Thank you to everyone in our wonderful Island School Community!

As we end this term in our Sha Tin campuses we look back and pay tribute to the tremendous energy of our teachers, staff and parents. We especially celebrate our remarkable students, past and present, who have shaped our Island School ethos – the spirit of being an Islander.

To be part of the Island School Parent Teacher Association Limited (ISPTAL) is an honour, and in return, we strive to serve the community the best we can.

We look forward with excitement and curiosity, wondering what our next few years will bring. Buildings come and go. We have moved before and will soon move again. Our “hardware” is important and we take comfort from knowing our facilities will be best-in-class during the decant, and when we return home to our new but familiar quadrangle design at Borrett Road. Yet it is our “software” that is most significant, most impactful and most enduring. The passion, patience and endless enthusiasm of our teachers will continue to inspire Islanders’ lifelong love of learning for future generations.

You are part of this glorious community that is Island School. Congratulations! We believe this community and ISPTAL will add value to your experience at Island School.

We work to build community, which in turn builds a sense of belonging which benefits our children’s time at Island School. You are welcome to join our monthly ISPTAL meetings, usually held on the second Monday of each month.

Parents who volunteer their time and talent for the ISPTAL are the heart of the Island School community, we have a very able and hardworking committee that ensures that the parents receive support in every way. If you have a query or question, don’t hesitate to ask us.

These are the ways in which you can involve yourself with the ISPTAL.

o ISPTAL committee: Join us, we welcome all.

o Sign Up for our WhatsApp groups for Year 7 – Year 13 (Keep in touch with other parents)

o Parent Representative (Organize lunch/dinner or drinks with our help for your child’s year group)

o Coffee Mornings (Held on campus with an informal discussion opportunity with Principal/Vice-Principals)

o Newsletter Team (If you have writing skills, help us with our newsletters)

o Design (If you have design skills, do let us know as we always need some designing to be done.)

o Accounts ( If you have some accounting background you can help us)

o Volunteer for events organized by us.

o School Fairs (Spring & Winter Fairs)

o Career Fair (Share your experience with our students)

o Round Table (Information sharing by parents with children in older years, especially useful for Elements, IGCSE and IB exams and beyond)

o Ad/hoc events to support the school

Please note that in accordance with the ESF Ordinance and Regulations, PTA membership in mandatory for all ESF families. Each year, ISPTAL membership forms are sent to all families at Island School.

For all ISPTAL related enquiries please contact us through email: pta@online.island.edu.hk or by telephone: 2140 6806. Please also visit the PTA website for more information.

We look forward to your engagement with the ISPTAL and would like to extend a warm welcome whenever you visit our Sha Tin campuses. We have parent lounges for you to relax or work while in school. The Big Chill in Tai Wai, and The Uncommon Room in Sha Tin Wai. Your support as volunteers & with donations of money or in kind is very much appreciated. The ISPTAL funds many initiatives that help enhance the learning for our children.

Alefiyah Ebrahim (Co-Chair)

For and on behalf of the ISPTAL committee.

Thank you to all committee members and all our parent volunteers for your help over the year!

We bid farewell to co-chair Sheila Chan, committee members Julian Reed, Angela Wong, and Minna Lipponen, and thank them for their valuable contribution during their tenure.

A special thank you to Gini Lo from our Welcome Committee for organizing the events on behalf of the ISPTA committee.

To the Y13 organizers Angela Socha, Anita Shaikh & Sylvia Choi & Alefiyah Ebrahim for a successful ISPTA sponsored cocktail reception.

And to the lovely volunteers for our events, Antoinette Lee, Carrian Hung, Daisy Hung, Hyun Hee Kim, Jenny Chu, Kellas Tam, Lamey Chang, Liese Spencer, Monika Bharwani, Nadya Schneider, Rachna Prasad, Sharon Lui and Sylvia Leung for your contribution to so many events during this term. We have had a very uniquely busy year culminating in uniform flash sales, career fairs, graduation events & setting up our lounges.

And last but not the least, our ISPTA shop manager Azeez, who has worked overtime ever since the decant and quietly organized our office and managed multiple events independently.

Every year, ISPTA Limited is honoured to support the Island School. Looking into our last five complete fiscal years as well as the ongoing one (time period from August 2012 to April 2018), ISPTA Limited had generated an accumulated "Surplus Before Donation" of HKD 6.13M. Of this surplus ISPTAL had contributed a total donation of approx. HKD 4.63M. HKD 3.63 has been donated to Island School to enhance the students' learning facilities, and HKD 1M to The Nicola Myers Kennet McBride Memorial Fund to support financially challenged students attending local schools.

ISPTA Limited will continue to support the school and its charities as the school goes through the decant and redevelopment.

The careers fair, organised by ISPTA and School's Higher Education & Careers team, took place on June 6th at Tai Wai. Students from years 8-10 and 12, met with professionals from a range of occupations. Students had conversations with nearly 80 visitors from areas including aviation, business, communications, creative, education, engineering, government services, healthcare, hospitality, sports, tech and veterinary occupations.

Year 10 students also listened to speakers on communications, network engineering and managing global teams, and coding skills.

Students made good use of this valuable opportunity. Angela Wong, one of ISPTA's fair coordinators, mentioned that she delighted by how engaged the students were in the conversations with the professional. The feedback from our visitors was positive:

“It was great to see the students genuinely interested in what we do – certainly much more engaged than I was at their age!”

A big thank you to Ms Rebecca Lucas Timpany and our volunteers and to all the parents who joined as visiting professionals to bring this great opportunity to students.

