Dear Parents and Friends,
Another week passed, taking us all one step further to the end of the school year. Hereafter the news and the activities information related to this week:
MYP Personal Projects. As a culminating exercise to their Personal Project journey – a key element in the MYP – all of our Year 11 students gave short presentations on their own experiences on Friday 22nd. This year we had a wide range of topics covered as well as forms of products. Topics ranged from Chinese and Western Medicine, Motivation, House Building, Business, History of Chinese Characters, Technical Innovations, Genetically Modified Os, Fashion and Anorexia. Students made web pages, wrote essays, produced movies and made e-books. All of Year 11 students produced and delivered excellent presentations to students from Year 12 and Year 10, as well as to their supervisors and other members of staff. All students have learned a lot form this process and the number one recommendation they made to their Year 10 colleagues (who will do it next year) was to manage their time well. We will upload samples of these presentations to our parents’ site on Managebac in the near future.
IGCSE Exams. The IGCSE exams start on the 26th of April with International Mathematics. We will be running examinations on various days until the 10th of June when the last exam of Economics is held. This is the first time they are offered at Hanova and I am sure you will join in with me in wishing our Y11 IGCSE candidates the best of luck in these important examinations.
Sports Day. Our yearly Interhouse Sports Day – in its new format – was stopped on Friday 15th because of the rain. On Friday 15th we began with a 2 km race around Bodi sports field, a very challenging event for our secondary students, many of who are not used to such distances! There was a very competitive battle between Collins and Alessandro, both in Year 12, both adopting very different tactics. In the end, Collins’ patience paid off and he won the race in just over 7 minutes. The girls’ race was no less exciting with Amee (Year 11) having to set her own pace as the lone girl up front: she was determined and ran away with the race in just over 10 minutes. A surprising second position with Amina (Year 7), showing the school’s promising future! The remaining program has been carried out this week on Tuesday 19th.
On Tuesday, our youngest early years students started with a “Grand Prix”, proudly riding their bicycles around the court circular track. Then PYP students competed in various athletics events such as: running, throwing and jumping. In the afternoon they continued with sack races and three-legged races where the emphasis was on fun together with sporting prowess. At the end, all students from nursery to Year 6 offered a dance routine thoroughly completed for the pleasure of the audience. The Primary results gave the trophy victory to the HAN House.
The Secondary events on Tuesday, thanks to the excellent weather, allowed to run the full schedule of for all competitors, which ensured fast and furious rivalries between friends from different Houses, from 100 to 800 meters and all the other sports challenges. There was great determination from all the athletes, cheered by their “House mates”, with every individual victory celebrated by every entire House. The finale of the day saw an exciting relay challenge between teachers and students teams, with everyone else cheering.
The secondary results were as follows: Song 609; Han 553; Qin 509; Tang 428.
A big thank you to all the parents who came to support their children, to all the teachers and staff who helped make it such a memorable day, to the PE Department for all their hard work and preparation, and last but not least to all the students for “giving their all”.
Book Fair. The Library has organized with Beijing Star Kids Children’s Bookstore our annual Book Fair on 18th and 19th April this year on our campus. It was a good success, with students spending more time in the Library to read and purchase great English books.
PYP Communication. A letter for Primary School parents has been prepared, to update on roles and responsibilities in the PYP programme and to provide guidelines for effective communications. In fact, one of the best ways that parents and teachers can help their students to succeed in school is to communicate well. We all want our communication with parents to be positive and for teachers and parents to be courteous partners in their students’ learning. A way to accomplish this goal is to keep the lines of communication open in various ways throughout the year. Communication is a two way process from teacher to parent and back again. It’s important that the process is used to address concerns and to celebrate successes.
PYP Assemblies. The assembly schedule for the rest of the semester is as follows:
- Friday 22nd April – Year 4
- Friday 29th April – International Day Assembly
- Friday 20th May – Nursery
- Friday 3rd June – Year 2 and Reception
- Friday 10th June – Year 5
- Friday 17th June – End of the Year Assembly led by the PYP Coordinators
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The year 6 students will present their Exhibition on Thursday 26th May and Friday 27th May. More details will follow closer to these dates. Parents are invited to come along and enjoy the effort that the students will put into each of these assemblies and presentations.
International Day. On Friday, April 29th the school will celebrate International Day, to recognize all the nationalities we have in our campus and to promote our International Mindedness, a key characteristic of IB schools and students. Letters have been sent to parents to ask for help and contributions, while the final program will be communicated this coming week.
ECA Block 3. ECA Block 3 started on Wednesday, April 20th and will continue until the end of May. We remind that Wednesday school activities will finish at 4:30pm and buses will leave accordingly.
Education Out Of The Classroom Activities. Primary and Secondary School are planning our residential Education Out of The Classroom Activities for this school year. Please pay attention to briefings sent to parents and reply to the homeroom teachers as soon as possible with the required information.
School Uniforms. We remind to parents again that students should be in school uniform. If you have any problem please don’t hesitate to contact our Liaison officer Ms. Yang (zena.yang@his-xian.com).
Next School Year. We will publish this week the calendar for the 2016-2017 school year. If you have any inquiry about dates and programmes please contact our Liaison officer Ms. Yang (zena.yang@his-xian.com).
Security. A reminder about our strengthened security measures on campus, as we communicated with specific emails and letters to all parents and staff. Parents’ and visitors’ access will be more regulated on campus and please make sure to send the requested photo to our Liaison officer Ms. Yang (zena.yang@his-xian.com).
Upcoming Events. Please take note of these upcoming events during the month of April and May:
- Wednesday, April 29th International Day
- Friday, May 20th Year 13 Graduation Assembly
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Thanks again for your continuing support.
Yours,
Francesco Masetti-Placci
