Hopefully, by the time you receive this newsletter the situation in Hong Kong with regard to any possible spread of swine flu will have been averted. The school is carrying out the EDB guidelines thoroughly and the school is being rigorously cleaned as per government instructions. The examination hall is being disinfected every day and any students or staff who exhibit flu-like symptoms are being directed to see their doctors. Whatever happens, examinations will continue and students in Y11 and Y13 have already begin this process. We wish them all every success in their final examinations.
Graduation Ceremony
On Thursday, 30th April the Y13 students graduated from Island School. I was very disappointed not to be able to attend but since I was suffering from the flu myself my doctor would not allow it. I know from the many emails that I have received that this was a very special occasion for many of you. This is the first cohort of Island School students to sit the I.B. Diploma and the ESF Advanced Diploma Programme. I know that the evening became very emotional for many staff and students. This has been a journey of discovery for us all and we are incredibly proud of all that this year group has achieved. On behalf of all the staff and students of Island School I would like to add my wishes to the graduating class of 2009 that they enjoy good luck, good fortune and good health in the years ahead. Come back and see us soon and I hope that they will always be as proud that they were a student of Island School as we are of them and will be of their future achievements.
Dai Chem Curry and Quiz Night
Thank you to everyone who took part in the Dai Chem Curry and Quiz Night on Friday, 24th April. It was an epic evening and great fun for all. A profit of $26,587.50 was made and this has been deposited in the Educational Trust Fund for Sian and Deri Evans. I hope that you will all want to come back again next year and support this worthy cause.
Staffing issues
Jonathan Gilchrist, Head of Physics, has been promoted to Head of Science at West Island School so will leave us in June. However, we have been very fortunate to appoint Paul Baynes (who strangely is currently at West Island School) to take over as Head of Physics. Paul has been teaching Physics at W.I.S. for many years and is a very experienced I.B. Teacher. We wish Jonathan every success in his new role and thank him for his contributions to Island School in the past year.
House Guidance Structure 2009-10
The House Structure at Island School will change under the new funding models to schools that were introduced by ESF Centre in 2006 and which come into effect from August 2009. Appointments were made to the new House positions in November 2008. The House positions will be known as Senior Head of House and Head of House. The Senior Head of House holds the same position as the current Head of House but the new Head of House position does not hold this same level of responsibility and is remunerated at a lower level than at present.
The Guidance Team consists of:-
Da Vinci - Kevin Lester (Senior Head of House) and Joanna Rickards (Head of House)
Einstein - Sheila Dewick (Senior Head of House) and Paul Harries (Head of House)
Fleming - Angela Worthington (Senior Head of House)and Philip Tudor (Head of House)
Nansen - Cathryn Hopkins (Senior Head of House) and Guillermo Vezzaro (Head of House)
Rutherford - Pak Chan (Senior Head of House) and Russell Scott (Head of House)
Wilberforce - Kate Sommerville (Senior Head of House) and Jeremy Rowson (Head of House)
The Senior Heads of House also hold Year Responsibilities. The Sixth Form will be overseen by Kevin Lester and Pak Chan. Y11 will be overseen by Sheila Dewick. Y10 will be overseen by Cathryn Hopkins. Y8/Y9 will be overseen by Angela Worthington and Y7 will be overseen by Kate Sommerville.
The Heads of House will have overall responsibility for the pastoral and academic development of two year groups, as well as overseeing the university guidance process for ten students across Y12 and Y13 in the House. The Senior Head of House will have overall responsibility for the pastoral and academic development of the other five year groups.
In 2009/10 the Heads of House will oversee Y7 and Y10 and in 2010/11 they will oversee Y8 and Y9.
In 2009/10 the Senior Heads of House will oversee Y8, Y9, Y11, Y12 and Y13 and in 2010/11 they will oversee Y7, Y10, Y11, Y12 and Y13.
Parents should contact their child’s tutor initially with regard to any concerns they have about their child. The tutor should be the first point of contact. If further contact is needed the parent should contact the Senior Head of House or Head of House responsible for their child’s year group. Contact will no longer be made on the basis of gender i.e. Ms. Rickards as Head of House for Da Vinci will oversee the pastoral and academic guidance for both boys and girls in Y7 and Y10 in 2009/10.
