Dates For Your Diary

Full calendar and term dates here. The calendar for 2023-24 is now published. However, please note that the final calendar will be issued in May/June following the Hong Kong Government gazetting of public holidays.

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
31 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

Principal's Message

Dear all,

We had a fantastic term and we are finishing on a high.

There was real excitement and joy on Tuesday when our Student Council members Aadi and Anya welcomed our community and started the JCSRS Walkathon. It was wonderful to see parents and family members joining. We had beaten our own record, with some students doing 17 laps. Most importantly, thanks to everyone’s effort, we have raised $43,420 for ImpactHK and Love 21 Foundation!

Charity	Donation Nov 2022	Donation Mar 2023	Total by Charity
ImpactHK	$18,320.00	$11,035.00	$29,355.00
Love 21 Foundation	x	$14,065.00	$14,065.00
Total	$18,320.00	$25,100.00	$43,420.00

Our students are superb ambassadors within and beyond our school gates and demonstrate their Character - determination, perseverance and resilience. In Term 2, we had many occasions when we celebrated their achievements and successes with our school community, parents, PTA and school council. Our students also represented us very well in out-of-school events. Most recently, Diamond and Gold made us proud when they went bowling, and Sapphire and Silver represented our school at the Sports For All event at Discovery Bay International School.

It has been a very busy and successful term, and I would like to thank everyone for their positive support and encouragement for what we all do. I would like to wish you all an enjoyable and relaxing Easter break.

Warm regards,

Anna

Curriculum Highlights: Creative Art

This has certainly been a very busy but rewarding year for JCSRS students. With the first term’s Christmas show, the second term’s ESF-wide Evening of Dance and the NPDL art exhibition project, students had the opportunity to enrich their learning and shine.

Their creative abilities have been recognised by the ESF community and beyond. They have been invited by the Ronald McDonald House Charity (RMHC) to create wall art to place in a children’s hospital to make visits more comforting and pleasant for children and their families. JCSRS students will also have the opportunity to join the ESF-wide art exhibition at the universal gallery in June 2023.

Visual Art

Congratulations to students whose artwork for the art exhibition has been appreciated and awarded by the JCSRS community and the judges.

Outstanding artwork awards:

Primary Phase

1st Prize	2nd Prize	3rd Prize
Nicholas	Seth	Kaden

Secondary Phase

1st Prize	2nd Prize	3rd Prize
Colman	Paolo	Jadon

Some students’ works have also been nominated for the ESF holiday card competition this year. They are:

Nicholas	Sebastian

Pearl Class	Sapphire Class

Dance

Students’ amazing performance at the ESF-wide Evening of Dance has also been praised and celebrated.

“A note to thank you for supporting ESF Evening of Dance on Wednesday. It was joyful to see our schools coming together and to have this opportunity to celebrate and perform in front of a live audience.

Please thank the JCSRS dancers and all who supported them to perform their dance of metamorphosis. It was an absolute pleasure to watch and experience.”

- Belinda Greer, Chief Executive Officer, ESF

Needless to say, the success of these events is the result of great home and school collaboration. Thanks to all the parents and staff’s support in making these invaluable learning experiences possible for the students. In term 3, Move for Life will come and collaborate with the teachers to deliver the primary and Emerald expressive arts curriculum (Dance).

Music

Thank you to parents for their generous Christmas donations - an order for musical instruments such as keyboards, ethereal drums, drum pads and Otamatones has been made. These instruments will be colour coded to make them more accessible for students. Students will have ample opportunity to learn to play these instruments during Music lessons and demonstrate their skills at the next Christmas Show.

Drama

To enhance our Drama lessons, we have invited a theatre company to come and perform an interactive drama for students during Book Week in May as a collaboration project with the Literacy curriculum. This will enrich students’ understanding and encourage engagement in the follow-up lessons with the class teachers.

More art and drama updates will follow when we start the next two art projects in Term 3 and receive a confirmation from the theatre company.

 

Creative Art Team

School Improvement Update: Playground

In March we received our order of Big Blue Blocks from Imagination Playground. The order of Big Blue Blocks forms part of the School Improvement actions to improve the playground and support a wider range of play.

The Big Blue Blocks allow open-ended play opportunities so we can see the students play with the blocks in many different ways. It has been wonderful to watch how the students play with the blocks and the ideas they come up with.

We will continue to work on improving the playground to make it a stimulating and fun space.

1. Hannah uses the noodle to link two blocks together and spins the clover block.

2. Noah rides the tricycle through the pretend play car wash.

3. Casper looks through the peephole of a Big Blue Block.

Book Week: Celebrating Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity is the recognition that we all think differently. Each human has a unique brain with some people thinking and processing in ways that are less typical. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia are some ways we describe types of neurodiversity, but it is also used in a more general way to positively describe differences rather than deficits in people.

JCSRS will be celebrating our wonderfully neurodiverse community during book week, which runs from Monday 24th to Friday 28th April. We have enriched our library collection with more than 100 new books celebrating neurodiversity which we will launch to our students during book week.

What’s happening:

• Daily readings of our new books in the library

• Parent guest readers - please complete the form that will be emailed to you if you would like to participate

• Class door decorating competition

• Class-based work on neurodiversity and what it means to our students

• Special Book Week assembly

• Dress up day (Friday 28th April) - Students and staff can dress as either a favourite book character or wear rainbow colours for neurodiversity

Look out for posts on the JCSRS Facebook page where we will share photos of our activities.