Educating for the Future

From the Master 来自校长 마스터

Dear parents Preparations are all in place for the physical reopening of the school for select year groups from Monday. I am sure all parents will join me in celebrating this milestone, even if your own child is still engaged in eLearning, as the successful reintegration of pupils from Monday takes us ever closer to the full reopening of the school. I wanted to use this column to pay tribute to the extraordinary work undertaken by colleagues in the school’s non-academic departments over the past 11 weeks. I often write about the dedication of the teaching staff, but this week, I think that – rightly – the focus should be on the staff who have made the physical reopening possible. Parents will be aware of the preparation work that any business in China has had to go through in order to resume normal service; for schools, this level of preparation has reached a new intensity. Our non-academic emergency response plan runs to almost 90 pages of detail on how we will keep our pupils and staff safe whilst they are in our care. Colleagues from our operations team, from JLL, our property management partners, Compass-Chartwell, the catering company, our medical team (led by senior school nurse Mrs Candy Chang), and the security team have worked tirelessly to ensure that the estate is ready for any eventuality. At the last count, we have now been visited four times by government officials over the past 10 days and passed each inspection with flying colours. I am fully aware that, as we readmit pupils and staff once more, some of our children are anxious about the prospect of setting foot in school. As our teaching staff work with them on their pastoral and wellbeing needs, pupils and their parents can be confident that everything possible has been done to safeguard them against further risk through the professionalism and commitment to excellence of our non-academic teams. They all have my deepest gratitude.   Best wishes Julian Jeffrey MASTER FROM THE MILEPOST LEADERS Year 2 Exit Point - Treasure Island  Year 2 had an entertaining and informative Exit Point on the 3rd April. We celebrated our IPC topic of Treasure Island by demonstrating the wide range of learning that had taken place. We had a group dazzle us with their demonstration of all they had learnt about map making and a display of their own terrific treasure maps. Another group wowed us with their extensive knowledge of famous pirates such as Blackbeard and Madame Cheng. From another group, we learned about the science behind why big pirate ships are able to float. We saw a lovely display of the pirate coins made by one group and as a finale, we were treated to a rousing pirate song by the last group to perform. The staff in Year 2 were so proud of the Year 2 students and their hard work and learning throughout the Treasure Island IPC topic. Great work Year 2! Year 2 Exit Point - Treasure Island  MP2’s Exit Point was a big success! Years 3 and 4 had the opportunity to develop some 21st century skills when showcasing what they have learned over the term in our unit, How Humans Work. They got into teams to collaborate, research and present in different ways a part of the human body. They used their own time to get together through Microsoft TEAMS to plan and rehearse their presentations. Teachers and pupils were very proud to see how much we all have grown over the term, showing independence, perseverance, skills in technology, creativity, courage, communication and social skills as well as teamwork. We have already had our Entry Point for our new unit of inquiry, Paintings, Pictures and Photographs. Children in Year 3 enjoyed a presentation of the famous artist and parent, Bonnie and Year 4 imitated famous portraits. In our next lessons, we will be learning all about impressionism. Keep up the hard work, Milepost 2! MilePost 3 (MP3) Exit Point – Making the News MP3 had two outstanding Exit Points from Year 5 and 6. We shared a lot of information about a range of different topics from the ‘Making the News’ topic. The children collaborated in teams online using our virtual classroom to research and share information. The teachers arranged the children into groups and the children had around 7 days to create an informative video that we could share with everyone. We are all very proud of how the children performed and how hard they have worked during this challenging time. Our next topic is, ‘They see the world like this.’ We will be doing our Entry Point this week and are all looking forward to learning about our new topic. FROM THE HEAD OF THE MANDARIN DEPARTMENT Free Online Reader and Competition Invitation   Wawayaya 爱读家(https://wawayaya.com/) has opened its online reading resources (both for non-native and native Chinese learners) for free until 1st July 2020. Mandarin teachers have opened accounts for all pupils from the Nest to Year 9, to encourage them to read more Chinese books in lesson and after school. We would also like to encourage pupils to participate in the competition arranged by the organisation. The theme is ‘I read; I draw – what does Spring look like in your eyes?’ It is a good opportunity for children to show off their talents and express their ideas of life. We have shared all this information with pupils and parents of younger year groups. If you would like to know more about it, please contact your child’s Mandarin teacher.