SHI JIE To look out into the world The Magazine of Discovery College AUTUMN 2016
Developing the Whole Student
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Contents SHI JIE MAGAZINE
Fast fact AUTUMN 2016
2016
EDITOR PHOTOGRAPHY DESIGN CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
AUTUMN 2016
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Amy Freed Claire Fraser Vienna Chan
CONTENT . FA S T FA C T
Fiona Altoft Chris Barr Susie Blomfield Tracey Chitty Donna Ellery Terry Evans Alan Forester Michael Fraser The Guiral Family Marisa Jackson Kathy La Brooy Margaret Lee Mar-Loes Mantoua Peter Muir Nicole O’Brien David Thapa Sue Thomas George Tibbetts Lawrence Wilkinson
Developing the Whole Student Principal’s Note 2 On the Search for Positivity… 3 Visible Learning 3 Welcome to Wellbeing 4 Getting into the Stretch Zone 5 Group 4 Project 6 Future Focus: DC’s First Career Fair 6
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Staff Profiles CIRCULATION & CONTACT
Discovery College 38 Siena Ave Discovery Bay Hong Kong
Marisa Jackson 7 Carla Acepcion 8
Ph. +852 3969 1000 Fax. +852 2987 8115 Em. office@dc.edu.hk www.discovery.edu.hk CIRCULATION: 1500
Shi Jie is printed on Alpine Satin which is PEFC certified, Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) and manufactured under ISO14001 certification, using 100% virgin fibre from well-managed forests.
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14 Highlights Mother Tongue 9 Year 1 / Year 9 Design Collaboration 10 Primary Swim Carnival 11 Galaxy 5 blasts off! 12 Working Hands On 12 Lest We Forget 13 STEAM 14 Guys & Dolls 15 Box of Hope 17 Creativity. Activity. Service. 17 Getting Inline 18 Cobra Sports 19 A Taste of Outdoors 21 PTA Halloween Sale 22 Like us on Facebook 22 Student Council 23
Alumni Alumni Updates 24 Where Are They Now? 25
At Discovery College our focus includes, but reaches far beyond, core academia. It embraces an overarching goal to develop the whole student. We strive to give each student hands-on experience and exposure to many aspects of life both inside and outside the classroom. It is important to us that our students build strong social skills and encourage respect, as well as explore creativity, self-reliance, mechanical and technical skills that will serve them long into the future. We endeavour to develop strong competencies and attitudes that will be carried with our students and will assist them to become good men and women, partners and parents, ethical
While we can only feature a small percentage of the wide range of activities happening within the College, I am struck by the diversity of what is included and inspired by the passion that went into delivering these learning experiences. We are fortunate that we can rely on all members of our Discovery College community, teachers and staff, parents and alumni, to contribute to the development of our students as whole people, and I am confident that our students will continue to make us all proud far into the future.
I can see this vision for Discovery College students clearly unfolding on the following pages. From the Primary Positive Detectives programme, which encourages students to identify and promote good that exists in their lives everyday, to the Secondary Wellness programme, which has recently included training students to be Community First Aiders in order to equip them take action in the world around them.
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Mark Beach Principal
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business people, strong community leaders and even more simply, kind and contributing members to society.
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We live in a competitive world and perhaps during our time in primary and secondary school we are exposed to more competition than we will face for the rest of our lives. We compete in sports and for academic success and at the end of our secondary education, we compete for acceptance to universities, for placement in internships or for our first jobs as we step out into the world. While this competition can be a positive in encouraging hard work and success, it can often be narrowly focused, leaving other areas of our lives with little growth or exposure.
P r incipal ' s N otes
Developing the Whole Student
To look out into the world
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On the search for positivity……
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The Dalai Lama once said, “In order to carry a positive action we must develop a positive vision”. At the beginning of the school year, each primary classroom aimed to develop a positive vision through the implementation of Positive Detectives.
M ain F ocus – D eveloping the whole student
Positive Detectives, a school wellbeing and positive education programme created by Professor Lea Waters (Ph.D) and Lela McGregor (MAPP), aims to encourage students to seek, acknowledge and spread the wonderful good that exists in their lives everyday. Through the programme our goals as a school were to support students to: 1. Seek what is good by looking for evidence in their world
2. Connect positively with classmates, teachers and their school 3. Practice inquiry based learning through discussion and activities 4. Conclude whether the good evidence they have found makes them happy 5. Recognise and connect their intentional actions to their emotions and mood 6. Create a positive connection between school and home At the start of Term One every primary student (and let’s not forget multiple versions of Sherlock the dog) went on the search for good in their lives; at home, their classroom, with their family & friends and within the environment
they live. Students created positive journals, sent gratitude cards, participated in home inquiries and school discussions about positive experiences. Within individual classrooms, students and staff identified what a positive classroom environment might look like, sound like and feel like. They began to collaboratively design the way their classrooms will run this year and the types of relationships they will value within each room. We continue to see evidence of positivity in classrooms and both students and staff have reported a positive start to the school year as a result. Chris Barr, Head of Primary
Visible Learning at Discovery College The ‘visible’ aspect refers to making student learning visible to teachers, ensuring clear identification of the attributes that make a difference to student learning, and all in the school knowing the impact they have on student learning. The ‘visible’ aspect also refers to making teaching visible to the student such that they learn to become their own teachers, which is the core attribute of lifelong learning that we value.
