China Trip - visa update

Hello everyone!
I have received documents from the Travel company, copies of which you will need to send along with the completed application form.
I have printed these this afternoon and arranged for copies to be made for each student. My plan is to issue these at the next meeting on Tuesday 7th May. I don't want to upload them here as they contain passport information.
I believe you can take the application and hand it in yourself, this might in fact be a slighter quicker and cheaper method than sending it by post. I think Mr. Warden mentioned this back in March as he has had the experience of applying for several visas in the past. I believe it only took him 4 days last year to get his.
I will confirm all of this on Tuesday. In the meantime, if you have any other questions that can't be answered on the visa website please email either myself, or Mr. Warden using the email address that he supplied on the letter that was sent out last Tuesday.

Best Wishes

Mr. Irvine

Feedback from the China Meeting on Tuesday 23rd April

VISA APPLICATIONS - UPDATE!!!

Please note there is a meeting EVERY Tuesday lunchtime for the foreseeable future. If a meeting is not going to take place, I will inform you the week before, or put a message on the blog. We also use the computer screens in the school to share information like. Yesterday we discussed visas and I became aware that a significant number of students who are going on the China trip are also going on other overseas trips in May.
For these reasons and others, many students cannot surrender their passports in May. This makes it very difficult for us to organise a group visa as all passports would have to be sent off together.
We have also done a bit of research into the process and we feel that it would be better if everyone made their own individual application as the process of making a group application is not as straightforward as we previously thought.
We will therefore be asking you to make your own visa application and I will update you later on how to go about this.
The form is available to download from China Visa Application Service Centre online. Once you are on the website, go to "visa instructions" and then you will see an option for downloading forms. The form that you will need is V.2011A
There are detailed instructions on the website about how to apply. I read that applications by post can take up to 10 days.
I will try to create a link to the website via this blog, but if it doesn't work please just search for "China visa Application Centre" and you will find it. I will organise a letter to be sent home to confirm this. Please get in touch if you have any questions/concerns.
China Visa Application Centre

China Meeting Tuesday 23rd April

1. Meeting Tomorrow

This is a reminder that there will be a meeting tomorrow at 1:15pm in W20 for all students going to China.
Attendance is essential!
Please ensure the following:

1. Are all of your payments up to date? If not we need the final payment immediately! (last week there were still several outstanding payments and this is causing problems as we need to pay the final instalment to the travel company.

2. If you have not yet returned a signed copy of the code of conduct, please do so immediately. You cannot go on the trip if you have not done this!

3. You will have to attend some of the Friday afternoon Mandarin sessions in order to practise some very useful, survival Mandarin for the trip to China. This will be taught over a block of 4 weeks.

There will be a sign up sheet for this being passed around tomorrow in the meeting.

2. Vaccinations (Important information for parents/guardians):

There are no particular vaccination requirements for China, but tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations should be up to date.
As mentioned at the information evening, it is the responsibility of parents and guardians to find out whether, or not their child requires vaccinations. It is therefore advisable that all parents seek the advice of their child's doctor. They will be in a better position to advise you whether, or not a child needs a particular vaccination. We are not able to give medical advice and your family doctor will have knowledge of your child's medical history..

3. Visas

We have made the decision to do a group visa for our trip, we will therefore be asking all students to bring in their passports to be sent away for the visa.
I will update you more on this shortly!

Mr. Irvine

Code of conduct - notice for students and parents

If you have not yet returned a signed copy of the code of conduct issued on the information evening on Thursday 14th of March, please can you do so immediately. This should be returned to your family leader.

Best wishes

Mr. Irvine

Next China meeting for students

The next meeting for students will take place on Tuesday 23rd of April at 13:15 in W20. Attendance is essential.

Mr. Irvine

China Meeting reminder

Just a reminder that there will be a meeting for all parents/guardians this Thursday at 6:30pm in the school library.
The meeting should last approximately one hour. I would ask that all students arrive early at 6pm.
There will also be a lunchtime meeting for students as normal on Tuesday 12th at 1:15pm in W20.

Agenda for Thursday 14th March

1. Time to sing in Mandarin
2.Time to learn Mandarin
3. Introduction to the staff who will accompany the group to China
4. PowerPoint Presentation
-Travel arrangements
-Trip Itinerary
-Insurance
-Medical info/vaccines etc
-Kit list
-Code of Conduct
5. Questions & Answers

I hope that you can all attend as this meeting is very important, please contact me at school if you are unable to attend this Thursday!

Mr. Irvine

China Meeting update ( today at 1:15pm)

Today the China group met at the usual time and we had an interesting discussion about the Great Wall of China. Last week I asked those who attended the meeting to do some research and try to find out some interesting facts about the Great Wall, ideally things that most of the group may not already know!
Once again I was disappointed with the turnout, although much better than last week, there were still 11 pupils missing. I issued the EE2 forms today and asked pupils to return them completed by Friday, along with their passport (or photocopy of their passport!). I have allocated pupils to family groups for the trip and I asked all pupils to return the aforementioned documents to their designated family leader.
If you did not attend the meeting today you will not:
A. Have a copy of the EE2 form
B. Know who your family leader is
Please can you see me immediately if you did not attend, so that I can give you the form and tell you the name of your family leader.
Parents/Guardians, can I please ask for your assistance here, your child should have an EE2 form to bring home this evening.
For next week I asked the group to do some research on the Changling (Ming Tombs), which is on our itinerary to visit.

The family group leaders are:
Mr. Irvine
Mr. Warden
Ms. Halliday
Ms. Lyall
Mr. Stewart

Best Wishes

Mr. Irvine