Media Committee

The media team has started the process of updating and building on both of our key channels, being the Island Currents and Instagram. For Island Currents, many new articles have been put on the site, ranging from movie reviews to Island School event coverage! Additionally, you can now view the English newsletter and Capital Island on Island Currents. The Media channel has done an excellent job in collating images from different sports events, the Walkathon, and the Winter Fair. There are many reels up and coming, so keep an eye on our Instagram: @is.mediateam

Creative Arts Committee

Look forward to our school production: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on the 3rd, 4th, 5th of February!!

The recent interhouse junk fashion show held during the winter fair was also an immense success, with Fleming coming out on top.

Support our school production @cursedchild.is and stay connected with Creative Arts through @islandcreative_is on instagram!

Culture Committee

The culture team has worked to immerse the student body in holiday spirit through two major week long celebrations. 

Most recently, we did our Lunar New Year celebrations, our school campus was enhanced with festive decorations. We also held daily activities in the courtyard, including making wishes at the wishing tree and trying their luck at the chinese fortune sticks. Additionally, we also planned a PTA and parent dance performance, a Fai Chun calligraphy workshop in collaboration with the creative arts team, and Lai See Lantern making. As usual, we also have our APC special lunch menu. In addition a LNY trivia interhouse for year 7s and 8s, and a lion dance with students being able to dress casually on the last day before LNY break. 

Prior to this, we wrapped out the previous term with our animal Christmas celebrations. Highlighted by our candy cane and keychain delivery service. With the collaboration with Run your own business elements hosting the island marketplace, featuring students running their unique stalls and selling gifts and games. Besides, we also had a Christmas karaoke, and our yearly find the elf staff scavenger hunt, to sum up with a gingerbread decorating session and finally a student dressing festive to wrap it up.

English Committee

Over the last few weeks, the English committee has been keeping itself busy with finalising details for the Orwell essay competition and planning for Book Week! We’d like to thank our members for their lovely contributions and enthusiasm during meetings. In regards to the English newsletter, we’ve released the first two editions so far (the December and January issues). Our monthly Newsletters can be found through past Island School Newsletters, as well as on Island Currents! The February issue of the English newsletter is well underway too, so please keep an eye out in your inboxes for that. We can’t wait for you to see what we have in store for you during our upcoming events!

Social Action Committee

Hi Island School! The Social Action Committee has made waves of impact in the previous two academic terms hosting events such as the whole school walk where funds are directed to fund the Nicola and Kenneth bursary and a toy drive in collaboration with Kids4Kids to aid affected children in Tai Po. Turning our focus on a new term, the Social Action Committee has lined up more initiatives in the works. We are currently planning events such as our annual Pride Week and the Helper’s appreciation day. At the end of the school year we will also be hosting the annual Nicola and Kenneth bursary award ceremony where bursary winners will come to Island School and receive their cash prize for their standout achievement. On behalf of the social action team, we are ecstatic to bring forth these new initiatives and cannot wait for your involvement and participation. 

Connected Communities Committee (Under Social Action Committee)

The Connected Communities Team is pleased to share that our Secret Santa Drive – Mother’s Choice x IS has been a huge success! We have successfully secured 50 gifts for 50 mothers, raising over 18,000 HKD in total.

Through our partnership with Mother’s Choice, we’ve made a meaningful impact this Christmas by providing these young mothers with gifts that will support their children and brighten their holidays.

Here are a few quotes from the mothers:

“Thank you for thinking of us this Christmas. My baby loved the gift, and I loved the sweet surprise too. Your kindness warmed our little family’s hearts.”

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the wonderful Christmas surprise. It was such a joyful moment opening it, and I felt so cared for. Your generosity truly made this holiday season more meaningful, and I’ll remember this warmth for a long time.”

Finally, we’d like to give a huge thank you to all the donors who contributed to this cause, it would not have been possible without you!

