Merry Christmas

I would like to wish you all a Happy Christmas Holiday - enjoy being with your families.
Nick and I are flying home to England tomorrow so we can not only celebrate Christmas with our family, but also celebrate my parents' 60th Wedding Anniversary. A milestone indeed for 2 wonderful people who have shaped my life and made me who I am. I love them dearly and can't wait to celebrate this wonderful event with them.

Thank you all for the continued support you show me both personally and professionally, you will never really know how much it means to me.
Ruth

Helping parents to find black shoes

The PTA have been working very hard to offer support to parents in sourcing black shoes. I am now pleased to announce that the PTA have found a vendor who is willing to offer what I think is a great service to parents. The Uniform shop will hold one pair of shoes in each size for the 2 styles of shoes you can see on the poster. If the parent than wants to buy the shoes, they will be able to order them and they will be delivered to school.

A huge thank you to the parents who have been working on this initiative, especially Angela, a great project for the parents of the school, and of course I'll be happy because all the children will be wearing the correct black shoes!!

Reports and Enterovirus

Progress Reports

All children between Year 1 and Year 6 will be bringing their progress reports home on the last day of term. Can you kindly note that because the Primary Section is so large now, I have asked my Deputy, Duncan Millward to help me with the reading of the reports. So, this time round, you will see my comments and signature on the reports of the children form Years 1, 3 and 5. and Mr Millward's comments and signature on the reports of the children from Years 2,4 and 6. In June we will reverse this.

Thank you for your understanding with this.

Enterovirus

We are continuing to hear from parents about their children being confirmed with enterovirus, but I do need to inform you, that we only suspend classes of the younger children where there are 3 or more confirmed cases. We follow the guide lines from the Health Authority, and their advice is that as children pass 6 or 7 years old, the disease gets less and less complicated with fewer serious symptoms, so classes can usually carry on as normal. However, it is absolutely critical that even the older children are fully recovered before they return to school. 

Again, another thank you for your support and understanding with this sensitive issue.

The Reverse Christmas Tree and Harmony Homes

We had 2 amazing Reverse Christmas Tree assemblies this morning, one led by Jeni Wong, and the other by myself. This is my favourite school event of the year, and today's assemblies were as moving as last year's! We had some surprise little visitors from Harmony Homes who brought the assemblies and the importance of giving to life as the following photos show:-
First the Infant Assembly:-

 And secondly the Junior assembly:-

Our little visitors stole our hearts, and we raised a huge NT$182,472 for them to take back to their home with them. All these children are affected by HIV, and the money we raised will go towards giving them a normal life as possible.
THANK YOU for your continued generosity, this too touches my heart.

Wearing our PE kit in the colder winter months

As the weather becomes colder, we would like you to dress the children according to the photo:-
Thank you to Maxine and Brenden for being such lovely models!

Please do not put layers  underneath the PE kit as the children can not take under garments off easily when they feel hot or when they are working on the apparatus during PE lessons. 

The Uniform shop now offers you choice of items to put ON TOP OF the PE kit so please visit the shop!

We now stock a light v necked jumper:-

 an improved quality warmer zip up jacket:-

 AND track suit bottoms. The tracksuit bottoms can be worn with either the jumper or the jacket, or both if and when the weather gets really cold. 

SO, PLEASE, NO MORE LAYERS UNDER THE PE KIT!

Many thanks

Key Stage 1 Christmas Show

Dear Year 1 and 2 parents
Because there are so many children in Year 1 and 2 now, we are going to do 2 performances of our Christmas Show this year. Year 1 parents will be able to come on Tuesday 9th December at 1:40, and Year 2 parents will be able to come on  Wednesday 10th December at 1:40. We will send home a ticket with each child this Friday. The Tuesday performance tickets will be yellow and the Wednesday tickets will be red. Each ticket will be a family ticket allowing 2 adults and up to 2 children to come to the show. Parents must remember to bring the ticket to the show on the day, because we will be asking to see them.

If you can not come to the allocated performance, please come to see the office staff who will try to arrange another ticket for you.

Please do not try to bring a third adult with you because we simply do not have the room.
Many thanks for your support.

A couple of 'news falshes'

 Winter Uniform Items Arriving Next Week

Many more winter uniform items will be arriving next week, so Sophie has agreed to open the shop Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th November between 7:30 and 4:00 to enable more parents to come in to purchase the items we have been waiting for - thank you Sophie!

Next event requiring children to wear Tribe t-shirts

Please note that the children do NOT have to wear their Tribe t-shirts this week  (Friday 21st November), but they do need to wear them next week (Friday 28th November).

Sorry for the confusion, but we had to make some calendar adjustments due to some visitors who are coming in to school to work with the children.

