Dear all,

It was wonderful to see students learning and playing together during their first few days of school. It was a real shame that our first week back at school was interrupted by the typhoon and we can only hope we will not have many more interruptions over the course of this academic year.

At the end of this first week back and the start of an exciting new term, I would like to particularly welcome our new students who are settling in so well and are keen to learn and make new friends.

We are pleased to welcome our new members of staff who are already making great contributions to our school community:

• Andy Smith, Silver Class Teacher
• Tiffany Yip, Silver class Educational Assistant
• Pam Garz,  Sapphire Class Teacher
• David Bridger, Diamond Class Teacher
• Pearl Edosma, Gold class Educational Assistant
• Grace Kwan, Jade class Educational Assistant
• Katrina Newman, PE Educational Assistant
• Yan Ho, Cleaner

We also welcome back Carol Li as our Supply Teacher and our Supply Nurse Tele Chow.

With a number of experienced and dedicated new staff joining our existing talented and hardworking colleagues, I know the school will continue to move from strength to strength.

Over the summer there have been a number of improvements made to our school environment and I would particularly like to thank our Office Manager, Queenie Au and our hard-working support staff who have worked so hard and are continuing to transform JCSRS. Issues with the water leaks have been sorted (fingers crossed) and our hall, SENsations and the library have new flooring. Our upstairs toilets had a bit of a face-lift. Finger guards are installed throughout the school. More maintenance and improvement jobs are planned over the Christmas break.

The Meet the Teacher event will take place on Tuesday 6th of September. This is an opportunity to meet your teacher and therapist and ask any questions about the school. We are planning to have this important event in person and will send more information next week.

JCSRS PTA would like to join with SNNHK to invite JCSRS parents and staff to the “Splice the Mainbrace” event on Thursday 15th of September at Cafe 8 (Nesbitt Centre). These are monthly social functions initiated by one of our parents occurring on the third Thursday of the month and create employment opportunities for the special needs community. Our alumni and current students serve at these events.

I would like to wish all students and staff every success for this year. As we continue to work together across the school community I know we will continue to see Everyone Happy, Everyone Engaged and Everyone Learning.

Warm regards,

Anna

JCSRS introduced a new, pathway-driven curriculum last year which has been warmly received by all members of the community. We are enthused to be starting this year feeling confident and experienced with the new curriculum and ready to embed and enhance our subjects. The new structure allows us to see clear progression for all while ensuring a breadth of learning opportunities for each student.

Last year we completed two successful NPDL projects, the most recent being the creation of a JCSRS cookbook ‘Come Cook with Us’. Please tap or scan the QR code to access the fantastic work by the students which was so masterfully facilitated by you, our learning partners, at home during Distance Learning.

The transdisciplinary projects allow students to develop and use their knowledge and skills in the real world and have become highlights within the year. Our aim this year is to undertake two more whole-school projects, one starting after the October break.

I would like to invite you to take a look at the curriculum section of our school website which was updated last term to reflect the structure of the curriculum including details of the pathways and subjects.

During the upcoming ‘Meet the Teacher’ event, class teachers will provide more details about how our curriculum is personalised within each class and for every individual student.