Visible learning is a fundamental and core belief to the learning and teaching at Discovery College. Visible learning was founded on the research of John Hattie and was developed by him in partnership with the Cognition Education team of professional facilitators.
The ‘learning’ aspect refers to how we go all go about knowing, understanding and doing something about student learning. (John Hattie Visible learning for teachers, 2012) On 23 and 24 September, DC Primary & Secondary teachers participated in two Continuous Professional Development (CPD) days themed around visible learning as part of the annual development plan. The training was facilitated by Jayne-Ann
Welcome to Wellbeing
86 students passed the course and will receive a 3-year certification that can be included on job and university applications.
Emotional First Aid Students explored Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, identifying the importance of satisfying these needs in pursuit of human development and growth. What happens when Physiological Needs (sleeping, nourishment) are not met nor Love and Belonging (social belonging). The final week was centred around the Wellbeing Wheel and how to achieve balance. Sue Thomas, VP Secondary
Year 11 in Focus This term, students embarked on an 8-week unit entitled “Physical and Emotional First Aid,” an inquiry into personal, mental, and social health; human relationships including families, friends, and communities. The two courses ran concurrently with half of the year group.
Young from New Zealand who works with the Cognition Education team. The first day was themed around giving and receiving effective feedback as a result of clearly defined learning intentions and success criteria. The second day focused on analysing and using evidence of learning to inform next steps in teaching, at an individual, class, year and school-wide level. Research has identified that when learners are able to clearly understand and articulate learning intentions and success criteria they will achieve at a higher level through ongoing, explicit self, peer and teacher feedback. Similarly, teachers collecting evidence to identify progress and incorporating this into developing learning activities has been shown to improve student outcomes.
An opportunity for parents to see visible learning in action, would be visiting the classrooms and speaking with their child and teachers during conferences. For further information, Discovery College was also used as a case-study in John Hattie’s recent book “Visible Learning into Action”. Donna Ellery, VP Primary/PYP Coordinator
M ain F ocus – D eveloping the whole student
So far this year, areas of inquiry have included: Being Positive Detectives, Finding Inner Awesomeness, Please Help Me get Organised, Understanding the Emotional and Physical Aspects of Relationships.
Thanks to a generous donation of $12,000 raised at the Discovery Bay Back to School Fair, the cost of the course was significantly reduced for students.
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Physical First Aid Students wompleted the Community First Aid course with DC Health Professional, Sarah Walker, and Jackie Simpson from First Aid International. Throughout the course students learned the Principles of First Aid, Scene Safety, Life Threatening Conditions, Basic Life Support (including a hands on course in CPR) as well as received an introduction to Automated External Defibrillators (AED)’s and more.
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Wellbeing is a planned and responsive programme delivered in a dedicated teaching block to all secondary students. The aim of the programme is to assist students to acquire and effectively apply knowledge, attitudes and skills to manage their responses to different environments and situations. These skills can be applied well beyond the classroom and school environment and are part of our vision of developing the whole person.
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In light of this, DC aims to develop a culture where learners can articulate and explain their learning intentions.
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Getting into the Stretch Zone Students need to try new strategies and seek input from others when they’re stuck. They need a repertoire of approaches – not just sheer effort – to learn and improve. Carol Dweck
2016 M ain F ocus – D eveloping the whole student
This term, primary students have continued to develop their mathematical skills and knowledge through a wide range of tasks. A focus for primary over the last year and a half has been the development of problem solving skills. Teachers design and implement ‘rich tasks’ to enable students to think broadly, ask questions, use a range of strategies and look for multiple ways to solve a mathematical problem. A ‘rich task’ can be described as one that poses a problem for students to work through, are accessible to all students, offer different levels of challenge and ask students to work either individually or collaboratively in small groups to solve. You may have also heard your child talking about having a ‘Growth Mindset’ or being in the ‘Stretch Zone’ or ‘Learning Zone’ at school. Whilst developing students key mathematical skills, rich tasks also enable students to demonstrate their ability to work independently and collaboratively, challenge themselves and understand that mistakes are a key part of the learning process.
Good mathematics is not about how many answers you know, it is how you behave when you don’t know….. Some examples of tasks that Year 1 & 2 students have explored recently include: • Together, Eden and Odin have 12 pencils. How many pencils might each of Eden and Odin have? Give as many different answers as you can.
