Kellett’s Online Connections by Cristina Fisher

This term the team at Kellett Tell It has been learning more about our community.   We have scoured Pokfulam to uncover the history of where we to go to school and the people who live and work here: from fire stations and other schools, to the local cemetery and the wet markets, we have discovered many secrets hidden right next to Kellett School! !W h e n w e t h i n k a b o u t o u r community at school we imagine the students, teachers and parents too - learning together, playing together and living together.   But there is another important side to our community that is growing larger and larger every day: it’s the Kellett online community.  Now that we have two campuses, the internet

is more and more important for us to stay together and learn about one another. !You might have heard of social media expert Mr Peter Sutton, he is our local social media man and he is the one helping Kellett to get a strong and inspirational online community. I decided to find out more and met with Mr Sutton after he spent some time talking to the Year 6 students. Some of you might not know what social media actually is - well it is simply online websites that connect you to other people, like Facebook and Twitter.  

WAH FU MARKET Find out about one of Hong Kong’s oldest wet markets - and it’s on our doorstep!

THE HISTORY OF KELLETT Alumni talk to Kellett Tell It about their time at school all those years ago.

KELLETT PREPARATORY SCHOOL, FEBRUARY 2014

Tell It

Inside this edition....

WATERFALL BAY One of Hong Kong’s most important - but least talked about - landmarks.

“Mobile devices are the major drivers of social media,” explained Mr Sutton. “We can carry these wherever we go so the Internet is always with us: Facebook, Youtube and so on.  People can be very connected and share video, text, audios and photos.  These provide snapshots of our lives: our hobbies, our businesses and organisations too.” !Mr Sutton has helped Kellett to develop a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, a Youtube presence and even a Flickr page!  Have you visited these sites yet? If not you really should because they will tell you about all the happenings at both Pokfulam and Kowloon Bay, like visits to the science museum, cooking with parents or our great athletes at the interhouse sports days.  Mr Sutton says social media in schools can help foster a sense of community and promote the school to the wider community, even all around the world! “It’s a great way to share events and experiences from different groups in the school.  Parents often don’t get to see what is happening around the campuses and this is a fantastic way to share that information.   For the students they can share their learning, not just in Hong Kong but across other countries so they can better understand how others learn, their culture and how they live.  It also helps the wider community in Hong Kong and beyond to connect to who Kellett is and what it offers”. !Make sure you take the time to look at and join Kellett’s online community, it is brilliant and you may be surprised with what you can learn about our great school! We also hope you enjoy the rest of this edition of Kellett Tell It and learn a lot about our amazing local community right here in Pokfulam. !!!

Take a look at what’s inside

Kellett Tell It !Spring Term Edition !February 2014

1 Kellett Online

3 The Bethanie

4 Pok Fu Lam Stables

5 Wah Fu Market

6 Pok Fu Lam Cemetery

8 The History of Kellett

9 Wah Fu Fire Station

11 Hok Shan School

12 Waterfall Bay

THANKS TO THE TEAM Cristina, Sabrina, Sophia, Viren, Alexander, Alexandra, Christopher, Kala, Petra, Tabitha, Samuel and Olivia.

Thank you to Mr Dawes and Mrs Bull for all their help and use of the ICT Mac Suite!

Talking History

by Sabrina Footitt !!When we think about Pokfulam and the area around Kellett School, it’s hard not to imagine the tall buildings of Wah Fu Estate and the busy roads that run around it.   But if you look just a little deeper, you will also fi n d s p e c t a c u l a r, h i s t o r i c buildings sitting alongside some of the city’s best walking trails.   !The Aberdeen Country Park starts just across the road from school and it runs all the way up to the top of the Peak.  I used to live on the edge of the Park and I would walk there with my dog Thea every day, along the winding paths under the big

trees and past small streams and the big Reservoir. Around the Reservoir there are old buildings and I have always wondered what have these been used for? We met with local historian Mr Jason Wordie to find out some more about this interesting area.   “The buildings around the reservoir were constructed for security and to make sure the water never got poisoned,” he explained. For water security the guards would stand around in the small bungalows that were built for them - you can still see these today. “The reservoir was built in

the 1850s and finished in the e a r l y 18 6 0 s ,” M r Wo r d i e continued. “The interesting thing with the reservoir was that as more people came to live in Hong Kong  more and more reservoirs needed to be built so from the reservoir a pipeline was run to s t o r a g e t a n k s u n d e r t h e Botanical Gardens in Central.   Interestingly, the gardens were established to see what plant-life would grow successfully on the hills of Hong Kong.” Mr Wordie went on to explain that Hong Kong had a natural advantage because it was one of the few islands in the area where the water was safe to drink.  Today, the Aberdeen Country Park   is used for taking in the world and spending time with nature; many people don’t have open spaces in their homes, so they need a park close by.      

