First week ever! What a fantastic first week it has been in the very new history of Hanova International. It has been such an exciting time with the students settling in so quickly into routines that we are still trying to establish. I found it hard to believe on that first Monday that the students would all be so focused on their work so early in the school day. So much learning was taking place so quickly. The number of happy, smiling faces from the students to the parents to the staff to the Board made all the hard work of the last few months so worthwhile for all of us. So many things have worked so well – the school building is serving us excellently and is so light and airy; the textbooks are all here (well, almost); even the new buses arrived almost exactly on time on the first day – the practice runs helped of course.
Despite all the planning and attention to detail there have, of course, been hiccoughs. The lunches on the first day arrived over 30 minutes late so a number of students had outside play before they ate! Most didn’t seem to mind. Our first day assembly was delayed and then the projector for the assembly decided it wouldn’t work. Never mind, the students were treated to all the staff leading an impromptu rendition of Heads, and Shoulders, Knees and Toes!
Apple MacBook Pros. The last of the ordered MacBook Pros are on their way. We needed to send in a supplementary order as the number of students enrollingin the Middle Years increased significantly. We are starting to distribute the MacBook Pros from the Senior Years gradually all the way down to Y7. These machines are each allocated to an individual student who will be asked to take responsibility for this relatively expensive piece of hardware. The computer is loaned to the student and may not be taken off site for reasons of security. A policy for the use of the Laptops will be sent home to the students for parents to read through, raise any questions, then sign. Ideally students would have their own MacBook Pro that can be taken off site and used for assignments at home. School can help parents to purchase one for their own child passing on the educational discount we can access. Please contact the school office if you wish to take up this offer.
Korean Department. We are delighted to welcome Mr Jong, Ms Jin and the Korean department to our school. Most of these students are resident in the dormitory facilities next to our school.
Ordering meals. You should have received the lunch menu for next week. Please complete the order for your child(ren) and send the money in a sealed envelope with your child’s name on (in English, if possible) and labelled School Lunch. This should be done by Thursday each week.
Mr Van. We have missed Mr Van this week. He has been receiving training from the International Baccalaureate so that he can train teachers throughout the Asia Pacific region in the IB Primary Years Programme. We are delighted to have someone so knowledgeable on our staff. He returns to school next week from his course in Bali.
Newsletters. The following newsletters are all part of us keeping the parents and wider community informed.
- Welcome Newsletter
- This welcomes parents and students to their new classes or subjects
- It is sent in the first few days of the year
- Everyone should have received a Welcome newsletter form the homeroom teacher in the Primary Years. Parents of students in Middle Years or Senior Years should have received Welcome newsletters from each subject teacher. All of these came home in hard copy.
- At the end of this week you will receive timetables by email. If you would like a hard copy please do not hesitate to contact us.
- Principal’s Newsletter
- The Principal’s Newsletter covers items relevant across the school
- It is sent once a week by email on Thursday. It is also available Thursday evening on our website along with pictures! Again let us know if you want it in a different format.
- Primary Homeroom Newsletters
- These cover what has been taught in the last week, what is planned ahead, and more general information, such as How you can help your child
- These are sent once a week in email and hard copy on a Friday. We would like to move to only email as soon as we can
- Middle and Senior Years Curriculum updates
- These break down our whole year curriculum documents into month sized chunks. They give information on the units of work being taught and planned and give parents general information by subjects
- These are sent once at the start of each month by email.
Curriculum information evening. We are running a curriculum information evening for each year group throughout the school. This is so parents can find out more about the sorts of things the students are learning and the expectations and procedures in each class. More information will follow shortly.
Best regards,
Martin Hughes