The key to a successful transition into this new structure will be ensuring that lines of communication are clear and that parents contact the correct member of staff to ensure an efficient and effective response to your query. Please make sure, therefore, that the tutor is your first contact and that your relevant Senior Head of House or Head of House is the second. This system will be reviewed in Term 1 of 2011 but your feedback as the year progresses will be very helpful.
Congratulations
There is much to celebrate since my last newsletter.
Congratulations to Clarissa Lyra (8E) who represented Island School in this year’s Hartpury College Inter-school Equestrian Challenge on 25th March.
A large number of Island School boys represented Hong Kong in rugby in April. Alexander Post (9E), James Mason (9R), Michael Coverdale (9W) and Adam Prentice (9W) all played in the Hong Kong Under 14 Development Squad in Singapore between 2nd and 7th of April. Chris Shipman (9N) was also selected but due to an injury could not play. Hunter Frisinger (12D), Ben Kende (12E) and Jun Sing Lee (12R) represented Hong Kong in the Under 18 Development Squad in their tour of Kaoshing, Taiwan between the 2nd and the 11th April. Oliver Billing (11N), James Green (11W), Richard Hope (9D), Flynn Kennedy (10E), James Sue (11R) and Leo Woodward (11E) also represented Hong Kong in the Under 16 Development Squad tour of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between the 4th and 13th April. Congratulations to all these boys – the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union informed me that every one mentioned here had excelled at training and I know that they all played their best on tour.
You will already have read in a previous e-newsletter about the success of the Island School Chinese Debating Team who won all four of their debates at the Inter-school Chinese Debating final. The best debater of the competition was Amanda Zhang (12E). This is a superb result for the team and the school and we hope that this success is built on next year.
Jane Wright (7W) and Claire Frisinger (8D) competed in the 2008-9 Hong Kong Inter-Secondary Schools Gymnastic Competition on 26th April. There were 94 participating schools with 230 girls and 110 boys taking part. Jane and Claire represented Island School in the individual and all-round category at intermediate level. They had to compete in beam, bars, floor and vault. Overall, Jane achieved seventh place and Claire achieved third place in their category. This is a fantastic result and the girls deserve our congratulations.
Finally, Lauren Engel (10E) won a merit award in the 9th Lions International Youth Exchange Scholarship Essay Competition organised by the Award for Young People. Well done, Lauren.
Conclusion
The next eight weeks of school will be very busy as students in Y11 and Y13 complete their external examinations, Y12 students take their internal end of year examinations and we finalise the planning for the next school year. In my final newsletter of the year I look forward to sharing these plans with you.
Michelle Hughes Principal
ESF Chinese Debating Competition
This year, Island School achieved "Grand Slam" by coming first place in the ESF Chinese Debating competition and by Captain and Principal speaker Amanda Zhang (12E) obtaining the title of "Best Speaker".
The team consists of Captain/Principal speaker: Amanda Zhang (12E), First speaker: Evelyn Phoa (10W), Second speaker: Brandon Hwang (12W), Third/Summarizing speaker Geoffrey Leung (12R) and supporting team: Derek J. Leung (13F), Victor Kwong (10W), Keely Kuk (12D), Richard Juan (12D), and Calvin Wu (12F).
Under the lead of Ms. Y.C. Chan, we held court in a total of four debates against Shatin College, West Island, South Island and Renaissance College.
The finals were held in West Island School on April 1st, 2009. It was a tough match against Renaissance College as they came first in last year's competition. However, with exceptional performances from the Island School speakers and supporting team, we won by 93 marks, which is a very high margin.
We would like to thank the Mandarin Department -- especially Ms. Li and Ms. Ma, and also Mr. Stevens for coming to support us for the finals on April 1st. Furthermore, the team would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to Miss Y.C. Chan for her support, belief in us and all the time and effort she committed everyday after school for the practices.
Last but not least, thank you to every single student member of the team who worked extremely hard over the three months.
We hope this legacy will be passed on to the Chinese Debaters of tomorrow.
Island School Debating Team
Diplomas and Higher Education
Higher Education progression was one of the many issues widely discussed during our move to the new ESF Diploma curriculum. In this article I give an overview of the application of our first cohort of Diploma students.