!Right beside the Park sits another building steeped in history - The Bethanie.  The Bethanie was built in 1875 and back then it was used as a place for priests and missionaries from the Mainland to recover from tropical diseases. We also asked Mr Wordie to give us some information on this lovely building. “The building

faces south to west as that's where the wind comes from, and t h i s t o g e t h e r w i t h t h e spectacular view over the South China Sea helped the priests r e c o v e r p h y s i c a l l y a n d mentally”. !In 1978 the Bethanie was turned into part of the Hong Kong University and today you can see loads of big, shiny, modern university buildings in the area.   Bethanie is no longer used by the University, it is now part of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts (HKAPA) where they hold classes and even put on shows and plays for the public.   This certainly won’t be the last curtain call for this historic building! If you want to l e a r n m o r e y o u c a n v i s i t yourself, the HKAPA runs tours of Bethanie where it talks about

the building’s history or, you can simply enjoy the building by going a long to one of the HKAPA’s entertaining shows!

Just down the road from Kellett, hidden behind the tall buildings and busy highways there is a surprising part of our local Pokfulam community.   It’s not a hospital, or a school or even a police station - it is the wonderful Pokfulam stables! Today we are going to take an inside look at the stables and the amazing people who work there. !The Pokfulam stables have been running since 1978 providing riding lessons to all ages. In fact, it was the first stables to open on Hong Kong Island.   “These stables started as the Lady Maclehose Riding School for the Disabled (RDA),” explained James Kwok, riding instructor.  Today the RDA is still up and running alongside the stables.  Over the years, the stables have grown and are now home to 32 horses and ponies all together.  Although it is a small space, the Pokfulam Stables still has one extra box for a new horse to come and join them.   Because of the limited land at the stables, Pokfulam has the most ponies in the whole of Hong Kong, as ponies require less acreage for exercise.   There are nine ponies and 23 horses ranging in age from only a few years to the grand old age of 33. !The stables are a wonderful place to go riding however, getting in is not easy - the stables has a three year waiting list!  According to riding instructor Bird Watts: “Once someone starts riding and they realise how magical it is and what a wonderful place it is, people don’t stop!”   Bird Watts started teaching at the stables in February last year - she moved from England to Hong Kong.  “Because we are just a small riding school it means we have a great relationship with all our students and with the horses - we get to spend more time with them all,” she explained.   “We are tucked away in a busy city.  If you were driving past you wouldn’t know we are here.  When I first arrived and was driving here we went through Kennedy Town and I wondered how there could be a riding school in such a busy place.” Even though the Pokfulam stables are only small, they still had a big role in the 2008 Olympics!  Riding instructor James Kwok helped look after the Olympic horses who were kept at Bea’s River in the New Territories and the stable grounds in Pokfulam benefited from the big games too. “We

are very lucky that we got the Olympic sand and fencing,” explained Bird.  So if you go to the stables and see that sand and that fencing, well that was the same sand that the Olympian horses competed on! !Even if you don’t get off the waiting list to enjoy ridings lessons, a visit to the stables might just be enough for you.   It’s a wonderful experience: walking down Pokfulam Road, feeling the wind in your hair and smelling the scent of horses. Down the concrete path and behind the trees you will discover the wonderful stables. Its just fantastic seeing all of the different shapes, sizes and colours of horses.    And if you get to ride, you’re in luck!!  As you put one leg then the other onto the soft coat of the horse, you start a slow, bouncing trot along the trail then eventually getting faster and faster until you are galloping at the speed of light.   Remember, others will wait years for the same experience.

