Inter-House Athletics Final 2011

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Island School Solar Panel Group

Date: 22nd January 2011
Press: SCMP

Shining example of power-saving

Jonathan Kong Chun-ho sits in an Island School science laboratory and peers into this monitor. A series of cleanly laid out figures and a bar graph pop up, but he is not in a conventional science lesson.

"What you can see here is a calculation of how much electricity we have saved at school today." he says.

the figures he was looking at link directly to a one-storey-high turbine and nearly 15 square metres of solar panels on the roof of the science block. Together, they supply about 10 per cent of all the power going into the block, every kilowatt of which is measured and recorded for any of the school's 1,100 students to access online.

The figures for that the rooftop systems should produce about 5 kilowatts of power, but they can produce up to about 10kW depending on weather conditions.

nearly 275kW of electricity has been produced, avoiding the burning of fossil fuels that would have sent 200 kilograms of carbon into the atmosphere, in the three weeks the project has been running.

The system also tells Jonathan that HK$280 has been saved in electricity costs in the past month - more than 10 per cent of the roughly HK$2,000 electricity bill the science block usually pays.

It is also an educational tool. Island School launched an International Baccalaureate course in environmental systems this year, which will take advantage of the raw data recorded 24 hours a day. But the benefits extend to geography, maths and science classes of all years. Physics pupils will carry out practical experiments in the efficiency of photovoltaic cells. The carbon involved in setting up the system should be neutralised in 1.5 years and the equipment has a lifespan of 50 years, with little maintenance.

Jonathan, one of the founders of the team of 10 pupils and a teacher, is in his final year of secondary school and came up with the idea in 2009. After 15 months, 700 student signatures on a petition and HK$320,000 from the government's Environmental and Conservation Fund and Environmental Capaign Committee, the system was up and running.

Howard Chow, another pupil involved in the project, said:" When the solar panels were first launched last year, the student body were a little bit doubtful of the efficiency of how it was going to work.

"When we finally saw the wind turbine starting to spin faster and faster our group was basically standing on the playground staring at it in relief. Our hard work had not gone into the rubbish bin."

Chris Ip
SCMP

Gui Vezzaro

It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that our much loved maths teacher and Head of Nansen House, Gui Vezzaro, passed away on the evening of Tuesday 30th November. As you know he has been in a precarious position between life and death since his heart attack in August. While there were signs of improvement in some aspects of his status, he was always very open to the damage an infection can cause. This danger arose in the last few days and he succumbed eventually to pneumonia.

The school is in a state of mourning as we remember our lively, vibrant friend, colleague and teacher. It will be very difficult for some of our staff and students, who were particularly close to Gui, to deal with this untimely loss. Some of your children will be deeply affected, and may well need the counselling help that we are setting up. Please do not hesitate to contact us, whether it is to set up some support, or just to let us know that your child is upset and that we should watch out for them. While allowing for those most affected, we will carry on school life as normally as possible.

The way in which the community has supported Gui over the last three months shows our love for him and the esteem in which he is held. The shock of his departure will be felt well beyond the confines of the school, and we all need to pull together and support each other, as well as Gui’s family and closest friends.

Gui joined Island School as a Maths Teacher in 1995. In 2004, while continuing to teach Maths, he joined the Guidance Staff, first in Fleming House, and then as Head of Nansen House. When Island School adopted the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, Gui used his experience to greatly add to our teaching of Theory of Knowledge. He has been much sought after by the IB Organisation as a workshop leader in TOK, around the world, to help teach less experienced teachers. Alongside his curriculum teaching has been Gui’s enthusiasm and tireless support for the wider aspects of school life. Whether it was Inter House Sports, School Volleyball, Maths Competitions of the Award for Young People, Gui was always ready to give his time for his students.

Those who were taught by Gui remember a committed and talented teacher, always prepared to spend that bit of extra time to explain the complex ideas. Those in his house have always commented on his care for those in need and his easy communication with children and parents. As a colleague, Gui will be greatly missed as a supportive friend who brought his sense of fun to the staffroom.

A Celebration of Gui's Life

On Thursday 9th December at 2.00pm Island School will hold a memorial celebration of the life of Guillermo Vezzaro. This will take place in the school hall. There will be music and readings from students and his colleagues in the staff, and we hope to capture some of the memories that Gui has left us. We look forward to many people joining us for this event and the doors of the hall and the hall balcony will be open from 1.00pm. There will be refreshments after the event provided by the Island School community with the support of many sponsors.

