Newsletter-Friday, 20 October 2023

Dear West Island community,

As the half-term break approaches, let’s take a deep breath, pause and recognise all the individual and team achievements and personal bests that have been accomplished in only ten weeks. A huge well done to everyone.  A special mention to students, parents and staff who are new to West Island School, we hope that you are finding your feet and we are delighted you are part of our WIS community.


Well done to Year 13 physics and ESS (Environmental systems and societies) students who this week conducted complex and challenging research-based investigations for their Internal Assessments. The learning environment was filled with intense concentration, problem-solving and reflection as controlled experiments and data analysis informed their scientific inquiries. Thank you to Mr Jonathan Gilchrist, Ms Aditi Sood, Mr Jerry Barretto and Mr Mike Williams for supporting the students throughout the process.


Also, congratulations to all the Star Search winners! A comprehensive list of the winners can be found in the Weekly Briefing section below. Thank you once again to all students, and staff members involved and for bringing the school community together with your creativity and courage.


On the theme of creativity, as our school musical “In the Heights” and the annual Diwali Ball are coming up very soon after the holidays, we would like to invite you to reserve tickets for these events.  Don’t miss out on these fantastic performances in which students showcase their talents and deepen their connections to the community. Our students and staff are working hard to make these shows both memorable and enjoyable and we would be delighted to welcome you to these events; we value your support. Details about ticketing can be found in the Weekly Briefing section below.  


Please do continue to read about how our students contribute to both the school and wider community. The contributions range from performing live music this morning as students came into school, to our students assisting with the Kennedy School's swim gala, and continuing to achieve excellence in sports.


Parents and students, we look forward to seeing you at our school performances soon, and enjoy a well-deserved half-term break!


Best regards 


Clare Haworth

Interim Principal


The Creative Arts Faculty | Circle in the Water is thrilled to present the musical theatre production of In The Heights by Lin Manuel Miranda on Wednesday, November 8th and Thursday 9th November, 7:00 pm in the WIS Auditorium.

Tickets are now on sale. Students, parents and non-WIS community members may pre-order tickets using this form. 

Tickets will be issued upon payment.  Please place your order for tickets early to ensure you don’t miss out.

In The Heights is set in New York's Washington Heights (USA) and explores storylines related to relationships, identity and conflicts of culture. It has Latin American cultural references. The show premiered on Broadway in 2008 and features rap and Latin dance movements.

 

Show Dates
Wednesday 8 November, 7 p.m.
Thursday 9 November, 7 p.m.
West Island School Auditorium
The show includes an interval and will finish at approximately 9 p.m.


Adults $206
Students $103 (must be below 18 years old and in full-time education)

Tickets will be distributed or available for collection after October 31st.  They will be issued to your oldest child in tutor registration. External parties may collect their tickets from the school reception or at the door on the night. If you are unable to use your ticket(s), and wish to transfer the ticket to someone else please contact wis@wis.edu.hk to register the transfer. No refunds will be given.

Seating

The school will allocate audience seating based on the time stamp indicated on the order form.
Mobile phones

Please do not use your mobile phones during the performance.

Video recording
No video recording is permitted due to copyright and licensing agreements.

Parking

There is no parking available at the school each night of the show.

Refreshments

Refreshments will be available prior to the show and at interval. 

Enquiries

wis@wis.edu.hk

Please join us for a night of great musical theatre entertainment.


The West Island School Diwali Ball – tickets are now on sale! The WIS PTA looks forward to welcoming you to an evening celebrating the festival of lights!

To book your tickets, kindly fill in the order form and if you need assistance, please drop us a line at pta@wis.edu.hk. Also attached is the event poster with the QR code to book the tickets. Please fill in the order form and submit it before Friday, 3rd November 2022.

Our *Diwali Ball theme this year is – “Lights, Camera, Romance,”* and it takes place on Thursday, 16th November 2023, from 6 pm onwards at the West Island School Auditorium. Tickets are limited and are issued on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Ticket Price

Priced at $260 per ticket, it includes the show, a full buffet dinner and canned drink. You do not need to order a ticket for your child if they are performing in the show. We will invoice for the Diwali Ball performers at $120 for each performer, inclusive of the full buffet dinner.

Payment
This year you will be billed directly through the WIS e-Payment system. An invoice will be issued via WIS e-Payment System on the Monday following your sign up on the form. Credit cards, Paypal, or PPS, can be used to settle invoices.