FOBISIA Under 11 Sports Team

Dear All

Mr Milner has selected the Under 11 Sports Team that will participate in the FOBISIA games next year, and here is the team:-

Year 4  Girls
Celerina	B4SB
Jessica	B4MF
Katie	B4MF
Leah	B4TH
Sarah	B4TH
Tanya	B4JW
Tia	B4MF   (Substitute)
Year 4  Boys
Valerio	B4SB
Rishabh	B4MF
Juan	B4MF
Varun	B4TH
Neel	B4JW
Steven	B4JW
Ryan	B4SB        (Substitute)
Year 5  Girls
Cecilia	B5LW
Ruby	B5LW
Haruna	B5LW
Manuela	B5CG
Zoe	B5CG
Felicia	B5GR
Jaafua	B5LW       (Substitute)
Year 5  Boys
Alexander	B5CG
William	B5CG
Edward	B5CG
Mark	B5CG
Daniel	B5GR
Aymeric	FCM2
Kavya	B5LW       (Substitute)
Year 6 Girls
Leanna	B6SD
Virginia	B6SD
Esmee	B6KS
Katelyne	B6KM
Leonna	B6KM
Wiktoria	B6KM
Stephanie	B6KM      (Substitute)
Year 6 Boys
Takeru	B6SD
Ethan	B6SD
John	B6KM
Nathan	B6KM
José Ramón	B6KM
Hippolyte	FCM2
Chris	B6SD        (Substitute)

Congratulations to the team - good luck in Jakarta!

Terry Fox Run

What an amazing day we  had yesterday. Firstly we all had the opportunity to listen to Darrell Fox (brother of Terry Fox) speak about Terry, and then we presented him with a cheque for NT$220,000. But the money has continued to come in, and now we are up to over NT$300,000. This is a fantastic amount of money, and I think the response has been huge to the power of the story of Terry's determination. If you fon't know his story, please take the time to google Terry, he was a real hero, and continues to do so much for cancer research although he passed away nearly 35 years ago.

Then in the afternoon from Year 1 to Year 6 took part in the Terry Fox Run - what a wonderful event to be part of:-

The children looked fantastic in their Tribe t-shirts.

Winter Uniform

Dear Parents
Unfortunately there are some delays around getting our Winter Uniform items in to our shop. This is not the fault of anyone, it's just that there have been some issues around the quality of the fabrics of some of our items, and it's taken a while to look at alternatives and make a decision.
Here are the delivery dates that have now been confirmed by our supplier:-

• Long sleeved red polo shirt for Nursery children - in stock NOW

• Long sleeved grey polo shirt for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 - 26th November
• Red V neck light weight sweatshirt for Nursery - 24th November
• Navy V neck light weight sweatshirt for Reception to Year 9 2 -24th November
• Navy zip-up heavy weight winter sweatshirt for Reception to Year 9 - 20th November
• Navy boys' trousers in all sizes - in stock NOW
• Navy girls' bicycle shorts (undergarment) - 20th November

Don't forget that the idea of our newly designed uniform items, is for the children to wear layers on top of their uniform and NOT underneath. It is difficult for the children to self regulate how they are feeling if they can not remove unwanted layers. We want the children to be independent, but if they wear undergarments underneath their uniform, they can not remove them without missing learning time.

Many thanks for your support in making the children look smarter as they learn!

I will let you know as other items arrive, thank you for your patience.

Celebrating our H4 graduates

Well done to the Graduating Class of 2014!

Our University Counsellor Jack Shull, who is based up at our Secondary Campus, has just produced a document celebrating our 2014 IB Diploma results. They are very impressive, so I thought I would share them with you.
Congratulations to the pupils themselves, their parents and all the teachers who over the last 15 years have contributed to the journeys of these wonderful young people. Their Early Years teachers need to be recognised as much as their IB teachers, and as a community we need to celebrate their successes.
Please follow the following link:-

Academic Profile 2014-2015

Playground singing

I thought you would be interested in finding out about a new initiative in school that is being led by our 2 Music specialists - Edith Kao and Patricia Lin, and this is what they wanted me to post to you today:-

"We are hoping to put singing at the heart of the Primary school community through a child led culture of singing games, and encourage the students to celebrate and share their games from home. 

Our aims are to:

1. Enable and encourage all children to play singing games together in the playground. 

2. Have the Song Leaders lead the singing games independently. 

3. Develop children's personal and social skills, in particular being considerate, helpful, kind, empathetic, and working as a part of a team. 

4. Develop children's vocal skills and musicianship."

Edith and Patricia teach the children the songs during normal music lessons, and the children then can lead the singing in the playground. We have a Singing Playground in both playgrounds, the Junior one:-

And one in the Infant playground:-

The special bus stops tell the children where to go if they want to have a sing!

