Playgroup. We are happy to announce the start of our first Playgroup. This will be held every Tuesday from 2pm until the end of club time (4:30pm). Our first playgroup is planned to take place on Tuesday 19^th March. This is a great opportunity for your child to play with other children and take part in some fun activities such as music, stories, art and many more. It is also a good chance to meet other mums and dads.

Please feel free to come along with your pre-school child. Children from birth to 3 are welcome to come with their parent or carer.  All supervision is the responsibility of the parent or carer. We welcome Hanova parents as well as other families who do not have children already at the school. There will be a small charge to cover the cost of some resources and refreshments.

If you would be interested in attending or you would like any other information, please contact Mrs Whitworth - liz.whitworth@his-xian.com or May Liu - may.liu@his-xian.com or phone the school.

Toy Donation. We are beginning to collect resources for the Playgroup. If you have any unwanted toys or books in good condition, suitable for young children aged 0-3, please bring them to Mrs Whitworth or Ms Liu. Of course, we continue to seek donations for older children too.  These can be sent to Ms Fen in the Library. Any such donations would be greatly appreciated.

Chinese staff. We are sad to be saying goodbye to Mr Adam Varjavandi, our head of Chinese at the end of this week.  He is going on to focus on the development of his own business.  We wish him all the best in the future and are sure that we will see him at the school as he is remaining in Xi’an.  We extend a big thank you to him for all the hard work he has put in to our school since its inauguration.

This week we have extended a welcome to Ms Amy Yang (Yang Zhen) who has joined us as Chinese teacher.  Ms Yang graduated in 2010 from Yan An Innovation University majoring in teaching Chinese.  Since graduation she has worked as both a Chinese teacher and English teacher.

Also taking on some of the Chinese teaching in school is Ms Maggie Wang, whom you will know for the work she has done in the office, as a Teaching assistant and also accompanying the students on the bus.  Ms Wang has a national one B-level certificate in Mandarin and also has a degree in teaching Chinese to L1 speakers and is qualified to teach up to Senior Years students.  She previously taught Chinese in a Xi’an high school for more than a year.

New staff appointments. We have recently welcome to our staff Ms Lynn Zhang as our accountant.  She is working part of the time for our parent company, EDL, and part of the time for us.

With the changes in the Chinese department and the separation of the Nursery to Y1 students into two classes, we are currently looking into our provision of Teaching Assistants.  There are likely to be a few changes in the roles of our current support staff and potentially an additional appointment.  It certainly is an exciting time at Hanova as we respond to our steadily growing numbers.

We are very busy searching and interviewing for new staff as our school continues to grow.  We have appointed the first two staff ready for next year, and are searching for others.  At the moment the list of teachers we are looking for are English as an Additional Language (EAL) coordinator and teacher, Y3 (or Y4) teacher in order to separate our Y3/4 class into two classes for August.  We are also looking for a Chinese language coordinator.  We have appointed a Nursery/Reception teacher and one primary member of staff.  This appointee is experienced in the whole primary range but is most likely to work in Y5/6.  Ms O’Connor, our current Y5/6 teacher and Deputy, will most likely be working with developing our English language and Library programmes.

Student Council shop. This opened this week to considerable interest from the children.  A commodity and price list will be sent home from the Student Council.

Air Quality. As I write this (Wednesday) we have decided to keep all the students in and only run PE indoors today.  This is because we are concerned by the poor quality of the air outside and do not wish the students to be taking vigorous exercise.  All classrooms are fitted with air filters to purify the air.  We are currently reviewing our policy on student activity on days when the air quality is poor, as we wish to take action in the best interests of our students - their well being is our first priority.

Thailand trip. There will be a meeting for parents of students going to Thailand for their Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC).  This will cover details of the activities, contact information and communication whilst we are in Thailand, safety and supervision.  There will also be an opportunity to raise either in the meeting, or after if confidential any questions or concerns.  The meeting is planned for Wednesday, 20^th March at 9:00am.

I apologise that I will not be available for the first part of next week as I am attending International Baccalaureate training in Malaysia (lucky me!) on the Diploma Programme, as we work on ensuring we can run the programme from August 2014.  Mr Van and Ms O’Connor will cover in my absence.

Best regards,

Martin Hughes

 

Forthcoming events

Saturday, 16^th                             Mission statement and school aims meeting 10:00

Saturday, 16^th                             2^nd week of Saturday Sports

Wednesday, 20^th                        Parent meeting about Thailand 9:00

Sunday, 24^th to Sunday, 31^st   Middle and Senior Years educational trip to Thailand