Dear Parents,
As we approach the October half-term break, we want to take a moment to celebrate what an incredible start to the year it has been. The children have settled beautifully into their routines, showing growing independence and confidence as they navigate this first half-term.
They are building friendships, learning to share and collaborate, and demonstrating wonderful curiosity as they explore and engage with their learning environment. It has been a joy to watch them embrace new challenges—asking questions, trying new things, showing resilience, and, of course, having plenty of fun along the way.
From superheroes and dinosaurs to pirates, Vikings, wild explorers, and even typhoons—their interests have been as varied as they are exciting! Each theme sparks imagination and drives learning, helping the children develop skills across all areas in meaningful and engaging ways.
Community Kindness A heartfelt thank you to everyone who generously donated
Mooncakes for the elderly community at the Sai Kung Community Centre. Your kindness was warmly received and deeply appreciated. Acts like these not only make a difference in the lives of others but also help our children understand the value of compassion and being part of a wider community.
Looking ahead, our next charity initiative will be
Box of Hope, which launches in the first week back after half-term. We’re excited to welcome our Secondary students who will introduce this wonderful project to our children in our Assembly on 22nd October, explaining how we can work together to help those in need. It’s a fantastic opportunity for our learners to see how small actions can create big impacts.
Exciting ECAs Our
Extra-Curricular Activities (ECAs) have now been running for a couple of weeks, and it’s been wonderful to see the children embracing these new opportunities with such enthusiasm. They’ve been exploring new skills, working alongside peers in mixed-age groups, and building new friendships with both classmates and teachers. These experiences not only enrich their learning but also help them grow in confidence, independence, and adaptability beyond their classroom setting.
Communication & Language and Literacy This week, we are shining a spotlight on two essential areas of early learning:
Communication and Language development and early Literacy skills. At this stage, helping children express themselves with confidence is so important. Every child is unique—different personalities, different stages of development—so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Our role is to understand each child and create opportunities that encourage their voice and build their confidence.
Why start with Communication and Language? Before children begin reading and writing, they need a strong foundation in listening, understanding, and speaking. These skills are the building blocks of literacy. When children enjoy listening to stories, can follow a storyline, predict what might happen next, or describe what they see in pictures, they are developing comprehension and imagination—important stepping stones for reading success.
To help you understand how these foundations lead to literacy, we’re excited to invite you to a
special parent workshop on Friday 10th October. During the session, we will share how we nurture literacy development for our young learners and why it’s
not a race. You’ll see the strategies we use every day, and we will also introduce some of our key approaches—
Read Write Inc (RWI), Talk4Writing, Drawing Club, and Squiggle Wiggle—and explain how these work together to support our young learners.
The workshop begins at 8:45 a.m., and afterwards, parents and carers are warmly invited to join their child in class for a special time of learning and play. It’s a wonderful opportunity to share in their discoveries, explore activities together, and celebrate all the progress made during this first half-term. The celebration will end by 10:30am. Click
HERE to sign up.
Speech and Language Screenings Finally, a reminder that optional
Speech and Language screenings will take place on
Thursday morning. If you are interested but have not signed up, please contact me for more details.
Ruth.Hanson@nais.hk Wishing all our families a joyful Mid-Autumn Festival today. May this special occasion bring happiness and togetherness. We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Wednesday.
Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
Yours sincerely,
Ruth Hanson
Head of Early Years
