DBIS News

March News

3 March 2011

Dear Parents

Kindergarten News:  Tomorrow morning is our Kindergarten Sports Day.  All of our students and staff have been practising hard to get ready for the games and we are hoping for the very best of weather.  Should the weather not be on our side, we have Friday 11 March as our back up day. Have fun everyone!


Next Tuesday morning it is the Nursery Open Day for prospective parents of students for the 2011 / 2012 academic year.  This will be followed by the Nursery Orientation Evening for prospective parents on Tuesday 15 March.  These events give new parents an opportunity to see the Nursery in action and to find out information about the organisation of our school.


New IPC topics are coming up for Nursery (Shopping) and Reception (Changes) so keep a look out for updates on our class noticeboards and web pages in the coming weeks.  Jane Hendley – Head of Kindergarten

Year 5 Production:  Our very talented Year 5 team have mounted yet another stunning production this year.  The Disney version of Alice in Wonderland opened last night, presenting an outstanding evening’s entertainment of acting, singing and dancing from a cast of over ninety very talented students.  I am always amazed as to how the productions all seem to lift to yet another level each year.  Last night’s production was no different.  The energy and abilities on show presented a level of quality entertainment from everyone involved.

The performances by our students were matched by the set, backdrop, colourful make up and simply fantastic costumes.  The talents and capacity of our parents was showcased yet again, allowing our students to come to life in their respective roles.  Thank you so much to the array of parents who contributed in so many ways to this production.

The great work of our staff was again exemplified in last night’s performance.  Linda Pryce, Amber Walker, Kelly Metcalfe and Jason Edwards worked brilliantly in preparing our Year 5 students.  Their efforts were superbly complemented by our specialist music staff: Ben Walker, Tanya Balka, Vincent Bradley and assisted by Gill Bredbury.  The detailed singing, choreography, direction and production were most professional and we are also very grateful for the wonderful technical organisation and support of Man Yu, our Property Manager.

On behalf of our school community – thank you to everyone involved or associated with our Year 5 production this year.  We look forward to another great show this evening.

Website calendar: There is now an ‘iCal’ button sitting alongside our school website calendar.  If you click on this link it will download a calendar file that you can import into your iCal calendar.  The link will also work with some other calendar versions such as Google, Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Lightning calendars.  We hope this feature will assist you in keeping track of planned school events.

Instructions for activating the iCal application:

For Google Calendar:
 Right click (Mac: cmd-click) on the icon and select "Save as..." (or equivalent), and save.
 Then follow these instructions: http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=37118

For Apple iCal, Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Lightning:
 Right click (Mac: cmd-click) on the icon and select "Copy link URL" (or equivalent).
 Then follow these instructions: http://mcb.berkeley.edu/academic-programs/seminars/ical-feed-instructions/
(for this one,replace their URL with the one you've just copied).

The Great DBIS Uniform Trade Off:  To encourage recycling and reusing of uniform items, we will be running our School’s first Uniform Trade Off on Friday March 18.  The idea is that you can send along uniform items that your children have grown out of and make them available for other families to access.  You can also come along and collect items for your children in the sizes you need. Details and guidelines are attached to this newsletter.

 The Great Uniform Trade Off Information 

Scooters Taken from School:  In the past two weeks we have had two scooters taken from school.  Sometimes we have scooters taken by mistake and returned when the mix up is realised.  In the two recent cases, both scooters have remained missing.  I can only assume that these scooters were taken by people not associated with our school, as I am sure that parents would notice a different scooter arriving at home.  One scooter, along with the safety helmet, was taken from our Primary / Secondary bike rack while the other scooter was taken from within our school grounds (this scooter has our student’s name and telephone number at the bottom of the scooter).

Could you please check to see your child’s correct scooter is safely at home when it should be.  Please be sure to name your child’s scooter and provide an appropriate lock for your child to secure it to one of our bicycle racks – thank you.

Inter schools Chess competition:  On Sunday 27 February, four DBIS boys represented our school at the inter schools chess competition at KGV school.  Tiarnan Neville (Y5) and Ruaidhri Neville (Y3) along with Nicholas Crampton (Y5) and Morgan McLean (Y5) spent the entire day playing competitive chess – an intense experience!  The boys did very well indeed with three out of four boys winning many of their matches.  The remaining player was placed in a very difficult band and played against much more experienced players but all of them enjoyed themselves.  Many thanks to Dana Winograd and Tony Crampton for accompanying our team, well done everyone!