• In a photo of a farmyard, you can see 10 legs. Draw what the animals might be. Give more than one possible answer • I am thinking of two numbers on the hundreds chart. One number is 15 more than the other. One of my numbers has a 3 in it. What might be my two numbers? Give as many answers as you can. Some examples of tasks that Year 3-6 students have explored recently include: • In a restaurant, there are 36 people sitting at some tables. There are the same number of people at each table. How many people might be sitting at each table? Give at least three different possible answers. • In my basketball club, there are between 20 and 50 players. I know that there are 3 times as many girls as boys. How many girls and boys might there be in our basketball club? Can you prove you have found all the possibilities? • Some people came for a sports day. When the people were put into groups of 3 there was 1 person left
over. When they were lined up in rows of 4 there were 2 people left over. How many people might have come to the sports day? Describe the pattern in your answers. In approaching such tasks, teachers are encouraging and supporting students to • plan their approach and choose their own strategies, especially sequencing more than one step; • process multiple pieces of information and making connections between them • spend time on the task and record their thinking; • explain their strategies and justify their thinking to the teacher and other students. Evidence from the classrooms indicates that students are very motivated by the challenges of solving such problems and enjoy sharing and learning from the various strategies and solutions that their classmates arrive at. Chris Barr, Head of Primary
Ying Ho, John Wong, Henrik Brokmeyer and Alex Wong. Congratulations to all Year 13 students who participated in this multi-faceted two day challenge. Strong teamwork and collaboration as well as a sense of humour worked in the students’ favour.
As students move through their senior years at Discovery College, the school aims to give them a future focus and exposure to the many opportunities they will have post education. This year Discovery College recruited over 30 parents and community members
To look out into the world
to participate in our first DC Career Fair. The inaugural event was a great success with students from Year 9 and above getting introductions to career fields ranging from banking to politics, medical to consulting, teaching, journalism, engineering, law, design, non-profit, human resources, ICT, construction, airline, hospitality, teaching and more. “Our students found it extremely beneficial to speak with and hear from experts in career fields of their interest, giving them a valuable insight into the type of skills needed to succeed and a clear pathway of how to get there,”
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Future Focus DC’s First Career Fair said Higher Education Counsellor Susie Blomfield. “The volunteer representatives were impressed with the depth questions our students asked and their genuine interest in particular career fields.” Following the success of this first career fair, the College is planning to make this an annual event and looks forward to working closely with local community drawing on their knowledge and expertise in helping guide our students towards possible future careers.
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Groups of Biology, Design, Chemistry, Sports Science and Physics students worked together from 14-15 November to meet a range of challenges including designing heart valves, creating a timing device, solving a murder Chemistry (Mr Beach was the victim), designing windmills, and delivery devices. The project was divided into three stages; planning, action and evaluation. Each group is awarded points for success at each activity. The team with most points at the end of the two days was awarded the Group 4 trophy. This year’s winners were Emily Lo, Mei
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The Group 4 Project is an interdisciplinary activity in which all Diploma Programme science students must participate with the hopes that they will develop an understanding of the relationships between scientific disciplines and their influence on other areas of knowledge. The intention is that students from the different Group 4 subjects analyse a common topic or problem. The exercise is a collaborative experience where the emphasis is on the processes, rather than the products such an activity. It also looked to be quite a lot of fun.
M ain F ocus – D eveloping the whole student
Group 4 Project
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Marisa Jackson Higher Education Counsellor
2016 S taff P r ofile
Marisa Jackson joined the staff at Discovery College this school year as one of our two Higher Education Counsellors. She has lived in Hong Kong for four and half years, having moved here from Germany where she worked at Internationale Schule Frankfurt. Before working at DC, Marisa worked at Diocesan Boys’ School in Hong Kong for four years. Many things about DC make working here exciting for Marisa, but she especially enjoys building rapport with students and the different relations that develop through the process. She also says the educational ethos and philosophy of DC, which very much aligns with her own views and values, have made her first several months very welcoming. As a Higher Education Counsellor, Marisa’s days are filled with student appointments to discuss how to research a major or university, editing personal statements, or ways to handle the stress of school and applying to university. When she’s not working with students, you can find her writing recommendation letters, answering
emails, staying up-to-date with current trends or researching options for her students. On special occasions, Marisa can be seen attending events around Hong Kong hosted by various universities to learn more and bring interesting information back to DC students or staff. Most recently, she was asked to give a presentation on supporting studentathletes at the ESF CPD day, which she found to be a very gratifying experience. At the moment, Marisa is working on a Higher Education Counselling curriculum. She’s looking forward to putting her degree and college counselling experience to use. The HEC’s across ESF are going to discuss the curriculum in their next meeting and Marisa is excited to be involved. Marisa was born and raised in Huntington Beach, California USA. She attained her undergraduate degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in Business Management and Marketing. She also played in their NCAA division one women’s volleyball team. Marisa continued her education at Liberty University completing a Masters of Education in School Counselling.
