Dear West Island community,

Last night, seven students gifted us, through their artworks in the IB Visual Arts Exhibition, a glimpse into their depths of inquiry, creativity and unique ways of seeing the world.

The themes these students have brought to our attention include social injustice, human emotions and expression, grief and connections, nature and humanity, culture and identity, ageing and self-reflection.

Through the act of art making, the students have shown that these real and complex themes can be transformed into works that have the power to inspire and influence.

Please read below what the students have to say about their artworks. We celebrate how our young people embody the Learner Profile attributes in such flexible ways, as these attributes are adaptable skills that can help our students become life-long learners in our fast-changing world. 

Thank you to Mr Tony Fryer, Ms Laura Simonsen and Mr John Cheung for your hard work supporting the visual arts students and helping to curate the exhibition. Thank you also to the PTA for providing refreshments at the exhibition.

Next Tuesday is WIS Evening of Dance, presented by students across all year groups. Performances will feature MYP, GCSE and IB work and celebrate the creativity and efforts of our students. We invite you to attend this lively evening and support the students who will present an array of dance styles and genres. Please click here to reserve a spot for this event that will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Also, the school's yearbook team is conducting a survey to parents regarding your interest in buying a printed copy. Please answer the two survey questions here. Please fill out the survey by next Monday. 

Thank you, and wishing you a good weekend.

Best wishes

Clare Haworth

Interim Principal

On Saturday 9th March, 7 WIS students from West Island School’s sustainability club WISustain - Hana Chow, Cheuk Lam Li, Linus Choi, Akshat Mohanty, Anushka Dutt, Ojaswini Virmani and Jamie Lin - attended the Kellett Beyond COP 21 environmental conference. The conference theme was “feeling connected” and had over 12+ attending international schools from Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. 

Through this conference, students were able to gain an insight into the various sustainability and environmental organisations in HK such as the HKSF, plastic free seas, recycle and more. Moreover, students participated in various workshops from how to be an eco-school, composting workshops, food sustainability, an environmental organisation exhibition and more. The day ended with a panel discussion with various school representatives including WIS that allowed an open discussion on relevant questions such as “How can individual behaviour change contribute to reducing climate catastrophe?”, “What should international schools be doing for sustainability” and more.

Here are some student experiences: 

“I particularly appreciated the opportunity to interact with like-minded students and exchange ideas about how we could make schools more sustainable. Listening to the experts from the Royal Geographical Society passionately talk about their contributions to environmental protection was extremely inspirational and motivational. Through one of the workshops, I also learned about the Eco School Green Flag accreditation, which the Kellet students are currently working hard to achieve. They shared their experiences and offered ideas about how other schools could gain this accreditation. I left this conference feeling very hopeful and full of fresh ideas!” - Jamie Lin

"The conference provided countless opportunities for me to learn more about how our school community can embrace sustainability. After that conference, our group will definitely take in the invaluable knowledge we gained and consider how to implement them here at West Island." 

- Linus Choi 

We are thrilled to celebrate the outstanding achievements of our talented sailors who represented West Island School in the RHKYC's Inter-School Sailing Festival on 9th and 10th March 2024. Despite facing challenging Monsoon conditions, our team showcased their skills, determination, resilience and strategic thinking, making us immensely proud.

The festival adopted a team racing format, where each team consisted of a minimum of six sailors racing three dinghies against their opponents. This racing format was a true test of teamwork, tactics, and coordination.

Our exceptional sailors, Bernice Pang, Zoe O'Donnell, Gianni Bizos, McCarley Wong, Aidan Cheng, Nicholas Ng, Harry Suen, and the team captain Keira Slaughter, demonstrated remarkable sportsmanship and exhibited their sailing prowess throughout the event.

The gusty Monsoon conditions demanded resilience and adaptability. Our team rose to the occasion, displaying exceptional skills in navigating the rough waters. Their ability to strategize and delay opposition boats played a crucial role in boosting our team's aggregate score.

On Monday 22 April 2024, WIS will be holding a Blood Drive. If you are aged 16 or over, have not donated blood in the last 150 days, weigh at least 41kg and are in good health then you may be eligible to donate. Find out more from the Hong Kong Red Cross Transfusion Service.

If you would like to donate blood on Monday 22 April at WIS between 10.00am to 12.00noon, please sign up via this link. Sign-ups will close on Friday 22 March. 

Thank you for your support of the 2024 WIS Blood Drive. 

Following on from mental week, year 13 had a session on Tuesday with Kely support, 'Are you ready for uni' about drugs and alcohol awareness.

The workshop was about the legality of drug and alcohol use in different countries, their respective risks and tips to reduce risks. We hope this workshop can prepare students to leave for university abroad and life after WIS.

We continue to educate and inform students about the effects of risk taking and promotion of protective factors. The voluntary drug testing program remains open to all years, more information can be found here. 

The Hong Kong China Women's National Hockey Team were crowned champions in the 7th Women's Hockey Invitational Tournament. 

Team member Kirsten McNeil, who is also a WIS staff said:"It was a great tournament with hard-fought games. 3 games in 3 days was certainly not easy, everyone had stepped up and played their best. Thank you to the WIS family who came & supported! "