Austin School Hong Kong

AUSTIN SCHOOL STUDENTS RECEIVE PRESTIGIOUS SPORTS AWARD
Austin School is delighted to announce that two of our talented students, Robin Zhang (secondary student) and Yani Ling (primary student), have received A.S. Watson Group Hong Kong Student Sports Awards.
This prestigious award, which recognises outstanding performance and potential, was marked with a ceremony held on May 18, 2024, celebrating awardees’ achievements and contributions in the field of sports.
As a token of appreciation, each awardee received an official scholarship certificate, accompanied by a prize of HK$500, along with professional modelling photographs, which will be shared on social media platforms, allowing a wider audience to recognise and support them in their pursuit of their dreams.
We extend our congratulations to Robin and Yani for this well-deserved recognition. They have proven themselves to be exceptional athletes, and we are proud to have them represent our school.

SWEET FINISH TO AUSTIN SCHOOL FRUIT PROGRAMME
Austin School’s ‘Happy Fruit’ project has come to a successful conclusion with a fun ‘fruit party’, at which students received certificates and were commended for their commitment to increasing their fruit intake. They were also able to eat their fill of melon, mango and other fruit!
Part of a Hong Kong government healthy eating programme, the initiative saw students rewarded with stickers after successfully eating a piece of fruit at every morning break.
Throughout April, the school utilised both in-class and after-school time to educate children on the benefits of regularly eating fruits and the healthiest ways to consume them. We had a chart in our cafeteria where we recorded the amount of fruit each child consumes daily at school.
Austin School encourages parents to continue supporting their healthy habit of eating two servings of fruit per day at home. Additionally, our school office has released detailed guidelines from the Education Bureau and Department of Health regarding healthy eating.

AUSTIN HITS ALL THE RIGHT NOTES IN MUSIC COMPETITON
Austin School was delighted to recently learn that four of our students have received medals at the prestigious 76th Hong Kong School Music and Speech Festival, bringing home five awards between them.
Julian Kwong secured a Silver award in the Treble Voice category for children under 10 and a Bronze award in Recorder Solo for Primary School students under 10.
Bella Petyt won a Bronze award in the Recorder Solo category for Primary School students under 10.
Alfred Yung was awarded Silver in the Boy's Treble Voice category for ages 7 to 8.
Freya Guo took home a Silver award in the Girl's Treble Voice category for ages 5 to 6.
The awards will be given out over the next couple of weeks.
We are deeply proud of our students’ achievements in this highly competitive event – well done everyone! Thanks also to music teacher Bartholomew Law for his continuing efforts, hard work and passion across the entire music program.

AUSTIN CHILDREN SHOW THEIR COMMITMENT TO EARTH DAY
Austin School children recently marked Earth Day in a variety of ways. At assembly we discussed how to do our bit to save the planet, both at home and school, including ideas on recycling, upcycling, turning off lights and generally reducing our energy consumption.
The children also created posters, made videos and more. Earth-shaped door hangers were decorated with happy and sad elements, incorporating the significance of Earth Day and how to care for our planet.
During the day we raised awareness of the importance of environmental protection, and explored how we can reduce waste and ignite passion in students that will drive them to do their part to take care of the Earth.

COOKING CLUB KICKS OFF ENRICHMENT PROGRAMME WITH A FRUITY THEME
Austin Cooking Club has successfully begun, with the school’s mini chefs creating snowy strawberry roses (most eaten by themselves immediately!). The first culinary foray as part of the school’s extensive club/enrichment programme, cooking club followed the Joyful Fruit Month theme, which saw consumption of fruit rise considerably at Austin.
Other clubs available to all students include handcrafts, French, Chinese calligraphy, gymnastics, cooking, fencing, comic drawing and guitar.

AUSTIN SCHOOL HOSTS OPEN HOUSE AND TAKES PART IN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL SHOW
Austin School has had a busy few weeks, successful staging an open house event and participating in the 2024 International Schools Festival.
The open house and school tour day offered parent attendees the opportunity to chat and get to know Austin School management and teachers, as well as join tours of the school’s spacious facilities. They were also able to get a feel for the fun and dynamic curriculum offered at Austin as well as the wide range of extracurricular activities available. We plan to continue with more open house and school tour days in April and May, hoping to attract even more parent participation.

Meanwhile, Austin also recently participated in the 2024 International Schools Festival. The event enabled local and expat parents to connect with leading international and private schools in Hong Kong and gain valuable insights on different curricula, admissions processes and innovative teaching methods. We were delighted to see many parents interested in and supportive of our school, and may participate in more events of this kind over the coming months.

