Dear Parents,
This week we have seen an encouraging increase in the improvement of the ability of SAIS staff to reach and teach our students. We have age appropriate videos for our younger grades with some really exciting tasks and the video feedback has been so lovely to see. For our older students there are a lot of Powerpoint presentations and online live teaching sessions through Microsoft Teams. Assignments have been set which really can fill the day of our older students – so much so that Mr. Koo, our STEM teacher, always reminds the students to have a proper break for lunch! Mr. Mike, our dedicated PE teacher, is providing home exercise classes to ensure our students continue to be active, even while often being confined much of the time to their apartments.
For Middle and Upper School each student is now being given lessons in Math, Science, Humanities, Art, and History and we are increasing our emphasis on literacy as we move forward. Some of the work being turned back in to our teachers is exceptional and the students should be proud of what they are achieving. For those students not taking as full a part as they could, please encourage them to do so and also continue reaching out for any support. We are proud of the fact that under such difficult circumstances SAIS is a clear leader in the content and methods of delivering an online education to our students.
Education Bureau News
We have just been informed by the Education Bureau that online instruction for elementary and middle school students should continue through March 17th. We still need to wait for the Education Bureau’s notice about when we will be allowed to re-open. We will continue to share any and all updates about this situation with you as we learn them.
Summer Extension
We are pleased to announce that due to the extraordinary times we find ourselves in, we have made plans to offer summer programming that is different from the regular school year, but also provides an opportunity to continue SAIS programming after the scheduled end of the year. These will be staffed by teachers who volunteer to stay beyond their contracts and will not be a continuation of regular school, but will look a little more like our J-Term program, minus the big trips! The curriculum is still based on American Common Core Standards using PBL approach.
ELE & Kindergarten: For our pre-literate students, SAIS will provide a month of summer extension learning from June 15-July 10th at no extra cost to parents.
1st Grade & Up: We will likewise be offering free summer extension programming for our older students, for a shorter period, from June 15th-26th (No school day on Dragon Boat Festival). The rationale for offering a shorter program for our older students is that they are able to do more in our current Virtual SAIS environment. During this summer period, SAIS will continue using PBL and building upon what students learned in the virtual SAIS environment and the regular school year.
Along with this letter, we are sending out a survey to parents to gage your interest in attending the summer programs. Once we know which students are planning to enroll, we will be able to plan the details. While this summer session is free of cost to current SAIS students, there will be a refundable deposit at the completion of the program. This will ensure that we can plan accurately. For parents of ELE-K students, the survey will also include a question about whether or not you would like your child to continue to participate in online instruction in March. Teachers will still be preparing lessons and teaching virtually, but we understand that with pre-literate children, online instruction can be challenging.
Thank you all once again for your support. We continue to learn and improve and we are sure that each of our students will learn and improve with us.
Keep safe, follow the advice given by those responsible for our safety and we look forward to our brave medical professionals finally defeating this terrible virus.
SAIS
