Primary Principals' Newsletter
English Version May, 2024
Even though May comes near the end of the school year, we have remained very busy with learning, exploring, celebrating, competing and so much more! Whomever came up with the term 'the school year is winding down' certainly was not a member of the Kingston community! Celebrate May with us as we reflect on some of the excitement, even as we turn our attention to a very busy June!
English BoB Semi Final
On the 2nd of May, the English Battle of the Books team embarked on an exciting journey to the Hong Kong Battle of the Books Semi-Finals Competition at Delia School of Canada. Our team, representing Kingston School, stood alongside other formidable teams from ISF, The Harbour School, Dalton School, Nord Anglia School and our host school, DSC, ready to showcase their literary prowess.
The Kingston team, composed of talented students, displayed exceptional performance throughout the competition. In the initial round against DSC, our team surged ahead with a remarkable lead of eight points. Subsequently, we went head-to-head with ISF, matching them point for point. Against The Harbour School, we once again dominated with an impressive 8-point lead.
In the final round, we triumphed over Nord Anglia International School by a mere one point, securing a well-deserved second place in the Semi-Finals, narrowly edged out by ISF.
We take immense pride in our learners' dedication, hard work, and exemplary conduct throughout the competition. Their resilience and sportsmanship are a testament to their character and the values instilled at Kingston School. A big thank you to Ethan Man, Ronny Chu, and Sophie Leung from Y6, Nicolas Tsai, Alisdair Kirmani, Lok Yan Tsang, Kadence Hui, Madison Leung, and Yasmine Wong from Y5, and our latest additions to the team, Elizabeth Man, Charlotte Lee, and Daryl Tsang from Y4. Well done to you all for your hard work and effort!
With such a stellar team, we are confident in our ability to continue excelling in future Battle of the Books competitions. Congratulations to all the participants for their outstanding performance, and here's to many more successes in the upcoming years!
Y3-Y6 In-school Chinese BOB
This year, our Y3 students studied the famous Chinese story “Journey to the West” and “Three Kingdoms”, while our Y4 students studied ”Chinese Fables” and “The Fisherman and His Wife”. Y5 students studied “Chinese Folk Tales” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. Y6 students studied “One Thousand and One Nights ” and six pieces of classical Chinese. Through the competition, we witnessed the students’ clear understanding of famous stories and classical Chinese. We are proud of our students and congratulations to the winners:
Y3
Champion: Y3.2 , Dylan WANG, Horace LIN and Calista NG
First Runner-up: Y3.1 Jacob WOO, Agnes WU and Frankie YUNG
Y4
Champions: Y4.2 Forrest CHAN, Anna LI, Quinton LEUNG
First Runners-up: Y4.1 Scarlet TSE, Kimmy LAM, Jadan LAM
Y5
Champion: Y5.1 Frank FEI Jason HUANG and Lok Yan TSANG
First Runner-up: Y5.2 Javan TANG, Jocelyn WANG and Yi Xuan SHEN
Y6
Champion: Kevin JIAO, Ethan HUANG and Aldan LAU
First Runner-up: Amy HUANG, Runlin JI and Katie TSO
Hong Kong Primary Floor Hockey League Championships
After an incredible season spanning from March until Mid-May that involved 10 teams from 5 different international primary schools, both of Kingston’s teams earned places in their respective Hong Kong Primary Floor Hockey League 2024 Championship Games.
On May 16, 2024 our Yellow and Blue Upper Primary Competitive Floor Hockey teams competed in the Championship Games for the A and B 2024 Cups. The games were held at CAIS, Kingston’s main rival throughout the season. As defenders of both cups, spirits and confidence were high throughout both games. Unfortunately, we came up just a bit short and we offer CAIS our sincere congratulations on their Double Championship victories!
Newspaper Sales
Congratulations to our Newspaper Club writers and editors for producing a captivating Spring Edition of Creative Quills! There were a wide variety of articles and stories and sales were brisk when members set up their sales desks at both primary campuses. The members of the club are proud to have raised and donated $2700 to Feeding Hong Kong! We are looking forward to the fourth and final edition for 2023-2024, which should hit the presses in mid-June.
KEG Snail Detail
The Upper Primary KEG has been challenged with an invasion of snails who have helped themselves to some of the students’ crops in recent weeks. In an effort to protect the current harvest, the KEG invited the Upper Primary community to bring in egg shells in order that they might be crushed and spread around the bases of the plants and vegetables in the garden in order to discourage the snails from their slow-motion evening attacks. So far, the shells seem to be doing their job!
SRC: Book Week
The Student Representative Council-led Kingston Book Week concludes today, but the encouragement of reading never stops! Earlier in the week, Upper Primary students visited Lower Primary for Buddy Reading sessions. The older students brought some of their favorite books with them and read them with our eager younger readers. This was a very rewarding experience for students from both campuses, who have been chatting about the experience with enthusiasm.
Kingston teachers have been bringing some of their favorite kids books to each class to read during Morning Meetings all week. These reading sessions were especially rewarding in that, in many cases, students were reunited with past teachers or introduced to their future teachers!
Today, students were welcome to dress up as their favorite book character. We were pleased to meet ‘The Warden’ and ‘Kitty’ and ‘Harry’ and so many more fictional heroes and villains!
Kingston Receives Community Chest Award for Dress Casual Day
On May 28, Y5.2 Peter Thomas and Y4.2 Elizabeth Man attended the Dress Casual Day 2023 Cheque & Award Presentation Ceremony at the Hang Seng Bank Headquarters in Central. Peter and Elizabeth presented a cheque for $79,402 on behalf of the Kingston Primary community and received a glass trophy for 2nd Highest Per Capita Contribution Award in the Educational Institutions Category for Dress Casual Day. We would like to thank the students who participated in Dress Casual Day and all of our family members who generously donated to the Community Chest! Thank you to Peter and Elizabeth for attending the ceremony on the Kingston Community’s behalf!
Anson Ip Presents Mr. John to Mr. John
In a much-appreciated gesture, this week Y6 Anson Ip presented a painted portrait to Mr. John. This humbled Mr. John greatly and certainly brightened his day! Mr. John has committed to keeping and hanging Anson’s work in his office until he retires and in his home after that.
Mr. John Recommends:
Smartphone-Free Childhood Hong Kong (https://sfchk.org/) This is the website for a Hong Kong-based parent support group whose aim is to assist families and communities in delaying smartphone use by children and offering strategies for getting your child’s friends’ parents on board in order to guard against smartphone use being a condition of social acceptance.