eNews Issue 32

It was a short week this week, but a full one nonetheless! The Secondary School celebrated “Allusion Day” today and the halls were filled with students dressed as allusions to characters in Shakespeare plays. As you’ll see from the photos, togas were extremely popular! In the Primary School, Maths Family Fun Night lived up to its name with enjoyable activities around mathematics. It’s great to see the intersection of joy and rigour in learning!

It’s important week for us parents, too, with the Board of Trustees election. Adrian Valenzuela will be joining the Board and we welcome him and thank him for his willingness to serve.

eNews Issue 31

At Hong Kong Academy, we understand that assessing (what we used to call “testing” when I was a child) a student’s knowledge is a highly nuanced activity. While pop quizzes and standardised testing serve an important purpose, they are only one part of a much bigger picture. We think of assessments as being “formative” and “summative”. That’s ed-speak, so to declutter the jargon, a “formative” assessment is when we monitor a student’s progress to provide feedback we can use to enhance their learning. This type of assessment is continuous and frequent and allows teachers to adjust or change strategies or content as needed. A “summative” assessment is when we evaluate a student’s learning at the end of a unit or course of study, giving us the opportunity to evaluate the end product such as a final exam. We believe that the right mix of these two different types of “tests” give us a solid understanding of a student’s growth over time.

  

While we don’t over emphasise the need for standardised tests, we do make every effort to use certain tests wisely, such as the International School Assessment (ISA). The tests are completed by HKA students in Grades 3-9 every October. We communicated the school’s results to parents at an evening meeting earlier this week. ISA allows us to take a snapshot of where our students are and how they compare to other students around the world. It’s a “health check” that confirms that HKA students are learning and growing and it is further proof that students from HKA can transition to other schools when they move. We know this from ample anecdotal evidence as well but the ISA results provide that information in a standard form.

 

If you have any questions about assessment at HKA, please feel free to contact me, Virginia Hunt or Doug Musco.

eNews Issue 30

Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope you all had a good holiday. I know the students are generally eager to head out on their vacations but I also see how excited they are when they return to campus after a break. We learn best when we learn together and a school is a very special community indeed.

A part of that community spirit is giving. At HKA, we’ve penned a Culture of Philanthropy statement to describe giving at HKA. We believe that our students, our faculty and our parents are gifts in and of themselves and are grateful for everyone’s presence. People give in different ways, including time, expertise and finance with all gifts being valued.

I had the pleasure this week of attending and presenting at the annual Asia-Pacific Conference of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). At this conference, advancement professionals from schools and universities all over Asia gathered to talk about the ways in which they “advance” their schools’ missions and programmes by raising resources in their communities. It was inspiring to hear so many stories of generosity and support in other schools that so closely mirror the support we receive at HKA.

eNews Issue 29

This was a big week for exploration at HKA. In Grade 4, the students used their “How the World Works” unit to investigate the idea of energy and its sources. The atmosphere generated by these Young Scientists was as electric as some of their projects! The students' work also reminds us that you don’t have to be a grown up scientist in order to apply the scientific method to a line of inquiry. That sort of creativity and problem-solving is for everyone.

In the Secondary School, our Grade 12 students are on the cusp of a different type of exploration as they make plans for their post-secondary educational experiences. I’m happy to report that our G12's continue to gain admission to their top choice universities and, as another sign of our growing Secondary School, HKA held a university fair yesterday on campus for a number of schools in the United Kingdom that are eager to get to know our students. With our fourth graduation soon upon us, it’s exciting to see how quickly HKA has emerged as a lead school in this age group.

eNews Issue 28

Parent Teacher Conferences are routine in schools around the world and we don’t generally feel the enthusiasm building for conferences the way it builds, say, for the annual Secondary School play, the Community Fair or a SCISAC tournament on campus. Nevertheless, there was definitely a certain buzz on campus with parents, students, and teachers taking time to reflect together on everyone’s learning and progress along their pathways to individual excellence. I truly hope you enjoyed your conferences and learned something new about your child(ren).

  

While the conversational exchange that takes place over conferences is extremely important, as a dynamic community of learners, we also know that we don’t have to wait until conferences to talk to teachers and administrators, share ideas and concerns, and ask the questions we feel are important. HKA takes seriously its open door policy. We are now a bigger school than we were before but the open door policy remains the same.

  

The door is always open to me, other school administrators and teachers alike. And the HKACO is also eager to hear your thoughts and ideas. If you have something to share, please do!

 
Have a great weekend, whether or not you have tickets to the 7's!

eNews Issue 27

At Hong Kong Academy we strive to ensure, what our mission statement calls, pathways to individual excellence. For some students that may mean the full IB Diploma experience and indeed, many of our graduates choose this option. And a few years back, one of our students even attained a perfect 45 on the IB exam.

 

But IB Diploma is not the best pathway to individual excellence for all of our students. Therefore, HKA offers multiple pathways, including IB certificates. In addition, HKA has always offered an accredited high school diploma that is sufficient for applications to post-secondary institutions around the world. If you’d like more information about HKA’s Secondary School pathways please contact our MYP co-ordinator Jen Swinehart.

 

Today’s a big day for the performing arts at HKA! The Primary School dazzled at its Hot Cocoahouse this morning and this evening the Secondary School’s Community Coffeehousewelcomes some members of the local Sai Kung community to participate.

 

And thanks to the Grade 3 parents who attended the G3 Community Evening on Wednesday night. We host four to five grade level community evenings throughout the year and I always find them to be informative and helpful. Thank you!

eNews - Issue 26

HKA is always on the move! Whether it’s for sport, drama, debate, conferences or professional development, HKA faculty, staff and students always have passports at the ready! I’m writing today from the ACAMIS conference in Guangzhou. ACAMIS, which stands for the Association of China and Mongolia International Schools, is an important organisation for HKA. Our students compete in sports through ACAMIS, and our faculty and staff take advantage of its professional development offerings. I serve on the ACAMIS board, and for this particular conference, I’m joined by IT Director Andy Birch, Finance Manager Jojit Au Yeung and our Athletics Director and Activities Co-ordinator, Aaron Cook.

South of Hong Kong, a team of Secondary School students is in Singapore for the Global Issues Network (GIN) Conference. At GIN, students learn about and actively respond to pressing issues such as environmental sustainability and education. Special thanks to SS faculty Richard Reilly and Ellen Thorne for making this possible for the students and accompanying them to Singapore.

And our Grade 3’s, along with PS Principal Virginia Hunt and Assistant Principal Dean Johnson, are at camp! While not far away physically (just up the road in the Sai Kung Country Park), the camp activities will stretch, challenge and engage them in learning beyond the classroom.