Abacus Newsletter 22nd August 2019
Abacus Kindergarten’s latest newsletter available to read now. Find out the latest news from around the school and upcoming events.
- Coming Week
- Important Dates
- Welcome Back
- Sustainability Update
- School Arrivals and Departures
- Class Teachers
- Links
- Class Pages
Coming Week Dates
Week Beginning – Monday 22nd August |
|
| Monday | Staff Meetings |
| Tuesday | Staff Training |
| Wednesday | K2 Children Begin |
| Thursday | K1 Children – 1 Hour Sessions |
| Friday | K1 Children – Half Sessions |
Important Dates This Term
Wednesday 22nd August – Term Begins
Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September – Staff Training
Monday 30th September – ESF Staff Training (School Closed)
Tuesday 1st October – Public Holiday
Monday 7th-Sunday 13th October – Half Term Holiday
Monday 14th October – Staff Training (School Closed)
Saturday 23rd November – School Fair
Friday 13th December – Last Day of Term 1 – Christmas Concert
Although we are not governed by the statutory holidays for schools, we follow the ESF schools calendar. During every year we have 5 teacher training days built into the calendar. This is in addition to the contact days with children. These CPD days are added onto our calendar not removed from the contact days with children.
Abacus Calendar for 2019-2020 is available here.
Welcome Back
Welcome back to our returning families this year. We hope you had a very restful holiday and the children are excited about returning to school.
We would also like to extend a warm welcome to our new families and hope your children settle quickly and enjoy learning with us at Abacus.
Over the holidays Hannah Smith got married to her partner George and became Mrs Hannah Derisley. We wish the happy couple huge congratulations and will share some photos when they are ready.
Sadly Jackie Henderson tendered her resignation over the summer holidays as her husband and her will return to the UK at the end of September. We wish the family the best of luck in the UK and thank Jackie for all her hard work at Abacus. Angela Grabner will be covering for us whilst we find a replacement for Jackie in K2 English class.
We hope you have a great term, and we are all looking forward to seeing you again.
Sustainability Update
This term we are beginning our sustainability drive. So far we have implemented the following changes to be more sustainable at Abacus:
- Stopped using single use plastic as a resource within school wherever possible – including for laminating,
- Moved to material name badges from plastic ones
- Moved to using ribbon as bus tags instead of laminated cards
- Moved to using e-cards for pick up instead of laminated cards
- Begun getting quotations for solar panels
- Introduced compost bins to the classrooms
- Encouraged parents to send nude food to school (ie no single use plastic wrappers) – we have already noticed a marked difference in the contents of snack boxes parents are sending to school. Thank-you for supporting this initiative parents !
- Begun searching for non plastic alternatives for school resources such as buckets and spades and whiteboard markers
These changes will be ongoing through the year and we will keep you updated as we move through the term. If you would like to know more please view our earlier email: Please join us in committing to reducing landfill and protecting our Oceans.
School Timings
Don’t forget our new session times this year are:
AM Session – 8.30am-11.30am
PM Session – 1pm-4pm
Children Arriving with an Adult
We will open the doors at 8.15am and 12.50pm to allow children to enter. An adult must stay with their child until the bell rings at 8.30am and 1pm. Children can put their bags and snack away during this time or play on the playground. However, an adult must be there to supervise them as there are no staff on duty during this time, teachers are all busy setting up classrooms and preparing for the day.
After session please arrive on time to collect your child and leave the school promptly. Children are not allowed to visit the playground after school as it has been setup for the next session or after school playgroup. Thank-you for your cooperation with this. We understand there may be some disruption and possible lateness due to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. If you think you will be late please call the office. Teachers will be unlikely to check their emails during the session time.
Bus Children
Bus children will be collected from the bus by our staff at 8.25 and 12.55pm and walked into school. At the end of the session we also keep a register of who is leaving on the bus and walk these children out to the bus and support the bus staff with putting seatbelts on etc Please bear with us at the beginning of the year as the K1 children need more time to be organised and therefore leave the class a bit earlier than later in the year.
Class Teachers for This Year
The new class teachers for this year are as follows:
K1 English Class – Hannah Derisley, Sue Tyson/Penny Loveridge and Michelle Chan
K1 Bilingual Class – Olivia Kane, Allison Fung and Maria Lee
K2 Bilingual Class – Zena Deal (Maternity cover) Danielle Evans, Susanne Liu and Anita Jims
Danielle is currently on maternity leave until December. Zena is joining us from Clearwater Bay School for the term to cover.
K2 English Am Class – Suzanne Carrigan, Bridgette Walker and Angela Grabner/New Educational Assistant
K2 English Pm Class – Fiona Hall, Bridgette Walker and Angela Grabner/New Educational Assistant
Links
(All links open in a new tab/window)
Moodle – Your child’s portfolio and reports, class news, school news and photos.
Gateway – Change personal details, sign up for events and book parent consultations on Gateway.
The School Calendar – All important dates can be found here for next year.
