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The Principal's Newsletter

Upcoming Carnival and Talent Show on 10th May

By Mr Martin Hughes

Dear Parents and

Talent Show. This week we were lucky enough to see many talented students from all year levels audition for the Talent Show.  Students who have been selected to perform at the Carnival have now been notified. Huge congratulations to all students who participated in the auditions. All performances were of a high quality and very entertaining, demonstrating the wide variety of amazing talent we have in our school. We hope to provide further opportunities for students to perform closer to the end of the year. Stay tuned for more information.

Carnival and Talent Show. Hanova would like to sincerely invite everyone in our community to spend your Saturday morning and afternoon with us on May 10th. We are sure that you will have a great time, and you can feel satisfied knowing that your contributions of time and money will help a great charity assist people in need within our community. This year, all funds raised from Carnival games and activities, parent-led booths, Yard Sale, and lunch tickets will be donated to Yellow River Soup Kitchen (http://www.yellowrivercharity.com).  Note that students who attend this event need to be supervised by parents because staff members will be busy helping with games, activities, and many other jobs. The school buses will not be running on Saturday – we hope parents are able to plan to come along with their children to join in the fun. Carnival and Lunch tickets are on sale now in the reception office. Buy tickets now to avoid waiting in long lines on Saturday!

Schedule:

  • 9am – 12pm: Carnival games and activities
  • 12pm-1pm: Buffet lunch catered by Shangri-La Hotel
  • 1pm-2:30pm: Talent Show

Sports day. A tremendous day of fun, participation and competition was had last Friday in almost perfect weather.  The students took part and enjoyed several athletic events including relay races for all, as well as a decathlon of many events for the younger students. The older students took part in 60m races, relays, long and high jumps, and throwing events (discus or tennis ball). It was great to see the students putting great effort into each competition but also showing good sportsmanship toward their peers and support for their fellow students.  The day ended with presentation of medals to the students who had been placed in each event. Thank you for your support in cheering your child on.

Residential Trips. All parents from Y4 and above should have received an email yesterday about the school’s residential trips for this year.  This email was also sent to parents from N-Y3 just to keep you informed.  It is with real regret that we have cancelled the residential trips to Dali (Y7-13) and Luoyang (Y5-6) because of concerns over safety and costs.  There will be no residential trips this academic year below Y7, until we can make a considered response to understandable parental anxieties.  This cancellation is because of the frightening attacks at Kunming, and then Urumqi and on Tuesday at Guangzhou.  These raise concerns for the safety and well-being of many people and particularly our students when travelling. The numbers on the school trips had already declined following safety concerns after the national tragedy involving a school trip in Korea.

We are currently looking at potential alternatives and will keep you fully informed.

School Liaison and Management. As the school continues to grow we are gradually developing the management of the school to better reflect the needs of a larger organisation.  This is to improve our efficiency and response to students’ and parents’ needs.

Ms Natalie O’Connor and Mr Jeremy Van are the Deputy Principals who oversee the running of the Primary school and the Primary Years Programme. Mr Robert Muntzer is the Deputy Principal overseeing the Middle and Senior Years Programmes (MYP and SYs).  Under Mr Muntzer will continue to be Ms Elaine Gillick, Head of Secondary and Mr Kris Quigley, MYP coordinator.  The Deputy Principals will deal with many of the issues that emerge in the school on a day to day basis.  I, of course, will continue to oversee the whole school.

If you wish to arrange a meeting with a class teacher please continue to either use the Communication Diary or go through the Liaison office.  If you have an issue you wish to raise please continue as before to go through the Liaison Office in the first instance.  May Liu is temporarily working as Personal Assistant to me and will be the first point of contact for enquiries directed to me and arrange my schedule.

April Hu is taking over May Liu’s role (temporarily) as Liaison Manager.  Lucy Liu will remain the main contact for Korean parents. They are used to dealing with confidential items and often can either answer queries directly or can redirect to the member of staff or Deputy Principal most able to deal with your enquiry. 

For most parents there will be little or no change in current arrangements, but we are confident that we will have clearer lines of management more befitting a larger school.

Read-a-thon. Our second annual Primary Read-a-thon is in the works. We will begin this on Friday, 16th May. The Primary students will then have one month to read for as many minutes as they can at home. Each student, with help from their homeroom teacher, will be coming up with his or her own reading goals to work towards. The Read-a-thon will finish on Friday, 13th June and we will celebrate all of our reading with a special Read-a-thon assembly on Monday, 16th June. Keep your eyes out for an information letter that will be sent home this Friday, 9th May. Let’s READ!

Best regards,

Martin Hughes

 

Forthcoming events

May

Saturday, 10th                             Carnival and Talent Show

Monday, 12th to Friday, 16th   Language Profile testing in English and Chinese (Y7-12)

Friday, 16th                                  Popular Readathon returns for Primary!


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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