Not surprisingly, relationships and people play a big role in Marisa’s life outside of work. Her faith is the source of her hope in this world and she believes that love is the single most important thing in this world. Her life motto is Love God, Love People. Marisa attends Island Evangelical Community Church regularly and is one of the main reasons she and her husband have loved and stayed in Hong Kong. As a part of giving back to the community, Marisa is currently working with a small group of people to start a Young Life club in DB. Young Life believes in the power of presence and it aims to have caring adults walking alongside students as they journey through life. As a Huntington Beach native, she enjoys outdoors especially a beach and staying active. She also enjoys cooking, traveling and hosting dinner parties. When not listening to people, she can be found discovering new music. David Thapa Communications & Scholarship Assistant
Carla Acepcion Performing Arts Technician
Carla’s duties range from providing technical support for assemblies, teaching elements of technical theatre and supporting secondary drama classes, as well as maintaining the theatre and its equipment. Carla also acts as technical director for all school productions and supports the odd events when external companies book the theatre. She recently wrapped up this year’s Secondary production Guys and Dolls and is excited to work on the upcoming Primary production of
Mr. Toad’s Mad Adventures. Carla is grateful that the culture of support, care, and inclusive nature of the school ingrained into students through MYP learner profiles also stands true behind the scene and translates into a very positive working environment. Carla was born in Hong Kong and then moved to Vancouver. She returned to Hong Kong when she was six. Carla’s parents originate from the Philippines but Carla is a self-professed ‘Hong Kong kid’. Carla’s parents are both involved in the aviation industry, which might explain her love of travel and exploration of new places. A horror movie aficionado, she delights in keeping herself safe by consuming dishes with a copious amount of garlic. David Thapa Communications & Scholarship Assistant
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As a student at Discovery College, Carla was always involved in the performing arts and had been
fortunate enough to take on roles both on and off stage at events like Picnic in the Park and the Hong Kong Rugby 7s. It comes as a no surprise that she wasn’t fazed by the amount of work involved, however, she admits that it took her a while to come to terms with the fact that her teachers are now her colleagues.
S taff P r ofile
Having graduated from Discovery College in 2015, Carla isn’t exactly new to DC, but this year Carla’s role at the College is no longer as a student, but as an experienced technician for the Drama department. After graduating and completing the IB, Carla was accepted to the University of Melbourne to study media and communications, however, after a year of working in order to earn her tuition, she has decided to study a more focused Technical and Stage Management course from the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.
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Mother Tongue
2016 H ighlights – C u r r iculum
Recently the Year 1 students and parents were involved in a morning of exploring the new ‘Sharing the planet’ unit of inquiry. What was significant about this event was the inclusion of 15 different mother tongue languages in which to support children’s learning. The morning invited parents to discuss with children in their home language what they already knew about the concept, ‘Plants provide for livings things’. The value in this opportunity was immense.
and building in something new. Conversations drew correlations and made explicit connections between the mother tongue language and the English language of instruction. Parents made available mother tongue materials and stimulated interest in a new area of learning. Consequently, children were prepared for the acquisition of new language by activating their prior understanding of the unit of inquiry in their home language.
An event such as this worked on the premise of starting with the familiar
Research provides significant evidence that second language is learned best
when the first language is learned as well. Additionally, a curriculum that acknowledges a child’s mother tongue language can contribute to a child’s early learning success. Discovery College aims to embrace this thinking and support the international diversity of its community through such events as the Mother Tongue mornings. Nicole O’Brien, Year 1 Team Leader
Mr Fraser wanted to add another function to the boxes to increase the complexity and skills required from the Year 9 students during the design and construction stages. Mr Sullivan suggested putting wheels on the boxes so the Year 1 students could also use them for their forces unit to study push and pull. They envisioned the students tying all the boxes together and towing them like a train around the playground.
In total the Year 9 students spent about 20 hours on the project. They were introduced to a number of tools and processes they hadn't used before such as a pillar drill, hole saw, belt sander, air compressed stapler, jigsaw, the cordless drill, countersink and driver. These skills will all be useful as Year 9 students approach their next project, which is designing and making the set for the Primary School Production of Mr Toad’s Mad Adventures. This includes making the set furniture and the car for Toad.
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The last part of the process was the collaborative design of the outside of the boxes. The Year 1 students came up with a crazy face design that could be applied on the outside of the boxes. This gave the Year 1 students greater ownership of their boxes, which in turn would hopefully encourage them to take care of the boxes and pack them up too. The Year 9 students spent an
hour working with their Year 1 buddies to come up with either sketch or collage designs for crazy faces. The Year 9 students then brought the face designs into the workshop and transferred the ideas onto sticky vinyl.
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boxes for Year 1 that could move easily and be stacked if required would be built, together.
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Early in the school year, Head of Design, Michael Fraser, was looking for a project for students to work on and he thought that working collaboratively with another year level might be something his design students would learn from and enjoy. He met with Year 1 Teacher, Lee Sullivan, to come up with some ideas. Mr Sullivan wanted the Year 1 students to learn how to care for their classroom environment, by packing up correctly and taking responsibility for managing their environment. Up until now, Year 1s had been using standard Ikea boxes for storage but they didn’t easily stack and with this, an idea was born - storage
H ighlights – C u r r iculum
Year 9 / Year 1 Collaboration
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Everyone in the Pool
2016 H ighlights – S wim C a r nival
DC Year 4-6 students participated in the swimming carnival on 28 September at Lei Cheng Uk Swimming Pool in Sham Shui Po. The swimming carnival was the culmination of the 6-week primary swimming programme and gave students a fun way to test out their swimming skills. House captains lead the cheering as Houses competed for points.
