8 Mar 2019

08 March 2019

Jockey Club Sarah Roe School’s latest newsletter is available to read now. Find out the latest news around the school and upcoming events.

Po Leung Kuk Anita LL Chan (Centenary) School 5th Softball Competition

Parenting Your Child with ADHD or SLD

Ceilidh at St Stephen’s Chapel

Principal’s Message

We are well and truly immersed in our ‘All Systems Go’ unit this term. Students are learning in all sorts of interesting and creative ways and outings in the community help to bring it all into ‘real’ life.

You will all be receiving the weekly email from the class teacher that includes highlights of the week, important dates and activities coming up as well as some home learning. Thank you to the many families who take the time to read the information and of course we encourage you to support additional learning at home. The calendar that is part of the email helps you to plan for upcoming events and really helps our teachers by putting all the information in one place. Our partnership is a shared responsibility so we ask that you refer to the email rather than individual ‘reminders’ about what is happening. Thank you in advance for your support.

We recently uploaded and emailed you all with a link to the VLE so you can see the mid-year review of your son or daughter’s IEP and a report. The VLE also has a number of photos, videos and other evidence of work completed and is a great portfolio of work completed by each student. When viewing the last VLE report we notice that a number of families are not accessing the VLE (and therefore not looking at any information). This is rather concerning and your child’s class teacher will contact you individually to check that you do not have any technical difficulties as we can definitely help with this. I understand that having all the information online takes some time to get used to so do let us know if we can help in any way.

It was a pleasure to join Mike and the students on the softball teams at the recent tournament. Mike has provided some details later in the newsletter but we felt incredibly proud of all the students as they demonstrated great improvement in both skills and teamwork. Well done and thank you to the parents who came along to cheer.

We have all been enjoying partnering with KGV to celebrate Kindness Week. The activities certainly remind us of how easy it is to make the world a better place through simple and thoughtful acts of kindness and also the importance of being kind to ourselves!

I often share the work of our School Council Chair Virginia Morris and this time I had the pleasure of joining some amazing leaders on a panel with Virginia’s Hong Kong University MBA students. I was indeed in esteemed company and learned a lot from the questions from the students and the responses of the panel. It’s a privilege to engage with the next ‘wave’ of global leaders and feel their energy and enthusiasm for their future careers.

Congratulations to our Speech Therapist Stephanie Eber and her family on the safe arrival of her newborn son. We look forward to his first visit to JCSRS in the near future.

We have our sports day coming up next Thursday at Perth St sports ground. You are very welcome to come and join us. The following week we have some students at camp at Outward Bound and other students participating in a variety of activities at school. I will be working with the Council of International Schools (CIS) in Kuwait that week.

Warm Regards

Karin

Dates for your Diary

Whole school sports day – Thursday 14 March

School camp (at Outward Bound and at school) – Wednesday 20 to Friday 22 March

Wear blue for World Autism Awareness Day – Tuesday 2 April

Professional Learning day for staff (NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS) – Thursday 4 April

Public holiday – Friday 5 April

Showcase – Pearl class

Pearl class has had an eventful start to the new term and has had the opportunity to experience a series of educational and fun learning experiences. Here are some highlights of the term.

Before Chinese New Year, Pearl class participated in a science workshop run by Sha Tin College IB students. Our students enjoyed carrying out the Red Cabbage indicator, Fizz Inflator and Lava Lamp experiments.

To celebrate Chinese New Year, we visited Victoria Park`s Flower market and bought some beautiful flowers for our families.

We celebrated Stephen and Isis`s birthdays after the Chinese New Year holidays. We were able to share lovely moments together and enjoy the party food.

Starting in February, we were very privileged to have an Expressive Arts therapy student to work with us on Mondays. We have had great fun attempting a variety of activities including drawing, sensory exploration of percussion instruments, social games and music movements.

Students are also thrilled to join in the sensory circuit and social skills sessions run by the therapists.

In the new unit “All systems go”, we have started exploring the money and postal systems by buying snacks at the KGV canteen and Sensations. We also learned to write and post letters. Students will soon post a letter to their families.

We are looking forward to sharing more of our lovely work throughout the term.

Heidi

Pearl Class Teacher

Po Leung Kuk Anita LL Chan (Centenary) School 5th Softball Competition

The softball squad have been practising for three Thursdays working towards our second year of playing in a softball tournament.

Our practice venue was in Sha Tin and we were joined by South Island School and Discovery Bay International School.

Between the three schools, we amalgamated students and made up two teams to enter into the tournament.

RESULTS

Team 1 played Po Leung Kuk Anita LL Chan((Centenary) School (PLK) and won 9:4 setting. This was a great result as they are historically the strongest softball team in Hong Kong.

Team 2 lost to PLK therefore it was down to both of our mixed teams to play against each other and Team 1 needed the win to be successful overall.

After the first inning, it was pretty close at 5:3 to Team 1 although Team 1 were pushed hard by Team 2. Team 1 were playing fully independent softball with no adult supervision or input. This was exactly what we have been working towards for the last month. It was great to see this happening.

Team 2 made some clever plays in the second innings but were just outgunned by some stellar batting from Team 1. Final score 11:5.

Final results came in as

1st SRDBSI Team 1

2nd PLK School

3rd SRDBSI Team 2

Thanks to everyone who assisted our students over the last month. All students had a lot of fun and progressed even more than last year. Independent play is what we strive for and we were successful in that goal.

Challenger Softball Division

If you would like your child to play weekend softball please do get in touch and show your interest. We are in discussions with PLK School and the HK Softball Association about setting up a Challenger Division in HK. We have access to field space but we just require regular volunteers to assist the program

Danceathon

Wear Blue for World Autism Awareness Day

Parenting Your Child with ADHD or SLD

Parenting is hard… for anyone! But when you have a child with learning differences or a passionate temperament, your job becomes even more difficult. No one technique works for all; you need a toolkit, especially for those moments when stress is high and tolerance is low. Dr. Amanda Oswalt Visher will lead an interactive discussion exploring practical tips and strategies parents can use to make life at home a bit smoother.

Join us to share your experiences and to learn from others what works (and what doesn’t) on the journey to supporting and encouraging your child or teen with ADHD and/or SLD.

Discussion themes:
How do I support my child’s homework routines?
How do I help my child get up and get ready on time?
How do I manage tantrums?
How do I know if my child is anxious or depressed?
How do I increase the fun and decrease the drama?
This Roundtable is appropriate for parents of school aged children and adolescents. Educators are welcome.

Parents value the support and connections that FOCUS roundtables provide in the sometimes-difficult journey of raising a child with learning differences in Hong Kong.

This is a great chance to hear from expert in the field, share your own experiences with other parents, talk about support strategies, and explore your personal questions in greater depth.