Full calendar and term dates here.
20 March | PTA meeting, 5.30 pm on Zoom |
28 March | Walkathon, Perth Street Sports Ground |
30 March | AAC Meet Up, 9 am at Innovation House |
31 March | Last day of Term 2; students will finish lessons at 11.45 am with buses leaving school at 12 pm |
17 April | First day of Term 3 |
20 April | Splice the Mainbrace |
25 April | Principal Meet Up, 9 am at Innovation House |
5 May | Updated IEPs shared with parents |
5-12 May | Annual Review meetings |
29 May | PTA meeting, 5.30 pm |
1 June | AAC Meet Up, 9 am at Innovation House |
9 June | Graduation Ceremony |
30 June | Last day of Term 3; students will finish lessons at 11.45 am with buses leaving school at 12 pm |
Dear all,
This week, after three long years, we see the last few Covid-19 restrictions removed. It is really liberating to be able to walk into school freely, and the sense of joy and elevation was reflected in the atmosphere of today’s whole school assembly (the first time together in a very long time).
It is a good time to reflect on the work of our staff and the support that has been offered to us by our wonderful community. The gratitude that many parents have shown for the hard-working staff who supported the students through this challenging time has been quite overwhelming. It is reflected in my conversations with many of them and in parents' comments on the ESF Survey - marvellous all around, great partnership, caring and supportive, knowledgeable staff. It is also incredible how much we have achieved despite the challenges. Our staff comments focused on improvements to our curriculum and teaching and learning, students' growth and progress, and strong relationships and collaboration between all staff.
Many thanks once again to all parents, staff, PTA and school council members for your support and for always putting students' best interests at the heart of decision-making.
It is wonderful to see a return of all the extra-curricular activities and events that make student life at JCSRS so special. It is a very long newsletter as we have so much to share with you.
Metafly took to the stage during the ESF Evening of Dance. It was a real pleasure to watch their performance which received a great reception from the audience. I don't know about the others, but my eyes were full of tears of joy and pride. I would like to thank our incredible team, under Jackie, Pam and Belinda’s leadership, that supported our students on their journey of learning the dance moves but, most importantly, on a journey of gaining confidence while maintaining a pure joy of dance and performance. It radiated off the stage.
Our mission statement is for Everyone to be Happy. We want our students to be capable and resilient learners. Seeing them excel is something every teacher and every parent wants to see. The Art Exhibition Be My Best was a wonderful opportunity for our students to explore the concept of being their best and how they can develop their character. It created a space for us to showcase our students' learning and their many talents. I would like to congratulate all the students and once again thank all the teachers for their dedicated teaching, encouragement, support and guidance to craft and hone abilities that enabled the students to truly shine. Special thanks go to our Art Exhibition curators, Jackie and Alfert, and to Mike and Jade and Emerald team for their special support of this project.
I also want to thank all parents and staff for their feedback, completing the surveys, and attending the Principal Meet Ups. We have learned more about our strengths and opportunities for improvement, and we look forward to seeing it reflected in our school’s development work.
The Bus Working Group met at the end of February. We were told that the current service pattern of 5 Rehabuses for JCSRS will continue, but no additional buses can be allocated due to resources limitation. There is no intention to change this service. The group is reviewing the model of the bus service organisation to ensure effective and sustainable bus service options for families of JCSRS.
Please read on to find out more about incredible events that took place, the JCSRS Rugby team's success in the tournament and the upcoming Walkathon.
Warm regards,
Anna
The Parent Teacher Therapist Conferences (PTTC) with the class teacher and therapists took place in March 2023. To improve the exchange of information and joint planning, we continued with a new format for PTTC meetings, with therapists joining teachers during their meetings.
86% of parents attended PTTC meetings. 81% of meetings were attended on Zoom and 19% of parents came to school to meet in person.
We have improved our communication on who will be attending the meeting and offered some face-to-face meetings.
Eight parents so far shared feedback on PTTCs. All parents agreed that the communication ahead of the PTTC was clear and that meetings were very supportive of their child’s learning. In comments, parents reflected on JCSRS staff's excellent preparation for meetings and their knowledge of students. Some parents felt that meetings were too short, especially meetings with therapists. Flexibility to be able to attend meetings on Zoom was highlighted by some parents.
During the last Principal Meet Up, we focused on gathering parents' views on students' learning experience at school and collecting general feedback on school work.
Things that we do well: positivity about being at school and all restrictions being lifted, students are happy at school and have access to a great range of activities and love coming to school, happy with all aspects of school life, grateful for the enrichment and how fast the school has responded to create experiences, great community.
Things that will support students and parents: parents to see more of what is happening in class to be able to apply some of the strategies at home, whole school social events to bring the community together, support for helpers would be appreciated, more information on how Expressive Art curriculum is taught.
What we will do: we will explore an open day/week for parents in Term 3 to observe learning, plan some whole school social events, and improve our communication on the breadth of curriculum coverage and how different subjects are delivered, e.g. how we teach travel training or inform parents when we engage providers like Move for Life or Yama Foundation in delivery of the aspects of the curriculum. We will continue our work on improving teachers' use of feedback on learning and students' voice.
The next Principal Meet Up is on the 25th of April at 9 am at school.
The ESF Stakeholder Survey took place in February and invited feedback from students (selected students from Y6-Y13), parents, and staff.
