Welcome back to school after the long break and Happy New Year!
We just entered into the Year of the Monkey, which is thought to be positive and optimistic. Monkeys traditionally are considered inventive and creative, playful and entertaining, productive and energetic, clever and tenacious – in a word, capable to get what they want for them and their families. We all wish to see these positive traits in every student of our school!
Chinese New Year Celebrations. We closed the January lessons on Friday 29th January with a great day of celebrations for the Chinese New Year to celebrate this important festival in our school on Friday 29th January.
In the morning we enjoyed the performances of our Primary students, especially the Beijing Opera songs, all dresses colorfully with Chinese traditional clothes. Then, our guest artists carried out a wonderful Shadow Puppets show, a cultural heritage of Shaanxi province which is also part the intangibles list of Unesco. The fun and learning continued in the classrooms, where all students were involved in activities related to the Chinese culture.
The Secondary students engaged into House competitions related to Chinese culture topics. The Calligraphy Competition, which was superbly organised by the teachers in our Chinese Department. Every student, and a few teachers tried their hand at calligraphy writing and our judges selected Micah (from Han) and Penguin (from Tang) as the winners. Afterwards, the Imperial Nibbles Competition was an outstanding success: each house prepared a feast fit for an Emperor and explained the symbolism and significance behind every dish they had on display. Han, Tang and Song impressed us all by making everything on the table, and so earned themselves 5 bonus points each! After the presentations, the fantastic food was shared by all the students and some of the teachers!
The whole day program ended with a traditional acrobatic Chinese lion dance in our dragon court: a fantastic show to complete a fantastic day!
Our sincere thanks for this day go to Mrs. Julia Zhou and the Pastoral Coordinators for the organization of the day, to all the Teachers involved in the activities and as judges, especially our Teachers of Chinese, to Mrs. Amy Hou for contacting the lion dance artists, to all the enthusiastic students involved in these celebrations and to all the parents who have spent the day with us in school.
Bodi Football. Hanova hosted our neighbours Bodi for a football match for our Primary students. It was a free flowing match with end to end action. Hanova proved too strong for the opposition and ran out 7 - 1 winners. Congratulations to all the boys who took part, and many thanks to all the Hanova students who have cheered our home team.
Model United Nations. Hanova International School will join the 10th session of Nanyang Technological University Model United Nations (NTUMUN), organized in Singapore to simulate the biggest and most important international body. Since its conception in 2006, NTUMUN has grown and this time it will take place from 19th to 21st February in the beautiful NTU university campus. The NTUMUN organizing committee will do everything in its power to maintain the conference's impressive reputation by continuing to offer the most competitive and academically stimulating conference on the circuit to its delegates from around Asia – including some of our students from Year 10 to Year 12. If you need additional information, please contact Mrs. Nicoletta Masetti (nicoletta.masetti@his-xian.com) .
PYP Trainings. From Monday 15th February to Friday 19th February, several of the Primary teaching staff will be involved in Professional Development. However, the School will also ensure excellent academic activities to all the Primary students. As a result, some changes, especially to the English Acquisition, will take place during the week and some classes will have different homeroom teachers on 18th and 19th February.
Sorry for this inconvenience, but everything will be return back to normal from Monday 22nd February. If you need additional information, please contact Jessica Wang and thank you for your kind understanding.
TED Talks. Our Year 9 English Acquisition class, taught by Mr. Randy Welch – is currently doing a unit on “Going Global” and did a report on a TED Talk given by a successful businessman, Jason Fried – the co-founder of Basecamp and other web-based collaboration tools. They enjoyed listening to his viewpoints and some did some research about who he is. Mr. Welch was able to establish a direct online contact with Jason Fried and sent him the students’ reports: Jason Fried responded, and was happy to receive them. What great recognition for our students – well done!
Board Game Day. The Second Hanova Board Game Day was well attended in January. This Saturday, 20th February, from 10:00 to 14:00, all Secondary School students are invited again to the school’s third Board Game Day. Come and enjoy your chance to play your favourite board game and learn how to paint Warhammer miniatures. Feel free to bring games, snacks and drinks for the day. For any information, please contact Mr. Bonke (chris.bonke@his-xian.com), who will ensure the organization and supervision of the day.
Upcoming Events. Please take note of these last upcoming events during the month of January:
- Marcus Meadham, our DP Coordinator will have an information session on Extended Essays for all DP parents on Wednesday 17th February at 3.45 pm in the auditorium. Right after, Year 12 students will also make a presentation on what they did for their Group 4 (Science) Project carried out on 29th January.
- Third Hanova Game Day on Saturday 20th February, from 10:00am to 2:00pm.
- Joseph Hamkari, our MYP Coordinator will have an information session on Service and Action for all MYP parents on Wednesday 2nd March at 3.45 pm in the auditorium.
Thanks again for your continuing support.
Yours,
Francesco Masetti-Placci