Seating on first come basis


Tickets will be issued on the evening; there will be no seat allocation. Seating will be on a first come first served basis. As there are 130 students in the show and only 300 seats available; we have limited the tickets to 4 per family to ensure that all students participating in the show can have their families attend. If you would like to apply for more tickets please fill this in the last question on the form.

You will receive an email confirmation for your tickets, and you can pick them up from 6pm at the venue before the performance.




We look forward to a fantastic show and hope to see you there.


Inter Dynasty Star Search 2023 Dynasty Winners:

Ming and Tang tied first place!


ID Star Search 2023: Award Winners and Runners Up:


Vocals Lower School:

 

Vocals Upper School:

 

Piano Lower School:


Piano Upper School:


Instrumental Lower School:

  

Instrumental Upper School:

 

Solo Dance Lower School:


Solo Dance Upper School: 

        1.      Aastha Sethy 10M1 (category winner)

        2.      Anya Chan 11Q2


Dance Ensemble: 

        1.      Anya Chan 11Q2,  Eulalia Lam 11Q1, Mia Lam 11Q1, Ya Yan Tam 11M1, Katrina Lam 10Y1, Alena Cheng 11Q1 (category winners)

        2.      Ishita Sharma 10T1, Aastha Sethy 10M1

        3.      Gemma Yam 7T1, Mika Tanaka-Poon 7H2, Jasmine Choi 7H1 


Band/Ensemble Lower School:

        1.     Ayrton Tong 9S2, Brian Lam 9T2, Shing Li 9T1, James Lee 9M1, Kate Childs 9H2, Malik Cheuk 9T1 (category winners)

        2.     Claire Lee 7M1, Claire Chen 7M1, Kallie Wong 7S2


Band/Ensemble Upper School:

        1.     Bryan So 12Q3, Tasha Ngan 12S2, Nicholas Tran 11Q2 (category winners)

        2.     Carson Yu 10Y2, David Ho 10T1, Leonard Ho 10T1

        3.     Clarie Wei 13M3, Justin Huang 13M3, Pronoy Sen 13Q1, Richard Yang 12T3


Vocal Ensemble Lower School Award:

Aaradhya Satyajit 7T1, Vanya Daga 7S1


Vocal Ensemble Upper School Award:

Emil Hung 11Q2, Mia Lam 11Q1



Special Awards:


Circle in the Water Chair’s Awards for Outstanding Performance:

Sophie Xing 8S1 (Solo Dance)

Diane Iradukunda 9S2 (Vocals)


Best Newcomer:

Aria Ng 7T2 (Lower School Vocals)


Organised by Hayley Graham 12M1 and Chloe Leung 12T2

With the Circle in the Water Committee

We have decided to introduce live music every last Friday of the month. This week, our first live performance was by students, including Claire Lee, Claire Chen and Kallie Wong, organised by Sera Nissen & Josephine Law.

Music has the power to evoke a wide range of emotions, it has a positive effect on our health and wellbeing. For cognitive function, listening to music can improve memory, attention, and concentration. It activates various regions of the brain involved in these functions and stimulates neural connections. For social connection, music has a unique ability to bring people together through singing in a choir, playing in a band, or attending concerts and music fosters a sense of belonging and social connection. For improved sleep quality, listening to relaxing music before bedtime can promote better sleep quality. It helps to create a soothing environment, and induces a state of relaxation.

Last Wednesday, a group of U20s completed in a round-robin tournament against 5 other schools and came second in the tournament

The students involved were:

- Orla Colling

- Harriet Cook

- Riyana Butt

- Shruti Datwani

- Ruby Guildford 

- Sibbi Harris-Ogg

- Shanna Harrison

- Bella Opocensky

- Isabella Schorr

- Tvisha Thakker

- Emma Van Meerendonk

- Charlie Walsh 

Most Valuable Player of the Tournament: Emma Van Meerendonk 

The U14 boys played some fantastic football in a 7-3 win. Our possessional play, passing interchanges and movement off the ball created some brilliant phases of play and plenty of goal-scoring opportunities. 

Photos by student Christopher Teoh

The match against ICHK was the last game for the U14 girls team before the play-offs began. The team played well, despite the wet weather, and were brave to try out different positions and formations to vary our gameplay mid-match. As always, I am proud of the way the team worked together and the respect that they show for themselves and our opposition. 

