Newsletter-Friday, 23 Aug 2024
Table of Contents
Principal's Message
Dear West Island community,
We are delighted with the results that our Year 12 students have achieved with (I)GCSE and BTEC. Sixty percent of them have achieved an A or A* level of results. A more detailed breakdown of the results can be found in a chart below.
To students and parents, we do not measure our students by the exam results—you are more than your scores, or any achievements.
We do, however, celebrate the success behind these results, which is a testament to the hard work and dedicated approach that our students have adopted in regards to their study.
And the other half of the story has been written by you—our parents, teachers and staff. Without your support for these students in the past three years, we wouldn’t have been able to see them as the positive and future-ready students they are today. So thank you for your dedication to our young people.
As we know that you may have been receiving many messages from the school, we would like to clarify the channel of school-wide communication.
To parents, please check both the ESF app and your emails for school-related information sent out to you.
To students, please check your emails and the student bulletin for information sent to you.
Please see below for the school’s latest news. And as events such as Star Search and Diwali Ball are upcoming in the next few weeks, we encourage students to take part in them. Many opportunities for your growth can be found and supported, if you take a risk to give it a try. We can’t wait to see what we can achieve this upcoming year.
Wishing you a happy weekend.
Vicki Hallatt
Principal
Assembly photos
Photos by Multimedia Display&Events Coordinator Ivo Lipanovic
(I)GCSE exam results
Please see the chart on the right for the latest results from West Island students.
These results include those of GCSE, IGCSE and BTEC.
Year 12 student earns the official Candidate Master title in chess
Year 12 Thanneermalai Kannappan achieved new heights in international chess competitions in Spain during the summer holidays.
In the Santi Marti Tournament, he achieved a score of 6 out of 9. Additionally, he earned 8 points out of 9 rounds and won the Sitges Championship in the Open B Category. Through these tournaments, he increased his FIDE rating by 172 points and earned the official Candidate Master title, as evidenced by the attached photos and certificates.
Looking forward, Thanneermalai it to compete in the Asian Rapid Team Championship.
Year 12 students win PolyU Design Hatch Awards
In the past ten months, Christen Lau, Mia Lam and Alena Chung were named winner under the communication design category in the PolyU Design Hatch Awards
Alena said they set out to create a design project based on the theme of happiness.
"We've designed a food donation organisation called REFOOD, starting from brainstorming what brings us happiness to designing a full brand identity: crafting websites, 3D printed figurines, creating logos and lockups... The project includes depth beneath, breaking through visual communication.
"We've applied our organisation in the real world, where the circular economy runs, where consumers have their journeys when committing in our product, where an entire system structures our organisation. To bring the project to life, we visited Kennedy School at the end of the school year to advocate to children the importance of food donation and food waste through lino printing and printing on tote bags. Finally, we've delivered our presentation to designers and professors at PolyU and won the communication design category. "
Year 10 student wins writing competition about video games
Clyth Tan, a year 10 student, has recently participated in “From Player to Page Writing Competition 2024”, and has been awarded first place in his category.
“From Player to Page” challenges students to practice their English writing skills, by writing about video games through composing stories, scripts or reviews.
Year 12 student wins in Hong Kong Open Swimming Championships
Year 12 student, Ducan Yu has participated in Hong Kong Open Swimming Championships 2024 which was held in Victoria Park Swimming Pool in early July.
He made some great achievements in the 3-days race.
In both Men 50 LC Meter Freestyle & 100 LC Meter Freestyle, he swam his personal best time and ranked 6th in the final race of both events. He was the youngest swimmer among all finalists.
Besides, he got a silver and bronze medals in Men 4x100 LC Meter Medley Relay & Men 4x100 LC Meter Freestyle Relay in a joint-effort together with his swimming team teammates.
In addition, in the recent Division 1 Age Group Long Course Swimming Competition, he got another bronze medal in the Boys 15-17 100 LC Meter Freestyle event.
Duncan will continue to extend his greatest effort in achieving his swimming and academic goals.