We hope to video this event and make it available as a live stream on the internet for those who would like to watch but are unable to attend. Please watch the Island School website for the link to be posted.

Fund raising for Gui

Many of you have donated to a fund that was initially set up for Gui’s long term care here and in Argentina, and I would like to express my gratitude to all of those who have contributed so generously. The purpose of this fund going forward has been the subject of much discussion among those at school who were closest to Gui. While the conclusion is not yet completely firm, we have decided that there are two aims that Gui would have appreciated and supported.

In the first place we know that Gui supported his extended family in Argentina, sending money back to support the further education of family members. We feel it is entirely appropriate that that commitment is honoured by this fund. In the second place we would like to set up a trust in Gui’s name that will be designed to support, in some way, families in the ESF community who are struggling with the financial commitment to education due to a bereavement. Gui was a man of tremendous humility and social conscience and believed in the power and value of education. We know he would support this aim.

If anyone has contributed to the fund by cheque, under the original aim, and feels uncomfortable with the new targets, we would like to give you the opportunity to withdraw your donation. If you would like to do this, please contact Betty Tsu at Island School.

Yours sincerely

Chris Binge
Principal

Nansen Biathlon

On Wednesday 15th September Nansen house participated in a sponsored biathlon to raise money for the Amy Coxall Memorial Fund. This date was chosen as the following Sunday would have been Amy’s 16th birthday and we wanted to have time together as a house to remember this day and celebrate Amy’s life in a positive way. What was particularly great was how everyone embraced the event and virtually the whole house and a large number of staff participated.

The actual race was done in pairs starting with a run to 2nd pagoda and then a swim of 16 lengths. In true Nansen spirit there was a competitive edge to the afternoon especially when the staff started! For some individuals the run and swim was not too difficult but what was so admirable was seeing some of the younger students determined to finish 16 lengths even if swimming was not their sport.

Results

Fastest runner Bernard Luk/Philip Leung
Fastest swimmer Yasmin Daswani
Fastest pair Rishabh Mulchandani Deep Vaze
Fastest soloist Mia Lau

Fastest Staff Pair Derek Irwin Abbi ‘Ironwoman’ Stead

Prizes were also given for the individuals who raised the most sponsorship money. An amazing amount of money was raised by Angus Reid-Kay 12N ($20, 230) and Derrick Tan (13, 500). This was a great achievement and both boys should be very proud of their efforts. The class sponsorship prize went to 9N who raised $13, 826 and they will be having a lunchtime pizza meal as their well-deserved reward. At the house assembly the week before the event we had set a realistic target of $50,000. At the last count we had raised a staggering amount of $96, 720.90!! This is a tremendous amount of money and we are very proud of everyone in the house for their efforts.

A big thank you needs to go to 12N for their help with the organisation of the afternoon especially Emeline Sandt and Kevin ‘Mr Spreadsheet’ Chan!

Amy was a very special student and she is sorely missed, both in Nansen and Island School. Amy you will always hold a very special place in our hearts and we will never forget you.

Cath Hopkins
Senior Head of Nansen House

ESF Soccer Tournament

IS C grade boys win the plate in ESF Soccer Tournament


On Saturday 9th October, Island School entered 2 teams in the ESF C grade soccer tournament. The A 1st team was composed of mainly year nine and a 2nd team was a mixture of year eight and nine.

Players of the 2nd team were: Lucius Hatherley, Ben Sargant, Matthew Mortimer, James Chalkley, Kenji Ichikawa, Samir Mangharam, Kristian Dodds, Kristian Glemao, Henry Lee, Lewis Arboit, Aakarsh Bhatnagar, Rohit Daswani.

I was very impressed with efforts made by both teams. They played well in their opening games but didn't quite make the cup semi finals (on goal difference). It came down to Island School 1 v Island School 2 in the plate semi finals which went to penalties. Island School 1 missed but Kenji put his away and so Island School 2 were in the final where they met RCHK.

Again it went to penalties. Level pegging to the 4th. But they showed great determination. Rohit saved the RCHK shot and Ben put his away. It was a big achievement for the year eight boys.

IS D grade Boys win ESF Soccer Tournament


The following boys were part of the squad that won the Cup in the ESF soccer tournament at KGV on Saturday 9th October: Owen Turner, Chirag Bellani, Patrick McGillvray, Aaron Stanyard, Bill Beaves, Mark Swainston, Robbie Stamp, Rory Lonergan, Connor O'Hanlon, George Wyatt, Kurt Leimer.

