Newsletter from the Principal – November

As we approach the end of term one I wanted to take a moment to give you an update on some of our strategic development work since my last newsletter in October.

At the end of October we hosted our IB MYP Consultant Mr. Aubray Curran. Mr. Curran spent two days at the College meeting with curriculum leaders, teachers and students. Thank you to those Year 7 parents who agreed to meet with Mr. Curran to give him feedback on our programme. The consultation has been very helpful to us in confirming what is going well and highlighting what we need to continue to work on so we are prepared for programme authorisation next year. We very much look forward in particular to working with parents on their understanding of MYP assessment.

An area we don’t often inform parents about but one which we take very seriously is Health & Safety (H&S).  Last year we created a Health & Safety Committee which meets three times a year to review our H&S practices. The committee is co-chaired by our Business Manager Ms. Shwan Law and teacher Mr. Richard Atkinson. We have substantially upgraded our Fire Drill Procedures and we have now combined drills with SJS. This coming Wednesday we will have our first Lockdown Drill. We haven’t had one in many years and this is an area for ongoing development for us.

A further area for development is our College Vision, Mission and Values. Parents have indicated a strong interest in being included as part of that visioning work. Please look out for invitations to parents in January to join us as we start work on this.

As some of you may know Mr. Greg Thornton has been appointed as Principal of Cambridge High School in New Zealand starting in late January. While we will undoubtedly miss Mr. Thornton we are delighted for him and his lovely family, who are excited to return home after their wonderful experiences in Hong Kong over the last six years. I know you will join me in wishing him well in his new role and in thanking him for the years of service and commitment he has given to Sha Tin College. Recruitment is currently underway to find his replacement. The MYP Coordinator aspect of Mr. Thornton’s role will be taken over by Ms. Sarah Geraghty from January in an acting capacity.

Based on previous parent feedback we continue to focus on our Higher Education (HE) provision. In addition to the expansion to the team, we now have a new Sha Tin College School Profile. Please click here for more information. You will also notice a new online reference and transcript request process for alumni in this section of the website. While you’re on our website, our Annual Report 2017 – 2018 was recently approved at the School Council meeting. Please see here for the full report.

Preparations are currently underway for the STC/SJS School Fair. This year we are trying a new format, a “Night Market”. We very much look forward to you joining us on January 18^th for what promises to be a wonderful evening of community celebration and some great CNY shopping! Thank you as always to our PTSA for the wonderful work they do in supporting the school.

As I have mentioned in my previous newsletters, Sha Tin College has excellent facilities for rent. Please check out this page on our website for further information or contact our Business Manager.

If you would like to follow life at Sha Tin College more closely please follow our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts. This gives lots of information about the wonderful things our students are doing every day. Recent posts include our very successful Kindness Week and Green Week.

Kind regards,