Horsing Around in Pok Fu Lam

By Sophia Grandolfo

Wah Fu Market by Viren Hirani !Have you ever been in the depths of Wah Fu Market? It is a rambling, busy marketplace buzzing with sellers shouting their wares, shoppers haggling over goods and even a tourist or two with cameras!  With a capacity for 50,000 people, Wah Fu Market has been standing since 1950 and is one of the oldest wet markets in the city. !Wah Fu market is located in Pokfulam only a 10 minute walk from Kellett school; it was constructed and is managed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. Wah Fu Market is much more than simply one of those public markets like in Wan Chai, it has a shopping arcade, wet markets, car parks, schools and even a public library! The vast majority of locals in Wah Fu go to the markets every day to buy their fresh food, instead of going to the supermarket.  Kellett Tell It decided to find out more about these fascinating markets and we went to meet some of the people who work and shop there. !In the wee of the morning at 3am Wah Fu fish shop owner Mr Gun starts his day when the first delivery arrives.   While everybody is fast asleep, Mr Gun has lots of things to do but his first priority is to get his shop ready for the day before it opens at 6am - he has three hours to put out all his goods, write signs and clean the stall. Mr Gun doesn’t sell ordinary things like clothes, flowers or even Chinese joss sticks... He sells different types of fish: squid, tuna, prawns, clams and many more. !Just nearby is Mrs Tam who s e l l s b r i g h t a n d f r e s h v e g e t a b l e s o f e v e r y description. She has been w o r k i n g a t t h e Wa h F u markets for more than 20 years. “I see all sorts of people every day, maybe 600 to 700 people visit my stall in a day.   I see children growing up, people growing old and passing on, I am part of the community.” Mrs Tam thinks the market is actually getting busier each year as more people move to the area.   When we asked what were the most popular vegetables she told us for winter it is mushrooms and lettuce for hot pots and in the summer people love melons. !You might expect all of the stalls to be like Mrs Tam’s and Mr Gun’s selling food and maybe fruit

and vegetables but there are all sorts of different things inside the markets - some shopkeepers are even selling clothes! We saw older women buying stockings and skirts and men looking at jumpers. Over the time we were there we mainly visited fruit and vegetable stores. Approximately 55% of the market is full of - fruit, vegetables and fish and 45% of the Market is clothes and flowers. !Our last stop was to visit Mrs Lai who sells joss sticks, she has been at the Wah Fu Market for more than 15 years, and her shop is called Wing Sun Joss Sticks. “I sell incense for rituals, the most popular items are money and paper offerings and these are burned for ancestors at festivals like Chinese New Year.” Mrs Lai says she isn’t as busy as she used to be because of the westernisation of younger people. !Generations will definitely keep going to the vibrant Wah Fu markets because it is an important part of their lives and a central part of their community.  I really enjoyed finding out more about this interesting market that is just down the road! !

I love going past the cemetery on the bus to Wednesday sports and looking at the different designs on the graves and statues along the way. While it gives me the shivers, I think it is quite special to see all the memorials and I love the area where the graves are on the big mountain, looking out over the sea.  As I gaze out of the bus window I often find myself wondering who has been buried there? Is there a grave of a governor in the hill? Or perhaps a celebrity actor is there? I decided to get some answers and find out some information about this amazing part of our local community.   !In the 1880s the Chinese Christian Churches Union built the Pokfulam Road Cemetery. It is located on the west side of Hong Kong Island and is built into a mountainside; from far away it looks like a triangle sitting on the side of the hill. Many of us have heard about Feng Shui and how the placement of certain objects brings energy or good luck. But did you know that in the Chinese culture grave placement is very important, and in the cemetery if a grave is sitting on a mountainside and facing the ocean it is very good Feng Shui? The Pokfulam Road Cemetery contains over 20,000 graves and the burial plot section is almost full, although there are spaces being made available for cremated remains. !I found a lot of my information by visiting the cemetery itself and when I arrived Mr Paul Chan, Director of the Chinese Christian Churches Union, was waiting for me. Mr Chan had dozens of documents about the history of the

fascinating cemetery, although he said it had been di fficult to track down much of the information.  “In 1945 after the Second World War it was discovered that the safe at the cemetery with all the documents relating to the leases, deeds and so on had been destroyed by the Japanese,” he explained.   “So a lot of the history of the cemetery was lost and today it is still sketchy.”   What Mr Chan did find was the lease for the first burial plot which was given to a Mr Yeung on October 15, 1886. Mr Chan took us to see the actual grave, it was small and unassuming and the print on it was very faded.  Mr Chan was also able to show us a copy of the original lease for the cemetery - it was exciting to see such an old