In the group stages they beat South Island School 5-0 and then West Island School 3-0. They then lost their way against Shatin College losing 1-0. However they bounced back against KGV 2, winning 2-0. They came 2nd in the group and faced the pre-tournament favourites KGV1 in the semi finals. However the Island School team were not phased and trounced them 5-0.

The final against HKIS got off to bad start, and the IS team went a goal down, but the lads rallied, equalised and got a late winner. Victory was ours. The boys played magnificently but also in good spirit and we have the makings of a great team. Robbie, Rory and Aaron were outstanding. Owen was also very solid in goal. I would like to congratulate the boys!

Paul Chillingworth

Alice in Wonderland

Viveca Chow 12N and Hannah Chan 12N were selected from all the winners at the 2009 Speech and Drama Festival for their performance of Alice in Wonderland at the TVB Pearl's ETV presentation earlier this year.



On and off, Island School has taken part in the Hong Kong Schools' Speech, Drama and Music Festivals for almost twenty years. We now enter students for both the Chinese and English competitions within the Speech and Drama festival and we have had some great successes.

This last year 19 students participated in the English section and all achieved merits, with some students also achieving placings. Viveca Chow achieved first place in both the Solo-verse: non-open section for secondary 5 students and with Hannah Chan in the Dramatic Duologue section. Further members of last year's 9W also achieved first place in their competition for Thematic speaking.

The applications for this year's competition is taking place this week. Please hurry if you would like your son/daughter to take part. Please contact mlv@mail.island.edu.hk.

Message from the Principal

Dear Parents,

Welcome to a new school year at Island School. I extend a particular welcome to all those families who are joining the Island School Community for the first time. I hope that the settling-in process for you and your children goes as smoothly as possible. Please make sure you contact us quickly if there are any problems.

In this newsletter I will be looking back on the events that have happened during the summer. This will include the exam results and University destinations of our graduates as well as the renovations.

IB Results and HE destinations

I sent out a summary of our IB results as soon as they came out in the summer, which is also included as an attachment to this newsletter. As you can see, we are very pleased with these results as they are significantly better than the world averages and also a measurable improvement on last year.

The following summary of the data shows that the United Kingdom and the United States are the most popular destinations this year. Our most popular three colleges are spread between US, UK and Canada.

There are still one or two students for whom we do not have data, but this is certainly more accurate feedback from the students than we have had in the past. I am very grateful to Simone Salier, Roger Wilkinson and the HE team for gathering and putting together this data.

GCSE Results

As I write this the GCSE results are coming in. We use different examining boards for different subjects and these boards report their results at different times, and there is still one subject to come in. While we have not had time to analyse the results fully the first glance indicates that the results are at least as good as last year, when we had an outstanding set. About 60% of all the grades achieved by Island School students are either A or A*, and 93% at are grade C or above. We have three students who have achieved A* grades in all their subjects and a further 25 who have achieved A or A* in all subjects.

Summer Renovations

As soon as the students left school on the final day of term in June, the team of workmen came into the school to start the renovation of the main group of general classrooms. As you will know the Science labs have been renovated over recent years and other specialist rooms like the Music rooms, and the TV studio were done last year. This year it has been the turn of the general classrooms where the work was certainly necessary. I am pleased to say that 33 classrooms and 6 house offices, as well as the staffroom were completed on time for the start of the new term.

The work in the classrooms has included repainting the walls, re-carpeting the floors and completely refitting the furniture, storage and whiteboards. We are particularly pleased with the innovative storage solution behind the whiteboards that gives us much more teaching and learning space in the rooms. There are now plug sockets all round the rooms to enable laptops to be charged. The rather ragged looking curtains have been replaced by easy to use blinds to keep the bright sunlight out when showing video or using the interactive whiteboards. All in all the rooms are many times better than they were and are an attractive learning space that we must all maintain in their present state.

If you have visited the school you will have noticed that we now have a large banner and a series of large scale displays with the Island School Values on view to all. There is also a large metal plaque in the entrance with the values on. You may remember that last year we worked with a group of students, parents, staff and friends of the school to come up with value statements that could express what we are about and that we could use for framing future policy. These are now loudly proclaimed on the campus. In the first assembly of term the four senior prefects presented what each of the statements meant to them to the whole school. They did an excellent job in using their own experience to exemplify the values, which I hope will help to provide inspiration to the younger students.

The whole feel of the school has created a very positive atmosphere at the start of the new year and one which bodes well for a successful term for all our community. I wish you all a happy and exciting school year when we can all Pursue Excellence, Embrace Responsibility and Celebrate Individuality.