Principal's Message

Dear all, 

What a great week of learning and fun at JCSRS.

I would like to start by thanking our Staff Social Committee for organizing 12 days of Christmas that were filled with various treats and social events for staff. Thank you for your contribution to making our school such a happy and fun place to be for all.

The highlight of this week was the JCSRS Christmas Show. Thank you all for coming to enjoy this special event with us.

The theme of this year’s show was ‘Giving and Receiving’ expressed through dance. Students explored the concepts of giving and receiving through a deep learning project that was focusing on developing the global competency of collaboration. This is a very special time of year when different cultures and religions observe important festivals and celebrations. They all have a common theme of giving and receiving. This was beautifully portrayed by our students.

There are gifts you can buy and gifts that are priceless.

This week we were able to enjoy the gift of being together as the school community to watch a magical performance.

Our thanks go to everyone that enabled this special event to take place so we can celebrate the success of our students:

• our support staff that  were working tirelessly long before the curtain went up and long after it went down;

• staff that don't work in our school but without them, we would not be able to operate: the maintenance team that are at the ready to fix the broken curtain, communication team that gifted us with professionals to capture the magic of the show, HR and finance teams, learning support, the list just goes on; 

• our School Council members for their gift of their time, knowledge and skills;

• our Creative Art leader, Jackie Newman deserves a special thanks for leading the production of this show. Jackie is a teacher of many talents and she took on this project with great enthusiasm and commitment to demonstrate our students’ special talents;

• Alfert Arrogante, our Expressive Art Teacher, has outdone himself and it is thanks to him we can enjoy the amazing decorations and many of the stage props. Thank you for delivering so many creative art lessons to our students;

• Karen Carmody, our Curriculum Leader, thank you for supporting Jackie and all teachers with this project;

• Mike Watson, thank you for being a great MC and a handyman;

• Our therapy team, thank you for leading learning in classes and your support backstage;

• Jeff Wong, thank you for providing technical support;

• All teachers and educational assistants - we could not do it without you; the effort and energy that you put into teaching students to develop skills of collaboration, to hone their talents and to be the best that they can be have been demonstrated by our students on stage. Thank you all for your gifts of commitment, passion and love of teaching.

• parents - thank you for supporting your children and our staff in learning that took place in preparation for this show. We could not do it without your collaboration with us. Thank you for the gift of support and recognition.

It is our students that deserve the biggest thanks. Thank you for gifting us with your talents which have brought up so many beautiful emotions - wonder, nostalgia, pride, sadness but most overwhelmingly joy. It was an amazing performance that will stay in our memories and hearts forever. Thank you for sharing your learning and your talents with us.

As we look forward to the break, read on to find out what else is happening at school. Remember that all students return to school on Monday 3 January.

Enjoy your break and Merry Christmas,

Anna

Graduates Information Evening

What’s available in Hong Kong for my son/daughter following graduation from JCSRS?

Reminder: January 19th from 5pm - JCSRS parent information evening for upper secondary students.

eNotice has been shared with families. Any questions please see Belinda McLaughlin.

More Giving and Receiving

Cookies from Dignity Kitchen

A big thanks to our friends at Deutsche Bank and Dignity Kitchen for the Christmas cookie delivery this week - all students and staff received a personalized cookie set.

Valuing and appreciating our partnerships with outside agencies is yet another way our students are able to strengthen their understanding of what it means to give and receive.

We also took the opportunity for our students to contribute with some on-site work delivering the cookies around school.

Principal Meet Up

We are committed to supporting our parents through their journey at JCSRS, therefore we want to create various opportunities for us to listen and create mindful engagement with parents.

From January 2022 we are introducing Principal Meet Ups as a new opportunity for parents to engage in a personalised, small group session to chat with the Principal, Anna Smakowska and other school leaders on various whole school topics. Each meeting will have a theme related to the School Improvement Priority.

Our first session will be on Friday 21st January 2022 and the theme for this session will be Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

The key questions for this session will be:

• What is going well for your child right now in relation to DEI? What is something you feel proud of?

• What should we know about your beliefs, values and culture to best support your family/ child?

• What feedback do you have for us to improve your child’s experience or the school in general in relation to DEI?

 Sessions will run face to face in the Innovation House (meet in the JCSRS playground) and will be limited to 15 parents.

We still have some places left so if you want to attend please sign up on this form.

Total Communication at JCSRS: AAC Top Tips

AAC Top Tips: Helping beginning communicators expand their sentences - Part 1

Respond to any communicative attempt by adding a single word to whatever the communicator says (E.g. “More” → “Want more” → “Want more biscuit” → “I want more biscuit”).

A learner who is used to 2-word sentences (E.g. “want biscuit”) will probably need help building up the length. One way to do that is to have options that relate to the initial request, such as a big piece of cracker and a little piece of cracker if you are trying to expand the sentence with a descriptor. “Want cracker” → “Big or little”→  “Big'' →  “Want big cracker”

Stay tuned for some more ways to help beginning communicators expand their sentences next term!

JCSRS Fundraiser 2021

Click above to order. Click here to enlarge (PDF).