All the students and teachers were completely engaged and energised by the presentation. It was a very successful session as students asked and discussed ‘big’ questions about our universe and the existence of life on other planets. The student-led inquiries that
Working Hands On
Our two new technicians Suet Yi and Mei are both experienced in ceramics and this year have helped to teach students how to make a clay slip mould. Year 13 student Ewan Jones has been working with the slip mould to create little Hong Kong taxis out of clay, as well as model size buses out of resin as part of his Year 13 exhibition work
To look out into the world
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Over the last two years Visual Arts has reintroduced the students to the love of clay. With the inclusion of a Van Gogh house in Year 7, Pop Art Food in Year 9 and the Pottery Wheel in Year 12 and 13, students are excited to be working with such a tactile and threedimensional material.
followed answered many questions, generated even more questions, and finally finished with the students creating a brochure that showed their understanding of the central idea, ‘Earth’s position in space and relationship with the sun and moon make life sustainable’. David Thapa Communications & Scholarship Assistant
based around the concept of Journeys. “Working with the clay gives me a nice creative outlet that is a departure from my other subjects,” says Ewan.
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As students entered through the airlock door, one at a time, the excitement and
wonderment grew. Inside as they lay on the floor, they watched a spectacular show of stars, constellations, and planets. This was a timely provocation and reinforcement of the learning that had already been emerging within the How the World Works unit of inquiry.
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What a fantastic two days Year 5 students a.k.a. Galaxy 5 had visiting the “Discovery Dome.” On 22 September, an inflatable black dome representing outer space, landed in Discovery College's Performing Arts Theatre and promptly inflated itself (with the aid of a powerful fan). The dome along with its commander Lorne, enthralled Year 5 students with an interactive and exciting tour of the universe, our galaxy and our solar system.
H ighlights – C u r r iculum
Galaxy 5 Blasts Off!
13 SHE JIE MAGAZINE – AUTUMN 2016 H ighlights – Rememb r ance D ay
Lest We Forget On 11 November 2016 Discovery College observed a moment of silence in honour of Remembrance Day. DC Parent Wendy Thomson supported by Year 8 students Uma Esquivelzeta and Hugo Falcon Adam provided a truly moving performance of the Last Post followed by a moment of silence. For the first time, Discovery College broadcast the memorial on Facebook Live, which gave parents and families the opportunity to experience the event in real-time, and has had over 3,100 views since posting. We could see through comments made on the feed that parents and community members saw the importance of taking time to remember those
who have sacrificed and served for freedoms we enjoy. “Thanks for the live feed...we could also be a part,” was just one of the many comments we received on the post, along with, “Very moving, lest we forget.” Year 6 student Georgie Smith brought in her father’s medals from his service in Iraq and Afghanistan and proudly shared and displayed them for others to see. Next year the College is planning for even more student involvement in this day of remembrance.
STEAM
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Among the wide range of Co-Curricular Activities (CCAs) offered at DC, the STEAM programme has been in high demand since its commencement in secondary last year. Students have the opportunity to take what they learn in Science one step further through activities that include robotics, computer programming, design and construction. Once a week, students from Years 7 through 12 work in teams to build, create, programme, develop, tinker and experiment. Students work collaboratively to solve problems, developing as teams and becoming better computational thinkers. The STEAM programme promotes a growth mindset as trial and error is encouraged, giving students the opportunity to try and fail, regroup and try again using their own initiative. Who knows what these skills will lead to next?
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H ighlights – C u r r iculum
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics
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Guys and Dolls
2016 H ighlights – D r ama P r oduction
The Discovery College performance of Guys and Dolls took place on 1-2 November 2016 with a cast, crew and orchestra of over one hundred students from Years 7 to 13. The actual process, however, began in June with auditions and casting decisions being made. In August, Ms Whittaker and her Year 9 Design classes began the daunting task of designing, sourcing and making the over one hundred costumes required for the show.
The musical was an incredible opportunity for students to learn the art of collaboration and see it in action with all the different disciplines. The Art Department began creating the set. In the meantime the Orchestra was rehearsing with Mr Davis, while the cast were learning dances, songs and script with Ms Post, Ms Elder, Ms Lashley, Mr Burrows, Ms Lau, Mrs Veilleux and Ms La Brooy. Alongside
this, Drama Technician Carla Acepcion and Music Technician Sebastian Falcon organised the technical crew, which included sound, lights, props and set. As the performance drew closer, the orchestra joined to rehearse with the cast to ensure the timing was perfect. This culminated with all the performers and crew connecting with the audience in what turned out to be a spectacular performance.
H ighlights – D r ama P r oduction 2016 To look out into the world
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Kathy La Brooy Head of Drama
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While the audience were treated to an impressive show, the magic of any production are the intangible things that will last a lifetime: students forming friendships across year groups, the confidence and skills that each student can now bring to the classroom and beyond, and the untold memories and priceless experience that every person will have with them forever.
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Box of Hope
2016 H ighlights – S e r vice
We have absolute reason to celebrate kindness and generosity within Discovery College. This year DC primary students collected 520 Boxes of Hope, which far exceeded the 250 boxes that was expected from our community. The boxes were beautifully decorated and the range of items within the boxes was incredible. This Christmas, 520 children will be happier because of the generosity and care from our Discovery College community.
specifically for children. I helped our class with the Box of Hope project by taking the boxes to the library each day. When I was putting together my box I was thinking about how a child would react to it. Being part of this made me feel happy.
Four of our Primary Class Captains reflected on the Box of Hope collection this year:
Hannah (6KHN) The students in our class were motivated to make a Box of Hope because they thought about how happy the children would be when they opened them. I think the Box of Hope project is worthwhile because it helps other children feel happy and excited.
