Page 2 - School Newsletter 2019-2020

Principal's Message
While all school events - mostly celebratory and pastoral - reflect the hard work of students and teachers, the second half of the year has been trying, and some planned events have had to be cancelled. Nonetheless, our 70th School Anniversary Functions were duly conducted beginning with the Alumni Homecoming Day in December 2018, where hundreds of alumni, retired teachers and principals returned to enjoy a chatty afternoon over refreshments. Laughter burst out every now and then as they walked down memory lane.
Our Annual St. Mark’s Day Thanksgiving Service once again took place at St. John’s Cathedral; we were glad to see old friends such as Dr. Samuel LAM and Dr. Turner SIN joining us. We were thankful that God brought us together in this St. Mark’s family, and we have indeed much to be thankful for. The Platinum Jubilee Concert showcased the talents of St. Markans; it took place at the Jockey Club Auditorium, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in early July, 2019. Music performances were given by our Alumni Band, the Symphonic Band, the String Orchestra, the Alumni Choir and the School Choir. We also had our musical - Straightway - which outlined the actualization of our school motto. This concert is testimony to our students’ strengths: not only are they strong in academic and sport arenas, but also in the performing arts.
Amid the noise in society, Archbishop KWONG graced us with his presence by presiding over our Annual Speech Day. It was unfortunate that we had to cancel the Walkathon and Open Day, but we staged admissions talks so that soon-to-be St. Markans had a chance to know the true meaning of being a St. Markan.
In addition to all the special functions for our 70th School Anniversary, our regular functions were equally eventful: just like last year, we had four cultural tours to Zhaoqing, Dunhuang, and Tianjin in China, and Bavaria in Germany, where our students participated in an international conference held by the YMCA on the theme ‘Empowering the Youth’. The Tianjin Foreign Languages School, our sister school, also came to visit us. Principal DIAO, her teachers and students came on an exchange with us on 29th May 2019. Their visit allowed our students to learn from them; we also exchanged much on the administration-side where Principal DIAO and her teachers shared wisdom on running a school.
On campus, students were equally busy: in addition to the inter-house competitions like ball games and cooking classes, there were leadership training projects, as well as the STEM Day for Form 1 and 2 students, and experiential service learning for Form 3 students. Twenty students from different levels also had an exchange opportunity with King Ling College, where they spent four days learning from and sharing with their peers. These joint-school or inter-school functions continued with the sleepover on campus of the Uniformed Groups Orientation Camp this school year. Our students also visited North Point Methodist Primary School, Shanghai Alumni Primary School and Chinese Methodist School (North Point) where they re-experienced their younger days by playing English games with pupils there.
All in all, we are proud of our students and teachers: they make time to learn from everyone, in addition to classroom learning. We firmly believe that both textbook and real-life experiences are useful for teenagers to grow healthily; all these events help individuals to shape their way in the world and become useful members of society.
NGAN Yuen Ying
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