kellett dragon issue 14 - feb 2016

FEBRUARY201614

CONTENTFEBRUARY 2016

SENiOrHIGHLIGHTS 42-48 Head of Senior School Student Leadership Global Citizenship Sixth Form Business Studies Economics Geography Science English History Maths

ArTS & LAnGuAGeS 49-54 Drama Music Art Design Technology The Wiz Modern Foreign Languages

SporT 55

WHOLE SCHOOLprInCIpAL’S MeSSAGe 4

KeLLeTT neWS 5-9 Congratulations Welcome to our New Staff Staff Leavers Student Leavers

HIGHLIGHTS 10-13 Kellett Cares Annual Fund Library

FeATure 14-15 Latin at Kellett School

PrEParaTOryPreP Across the school 16-17 Preparatory French Sports Day ICT

Pok Fu lAm HIGHLIGHTS 18-22 Head of Preparatory School School Council Reception to Year 6

ArTS & LAnGuAGeS 23-25 Music Art Chinese Studies

SporT 26-27

exTrAS ECAs 28-29

kowloon BAy

HIGHLIGHTS 30-35 Head of Preparatory School School Council Reception to Year 6 ECAs

SporT 36-37

ArTS & LAnGuAGeS 38-40 Art Chinese Studies Music

KeLLeTT SuMMer SCHooL 41

• Kate & Nick Tang – Jonah Tang

• Julia & Vincent Cheung – Toby Cheung

• Nicola & Steve Bruce – Evie - May Bruce

• Joanne Wu and Nelson Wong – Cheuk Hin Wong

• Mel & Rob Ridland – Millie Ridland

• Natalie & James Bower – Leo William Bower

CONgraTuLaTiONS

Jonah Tang

BaBies

engagements

graduation

marriage

• Miss Amy O’Connor & Mr Christian Bishop

• Miss Katie Roberts & Mr Patrice Golden

• MissCecilia Chan & Mr Robert Allen

• MissHatty Leung & Mr Stewart Brown

• Robert Allen – Masters in Education Teaching Chinese as a Second Language

• MissAileenRankin&MrPeteKerkhofs

Toby Cheung

Miss Aileen Rankin & Mr Pete Kerkhofs

Robert Allen

Leo William Bower

Evie - May Bruce

Millie Ridland

I believe we were the fifth or sixth independent international school, and Kellett has successfully navigated the highs and lows of Hong Kong’s more recent history. The peg, the Handover, the Asian financial crisis, SARS, pandemic alerts and the global financial crisis; as Hong Kong has continued to flourish so has Kellett School.

We enter our 40th year looking firmly forwards, with a confidence grown from secure roots, meaningful tradition and the belief that as a stake holder in Hong Kong and its future, we have much to offer. In the summer of 2015, our first Year 13 students graduated. In June this year our second group will follow, including our first Year 14 graduates. It is another ground breaking year for our community, having achieved our first coveted Oxbridge place. Warmest congratulations go to Gabrielle Roper on receiving an unconditional offer for Girton College, Cambridge. When Gabrielle ‘goes up’, she will enter a college seeped in history and whose founders first recognised the potential of women and their right to a residential university-level education in Britain. A first for women, a first for Gabrielle and a first for our community! Mark Lam is also to be congratulated for achieving a conditional offer to another great Cambridge College; Queen’s.

Whilst Oxbridge and the Ivy Leagues are often perceived as the ‘Blue Ribbon’ there are many more highly-regarded universities across the globe. Currently our Year 13 and 14 students share 78 confirmed and conditional offers from over 46 leading Universities in the UK, Australia and in our home city of Hong Kong. We are awaiting the US offers.

Many congratulations to all of our Year 13 and 14 students. In Kellett School’s 40th year, your efforts, those of your teachers and the support of your parents confirm that Kellett is truly worthy of the title, ‘The British International School in Hong Kong.’ I also hope that these latest announcements have shaken off any question marks in regard to our ability to offer a world-class education to students aged 4 -18 years.

We share the hopes and aspirations of our Year 13 students as they prepare for their A-level examinations and strive to meet the conditions of their University and College offers. Whilst we share their excitement, there is a serious health warning for our community; undue pressure and unrealistic expectations on our part upon these young men and women is unfair, unhelpful and potentially damaging. We must now stand back and allow their preparations to continue guided by experienced teachers and supported by their families and friends. Year 13, we wish you well.

Ann Mc Donald Principal

2016 marks the 40th anniversary of Kellett School. Whilst in UK terms, this may not be as impressive as the tenure of England’s historic public schools, many founded by Henry VIII, within Hong Kong, Kellett School is viewed as one of the ‘long established’ international schools.

Cheuk Hin Wong

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KELLETT NEWS

KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOURTEEN FEBRUARY 2016

prInCIpAL’S MeSSAGeW

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4 KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOURTEEN FEBRUARY 2016

WELCOmE TO Our NEW STaff

Ed WaWN Science (chemiStry)

teacher

HEaTHEr maCKiNLay incluSion

coordinator

HOi yaN CHaN Science (PhySicS)

teacher

PHiLiP STEPHEN head of GeoGraPhy

dePartment

STEPHaNiE gOmaa director of muSic

BHaviSHa TaNK head of houSe

CarSON ZHaNg lanGuaGeS aSSiStant

aiLEEN KErKHOfS enGliSh teacher

adam yEuNg laboratory technician

senior school

SuSaN SHarKEymandarin teacher

(Part-time)

TiNa HarTincluSion teachinG

aSSiStant

SimON WOOdhead of deSiGn and

technoloGy dePartment

SaraH WOOd head of hiStory

dePartment

SuE ParSONS WellbeinG officer

aLiSON BarNES – learninG SuPPort aSSiStant mELiSSa mayO – Pe teacherJuLiE ONg – adminiStrative aSSiStant

SONia ramNauTHKS1 claSS teacher

JuLia mCgLaSHaNKS2 claSS teacher

JEmma SKiffrecePtioniSt

HaNNaH HardESTy KS2 claSS teacher

EmiLy farriNgTON KS2 claSS teacher

SHaNNON WaKE KS1 claSS teacher

ESTEr CaPiSTraNO KS2 teachinG

aSSiStant

Lara mOrriSON – KS1 teachinG aSSiStant Livia Ng – mandarin lanGuaGe aSSiStant

rEBECCa THOmPSON – recePtion teachinG aSSiStant

CONNiE maadmiSSionS aSSiStant

JaCK Liit SuPPort officer

support staff

agNES PaWLiKrecePtion teachinG

aSSiStant

BiLLi SKiff1 to 1 teachinG

aSSiStant

diPaLi BHaTWadEKar KS2 teachinG

aSSiStant

amy O'CONNOr KS1 claSS teacher

pok fu lam preparatory

giSELLa aPiCELLa recePtion teachinG

aSSiStant

CarOLiNE dudmaN KS2 claSS teacher

aLExaNdra HErd KS1 claSS teacher

Emma riCKaByKS2 claSS teacher

kowloon Bay preparatory

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KELLETT NEWS KELLETT NEWS

KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOURTEEN FEBRUARY 2016 KELLETT DRAGON NEWSLETTER ISSUE FOURTEEN FEBRUARY 2016

STudENT LEavErS

STaff LEavErS

maLLy STEWarT – KS1 teachinG aSSiStant (Klb PreP)

aarON rEdmaNta covered area

(Pfl PreP)

mELaNiE ridLaNd KS2 claSS teacher

(Klb PreP)

dENiSE grEENrecePtion teachinG aSSiStant (Pfl PreP)

CarOLyN BLaCKEr incluSion teachinG

aSSiStan (Senior School)

aNTHEa WHiTEHEadincluSion teachinG

aSSiStant (Senior School)

Sam LubooK KeePer

(Whole School)

maryaNN TuNg KS1 teachinG

aSSiStant (Pfl PreP)

frEEmaN Liit SuPPort officer (Whole School)

HELEN CHaNKS1 teachinG

aSSiStant

riCHard EvErardKS2 teachinG

aSSiStant

diaNNE irviNE SWim coach / KS2

teachinG aSSiStant

raCHEL CHENgmuSic teachinG

aSSiStant

mELiSSa EdWardS1 to 1 teachinG

aSSiStant

LyNN LaWrENCE- BrOWN

1 to 1 teachinG aSSiStant

SHEETaL BayaSKS1 teachinG

aSSiStant

kowloon Bay preparatory

JENNifEr Lam – french lanGuaGe aSSiStantLiSa marCELLE – KS2 teachinG aSSiStant

forename surname

Angus Billson

James Billson

Joshua Brown

Louisa Burges Watson

Harris Carle

Hector Carle

Tatiana Corso

George Dawson

India Dawson

Kamran Desai–Kinvig

Alexandra Fleming

Georgina Fleming

Isabelle Fleming

forename surname

Samuel Sywak

James Walsh

Lucy Watson

Jasmyn Whitaker

Ryan Whittington

Sasa Williams

Nathaniel Wong

Anna Woodrow

Jeremy Woodrow

Adam Wright

Kitty Zaki

Mani Zaki

forename surname

Joshua Gordon

Tom Jackson

Cate Jackson

Neve Jackson

Aria Kidd

Lucas Kidd

Louisa Krantz

Joe Lee

Arno Llewellyn

Emma Marsden

Dylan Pak

Antonia Stanwell

Nicholas Stanwell

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KELLETT NEWS


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KeLLeTT neWS

KELLETT CarES

Last term was busy and productive for Kellett Cares across all campuses. Pizza sales have, as always, gone down a treat. Acknowledgement and thanks go to AGA & Rangemaster (HK) at Edward Madison Heritage Interior, who have generously funded the cost of the pizzas at Kowloon Bay.

Years 5 and 6, with the help of the Art Department, have created stunning wrapping paper, Christmas cards, and Christmas candy canes, all of which sold like hot cakes.

Reception have been hard at work creating self-portraits for tea towels (which made fabulous Christmas presents!), and ‘Coins for a Cause’ had its second year of success. ‘Diyass’ were decorated and sold at PFL to help celebrate Diwali.

A bake sale was held at each Prep Sports Day, and the Senior School held its second Christmas Fair and raised a significant sum for the charity of their choice. Thank you to the fantastic team of volunteers at both Kowloon Bay and Pok Fu Lam, without whom none of this would have been possible.

aNNuaL fuNd

Thank you to everyone in the Kellett Community who participated in the fourth Annual Fund, helping Kellett School realise some fantastic enhancements for the students. To date the community participation rate is 28% with donations of just over 2.3 million dollars.

Thanks to your wonderful support, we have been able to fully fund all of our priorities and a number of projects are already underway benefiting our students.

As part of the Guest Speaker Programme, artist Noel Bueza worked with Year 8 students on cross hatch techniques to create a range of tones, as well as showing students his fine line artworks of historical buildings in the Philippines.

