strong tonal charcoal technique on a large scale.

Yi Ting has received university offers for Graphic Design at several UK universities based upon her diverse portfolio of work.

Thanks to Chinese New Year, Term 2 is always a highlight in the Languages Faculty! James Baghurst led a very interesting series of assemblies with the assistance of younger students, during which we learnt about how the Lunar New Year is celebrated around the world. Year 8 particularly enjoyed sharing their rendition of ‘Gong Xi Ni’ with the rest of the school. Our Mandarin Language Assistants Ms Li and Mr Zhang, also organised a lunchtime Chinese Carousel, which saw lots of exciting cultural activities, including dances, sports and general knowledge quizzes. The atrium was also beautifully decorated with handmade lanterns and banners. Not to be out done by their Mandarin colleagues, the French department organised an excellent visit to our friends at La Salle College – here, our Sixth Form linguists were treated to a performance of Molière’s ‘Le médécin malgré lui’ as part of the French Theatre Festival, organised by the French Consulate. By the time this will have come to print, Year 10 curriculum visits to France, Spain and China will have taken place – updates will follow in the next edition of The Dragon.

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KS3, gcSe anD Sixth Form theatre triPSThere has been a host of Theatre trips this term where students have been able to witness a full arrangement of excellent performances. These included: ‘Jane Eyre’, ‘Macbeth’, ‘Henry V’ and ‘Battlefield’. As well as these, on the penultimate day of Term 1, all of Year 9 were also taken out to see ‘Treasure Island’ at the Lyric Theatre presented by Faust and featuring a couple of Kellett students on stage.

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aS Drama anD theatre StuDieSThis term saw the AS Drama and Theatre Studies students present two pieces for a live audience and examiner from the UK. The major showcase was their group performance of ‘Blood Wedding’, staged in the Kellett theatre to a very engaged and appreciative audience. Fine performances in this challenging piece reinforced the talent of the cohort. They also presented monologue and duologues from Jim Cartwirght’s ‘Two’ another fine piece of work confirmed their versatility as young performers. AS and A-level drama continues to flourish at Kellett.

gcSe DramaThis term the Year 10 Drama students spend their lessons researching, rehearsing and refining their own devised performance to be presented to a visiting examiner. The work was a resounding success, in which the students created two performances under the theme of ‘consequences’. The hard-hitting performances dealt with topics such as dysmorphia, abuse, serial killers and suicide. All students showed incredible maturity and focus, and the performances were a true reflection of the last two years of work and growth. Congratulations to the Year 11 Drama students!

year 10s PerForm For year 4 StuDentSIn the early stages of this term the Year 10 students presented two pieces, ‘Cops and Robbers’ and ‘A Sailing boat in the Sky’ to their invitational audience – Year 4. Earlier on in the process they had read to the students and selected books that the groups responded favourably to. Both pieces were entirely created by the group and the response from the audience was excellent and they clearly had a great time.

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Dargon Newsletter 2.pdf 1 10/03/2016 13:34:47

u13 FoBiSia gameSFrom 15-18 March, Kellett School’s Kowloon Bay campus played host to the U13 FOBISIA Games, a sports tournament that saw squads of Year 7 and 8 students compete in Athletics, Swimming, Basketball and Football over the course of the three days of competition. As hosts of the tournament, Kellett School welcomed five other British schools from around Asia to Hong Kong:

• BritishInternationalSchool,HoChiMinhCity• BritishSchool,Jakarta• DulwichCollege,Beijing• NordAngliaInternationalSchoolShanghai,Pudong• TaipeiEuropeanSchool

All schools arrived in Hong Kong with eager anticipation and excitement for the days to follow.

Day 1 – SwimmingDay 1 of competition saw teams competing in swimming and athletics. Due to the cold weather the swimming was moved from Stanley Ho to Kellett School, Kowloon Bay. As the schools entered our indoor swimming pool they were in awe of the space and design of it. This was the first time we had hosted a swimming gala of that size and it definitely did not disappoint. There was an electric atmosphere throughout the morning, which helped the swimmers record some extremely fast times. Kellett’s swim squad had set themselves a target of finishing in the top 3, which is not easy feat when it comes to swimming at the FOBISIA games. However, with some outstanding performances from Bella Nichol, Rebecca Mac and Peter Whittington as well as some solid and consistent performances from the rest of the squad we far exceeded our expectation and came out in 1st place.