We had a very high response rate from all stakeholders. 30 parents, 53 staff and 9 students completed the survey.
Students' responses were overwhelmingly positive, with students in 100% agreement with most statements. They like a range of activities offered, with art, vocational, and PE being specifically mentioned in their comments. They like that we are teaching them to be independent and ready for the future. They want more educational visits and work opportunities. The area where students gave more neutral responses was a question about the school's vision and values. We have to consider how we will make the school vision and mission statement accessible to students and visible in our school life.
Parents' feedback was also very positive.
What we are doing well: All parents agree that their children are happy and safe at school. The majority of parents agree that students make good progress at school, parents feel well informed about learning, students are well supported, and staff know their child well. Many positive comments highlighted all staff’s passion, knowledge and skills, the quality of care and education offered, and the range of activities that all contribute to students' growth and progress.
What we can do better: Comments about what we can do better included requests for more extracurricular activities, ACCESS, support for home learning, resources for students (staff, bus, equity of access) and community building. ‘The school helps me to know how to support my child’: this was an area where more parents took a neutral stance, and a couple of parents disagreed.
What we are doing/will do: We will continue to make our vision and mission visible in our work and our communication. We will continue with our focus on improving feedback on students learning to make the next steps of learning clear and accessible to students and parents. We will begin to explore new ways to provide more support, such as parent education sessions or open days focused on supporting learning at home, and sharing information on home activities that are connected to the curriculum. We will continue to expand the range of activities on offer as part of the curriculum and as extracurricular activities and make sure equity of access. We will continue our work on securing the best resources, including the bus service, for our students.
Staff feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The majority of staff's positive comments were related to improvement in teaching and learning. Staff feel students are at the centre of all decision-making, with learning, high expectations and students' progress driving our curriculum. Many positive comments focus on a strong community, good collaboration and relationships, with staff feeling respected, trusted and listened to. Staff said that we can continue to improve the way we allocate resources and time to ensure we collaborate, share ideas, and build teams and connections.
In conclusion, the data across all stakeholder groups suggest that JCSRS is a caring, safe, and supportive school that puts students’ learning and well-being at the centre of all that it does. Engagement with the areas for development supports our future school improvement planning.
On 8th March 2023, Wednesday night a group of JCSRS students performed at the ESF Evening of Dance. We stayed after school, practiced in the hall and had Margherita pizza before leaving. We arrived at West Island School and met up with other ESF students. There were eight other schools participating, some were primary and some were secondary. Our dance performance was part of the theme that was about transformation. We had three parts in our dance. The caterpillars were Katy, Sze Yan, Saad and Anya. The Chrysalis dancers were Terence, Azeen, Jio and Krisha. My dance was the Butterflies. The butterflies were Josh, Larissa, Jadon and myself.
We worked very hard and practiced for a few weeks in school. Belinda, Pamela, Jackie, Myrla, Dorothy, and Edel helped us to put the show together with Victoria, the dance coach from Move for Life. Josh and I came onto the stage and introduced our school dance. There were lots of people in the audience and I saw my old teachers from Peak School. Everyone said we did very well on stage. We all felt very proud of ourselves. I enjoyed this learning experience. I looked amazing in the beautiful costumes. I think that I have done my best. I was happy. I was learning and I was very engaged. I think I will have many happy thoughts for many years.
By Jessica (Jade class)
Student voice by Azeen, Krisha, Terence and Saad
The people clapped for us.
We had lots of fun.
I was in the yellow zone. I was very excited.
My Daddy came to watch. My Daddy was proud of us.
We had pizza at our school.
My Mummy came to watch it. She thinks it is awesome.
Parent Voice
The kids did so well last night. Their performance was fantastic! I love the music, costumes and choreography of the dance, fitting the theme so well. I really enjoyed every single dance. They were all good in different ways.
Thank you so so much for all your hard work! We really appreciate it. It's so touching to see Larissa being with the big group and enjoying herself.
Staff Voice
The joy that our dance team provoked for themselves, our staff, families and the wider ESF community was immeasurable. Thank you ‘Metafly’ for an unforgettable experience.
What a tournament we had last Friday at Kings Park. Congratulations to Asfandyar, Jadon, Jessica, Joshua, Katy and Shivansh.
The team played two games in the group stage, winning the first 6:2 and then losing the second 2:5. The students played some amazing rugby by showing support and running close to their teammates. This allowed for quick passing and contributed to 2-3 tries.
Having won one game and lost one, we were placed into the Plate competition, which meant we would play for third or fourth position overall out of six teams.
Our final game was close, with each team scoring after the other which brought us to 3:3 at the end of regular time. Luckily we were in possession in extra time, and Joshua made another one of his solo runs to win the game 4:3.
Students were delighted with their win and play throughout the day. This week has seen a continuation of the elation of playing by students playing their own game of tag at lunchtime.
Please be reminded of the School Walkathon taking place on Tuesday, 28th March, at Perth Street Sports Ground. We welcome families to join us for the event from 9.45 to 11 am. Students will walk from 10 to 11 am.
Secondary students will be celebrating their achievements in their PE NPDL Project 5 by wearing their 1% Better T-shirt.
Walkathon sponsor forms will be sent home in school bags today. If you have sponsored in November, there is no obligation to sponsor again. We are however increasing our sponsorship capacity for donations with ImpactHK and including Love 21 Foundation following their recent San Po Kong building fire.