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The Principal's Newsletter

Board responds to school growth with new staff appointments

By Mr Martin Hughes

Dear Parents and

Table Tennis Tables. The Hanova Student Council has been working on a project to raise funds from sale of Christmas and Chinese New Year DVDs to purchase 2 additional Table Tennis Tables that will be used by students during break times and in PE class. The Student Council members are pleased to announce that, thanks to parents who purchased these DVDs, they have successfully met their fundraising goal. This new playground equipment has been ordered and will be delivered soon. The Student Council will continue working on their mission to complete projects that benefit Hanova students and our community. This funding is being generously matched by the Board, so the Student Council can begin to fund their next project.

New School Lunch Menu. We are aware that some students and parents have shared a few concerns about the school lunch. Some improvements have already been made; for example, soup is now served every day. Members of Hanova staff have met this week with the Shangri-La lunch team to share information that has been gathered from student surveys and discussions. We are pleased to announce that the Shangri-La, starting the first week of March, has kindly offered to allow students to choose their lunch order from a Western or Asian menu.  The Asian menu is based on both Chinese and Korean dishes.  The new Lunch Order Form that was sent home this week includes this added flexibility for lunch choices. We encourage parents to carefully go through the Lunch Order Form with their children so that they can decide which choice to make each day. It is important to note that students may not change their decision to order from the Western or Asian Menu after the form has been returned to school. One other improvement is that kimchi (Korean pickled cabbage) will be available to all students every lunchtime starting the first week of March. We are excited about these changes because we are sure that the added menu choices and other improvements will increase the level of satisfaction that our students have with school lunch.  We know the cost of lunch is not low, but our first priority is the safety of the food.  All ingredients are imported or meet those standards. Well nourished bodies help to create active minds!

Music Teacher. We welcome Ms Maxine Lee-Morath this week as she begins to teach some of the Music classes.  She joins us from Waikerie High School where she was Head of Music. She is a graduate from the University of Adelaide and has a total of 10 years experience teaching Music, 6 being in schools.  She is working with Mr Jeremy Van in our Music programme partly freeing him to focus on his other roles of Deputy Principal and PYP coordinator.

Playgroup. Playgroup has restarted after the Chinese New Year holiday.  It is every Tuesday from 3:30-4:30pm in the Nursery and Reception classroom.  All toddlers and babies not of school age are welcome to come along with their parent/carer.

New school. The Board is very aware that the numbers in the school have grown much more quickly than we anticipated.  This growth is very exciting but does inevitably lead to some problems of adjustment to meet the requirements of a much greater student body.  Our appointment of so many new teachers for the start of this second semester has been one such response from the school.  The Board has been working tirelessly to increase the accommodation both at this site and to look for a longer term solution.  They are close to finalising a site big enough for a school of more than 1,000 students.  Our aim is to build that in the next 2-4 years.

Year 7-13 Education Outside of the Classroom (EOTC). A committee of MYP staff members has been planning this important part of our curriculum since the start of the school year. News to students and parents about our travel destination this year has been delayed because the EOTC committee recently decided that the agency that they had been working with to organise the trip did not meet our school’s high safety and educational standards; the committee then had to search for alternatives that meet the needs of our students. They believe that they have now found a suitable location that they are confident will provide safe, educational and enjoyable activities for our students. The EOTC committee would like to invite all parents of students in Year 7 through 13 to attend an EOTC Information Meeting that will be held in the auditorium after assembly on Friday, March 7th.  At this important meeting, parents will be provided information such as details about our EOTC destination, costs, educational benefits, and safety issues. We hope that we see all Year 7-13 parents there.

Scholastic Books Purchase order. Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, classroom magazines, teacher resources, and technology-based educational programs to improve reading and literacy. www.scholastic.com is a leading site for teachers, classrooms and parents, and an award winning destination for children. In the past we have sent home a magazine from Scholastic Books. This is an opportunity to purchase books in English. We are planning to send home an order form, available on February 21st.  If you don’t get one and would like one please ask Ms Camellia Feng in the library or Ms May in the office.  If you would like to order, please return your order form and money (please in a sealed envelope with your child’s name and class on ) to the homeroom teacher or Ms Camellia. Please send by Friday,  February 28th. Any books ordered are likely to come at the end of March.

Best regards,

Martin Hughes

 

Forthcoming events

Thursday, 20th                             Parent School Association Meeting 3pm

Wednesday, 26th                        Senior Years and IB Diploma Programme Plans Y11 and 12 students and parents  7pm

Friday, 28th                                  Last date for ordering Scholastic books

March

Wednesday, 5th                          Middle Years and IB Diploma Programme Plans Y9 and Y10, and any other interested parents and students  7pm

Friday, 7th                                    Yr 7-13 Parent EOTC Information Meeting, after Friday Assembly


About the Author


Martin Hughes

Former School Principal

Mr Martin Hughes was the founding Principal of Hanova from 2012-15. Prior to his time at Hanova, he already had 23 years of experience as Principal in the UK and China at five different schools - including posts at Wuxi EtonHouse and EtonHouse's flagship Suzhou school. During his time as founding Principal at Hanova, he helped support the initial IB Diploma Programme authorisation (2014) and used his educational vision to help plant our then brand new school on a firm foundation. Under his leadership, Hanova's motto emerged, "Enabling children to become independent, creative and lifelong learners!"


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