Years 5 and 6 were visited by Tony Stanger, who gave an inspiring speech about the variety of factors that contribute to success in sport as well as throughout students’ school and home lives. The importance of self-regulation and self-belief were key themes that were explored and students were fascinated by the stories Tony shared of his own experiences as well as those of famous athletes.

In the last week of term Sixth Form students were joined by Ben Walden from Contender Charlie, who delivered thought provoking interactive workshops on leadership. His workshops have already sparked a lot of interesting philosophical conversations amongst students.

Most recently, a new tradition was started with the Kellett Christmas Lectures. Students, parents and staff were wowed with live science demonstrations by Kellett science teachers as well as seeing our guest speaker, Professor P W Leung from HKUST, demonstrate how special effects in popular movies correctly and incorrectly applied Newton’s laws - from falling objects through to time travel and teleportation.

Some projects from previous Annual Funds have also continued into this academic year, including the brand new climbing frame at Pok Fu Lam, artist in residence Ian Murphy, the Prep Gardens at Kowloon Bay, as well as the implementation of ‘Discovering Positive Education’ into the curriculum.

None of these projects would have been possible without the generous support of the Kellett Community. Thank you for your support and help to provide these wonderful opportunities for our students.

There are many more exciting projects coming up in the New Year and reports on projects will be published in the eBulletin and on Facebook.

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HIGHLIGHTS HIGHLIGHTS


LiBrary

For links to our library catalogue, suggested reading lists and reading blogs to inspire your child visit the Library iLearn pages:

Senior Library – https://ilearn.kellettschool.com/ (requires your Senior school child to login) – click on Library link – “What to read next” tab

Prep Library – https://ilearn.kellettschool.com/ – click on the Preparatory Section Link – Specialist Subjects – Prep Library

Visit from local author anJali mittalSeveral classes at both Pok Fu Lam and Kowloon Bay Preps were treated to a visit from Anjali Mittal, a local author and mother of two. Anjali has written several books including ‘The Convent Rules’ and ‘The Mystery of the Art Teacher‘. Ms Mittal also showed the children slides of school children and Masai tribesmen in Kenya, where she lived for many years and which inspired her book “The Boat Race”.

As well as acknowledging a direct debt to the Kenyan school for inspiration, Anjali also mentioned the mystery stories of children’s author Enid Blyton as influencing her settings of different cultures and environments.

The author believes in encouraging children to read by making books stimulating and different to their day-to-day lives so that they become fully immersed in the fantasy world. She also quizzed the children about what they thought a writer needed to do to create engaging stories for readers that were still believable, including taking examples from their own lives and observing the world around them.

“Every day you ride the bus or come in a car to school. Just looking out the window, you can see so many things happening that can be the start of a story”

She then gave her listeners a hint about a certain dragon statue that she passes every day and how her curiosity about it sparked her next book, a mystery set in Hong Kong.

Many of the students in attendance had read at least one of these books prior to her visit.

the importance of reading for pleasureOne of our aims in the Kellett Library is to “promote and encourage reading for pleasure by providing a broad range of fiction and non-fiction” and we advocate as much free choice of reading as possible for the students. Research findings indicate that children and young people will read more if they have some control over their opportunities to read.

Reading for pleasure not only increases knowledge of the world, but also encourages greater levels of empathy, social interaction, confidence, well-being and improvements in imagination.

As author Neil Gaiman so eloquently states : “reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do… it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you‘re on the road to reading everything. And reading is key. I don‘t think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children‘s books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading. I‘ve seen it happen over and over; Enid Blyton was declared a bad author, so was R. L Stine, so were dozens of others. Comics have been decried as fostering illiteracy.

Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is the gateway drug to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you.

We need our children to get onto the reading ladder: anything that they enjoy reading will move them up, rung by rung, into literacy.”

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HIGHLIGHTS HIGHLIGHTS


LaTiN aT KELLETT SCHOOL“Why would you?” It’s a question often put to Latin teachers who suggest students take up the subject, especially Latin teachers working in a shiny new school in a country far from any Roman influence. Some of the usual justifications are a bit feeble: “it helps you learn Romance languages” (true, but surely rather a long way round?); “you need it if you want to be a doctor or a lawyer” (‘need’ is a bit strong); “we can learn lessons from the past” (what can we really gain from learning that tensions between religions date back millennia?) but other arguments are utterly compelling.

Latin is offered in years 8 and 9 at Kellett and it is an option at IGCSE and A-level too. Those at the Kowloon Bay Prep School can join Meet the Romans, an after-school ECA, in which students learn about the Roman world through, for example, the experience of re-enacting battles, making ancient jewellery and cooking from Roman recipes. So far numbers in the Senior School are modest, but that’s one factor that has led to some impressive results; at IGCSE there is a 100% A*/A record.

So, why would you?Well, there’s no denying that learning the Latin language is hard. It stretches and challenges you in a way that forces deep and careful thinking. It is satisfying and energising to push your brain to its max and it is also fruitful; Latin is one of the Russell Group of Universities’ ‘facilitating subjects’. A Latin qualification points to a high-calibre student.

Studying Latin reinforces our knowledge of English grammar and helps expand our vocabulary; half of all English words come from this ancient language.

Latin lessons are a cross-curricular experience. In Key Stage 3 language studies sit alongside historical and cultural studies, making Latin more of a walk through the Roman world than just another language. And what a world it was! With practices such as slavery, exposure (leaving unwanted babies abandoned in the countryside) and fights to the death in the amphitheatre commonplace, it takes a huge mental leap for the modern Hongkonger to get inside the head of the average Roman. And that’s what’s so fascinating about examining that far-removed world; in some ways the Romans were just like us but in others they were vastly different. Immersing ourselves in the Roman world gives us a great vantage point for looking at our own.

In Key Stage 4 historical and cultural studies give way to literature. Latin is currently the only foreign language IGCSE available at Kellett to engage with literature in the original language. This is the point when studying a language that no one speaks anymore really starts to make sense. Simply put, we do it so we can read what the Romans wrote. To understand and empathise with voices from two millennia ago is both moving and mind-expanding.

Why wouldn’t you?

edwina Mendes, Teacher of Latin

[email protected]

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FEATURE FEATURE


The new school year started positively for pupils studying French, and moved towards a very festive culmination in which they made Christmas decorations which practised their vocabulary and recognised a term of hard work and great effort.

Year 3 began their French studies with much energy and enthusiasm. They have learnt how to greet people and count to 31, and have used this to say when their birthdays are. They had a creative few lessons learning colours and studying some Matisse artwork, which concluded with the creation and description of their own masterpieces in the style of the artist. The children have also begun to use the French alphabet and are also becoming more confident at following classroom commands in French.

PreParatory French

ict

The Challenge of CodingCoding, or Programming, or Control, have always been part of the curriculum of schools in Wales, and indeed at Kellett from the turn of the century. The new curriculum certainly puts Coding in a prominent position (it takes up the first few bullet points!), but it’s important to remember that it is still only a part of the the overall Computing Curriculum. The challenge is to ensure that students continue to gain experience of the other 21st century skills and behaviours that they will require as they continue to learn and develop.

Information, visual, digital and media literacies are key areas that we need to expose our students to if they are to be truly literate in the 21st century. At the beginning of the term teachers, as well as many students, were lucky enough to work with globally renowned experts Tim Rylands and Sarah Nield looking at many of these aspects. Their pre-term INSET for primary teachers was particularly well received and left teachers buzzing with lots of great ideas for enhancing learning.

At Pok Fu Lam, Year 4 started the year by recapping colours and clothes and then performed and filmed some brilliant fashion shows showcasing this language. On both campuses, children have spent time studying food and snacks, working hard to develop their vocabulary and provide opinions on different foods and drinks. They used this to create role-plays based in restaurants. At Kowloon Bay, students then moved on to describing the rooms in their house and creating their ideal homes, including a description of their bedrooms. In Pok Fu Lam, the children developed descriptive vocabulary to do with the countryside and developed their dictionary skills within this context.

Year 5 began the school year by learning to tell the time as well as developing vocabulary within the context of school subjects, and how to give their opinions on them. They spent

Year 5 and Year 6 This year saw Year 5 and 6 transcend on Stanley Ho running track for another sports day. After some excellent displays of running, jumping and throwing, Kowloon Bay were at it again with 5-CP and 6-SS claiming the spoils, making it three in a row now! Well done to all involved!

a lot of time learning and practising how to work with verbs in the present tense, using this to describe what is happening and giving a greater understanding of the building blocks of the French language.

Year 6 have been studying the topics of Time and School. They have given their opinions on subjects and have talked about their daily routines, including times and activities. In Kowloon Bay, students also learnt the rooms in the school and conducted tours of the prep school in French for Senior School language teachers! At Pok Fu Lam, they produced some beautiful display work which highlighted their writing skills on this topic.

Well done to all on a great term’s work!

SPortS Day

Coding is not a set of technical skills but a new type of literacy and personal expression, much like learning to write. Mitch Resnick

Coding can be a challenge as it is often perceived as being hard, but that is far from the truth. Students in our Reception have the opportunity to work with small programmable floor robots called Bee Bots as an introduction to coding. Later, these skills translate onto ipads and subsequently computers as students work on the programming language Scratch. Developed at MIT by Mitch Resnick and his team, Scratch has been a staple of the computing experience at Kellett since around 2008 and many students have explored it’s creative take on programming. This term has seen Years 3 and 5 using the platform across both campuses.

As Coding continues to gain traction in schools, other resources are becoming available, many of them concentrating on the more technical side of the literacy. For students who are well grounded in the creative potential of Scratch, these activities can be a challenging and rewarding experience. Hard fun, if you like.

A number of our students have recently enrolled in Code Academy, an online portal offering courses in most of the programming languages required today. These students are spending their own time working through the units, often working before school or during their lunch breaks. Pride of place must go to Ben Robinson, who was the first student to complete the 160 exercises within the Html & CSS module. Well done Ben!

Elsewhere, our department continues to support teachers in their use of technology to enhance learning. Inspired by the methods of Tim Rylands, who visited at the start of the academic year thanks to the Annual Fund, students in Year 6 have been using the computer game Dear Esther as a spur to produce writing rich in metaphor, simile and personification. They have also considered the skills they need to give good presentations and have used iPads to give real-time evaluations to presenters.

Year 4 students at PFL have been designing information texts about figures from Greek Mythology, whilst at KLB they have been examining traffic data using Google Explore to create graphs and charts.

MFL students have been using the game design app Tiny Tap to create and share games that test French language skills. Meanwhile, our after school Techno Club had been dabbling with 3D design and even had a session looking at Augmented Reality animals.

Whilst we continue to be ambitious for our work with technology we rely heavily on our infrastructure and support teams to keep things ticking along. Like every institution we occasionally have a few hiccups, but for the past 6 years Freeman Li has been instrumental in keeping us all going. His knowledge of our systems and technology legacy has been vital to our development and it was huge blow to those of us working in technology when he decided to leave us earlier this term. He remains a good friend of the school and still pops in digitally to check up on us. We wish him well for the future!