Sports Committee

In the past two weeks, our typhoon sports teams have been extremely busy. The U20 Boys Football Team is getting ready for the prestigious Jing-Ying tournament, which is a major accomplishment and should be very exciting. Additionally, our U16 Boys Football Team recently triumphed over a strong Carmel team in a penalty shootout, as the team secured the ISSFHK championship title. Furthermore, the U20 and U14 Boys Tennis Team are gearing up for their ISSFHK Division I finals and we wish them the best of luck as they compete. And moving onto our basketball teams, our U12 Girls team has reached the ISSFHK finals, along with the U14A Boys, U14B Boys and the U20 Girls teams. Moreover our U16A Boys Basketball team has reached the semi-finals and the U20 Boys team is in the 3rd place playoffs match. These achievements over the past two weeks have been nothing less than outstanding, Go Typhoons!

STEM Committee

The STEM Committee has recently restarted the mentorship programs for the younger year groups, mainly mentoring for MYP science and math, with each program having about 20 mentees each and a 1:1 mentor-mentee ratio, ensuring quality mentoring for each mentee and student. 

We are also in the process of getting ready for our STEM days in semester 2! Year 7, 8, and 9 STEM days are in the planning process, and the STEM committee is researching what can be done for these events. We will need volunteers for this as well, so keep an eye out in your emails, and we look forward to seeing what you can all contribute soon.

In terms of outreach and student engagement, we’ve already promoted several external opportunities, including the HKSSPC Competition and the CityUHK Summer Research Internship 2026. We are also preparing to launch school-wide promotion for the GIZMOS Eastern Asia STEM Competition in the coming weeks. A student interest form and promotional materials are currently being developed. The VEX IQ Robotics Competition is scheduled for later this year, and preparation will begin closer to the event.

Finally, our Instagram account is active and performing well, with regular biweekly posts and features highlighting STEM events and competitions. The publicity subcommittee continues to manage and plan our outreach effectively. We have posted some STEM-related competitions that can be signed up for on our instagram on @stematisland, so be sure to check those out!

Student Advisors Committee

Greetings from your Student Learning Advisors!

Following a series of meetings, we are excited to announce several upcoming initiatives. These include a school-wide anonymous feedback system, peer-to-peer workshops to support lower-year students, and a new Junior Elements Mentorship Programme. We also plan to revamp a recognition system that awards students based on their performance in different subjects, rather than an overall academic excellence award.

Additionally, we will be more active on social media platforms like Instagram, so stay tuned for more updates!

WANBO

Over the past 2 weeks, WANBO has taken many initiatives.

During the IS winter fair we established the recycling bin in front of the staff room, with our prompts many people to contribute to recycling their plastic bottles/cans. From our team, we had 37 people volunteer for the second-hand uniform sale and kitchenware sale.

The School Council presentation took place on 26/1, in which Chelsie represented WANBO and spoke to members of the school council directly. Together with Mr Burrough, they introduced the sustainable initiatives that take place in Island School, detailing the past, current and future work that WANBO has done, while also highlighting our ongoing partnerships with external organisations, such as TASS and Redress.

Our composting sub-committee all learnt how to manage the compost machine and have been regularly managing food waste at the end of most days. (so far we’ve successfully composted around 2 days’ worth of food!!)

Our design sub-committee has officially relaunched WANBO Weekly, which, as the name suggests, are weekly instagram posts created by the WANBO Design team members, promoting sustainability by bringing attention to certain aspects of their interest.

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.

Girls Rising

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!

Sports

Since the end of August, we’ve been not only keeping up with different sports, but also continuing the media aspects of sports in Island School with more regular posts and updates. Stay posted with our @istyphoons Instagram page, where we’ll be releasing new reels, photos and filming of Typhoons games.

Alongside this, we’ve released our new Kukri kits, which are sports uniforms our Typhoons athletes will wear when they represent our school in future games. You’ll see them around and in pictures throughout the rest of this term and beyond!