Nicole (5TES) The students in our class were motivated to make a Box of Hope because it was a charity project
Ryan (6AWD) I decided to make a Box of Hope because I thought that I could help some other people by donating useful items and
because some other people in the world are not as lucky as I am When someone receives my Box of Hope, I hope that they think that my box had useful items and I hope that they think that I am a kind and caring person. Sean (6CTA) I helped our class with the Box of Hope project by making 6 boxes myself. In our class we made at least 20 boxes. I decided to make a box hope because other people don’t have everything they need. When I was putting together my box I was thinking about how people would feel when they received it. When someone receives my Box of Hope, I hope that they like the things that are in it.
Creativity. Activity. Service. CAS - What does it mean to you? To some, it means compassion. To others, altruism. To us, it means creating positive change where there is a genuine need for it. Not wanting to only tick the required CAS boxes, but actually do something meaningful myself along with fellow students Kayla Munson, Jessica Ng, Michelle Wang and Soovin Lee, we got together to investigate needs close to our community. A meeting with CAS Coordinator Mr Muir pointed us in the direction of Yat
Inline skating at Discovery College started in when I first joined the school in 2009. I had come from working as programme director for inline skating and inline hockey at the YMCA and wanted to keep up my skating and get students involved. I was surprised at the take up and enthusiasm of the students.
This year and last we have been able to incorporate skate ramps into the lessons thanks to Jamie (Yook) Coote, who built us a mini ramp. I would love to eventually have a portable mini skate park to work with. Skating like any sport is a great tool to develop confidence. It is wonderful to see even the most timid skaters overcome their fears. George Tibbetts ICT Manager
We met with one of NAAC’s representatives and together pinpointed a need for improved English literacy in primary-aged children in the care of NAAC within the Yat Tung Estate. Since the meeting we have been investigating more about literacy and working on our action plan to provide regular “Buddy Reading” To look out into the world
sessions at the Yat Tung NAAC centre starting in January 2017. During our sessions we will teach children English by reading English language storybooks and engaging in English language conversation. We will also partner with Kids4Kids, another local NGO dedicated to empowering young people to make a difference.
as interact with students from other schools who are bringing change to their communities. The highlight of the event was having the privilege to listen to one of the world’s leading environmentalists, Dr. Jane Goodall, whose words inspired and encouraged us to continue to search for ways to make a difference.
To further strengthen our action plan, on 11 November a few of us attended the Roots and Shoots Youth Summit hosted by CDNIS and the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI). We had the opportunity to present our ideas for action, as well
We are excited to continue our efforts in creating positive change through our reading programme at the Yat Tung NAAC and look forward to the challenge ahead. Cherie Ho, Year 12 Student
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Tung, a public housing estate located in Tung Chung, where we conducted a brief needs analysis and community mapping exercise. We also decided to work with the Neighbourhood AdviceAction Council (NAAC), a local NGO.
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In the YMCA programmes we relied on youth coaches to help us manage and deliver our programmes and I brought this model to this programme. I think it’s important as a through school that there are opportunities for our secondary students to mentor and develop positive relationships with primary students. We
cater to all abilities and so having youth coaches allows me to develop lessons that cater to the different skating abilities.
H ighlights – S tudent ' s A ctivities
Getting Inline
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DC Cobras SEASON 1 HIGHLIGHTS
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Cobra Sports
2016
ACAMIS Touch Rugby Tournament This year’s ACAMIS Touch Rugby Touch Rugby Tournament was hosted by Discovery College on 3-4 November at King’s Park. The Cobra team spent 8 weeks training for this tournament prior to two days of grueling matches against 8 teams from 6 different schools. DC lost the semi-final game to the eventual winners, Australian International School, Hong Kong. The team started strong and was able to hold out the attack of AISHK for a good 15 minutes but fatigue again plagued the team resulting in a loss as the hooter signaled the end of play.
H ighlights – C ob r a S po r ts
ISSFHK Swimming Championships On 10 November, the DC Cobra swim team competed at the ISSFHK Swimming Championships. With 18 school attending, it was the combined efforts of the entire team that gave the Cobras the opportunity to finally break into the top 10 and finish with a 9th place overall. The team brought home 7 individual and 2 relay medals from Senior and Junior teams combined making it Cobra Swimming’s biggest medal haul to date. ACAMIS Golf Invitational in Dongguan On 9-11 November, the Cobra golf team travelled to Mission Hills Dongguan, to participate in the ACAMIS golf invitational. In rainy, windy and cold conditions, the Cobra golfers overcame the weather and played tremendously well. The first day was a 9-hour, 36-hole challenge which left DC with a first place lead overall.The team remained strong on the chilly second day. As the tournament came to a close, DC finished second in the pack of 14 teams with a 1st place victory for DC golfer Taichi Kho. SEASON 2 SPORTS Season 2 Sports are Underway Be on the lookout for Season 2 Cobra Sports and players sporting their new, personalised kits.
H ighlights – C ob r a S po r ts 2016
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SHE JIE MAGAZINE – AUTUMN
COBRA HOOPS DC Cobras U16 boys basketball took on German Swiss International School in the Snake Pit, 6 October 2016.