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PREP ACROSS THE SCHOOL PREP ACROSS THE SCHOOL

School council

The countdown for Christmas is always a magical and exciting time of the year with so many highlights. Christmas Craft Morning was a fantastic opportunity to get parents involved with the children’s learning and it was wonderful to see so many parents present. Once the glitter and tinsel settled, it was time to start rehearsals in earnest for the Christmas Performance.

The Reception children had a lovely build up for this by watching the Year 4 Pantomime, and then the Year 2 and Year 1 shows. These are a great way for them to begin to understand what they are undertaking. Kellett School shows are unlike any other! Once the show was over the fun didn’t stop, as party day closely followed, with guest appearances from the Cheesy Brothers and even a visit from Santa!

This has been a long term with so many ‘firsts’ for all of the children. They deserve the break after an extraordinary start to their education at Kellett School.

recePtion

This year in School Council, we are looking at different ways to raise money and improve our school. Everytime the School Council gathers together the various reps discuss the ideas their classes have had about how to improve the school.

We have recently elected our Executive Committee. The Year 6 reps did a presentation on why they wanted to be Chairperson, Vice Chair, Treasurer or Secretary and why they would be good. These presentations were then followed by a vote carried out by all of the class reps.

Congratulations to Jonathan Aagaard for getting the role of Chairperson, Theo Bridge for Vicechair, Jamie Barbour for Secretary and John Hardy for Treasurer.

In our meeting last week, the new chairperson took control. We had an agenda and talked about the Three Wishes. These are the three most popular things that we wanted to improve for our school. The Three Wishes are to improve the playground, to think of ways we can help if people are lonely at playtime and how to solve the problem of the Lost Property. We are working on these ideas now!

It has been good getting to know all of the reps from Year 1 to Year 6 and working as a team.

By Ariana M Chan

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HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM HIGHLIGHTS - POK FU LAM


Great learning takes place not just within our classrooms, but also outside in our corridors, our breakaway rooms, our gym and other fantastic facilities within and beyond our school. I have been struck by the strength and quality of interaction within the Kellett community, which is primarily enforced by the wonderful and trusting relationships shared within our community; students, teachers, support staff and parents alike. It is apparent that everyone is eager to contribute to make this school successful. This partnership is demonstrated in so many ways throughout our campus. It is apparent in the way that parents actively support the school at every level, function and event, in the quality and promotion of our Expressive Arts programme (the children’s performances have been a joy to watch this term and these events celebrate and encapsulate everything that a great school should offer; challenge, inclusion and fun!), in the high-quality and wide range of our sports provision and extra-curricular programme. Our teams are proactive, engaged and achieving at all levels both in domestic competition as well as within FOBISIA. Above all this partnership is obvious in the care and devotion that our teachers and support staff commit to our core purpose of learning.

I am pleased to state that the overriding feelings with which I conclude my first term are a strong sense of pride and great excitement for the unfolding future. I am confident that the school’s hard work, earnest endeavours and high achievements, will be acknowledged and celebrated in the forthcoming BSO inspection. With these thoughts in mind, I have begun to write my next checklist for the term ahead. First on the list is the question; How to create the conditions for a ‘restless’ school in pursuit of excellence!

Yours sincerely

Ben Dixon Head of Preparatory School, Pok Fu Lam

However, such is the fast and furious pace of life at Kellett School, I haven’t always managed to tick off all my entries, and have instead found myself adding numerous new items to my ever-evolving list. What an exciting, productive and jam-packed first term this has been!

I have personally experienced a range of emotions and reactions since arriving in August. Like a child starting a new school, I initially faced feelings of anxiety and apprehension about the future, and felt the pressure to fulfill the high expectations of a well-established community. I have learnt a lot about this tremendous campus since my arrival, and the aspiration to be outstanding is clearly a driving force throughout the school. Ms Mc Donald addressed the school at the beginning of the year and shared her vision of outstanding learning. In her opinion, outstanding learners demonstrate, ‘Passion, energy, respect, belief and determination in everything they do’. Upon commencement of my post, I wished to explore and familiarise myself with all aspects of Kellett school life. I am pleased to report that there is already much to celebrate and acknowledge in our school, however, to continually develop and achieve our shared vision of ‘outstanding’, our main aim must be to constantly focus on learning, and consider new ways that can help us further develop and improve.

This drive to embed excellence was further reinforced following my recent attendance at the FOBISIA Heads Conference hosted by Tanglin Trust School, Singapore. The conference theme was based around ‘Inspiration’. I was indeed inspired by the idea that an outstanding school must have an appetite for sustained and continuous improvement. Former Head teacher, HMI inspector and UK Government Advisor, Roy Blatchford described schools that he had judged to be truly outstanding as ‘restless schools’. During his keynote speech, Mr. Blatchford argued that ‘restless schools’ are never complacent and constantly look at how they can further develop with the understanding that positive shifts happen when schools control and manage change and ensure that achievement is not accomplished by chance. This was underpinned by the notion that excellence is not an ‘act’ but a ‘habit’.

Atul Gawande in his book, The Checklist Manifesto provides a simple and sanguine solution to the many challenges we face in our day-to-day lives. He suggests that the humble checklist is often the obvious starting point when attempting to ensure excellence and the smooth running of operations. During my first term as Head of Pok Fu Lam Campus, I have found myself creating various checklists to ensure that I am keeping abreast of affairs.

year 1

The children in Year 1 have had a busy first term. In our first topic, we learnt about ourselves within our topic ‘Super Me’. In Science, we labeled different bones within our bodies and we learnt how organs help to keep our bodies working properly. We also thought about how we change as we grow up, creating a timeline of our lives with photographs of when we were babies and then toddlers, which helped us to explain how our bodies have changed.

During the second half of term, we learnt about Hong Kong. We used atlases to locate Hong Kong, countries that are near to Hong Kong and countries that we have visited. Following a trip around Hong Kong, we created a large map of Hong Kong Island, which showed the different human and physical

year 2

We have had a fantastic first term in Year 2. Here are a few of the highlights:

We kicked off the term with our ‘Where in the World’ topic, looking in particular at the different continents. We researched what life is like on different continents through a range of media including iPads, books and laptops. The children then created their own 3D globes, working collaboratively to position the continents and equator.

We then moved on to learning about different habitats around the world. This culminated in an educational visit to Lantau to study micro-habitats in our local setting.

In literacy, we have been extremely busy covering a range of genres. A couple of our favourites have been writing a story using a familiar setting about a small alien named Beegu, and writing instructions for making our own marvelous medicine based on George’s marvelous medicine.

In Maths, we have been using problem solving to apply our knowledge and skills as well as using role-play to learn about money in the form of a toyshop.

year 3

year 4

phenomenal artistic skills and a number of very talented parent volunteers. As ever, the children looked incredible in their costumes, which added to their excellent performances. We are truly grateful to all the parents who helped make this possible. The show itself contained a number of fantastic dramatic performances, which along with beautiful singing and catchy tunes that retold the classic story so well, ensured this was a memorable night for all involved. Our finale song of ‘Hoist the Anchor’ was certainly very fitting as we have started the year in style and are certainly full steam ahead on our journey through Year 4!

Well done to all of Year 4 for a wonderful start to the year, with a particular warm welcome to Ms Hardesty, who joined our team at Pok Fu Lam, and congratulations to our newly elected representatives for the School Council.

After the initial excitement of our first lessons in the Science laboratory, the children thoroughly enjoyed being Scientists (wearing their white coats!) as we explored the difference between states of matter and how we could separate different mixtures of solids and liquids. In our Literacy lessons, the children became immersed in the world of Greek mythology and truly became experts on a number of different Gods and Goddesses as well as a range of heroes and villains. Our traditional start to our topic of ‘Let the Games Begin’ was another massive success, with the children having the opportunity to sample lots of delicious Greek food and enjoy some dancing, all whilst wearing some fantastic Greek clothing. A definite highlight of our year!

For our pantomime this year, we performed ‘Treasure Island’ with a stunning backdrop courtesy of Mrs Wright’s

features in Hong Kong. Using our maps, we compared different areas of Hong Kong, explaining how land is used. Towards the end of our topic, we learnt about the changes that have occurred in Hong Kong. We used photographs, films and maps to understand how Hong Kong has changed over time, before thinking of ways in which we could improve Hong Kong. We had some incredibly interesting suggestions!

An awe-inspiring puppet show kick-started our cross-curricular Shadows unit. We designed and made monster shadow puppets to use in our Halloween themed puppet shows. After lots of drama and play writing practice we produced captivating play-scripts which we then performed to a mesmerised audience.

We became time detectives to discover information about The Great Fire of London and life in Britain in the 17th Century. Samuel Pepys was key to our findings as he was a very important eyewitness and good friends with the King. We were lucky to have such a great informant! We wrote newspaper articles about the fire and produced posters warning people of the dangers of the Great Plague. This was a rather unfortunate time in history but luckily our sweet smelling pomanders helped to distract us from the rather gruesome sights and smells!

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year 5

It has been an exciting first term in Year 5! With the Rugby World Cup fuelling our excitement in October, 5-TF explained the rules and history of the game in a celebration of sport and inter-country relations in their ‘World In Union’ assembly. 5-NM’s assembly a few weeks later kept our high-quality performances on the go, as they entertained and informed us about the world of inventions. Rehearsals for 5-ML’s show went very well, and the school were treated to a fantastic performance!

Over the course of the term, the Year 5 children have become expert historians on the Industrial Revolution. They have become bridge builders like Brunel, public health activists like Doctor John Snow and brilliant researchers, as shown in their information texts about key inventions of the time. The sky was the limit when they continued their investigations into how inventions have changed over time by studying the life and work of the Wright Brothers. Phew! Time travel is exhausting work!

Poetry has been a big hit this term, and the Year 5 students have enjoyed reading and performing poems by Kit Wright, Pie Corbett and Valarie Bloom (to name just a few!). As talented poets themselves, they have been inspired to write their own poems with beautiful results.

year 6

What a busy first term Year 6 have had! Highlights have included our three fabulous class assemblies, an exciting trip (to Infinity and Beyond!) inside the Astro Dome and we even managed to dissect some eyeballs for a greater understanding of how we see. More recently, the science lab has been ‘buzzing’ to the sound of Year 6 students experimenting with electrical circuits and applying this knowledge to their Design and Technology project, entitled “Fairground Attractions”.

We are in the midst of our Outward Bound topic at the moment. Preparation for our big residential week to Sai Kung began with map reading skills and some tricky six-figure grid referencing. We faced so many unfamiliar challenges at Camp. The instructors helped us to push ourselves, reach our potential and we learnt how to care for ourselves, others and the world around us. The famous ‘Jetty Jump’ was the highlight

Our budding scientists have been investigating how sound travels and, following in the footsteps of Alexander Graham Bell, designed and made their own string telephones. Which materials worked the best? What other variables did they change?