Buried History by Alexander Ludwick

document but of course, we weren’t allowed to take a copy with us!   !I was excited to learn that a lot of famous people are buried in the Pokfulam cemetery: artists, lecturers, professors and aviators.  “In one of the graves there is a man buried who is considered a celebrity, his name is Kough Ti Shan. He was a professor at the Hong Kong University”, Mr Chan explained. “He was a scholar, a writer and he was buried in 1941 but to this very day students come to visit his grave and leave flowers. I have seen so many students come to visit him - they pay their respects.   He died many decades ago but they still come to see him.” !The cemetery was a fascinating place to visit. Mr Chan showed me different graves and told me that in some graves there is more than one person, sometimes a whole family could be in one plot. Many of the graves are decorated with gold Chinese characters, flowers and pictures and many of the graves are made of marble. I was interested to learn all of the graves in the Cemetery are Christian graves and you have to be part of the Church to be buried here. “The Chinese Christian Churches Union has churches all over Hong Kong”, said Mr Chan. “We also have an elderly home in Kwun Tong and we have a school in

Tsuen Kwan O.   I would say 80% of our members hope to be buried here; this is their first choice.”  Even though the graveyard is Christian, on traditional Hong Kong burial holidays like Ching Ming thousands of people flood into the cemetery to visit the graves of their ancestors, and sometimes the local residents complain about the traffic and the noise!   On a normal day about 100 people visit the cemetery and they have up to 1,000 people every week.   Mr Chan explained it takes a lot of effort to maintain the cemetery, especially as it is built on a steep slope, but he thoroughly enjoys his job.   !Next time you drive to games and you pass the Pokfulam cemetery, take a look out of the window and you might see Mr Chan and his team working hard on the slopes of the mountainside, helping to look after a very important part of our community. ! !

!!!!!!The ribbon cutting ceremony at Kowloon Bay was a thrilling event, filled with VIPs, fiery-eyed dragons and of course, the 1000 plus Kellett students.  We all learnt about the school’s background and history - who knew that Kellett started in a small flat on The Peak?  We wanted to know more, so we tracked down some Kellett alumni, all of who have children at the school right now! Amazingly these alumni, Ben Smith, Alexandra Dickson-Leach and Torquil MacLeod, share similar memories and experiences. !The parents of Mr Macleod and Ms Dickson-Leach helped start Kellett School by being part of the group of parents who got together to establish a private British school in Hong Kong. Mr McLeod said, “My parents were among the group of parents who set up the school together.  My mother was one of the seven signatories of the Articles of Association of Kellett School Association Limited and was a Board member from 1978 to 1995.” And interestingly, Mr McLeod’s mother came to Kellett recently for our new Kowloon Bay Campus and was a guest of honour in the opening ceremony. All three started at Kellett between 1977 and 1978. At that time the school was called Starters and was located in Wanchai. They all remember the school being very small. As Mr Smith said, “When I began at t h e school it was still very small and

there were no year groups, instead we had about 40 kids and they were put into two classes.  I was in the smallest class I remember. But things changed and grew quickly, if you look at my class photo from 1978, even then you can see a dragon in the background on the wall, I am guessing this was the start of the Kellett mascot.” Shortly after, Starters changed its name to Kellett School and moved to a brand new campus in Pok Fu Lam.   Mr Smith’s father was on the building committee that helped build the new campus at Pok Fu Lam. Mr Smith remembers being “blown away” by the new campus. It had a covered play area, toys to play with and even a Hall where the children could do performances.   Amazingly, Mr McLeod’s father made a number of the wooden toys that the children played with in the covered area. Ms Dickson Leach fondly remembers the class pets and being able to take them home on the weekend and taking part in class plays performed in the gym. At the Pok Fu Lam campus Mr Smith and Mr MacLeod became friends and both of them have now returned to work in Hong Kong. After all the years they still keep in touch today!   Ms Dickson-Leach also made many friends when she was at Kellett and still sees the ones who live in Hong Kong on a regular basis. All three alumni now have children of their own. When it was time for them to send their children to school they decided to send them off to Kellett School because they wanted their children to have the same fun and learning experience. As Ms Dickson-Leach said, “For me I did not think twice about sending my children to Kellett -it was a place that held so many happy memories for me and I gained so much from

my time at Kellett - particularly my love of reading which I still have today.”  Mr Smith thought it was very funny when he went to look at the school with his son Kit.   He remembers Ms McDonald asking, “I don’t know if you know much about the school?” Mr. Smith replied, “Well actually I do, I went to the school when it first opened!” Most amazingly of all, Mr Smith’s younger son Luke is in the same classroom that Mr Smith was in all those years ago! For each of the alumni, Kellett School has given them happy memories and these memories are even more special now they know their children can have them too!