To look out into the world
21 SHE JIE MAGAZINE – AUTUMN
A Taste of the Outdoors
2016 H ighlights – E O T C
The annual camps in primary and secondary are Education Outside the Classroom opportunities that allow students to develop valuable skills in non-academic settings while having a memorable and fun time with their peers. Students build strong relationships with their classmates while developing their own sense of maturity, independence, and teamwork and cooperation. Year 3s were the first primary students to experience an overnight camp. This year the young learners stayed in dormitories in San Shek Wan; for many this was their first night away from home. They tried new foods, played team games, and handled challenges with enthusiasm and a very positive attitude.
Year 4s also ventured out to San Shek Wan with a two-night stay. With high enthusiasm and zest, the group enjoyed themselves on Mui Wo Beach, participated in various activities, and
were particularly entertained by the skits organised by Mr Burrows. The visit to Ark Eden in Mui Wo allowed students to learn about organic farming, using some tools to build planters out of recycled materials, and making compost. The three attitudes of focus were grit, enthusiasm and consideration. After having the camp postponed for two weeks due to rainy, the weather could not have been more favourable for the Year 5 campers, who headed out to Cheung Chau for three days. The students enjoyed the hands-on and physical activities, which included sand-castle building, biking and hiking, temple studies and beach rescue. Students displayed impressive maturity and independence, and showed great respect for each other and the local surroundings of Cheung Chau. Year 6s headed out to Sai Kung for three nights. Navigating around the area allowed students to build teamwork and learn the importance of listening to each other and incorporating each other's ideas to solve problems. Having the camp less than two months into the school year and presented with unfamiliar tasks where teamwork and cooperation were essential, the students learned a great deal about themselves and their peers, and more importantly, learned to accept and appreciate each other's unique personalities and differences. Year 8s attended a four-day camp in Sai Kung, staying at the Po Leung
Kuk Pak Tam Chung Holiday Camp. Not carrying their mobile devices with them was the first thing many students had to get used to! Students had a chance to camp overnight in tents (no showers), hike, kayak, and were presented with challenging tasks designed to build confidence, teamwork, communication, independence, leadership skills and outdoor technical skills. Year 9s went to Tai Po this year to the Tung Tze Scout Centre. Following the EOTC structure, these teens faced more demanding challenges compared to their younger peers to build confidence and resilience. Their activities were no walk in the park and included map reading and navigation, building fires, kayaking and kayak rescue, trekking and abseiling. Teamwork and perseverance paid off, and students developed fundamental outdoor and survival skills in a short amount of time. This is the last local camp in secondary. Next year these students will select from a diversity of locations and head overseas for No Boundaries. Whether it's a one-night experience for seven-year-old Year 3s, or four adventurous days for the young teens of secondary, students all return with their horizons broadened, knowing a lot more about themselves and their peers, and better equipped with skills that can only be acquired outside the walls of their usual classrooms. Margaret Lee Activities Coordinator
At Discovery College we are always looking for ways to reach out to parents and the wider community to share the hugely diverse range of activities and initiatives students and families engage in at the school. This year our focus has been to increase our activity on Facebook to bring families a daily look into activities across the College and the feedback has been enthusiastic and positive. We currently have over 1500 followers on our page. If you have not done so already, we encourage you to go to our page and
To look out into the world
“Like” us. We also encourage you to share posts and tag your photos, which gives greater exposure to the events and activities going on at the College. This year we are also posting more photos in the Albums section of Facebook so that families have access to more of the many photos we take here at Discovery College. Please check back on occasion to see new albums being added. www.facebook.com/discoverycollege
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Like us on Facebook
SHE JIE MAGAZINE – AUTUMN
2016
For many years now, Discovery College parents Sue and Gary Panons have donated a scarily wide range of Halloween dress costumes and Halloween themed party supplies to be sold at the school. This is now a spooktacular tradition which raises funds (this year over $90,000) for the annual Discovery Culture Festival. Not only do you get the best value in town and walk around in original and frightening outfits, you also support your children during an enriching week with local and international artists and educators providing cultural workshops, master classes, shows, exhibitions and other activities.
