Culture
Dearest Islanders,
We wish you a warm welcome (or welcome back)! We hope you’re just as excited as we are for events – old and new – coming to Island School this year. Here’s a snapshot of what the Culture team has been up to over the past weeks, along with plans for the future.
Event Updates: Diwali 2024
We are ecstatic to announce that Diwali 2024 celebrations at Island School are now in the works. Building upon the successes of past years, we are working hard to bring to you a Diwali that all of you can enjoy. Diwali this year takes place on the 1st of November, so mark your calendars for the festival of lights!
Leadership Opportunities for Y12s
We have been engaging in discussions about carving out new leadership opportunities for Y12s. It is paramount for Y12s to undergo experiences pertaining to leadership, to satisfy their CAS requirements as well as to build a compelling personal profile. We’re excited to implement these opportunities and will share more details as they develop. Y12s, make sure to keep your eyes peeled!
A New Initiative: Multicultural Team
In line with our commitment to paying close attention to student voice, we are excited to announce the formation of a new sub-team. The Multicultural Team will aim to bridge the gap between Islanders and the Culture team, helping to pave the way for a diverse range of cultural perspectives in programming and events. We’re eager to see how this will enrich our community and foster a deeper understanding of diverse cultures.
Coming Soon: Instagram Posts
In the coming weeks, we are also looking forward to showcasing our past achievements on the Culture Instagram account (@is.cultureteam – go follow!). We would like to thank the Media team for their hard work and creativity! Their efforts have been instrumental in bringing our initiatives onto a virtual spotlight, and we are looking forward to when we can finally post them.
(Almost) Anything Else!
As always, we encourage everyone to share their thoughts and ideas with us. Your feedback is invaluable in shaping our initiatives and ensuring that we are meeting Islanders’ needs. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Creative Arts
- Stars 2024 is coming SOON!
- Auditions and callbacks have been happening in the past week, where we got performances from a wide range of talented singers!
- Keep your eyes peeled for the date of the performing night at @is.creativearts
- Chicago Preparation workshop
- All auditioning students are welcome to join this workshop during Tuesday lunchtime (1:10 – 1:50 pm) in room 213 – no sign-up is required! Please contact Ms. Vitachi if you have any more questions.
Media
The Media Team is returning with a variety of new initiatives. We are collaborating with the subgroups within the Media team, such as the Island Insider, to provide students with study tips and hacks. Additionally, we are working on a school podcast that will broadcast student voices. On the design front, our team is assisting the culture group by creating templates for their Instagram posts. Following from the previous year, we have been working on posting information regarding the Student Council Committees on this website. The 2024-25 Committee List can be viewed here.
Social Action
The Social Action committee is ready to start the new academic year with a bang! We currently have many plans in motion regarding the fruitful activities we as a committee have prepared in the upcoming academic year. A few of these include the Helper Appreciation Day, Pride Week and the annual Whole School Walkathon. However, for Term 1, our central focus is to gather relevant documents and materials as we prepare for the Student Council handover process. We hope to make this transition as smooth as possible by providing the incoming committee heads with sufficient guidance by offering them the resources we used when organising various initiatives throughout the 23/24 academic year.
Sports
On behalf of the Island School Sports Council, we have been mainly working on figuring out the logistics of the new Island School Typhoons sports kits that we’ve been working on alongside Kukri to produce and distribute the new kits for the 24/25 sports season. Along with that, as the sports seasons for football, volleyball and netball are starting, we are also hosting official matches and friendlies with other schools in our Island School Sports Hall. We are also aiming to have as much media coverage such as filming and photographs on the @istyphoons Instagram page to update students, parents, and others.
STEM Committee
Following its integration into the wider Student Council, the STEM committee has planned a range of school-wide events and initiatives.
To begin a new year of academic endeavour and rigour, we will be reintroducing the STEM Cross-Year Mentorship Program, where older students from Y10 and above will have the rewarding opportunity to teach and mentor younger generations in various aspects of STEM. This is a prime opportunity for them to reconsolidate their knowledge, make connections with the years below, and learn the interpersonal skills of teaching along the way. Applications for both mentors and mentees will take place in September.
Furthermore, plans for various new initiatives incorporating students from Island School and beyond are underway, and we will continue aiming to catalyse interest and cultivate curiosity in STEM. The coming academic year holds a world of potential, and the STEM committee looks forward to your engagement!
Student Advisors
To kick off the new year, the Student Learning Advisors have brought a spectrum of changes to the Student Portfolio. With a refreshed and renewed UI, it has taken on the role of a viewing platform for student progress. At the end of the year, it will be published and printed out as a report card for students and parents to see their progress across not only grades, but also goals, competencies, in-school achievements through badges, and more. The input process has also been refined. Google Forms have become obsolete and fully replaced by the IStudent App, a centralised platform where students can enter their reflections, engagements and targets with ease.
Aside from the portfolio, we have also made progress with the Oxford Brookes Competency Curriculum research project we started last year to demonstrate the importance of competencies in the school curriculum. Before the summer, we had the opportunity to interview a range of Year 10 students on their experiences in the elements course and how they have contributed to their character development. In the next weeks, we will conduct qualitative and quantitative data analysis on the interview transcripts to support the work of Professor Patrick Alexander.
Term 1 will certainly be busy, and the SLA looks forward to your contributions to our upcoming initiatives!
Wellbeing Team
This is what we plan to work on in this coming academic year:
- Collaboration with other committees (such as culture and creative arts) to host fun events
- Collect feedback about reasons for stress within the school and work with student advisors to help improve the student experience
- Launch a volunteer mentorship program to newcomers (Y7 or higher) into Island School
- Arrange regular fortnightly lunch “help desks” for early IGCSE and IB students (Y10 and Y12 students) with seniors (Y11 and Y13 students) to solve their academic troubles
- Host an annual wellbeing week with events (eg eating contests, board game, tournament)for students to destress during the academic year
WANBO
WANBO (環保), Island School’s environmental team, is back and ready to work towards cultivating another eco-filled academic year! With our annual Green Week taking place on the 2-6th of September this year (more on it to be announced in next week’s assembly), here are some of the initiatives we have running alongside it:
The Alliance for Sustainable Schools (TASS) & Our School Canteen
Back in January of this year, we signed a charter with TASS and pledged to uphold school-wide sustainability. This semester, we have been in discussions with our school’s canteen provider, Asia Pacific Catering, to potentially introduce low-carbon recipes into weekly lunch menus. Keep your eyes peeled for more (tasty) updates!
Recycling
Recently, we completed an audit of all onsite recycling bins, and are currently in the process of improving our recycling system in and out of classrooms by making it more accessible across campus. Each room should come with its paper waste bin—please ensure unused worksheets or papers are disposed of there instead of general waste.
The composting continues…
We’re now back to full-time composting, adding about 15 kgs of food waste every weekday (excluding half days) to our on-site composter. Once it fills up, some will be removed to use as fertilizer for the school community garden.
To ensure that our WANBO members can manage canteen waste efficiently, please ensure only food scraps are added to the food waste bin and that tissues, bamboo skewers, and single-use plastics are discarded elsewhere. Your support can go a long way. ♡
There’ll be much more taking place for Green Week that isn’t mentioned here! If you have any questions, please feel free to email any of your WANBO committee heads:
- alexandra.lai@online.island.edu.hk
- anais.lambert@online.island.edu.hk
- jayden.yuen@online.island.edu.hk
- hayden.leung@online.island.edu.hk
Don’t forget to follow @iswanbo on Instagram for more promotions and updates!
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