Kellett ... Past and Present

Right next door to our Pokfulam campus is a building that is hugely important to our community: from the street all you see are big, folding metal doors but behind are hard-working staff and a very busy fire station.  The men and women at the Pokfulam fire department are always at work, always on duty and we found this out first hand when they came to visit us at Kellett for an interview.  We were about halfway through our interview with Duty Officer Lau and his four colleagues when they received a call over the radio.  A second later all the men jumped up and raced out the door, leaving us sitting with our notes and our heads spinning. Luckily, this happened after Duty Officer Lau had given us a ton of good information! !The firemen in Pokfulam don’t always put out fires. In fact, many of their emergencies have nothing to do with fires at all!  “Earlier today, we had to get a cherry cutter to remove a beehive very close to where we are now,” Duty Officer Lau told us.   Often the fire department works together with other government services, such as the Department of Food and Hygiene as with the beehive.  There aren’t too many fires in Pokfulam, but the fire station still has about 2-3 alarms each day.    Unfortunately, the most common call for the department is a false alarm which is a dangerous waste of time because if there is a real emergency there won’t be enough firemen to attend.  There are only about twenty people working at the Pokfulam Fire Department during a shift, but if there is a really big fire, more than one fire station will respond. !When not encountering an emergency that involves a fire, the fire department calls it a ‘special service’.   Special services include removing bee hives, helping people stuck in lifts, traffic accidents, drownings, floods and things that are a concern to the public.  Sometimes they even have to break down doors to get people in or out of their flats.  After a fire, there is always an investigation as it is the fireman’s job to figure out the cause, and sometimes the police will help if it’s a very hard case.  At the end of October there was a fast fire on Aberdeen Main Street which the fire department found very hard to put out.  In this case, the fire department worked hard to extinguish it and then were working with the police to figure out how it started.   !Did you know that in late November, there was a massive fire on Lantau Island,

very close to Disneyland and the airport?   The fire started at sea level, and slowly progressed up the hill.  It started off very small, and then formed a big ring - then slowly it all expanded.  The fire lasted for about two days, but was only visible in the night from Pokfulam.   We can only imagine how many fire stations were called to respond to that inferno! !Also, in early January, there was a fire just next to Victoria Road. It took about 10 fire engines to put out the blaze. There was smoke almost everywhere but luckily, it was very close to a fire station so the firemen didn’t have to go to far to fight the blaze.

Code Red by Christopher O’Sullivan

!If you want to become a fireman, think carefully first, because Officer Lau told us you have to complete many years of training!  The process starts with a proper job interview and then, if you are successful, a fireman begins a three year trial. After these three years, a candidate becomes an ordinary officer.  Then it takes another five years before there is a chance to become a senior officer.   The senior officers create fire drills for the ordinary officers and run the fire station.  Each year, all the firemen have to complete a physical test where they do lots of running and strength training.   A fireman must be incredibly fit!    !In addition to lots of training, the firemen have an overwhelming number of reports to write.  They usually train in the morning - unless there is a fire! - and in the afternoon they work on the many, many reports.  They don’t get to go home at the end of the day like other jobs because fireman work 24 hour shifts severals days each week, followed by a few days off in a row.  When they are on duty, the firemen all eat and sleep at the fire station.  Luckily though, there is a chef employed to cook so the firemen don’t have to make their own meals.  We think it could be a fire hazard if they had to cook because, if there was a fire alarm, they may run out of the station with the oven still on! !Lucky for us, the fireman that we met from the Pokfulam station told us that our community is generally very safe and we are ever grateful for their continued service to our neighborhood! ! ! !

