Weekly Bulletin

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• September 18 : Mid Autumn Festival, no school

• September 24-28 : Nengren Exchange
  
• September 25-27 : Deep Learning 1
• October 1 : National Day, no school
  

I could not be more proud of the positive and purposeful start we have collectively made to the academic year at ICHK. This week our students have continued to impress with their calm commitment to their learning and growth, along with the wellbeing of themselves and community. This is of particular note during a period when the number of activities and experiences increases.

Daily, we have numerous sports teams and groups leaving school and heading out to the four corners of Hong Kong to participate in every type of activity, from football, swimming and volleyball, to outdoor training, to the SPCA, to canyoning and university visits. We have welcomed Year 6 students and given them a glimpse into the amazing ICHK experience. It was heartening to see so many siblings and friends from primary school coming together, and it was a warm and positive event.

Despite the positive progress and successes that we are seeing, we do recognise that post-Covid challenges remain for our young people. All of the students at ICHK went through a three-year period of disrupted learning, disrupted routines and disrupted social time with very high levels of engagement with and through digital technologies. This has left a mark for both schools and families as we seek to support and guide adolescents as they grow into young adults.

ICHK adopts the ‘5+1’ model to reflect the school’s commitment to understanding the forces and factors that affect our students by virtue of their age, and to take account of their shared characteristics as pre-teen and teenage learners. The Psychosocial Stages by Erik Erikson describe the questions arising at this stage in a younger person’s development that are ‘existential’ in their character: 'Who am I?', 'What are my values?', 'What is my identity?' Identity commonly becomes a core concern for young people in this phase of their lives.

Kieran Egan’s Cognitive Dispositions describe the Romantic and Philosophic ‘ecological zones’ that our students inhabit, in which young people come to understand the world in different ways, each building on the kinds of understanding they have previously achieved. This process of climbing through these zones is not a steady and inevitable one, and as a school we recognise that challenges can occur.

Which is why I wanted to draw your attention to a fantastic community resource that I would encourage all families to take a look at. SNN: HK is hosting an online webinar on 25 September 2024, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, featuring international speaker and author Dr Peter Jakob. The event is titled "SNN Presents: Introduction to Non-Violent Resistance Therapy." More information can be found here.

Along with schools, as our children grow parents can face challenges in dealing with problematic behaviours at home. NVR therapy is an innovative approach that addresses challenging child behaviour. The approach is designed to help parents build a supportive community and develop self-efficacy in responding to these behaviours, and will be a valuable opportunity for parents interested in learning more about innovative approaches to supporting adolescents as they grow.

Have a lovely weekend.

Last week, Executive Head of School and Human Technologies progenitor, Toby Newton, delivered an excellent talk to our Y12 students, pointing out the ways in which their Human Technologies curriculum had prepared them for some aspects of their IB Theory of Knowledge course.

Deputy Head of School, Flora Lai, pointed out some of these pathways in her pertinent article published in last week’s Bulletin which you can read here; it was a real bonus for our Y12s to get a lifetime’s worth of insights about evolutionary biology, human nature and cognition distilled to one hour and then connected to TOK.

It might be argued, the way in which TOK focuses on just 5 Areas of Knowledge reinforces an outdated notion of academia as “siloed” off into different disciplines, a notion reinforced by the physical architecture of university departments which still houses different subjects such as The Arts, The Sciences, The Humanities in separate buildings. Today, though, this compartmentalisation of areas of study seems increasingly outdated. An ecologist, for example, must base her scientific data on precise mathematical calculations, as well as have a nuanced understanding of Systems Thinking to understand the complex range of climatic, economic, and societal issues that impacts her topic, as well as use inter-social and computing skills to first gather, then communicate her research.

Human Technologies can be described as a guidebook for living, and its moving horizon (you can never arrive at the destination!) is to push lifelong learners towards the pursuit of “The Good Life.” But so many schools today focus merely on academic performance, and do not give the students a chance to explore their own values and identity - how they are wired, and the implications of this to identity formation, and then how to develop their own sense of self-agency as they encounter the world.

