Dear West Island community,

Lights, colours, sweets. Laughter and dancers. Rangolis on hands and floors. On Thursday night, memories were made as the PTA presented the student-led annual Diwali Ball titled, ‘Lights! Camera! Romance!’    

Celebrating this festival of lights brought our community together once again. We were delighted to welcome our extended WIS family, which included grandparents, parents whose children have left WIS, younger siblings and alumni.

Our performers shone brightly. They welcomed the audience with open arms and, through dance and song, created a joyous occasion. Over 200 students were involved across all year groups and some of our teachers featured in one of the dances. For Year 7s, it was their first Diwali of many; and for Year 13, their last as performers but hopefully not as future members of the audience! Heartfelt thanks to all the cast and the students who led the event, Esha Karlo, Aakanksha Verma and Devika Thezil and an additional thank you to Ms. Kerry Rochester and Ms. Helena Murchie for supporting the performers.

Mr. Himanshu Gupta, our guest of honour from the Consulate General of India, opened the event and spoke about the rich diversity across Indian culture to be celebrated–the power of strength from diversity–a message that is close to our WIS heart. Thank you to Himanshu for joining in our celebrations and Ms. Shweta Rajput, Director of Surtall Academy of the Performing Arts HK. We send our appreciation to Aparna and Advaith for escorting our guests and looking after them during the evening. The PTA were, as usual, the perfect hosts, thank you to the team including but not limited to Fiona Bizos, Saman Rizvi and Mehroo Turel. Please read on to view the fantastic moments captured on camera at Diwali Ball, and what some of our students have to say about their personal favourite Diwali memories, as well as what values and feelings Diwali evokes in them. 

To all parents, students and staff, good job on getting through a busy but productive week! Please find our students’ achievements and stories in the Weekly Briefing session below. Our students continue to embrace challenges and achieve new heights as always, which is no easy accomplishment. You should all be proud of your consistent commitment to achieve your personal best.

Next week, we dive right into Horizons Week, as trips abroad and an array of activities are to take place. We look forward to hearing about your explorations and learning experiences next week.  Parents, should you have any questions or concerns during the week, please reach out to your child’s trip leader or activity leader and, of course,  you are welcome to call our reception.

Have a restful weekend.

Clare Haworth

Interim Principal

• Year 11 talk on stress and anxiety (with the presence of a therapy dog)

Thursday afternoon, a session for Year 11 students, in parallel to the PTA’s Fireside Chat last week, ‘How to support your child through Examination years’, took place.

Dr Rick Smith brought Tucker the therapy dog and spoke to Year 11 on the topic of Focus, Motivation and Drive and how to manage stress and anxiety. He explored strategies for success through the topics of “finding the balance”, “stress management”, “maintaining motivation” and “navigating procrastination”.

• Student represents Hong Kong in gymnastics in the first Student (Youth) Games of The People's Republic of China

Year 9 student Ila Chan represented Hong Kong as a member of the gymnastics team at the 1st National Student (Youth) Games of the People's Republic of China. 

The National Student Sports Games are regarded as the most important student games in China, and participating athletes from Hong Kong were selected by the Hong Kong Schools Sports Federation (HKSSF) and the University Sports Federation of Hong Kong, China (USFHK). 

The team competed against 12 provincial teams from China. Ila achieved the highest score amongst the Hong Kong team / ending up as the highest scoring athlete from the Hong Kong team. Her outstanding achievement even garnered media attention, including an exclusive interview and coverage from SportSoho.

• Swimmers bring home medals

WIS competed in the ISSFHK swimming finals on 10th November. Some exceptional performances from the below students resulted in a great haul of medals. The WIS swimming team came 6th overall, out of 27 schools who participated. A huge thank you to all of the swimmers, Ms McNeil and Mr Law, and Coaches Scott and Jeff from Harry Wright International.

• Boys tennis team wins HKSSF match

On Wednesday 8th December, the boys tennis team won their HKSSF match 8-0 at Junction Road Park against SYSS. For this match, Shaan (y13) and Jayden (y9) played singles and we experimented with new doubles pairings of Aryendra(y10)/Alex(y7) and Shawn(y10)/Luke(y9). Shout out to Shawn who fought through cramps to eventually win both his matches.

• Student wins silver medal in the Hong Kong Junior Judo Championships

Year 7 student Chengcheng Zhou won second place in the Hong Kong Junior Judo Championships 2023 in the 10-12 years old and 50-55 kg group.

• Student wins second runner-up in the Hong Kong Junior Championship

Year 13 student Arjun Pradhan won the second runner-up in the Hong Kong Junior Championship 2023.

• Student wins The Sovereign Art Prize and cash prize

Student Alyssa Mallorca was the Grand Prize winner for The Sovereign Art Prize and the school's art department received $20,000 for the prize.

• Students achieve good results in global debate competition

On 11th November, three of our Y12 students (Sahana Iyer 12S3, Chinny Kwok 12T1, Isaac lau 12T3) attended the World Individual Debate and Public Speaking Championship HK Team Trials 2024, an 8 hour day of competing in 4 categories - Parliamentary Debate, Persuasive/After Dinner Speaking, Interpretive Reading and Impromptu Speaking. With 50+ registered participants from 20+ schools, the rounds were intense and competitive but extremely rewarding for our students. 

Whilst many students have a professional coach to rely on, they performed spectacularly, with all of our speakers ranking in the top 50%. For individual categories, Sahana ranked 3rd in HK for Parliamentary Debate and 13th overall and Chinny ranked 10th for Impromptu Speaking and 17th overall.

• Two students win coding competition

Tay Oh (Year 8) and Bob Lam (Year 9) achieved great results in coding competitions.

Bob received a Distinction in the inaugural CATH CON competition, ranking among the top 15 in the Junior Category.

Tay received a Silver Award from the First Youth IT Competition organised by the Korea Information Technology Promotion Agency, achieving the 4th to 6th highest score in his category.

• Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph

On Sunday 12 November, Mr Guy Hewson, Director of Learning Pre16 attended the Remembrance Sunday event at the Cenotaph in Central. 

This was a particularly special occasion as it marked 100 years since the Cenotaph was unveiled in Hong Kong by the then Governor Sir Reginald Stubbs. Initially built to commemorate the dead from the first world war, the dates were later added to honour victims of the second world war and inscription added to recognise those who lost their lives during the Japanese invasion. 

Mr Hewson laid a wreath along with other schools and associations represented in Hong Kong.  

Mr Hewson commented "it is always an incredible honour to be approached by the Royal British Legion Hong Kong and invited to lay a wreath on behalf of the West Island school community. During the ceremony, here is always a moment of calm and reflection in a busy city where we can pause to honour those souls lost in conflicts around the world."