We look forward to returning with more updates, and from us outgoing heads, thank everyone for one year of collaboration, fun, and success!

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!

1. Mother Tongue Week (March):
   • Language Boards (changed daily throughout the week)
   • Daily Cultural Cuisines (Korean, English, Spanish, French, etc)
   • Interhouse Mother Tongue Week Quiz (Wednesday Lunch @ G06)
   • Culture Concert (Thursday Lunch @ Courtyard)
2. Planning for Culture Team Instagram with posts coming soon
3. Updating the Culture Website

Next year:

1. Diwali: Recycle some events, introduce some new ones for next year. Planning starts in September to allow for sufficient time (Diwali 2024 is November 1st)
   • Activities returning: Diwali Assembly, Staff Dance 
2. Christmas (for new heads) – creating an idea document

Creative Arts

We launched the Inter-House Art Competition this year and completed the Photography Competition in collaboration with the Media Team. The judging process will begin in no time. The theme for this year’s competition was House Letters (i.e. Nature for Nansen). 

Here are the Inter-House Competitions going on in this month: 

The IS Dance Inter-House Competition will be held on June 20th and students are required to modify a viral dance to the song ‘Truth or Dare’ by Tyla and recreate it in their own style (contemporary, street, jazz, etc.)

Inter-House Improv Competition will be held on June 23th, where students will be given a prompt to improvise from. 

Inter-House Banner Competition in which teams for each House have been finalised, where students will work alongside their housemates to create banner designs for the Creative Arts Faculty.

The first round of submissions in the Inter-House Music Competition has closed, and auditions will be sent out to students soon.

Media

The Media Team has been very active in bringing our contributions to the school community this semester. We released the Spring Issue of Island Currents, our school’s student article platform. Previously, our website was down but we fixed the issue by renewing the subscription with the hosting website! 

Our team also took part in providing photography for various school and Inter-House events such as the CCCT NYSS x IS Friendly Matches, and have organized the Inter-House Photography Competition in collaboration with the Creative Arts Team and are currently in the judging process.

Recently, we made a video to promote the Lifelong Friends program, on behalf of the Island School Trust. This was presented in the Year 13 Graduation ceremony where we interviewed six Y13 students to share their experiences in Island School and send a message to be part of the program.

Social Action: 

In April, we hosted a Food Donation Drive in collaboration with the NGO Feeding HK — more than 100 food items were collected and distributed to those experiencing food poverty in Hong Kong! In May, Pride Week took place where we promoted the cruciality of fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in Island School. During the week, painting workshops, temporary tattoo arts, movie screenings, and a Kahoot trivia quiz took place. Moving forward, we will be working alongside the Helpers Appreciation student leadership team to organize this academic year’s final Helpers Appreciation Day, which is set to take place at the end of June, expressing Island School’s gratitude towards domestic helpers in Hong Kong. 

Sports

We hosted a successful sports awards ceremony this year, providing an opportunity to celebrate our school’s athletic community and highlight the importance of teamwork. Student-athletes were recognized for their contributions, with awards given for categories such as Most Valuable Player, Most Improved, and Player’s Player. The event fostered a spirit of camaraderie, as teammates and coaches came together to congratulate one another. The sports council is proud to have organised this meaningful event that brought our athletic community closer together.

Student Advisors

Recently, Student Advisors have created an Instagram account to provide updates on various events. Our competency research project has also made significant progress, with a pilot project being conducted in collaboration with the form representatives. As part of this pilot, a range of questions have been developed for Year 10 students regarding the elements course and its correlation with the six competencies. The project team has brainstormed questions, method of inquiry, and potential interviewees. An interview workshop is also being planned for the student advisors in the following weeks, which will provide them with the necessary skills to conduct effective interviews for the competency research project.

Finally, we are planning to launch a new initiative of a “Competency-based Inter House” in the first term of the next academic year. The aim of this competition is to make the process of acquiring competencies more exciting and approachable for the students.