Survey for industry professionals
West Island School is committed to preparing our students for success in their future careers. To help strengthen our career development initiatives and industry connections, we are conducting this survey to better understand the expertise of our alumni and community partners.
Please click here to do the survey.
Free ESF workshop with expert in Approaches to Learning
The English Schools Foundation is excited to announce an upcoming workshop with Lance King, an expert in ATL (Approaches to Learning) Skills.
He has generously offered to conduct a hybrid in-person/online presentation and Q&A session for ESF parents on Tuesday, 27th August, from 6:30 - 8:00 pm (details in the attached poster).
Parents are encouraged to sign up for the workshop. Please note that no attendance, whether online or in-person, will be permitted without prior sign-up. Kindly use the email address given at the time of signup.
Those attending in person will have the opportunity to engage with Lance and take advantage of a significantly discounted copy of his book.
Please note that we will not be able to respond to any inquiries prior to the event. If interested, please plan to attend in person or log in online.
This complimentary event will also be recorded and shared later with PTAs. We encourage all parents to take advantage of this valuable opportunity.
Higher Education and Careers
Year 13
We are happy to be continuing our careers lesson and also preparing Year 13s for their university applications. Please look out for notices and reminders on the Google Classroom and emails from the Careers Office.
Scholarship Opportunities for Hong Kong Residents Studying Overseas 2024.
Please refer to the attached Letter regarding the Scholarship Opportunities for Hong Kong Residents Studying Overseas 2024. This is for Year 13 students only. Interested students should fill out this Google Form. (please note that this is for the year 13 students only)
We just got our first batch of admissions from Concourse-Match. These are unconditional admissions, not conditional offers. Some of the universities include Adelphi University (US News #163) and Binghamton SUNY (US News #73) for national universities, Wartburg College (US News #156) for National Liberal Arts Colleges, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (previous WIS students have attended).
20/38 students got admitted to one of these universities
Admissions at 7 universities
Admissions in the US and Switzerland
IBDP and IBCP students both got admissions
1.7 million USD/13 million HKD in scholarships awarded
S.M.A.R.T Goals: The students were asked to set their S.M.A.R.T Goals before the summer break. In our lesson, this week, students were asked to illustrate an image of themselves achieving one of their goals! Students came up with a lot of fun and creative drawings of having achieved their goals.
University Applications
Year 12
Navigating the path to Higher Education can be exciting yet daunting. The HE team will support and guide all students and assist with university applications, personal statements, interview preparations, and scholarship opportunities. We will also commence career lessons with the Year 12’s later in term 2, providing guidance and resources to assist their post-16 journey. If students have any questions, please stop by the Careers Office at A 505 or reach out to your HE Counselor for support.
Han & Ming - Srijita Ghosh
Qing and Song - Michael Hirsch
Tang and Yuan - Jelena Chung
Key dates
ESF University Fair at WIS - September 9th - 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm - more details to follow soon
University Visits @ WIS: Open for students only (only for the Year 11s, 12s and 13s)
Wake Forest University - USA
12 September 2024 - Time 01:20 pm to 02:05 pm | Venue: C402
University of Southern California - USA
17 September 2024 - Time 10:45 am to 11:05 am | Venue: C402
University of Virginia - USA
25 September 2024 - Time 01:20 pm to 02:05 pm | Venue: C402
New York University - USA
17 October 2024 - Time 10:45 am to 11:05 am | Venue: C402
School of Arts Institute of Chicago
06 November 2024 - Time 01:20 pm to 02:05 pm | Venue: C402
For details on University Visits and Webinars, please click Here
For more details on External events and Summer programmes please visit the school website
Hult International Business School Visit
On August 20th, we welcomed Ms Winnie Ng Wright from Hult International Business School. During her visit, she provided a briefing on the university and covered admission-related Q&A.
University of Calgary School Visit
On August 23rd, we welcomed Ms Karen Chueng from the University of Calgary. During her visit, she provided detailed information about admissions and the esteemed academic offerings of the university.
