Dear all,

I would like to wish all students, staff, parents, and school councillors a very happy new year and every success for term 2 in 2023.

In the new year, we welcome further relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions and we hope that we will see further positive changes in the near future. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns regarding the changes.

I encourage parents to sign up for the next Principal Meet-up on the 17th of January. Please see more information below.

Thank you once again to all parents for attending the last bus consultation meeting. Together with the wider ESF team, we are preparing an information paper that will hopefully address your comments, feedback and questions. I will share it with you next week. All parents are invited to a follow on meeting on the 31st of January at 5 pm to facilitate information sharing, discussion and feedback. The meeting will be attended by John Stewart, Head of Facilities, and Vivian Cheung, Chief Financial Officer.

Please fill in this form to state your preference for an online or face-to-face meeting and to confirm your attendance.

We are constantly reflecting on how we can improve our physical environment to make it more inviting, engaging and supportive of learning while at the same time safe for our students. We are happy to report some improvement and maintenance works that took place over the Christmas period:

(Left: before, right: after)

• We have replaced the fence around the playground with one of better quality.

  

• Old and worn down carpet in corridors downstairs and on the stairwell was replaced.

  

  

  

• The toilets upstairs got a much-needed facelift and now look much better with new cubicles.

  

• Windows in several rooms had some maintenance work done.

As always, our hard-working and committed staff will be going the extra mile throughout this term to ensure our students, your children, are happy, engaged and learning.

Warm regards,

Anna

Please join the next Principal Meet-Up on Tuesday, 17th of January at 9 am to engage in a personalised, small group session with school leaders.

The theme of this session will be a continuation of the discussion on the Home-School Engagement session in December. Based on feedback from our last meeting, we will narrow our focus on communication, information-sharing strategies (newsletter, Seesaw posts, etc.)  and access to school platforms (Gateway, Sarah VLE, ESF App, Google Drive and Seesaw). We want to hear from you:

• What is working and why? What supports your engagement?

• What is not working and how can we make improvements?

I hope that you will be able to join us - please sign up on this form to confirm your attendance.

The Government announced on 28 December a further adjustment of local anti-epidemic measures, and as a result, the EDB has provided additional advice to schools. This means that:

• Starting from 29 December 2022, the Vaccine Pass requirement for schools has been lifted, and all school staff and all other persons are no longer required to possess a valid vaccine pass to enter schools.

• We will be following the general CHP requirements recently updated, such as isolation requirements if infected and new close contact arrangements (no need to isolate for close contacts).

• The EDB requirement to complete a RAT each day will continue until 31st January to then be further reviewed. We have distributed 3 boxes x 10 tests to parents.

• Only staff, students, parents and all other people who return a negative RAT each day can come to school, and persons having a positive result cannot attend.

• Parents must still enter their child’s RAT result each morning via the ESF App. As a school, we must still report positive cases daily to the CHP. If a cluster outbreak has been identified for a particular class (for example, if 30% or more of students in a particular class report positive RAT results of COVID-19), the CHP will consider suspending the class concerned for 5 days.

• We are still required to measure the temperatures of all students, staff and visitors when entering the school each day.

• We will maintain other anti-epidemic measures, such as all people wearing masks whilst on campus, maintaining social distancing, and keeping our school environment clean and hygienic.

• Students don't have to wear masks during Physical Education lessons (indoors and outdoors). If students are exercising, or doing a physically strenuous activity as part of sessions, they can remove their masks.

Download: Prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Health Protection Measures for Schools

Full calendar and term dates here.

Click to open as PDF and access YouTube links!

2022 Special Olympics Hong Kong Golf Challenge Day

Congratulations to Aadi, Colman, Jadon, Larissa, Nicklaus, Rowan, and Sze Yan for attending the 2022 Special Olympics Hong Kong Golf Challenge Day on Saturday, 17th December.

Students completed four activities: a short putt, a long putt, a chip shot with putting and then finally the driving range.

Since the first golf practice, all students have shown great progression in their shot-making and everyone had a lot of fun. All students received a couple of mementos, with Colman and Jadon receiving a huge golf umbrella for scoring over 20 points. Congratulations again everyone.

TWGHs “iRun” - The Hong Kong Jockey Club Special Marathon 2023

With us just starting our Cross Country unit in PE, it’s great to see students getting in some running practice and entering events. A massive congratulations to Paolo from Jade class who completed the TWGHs “iRun” - The Hong Kong Jockey Club Special Marathon 2023 3km run last Sunday.

Paolo’s race was open to anyone above 12 years of age, while the TWGHs iRunners Club is open to anyone 18 and above.

If you would like more information on TWGHs "iRun", please click here.

Friendly reminder that Splice the Mainbrace is scheduled for Thursday, 19th January from 6.30 pm at Cafe 8, Central Pier.

A great opportunity for community connection. Come and see our alums and students at work. All are welcome.

Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong are holding their gala event, ‘Shine On’ on 30th January, at the concert hall of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.

Special caring ticketing arrangements have been extended to people with different abilities, believing that attending this performance might spark an interest, ignite a passion, and shape possible futures - for people with disabilities - in the arts.

Any families interested in attending are invited to complete the online (Chinese) registration form ASAP. Tickets are requested on a first-come, first-served basis. English-speaking families are invited to email Ms Criselda Lesigues at criselda@adahk.org.hk for ticket inquiries.

Click here for the fact sheet to learn more about the event and artists.