WANBO

We introduced Textbook Marketplace which is an annual platform where older year students can sell their textbooks and revision notes to others at a lower market price. This year we even have around 300 listings!

How do I use the Textbook Marketplace?

• Access the Marketplace on Google Sheets via this link.
• Browse through the categories available (IB / iGCSE/ Other).
• If you are interested in purchasing materials or have any enquiries, contact the seller through the information they have provided on the “Contact List” page. 
• Arrange exchanges directly with the seller. Note: WANBO takes no responsibility for any transactional issues surrounding resources.

Please note that all original prices are in HKD and sourced from current online listings of the book! Feel free to negotiate with and direct inquiries to the student sellers through the contact information provided. (For purposes of simplicity, ESS has been isolated just as a G4 subject.)

Do also be reminded that incoming Year 12s will not need to purchase their copy of the textbooks in the following subjects as the school is providing an online subscription for them. (They may still purchase them for additional learning as a supplement, but it is no longer compulsory to do so.) 

• TOK
• Biology
• DP Business
• Chemistry
• Economics
• ESS
• Geography
• History
• Physics
• Psychology

Our team is planning to increase the visibility of Island School’s recycling actions through TV screens. We hosted the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge inter-house from 25 April to 6 May 2024. Over 4,400 observations were recorded among Island School students. Furthermore, Hong Kong ranked 1st in species count, and 2nd among 690 participating cities globally with around 36,000 observations!

Our team also focused on food waste management and composting which we helped spread the word via posters and trying to ensure individuals don’t throw away or leave reusable cutlery in classrooms since January. 

While much of our work for the academic year is now wrapped up, please be assured that we are working to brainstorm and plan for events next year, both returning and new. Diwali will be our top priority for the next few weeks, taking into consideration past reception and feedback to make it even more enjoyable.

We hope your signature gusto carries through to next year, where new opportunities to get involved lie.

Creative Arts

Launching the Inter-House Art Competitions

• Banner Competition: Create 5 banner designs for each arts faculty – visual arts, dance, drama, music and creative media
• Improv Competition: Students will be given prompts to improvise from, they will have 2 minutes to discuss within their groups
• Music Competition: Students will have up to record their selected performance, and they will be judged based on the following criteria on a scale of 25
• Dance Competition: Contestants will be asked to put their twist on Tyla’s “Truth or Dare”, as well as extend the choreography in any genre they like
• Photography: Students will need to submit a photo of something that starts with your house letter, e.g. Nature for Nansen

Follow our Instagram for more updates @is.creativearts

Media

The Media Team has just published Island Currents Spring Issue on the 26th of April. In this issue, we have a range of diverse topics that explore the world of Technology, Art, Science and more! 

Currently, we are working on creating a video for the Lifelong Friends program in collaboration with the Island School Trust that will be shown in the Year 13 Graduation. As part of this project, we will be interviewing Year 13 students to capture their experiences and reflections throughout their time at the school and promote the overall message of the program.

In addition to the graduation video, the Media Team is collaborating with the Creative Arts team to host the Inter-House Photography Competition with the theme of House Letters.

We are also working with the Student Council to develop this bi-weekly update system. These updates will keep the student body informed about various events, initiatives, and achievements within the school community. All of these updates will be stored in our very own Island Currents website. 

Social Action

Recently, Social Action launched its first Food Donation Drive – a collaboration between Island School and Feeding Hong Kong, an NGO based in Hong Kong that redistributes extra food items to local charities that support those experiencing food poverty. Throughout the week, students were given the opportunity to donate any food items such as rice, pasta, and instant noodles. Across all houses, 133 canned and storable goods were collected. This initiative enabled Island School students to become more knowledgeable and aware about the prominent issues and implications of food poverty in Hong Kong while offering students hands-on opportunities to drive change on a local scale.