Along with the rest of Kellett School, all of the Year 5 children enjoyed participating in the World’s Largest Lesson. They are clearly using their thinking skills to develop a global outlook!

for many, but even the teachers managed it with a lot of encouragement! Camp was a truly memorable week where we learnt a lot of new skills and made a lot of new friends.

It’s been another busy term in the Music department, with a variety of events having been very successfully executed and well-received. Students have been working hard in both their lessons and in the Music ECA rehearsals.

On 5 November, the PFL orchestras, choirs, recorder group and brass ensemble performed at the Pok Fu Lam Choral Concert. They performed fantastically and demonstrated how well they were able to learn their pieces in the short rehearsal period since the beginning of term. They are now working extremely hard towards the upcoming Annual Concert.

Our younger students have also been practicing hard in the Infant Strings Projects and Pre-Orchestra, preparing for their informal concerts at the end of this term!

MuSic

I never knew I could do so many important things…

Year 6 student, Pok Fu Lam

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Kellett DraGon neWSletter ISSUE FOURTEEN FEBRUARY 2016

Our annual joint schools reading activities with our local sister school, Hok Shan Primary School, kicked off with 46 Year 3 and Year 4 Hok Shan students visiting us in November. They were well entertained by our Year 6 students with stories and dialogues. In early December, Kellett Year 5 Chinese students visited Hok Shan and had their Chinese-speaking friends read to them. Conversation and interaction were encouraged amongst the students in exchange for information. This is a meaningful and fun way to keep our students in close contact with the local communities. Year 5 students will have an opportunity to visit and interact with our Beijing sister school in May 2016.

During Mid-Autumn festival, students learnt its significance and traditional values of Chinese culture. Various activities were enjoyed by each year group, and used to enhance their understanding of this festive season. Legendary stories of the Moon Lady, Jade Rabbit and the message in the moon cakes that overthrew the invading Mongolians were told. Students made their own moon cakes, lanterns, rabbits and comic strips, and recited a Tang dynasty poem that was related to the full moon. Some of these activities and works of the students can be seen in the PFL Chinese iLearn page.

One of the key learning elements in this project was a collaborative assignment amongst the Year 6 students using Google Docs to research the weather of a city. Students enjoyed the challenge, and the responsibilities were shared well to complete the task. The class presentation was a good conclusion to the topic “Seasons and Weather”.

More learning activities and sample work of the students can be viewed on the PFL Chinese iLearn page (parents log in required).

art

Don’t forget to login to iLearn to find out all the latest goings on in the PFL Prep Art Studio. http://artatkellettpreppfl.blogspot.hk/

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. Towards the end of the term, Year 1 and Year 2 were very busy getting ready for their Christmas Shows. The auditorium was adorned with hanging, painted wreaths and paper pattern baubles, giving the room a very festive feeling indeed. We really enjoyed working on our clay skills in Year 1. This was made clear with our clay pattern fish that we made early in the term. The Year 2s have been working on their painting skills and created really thoughtfully patterned aboriginal artwork as well as some fantastic Georgia O’Keefe flowers that we drew and blended using chalks.

Year 3Year 3 have been looking at 3D shapes and in particular still life paintings. We looked at the artist Cezanne and learnt about how he made his pictures of fruits and objects look realistic. We studied how to make an object look 3D and drew some spheres in our sketchbooks and worked on how to use shading to demonstrate the graduation of light to dark shading across an object, allowing it to become a solid shape. Our Christmas clay texture and relief project was much enjoyed and the children had some very successful results, with our finished work adorning the school trees in the children’s entrance lobby. Well done Year 3!

Year 4 The Year 4s have been mastering the skill of Ancient Greek artwork this term. We looked at Mosaics in particular and created our own designs using the Greek alphabet for inspiration. Everyone in Year 4 designed their own mosaic and grouted different coloured tiles into position. We used a variety of tiles to ensure a decorative effect and made sure to leave a small gap between each one. It was great to see all of our work around school. We also really enjoyed making painted artwork using zentangle patterns. We drew animals from observation and created patterns inside our outlines using water colour paints and pen. Some fantastic work this term, well done Year 4!

Year 5 Year 5 have been instrumental in showcasing sculpture at Kellett Prep this term and we made some fantastic papier mâché sculptures inspired by the artists Tony Smith and Wassily Kandinsky. The children really enjoyed making their shape -based sculptures come to life through the medium of papier mâché layering over cut card. Our sculptures proudly hung in the gym and were also on show outside. This demonstrated our learning and showed how the artists we studied influenced our work. We later saw the children work on their Christmas card designs for Kellett Cares, which was a collage of Christmas animals. These looked fantastic when put together in classes. Well done Year 5!

Year 6Our artistic leaders of the Preparatory School have been making all sorts of fantastic pieces of work this term. Observational-drawing based citrus fruits really created a lot of work for our students, who later painted their drawings in different colour values. We layered over the top of our work with oil pastels and patterns and the final results looked like a colourful, tropical haven of carefully observed drawings with thoughtful application of paint and colour. As well as this, the children thoroughly enjoyed producing wrapping paper for the annual sale for Kellett Cares. The theme this year was paper-cut designs and the children worked very hard in producing their own individual designs that looked extremely elegant when all placed alongside one another. Well done Year 6!

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CurriCulumThis term has been action packed during PE lessons. All classes have enjoyed an athletics unit of work in preparation for the annual Sports Days. Reception have been working on their games skills and using a variety of different types of equipment to improve their throwing, catching and kicking skills. Years 1 and 2 have also been focusing on their games and fundamental movement skills, developing their play through small-sided games. Years 3 and 4 have enjoyed working through their athletics unit as well as a unit of work on fitness, where they have explored the different aspects of fitness, speed, stamina, strength and suppleness. They worked very well learning a variety of different yoga poses and performing sequences. Years 5 and 6 have fitness testing, which has produced some great results, great to see the students challenging themselves and also making progress from last year’s results. Year 5 have also been exploring mindfulness, and focusing on some techniques associated with the Smiling Mind project. Year 6 are working through their Playmaker award and have been developing their communication and leadership skills. They will be let loose on lesson plans and some teaching of our younger students in the New Year. In games sessions, the children have been working hard improving their football, netball and basketball skills. Year 6 have been swimming this term and have been pushing themselves to improve their times and techniques.

neTballThe netballers have had a very successful season this term. The players have been working really well during their training sessions and enjoying a host of Wednesday friendly matches and tournaments. Both teams enjoyed a successful pre-season tournament in September, which was a great starting block for the teams to continue growing in strength. Impressive results in the Kellett Mixed Netball tournament saw them go through in second place in their pool, but eventually were beaten in the semi-finals by a strong Glenealy side. The Island Netball tournament saw wins throughout the round robin event and an eventual 1-1 draw with GSIS in the deciding game. The goal difference for both teams was exactly the same so Kellett came out as joint winners. Unfortunately the ESF Netball tournament was cancelled this year due to the weather, however it will be rescheduled in 2016.

Our younger netballers enjoyed a mix of friendly matches against both FIS and DBIS hosted by Kellett. It has been wonderful to see the children competing and learning the rules and strategies as they go. Amazing progress was made in a short space of time, and we hope to continue this next term.

Cross CounTrYWe have seen in excess of 70 runners turning up every Friday morning to participate in the sessions. We are looking forward to continuing this next term and getting competitive with the CIS Road race and also a new championship event with GSIS!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the children and parents for their commitment this term, also to the teachers that help to facilitate the ECA sports and swimming programme. Fiona Pratt

KelleTT saTurdaY soCCerAround 40 children from Years 1 to 6 have been participating in “Saturday Soccer”, continuing the long tradition of Kellett providing a relatively informal setting for the children to learn and enjoy the game.

This year, we fielded two teams for the Operation Santa Claus Junior Soccer Tournament on 29 November. Kellett Whites showed their spirit by picking themselves up after marginally losing some of their group games and by continuing to build confidence where it counted most, the semi-final and final of The Bowl. They defeated SC Dragons 2-0 to take the trophy.

fooTballOur girl’s football team has worked hard this year and been very dedicated! We have participated in two main tournaments. The Hong Lok Yuen tournament was a great success with the team finishing runners up in the bowl final. A great day was had by all and the girls are going from strength to strength. The girls also travelled to Kowloon Bay and enjoyed playing in a round-robin tournament against DBIS and Quarry Bay.

The Year 5 and 6 boys have enjoyed their weekly matches against Glenealy School, giving all the players an opportunity to represent the school. The boys have made it through to the final stages of all the tournaments they have entered. Most notable results were the Year 5s, who were unlucky to loose in the final at the GSIS tournament. In the DBIS tournament, the boys again were unlucky to loose in the Plate final. In the Hong Lok Yuen tournament, the B team faced an unfortunate loss in the Plate final on penalties, after having not conceding a goal in 5 matches, and the A team went on to win the Shield. On Saturday 5 December the boys participated in the ESF football tournament and the final result saw them placed as Bowl winners! Very well done boys! The standard of football throughout the Hong Kong Primary schools continues to be very impressive and the tournaments are getting bigger and bigger.

Kellett Reds finished third in their group, notching up victories with the highest scores of the whole tournament (10-0 and 8-0) and reached the quarter-final of The Cup, losing on penalties to HKFC1 before a 1-0 loss to KCC in The Plate semis in a very close game.

Each player poured their heart and soul into every match and did themselves and the school proud. The Kellett teams earned a special mention from the organisers for their sportsmanship and enthusiasm against some of the best football clubs in Hong Kong.

Many thanks again for the support of the school, the coaches and the parents who make Saturday Soccer so fun and rewarding for all involved. Marcus Woodger / David Sarkis

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We again see our ECA programme continue to develop, and it is wonderful to see so many dedicated children working so hard on the track, in the pool and on the pitch.

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musiC TheorY Club

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sTormY Chef

sPeeCh & drama

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Yoga

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Our Reception children have had a fantastic start to both their schooling career and their time at Kellett. They settled in quickly and have continued to mature and develop throughout the term. They have loved getting to know each other, building relationships and exploring new things in both the classroom and covered area. We have been busy learning not only our phonics and maths but also how to be great learners.

We have enjoyed visits from the police, a pilot and a nurse and have celebrated Diwali and the Mid-Autumn Festival with parents. The term culminated in our Christmas Show ‘A Wriggly Nativity’, where the children wowed us with their confidence, singing and dancing. Thank you to all the parents for the support during this first busy term. Your help with cooking, reading, Christmas Craft Day and our show is much appreciated.

The school council this term has been one of transition. However, we are now in a settled position and ready to embark on our journey of making the school a better place for learning. During our first meeting, we discussed what we felt should be our mission statement, and students landed on the following:

“We are going to make the school a more enjoyable environment for all pupils, staff and the wider community. We will listen to everyone’s opinions and carry out actions that the council decides appropriate”

The students have been presented with their badges, and their first challenge is to discover from their classes the strengths and weaknesses of the school and provide feedback to the rest of the council. Well done for all of the efforts so far!

