Published on English Schools Foundation (http://www.esf.edu.hk)

Home > Printer­friendly

Island School Redevelopment Newsletter (Mar 2016) in Redevelopment Newsletter Do not reply to this email. Please write to [email protected] for any enquiries.

2 March 2016

Dear Parents and Colleagues

This year, the redevelopment of Island School will continue to be one of ESF’s priority projects. To help our parents, staff and students to keep track of key events, we have launched a dedicated website with project highlights and FAQs HERE.

This newsletter will be published monthly to report on the latest updates on Island School’s decant and redevelopment process. It is distributed to all ESF staff and parents of Island School and its feeder primary schools.

The decant process

ESF is working with the Legislative Council and the Education Bureau as the redevelopment and decant process moves through the legal phases. In March 2016 we hope to hear if our proposed timeline for the decant can go ahead. Following this decision, all staff and students will move to the decant schools in Shatin Wai and , and work on demolishing the building at Borrett Road will begin in August 2017. Both decant schools will be refurbished before Island School moves into them. Detailed room designs and resource plans have been drawn­up with staff and architects to ensure the new schools meet the standards of excellence expected by ESF.

Students' wellbeing is top priority

The wellbeing of students is top priority in every decision­making process. Currently, staff, students and parents are thinking about what is required from students throughout the day once they move into the decant schools. The weight of the school bag has been considered. Laptops, text books, drama kit and PE kit might be heavy and cumbersome. Therefore, lockers will be available to all students to avoid the need to carry heavy bags. Teachers will make more use of digital resources where appropriate.

Maintaining quality of education at decant schools

On 27 January 2016, 35 staff, parents and the ESF project team visited the Shatin Wai school which is currently vacant. In addition to seeing what refurbishments are planned, teachers investigated the local area to see how they can make the best use of the resources in the neighbourhood for teaching and learning.

Photography Elements Teacher Jo Burgon said, “Near the new Shatin Wai school is the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery full of Buddhas, goddesses and golden pavilions which will be a new interesting place to take photos. A trip to the racecourses would be a really good challenge for students. They will need to figure out how to adjust their shutter speed as the horses thunder past.”

Travel survey highlights

All students were surveyed in January to find out preferred options for travelling to the decant schools.

41.4% of students chose Option 3 and 27% of students chose a bus from somewhere in Central or Admiralty to school. More travel surveys will be conducted so that better travel plans can be made for students.

Staff travel has also been considered. About 40% of staff at and Sha Tin Junior School live on the Island, they were interviewed about their journey. This is what we found out:

of those 40 people who work at Sha Tin College, six of them drive and some others share a taxi from various locations around Hong Kong Island; average travelling time from Mid­levels to Sha Tin at 6:45 am is 30 minutes by taxi (via Western Harbour Crossing). The cost will be around HK$190 in the morning and HK$240 in the afternoon; and average travelling time from Sha Tin to Mid­levels at 3:30 pm is 30 minutes (via Western Harbour Crossing).

Sha Tin College Mathematics Teacher Nicky Jones is one of those who share a taxi to work. “Morning travelling time is 30 minutes via Cross­Harbour Tunnel if you go early and beat the traffic jam that begins at about 7:10 am each day. Western Harbour Crossing is preferred in the afternoon and Cross­Harbour Tunnel should not be attempted,” she said. “Costs are split equally among those who are sharing the taxi. It is variable on a daily basis as teachers' schedules are changeable with training, CAS commitments, meetings, extra classes, etc.”

English Schools Foundation | 25/F 1063 King's Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong To change your contact information, please log in to the Gateway and make the changes under "admin > change request > family information (guardian section)". To unsubscribe all newsletters and emails from ESF and your child's school, change "Email used for contact" to "N". For enquiries, please write to [email protected] stating your child's name and school.

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Privacy Policy | Copyright Statement | Disclaimer | Site map © English Schools Foundation All rights reserved

Source URL: http://www.esf.edu.hk/IS­redevelop­news­Mar2016