AUSTIN SCHOOL TAKES ‘FRUITFUL’ TRIP TO CHARITY FARM
Austin School students and teachers had a rewarding experience when they recently visited the Pals’ Charity Farm in the New Territories.
The farm allows gardeners and micro-farmers to rent small plots to grow their own produce, with a proportion of revenues going to charities for the elderly in Hong Kong.
As well as enjoying a wonderful day out in the fresh air and nature, and learning about the produce grown at the farm (some of which they could pick and take home!), the children asked a range of intelligent questions about the growing and transporting of vegetables, sustainability, how charities work and more.
Some even suggested it might be a good idea for Austin School to contract a piece of land so they could grow and sell their own produce to care for the elderly with their labour. We will continue to communicate with the farm to see if there is a co-operative mechanism to fulfil the children's wish to contribute to the community. Parents are also welcome to contact the school office if they have any good resources and suggestions!
The outing also served as a reminder that Hong Kong is much more than the concrete jungle many believe it to be, and in fact has huge swathes of farmland, as well as forests, jungle, islands and remote beaches, just waiting to be explored!

AUSTIN SCHOOL A FEAST OF COLOUR FOR CHINESE NEW YEAR
Austin School held a wonderful Chinese New Year party to celebrate the festive season, attended by all our children and teachers, and many parents. Everyone had a great time participating in interactive activities: from writing/painting Chinese New Year couplets, contributing to a wishing tree, sports challenges, fun cultural tests, dumpling making, balloon making and more, in a fun and festive ambience. The high level of participation, interaction and immersive enjoyment embodied the Austin School spirit and was a great way to end the first half term.
The children were also thrilled to receive special gifts from Austin’s sister school, Anyang Oracle Primary School. The students there hand-made presents for each of our children, featuring their school’s Chinese cultural specialities: fans, paintings, knots, fortune decorations and more. Anyang Oracle also sent a video and Austin sent them one back in return.
Outside the school, Year 2 student Rosy also participated in a CNY parade, representing the Hong Kong Children's Ballet and Music Academy. We were all very proud of her!

POP-UP ‘RESTAURANTS’ A RESOUNDING SUCCESS
Austin School’s Year 4-5 students recently opened healthy pop-up ‘restaurants’ as part of their science classes. While not including actual food, students teams worked hard to design balanced menus offering daily intake within 2,000 calories. They were also able to harness technology such as an e-voucher system, banking data and scanning system, with teachers and students all being given a pre-loaded card with $200 for purchases.
Over the previous weeks, the students had learned about food types and what constitutes a nutritious and healthy diet. Based on this, they were able to incorporate business and mathematical concepts, leading to the formation of three restaurants which officially opened to the entire school community. The students also applied art, creativity and business concepts to attract ‘customers’.
Strongly supported by both teachers and students, the event concluded with awards for the best-selling dish and the highest-earning restaurant. Lance and Brian’s team emerged victorious, with Brian's dish becoming the most popular.

AUSTIN SCHOOL HOSTS FORMER HUAWEI DIRECTOR FOR INSPIRING TALK
Austin School was privileged to recently host Mr. Su Wei, a former Huawei Technologies deputy-director, who gave a talk about his life and work with the tech giant, before a captivated audience. Mr. Su worked at Huawei for nearly 30 years, and had many inspirational observations about his time with the Chinese multinational technology corporation, which is headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong. Dr. Peggy Chen, Austin School Supervisor, also attended the event.

AUSTIN SCHOOL AWARDED GOLD TROPHY FOR TEAM SINGING
We are delighted to announce that Austin School was awarded the Gold Trophy for Team Singing as part of ‘1st Magic of Love − Rap & Chant Charity Interpretation Competition’, which took place on Saturday, January 12. Under the leadership of music teacher Bartholomew Law, the school’s choir, comprising of five students – Freya, Alfred, Lincoln, Bella and Julian − and five Austin parents and teachers, sang their way to victory with the inspiring song, ‘Austin School is a Place of Love’.
Austin was not only the venue provider, but our Executive Director, Tracy Ho, was also invited to be a judge for the Education category of the competition. She was joined on the judging panel by three well-known local personalities: Helen Tam, a renowned host of children’s TV and entertainment news; Vikki Tong, also a children’s show host and singer; and Liu Mingfei a well-known music educator, and a director and member of several prestigious music associations.
We are all thrilled and proud of this wonderful achievement and plan on taking part on many other competitions in different fields moving forwards – watch this space!

BACK TO BUSINESS AT AUSTIN SCHOOL

It was business as usual at Austin School after the festive break as students and teachers flooded back to our spacious campus for the usual mix of lessons, sport, art, music and general fun! And with just a few weeks before the next celebratory break – Chinese New Year – everyone is busier than ever. There’s never a dull moment at Austin School!