Career Fair Participant website

https://careers701.wixsite.com/iscareersfair2018/events-1

Career Fair photographs

https://photos.app.goo.gl/n0KXfa2egU8jtJy52

ESF Facebook Link

https://www.facebook.com/1503555306531518/posts/2189765647910477/

Year 13 parents and students celebrated the graduation in May. The graduation ceremony took place at school on May 25th in the school Hall, followed by the ISPTA sponsored cocktail reception at the Sha Tin Wai campus that was attended by over 400 guests. It was a lovely evening for all the families that attended. We are so proud of our Y13 graduates who looked so grown up in their graduation gowns and caps.

The Y13 Dinner Dance was held at the Aberdeen Marina club on May 28th, with pre-event Celebration Hour. The Y13 parents, had arranged a dinner for the parents in the Chairman's Room at the Aberdeen Marina Club that same evening.

It was a beautiful and emotional conclusion of a path that took their children from fresh new Islanders to accomplished graduates and young adults.

The event was superbly organised by Angela Socha, Sylvia Choi, Anita Shaik, Olga Semonova and Alefiyah Ebrahim, a dedicated group of Y13 parents.

A special Thanks to Anita Shaikh who baked cupcakes for all the graduates.

We wish all the graduates the best, and wherever your endeavours will take you, keep Island School on mind!

While the Y11 students were enjoying the completion of their Middle School Years at their Dinner Dance at the Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View Hotel, their parents were having a party of their own!

Getting to know each other and celebrating their children's achievements, the parents had a joyful get-together at the Tamarind Restaurant. This wonderful event is independently organised by Year 11 parents, with Lakshmi Jacota and Terri Appel taking on the responsibility this year.

We wish the students all the success as they start their last two years at Island School!

Thank you to everyone who came to our EGM on June 11th. The meeting endorsed the arrangements related to consignment arrangements for uniforms and stationery between ISPTAL and Island School, and with VP Julian Reed's guidance went through a brainstorming session on PTA's role for upcoming years. Many great new ideas emerged, and will be followed up, stay tuned!

On 26 May 2016, 60 students from different local schools received $2,500 from the Nicola Myers and Kenneth McBride Memorial (NMKM) Fund created in memory of two former Island School students who lost their lives in 1985.

In 2017-2018 ISPTA Ltd has donated over $90,000 to NMKM fund in support of financially challenged children. Our congratulations to all bursary winners.

Next year's Year 7 students and their parents were on Sha Tin Wai campus on June 1st. Alefiyah Ebrahim and Carrian Hung were among those who spoke to new parents, and ISPTA organised a flash uniform sale. A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped at the sale.

A big thank you to all parents who have supported the mother tongue books collection! Many great books have been added to Library's collection of mother tongue books – books in languages spoken at homes of our Island School students.

We continue the project, and reach out to parents to continue donating mother tongue books in new or near-new condition in approximately Y7-8 reading level. Please keep the initiative in mind during your summer travels!

As the Library has already good collection of books in English, Chinese, Japanese, French and Spanish (languages are taught at IS), they are focusing on all other mother tongues: Hindi, Korean, Finnish, Norwegian, Russian, Dutch, Urdu, you name it!

They are interested in both books originally written in mother tongues, as well as mother tongue editions of some of the very popular fiction series, like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, The Land of Stories, The Diary of Wimpy Kid, etc.

For further questions, please contact our librarian, Mrs Emily Leung at emily.leung@online.island.edu.hk, or ISPTA through Tarja Joro at tarja.pta@icloud.com. Books can be dropped off at the library on either campuses.

Key Dates

• June 29th- Last day of School
• August 13th- First day for new students
• August 14th- First day of school for returning students
  

Please see school calendar at http://island.edu.hk/calendar/ for details and more events

It's a good way to be in touch with other parents from your child’s year group and address queries, advice, ideas and help in settling down and being part of the Island School community.

We have seven WhatsApp groups managed by Parent Representatives of each year group, who help to connect the parent community. These groups are especially useful for parents who are new to Island School.

If you would like to sign up, you can email PTA at pta@online.island.edu.hk or alefiyah@gmail.com. Please include parent's name, child's name, phone contact & class.

Chair | Mr Michael Lok

ISPTA representative | Alefiyah Ebrahim

COMPAR ( Committee of Parents on ESF Board)

ISPTA representative | Alefiyah Ebrahim

Parent Representatives: if you would like to be Class or Year representative or would like more information on the role, contact Manju Anand on manju_moorthy@yahoo.com

We have 2 furnished lounges for the use of parents when they are at both the campuses.

The Tai Wai Lounge (The Big Chill) is located on the ground floor between the library and general office.

The Sha Tin Wai lounge (The Uncommon Room) is a cottage located away from the main school building at the bottom of the playground.

Tea, coffee and cookies are available.

Free wifi and power sockets are available at both the lounges.

Please help us and donate any chargers you do not need, to be used at our ISPTA Lounges.

Island School, in combination with Kwoon Chung bus company has taken over the organisation of the booking and operations from January 2018.

Kwoon Chung web site for Island School school buses can be accessed at https://school.kcm.com.hk/island/

Dear Parents,

If you do have any suggestions for improvement, please email us at pta@online.island.edu.hk

Please do leave your contact email or phone so we can update you on how we addressed your concern.

Newsletter published by our lovely ISPTA committee ladies

Manju Anand & Tarja Joro

Contact us

Email: pta@online.island.edu.hk
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/online.island.edu.hk/island-school-pta/latest-news
Location: Island School, 波老 道沙田 Hong Kong
Phone: 2140 6806

Disclaimer:
Island School PTA is the owner of the copyright in all content of this publication. Distributing, modifying, copying or using any content of this publication in any manner for public or commercial purposes without written permission from Island School is strictly prohibited. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of Island School or the English Schools Foundation.