Message from the Principal

The Year of the PIG

It has been an exciting week at KGV in the lead up to Chinese New Year. I personally have enjoyed the build up to this celebration and I appreciated very much our Chinese New Year Assembly where I got to ‘dot the eye of the Lion’. Thank you to our Chinese Language Department for coordinating the assembly.

We are all looking forward to the Year of the Pig, which occupies the last position in the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals. The pig is characterised as a mild and lucky animal representing carefree fun, good fortune and wealth.  Personality traits of the people born under the sign of the pig are happy, easy going, honest, trusting, educated, sincere and brave. The possible dark sides of the ‘pig people’ are stubbornness, naive, over-reliant, self-indulgent, easy to anger and materialistic. These type of people are obviously very rare in Hong Kong!

The Chinese New Year celebration made me think about the last 12 months as we farewell the Year of the Dog. Some the thoughts that come to mind are:

• The most incredible part of our school is our students. They are extremely hard working, talented and respectful
• Our teachers are talented and work really hard to bring the best out in our students
• Our parents are passionate about education and learning and invest so much to ensure ‘their child, our student’ reaches their potential
• Hong Kong is an incredible place to live, rich in diversity, fast paced and full of opportunities

Some other things I am still working on:

• The fact that people in Hong Kong sometimes walk on the left, other times they walk on the right, and I can never pick which side I should walk
• Coming to terms with the fact that drivers will put on their hazard lights when they stop suddenly but rarely use their indicators when they turn corners or on roundabouts
• Having the courage to double or triple park nearly anywhere and pretend that it is legal!

Overall, I look forward to this Year of the Pig with a sense of positivity and optimism about our school and the year ahead. We appreciate the positive feedback about the changes we have made over the past 12 months. We will continue to work hard to listen to feedback, collaborate and also seek opportunities to make our school an even better place for the students and community we serve. I feel a deep sense of pride and privilege to be the Principal of KGV, and I look forward to working with you to ensure all of our students can ‘be their own remarkable’ in the year ahead.

We wish all our students, families and staff a wonderful Chinese New Year break and look forward to seeing our students back on Monday 11 February.

Kind regards

Mark Blackshaw
Principal
King George V