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ESF News ­ Dec 2015 in ESF News ­ parents, staff and public Please click here if the email is not displayed correctly Do not reply this email. Please contact us at [email protected]

7 December 2015

Greetings ESF welcomes six new Board members Farewell and thank you Successful CIS accreditation for JCSRS ESF 2015 graduates’ university destinations ESF University Fair 2016 coming soon ESF Jazz Fest 2016 to raise funds for students with special educational needs ESF hosts 4th Annual Asian Leadership Summit ESF excels at the Asia­Pacific Chinese­English Bilingual Festival Nanhai Cultural visit SIS students represented Hong Kong at National Youth Games South Island School awarded Geography Quality Mark ESF teacher publishes textbook on CAS Another year of success for Terry Fox Run at Renaissance College ESF Donated HK$80,000 Prize to Indochina Starfish Foundation, Cambodia ESF events around Christmas ESF Sports and Language & Learning Camps Send an ESF Christmas Card Alumni News

Dear parents and colleagues,

Please join us in welcoming Mr David Whalley, the new ESF Director of Education who took up post last month. David brings a wealth of experience from over 30 years in education. He will be working closely with principals, teachers and the Education Team to ensure that ESF’s model of education is relevant, of high quality and produces exceptional learning outcomes for students.

ESF welcomes six new Board members

We would like to welcome six new Board members, Ms Christine Brendle, Dr Dannis Au, Mrs Dayna Lim Cheung, Ms Amanda Barton, Mr Andrew Greene, and Ms Joanne Bowers to the ESF Board of Governors.

Christine is replacing Mr Stewart Aldcroft as representative of the Committee of Parents. Dannis and Dayna are directly elected parent members replacing Dr Andrea (Andy) Low and Ms Kim Anderson. Amanda and Andrew are representing the Committee of Teaching Staff replacing Mr Paul Clarke and Mr Matthew Caplin. Joanne represents the Committee of Support Staff to replace Mr Mike Draeger.

Mrs Elizabeth Bosher (Liz), who has been an independent Board member since 2009 and Vice Chairman from 2013, has stepped down recently after completing her second term of service. Her replacement will be announced at the next Board meeting. We wish the new Board members the best in their coming term of office. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Liz, Stewart, Andy, Kim, Paul, Matthew and Mike for their invaluable support to the Board and to ESF over the years.

Click HERE to see the latest composition of the ESF Board of Governors.

Farewell and thank you

As the end of term draws near, with mixed emotions we bid farewell to David Fitzgerald, ESF Senior Education Officer. David joined ESF as Principal of Clearwater Bay School in August 2006 and was then promoted to his current position in November 2011. Throughout his time in ESF, he has made a significant contribution to developing learning and teaching approaches across the organisation developing leadership and performance coaching.

David is moving on to a new challenge as the Principal of Kardinia International College, a K­12 independent school in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. We thank David for the strong leadership that he brought to ESF and wish him every success in his new role.

We also extend our best wishes to Andy Kai­Fong as he starts a new chapter in his life. Andy will be returning to New Zealand in an exciting Principal role, launching a state­of­the­art, newly­built Aranui Community Campus on the current Aranui High School site in Christchurch. For the past eight years, Andy has been an integral part of the Discovery College (DC) leadership team as the Head of Secondary School. Andy has contributed immensely to DC students and their education along with being a leader for the larger ESF community. Please join us in congratulating Andy on his new role and thanking him for his time with ESF.

Successful CIS accreditation for JCSRS

Jockey Club Sarah Roe School (JCSRS) becomes the third school for students with special educational needs to be accredited by the Council of International Schools (CIS). Click HERE to see the news.

ESF 2015 graduates’ university destinations

The latest university destination statistics have been published. ESF students from the class of 2015 are attending higher education institutions in 19 different countries around the world; the most popular being the UK (45%), Hong Kong (19%), USA (13%) and Canada (12%).

Our class of 2015 will study in 245 different higher education institutions, the most popular being The University of Hong Kong, which now accounts for over 7% of the ESF cohort (74 students). Some other popular institutions are shown in the table below. Click HERE to view more details.