Photos by student Christopher Teoh

Fantastic 1st cross-country competition of the season. Well done on a superb dominant team performance. Keep working towards those season goals.


A great start to the season with a 2-1 win over GSIS. Goals from Lauren Darley and Annabella Deayton. MVP Arwen Tang.


On Friday 20th October, 11 Sports Leaders from the Future Proofing course (Sports Leadership) assisted in the running of the Kennedy School Swimming Gala at Stanley Ho sports ground. These leaders were communicators and principled leaders who showed care and patience with the young learners at Kennedy School. Well done to Zoe, Téa, Hatty, James, Murtaza, Kaspar, Lulu, Suyi, Julian, Nathan and Caden.

On dynasty day, Ms Jessica Gilbert and a group of students from the CAS Project Team visited IBEL and met the organisation’s CEO, Manoj Dhar. 


Student Sytric Chan said:”There, we delved into the prominent issues that the Hong Kong ethnic minorities face within the educational system...it is encouraged for us to help their cause as a collective school community that understands the importance of student voice and diversity. Students can contribute in a multitude of ways such as volunteering as a student tutor or donating stationary, books, money and more to the organisation. Though that is not to forget that the easiest way to help is to raise awareness about the hardships that ethnic minorities deal with in their day to day lives, whether that is to your families, your friends, or to the wider society.”

On September 16-17 2023, students Emily Wu and Dia Bharwani founded The SEAM Business Competition, with Yuvika Singh as the head of communications. 

The SEAM (Sustainable and Ethical Analysis and Management) Business Competition was a global business management competition, where students got the opportunity to take on various managerial roles in a business and apply business problem-solving. Teams of 3-5 work with social enterprise OnTheList, looking at both the external and internal environment of the business and producing a 5 minute presentation analysing the case study. This was presented live on Zoom. Their aim was to drive the mission towards sustainability in the business world. They attracted almost 200 participants worldwide, with an extensive judging panel of C-suite executives.

University Visits @ WIS : Open for students only  (only for the Year 11s, 112s and 13s)

HKU Admissions Talk 

02 November - Time 13:20 to 14:05 | Venue : MPH

Mini Fair with the following universities:

Savannah College of Arts and Design, USA

Full Sail University, USA

Middle Tennessee State University, USA

IE University, Spain

09 November 2023 - Time 10:45 to 11:05 | Venue: MPH

*For more details on University Visits and Webinars, please Click Here

Year 13s 

All Year 13 students have access to Google Classroom. The university lists for college applications have now been submitted to the careers team. We kindly request parents to sign the university application form and remind students to review their list and submit the same if it has not been done so already.

On 17 October 2023, we were delighted to welcome HKU Med to deliver a talk on Bioinformatics. The session was interactive, providing an opportunity for students to participate in insightful discussions and have their inquiries addressed.

In celebration of our 30th anniversary as an integral part of The English Schools Foundation, ESF Explore is relaunching 30+ popular after-school courses for a 6-week period, starting 30 October. This exclusive programme, catering to children between 6 months and 17 years old, welcomes new and returning students to try out selected courses for a shorter period of time at your preferred location. Click here to see our 30th Anniversary Special programmes! You can click on the individual sections to view programmes by age group.

It's not too late to sign up for our Autumn Camps, running this October 24-27th! We offer both one-off and one-week courses, with flexible schedules. Register for our Autumn camps here!

Check out our schedule for West Island School here. Click here to see our full range of term 1 programmes, feel free to click into the individual categories to view their available classes.

 

West Island School’s Ms. Alice Gibbons, Ms. Jayne Cunliffe and Ms. Becky Baxter  teamed up with Sha Tin College’s Ms. Kate Turbett and tackled the 40km overnight MoonTrekker race on 13 October while raising money for charity.

The team–named Sunrise Sisters–won in the corporate team category. 

“Hong Kong has lots of challenging daytime hikes but we wanted something that felt even tougher,” said Ms. Gibbons. Therefore, they started at night and hiked throughout the night by moonlight. It was a 40km route starting from Mui Wo on Lantau and ending at Cheung Sha Beach, so they followed the beams of their head torches as they ventured through bamboo forest and across rocky peaks and valleys.

 The last 10km of the course crosses the summit of Lantau Peak - Hong Kong's second-highest mountain.