School council

6:45am – Arrive at school. Mr Keeling and I have our early morning meeting. Each day we discuss any teacher absences that have been communicated overnight and how they’re best covered, before going through the calendar anticipating the events of the day. Today, a class teacher is ill but we are able to book a supply teacher. Another teacher is taking a team out to compete in a netball competition straight after school, so we organise cover for her afternoon bus duty. It’s a busy day ahead!

7:15am – Our MFL Leader, Ms Glover, drops into my office to update me on a cross campus meeting the languages team attended yesterday. The curriculum review of Mandarin and French is going smoothly and she is really pleased by the new units of work the team have created.

7:30am – Morning Duty. This morning, I head to the top of the stairs. It’s the perfect place to greet the children as they arrive. They are full of enthusiasm and many stop to show me the ‘Boxes of Hope’ they have brought in for the charity.

8:00am – A parent drops in to see me. There’s a chance the family will be relocated at the end of the year and she wants to discuss how to make the process of transferring schools as smooth as possible.

8:30am - 11:30am – It is the weekly Education Senior Management Team Meeting this morning. Attended by Ms McDonald, Mr Giddings, Mr Dixon, Mr Irvine and myself, there is much on the agenda today. We have some policies to review, a discussion about the budget cycle for next year, we talk about an upcoming recruitment round and whether we should showcase the school at an education show.

11:30am - 12:00pm – Time to catch up on emails. They come in thick and fast!

12:00pm - 12:30pm – Mr Dixon and I stop for a bite to eat.

12:30pm - 1:30pm – I meet with Ms McRobbie, the Deputy Head for Inclusion. Inclusion is my area of whole school

A Day in the life of a Head Teacher

The role of a Head Teacher is nothing less than diverse and challenging! Every day is different and can be filled with anything from a finance meeting to playground duty, parent meetings to attending concerts. Is there a typical day for a Head Teacher? I haven’t discovered one yet, but here is one of my recent days!

responsibility so we meet weekly. She gives me a full update on the week’s happenings and we talk through some changes to our data sheets to more effectively track student progress.

1:30pm - 3:00pm – Some time to do some other tasks. I have five applications to review for the Admissions Department and an upcoming staff meeting to plan. The time flies by! I have a good interruption; Miss Gibbs sends one of her students with some impressive work for me to see. I’m entertained by a super story and the child is beaming with pride as they share it.

3:00pm - 3:15pm – Dismissal duty. Miss Smith and I supervise the students waiting for their ECAs. It’s a great chance to hear how the students’ days have been and find out which after school activities they are participating in.

3:30pm - 5:00pm – It is the weekly Prep Management Team Meeting this afternoon. This is a meeting of the Phase Leaders, Mr Dixon and myself. Today we discuss upcoming assessments and moderations and then throw around some ideas for ways we can improve the Prep Covered Playground.

5:00pm - 6:00pm – A chance to catch up with emails and to start on next Monday’s assembly. I make my list for tomorrow, switch off the light and head home for the day.

It’s busy and sometimes tiring, but is there anything I’d change about my job? Not at all! I’m incredibly lucky to have such an interesting and varied role and I’m privileged to work with such a talented and creative team.

Jo LauferHead of Preparatory School,Kowloon Bay

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Hong Kong Past and Present: Across Year 1 we have been exploring Hong Kong’s past and how it has developed to be the Hong Kong that we know today. We ventured into many different areas of change including man-made and natural features. Pictures from the past and present were compared and contrasted. The biggest change has been to Hong Kong’s famous skyline. Children were able to name and identify buildings that were absent in the pictures that documented Hong Kong’s past. They discussed how it has changed in shape due to reclaimed development and advances in construction. The most obvious, and favourite, was the airport. Each class built a 3D model of Hong Kong and included surrounding islands. Children then plotted their favourite landmarks constructed from Lego and place names that were familiar to them.

Capping off a fantastic term was a trip to Sky 100. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their first Year 1 trip to the 100th floor of the ICC. It was fantastic for the children to witness the breathtaking skyline in all its glory. It proved to be an academically and socially rewarding trip.

WHere in THe WorlD?We started the year with a journey around the world. Anthony Browne’s ‘Gorilla’ took us to familiar settings and we rewrote his magical tale. During topic lessons, the children shared tales from their travels and family life on maps of all kinds. We collected information about where we had all lived using our IT skills, explored the continents and then focussed on climate, with the children creating stunning shoebox environments as part of their research. Our interest began to focus on penguins, so the children created some incredible informative texts about them.

Towards half term, our studies turned to plants and how they grow. We planted seeds to investigate what was needed for them to grow successfully. This was the very first science experiment we carried out and there were some surprises too! In English, children wrote fantastic instructions on how to plant a seed.

The move into Year 2 is a big step, with the introduction of a more formal teaching style and higher expectations of children’s independence, teamwork and problem solving skills. The joy of this is the growth we, as teachers, get to enjoy witnessing in your children, and what growth we saw! The term climaxed with the incredible performance of Silent Night, which showed just how far these wonderful little people have already come on their Year 2 journey. It was a triumph! So much groundwork had gone on to get there; the term was enormously full and fruitful.

Toy SToryAfter half term, we launched our new topic with some good, old-fashioned (quite literally!) play. We explored toys through history, created chronologies of toys and learnt about the materials and technologies that have influenced them. At home, children once again impressed with some amazing toy timelines. A visitor talked to us about toys from her childhood and we got to try out many of them. Our Victorian toy afternoon was a huge success and resulted in some big hopscotch fans (Mr. Wilford has since been in discussions with School Council about adding some playground markings to make it a permanent fixture!).

Meanwhile, we were also learning about traditional tales, with a focus on recreating Little Red Riding Hood using our very own puppets. At the end of the half term, we looked closely at the forces at work in toys. In English, we created Christmas shape poems.

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lAnTAU — HABiTATS TriPAs part of our ‘Where in the World?’ study, we set out to explore the various habitats at Ark Eden on Lantau Island. Children saw wetland marsh, beach, stream and mangrove areas and their inhabitants. Unsurprisingly, their favourite was the large and impressive water buffalo, but fiddler crabs and egrets also gained some big fans! We observed animals through binoculars, went net fishing and walked through a mangrove to see fiddler crabs. On our return to school, we focussed on the adaptations we saw and the interdependence between the plants and animals, particularly in the wetland marsh area. Moreover, it was a great day out and a welcome opportunity to discover a part of Hong Kong that was new to many of us. We all had an amazing time!

“i See THe ligHT, Time DeTecTiveS!”Year 3 have had an incredibly action-packed first term. We learnt all about light sources (both natural and man-made), how shadows can be different depending on the material blocking the light and we have even investigated what happens to our shadows throughout the day. In history, we took a step back in time to the 19th Century in order to find out all about Thomas Edison and his developments with the light bulb. One big discovery we made was that he didn’t invent the light bulb, but he instead improved an idea that already existed!

During the second half of the term, we travelled even further back in time as Time Detectives to find out all about significant events in the 17th Century. What a fascinating period of history! Plotting events on to a timeline including Queen Elizabeth I’s death, the Great Plague, The Great Fire of London, Mount Vesuvius’ eruption and the English Civil War was a great way to develop our chronological understanding. The Great Fire of London and the Great Plague have formed our main investigations. Using a wide range of source material, we have pieced together all of the evidence and are now quite the experts. If you ever pop by our classrooms, please ask us all about our learning; we would love to share it with you!

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In Year 4 this term we have been busy becoming experts in the world of Ancient Greece under our topic of ‘Let the Games Begin’. We have learnt a great deal about a range of aspects of Ancient Greek life, including the introduction of the Olympic Games, their phenomenal architecture and flair for inventions, their belief systems and Ancient Greek theatre. We thoroughly enjoyed reading a collection of ancient Greek myths and even had a go at writing some of our own.

To begin our unit and to ignite our interest, we hosted our own Ancient Greek afternoon, full of inspiring activities including writing our names using the Greek alphabet, making Greek pots, eating Greek food and listening to Greek music. The term has been full of fun and we can now be consulted regarding Ancient Greek history should anyone have any questions!

This term has been particularly busy for Year 6. We were launched on a mission around the universe, to the summit of Mount Everest and our adventure culminated in exploring the hidden depths of Sai Kung.

One of our highlights of the term was an eye dissection. We learnt a lot about the parts of the eye and how we see. Through careful observations, we were able to identify the lens and understand how it works.

6-VA helped us to explore the Solar System in their fantastic assembly. This was a fitting finale to our work on ‘To Infinity and Beyond’, where we learnt more about the relative sizes of planets and why we have seasons.

In Literacy, we discovered a variety of fiction genres. Our beautiful fantasy story maps were shared with our Reception class buddies.

Year 5 have had an interesting and varied first term. We began our English work by reading the exciting Michael Morpurgo book ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’. In order to give Michael advice on how to live on a deserted island, we learnt survival tips from the expert Bear Grylls, and wrote them in letters for Michael. Our unit also allowed us to explore our own deserted islands using Google Earth, and we even casted our own movies for the book! We are sure Mr Fender would make a perfect Kensuke!

We then leapt into the Industrial Revolution to learn about life-changing inventions. We were surprised to learn about how many inventions have been developed in such a short amount of time. For homework, we even designed our own inventions! We focused on report writing for a few weeks, as we researched about Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the telephone and the steam engine.

After a relaxing half term break, we flew straight back into our learning and onto the topic of ‘flight’. The children enjoyed learning about the development of planes from the Wright Brother’s to the A350. On Monday 1 December, Marc Fabiani joined Year 5 to talk all about his role as Captain for Cathay Pacific. Hana Preston, 5-CD, commented ‘I thought Marc Fabiani was very interesting. I particularly liked his specific answers and moreover, his attention span, his humour and his ability to deal with us kids was great!’ What a brilliant and jam-packed first term!

6-SS developed our knowledge of autobiographies further in their humorous assembly about the life of Roald Dahl. We impressed our teachers by using engaging and interesting vocabulary to entertain, when writing our own autobiographical anecdotes.

Throughout the term, we have developed our independence, teamwork, leadership skills and responsibility. Helping to organise and lead activities for Reception to Year 4 Sports Days, gave us a solid foundation for a fantastic trip to Outward Bound. Challenges presented themselves in the form of the much-anticipated jetty jump, raft building, camping, orienteering and hikes. Memories were made and friendships forged.

ToUrnAmenT of minDS ecAAre you good at solving problems? Do you like working as part of a team? Do you like performing in front of others? Then the Tournament of Minds ECA is for you!

This term we have enjoyed many exciting challenges from stopping an egg breaking when it is dropped to making a crane only from paper. Each time the children have risen to the challenge and have been able to think of new and original ideas. As well as having fun, we have learnt to work in teams and to present our ideas clearly. We are looking forward to entering our first Kellett team in the ‘Tournament of Minds’ competition in April 2016, when we will compete against other Hong Kong schools to find solutions to challenging problems.