Class and Year Group Shows for the year

2014-15 Show Schedule

Due to pressure on the amphitheatre, we are trying to spread out the Shows throughout the year, as opposed to having them all squashed in to the Christmas period or the end of the year. We have already had the Year 2 show, but I thought you would appreciate having the show schedule for the whole year:-

Wed 29 Oct 2014 13:40 – 14:40 Year 5 Show

Wed 12 Nov 2014 13:40 – 14:40 Year 3 Show

Tue 9 Dec 2014 13:40 – 14:40 KS1 Christmas Show

Wed 10 Dec 2014 13:40 – 14:40 KS1 Christmas Show

Thu 11 Dec 2014 11:00 – 12:00 Foundation Stage Christmas Show

Wed 25 Mar 2015 13:40 – 13:50 Year 4 Show

Wed 29 Apr 2015 13:40 – 14:40 Year 1 Show

Fri 1 May 2015 18:30 – 19:30 EPC Primary Music Concert (Y2-Y6)

Thu 28 May 2015 13:40 – 14:50 Reception Show

Tue 2 Jun 2015 11:00 – 12:00 Nursery Show

Wed 10 Jun 2015 13:40 – 14:40 Year 6 Leavers Assembly

The Year 2 Show was wonderful, and I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the shows as the year unfolds. 

Really fantastic Show Year 2 - well done! 

Swimming lessons

Years 3 to 6 are now in the swing of their swimming lessons, and I thought you would like to see some photos of the facilities they are now enjoying next door at the Judges' Academy. Patricia Tzeng and Steven Milner have been very busy 'negotiating' the use of their wonderful swimming pool, and it is now my pleasure to share these photos with you :-

The children are able to walk to the pool which obviously cuts down on travelling costs and time, but more importantly, the pool is so new and so clean. It really is an exciting thing to be happening, and we are very grateful to all those people who have worked hard to make this happen.

Chess Competition Winners

Mr Fagg has been very busy over the last few weeks organising an internal chess championship. The competition is now over, but I thought you would like to know the winners, so here they are:-

TES Year 1 Chess Champion – Jason                    Serow  B1.1

TES Year 2 Chess Champion – Stephen              Gecko B2.2

TES Year 4 Chess Champion – Brendon             4TH     B4.3               

TES Year 5 Chess Champion – Alex                  5CG    B5.2

TES Year 6 Chess Champion – Shu An              6SD     B6.1

TES Year 3 and  Overall TES Primary Chess Champion – Ethan           3AL B3.2

 Well done to all our winners, and a big thank you to Mr Fagg who gave up his own precious time to organise the competition - you're a winner too Mr Fagg!

Beate's wedding

As you know Nick and  I attended Beate's wedding in Kansas City over the half term holiday. Beate was a teacher in the Nursery for 3 years, but she left in June. It was a beautiful wedding, and I thought you would like to see a few photos, so here they are:-

 

She is now happily married and happily settled in to her new life just outside Kansas City. She hopes to start teaching again in the new year. It was wonderful to be able to share her special day.

Busy Time coming up

Dear Parents
School feels a very busy place at the moment so I thought you might like a few dates to put on your calendars:-

• Parent Evening - Wednesday 22nd October
• Week beginning Monday 27th October - Book Week with Halloween Dress Up Day on the Friday 
• School closed - Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th November for staff training
• Terry Fox Fund Raising Run - Thursday 13th November (more details to follow) Please note that this is a change of date to the one on the PSC Calendar
• Open Week - Monday 17th November to Friday 21st November (more details to follow)
• Tribe Assembly Nursery to Year 6 - Friday 21st November (children to wear their tribe t-shirts)
• Reverse Christmas Tree - Friday 5th December (more details to follow)
• Friday 19th December - Last day of school and Christmas Parties for Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2

We also have many shows taking place between now and Christmas so look at the Class Blogs for details!

Merit certificates

I thought you would like to have some information about our Merit system that we use to reward good behaviour, good attitude to learning and good work.

Basically the children have to collect merits, and when they get 50 they receive a Bronze certificate, a further 50 (total 100) a Silver Certificate and a further 50 (150 in total) a Gold Certificate. We gave our our first Bronze certificates last week, and another couple today.

By gaining a certificate, the children also collect points for their 'Tribe' - Ami, Bunan, Paiwan and Rukai, and when we count up all the points just before the Tribe Assemblies (next one Friday 21st Assembly), the children become very excited about what tribe may have collected the most points.

If your child brings home a Merit certificate, please celebrate this with them as it is quite an achievement, and ask them tonight how many merits they have collected already!

Have a great mid-Autumn break next week. Nick and I are off to Chicago and Kansas City to attend Beate's wedding. Many of you will know Beate, as she was one of the teachers in Nursery. She left in June to start a new life in America with her future husband.