ESF University Fair 2016 coming soon The ESF University Fair 2016 will be held at Island School on Wednesday, 20 January 2016. The event aims to provide our students with information on higher education institutions. Each year, over 100 institutions from all over the world send representatives to the Fair.

This year, over 900 Year 12 students from our secondary schools will attend the event. It is also open to parents and students of other years from our schools. Schools are allocated sessions according to a schedule which will be announced later. Please refer to our website HERE.

ESF Jazz Fest 2016 to raise funds for students with special educational needs

The annual Hong Kong Jazz Family Fest 2016, organised by Jockey Club Sarah Roe School (JCSRS) will run on 22 & 23 January 2016 at 8pm. Entering its third year, the two­night charity event will gather over 50 Hong Kong’s finest jazz musicians to raise funds to support children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) at JCSRS and other organisations.

To involve ESF secondary students in this event, over 30 student musicians and singers from ESF schools will show off their musical talents on the same stage. The show – ESF’s Got Musical Talent Show will be held from 3pm to 6pm on Saturday, 23 January 2016. Please refer to the event website HERE.

ESF hosts 4th Annual Asian Leadership Summit

The 4th iteration of the Asian Emerging Leaders’ Summit took place on 13 and 14 November 2015. The Summit was two days of leadership development and exposure to some of the most innovative educational concepts.

The event brought together 120 Asia’s most talented and dynamic educationalists. With more than 60 external colleagues coming from the region, and also as far as Vancouver, ESF leaders had the opportunity to learn and collaborate alongside International peers.

ESF excels at the Asia­Pacific Chinese­English Bilingual Festival ESF students showcased their bilingual competence at the Asia­Pacific Chinese­English Bilingual Festival on 26­ 27 September 2015 in Wuxi, China. It was the second time ESF was represented at this regional event, which attracted 16 teams this year. Every student competed in storytelling, poetry recital, speech and debate, all in two languages at a native level. They switched between English and Chinese effortlessly with amazing fluency and eloquence. Renaissance College, Bradbury School and Kowloon Junior School proudly scored five championships. Students were awarded top 8th bilingual competency in 31 individual matches.

The competition was a test of bilingual, high­order thinking skills. Students enjoyed the teamwork and learning from other participants while bravely facing the challenges of intense language use. Such experience will no doubt inspire a drive for bilingual studies in many years to come.

Nanhai Cultural visit

A group of 101 students from across ESF visited Nanhai in Southern China to experience three days of the local culture and to get the opportunity to partner with students from Nanhai. The hospitality that our students received was unparalleled.

Our students learned about the life and culture of Nanhai through the eyes of the children who live there. Relationships between student and staff from Nanhai and students and staff from ESF have been established and this is what has made the trip a truly amazing experience for all involved.

SIS students represented Hong Kong at National Youth Games

The first National Youth Games (NYG) was held from 18 to 27 October in Fuzhou, China. Hong Kong sent 214 athletes to participate in final competitions in 20 sports.

Venia Yeung from South Island School represented Hong Kong Tennis team and won Bronze medal in the Girls Doubles event. She also came 5th in Girls Single event. SIS Year 10 student Kikei Fung represented Hong Kong in multiple Swimming events, being the youngest member in the team. She has also recently has also competed in the Fina airweave Swimming World Cup 2015 achieving a personal best time of 27.13 seconds (long course) in the 50m freestyle.

South Island School awarded Geography Quality Mark

The South Island School Geography department has been awarded the Geographical Association (GA) Secondary Geography Quality Mark again this year. The award is given every three years to departments around the world whose subject is of a high standard, truly cross curricular and always striving for reflection and growth. The GA was particularly excited about the Individuals and Societies, which attempts to integrate the subject in the lower school. ESF teacher publishes textbook on CAS

The first­ever textbook, "Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) for the IB Diploma: As Essential Guide for Students", which aims at supporting students' understanding of CAS, has been published this month.

The book, co­authored by Discovery College (DC) CAS Coordinator Peter Muir and three other experienced CAS Coordinators in IB regions, has practical activities to support students in all of the CAS stages, and provides numerous examples of CAS from around the globe. It also contains ideas for connecting CAS with other areas of the Diploma Programme, as well as highlighting examples of CAS experiences from DC. Click HERE for more details.

