Newsletter - Term 2, 2007

Dear Parents & Students,

Increase in Student’s Tuition Fee ~ “Our school is a nonprofit institution, and for many years our school principal and teachers have purchased classroom supplies and materials using the money out of their own pocket. To help reduce or eliminate their expenses…..we plan to have a little school carnival one day next term in order to raise funds…..” ~ Term 1 Newsletter

First of all, we would like to welcome our new students who joined the school this term . As you are aware by now, the number of students has increased significantly during last few years and the school has expanded from the original two levels to three levels of students to provide students better teaching and learning facilities. As a result, we have employed one more teacher and purchased additional resources.

According to our financial statements, there will be approximately $800-00 left in our account at the end of the term after all payments have been met. We canceled the original plan to have a school carnival to raise fund because many parents feel it is time to increase our school fees instead.

After careful consideration, our school principal called a meeting of the school committee on the 15th of June to ask permission to increase the school’s tuition fee from $50 to $60 per term per student. Families with more than 2 children attending our school will pay $60 for the first 2 children, and $30 for subsequent children. The fee includes resource books and activities as usual. And please be reminded the tuition fee will be paid by the 2nd week each term.

The fee has not been changed since 2002 and we sincerely hope you can appreciate the school’s financial need and continue to support the school। However, please feel free to contact the school principal if you feel the increased fee will cause your family inconvenience, and we shall reconsider your situation.


School programs: Our program follows the Educational Department Languages syllabuses. The program for this term and term 3 is scheduled as follows:

Term 2: Let’s Get Ready and Go
- Opposite words & Fashion show- various clothing

Term 3: Let’s Party : Food

In week 5 during the course we held a Fashion Show for all three levels of students. On the day, children wore their favourite clothing, walked down a cat walk accompanied by Chinese music and demonstrated their language ability to describe their clothing. In week 8 we celebrated the Dragon Boat festival making craft. The children were very proud to bring home their dragon head masks and dragon boats.

We tried to use as many activities as possible to make learning language fun and interesting. The school is open to any ideas or suggestion if you feel we can organise some other events to enhance students’ cultural awareness and language ability.

Teachers’ Report
Level K/1: I was very impressed with my young students, especially how they remembered the characters for colours we studied in Term One. We are now learning more colours and relating them to our new topics, such as ‘clothes’ and ‘seasons’. We have also been covering ‘opposite’ words this term. All those topics and words students can use in their daily life.

We had some interesting activities relating to our various topics. For example, for the ‘colours’ topic, we played with balloons to recognise the different colours. For the ‘clothes’ topic, we helped ‘bear’ put on his clothes. We also played “dà fēng chuī” to identify different types of clothes and we packed clothes for travelling. We watched a video of a Chinese dragon festival and made dragon masks. For this age group, fun and interesting play actvities such as these assist learning development. We also started ‘Chatting time’ to help students practice their speaking. This involved sitting in a small group with rotating speakers making observations about things like what type and colour of clothes people were wearing, and what type of clothes are appropriate for different activities.

Finally, all the best wishes to all students and their families for a happy and safe holiday। We will see you in two weeks। I hope students can practice their Chinese during their holiday! ~ Ms Tang

Level 1/2: During the current term, our level 1/2 students learnt about clothing. Students are able to ask and reply correctly about clothing they wear, or belonging to someone else, and at the same time describe clothing associated with different colours and opposite words. Some of the students with better language ability are able to read short stories to other children in the class.

We celebrated the Dragon Boat Festival by making dragon boat paper craft, and the students learnt about the celebrations associated with the dragon boat race and festival food. ~ Ms. Yeh

Level 2/3: Topic for term 2 was “clothing and opposite words”. We learnt to ask what someone is wearing and to describe how clothes fit someone. We leant all the different words about clothes in Chinese characters. We also talked about some traditional clothes today. Students were excited with the fact that some clothing worn by the Chinese today still retains the Mandarin style of Qing dynasty. We learnt how to compare 2 different subjects with different opposite words. Students also practiced to write a full sentence in Chinese describing the fit of the clothes for each picture and description.

Level 3 students had great fun this term. We did some craft work to celebrate our traditional festival, Dragon Boat Festival. We also had fashion parade with other levels students. All these activities made the learning process fun and interesting, as well as allowed students to have better understanding on the culture issues. Level 3 students did a great job in these activities. Well done, Level 3 students. ~ Ms. Wang

The next term will commence on Friday 20th July 2007!

On behalf of all the staff we wish you all a very happy & safe Holiday!

Shao-Ping Yeh
Deputy Principal