As we approach the end of the 23/24 academic year, the Social Action Committee will be organising Pride Week, an annual event taking place from May 6th to May 10th in order to celebrate and promote diversity within LGBTQ+ communities. Activities ranging from art workshops on the theme ‘Pride Week’, temporary LGBTQ-themed tattoos, movie screenings, carnival stalls, and trivia quizzes will be taking place.

We hope to continue to bridge the gap between different social groups and foster positive change within our community! We truly believe that by working together, Island School can make a lasting impact and meaningful difference in the world. 

Sports 

As the Student Representatives for Sports in Island School, we’re proud to announce that massive progress has been made towards organising our annual sports awards on the 22nd of May to celebrate our achievements in sports. Our team is continuing to work on logistics and getting the Media Team involved to produce videos and posters in preparation for the event. We are also excited to continue working on engaging the community with our Instagram page @istyphoons and more initiatives to come.

Student Advisors

As an eventful Term 2 ends, the Student Learning Advisors prepare for the stress-packed yet prospective Term 3 ahead. This includes the Oxford Brookes Competency Curriculum research project, troubleshooting the Student Portfolio, gathering feedback on the current target-setting process, and brainstorming future initiatives regarding ECA and Higher Education, which has occupied the SLA for the past few months. Furthermore, we began collating data on the 6 Competencies Curriculum in December 2023 through our dedicated task force, and continue exploring alternative variables, methods and processes to investigate, with plans to publish before our handover. In collaboration with Mr Lester, we are also streamlining and improving the Student Portfolio. We are currently implementing student badges, preparing to transfer the submission processes from Google Forms to online apps and enhancing student and parent engagement through UI and reward system changes. 

Next up, our two sister committees have also accomplished wonders. This Book Week, the English Community has successfully hosted Island School’s inaugural Spelling Bee, alongside a bustling second-hand book store and a popular teacher’s costume parade. Lastly, our STEM Committee held the Cross-Year Mentorship all year, launched the Science Journal with record-breaking entry numbers, and took part in our first Island School STEM Alliance Breakfast, which highlighted the importance of STEM Education and curriculum interconnectedness to parents, alumni and fellow educators. 

WANBO

The WANBO movement never ends! Having just wrapped up Redress not too long ago, we’re currently running the iNaturalist Biodiversity challenge, a yearly inter-house focused on recording (taking pictures of) various plant and animal species around Hong Kong. As a school, Island School is striving to help Hong Kong achieve a high ranking in the global standings—if you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to follow the instructions sent by Mr. Burrough via email, or on our Instagram, @iswanbo!

In addition, we continue to compost food waste from the dining hall and Food Tech. Recently, we emptied roughly 30 kgs of compost from the machine for a workshop held by the Global Goals Council this week. Discussions on how to innovate our recycling system have also been ongoing, with the recent introduction of repurposing plastics in the DT department not so long ago. 

Lastly, we are in the process of kickstarting planning for the textbook marketplace, an annual event in May/June, where upper year students can resell their textbooks, notes, and other study resources to others at more affordable prices. Stay tuned for more updates on this, and have a wonderful day ahead. ♡

Connected Communities

The Connected Communities Commitment Team has made progress on multiple fronts in connecting our communities this year. As our name suggests, our primary objective as the CCCT is to bridge and nurture unity among a wide range of communities in Hong Kong. Previously, we collaborated with other Island School members to help Mothers Choice, an NGO, provide resources for young mothers in poor financial circumstances. A friendly volleyball and basketball match between Island School and NYSS was also organized to deepen our connection with our neighboring school in Tai Wai. 

Among the discussions of our team, we look forward to strengthening our partnerships with NGOs to forge stronger connections with different communities, thus, undertaking similar initiatives along the lines of the events mentioned above. Although the specific events that will take place in the future are yet to be confirmed, our focus for the upcoming academic year will be on introducing different communities in Hong Kong to diverse and insightful experiences, while simultaneously ensuring Island School students engage actively in our initiatives, fostering the development of their collaboration skills, communication skills, and citizenship.