Hok Shan Student for the Day by Kala Davies !Have you ever seen the school a five minute walk away from the Pok Fu Lam Campus? I’m sure most of the older kids have, but have any of the Receptions, or P2s? For those of you that don’t know its TWGH Hok Shan School.  Many of us have visited Hok Shan and I’m sure we all remember how kind the teachers and students are during our visits.  Did you know this year there are 120 students and 16 teachers at Hok Shan School; that means we are lucky enough to have at least 136 kind neighbors in Wah Fu! !The principal at Hok Shan is Mr Yu, he has been working at the school for three and a half  years. “I decided to work at Hok Shan School because the people are nice, friendly and the students are willing to learn,” he explained.   During my tour of the school I was also fortunate to be able to meet one of the English teachers called Miss Ho who told me about being a teacher at Hok Shan. “I always wanted to teach because I believe learning is a treasure and I wanted to bring happiness to my students.  I think the meet and greets we have between Kellett and Hok Shan are great; it’s a wonderful experience for all the students and staff.” !At least twice a year each year group at Kellett from Year 3 up visits Hok Shan school and has a wonderful time.   We play guessing games, make origami flowers and sometimes even write some Chinese calligraphy. When you’re in Year 5 or 6, Hok Shan students come here to Kellett and play games and we get to make creative things like paper fortune tellers.   Finally, when Kellett Students reach Year 6, they also get to teach the Hok Shan students English! !I was very interested during my visit to the school to find out some more about its history.    Hok Shan was built and opened in 1969,  just nine years before Kellett School!   It was renamed TWGHs Hok Shan School in March 2005 after a merger of two separate schools -

!!Hok Shan school and TWGHs Lee Sau Chow Memorial Primary School.   Back then, Hok Shan only had a few teachers and not many students, but now they have a magnificent campus complete with interactive whiteboards, a huge playground and 120 students! !You may think lessons at a local school are taught differently to those at an international school, but really they are taught the same way.   The students have lessons such as MFL (English to them) as well as Literacy and many more!  I hope everyone enjoys their next trip to Hok Shan school and that they try to be as nice to everyone around them as the Hok Shan teachers and students were to me during my visit - we are certainly lucky to have such wonderful neighbours.

Walking Under the Waterfall by Petra Deacon !Waterfall Bay is a small and pretty waterfall around the corner from Wa Fu, it comes down from the Peak then flows to Wa Fu and finally connects with the sea below. If you’ve ever been on a boat or a junk around the area you may well have seen  Waterfall Bay just as sailors did centuries ago. The amazing thing about this waterfall is the key role it played in the development of Hong Kong; one of the city’s most important landmarks lies just down the road from Kellett School! !You may wonder how this can be after all?   A waterfall is just some water splashing down...but read on and you will discover this waterfall holds a lot of amazing secrets.    What is today, “just a nice place to sit and r e l a x ,” a c c o r d i n g t o l o c a l historian Mr. Jason Wordie, “is a c t u a l l y a h i s t o r i c a l l y s i g n i fi c a n t p a r t o f o u r community.”   Our little waterfall in Pokfulam can be traced back to the year 1746 when Great Britain was looking for ports around the world during rising conflicts in the region with France.   This is approximately the t i m e w h e n o u r l i t t l e waterfall first appeared on Maritime maps.   !W h i l e l i s t e n i n g t o M r Wordie talk about the waterfall and its history, it’s as if you can travel back in time and learn about our fascinating heritage.  For instance, did y o u k n o w a b o u t t h e Amherst Mission?   Well, Sir William Pitt Amherst carried out an important trip to China for the United

Kingdom in 1816 to do business with the Qing Dynasty.  The East Lamma Channel, which today is packed with container ships and is just down the hill from us at Kellett School Pokfulam, is also one of the places where Amherst anchored his ships during his travels.  What does this have to do with Waterfall Bay?   Well, Waterfall Bay was marked many years back on the Maritime maps, so Amherst was able to look for the Waterfall as a landmark!   This helped him to tell ships from other countries where to meet when returning from China.   The ocean by the waterfall is very deep and the Bay was a sheltered place to anchor their ships, so this was a good place to secretly meet! !“The waterfall was clearly visible from the sea and it ran down from the Peak through what is now Wah Fu and Bel Air estate,” explained Mr Wordie.     The waterfall used to be a thick, gushing waterfall until the 1850’s when, we learned from Mr Wordie, the waterfall was dammed to create our Pokfulam Reservoir.   The reservoir was officially opened in the 1860s

a n d t h i s c a u s e d t h e

waterfall to become the small, trickling waterfall we see today. !When researching Waterfall Bay, we read there had been ruins from WWII discovered nearby and immediately wondered if there had been battles in our backyard?   We spoke to Mr Wordie and it turns out Wah Fu was rather peaceful then, as it is now.  The pillbox and searchlight discovered in Waterfall Bay were probably lef t by Japanese soldiers during their travels.  Mr Wordie explained the fighting in Hong Kong was mostly near Wong Nai Chung and Repulse Bay because the Japanese fought to control the Tai Tam Reservoir and the Island’s water supply - our little waterfall was left alone. !Today, Waterfall bay is a nice place to go and relax for tourists and residents of Wah Fu, what used to be a grand, gushing waterfall is now a great spot to go for a picnic, play chinese checkers or cards.  But what we learned about Waterfall Bay is much greater than what we see today.  The Waterfall is one of the most important places in our community because it served as a special marker for Amherst

during his trips to China but mostly because it w a s t h e source of the clean, fresh water we all use today - the P o k f u l a m Reservoir.