Sports Update:  Our Year 6 team enjoyed a tough and very close game on Sunday, eventually prevailing 17 – 15 against Hong Kong Cricket Club in their Sunday League.

The U12 (our Year 7 students) Junior Netball League team competed on Monday 21 and Monday 28 February.  So far they have played in two of these training tournaments with four games at each tournament.  After a slow start on 21 February when we lost all games, our team came back stronger with some great results this week. They had a close game against CIS and lost 3-2.  This was followed by a draw with KGV and then a convincing win of 6-2 against WIS.  Congratulations to all players.  Our player of the tournament on Monday was Chanel Niven. 

Our U14 team built on a record result when they won 63 – 2 against Australian International School on Sunday by posting another good win over DGS by 36-0 yesterday.  Our U14 team went from strength to strength with consistent and impressive skill execution by all players.  Cooper Murphy made some outstanding moves and was named player of the match.  The team take on the “Meteors” in the U18 plate competition this Sunday. They top the HKNA league so far.

Read to Feed:  I am very happy to announce that after all the money has been collected in from the Read to Feed sponsorship, we have managed to raise the fantastic sum of $39,000 for Heifer International.  This is a wonderful effort from our School community and together with the fact that HSBC will match our total amount, I’m sure we will be able to make a huge difference to the families in need in the Yunnan province.


Once again many thanks for all your help and support in “Reading to Feed”.  Kate Basford - Librarian

Money Found:  A sum of money was found yesterday afternoon near our School pitch.  One of our students handed the money in, which is being held in our School Office.  Please see Jean if you think you lost a sum of money at School yesterday.

Upcoming Events in March:

Friday 4 March

• Year 4 DB habitat walk
• KG sports day

Tuesday 8 March

• Primary School Athletics Day (Y3-6)
• Nursery open day

Friday 11 March

• Back up KG sports day

Saturday 12 March

• CIS Road race

Monday 14 March

• Year 1 Open Morning
• Reception parent teacher conferences

Tuesday 15 March

• Nursery orientation parent meeting
• Year 8 & 9 to the HK Literary Festival
• Reception parent teacher conferences

Wednesday 16 March Year 5 parent meeting – 6:30 pm

• Year 7 to the HK Literary Festival
• Year 6 to the HK Literary Festival
• Reception parent teacher conferences
• Year 2 Open Morning

Thursday 17 March Year 6 speech competition

• Year 3 Open Morning
• Visiting author - Sarah Brennan
• Reception parent teacher conferences

Friday 18 March

• HK Tag Rugby Championship
• Reception parent teacher conferences

Monday 21 March

• Reception parent teacher conferences

Tuesday 22 March

• Year 1 Buildings & Structures Trip (LB / EL)
• Reception parent teacher conferences

Wednesday 23 March

• Reception parent teacher conferences

Thursday 24 March

• DBIS Beach Touch Tournament
• Reception parent teacher conferences

Friday 25 March

• Visiting author - Jan Latta
• Year 1 Buildings & Structures trip (FW / KW)
• Reception parent teacher conferences
• DBIS beach rugby tournament

Wednesday 30 March Y5 EOTC days

• Beacon Hill mixed basketball tournament

Kind regards

Grant Ramsay

Principal

Community Notices

Disclaimer - The following notices are presented as a community service.  While the content is proofed and generally summarised, it is important to state that the information contained in these Community Notices in no way reflects Discovery Bay International School policy or practices.

DAVINCINO Painting Classes for Kids and Teens:  Children will have fun drawing, painting and letting their imagination run free. Davincino's new schedules are as follows: Fridays at Discovery Bay: 3-30 - 4:30pm, Spring Term: Mar 4,11,18 Apr 1,8 and 15- 6 sessions; HKD 1,500.  Summer Term: May 6,13,20,27 June 3,10,17,and 24- 8 sessions; HKD 2,000.  Tuesdays at YWCA: Spring Term Mar 1,8,15,22,29 and April 12, 4:00-5:00pm for 5-11 yrs. old.  Summer Term: May 3,17,24,31 June 7,14,21,and 28.2:45-3:45pm for 3-5 yrs. old; 4:00-5:00pm for 5-11 yrs.old. Pls. contact the YWCA directly for enrollment: http://www.esmdywca.org.hk. For other inquiries: http://www.davincino.com; Irene 97724035 / Grace 62736764 (E)