One of the many reasons for offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma was that GCE A Levels have become increasingly inappropriate for our cohort’s higher education progression plans. For UK bound students GCE A level grade inflation meant that it was increasingly difficult for UK universities to differentiate candidates, this problem was particularly acute at the highly selective universities.
A few figures for illustration:
In 2008 26.4% of all GCE A Level grades awarded in the UK were grade A. This made it very difficult for universities to select who to offer places to. Take the University of Bristol as a case in point, in 2008 they received 37,000 applications for 3,200 places, and of those who were made an offer 95% took Bristol as their firm offer. They had over 1,000 people apply for 50 places to study Economics, the majority of these applicants were predicted to achieve 3 A grades in their A levels. Working out whom to offer places to was clearly a very difficult task, and undoubtedly many ‘deserving’ applicants were disappointed.
In 2008 The University of Oxford had 13,388 applicants to undergraduate courses, they accepted 3,170 of these applicants. 98.14% of applicants were A Level students, yet only 87.12% those accepted were A Level students. Why are non-A level students disproportionately represented in those accepted ? Undoubtedly, there are a range of interpolating factors, one factor is that the vast majority of applicants were predicted to achieve 3 A grades at A Level (the standard offer at Oxford) and it has become increasingly difficult for the university to differentiate between these applicants in comparison to non A Level applicants. On 14th August 2008 University of Oxford revealed that over 5,000 of those students rejected by Oxford in 2008 went on to achieve at least 3 A grades at A Level.
We also decided to offer the IB Diploma to improve progression chances to US & Canadian universities. Repeatedly, research shows that IB students have a better chance of being accepted to US & Canadian colleges, are less likely to drop out of their studies, and achieve higher average degree classifications in comparison to students applying with other qualifications. You can read such research here.
Further, those students progressing to North American Universities usually need to show that they have taken courses in their first language and mathematics in their last 2 years of schooling. This was often difficult to demonstrate under the A Level system, but a compulsory part of IB Diploma. Therefore we were confident that the IB Diploma would give our US / Canadian bound students an advantage.
Obviously our first cohort of IB and Advanced Diploma students have now made their applications to universities, and have received most of their offers. The Applied A Level component of the Advanced Diploma continues to be accepted by universities internationally. The IB Certificates (stand alone elements of the IB Diploma) were accepted in N.America, however in the UK these elements were not awarded UCAS tariff points when these students made their applications. In early 2009 UCAS announced that they would now be awarding tariff points for IB Certificates thus rectifying this problem for future Advanced Diploma students.
The vast majority of IB Diploma student’s offers from all countries have been very encouraging. Offers from the US & Canada show that the IB Diploma is widely recognized and highly valued by universities. Some of our students have received unconditional offers from highly prestigious US institutions (obviously these applications are helped by SAT scores and excellent application essays). Many of the UK universities have clearly familiarized themselves with the new UCAS tariff for IB Diploma and have made the students good offers. Whilst we are still analyzing the data, I can tentatively say that certain UK universities seem to stand out as making particularly positive offers to students.
As the Advanced and IB Diploma students take their exams I must congratulate them on their wonderful achievements during the last year, and to wish them well for their exams. I look forward to the publication of their results, which will be the final stage of their journey to university and the world beyond Island School.
Daniel Trump Assistant Principal & Director of Sixth Form
All parents and students are invited to join us on the evening of May 21st from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to find out more about Apple computers and the educational package that enables parents and students to purchase Apple products with a substantial discount.
The event will feature a presentation of the MAC operating system and a chance to view and use a range of Apple products.
Please note that this event is not intended to explore further any issues to do with the schools laptop programme, rather it is a chance to meet with representatives from Apple. Also because of the ongoing IB examinations we will not be able to provide any parking.
Graduation Ceremony
Our current Year 13 formally graduated on Thursday 30th April. At a ceremony held in the hall each student received their graduation certificates and were addressed by Eric Bohm, the chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), Hong Kong. He spoke of a range of sustainability and conservation issues that would challenge the graduating students. He argued that the parallels between internet use and forces for globalization have created a new ‘connectedness’ that had both a positive and negative impact. He commented on how well prepared the class of 2009 were to face the challenges of the 21st century and wished them well.