Another year of success for Terry Fox Run at Renaissance College

The 3rd Terry Fox Run Hong Kong took place at Renaissance College (RCHK) on Saturday, 7 November, welcoming over 1,200 participants. ESF CEO Belinda Greer and RCHK Principal Harry Brown were officiating guests. Close to HK$700,000 has been raised and all proceeds will go to the Chinese University of Hong Kong Department of Clinical Oncology for local cancer research.

ESF Donated HK$80,000 Prize to Indochina Starfish Foundation, Cambodia

ESF participated in the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay this year and won the first prize and HK$80,000 donation to a charity of our choice. The fund was donated to Indochina Starfish Foundation, an international charity which supports education for some of the poorest and most disadvantaged children in Cambodia.

The race took place on Thursday, 5 November 2015, with a total of 123 teams participating. Three of the teams were from ESF. ESF Team 1 finished the race in a time of 51’51, outrunning last year’s champion by two minutes. ESF’s first runner, Vice Principal of Clearwater Bay School, Brendan Kean ran the fastest mile in just 4’43.

The other two ESF teams managed to finished the race in a time of 57’48 and 1’07’04, finishing 8th and 41st overall. ESF events around Christmas

You are most welcome to join these festive events (free admission unless otherwise specified):

8 Dec, 7:30­9pm, St. John’s Cathedral Island School Light Up A Life Christmas Concert *$200 each (purchase from St. John’s Cathedral Bookstore)

9, 10, 11 Dec, 7pm, Main Hall, Sha Tin Sha Tin College Grease musical College *Adult $80 / student $50

Year 1 & 2 Holiday Concert 10 Dec, 2­3pm, SJS playground Sha Tin Junior School

Year 3­6 Christmas Concert 10 Dec, 6­7pm, SJS playground

Sai Kung Christmas Carols performance 12 Dec, 6:50pm, Sai Kung Waterfront park by Senior Choir and Ukulele group Clearwater Bay School

Christmas Carol concert 15 Dec, 6:30pm, CWBS

Student Singing Performance at Festival Kowloon Junior School 16 Dec, 2pm, Festival Walk Walk

Christmas Market 16 Dec, 1:25pm, WIS Level 3 Foyer West Island School

Christmas Concert 16 Dec, 6:30pm, WIS Level 3 Auditorium

Beacon Hill School PTA Christmas Carol Concert 16 Dec, 7pm, BHS playground

Christmas carols performance by Junior 17 Dec, 2:30­3:30pm, IFC Choir (Year 3 & 4) Kennedy School

Christmas carols performance by Senior 17 Dec, 5­6pm, IFC Choir (Year 5 & 6)

Photos of some past events:

Clearwater Bay School – Wicked, Wild West Fair (7 Nov)

Island School Winter Fair (14 Nov)

Sha Tin College & Sha Tin Junior School – Back to the Fair (21 Nov)

South Island School – Nightfest Back to the Future (27 Nov)

King George V School Christmas Fair (27 Nov)

ESF Sports and Language & Learning Camps

ESF Sports camps ESF Sports camps will run from 21­24 and 28­31 December 2015, delivering fun­filled multi­sports activities during the winter school holiday for children across Hong Kong, while Winter Camp for All Day Sports and Drama will run from 28­31 December at Kowloon Junior School and Renaissance College.

ESF Language & Learning Camps ESF Language and Learning Winter programme will run from 28­31 December 2015.

Send an ESF Christmas Card

Send your Season’s Greetings to your friends and family with the ESF e­Christmas card, featuring artwork by Nicole Hung, a Year 1 student from Renaissance College.

Alumni News

In this issue, we have featured Aarif Rahman (KGV), Justin Sweeting (IS), Vivian Wong (SIS), Dylan Helyer (DC) and Stephanie Kong (STC) who have made a considerable impact in their chosen careers, including contemporary world of acting, music, painting ,fashion and writing.

We also have the “class notes” session which shares updates from alumni and the “what’s happening” session which shares alumni reunions and events.

Online copy is available on www.esf.edu.hk/alumni. Printed copies are available at all school offices.

Connect us on:

The next ESF News will be published in March 2016

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