SporT

Day 1 – athleticS After an awesome morning for the Kellett squad it was time to gather our thoughts and start to concentrate on Athletics. In our team briefing in the hotel the night before our target was to finish in the top 2, as previous Kellett squads had managed; we had a lot of confidence in the ability of our athletes. The athletes enjoyed a bit of down time as we travelled from Kowloon Bay to Stanley Ho, which is where the athletics took place. Upon arrival at Stanley Ho it was time for all athletes to refuel and prepare themselves for the afternoon ahead either on the field or the track. The first part of the afternoon was all about how far and high the athletes could throw or jump. As the track events drew closer the nervous energy

and the competitive spirit was very evident amongst the schools. However all athletes used this nervous energy to make them run faster or longer depending on the event. There were some stunning performances from Loughlin Davidson, Ted Champion and Mia Hornett on the track. Unfortunately for Kellett, our performances in the field in the morning let us down a bit and gave us too much to do in the afternoon to finish on top. However, Kellett finished a comfortable 2nd place achieving our goal, which was extremely pleasing and rounded off a very good day for the host school.

Day 2 – BoyS BaSKetBall anD girlS FootBallWaking up on Day 2 is always a little bit painful for the Athletes with stiff and tired muscles after all their exertions from Day 1. However, there is no time to wallow in self-pity, as it is the start of the team games with Boys’ basketball and Girls’ football. The latter took place on the Sky Pitch, which is Kellett School’s very own ‘theatre of dreams’. It did not disappoint either with some silky skills being shown by the girls. Kellett’s performance did not quite go as planned as unfortunately we just missed out on top 3 position.

There were some fantastic performances on show down in the Sports Hall during the Basketball tournament. A number of 3 pointers were scored which got the crowd off their seats as well as some superbly executed lay ups. Like the football, our Boys’ basketball team did not quite find their rhythm, which, despite coming close in a number of matches, it was not quite enough.

Day 3 – girlS’ BaSKetBall anD BoyS’ FootBallThe final day of competition saw a reversal of the previous day, with the girls competing in basketball, and the boys competing in football. The athletes continued to give their all, and showcased not only great sporting ability, but also a high level of sportsmanship, fair play and respect towards their opponents. The Girls’ basketball tournament was an absolute nail biter and an emotional rollercoaster if you were part of the Kellett team. Kellett’s match against British International School, Ho Chi Minh City, will be a memory that will stay with all who were involved. I still do not know how Takano Kobayashi held her nerve in the dying seconds of the match to sink her 2 free throws to draw the game, simply remarkable. The final whistle went and there was a court invasion with anybody and everybody from the Kellett community who was watching.

The Boys’ football tournament was a little bit more straightforward for our Kellett boys who went unbeaten throughout the whole tournament to come away gold medallists.

Congratulations to all those who took part in the games, athletes and coaches alike, as well as those who assisted in the hosting of the event and the sponsors. It was a truly memorable few days of competition and it showcased Kellett on every level possible.

Swimming

1st Place Kellett School

2nd Place British School Jakarta

3rd Place British International School,

Ho Chi Minh City

Athletics

1st Place British International School,

Ho Chi Minh City

2nd Place Kellett School

3rd Place British School Jakarta

Girls’ Football


Ho Chi Minh City

2nd Place British School Jakarta

3rd Place Nord Anglia International School, Shanghai Pudong

Boys’ Football

1st Place Taipei European School

2nd Place British International School,

Ho Chi Minh City

3rd Place Nord Anglia International School, Shanghai Pudong

Girls’ Basketball


Ho Chi Minh City

2nd Place Kellett School

3rd Place Taipei European School

Boys’ Football

1st Place Kellett School

2nd Place Nord Anglia International School, Shanghai Pudong

3rd Place British International School, Ho

Chi Minh City

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SPORT SPORT


kellett dragon issue 15 - may 2016

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