This term, Year 4 also produced a hilarious show called ‘Pirates of the Curry Bean’! The audience roared with laughter as they witnessed Captain Redbeard get his comeuppance after kidnapping the hapless Pearl Periwinkle. The children sang and acted brilliantly and showed great character and talent! Through the combined effort of the children, staff and parents, fabulous props, sets and costumes came to life. It was certainly an evening to remember!

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cUrricUlUm Pe This term students from Reception to Year 5 have been studying athletics. They have been able to run, jump and throw to the best of their ability. Students have shown a great deal of determination when focusing on running, good technical ability when jumping and good levels of strength when throwing. Year 6 have been undertaking the sports leaders course in preparation for sports day and leading KS1 games. They have thoroughly enjoyed helping KS1 to develop physically, and it has a fantastic community feel during games.

Year 3 and 4 Boys This is the first year the Year 3 and 4s have had a structured fixture list. It has been thoroughly enjoyable, and the boys have started to play some very good football. We have played Harrow several times this season, which has been a very valuable exercise, with the boys experiencing competition. The season ended with a fantastic tournament in Hong Lok Yuen, where the boys competed against other schools. We were able to win some games, and show what we have learnt throughout the term, well done boys!

Year 3 and 4 Girls The Year 3 and 4 girls have turned up every week full of energy and desire to have fun! We finished off the term with some fantastic wins at a tournament in Hong Lok Yuen. The girls were able to enjoy a great tournament, and show what they had learnt, well done girls!

neTBAllThis term has seen the Year 5 and 6 girls go from strength to strength. They have shown fantastic progress. The friendly matches early on in the year were a good chance for us to practice ready for the bigger tournaments. Up to twenty girls took part in the friendly matches, a huge increase on last year. At the Kowloon Netball tournament, we had a strong group and finished up in second place, going into the shield. In the final of that competition, we drew the match, but lost out on goal difference. A huge effort from the girls, well done!

SPorTS DAyReception - Year 4 Sports day was run a little differently this year, with Year 6 using their sports leader award to run each of the stations. Students were able to go around each of the stations and show their ability to run, jump and throw. KS1 was a festival of physical activity and the Year 6s were exceptional in delivering each event. Year 3 and 4 followed in similar vein, with the long distance race stealing the show once again, well done to all involved!

fooTBAllYear 5 and 6 Boys This year we have seen a huge amount of numbers commit to football ECA. The progress of the boys has been nothing short of excellent. The boys now understand what football is, rather than everyone chasing a ball around! The competition for places has been as tough as I can remember, and boys have had to work very hard to secure spots on a team. However, everyone that has attended ECA football has been given a chance to represent the school on numerous occasions. A sign of progress made was the beating of HKIS at the penultimate tournament of the year, where the boys won 1-0, having previously lost on three occasions to the same team. This was the best football performance I have seen at prep level. The ‘B’ team were able to secure several wins against during the tournaments they attended. It is very important these boys perform well as many of them will make up the team for next year. Well done to all boys!

Year 5 and 6 Girls What a fantastic season the girls have had. After several friendlies, we arrived at the Hong Lok Yuen tournament full of hope. The girls performed exceptionally well. After qualifying through the group stages, found ourselves in the final. After a nail-biting penalty shootout we won the Shield! A great reward for all our hard work. The second tournament we entered, we again qualified for the semi final of the cup, a fantastic achievement against much bigger schools. However this time we lost to a very strong Beacon Hill team. The team has made fantastic progress, and I hope that they continue to play football next year! Well done girls!

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yeAr 1 What a lovely introduction to the art studio we have had in Year 1! We started with a look at the work of Jasper Johns and experimented with layering media with our lettering work. We have also examined collage and mixed media, creating beautiful birds on a large scale. Our enormous sunflowers have brightened the atrium this term, showcasing our work on texturing paint. We have also been busy performing our Christmas shows. Traditionally at Kellett, the early years classes all contribute to a gorgeous backdrop to play the part of the scenery in the 3 shows for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. This year, Year 1 made beautiful holly and mistletoe wreaths, which framed the stage for all the shows.

yeAr 2We have worked in several media already this year and are building on our skills and vocabulary we learnt in Year 1. We have created gorgeous collage portraits and have looked at the art of Kandinsky, creating versions of his dot paintings in in the form of textured tree trunks. Thanks to our hard work we now have a beautiful garden to show. We then moved on to examine Aboriginal art, linking with the work the children had been doing in the classroom. This included experimenting with hand and dot painting. Recently we had great fun working collaboratively on the Christmas backdrop, learning the mathematical side of art to create perfect snowflakes for the project. We loved seeing our work up in the auditorium. We made a Hong Kong winter wonderland!

yeAr 3Year 3 have looked at the work of Picasso and created self-portraits with a difference! This is the year when we learn to create form through drawing. We practice gradients in pencils and paint and look at 3D shapes and in particular still life paintings. We studied how to make an object appear 3D and drew some spheres in our sketchbooks. We also worked on how to use shading to demonstrate the graduation of light to dark shadows across an object, allowing it to become a solid shape. The children later drew their own spheres in the style of solar systems and we had a great time arranging the different planets into a composition. We finished off the term with a study in texture, creating little Christmas trees comprised of different textures.

Our ‘whole school artist’ focus has been a highlight of this first term. Every class has studied an aspect of the work of Kandinsky and contributed towards a large-scale installation, which is planned to appear in the spring term.

Our art blogs have continued to showcase all our ongoing work, and students especially love to check on who’s been announced as Artist of the Week. You can access the blog through iLearn to see who gets a certificate and a Kellett point for their excellent artistic improvement.

yeAr 4 The Year 4s have based their learning on their topic of Ancient Greece this term. We looked at Mosaics and created our own designs using the Greek alphabet for inspiration. Everyone in year four designed their own mosaic and created it using tile cutters, glue and grout. We later built on the work we did on gradients and shading in Year 3, drawing and painting magical Christmas bauble 3D paintings. We moved into a focus on creating texture in different ways, and painted beautiful canvases that showcased our skills in an abstract landscape. Well-done Year 4!

yeAr 5 It was a strong and creative start to the Year 5 students’ term. We looked at the work of Tony Smith and tried our hand at sculpture, working in paper and card and papier mâché. We then painted these in bright acrylics. Year 5 took a look at the work of Kandinsky and we created our own paintings with lines and gradients of colour in different values. We created collage pieces for the Kellett Cares Christmas cards this year and our designs were sold to raise money for important charities. We later designed our own ornaments to be created and sewn in textiles.

yeAr 6This term in Year 6, we started on Christmas rather early with a textiles project based on the art of Kandinsky. We created beautiful papercuts, which were shrunk down and made into wrapping paper for Kellett cares. We have learnt a lot about drawing and painting, with observational drawing and then painting in different tints and shades of colour value to hone our gradient skills. We have been trying our hardest to improve our watercolour skills, really focusing on individual processes and techniques.

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What a busy term it has been!

Early in the term, we had a very successful Ensembles Concert where over 75 students performed. I was particularly proud of the performances from the choir, orchestra and the recorder consort.

Continuing with ensemble playing, Year 5 have been working hard to learn how to play melodies and chords on the ukulele.

Year 2 students have been learning about pitch and used boomwhackers, chimebars and bells to play seasonal music. Year 4 completed the term by consolidating the skills and notes they learnt in recorders to play whole class arrangements of well-known songs.

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The children celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival in September through various hands-on cultural activities. In Reception, children explored seasonal fruits and made play-dough moon cakes. Year 1 children retold the Legend of the Mid-Autumn Festival story and crafted beautiful paper lanterns. Year 2 children recited a festival rhyme and Year 3 children learnt about the story of Jade Rabbit and Chang’e.

In Year 4, children used Chinese painting materials and wrote festive related captions decorated with traditional flower patterns. Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunions, and Year 5 recited a Tang Dynasty poem written by Li Bai about missing his family during this special time of the year. Year 6 children explored local celebration events and researched the origins of Hong Kong’s famous Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance.

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Sustainable Commitment

‘Be Inspired’ was the theme for the 2015 FOBISIA Heads and Senior Leaders’ Conference. A fabulous array of speakers and workshops delivered the theme and I was privileged to be able to participate.

Global Citizenship

Box of Hope Over 200 Kellett Senior School students put their Global Citizenship skills in to action this term and produced a Box of Hope filled with exciting educational gifts for less privileged children in Asia. Well done to Bowen House who collected the largest number of boxes! Year 7 have continued to focus on the concept of ‘Hope’ in their lessons and have been enjoying fantastic class discussions and debate.

Year 9 – future optionS Year 9 have been exploring their future options this term and have used the online programme Launchpad to reflect on their skills, consider their GCSE option choices and research different career paths. We were extremely grateful to a large number of parents and staff who volunteered their time to hold a careers talk event for the students. Here they had the opportunity to find out about a range of different careers including Psychology, Finance, Life Sciences, Advertising, Journalism and Law.

Year 11 – MoCk interviewS Year 11 worked towards taking part in mock interview this term. Once they had chosen a mock intern position, they created and tailored their CV, wrote a cover letter which highlighted their relevant skills and experience and took part in a number of interview workshops. This process culminated in every Year 11 student attending a mock interview with a community member or a member of the Kellett Senior Leadership Team. Despite lots of nerves in the run up to these interviews, all students found it to be an extremely rewarding experience and received valuable and constructive feedback from their interviewer.

Our first Global Outlook Week had a profound effect on our Senior School students. For many, this was the first time that they had been involved in long - term service projects, and I know that they worked exceptionally hard within their communities.

Year 7 undertook a varied programme which included cooking and delivering food to the homeless in Thailand, Year 8 rebuilt homes and playgrounds in Cambodia, Year 9 were challenged to repair an orphanage in China, Year 11 undertook reef conservation in Malaysia and Year 13 worked within the poorest communities in Bali.

Inspired by their trips, students of all ages returned motivated to create long term links with the communities which they visited. The school Council is currently responding to this to ensure that our Senior School charity goals are articulated in a concise and coordinated way.

Under the umbrella of Kellett Cares, the Senior School will raise funds throughout the year, and split all of the money three ways at the end of the academic year. The money will be shared between three strands:

• Home – charities within Hong Kong that are important to the Senior School students.

• Away – long - term international partners identified through Global Outlook Week, which the students will visit each year

• Disaster Relief – A ring-fenced fund to ensure that when tragedies occur, we are in a position to respond swiftly with financial aid.

The School Council is looking forward to producing an inspiring document which will outline their plans and become a long- term blue-print for charity work within the Senior School.

For their first event of the year, the Senior School Council put on a Christmas Fair on Monday 7 December to raise money towards their goals. An incredibly successful festive day took place, which included bake sales, candy-gram delivery, guess the weight of the Christmas cake and dress in a Christmas theme. HK$33,475 was raised – a massive well done to all involved!

