Letter from the Principal

Dear Parents/Guardians and Students,

Thank you to all our parents/guardians and students who responded to our survey about our three-week action research project on the adjusted daily schedule. Please see the survey results here for: Parents/Guardians, Middle School Students, Senior School Students, and for your interest, our Teaching Staff feedback.

A huge thank you to the 665 students who gave us feedback, this is an excellent response rate!  This project was undertaken very much with you in mind and based on trying to address some of the challenges you experienced with online learning in Terms 2 and 3 last year. It was clear from this feedback that while some of you enjoyed more individualised time in the afternoon, others of you found the 40-minute time with your teacher too short.

Overall the feedback has been very mixed in terms of comments. We had a comparatively low parent/guardian response rate of 122 respondents. The feedback is also very polarised, with stakeholders either really liking the new schedule or really disliking it.

In terms of what’s next, the return to school means that we are going to have to change the daily schedule anyway. Effective Monday Sept 14th we will change the daily schedule to the one we will use when we return to campus for face-to-face classes. To some degree this change will address some of the concerns made about the current schedule, so that will be welcome news for some of you.

I would like to thank everyone for supporting us with this project. We all want the very best for our students. In positively engaging in this project with a ‘spirit of innovation’ we have demonstrated courage to try new things, be open to robust feedback, and transparent in sharing the feedback.

Going forward please note the following:

1)  Please sign into the ESF App to apply for the ESF Relief Grant of 45% of one month’s fees. The deadline for this is Sept 22nd.  81% of parents/guardians have already applied for the grant.

2) Please be sure to log into Gateway by Thursday Sept 17th to vote for your representative on the Sha Tin College School Council.

3)  Thank you to our Middle and Senior School parents/guardians who joined us for our Back To School Information Evenings. We are delighted with the attendance and the engagement from our families. We look forward to welcoming our Year 13 parents/guardians to their information evening on Tuesday 15th Sept. Mr. Paul Drew Acting VP, will be in touch on Monday with the schedule for the evening for Year 13 parents/guardians. Mr. Drew has also shared the presentations from the evenings held so far via the ESF App.

4) At the time of writing we are still working with our EDB colleagues on our Return To School Plans for next week. We will be in contact to confirm arrangements for next week in due course. In anticipation of the return to school the student daily schedule will change on Monday Sept 14th to the new schedule. Links to online lessons will appear on the student calendar according to the new schedule from Monday. Students can check the Student Bulletin for the new timing of lessons.

Wishing you all a sunny and safe weekend with your loved ones.

Kind regards.

Carol Larkin
Principal