As the sun rises Regina Hung, Kellett’s Senior Housekeeper, crosses the sleeping streets of Wah Fu to start the new school day.   Along with her team, Ms Hung is in charge of setting up all the facilities and classrooms that the students and staff will need to use.  An hour or two later the students begin to arrive in buses and cars and for Ms Hung and her team, that’s when the real work begins! !Ms Hung helps with activities across the whole campus - from f u n i n t h e p l ay g r o u n d t o playtime on the roof and craft in the classrooms, and at the end of the day she stays after school to close everything down.  Not only that, Ms Hung sometimes goes to Kellett on weekends when most of us are out having fun.   Of course, she has help! The t e a m i n c l u d e s t h e housekeepers who look after cleaning and hygiene.   !Ms Hung says they work very well together and all help make our school nice and enjoyable for us to use.  Overall there are 12 busy and hardworking people on the Kellett housekeeping team, and every day they help the school to run as smoothly as possible.   “Most days it is a busy routine,” explains Ms Hung, “but some days, when there is an assembly or if guests are visiting such as  FOBISIA, then I am much busier and so is my team!”   !But before you know it, Brrring it’s 3.15 - the school day is over and everyone from Reception to Year 6 goes home.   While we have finished with Kellett for the day, the cleaning team are striking again, closing everything down.   Ms Hung told us this is usually a quick process but on the last day or term it is really busy and the team works extra hard! So you might be wondering how you can help? “It helps us a lot when people think to hold a door open for us and when the Year 5 and Year 6 students put the seats up

for assembly, we really appreciate it,” Ms Hung explains.   As you can see, Ms Hung is a very important part of our Kellett community - she has been at the school for 19 years and she has seen

many changes in our community.   !

!Originally working part time at the school Ms Hung worked her way up to lead the team as Senior Housekeeper! “Kellett is a family that is always concerned for me,” Ms Hung said with a smile. “I have learnt a lot since I first arrived at Kellett all those years ago, I have seen many changes but I am happy with the way the school runs today.   It is a fulfilling job.”   So when you next arrive at Kellett and step off the school bus, take notice of the clean and efficient school around you - it is thanks to Ms Hung and her dedicated team that Kellett works so well!

Super Staff! by Tabitha Grandolfo

Stanley Ho Fields by Samuel Schadt !!The buses pull into the driveway and students hop off, one by one.  The sun is burning hot and some people start to sweat, including me. “It’s time to run a lap!” shouts the teacher.  Everyone groans as we start to run a staggering lap around the enormous field.  Most of the children burst ahead as they run but quickly lose their energy - the students who were behind overtake, glad they stayed at an easy pace early on.  When everyone finally gets back to where we started we play cricket but not before getting a long, cool drink of water!  With the sun like a huge light bulb shining down, many of us wish we were somewhere cooler but it is still fun to be out in the green, open space.  Finally, our games session ends and we get back onto the air-conditioned buses. This is a typical session for a Kellett student when they visit the Stanley Ho Sports Center.  Everyone at Kellett School knows that Stanley Ho is our number one destination for sports: it has fantastic facilities and it is only just down the road!   We wanted to find out more about this important part of our school community – a place every student visits at least once a week, so I met with Ms Chi Wah Lau, the Development Officer for the Stanley Ho Sports Center. “Kellett students have been visiting and using Stanley Ho since the 1990s,” explained Ms Lau who has worked at the Center since 2007. But Kellett isn’t the only school to use the sports ground, Kennedy School – which is right across the street from Stanley Ho – uses it too and it is popular with other schools as well because of its soccer pitches, climbing wall, pool and more! You might be surprised to know that it’s not just students who use the Stanley Ho Sports Center in fact, Ms Lau told us that some of the world’s best athletes have also used the facilities!   “Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the sports ground became a pre-Olympic training ground,” she explained.   “Elite athletes from Australia, New Zealand and the UK trained on the track and in the pool during their ‘adaptation training’ which is when the athletes take some time to adjust to the climate, the timezone and so on.” Stanley Ho Sports Center was opened in the 1980s by Hong Kong University (HKU) for its students because there was