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Robert Swan, one of the key note speakers, inspired me. A forthright and engaging speaker, Swan, the first person to walk to both the South and North poles has plenty to share from a life time in the Polar Regions. Entertaining as he is, this is not what made me sit up and take note.

In 2041 the moratorium on mining in Antarctica expires. Antarctica, which is currently ‘owned’ by the 7 billion people on the planet, will be literally up for grabs. Two decades ago Swan founded, at the suggestion of Jacques Cousteau, ‘2041’. He has since dedicated his life to the preservation of Antarctica by promoting recycling, renewable energy and sustainability to combat the effects of climate change. He utterly believes in working with teachers and young people to ensure that when the re-negotiation of the moratorium on mining in Antarctica takes place in 2041, enough voices are heard, and alternative economically viable energy sources are in place, so that the moratorium is extended and mining continues to be banned in Antarctica.

It is Swan’s commitment to the above which resonates with me. He talks about making real commitments and making sure that a commitment is just that, rather than a passing fancy, convenient

at that moment in time. As I begin to put in place a Learning Service programme for the Kellett community I am asking myself how will we make real, sustainable commitments to people and organisations within Hong Kong as opposed to flitting between one project and another.

Our students need to see sustainable commitment in action. Commitment needs to be role modelled and they need to be a part of it - for example the continuous support Kellett Cares gives to International Christian Mission.

I will be sharing with the students the commitments made by Swan and others will be looking at the commitments our students are currently making and specifically the commitments they will be making to our fledgling learning service programme.

Simon Giddings Head of Senior School

i/GCSe eConoMiCSYear 10 have made an excellent start to the IGCSE course and have been studying how markets work, how they fail and how governments intervene to prevent this market failure. They have read numerous news articles relating to the course and have discussed the benefits and drawbacks of the division of labour in relation to the production of paper aeroplanes! Year 11 have been looking at how economic performance is measured and the macroeconomic objectives and policies of government as well as issues relating to global trade and development.

a-LeveL eConoMiCSYear 12 have made a fantastic start to the A - level course and have been studying how markets work, how they fail and how governments intervene to prevent this market failure. They have enjoyed discussing the economic effects of current issues such as fracking, the decline of fisheries and pollution in China. Year 13 have been looking at international trade and development as well as macroeconomic policies that promote growth and development. They have applied the economic theory they have learnt in class to numerous news articles relating to economic trade and development.

This has been a very productive term for the Geography department in the Kellett Senior School.

On a hot day in September, the Year 9 students visited Cheung Chau to conduct fieldwork techniques in Coastal Processes and Tourism. They worked collaboratively to test the degree in which Longshore Drift is acting on the coastline of the island. On returning to school the data was assimilated, graphed and used to produce a project that aimed to arrive at a clear conclusion to their devised hypotheses.

The Year 8 and 11 Geographers were visited by Dr Martin Williams, a prominent writer, photographer and conservationist. His work documenting the environmental plight of some of Hong Kong’s country parks and rural communities was shared with our students and complemented the work we do within Key Stage 3 and 4, Tourism and Population Schemes of Work.

Students in Year 7 have been investigating Map Skills and putting their skills to use in creating Treasure Maps and Group Quizzes.

Year 12 and 13 students have continued to practice the art of essay writing and case study utilisation, whilst investigating issues in topics such as Energy, Coastal Environments, Development and Globalisation and World Cities.

iGCSe BuSineSS StudieSYear 10 Business Studies students have made a fantastic start to their course. Collectively they have worked really hard and many individuals have produced pieces of outstanding work. Many postcards have been sent home as a result.

Year 11 Business Studies students recently completed their IGCSE mock examinations. The experience will spur them on to keep moving forward, to learn from mistakes and to help them better appreciate how important it is to prepare thoroughly and study well for a Business Studies exam.

internationaL a-LeveL (iaL) BuSineSS StudieSYear 12 students have been getting to grips with the new IAL Business Studies course. In the first week, students were challenged to prepare and deliver a presentation to their peers. A special mention goes out to both Simone Mansi and Olivia Sewell who delivered an interesting, concise and informative presentation.

Year 13 students have completed Unit 3 – International Business and are about to begin the final section of the course, Unit 4 – Making Business Decisions.

GLoBaL outLook weekYear 12 – Hong Kong The Year 12 students, along with the Year 10s, stayed in Hong Kong and took part in an array of activities from finding a resolution in Model United Nations to brushing up their domestic skills in the kitchen by baking some healthy savoury scones and island hopping on a paddle board in Sai Kung! Year 13 – Bali, Indonesia Climbing Mount Batur; rebuilding a coral reef off the coast of Amed; and visiting a local hillside village, these are just a few activities that the Year 13s participated in during their Global Outlook Week. Needless to say, it was fun, but also an eye opening experience for our students.

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This has been another wonderful term for the Kellett Science faculty.

Our Year 13 Biology students have successfully completed their A - level Ecology field work on the rocky shores of Hong Kong and were fortunate to be able to attend lectures by HKU’s Swire Institute of Marine Science. They met with and learnt from some of Hong Kong’s leaders in Marine Ecology and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The volume and range of practical work on offer continues to increase. Our A - level Chemistry students were learning about making substances that are used to flavour food.

Students found out more about muscles and joints through the dissection of a chicken wing.

Our younger students were finding out more about electricity and ensuring they were capable of getting fuses to work.

Some of our students had particular fun with our data-logging equipment, measuring speed using light gates.

And finally the introduction of a new Kellett tradition, the kellet Christmas Lectures. We were honoured to have Professor P W Leung from HKUST as our key-note speaker to shed light on the physics (or not) of special effects in the movies and the science teachers thoroughly enjoyed demonstrating ‘live science’ to the students, parents and staff who attended. Thanks goes to the Annual Fund which made this possible.

Students in all year groups have been working hard on different aspects of their History skills and have made the most of enriching opportunities that help them to take the subject beyond the classroom.

Year 7 hit the ground running with their first homework task which was to visit an historical site in Hong Kong and then create a poster that promoted it and explained to readers why they should visit. There were difficult decisions to be made in the History department, but after some deliberation our winner was Leo Barnes who was awarded his prize in Key Stage 3 assembly along with the runners up Ben Haythorne, Arman Buffonge, Jessica Riggs and Neel Mehta.

During Jewish Film Festival Week in November, Ben Freeman from the Hong Kong Holocaust Trust came in to show our Year 9 Historians the film ‘Forgers of History’. This critically acclaimed film deals with the controversial topic of Holocaust denial, and the historians who have promoted this perspective since the end of WWII.

Ben explained: ”Forgers of History” documents the origins of Holocaust denial in Europe and shines a light on this fringe expression of anti-Semitism. The mass murder of over six million Jewish people is not up for debate, the evidence of this crime is overwhelming. It is important to note that prejudice in general, but anti-Semitism specifically, did not end in 1945 but continues to this very day. We have to ensure we are aware of prejudice in order to combat it once and for all.”

Year 9, who have been studying the Suffragette movement this term followed this up with another cinematic experience. They visited KITEC’s Metroplex Cinema for their own private screening of ‘Suffragette’. Students followed this up by creating their own film review, based on Suffragette as an historical source.

The film was great. It revolved around how a woman, a mother and a wife, would become a suffragette. It showed the hardships that the working class suffered. One of the best parts was how the filmmakers didn’t try to sugar-coat anything and showed us how the men took advantage of the women around them and how this caused the women to turn against them. The way they showed the development of the suffragette’s tactics was great.

Matthew Tam, 9 Bowen

We have been lucky to have two great opportunities for our students to enrich their learning in History. The Forgers of History was a challenging and fascinating insight into an area of Holocaust studies not normally touched on at Key Stage 3. Suffragette allowed the students to make judgements about the accuracy and significance of the film as an historical source.

Sarah Wood, Head of Senior History

Supporting students to navigate the often demanding path of Oxbridge applications also kept the History department busy in October and November. Year 13s Harry McGovern and James Baghurst applied for History and History Oriental Studies, at Oxford and Cambridge respectively. Both students had to prepare essays for approval from the universities. Harry also sat the History Aptitude Test (HATS) examination.

As a department, we focused on developing specific skills such as formulating strong thesis statements to build an academic discussion as well as making the supporting evidence more succinct. The students responded by conducting wider research into the topics under review and were open to be challenged and stretched. We wish them well in their endeavours.

enGLiSH poetrY MorninGYear 7 students read out a mixture of their own poems and poetry from the literary canon in a celebration of their work this half term. The performances were very impressive, showing confidence, understanding and flair.

Students also produced their own poetry anthologies, a collection of poems they have written themselves across the last five weeks.

riddLe poeMI stand thereWaitingWaiting to do my jobMe looking at the same thingHoping to be broken from this evil spell

Then it happens, someone looking at meI reflect it, not to disguise what I seeMy job is done, I look at the empty wall.Waiting for someone to come.

by Ben Haythorne Year 7

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keLLett MatHS daY – 4 noveMBerOn the morning of Wednesday 4 November, students would have jumped out of bed, ready and raring to celebrate – wait for it – Kellett Maths Day! Students from Year 7 – 9 competed in the fast-paced and exciting inter-House Maths Relay, a combination of speed across the room and speed at solving maths problems and number crunching. Year 10 students worked in teams to solve a variety of challenging mathematical puzzles and problems involving ipads, tangrams, and a treasure hunt, just to name a few.

Senior MatHS CHaLLenGe – 5 noveMBerFor only the second time, A - level Mathematics students in Year 12 and 13 from Kellett School took part in the Senior Maths Challenge. An elite group of 12 students took the challenge which follows the usual format of 25 multiple choice questions which steadily increase in difficulty. The students acquitted themselves very well with a vast majority achieving a certificate:

Sean – earLY entrY iGCSeCongratulations to Sean who became our first ever student to enter the Maths International GCSE in Year 8. He acquitted himself fantastically and attained a well-deserved A* Grade in the summer. In addition, he also attained a Merit Award in the Mathematical Olympiad which is the follow up event for students who score highly enough in the Junior Maths Challenge. Again this was a first for the school and a huge achievement due to the very difficult nature of the test. We wish Sean all the best with the move to his new school in the UK.

Senior teaM MatHS CHaLLenGe – Harrow SCHooL – 26 noveMBerThe Senior Team Maths Challenge was a new event organised and run by Harrow School for Sixth Form Students with the aim of promoting mathematical dexterity, teamwork and communication skills. Over 100 students and 20 teachers from Hong Kong took part in three rounds of fiendish mathematical problems. A calm first round of ten questions was followed by a manic cross-number and then a final round which required passing answers to and fro in a shuttle format.

Kellett took two teams of four students to the competition both of which came a commendable joint 10th out of the 27 competing teams; a great achievement given the quantity of hugely talented mathematicians who were present at the competition.