To prepare students for this complex world, Toby created, and then collaborated with like-minded individuals to evolve the HT course to address what he believes should be essential concepts within a modern educational system that speaks not just to the narrow aims of exam success. On this occasion he chose the work of Etienne Wenger to illustrate this point:

Education, in its deepest sense and at whatever age it takes place, concerns the opening of identities – exploring new ways of being that lie beyond our current state. Whereas training aims to create an inbound trajectory targeted at competence in a specific practice, education must strive to open new dimensions for the negotiation of the self. It places students on an outbound trajectory towards a broad field of possible identities. Education is not merely informative – it is transformative.

Etienne Wenger, Communities of Practice

Toby pointed out in his talk that we are meaning making creatures. We see patterns in the constellations and can use the capacity of our evolved consciousness to construct entire systems of religions and mythologies out of the starry skies. And our future selves, similarly, can be formed from a galaxy of possibilities.

The future world is one that is going to be increasingly complex and interconnected. The era of global capitalism has led to human societies being inevitably intertwined; we also live in a dizzying age of semiotic potential constructed through the mainstream and social media. TOK can help students understand the various ways in which knowledge can be constructed, as well as refining some critical thinking strategies so that they can discriminate fact from fiction as it flies at us from the algorithmic superhighway.

Finding ourselves, understanding the physical and psychological forces that have shaped us, understanding who we are and how we have been encultured… and then learning that we have the capacity to take control of the direction of these beliefs, values, predilections and biases, to make lives of real meaning: that is the goal of Human Technologies. And Toby was explicit in asking the students to never forget these lessons.

Year 8 students have been studying fraction operations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

This topic can be strenuous and dull, involving unintuitive rules. However, students in Mr. Lam's class devised 'paper calculators' to visualise fraction operations and foster a deeper understanding of the concepts.

Even dividing fractions makes sense, rather than just changing the division sign to multiplication and 'flipping' the second fraction upside down, as some might recall. Students were amazed to see how fraction operations can be visualised by using just a sheet of paper.

Through visualisation, students can create mental images that enhance their comprehension and retention of mathematical principles, which is one of the unifying themes of learning mathematics at ICHK. Next week, all Year 8 students will complete an open task to further explore the relationships that exist among fractions.

The Outdoor Leadership programme is underway for Year 10 and 11 students.

A group of students has started working towards the certificates during their weekly Enrichment and Flow lessons.

The unique initiative recognises students for their work in outdoor education. Over the coming year, students will be given opportunities to help lead activities for their younger peers and students from our partner primary schools.

Those who have enrolled have completed a special training day in preparation for Wild Science days with our partner primary schools. They have also helped with the year 7 stream hikes, assisting the outdoor learning team by giving reassurance and support to their younger peers.

Over the coming months, they will help to support events including canyoning, adventure days and Deep Learning activities.

Events like these offer our students unique opportunities to develop key life skills including communication, planning, organisation and problem solving.

They will help and encourage younger students, organise activities and help those who need support to step outside their comfort zone.

They will learn how to plan and lead an engaging session, while considering safety, responding to changes in the weather, timings and the need to add or subtract activities and think on their feet. They will also take care of equipment and resources, adjusting ropes and lighting fires.

Through a cycle of experiencing and reflecting, students will help each other to develop their strengths.

Throughout the year there are opportunities for first aid training, AYP and qualification in outdoor activities including kayaking, sport climbing or camp-craft. Anyone who volunteers for at least four activities during their time in Years 10-13 is entitled to the award of this certificate, which is a major addition to student portfolios and university applications.

Congratulations to Ronny Chu who has won a top prize in an international music competition.

The Year 7 student entered the 2024 International Fringe Music Festival and Competition and was awarded third place for piano solo.

Ronny was honoured to receive the award from internationally renowned pianist Choi Sown Le, who acted as one of the judges for the event.

The award comes just weeks after Ronny was named Champion at the AIM Cup public speaking competition.

We commend him on his achievement, which pays tribute to his commitment and dedication to the piano.

We were pleased to welcome our partner schools to ICHK this week for a special taster day,

Year 6 students from ICHK Primary, KIS and JIS enjoyed an exciting snapshot of secondary learning.

A packed schedule of taster lessons was put together for them, including Science, English, Human Technologies, Music and Drama. They were given a tour of the campus by members of the Student Representative Council and heard about some of the exciting features that set us apart as a school.

The students enjoyed lunch in the canteen, and during the morning were able to experience the strong community atmosphere, reconnecting with many friends who are now students at our school.

We are proud of the strong partnership with our primary schools and we look forward to providing further opportunities over the coming months for their students to experience learning at ICHK.