no space on the campus for sports.   As the HKU students mainly use the facilities after school and at night, other schools and community groups can use the grounds during the day for PE and sporting events.   We learned that these events, such as Kellett Sports Day, need to be reserved three months in advance!   So does Ms Lau like her job?   She says definitely yes!   “I enjoy getting to work with the community and help people maintain a healthy and active lifestyle.  I do use the facilities myself too, I like the gym and in the summer months I use the pool.  We are excited that the pool will soon have a thermostat fitted so it can be used for more of the year.  We also have memberships available for individuals and families.” The next time you are on the bus to Stanley Ho Sports Center make sure you keep an eye out for Ms Lau and her team, they all work hard so that we can have great sporting facilities just down the road.

by Olivia Lloyd !!Have you ever wondered about the thrilling secrets that line the shelves of a library? We decided to find out more about the libraries in our community and what it takes to make sure all those enthralling books, papers, magazines and more are available for us to read.  When most of us think of a library we think of the wonderful Mrs Walker and all the books on t h e t h i r d fl o o r h e r e a t Pokfulam - but what you might not know is there is an even bigger library just down the road: a library that helps the whole Wah Fu community. !Pokfulam public library is very old, it was built in 1970 and has been open for 43 years! The actual date it opened was December 18th and it was the third public library built in Hong Kong, this makes it extra special. So what was Pokfulam like in 1970? We met with Head Librarian Stephanie Chieh-ying Lai to find out more. “At the time, Pokfulam was a rural area,” she explained,  “and the government wanted to attract people to live here so they built facilities like a hospital, fire station, housing and a library.  Everything you needed to live was right here.   You have to remember, at that t ime there was no I n t e r n e t a n d t o fi n d information you had to go to a library; it was a key facility.”

!Today at the Wah Fu Library there are 77,000 books in Chinese and 15,000 books in English. That’s a lot of books! We visited the library very early in the morning and this is when it is busiest.  Ms Lai told us the library is a place w h e r e p e o p l e i n t h e community come to meet and during our visit we saw many older people reading their n e w s p a p e r s a n d s i t t i n g together and meeting friends.  On Saturday morning there is children's storytelling in Chinese and after these story sessions the children are allowed to draw a picture to show what they liked about the story.  Between 900-1000 people visit every day, and the primary users are the elderly. !Pokfulam Public Library is a

fun

and educational place to find out information on any topic.   “ L i b r a r i e s a r e v e r y important places,” explained Ms Lai.  “They are somewhere t o g e t a c c e s s t o f r e e information.  It is a place to be together and share knowledge a n d i n t e r e s t s .   I t i s somewhere to make friends and where kids can come and p l a y a n d b e t o g e t h e r.   Everyone can come and use the library - there is access for all.” !What are the most popular books?  You will never guess.  We discovered that the most popular books with children are Japanese comic series!  Children in Wah Fu also love Harry Potter and Roald Dahl.   For adults the most popular books are the Chinese martial arts fiction series.  “We have a

The Secret Life of a Library

fiction here.   These are my personal favourites too,” said Ms Lai with a big smile. “They are not Kung Fu stories but t a l e s w h e r e t h e m a i n characters have special powers, they can fly and have incredible weapons.   They train hard but mainly they are like us, it’s as if they could be real.   Sometimes you wonder if maybe with lots of training it might be true!”   !Access to the Pokfulam Library is for the entire c o m m u n i t y a n d K e l l e t t families are welcome!   You can borrow up to eight books for 14 days, which gives you plenty of time to read your favourites or to find new ones. If your books are returned late there is a small fee of HK$2.50 but two weeks should be enough!  One exciting new addition to the library is the s o f t w a r e ,

t h e N e x t G e n e r a t i o n Integrated Library System ( N G I L S ) . N G I L S a l l o w s everyone to access and see the books and papers that the library has on its shelves and you can even do this from your own computer at home.   !Every community in Hong Kong has a public library - in fact, there are many across the city.  So if you are looking f o r

something interesting to read, or you would like to meet your neighbours then why not visit your local library? You will find fun and adventure, spies and magic and much more on every shelf!

Kellett Tell It Spring 2014

Library continued...