As usual the stars of the show were our students. Here are two extracts from the addresses by our sixth from students.
Ella Fung, Head Girl:
“I’ll be the first to admit: looking forward, it seems easy to forget. New people, new places – a whole new chapter awaits that make these past seven years seem like an insignificant prologue. But looking back on all that’s happened…growing up together and pulling through together, learning from each other and changing each other… there were times when we laughed together, and times when we cried together. You need only look back on those days to realize how much you will truly miss the people who have been in your life, be it for seven years or one, and it will strike you how very difficult it will be to leave.”
Ariel Kaminsky, School Prefect:
"Thankfully, the time to say our final goodbyes hasn’t come quite yet. As the saying goes, 'The past may be gone forever, but whatever the future holds, our todays make the memories of tomorrow.' I thank you all, for both the memories that I cherish today, and for those yet to be made.
To the teachers of Island School, you’ve inspired, motivated, and encouraged us more then you will ever know. To each of the form tutors, you have been the hand that helped us up the ladder, our direct access to help and support. Together with the heads of houses you have heard our complaints and ‘made it all better’. There really are no words to describe how helpful you have all been, and to those of you who are leaving along with us, take a part of Island school with you as well.
There were other, more silent partners in the IB business venture. The senior leadership team and Mrs. Hughes worked tirelessly to straighten out the kinks and give our year the best opportunities possible. We acknowledge your dedication and support. It might not seem like it sometimes, but our appreciation extends farther then a simple ‘thank you could ever show’.
But the man behind the helpful hands, the one that set up the ladder for us to excel on- was Mr. Trump. Whether it be for a chat, or an hour long rant, or a meltdown, I know Mr. Trumps door was always open. He was always willing to stop his work to debate politics or courses or just general gossip. Although we probably spent most of the two years in arguments about Obama or TOK or speakers hour or our last day, I know you want the best for us and I know that you were the person pushing us up and up and up our ladders to achieve greatness. I can not thank you enough.”
As a component of the English course in Year 9, 9N followed a Scheme of Work based on Film Studies. They had to research and analyse the conventions of horror films, with a view to making their own horror film sequence, where they could practically apply what they had learnt.
The winning sequence (called 'Another Missed Call') was made by Ryosuke Hoshiyama, Go Suzuki, Hinata Ide and Hubert Leung - with an appearance by James Bolland - all of 9N.
The sequence lasts only a little over 5 minutes, so see what you think.
Dai Evans' Curry & Quiz Night
Around 150 people gathered together for a night of great fun, food and competitive spirit at the 2009 Dai Chem Curry & Quiz Night on April 24th – all for a meaningful cause.
18 teams huddled around their quiz papers and put on their thinking caps as they were tested on everything from naming the obscure songwriter to unscrambling film titles. Throughout the night, delicious Indian curry and a smooth flow of drinks were also readily available.
There was no clear winner at times as the ‘Joker Round’ (a bonus round), and the ‘Suicide Round’ (where you receive 0 points if you get a single question wrong) advanced or entirely thwarted team rankings.
By 11pm however, the quiz finally ended with team “Nice to see you, to see you” in the winning position with a total of 99 points.
A profit of $26,587.50 was made from the night, and all of it has been deposited in the Educational Trust Fund for Sian and Deri Evans, children of former IS Head of Chemistry Dai Evans, who passed away in June 2006 following a courageous battle against cancer.
Chartwells News
Chartwells Customer Satisfaction Survey online
Chartwells is conducting an online Customer Satisfaction Survey concerning its catering services at Island School. Your opinions are essential to Chartwells in order for them to provide the best services to you. Please spend a few minutes to participate in the survey by filling in the questionnaire at this link. The survey will be opened between 18 May 2009 and 22 May 2009. Chartwells expresses its gratitude in advance for your participation.
Chartwells now accepts Octopus payment at Island School
Key Dates
Date
Event
Thursday 14th May
Y8 Parents Consultation 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m (all students go home at 1:00 p.m.)
Monday 25th May - Wednesday 27th May
CIS/WASC Team visits Island School for a preliminary visit
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