It’s been another busy week for our sporting teams.

The young Egrets celebrated a 3-1 victory against Island School, with Year 7 Kyros Lo impressively scoring two virtuoso goals. The Islanders were powerless to resist the movement of dynamic duo Kyros and Cheston Tang, with Hamish Chan conducting proceedings from central defence.

The team’s second goal stood out as a a fantastic example of teamwork allied with quality. After Kyros had bent one in to the top corner to put us ahead, Lucas Pun threaded the final ball of a signature passing move through the eye of a needle, ably converted by Cheston.

Two tiring teams exchanged goals in the second half, but ultimately our earlier play had proven enough to secure the win, 3 from 3 and 9 points on the board.

The U14 boys volleyball team continues to build up strength. As a young team, the players are now gaining experience in real matches. The players showed huge improvements in their game against RCHK. After coming back to a tie in the second set, unfortunately they were closely defeated in the third set.

It was a gruelling affair for the U14 Boys B-Team as they conceded seven goals to an experienced ASHK team.

The American School asserted their dominance, meeting strong resistance from Morgan Hall and the defensive double team of the Dauchez brothers.

All the boys worked tirelessly and there were a series of tackles by Quentin Yeung to desperately keep them in the game.

They showed a collective, warrior-like resolve to persevere until the final whistle and leave everything out on the pitch.

The U16G volleyball team played their first two official matches this week again SIS and CDNIS. Despite a nervous start, they secured a smooth straight win against SIS.

The girls then won the first set against CDNIS but lost the second by two points. In set three, the girls went head first with determination to win. Hana was able to gain 10 points in a row from serving. With everyone’s encouragement, great teamwork and fantastic cheering, they secured a whopping win by 12 points in the last set.

The U16 volleyball boys had a great start to the season.

They won their first league match against HKIS this week, and also won a friendly against CDNIS. They now look forward to playing them again in the league.

Students have continued to enjoy a diverse range of activities this week.

They spent Tuesday afternoon engaged in a huge range of activities, all designed to broaden and enrich our educational offering.

Our programme, with its emphasis on exercise, outdoor learning and creativity is central to our approaches, as our philosophy is grounded in the conviction that young people should be supported in developing their all-round characters if they are to produce themselves as confident, self-directed, ambitious, and fearless learners.

This week students from across the school have been enjoying badminton, field hockey, football, volleyball, learning how to knit and much more.

The picture gallery below showcases some of this week’s activities and more photographs can be found on our Gibbon stream channel.

SNN: HK is hosting an online webinar on September 25th, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, featuring international speaker and author Dr Peter Jakob. The event is titled "SNN Presents: Introduction to Non-Violent Resistance Therapy."

As our children grow, parents can face challenges in dealing with problematic behaviours at home. Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) therapy is an innovative approach that addresses challenging child behaviour. This family-centred approach aims to help parents build a supportive community and develop self-efficacy in responding to these behaviours.

During the webinar, Dr Jakob will share the NVR theory and provide practical examples for parents and caregivers. With his extensive experience in clinical psychology and family therapy, Dr Jakob has adapted NVR for families who face these challenges, and his work with children has inspired him to develop a child-focused approach to NVR.

This event will be a valuable opportunity for parents interested in learning more about innovative approaches to addressing challenging behaviours in children.

If you are interested, please click on this link: SNN:HK.

An open morning will be held at our partner primary ICHK Kindergarten and Primary tomorrow (Saturday).

It will be beneficial for anyone who is looking for a kindergarten or year one place and tours will be given of the early years learning spaces and beautiful green campus.

More details can be found in the poster below.

Ms Maria Branyas Morea, a Spanish woman, is the world’s oldest person who was born in the United States. She fought off Covid-19 in 2020 after surviving both World Wars, the Spanish Civil War, and the Spanish Flu pandemic.

Maria had her 21st birthday in 1928. When did she celebrate her 113th birthday?

If today is Friday, it will be Thursday in 1000 days’ time.

ICHK is a school which is proud to embrace innovation in learning and a unique and stimulating curriculum has been developed for students. Our campus is located in a stunning location, providing unrivalled opportunities for outdoor learning.

Email: info@ichk.edu.hk
Website: https://www.ichk.edu.hk/
Location: International College Hong Kong (nt), Hong Kong
Phone: +(852) 2655-9018
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ICHKSecondary