20241004 Student Council Update

We’re excited to let you know that we’ve finished selecting the heads for our Multicultural Team and the Cultural Sub-Groups! 🎉

Here is some clarification on the roles of these teams:

• The Multicultural Team will be organising our Multicultural Week, happening in February or March 2025.
• Meanwhile, the Cultural Sub-Group heads will assist the Culture Heads and Deputies in planning upcoming events like Korean Culture Day (mark your calendars!) and celebrations for Diwali (mark your calendars! × 2) and Chinese New Year.

Speaking of Diwali, planning is in full swing! Get ready for the return of the Staff Dance and many of the classic festivities at Island School. An agenda is to be shared in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled!

As always, if you have any questions, please contact us at the below emails:

• rachel.yoon@online.island.edu.hk 
• vaibhavi.palshetkar@online.island.edu.hk
• hazel.wong@online.island.edu.hk 

Thanks for all your support over the past academic year, and we hope that you continue to get involved in the Culture Committee’s endeavours over the coming year.

Stars 2024 on the 2nd and 3rd of October!

Congratulations to all the finalists and thank you to all those who participated in the auditions. 

Link to the tickets are here: www.ticketflap.com/stars2024

If you buy 4 tickets it will be 10 dollars off per ticket! 

Follow @is.creativearts for our promotion reels :))) 

The Media Team is currently working on the autumn issue of Island Currents and plans to recruit writers and column editors. If you are interested in either role, please fill in this form. In the meantime, we are also collaborating with subgroups of the Media Team, such as Island Insiders, to plan and post reels that provide students with tips and hacks for studying and choosing subjects. Regarding design, our team is currently working with the Culture Team to create their Instagram posts.

Currently, we are working on the website and we will be conducting interviews with different individuals we’ve reached out to after the half-term break! Our website should be launched and updated with study advice and tips before school resumes after half term. As we make more content, we’ll contact the editing team and provide them access to edit the site for us.

Social Action has been as busy as ever in the past few weeks. We as a committee have brainstormed many methods to improve the yearly experience of the Walkathon for students so that the event can be more interactive and exciting. We are also proud to announce possible new events in the upcoming year such as a Community Chest Flag Day. Additionally, Social Action has started preparing for the handover process that will be commencing in late October, this includes preparing notes and possible startup points for the incoming Heads and Deputy Heads to build on to ensure a smooth transition.

The Mother’s Choice Carnival will be held at Island School on the 3rd of November, welcoming an expected number of over 1000 participants throughout all the festivities. This year is the new campus’ first year of hosting the Carnival at our school, and we’re still keeping an eye out for student performances for the event! Fill in the Google Form on the school bulletin board if you’re interested.

Our members will also be helping out with the City Kids Preschool Xmas Fair on the 23rd of November, which serves a great way for our community to build on connections with organizations close to our school.

Moving forward, be on the lookout for our flagship Open Day happening on the 10th of January! We’re welcoming the Sha Tin Wai elderly back to Island School for a Chinese New Year celebration taking place in the courtyard after school. The event will be run by students, involving student performances, game stalls, and so much more.

Girls Rising has just transitioned to a fresh batch of leaders: Ava Au Yeung 12D, Bella Broad 12D, Zita Lok 12W, and Yelena Bracovic 12W. These new leaders are more than excited to lead the club for its 24-25 iteration, so stay tuned for their upcoming initiatives!

One of these initiatives includes a Bookmark Competition, with submissions due on the 14th of October after the term break. Details are in the slide below. 

Also, the club has recently launched their Period Equity initiative in conjunction with a social enterprise, LUÜNA, a local company that emphasises sustainability and menstrual wellbeing. This commits the school to provide pads in all gender-neutral and female bathrooms from now onwards. The initiative, which is funded by the Island School Trust, aims to raise awareness of the inconveniences that inaccessibility to period products may cause to girls/females in Island School, and promote equality and awareness of menstrual health.

Furthermore, a rebrand of the Girls Rising Instagram account (@is.girlsrising) is currently ongoing, with a new logo marking the start of the account’s renewal. Be sure to follow them to be updated on what’s ahead!

Student advisors work behind the scenes to ensure the school runs smoothly. Over the past few months, we’ve collaborated with Oxford Brookes University on a competency research project that sheds light on the value of the six competencies. We’ve also enhanced the student portfolio and encouraged reflection and goal-setting. In the coming month, we will assist with the options process for incoming IB students. These projects will continue to thrive even after our departure.

Good bye and good luck. Keep advising ‼️

After our last update at the end of August, WANBO held Green Week from the 2nd to 6th of September, which encompassed activities like our Green pledges, but more prominently the launch of a bottle cap collection inter-house, co-ordinated by the student team Precious Plastics. 

Collected bottle caps from this can be shredded, melted down and used to make different creations in the DT department. Please be reminded to purchase wisely: avoid deliberately buying single-use bottle caps, and focus on recycling the ones you have at home. And don’t forget—you can also recycle bottle bodies through any of the plastic recycling bins at school. 

Alongside this, we’ve also continued with our onsite composting, which has gone smoothly this year! Congratulations to us for reducing the amount of non-food waste items in the food waste bin 👏👏👏 

Lastly, the Mexican Rolex (burrito) is finally coming to the Island Cafe right after the half-term break! Keep your eyes peeled for our first sustainable dish, one of hopefully many more to come. 

As we begin the handover process for our new set of heads, the four of us just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone, and especially Mr. Burrough as well as our WANBO members for their unconditional support with our endeavors. Stay tuned for the future—there’s a lot more to come ♡

Signing off,

🐟🦝🦅🐿️

The Global Goals Council has recently opened applications for Y10-12s who are interested in spearheading initiatives regarding the global goals/SDGs! Responses are being reviewed on a running basis before the deadline on October 4th – moving forward, we hope to continue to develop awareness of the global goals in Island School by organising events and experiences, as well as participate in international exchanges with a focus on sustainability🌱! 

The English Committee is in charge of organising Book Week, Island School’s annual week-long celebration of all things literary aimed at promoting the joy of reading. Some previous activities include a Spelling Bee competition, second-hand book sales, decorate-the-door competitions, and the highly anticipated Dress Up Day, where students and teachers alike dress up as literary characters based on a variety of categories (Action & Adventure, Magic & Fantasy, Sci-Fi, etc.).

Apart from Book Week though, there are other relevant activities that the English Committee are involve with! Our 2024 Essay Competition is currently open for submissions. You can find more details below:

Topic: ‘What unique opportunities or challenges does technological integration present in online versus traditional learning environments?’

• Eligibility: Students in grades 7-8 and 9-13
• Word Count: 500-800 words
• Prizes: Mr Corlett will organise
• Judging: The English Committee → English teachers

If you’re interested in taking part, submit your entry to this form before 9 am on the 25th of October. Good luck, and we look forward to reading your submissions! 

Stay tuned—something’s coming after half-term break!

After a strong kickstart to the first semester, we’re nearing the beginning of half-term break with many successful initiatives! We spoke in a recent assembly on the return of the Cross Mentorship Programme on the 17th of September, and are seeing promising results for mentor applications. The deadline for the Cross Mentorship Programme has been extended to after the half-term break. Furthermore, we plan to promote this initiative more actively to encourage participation through methods like PTA, student bulletin, etc. 

Additionally, after the half-term, the Maths Mentorship Programme will also be launched. We hope that Island School looks forward to these exciting initiatives aimed at enhancing STEM at Island School!

We are also currently in communication with Girls Rising to organise a potential speaker talk focused on women in STEM. This collaborative effort will aim to inspire and empower our students, but is still currently in the discussion phase.