Even given the current weather, on behalf of all the Hanova staff, may I convey a warm welcome back to all our students and parents. We hope you all had a restful and enjoyable holiday break and we wish you all a healthy and happy 2019.
It’s only a week into the new semester, but already our students are busy achieving new things. In order for us to be better prepared for 2019, below are some important whole school dates – PYP, MYP and Diploma – for the second semester up to the end of the academic year.
January
Thursday, 17th January Year 13 Extended Essay ‘Viva Voce’
Friday, 18th January Years 9 – 11 IB Diploma Information Workshop
Thursday, 31st January Year 13 IB DP Parent Teacher Conferences
Wednesday/Thursday, 30/31 January Primary School 3 Way Conferences
February
Friday, 1st February Year 13 IB DP Reports 2/5 (full) issued
Monday – Friday, 4th– 15th February CNY Holidays
Monday – Thursday, 18th– 28th Feb Year 13 ‘Mock’ Diploma Examinations
March
Friday, 1st March Year 11 MYP Personal Project Exhibition
Friday, 8th March Year 12 IB DP Reports 1/2 (interim) issued
Friday, 15th March MYP Interim Reports issued
Wednesday, 20th March MYP PTS Conferences
Tuesday, 26th March Year 13 IB DP Reports 2/6 (full) issued
April
Monday – Friday, 1st– 5th April Qingming Festival Holidays
Monday, 15th April Year 13 Study Leave (granted not given)
Friday, 19th April Sports Day
May
Wednesday, 1st May May Day Holiday
Monday – Thursday, 6th – 23rd May Year 13 IB Diploma Examinations
Thursday/Friday, 9/10 May PYP Year 6 Exhibition
Friday, 17th May Primary School SLC
Friday, 24th May Year 13 Graduation
Monday – Thursday, 27th– 30th May Year 11 MYP Examinations
June
Saturday, 1st June School Carnival
Thursday, 6th June PYP Second Semester Reports
Friday, 14th June Year 12 IB DP Reports (full) issued
MYP Second Semester Reports issued
Last Day of School
News from Secondary School. Welcome back to students and parents after the winter break. As expected, the weather has become much colder over the break so please ensure that your child is wearing sufficient warm clothing. When at school students are expected to be wearing the correct school jacket. Please ensure that your child is dressed correctly.
Elections are occurring for our student leaders with Year 12 required to do presentation speeches to the rest of the secondary school. I would like to wish them well in their elections.
Year 13 Information. Parent/teacher/student conferences for Year 13 students will be held on Thursday 31stJanuary on the 3rdfloor of the main building. The reports will be issued the next day on Friday 1st,February. The final school examinations for Year 13 – the IB Diploma ‘mock’ examinations – will be held immediately after the Chinese New Year break, beginning on Monday 18thFebruary.
IB Diploma Programme Information meeting. This is on Friday 18 January at 2pm in the auditorium. Students and their parents in Years 9, 10 and 11 are expected to attend as important information about the subjects available will be given. As well information about the requirements of university courses will be given and how that could affect option choices. I strongly encourage all parents to attend.
IB Diploma Predicted Grades (PG). Parents of students in the IB Diploma Programme – especially in Year 13 – are aware that their teachers and core component coordinators in TOK, CAS and Extended Essay will be evaluating their performance and their predicted final grades.
Below is a guide for how these predicted grades are awarded; the extract comes from our IB Diploma Assessment and Reporting Policy 2018.
In addition to the official IB Diploma Predicted Grades (PG), Hanova periodically collates students’ subject and Core Component estimated grades and uses these as basis of school-based predicted grades. These are used primarily for students’ university and college applications.
Predicted grades – official IB and school-based – are based upon several factors, depending upon the time of year they are collated. These are should be optimistic but realistic.
Some of these factors are:
- Current actual achievement of students’ summative assessments, particularly end of year and ‘mock’ examinations.
- All completed and on-going Internal Assessment (IA)
- Current status of ongoing formative assessment
- Current status of curriculum coverage
- Candidate’s aptitude, work ethic, study skills and ability
- Achievement trends to date
- Teacher evaluation of the student’s future performance in the various assessment components
- Any learning disabilities
School-based predicted grades are updated and collated three times over the course of the Diploma Programme according to early and regular university applications. However, subject to the authorization of the IB Diploma Coordinator, an individual student’s predicted grade may be changed if there is a significant improvement or decline in performance. Only the subject teacher concerned may make this request.
School-based predicted grades are kept confidential by the IB Coordinator, the University and Careers Counsellor (UCC) and IB Administrator. Upon written request from parents, the University and Careers Counsellor will send the predicted grades directly to the university concerned provided that they have been given the appropriate contact information. Predicted grades should closely align with actual grades when they are released.
University Acceptance Information. Congratulations to our Y13 graduating class on receiving the offer from Hong Kong University. HKU has good reputation in global and according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) world university rankings in 2019, it is ranked as No. 25 worldwide. It is also ranked as No.2 in QS for Asia university rankings. HKU is the best university in Hong Kong and China.
News from Primary School.
Early Years ‘Jolly Phonics’ workshop for parents. This event is open to all our parents in Early Years (Nursery, Reception, Year 1, Year 2).
We would like to invite you to a Jolly Phonics Information Session for parents. Phonics is a key building block toward reading and writing independently, but it is very different from the way we as adults were taught to read and write. Because of this, we would like to introduce parents to the curriculum, explain why we decided to implement it, how it is implemented in our various classrooms, and how you can help your child at home.
Please join us on Tuesday January 22nd at 2:20pm to learn more about our phonics program and how you can help your child become an independent reader and writer at home. We will send a QR code to your WeChat for you to record your attendance early next week. We hope to see you all at the meeting!
The Story of Star By Constance Zhang- Year 4. This is the story of how we got Star. Ms. L, the drama teacher, saw a little cage with a littler hamster inside. Ms. Sierra asked Ms. L to keep the hamster for Year 4’s class pet. The very next day Ms. L brought Star into our classroom. Everyone in Year 4 was excited, even I was excited!! But after a few days, Mr. Rob, our principal said “It’s not a good idea to keep Star”. We got to work writing letters to persuade Mr. Rob to let us keep her. After one week Mr. Rob said we CAN keep our CLASS PET!
I felt so happy!
Thanks again for your continuing support.
Yours,
Robert C. Muntzer
Upcoming Events
Please take note of these dates. As soon as they are confirmed, we will inform you about any additional events and activities that may take place in the following weeks:
Friday, 18thJanuary IB Diploma Information Workshop for Years 9 to 11
Tuesday, 22ndJanuary Early Years ‘Jolly Phonics’ Parents meeting
Thursday, 31stJanuary Year 13 IB DP Parent Teacher Conferences
Wednesday/Thursday, 30/31 January Primary School 3 Way Conferences
Friday, 1st February Year 13 IB DP Reports 2/5 (full) issued
Friday, 1st February PYP Chinese New Year Assembly
Monday – Friday, 4th– 15thFebruary CNY Holidays.
Monday – Thursday, 18th– 28thFebruary Year 13 ‘Mock’ IB Diploma Examinations
