Year 7 Museum Display - written by Mr Luke Harris.  For the past fortnight our Year 7 students were busy creating a Museum Display Summative for their Individuals and Societies class. For this assessment, the students were tasked to create a fictional civilization and create two primary source objects from their chosen period of time.

The students demonstrated their knowledge on a variety of concepts from our Ancient Civilisations unit, focusing on the key concept of time, place and space and the related concept of innovation and revolution, exploring geographic, economic, linguistic, and historical ideas.

On Friday May 19, they presented their projects to the students and teachers. Many teachers complimented their work, saying what a great job they had done, and it was great for the Year 7s to be the centre of attention of the entire secondary school.

The students had fun and showed their learning in a way that illustrated a number of MYP and IB objectives, especially developing inquiry skills that lead towards conceptual understanding the relationships between individuals, societies and the environment in which they live. Well done Year 7!

Amazing achievements from our Year 3 students! - written by Ms Emma Colling, Year 3 Teacher.  It is wonderful to share the amazing achievements of our 3A class following our recent Unit of inquiry into plants. The students took the initiative to engage in a number of actions that showcased their enthusiasm for learning and their commitment to making a positive impact on our environment. We couldn’t be prouder of their accomplishments!

One of the highlights of our unit was the creation of a charming scarecrow. With great teamwork, a small group of students collaborated using recycled materials to design and construct this friendly guardian, who now stands proudly in our outdoor learning space.

In addition to the scarecrow, our students set up a worm farm and learned about the valuable role worms play in breaking down organic matter.

To further enhance the soil in the garden, the students actively participated in maintaining a compost bin – collecting food scraps from teachers and student snacks as well as bringing in food scraps from home.

As part of their plant and garden-focused inquiry, a number of students chose to plant sunflower seeds and they carefully nurtured them. Witnessing the growth process firsthand allowed them to deepen their understanding of the plant life cycle. The students also have lovingly tended to tomato and lettuce plants, eagerly awaiting the harvest.

Gratitude must be extended to Mr. John, our Secondary design teacher, who helped us in the construction of the garden bed boxes.

Students also helped plan our unit celebration held on Tuesday afternoon, writing and translating the speech and nominating themselves to speak to the parents. This showcased their confidence, communication skills, and inclusive and supportive community we strive to foster in our classroom.

Recently our mathematics focus has been fractions. The students measured and divided ingredients to make delicious vegetable pizzas and shared them with their parents during the celebration, along with refreshing lemon juice and watermelon juice.

The students sent handwritten invitations home and shared a suggestion to parents to bring an umbrella for the sunshine or rain. Thankfully parents came well prepared, so despite the rain the learning share was still successful. It was inspiring to witness the student’s organizational skills and sense of responsibility when bringing their event together.

The School Carnival Needs You! - written by Mr Jonathan Knibloe.  Saturday, June 10th from 10:00 am until 2:30 pm is the Hanova School Carnival!  Once a year, we like to bring the school community together to celebrate the school year and enjoy the summer weather.  However, to make it the best Carnival we can – we need your help! Hanova will be raising money for the Chunshan Education Charity, hosting a community talent show, and holding a yard sale – on top of games, vendors, crafts, and prizes – it is a wonderful time of year.

We are looking for volunteers for the School Talent Show and families who want to bring items to sell at our schools Yard Sale!  For the talent show, we would like to invite the students and the parent community to sign up and showcase your talents!  Can you play an instrument? Can you dance or jump or juggle or do magic?  We are looking for you to sign up and show the world just how talented you are!

The other part about this time of year is there are lot of families who are on the move, doing some cleaning around the apartment or simply looking to find a home for old items. We would like to invite you to sign up for the yard sale.  The more Hanova members we can sign up and invite the better and ask yourself a couple questions – do we have any old toys that we can find a home for?  What about an old sweater or cupboard or bike or rice maker that can still help others?  It is important to remember that whatever you bring, and it doesn’t sell, you will also want to be able to bring home with you. Sign up, bring it in and let’s see what we can do!

We hope to see all of you there!  The more people who can come, the better it will be, because it is a wonderful way to prepare for summer!

‘You’ve been Heard’ - Student Survey Feedback - written by Ms Amy Hou, MYP Coordinator.  You will recall that we asked our community - students, parents and staff - to undertake surveys on April 2023. The Pedagogical Leadership team has been busy going through the answers and have decided to share our findings from the survey, like what we did with the last survey issued on October 2021.

Therefore, we would like to start with the student survey findings, so that our students can be better supported in their school life.

There are a few highlights from the student survey.

First of all, around 60% of our students selected “Yes” with the question of “Do you understand the IB learner profile”, we have found out that more and more students felt their understanding of the learner profile is increasing. We also realized that the school should keep organizing more learning activities to promote the understanding of the Learner Profile.

Furthermore, even though there is only 43% of students in MYP and DP that felt supported with subject choices, this number has increased 23% from the last survey. We would assume this is a great step to support our students academically and the school will continue to learn about students’ needs to make further improvements.

Lastly, we have found that 59% of our students saw themselves being able to engage in learning, as well as being able to reflect and share their learning. They are also happy with teachers’ timely and effective feedback.

Meanwhile, there are always areas for growth at Hanova.

Firstly, the communication of school policies is always a challenge at Hanova, with only 23% of students knowing where to access the IB mandated policies. The PLT has been reflecting on how to raise students’ awareness of different school policies and this is listed as one of the school’s strategic goals for next year. Some of the actions taken may be more information sessions on school policies and a simplified Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be shared and signed with all students.

Secondly, only 27% of students selected “Yes” and 41% of students selected “Maybe” on the question “How effective is the student forum in conveying their message to the school managers?” We have realized that we need to create a more effective channel for students to share their ideas and concerns.

We hope that sharing survey highlights as well as areas for growth underscores our determination to make Hanova a better school! We want all of our students to feel supported in their education journey at Hanova. We will also be publishing our findings from parents and staff surveys!