There will be a junior version of the competition for Years 6 to 8 in the Summer Term which we will also attend and are looking forward to.

HouSe MuSiC review October brought with it a fantastic opportunity for Kellett Senior students to highlight their musical prowess once more. This year’s theme of Musicals provided an opportunity for the students to use dramatic flare, acting and choreography in their entries…and they did not disappoint. The students in Key Stage 3 gave memorable performances in the choral round and indeed the Year 7 Choir left a lasting impression on us all, as they brought the evening to a close with their rendition of Circle of Life*. The adjudicators were not given an easy task, as time and again the students presented their songs with aplomb.

*Circle of Life youtube https://youtu.be/EaO4tnlT0Hk

The recitalists proved that dedication and hard work pay off. They played and sang with expression and a real understanding of the communicative nature of the music. The Open round was engaging and fun, with students pulling out all the stops, to entertain the audience and win that all important trophy. Whilst House Music remains a competition and the winners, ranging from Year 7 -13, are to be congratulated for their valiant efforts, it is worth remembering the achievement of all who took part.

It was a memorable musical introduction to the year and evidence of the supportive ethos that lies at the heart of Kellett School. Congratulations to all in Clementi House who won overall. I look forward to next year and would like to thank the staff, students, parents and all who assisted with the smooth running of House Music 2015.

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aS draMa and tHeatre StudieS Throughout the term students explored two contrasting texts ‘Memory of Water’ and ‘Metamorphosis’. Each text was explored using a variety of techniques and strategies associated with the theories of some well-established theatre practitioners including Stanislavski, Brecht and Berkoff.

a2 draMa and tHeatre StudieS The students have been busy this term preparing for their practical exam. They were presented with a stimulus and were required to create an original piece of theatre from it. This year’s stimulus was an exhibition titled ‘Victorian Murder’. This exhibition features several local artists’ reactions to some of the infamous murders that took place throughout Hong Kong. Although this was quite a macabre stimulus, the student’s exploration led to the presentation of a well- crafted satire that used a plethora of dramatic styles to convey an original narrative.

MaCBetH workSHop This term, students were involved in a practical exploration of the timeless classic Macbeth. The students experimented with several performance techniques in order to develop and understand a character. They were also involved in a number of exercises intended to develop an appreciation of how to generate different interpretations of the same piece of text.

Ms Gomaa Director of Music, Senior School

Year 7 WinnersNeel Metha, Tomas Stonely,

Saaga Niemi, Danae Looman (Clementi)

Year 8 WinnersAlana Crane, Molly Hammond, Kamran Gurney, Kirsten Wong

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Year 9 Winners Jacob Lo, Matthew Kiely, Matthew Wood (Clementi)

Year 10 Winners Ethan Hart, Sam Hedley, Ellie Clarke (Bowen)

Sally Chan Andre Hui

Yan To Or, Markian Benhamou, Mark Lam, Natalie Wang,

Tomson Pong,Yi Ting Liong and Donald Leung

Tiffany Wu Emma Baghurst

Congratulations to Clementi House who were the 2015 Kellett Maths Day Champions.

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Congratulations to all the award winners listed above but in particular to Sally who achieved the Best in School accolade with a score of 84.

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The Senior School Art department was able to invite two guest artists to work with the students this term with the support of the Annual Fund. Filipino illustrator Noel Bueza and British artist and Art educator Ian Murphy both made an impact upon the students and the artwork that they have subsequently produced. The students have written their reflections of both artists below.

Noel Bueza is a pen and ink illustrator who works with very fine lines to depict historical architecture. He showed the 8Y and 8M Art classes many examples of his artworks and demonstrated how to make tones using the crosshatch technique with a fine liner pen. His works were very detailed with a range of tones and depicting traditional heritage buildings in the Philippines. We enjoyed seeing such realistic images created by amazing fine line work, which we have been practicing in our lessons.

Ian Murphy worked with the examination groups in whole -day workshops facilitating the development of their coursework and demonstrating his drawing and painting techniques. He shared his working practices, sketchbooks and use of unusual media to create tones and textures. He also talked to the students about his work.

The residency culminated in a showcase of students exhibiting their works alongside Ian Murphy’s paintings and drawings in the school atrium, where students were invited to meet and talk with him.

During our experience with Ian Murphy we all created compositional sketches using a black fine-liner pen, allowing us to focus on tone, light and form. He helped us to think deeply about our concepts, showing us that we need to think about Art more as artists than as students following a syllabus specification.

artHonG konG GrapHiC fieStaHeld in November 2015, the Hong Kong Graphic Fiesta showcased artwork by student printmakers in their feature exhibition ‘Youth Impressions’, which attracted almost 300 submissions from secondary schools in Hong Kong.

We were delighted for Jenna Markovits whose lino-print, inspired by architectural features and entitled ‘No 148’ received an ‘Outstanding Award’ at the Hong Kong Graphic Art Fiesta event. The opening ceremony was held at Hong Kong Open Printshop, Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre with guest speaker Mr Kevin Leung, Chairman of Arts Education Group of Hong Kong Arts Development Council, addressing the audience before awarding and congratulating the young artists. Jenna’s well-composed, graphical image of a front door was on display with other winners in the 806 Gallery at JCCAC.

Also selected by the panel of judges for display on the JCCAC Blue Walls were prints by Sophie Krantz Year 12, Charlotte Weener 9C, and Laura Bastos 9M whose works were inspired by society and architecture.

From this, we created a range of high -quality pieces based on our individual themes making links with Ian Murphy’s techniques. We learnt his tonal rendering techniques and how we could utilise this within our own artworks. Furthermore, we experienced new materials such as studio gum and powdered graphite, creating more varied and distinct textures and tones.

During our individual critiques with Ian Murphy, he enabled us to understand the different aspects of colour, understanding that even in the darkest areas there are elements of colour that add depth to the overall art piece. He also enlightened us with how colours in paints are made from minerals and ores from deep inside the earth.

From this unique experience we have learnt many skills and honed our ability to see through the eye of an artist. Participating in these intensive creative workshops has been an amazing experience which has further ignited our curiosity in the subject. We would like to thank the Annual Fund and the Art department for allowing us this amazing opportunity.

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Year 6 spent a lesson in the Design and technology Department as part of their first Year 7 Taster Day. They designed and made an Acrylic Spinning Top that had been cut on the laser cutter. Then they competed against each to see which one kept spinning for the longest time.

There is a team of students who are working with Mr Smith on the restoration of an aging Dragon Boat. The students have been cutting away some of the rotted sections of the boat and are patching in some new pieces of wood.

Mr Joe Gould-Kimby is a designer working in Hong Kong. He took time out of his busy schedule to come in to talk to the Year 12 product design students about branding, new markets and product development.

Mr Enoch Ho-Berayah is a fashion designer working in Hong Kong. The Year 9’s had a fabulous session working with him on design strategies.

Students in Year 7 were busy manufacturing their Memphis Inspired Clocks. They used a range of hand tools as well as the departments new CNC Laser Cutter.

Students in Year 12 were busy manufacturing their AS level Prototypes which will help them to develop a successful final solution. They have been using a broad range of skills and techniques including the departments 3D Printer.

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the Wiz

Throughout the term, students from Year 8 - 11 were put through their paces in preparation for the annual Senior School Production ‘The Wiz’. The show is an adaptation of the ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and features classic hits from the 1970s including ‘Everybody Rejoice’ by Luther Vandross and ‘Ease on Down the Road’ which Michael Jackson and Diana Ross recorded as a single for the movie version. This move cemented Michael Jackson’s association with the brilliant producer Quincy Jones. This production was a massive undertaking and a large deviation from the gritty reality that ‘Blood Brothers’ presented. We wanted the production to be colourful, fast paced and highly entertaining. The enthusiastic response from the audience was the strongest indicator that we had achieved our goal. There was an impressive number of students involved in the entire production who worked tirelessly to deliver the show. The student teams included: set design, prop construction, make up, backstage, technical and ushers.

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netBaLL - a & B Grade The A Grade netball team, captained by Eliza Kidd, have had an outstanding season representing Kellett in two different competitions. For the first time Kellett entered a team in Division 1 of the HKSSF league, having previously competed in Division 2, and were invited to attend the ACAMIS tournament hosted by NAIS Pudong in Shanghai. The enthusiasm and commitment of all the girls has paid off on court as the team have given strong opposition very hard games, and in the process impressed a lot of experienced coaches in both Shanghai and Hong Kong. The team finished the season with a very convincing win 30 - 12 over CIS in the HKSSF Grade A final to take a very well deserved 1st place. This was particularly significant for the team as emotions were running high following the loss of our goal-keeper Emily Harber within the first 3 minutes from a dislocated knee.

The team also made it to the finals of the ACAMIS tournament in Shanghai with a strong win over AISHK in the semi-finals. This meant we secured a place against Dulwich Shanghai but lost by 3 goals in a nail-biting final to take a very pleasing 2nd place overall in our first appearance.

Although it is always difficult to pick out individuals there are a few players who deserve a special mention. Sophie Krantz and Emily Harber who were both selected into the Hong Kong Development squads in their respective age groups, and Emma Baghurst who has improved phenomenally and has played an influential role in the defensive circle.

The B Grade team have gone from strength to strength over the course of the season, and, a real team spirit has developed amongst the players. The team were unlucky not to make it to the final of their Division 1 HKSSK competition, but finished the season in 3rd place coming from 6 goals behind in the final quarter for a stunning 19 - 18 victory over St Paul’s. There were also representative honours for the ‘Bs’ with Pia Winstanley selected to the Hong Kong U16 development squad. The enthusiasm and good humour of the team has been relentless and there have been notable improvements in all the players.

All of our students enjoyed participating in the recent Language Perfect Northern Championships. Whilst, Maclehose are currently in the lead for the House Competition, the points are incredibly tight. We look forward to the Global Championships in 2016, where the winning House will be decided!

A special mention goes to the students listed in the ‘Kellett Champions’ Board’ who all received a small prize for their efforts, as well as Mr Falconer’s Year 10 French class who achieved the best average score at Kellett and won the ‘Kellett Pizza Prize’!

Away from the virtual world, students of Mandarin in Year 10 have continued to enjoy meeting with our friends at HKWMA Chu Shek Lun Secondary School. These sessions have facilitated our students’ linguistic development in Mandarin, as well as their inter-cultural understanding.

In other news, thanks to funding from the Parents’ Committee, we have sourced a large number of excellent independent reading material in French, German, Spanish and Mandarin. These will be making their way to the school library imminently!

modern ForeiGn lanGuaGes

Kellett Champions’ board

Chinese Matthew Tam

French Tilly Marchand

German Kelvin Cheung

Latin James Barrett

Spanish Hannah Crawfrod

Year 7 - best total score Yuna Chow

Year 8 - best total score Keith Cheung

Year 9 - best total score Kelvin Cheung

Year 10 - best total score Kai Chee Chan

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kellett dragon issue 14 - feb 2016

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