The Halloween Extravaganza offered spooky home decor to turn your home into a chilling cemetery or a haunted house, and we were all able to dress up boo-utifully for trick or treating this year thanks to the vast and varied selection of costumes and props on offer. Thanks to all our PTA volunteers, we were able to sell our Halloween stash in three days. Even a T8 could not stop our parents from stocking up on all the goodies. PTA looks forward to welcoming you again next year….if you dare! Mar-Loes Mantoua Marketing Coordinator, DCPTA
H ighlights – H alloween S ale
Halloween Sale
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DC Student Council
2016 S tudent C ouncil
Part of shaping our future citizens of the world comes from giving students leadership opportunities. At Discovery College, one of the most visible opportunities for student leadership is the Student Council. The DC Student Council is made up of two elective representatives from each year level from Year 5 – 13. The Student Council looks to address and solve issues both large and small throughout the year. Teams work together to identify needs and important issues among their peers and put together action plans on how to solve problems. They look at timelines, materials and resources needed, contacts to involve within the school, as well as budgets to establish priorities and the feasibility of addressing any given issue. Students are often required to set up meetings with staff at DC and on occasion with outside agencies. Some short term issues already addressed this year have been purchasing drying racks and cutlery for the Diploma Centre, working with the Green Cobras to secure a PTA grant for planter boxes and the review and approval of student-run CCAs. Longer term issues include placing feminine hygiene dispensers in secondary restrooms, adding rubbish and recycling bins around the school and installing a vending machine in the Diploma Centre to provide healthy food options to students who are in the Diploma Centre after hours. Year 12 Student Council representatives Christopher Kwok and Rachel Telford say that the Council is still getting to know each other, but they have been enjoying the experience. They say the bi-weekly meetings are run by the Year 13 student
council members, but Mr Beach provides light-hearted guidance at times and keeps the representatives on track with their goals which are recorded through a shared Google doc. Sara Davies, Year 7, says that her experience on the Student Council has been very positive. “I like when we come together at meetings to share ideas,” says Sara “It gives me an idea about what is important to students at different year levels and makes me feel happy that I can try to make a difference within the school.” Rachel Telford & Christopher Kwok Year 12 Students
To look out into the world
2016
Jessica Sang ‘16 is majoring in sport administration at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio, USA) and is planning on minoring in business administration. Jessica says that life has definitely been an adjustment since Discovery College, but it is been nice to be in a new environment and to experience some change. Jessica is just finishing her semester with the UC women's club basketball team and is planning on joining women's club rugby next semester. She is happy to have her brother and sister at university with her. They usually meet for lunch once a week and will be spending Thanksgiving and Christmas together this year, too.
Emma Yong ‘15 is in her second year of studying law at the University of Exeter. Her time so far has been extremely stressful with law firm applications, extracurricular activities on top of school work, but she is very happy to be back at university. Emma keeps herself occupied through her commitment in a variety of societies such as the Bracton Law Society, University badminton, Raise & Give, Women in Business and extracurricular activities. Emma has also recently been selected to compete at varsity level netball against Bristol Law School.
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Chantel Woo '16 is currently studying at Barnard College of Columbia University, pursuing a double major in theatre and psychology. She has been loving life in New York so far, making use of (and spending way too much money on) the incredible theatre and food that the city has to offer. Most recently, she played O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) in a student-written musical parody of Kill Bill!"
Gabriela P Espina ‘15 just started second year at the University of York and it's been as busy as ever. She’s started captaincy for the Rugby club's first ever 2nds team and says she’s “tasted both victory and defeat.” In addition to all of the rugby, Gabriela has managed to land a part time job working at O2, a large phone company across the U.K. Gabriela still manages to find time for her degree in Politics and International Relations and is thankful for less contact hours on her timetable in her second year.
SHE JIE MAGAZINE – AUTUMN
Nina Rossiter ‘14 - This past year really showed Nina what a busy university student life is like. Her summer began with a 6 weeks intensive Chinese study abroad programme in Yunnan and Shanghai, followed by another month in Tokyo working under the lead UX designer at Tigerspike, an app agency. Other than class work, Nina put a lot of her time into an Environmental Justice research team which creates reports that strive to bring changes to environmental policy. Due to Northeastern University’s (Boston, MA) structure of work and study, Nina will start working full-time from January June at a healthcare advocacy group called Health Care for All in Boston. Nina says, “Having a 9-5 lifestyle will definitely be an interesting experience.”
A lumni U pdates
Alumni Updates
25 SHE JIE MAGAZINE – AUTUMN
Where Are They Now? The Guiral Sisters – Maya, Julie, Lana, Satsuki What are some differences between your school and Discovery College?
2016
Dulwich is not an IB school; it follows IGCSE, although we’ll move on to the Diploma in Y12. At the moment we are preparing for IGCSE exams. There are many assessments and the school is very competitive. DC is a more multi-cultural school and a reflection of the community. Dulwich is more of a traditional British school. Sports are very important though and we get to play competitive football almost every day. We also have many international trips for many different occasions.
A lumni U pdates
What types of activities are you involved in? A lot of sports – football is competitive with school and after school programmes – there is also basketball and all sports – Arts and music. Music is compulsory in primary so we get to practice violin at home every day. Our parents are very happy!
What do you like best about living in your new home? In Shanghai, we are lucky we live in a house. It is not as tiny as Hong Kong and everyone has a large room. We also have a garden and a second cat!
Where do you live now? We moved over the summer to Shanghai. We live in Jinqiao, Pudong in a compound just opposite our new school. Shanghai is a huge city; we chose to live in a place that looks like Discovery Bay. There are no golf carts but many electric scooters.
What brought you there? Our dad changed his job. He now works in Shanghai. We decided to move with him so that he does not have to commute to Hong Kong every weekend.
Where do you go to school? Four of us go to Dulwich College Shanghai. It is a British International school. The uniform is even stricter than in DC. We have to wear a (red) tie every day to school!! The campus is huge. We have a full sized football pitch in the school.
How is it different from living in Hong Kong? Shanghai is huge. Wherever you go, you need to drive for quite a long time. Traffic is heavy. In China, everything takes a bit more time and is a bit more complicated than in Hong Kong. We do most of our shopping online. From time to time there is severe pollution. In that case, we can’t go outdoor but it does not happen very often. We need to practice our Mandarin every day, as most local people don’t speak English. Our parents are very happy with that as well!
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