Hillside Newsletter 29 September 2017
Hillside Kindergarten’s latest newsletter available to read now. Find out the latest news from around the school and upcoming events.
Important Dates
Click HERE for the Full Hillside Calendar and instructions to subscribe.
| 30 September
(DEADLINE TOMORROW) |
Application period for the 2018-19 Year 1 Admissions (current K2s)
Application period for the 2018-19 K1 Admissions (2015 births) |
| 2-6 October | Mid-Term Break |
| 12 October | Dress Causal Day Fundraiser |
| 20 October | ESF-wide Professional Development Day (School Closed) |
| 24-27 October | K1 Parent-Teacher Conferences |
| 31 Oct – 3 November | K2 Parent-Teacher Conferences |
| 10 November | Sports Day (venue: Bradbury School) |
| 15 January 2018 | Theatre Trip: The Gruffalo (venue: HKAPA, Wan Chai) |
Principal’s Message
Dear Parents
DEADLINE for ESF Y1/K1 Admissions is tomorrow!
ESF Year 1 Admissions for the 2018-19 academic year (K2 only)
A kind reminder to all K2 parents, the deadline for ESF Year 1 application period is tomorrow, 30th September! Year 1 application period is from 1st – 30th September 2017. An auto-acknowledgement email containing your application reference number will be sent upon online submission on http://www.esf.edu.hk/application-form
Don’t forget to send all supporting documents requested to ESF Centre by 6th October 2017.
Please note you will be required to submit a “copy of one of your child’s kindergarten reports.” If you didn’t save it last year, you can still log into Gateway to print or save it as a PDF under the ARR section.
Year 1 Play-Date List by School Zones (K2 only)
We will be putting together a play-date list by school zones once we received the zoning information from the primary schools. This will normally take place later in October or early November after the all applications are processed.
We would suggest starting play-dates with other children on the same bus, as you will be likely zoned to the same school.
ESF K1 Admissions for the 2018-2019 academic year (for children born in 2015)
The ESF K1 application period for the 2018-2019 academic year is from 1st – 30th September. To apply you will need to complete the online application via the ESF Kindergarten website. As a place at Hillside is in such high demand, please make sure you APPLY ON-TIME on http://www.esf.edu.hk/kindergartens-application-form/. Late applications are always processed after the on-time applications – and this is also the case for a late sibling applications. Please also remind your friends (who may be seeking a K1 place for their child in the 2018/19 academic year) about this important application process.
Don’t forget to send all supporting documents to ESF International Kindergarten Hillside by 6th October 2017.
Dress Casual Day Fundraiser – 25th Anniversary – Thursday, 12th October 2017
Dress Casual Day will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year and Hillside would like to support this fundraiser this year. The Community Chest encourages everyone from all walks of life to pitch in and show their care to the needy in our community.
Since its debut in 1993, Dress Casual Day successfully raised more than HK$410 million with the generous support of over 9 million accumulated participants. Of this, nearly HK$209 million was raised through the education sector, accounting for 51% of the total donations. This encouraging result demonstrates the generosity of Hong Kong people, especially the younger generation, and their genuine care and concern for those in need. The Chest is deeply indebted to all participating principals, teachers, students and parents for their tireless effort.
We would like all Hillside children to support the upcoming Dress Casual Day which will be held on Thursday, 12 October 2017. By donating a small amount of your choice, children will be able to join in and come to school on this day wearing casual clothes of their choice. Donations can be sent in with your child on this day (please place your donation in a sealed envelope labelled with your child’s name and class).
All donations received from the Hillside community will be directed to community support projects that have an impact on improving the lives and welfare of children in Hong Kong. We thank you in advance for supporting this important and worthwhile community fundraising event.
Health Reminder
In light of the flu season, please be reminded to be vigilant and to take your child’s temperature every day before sending them off to school. We have a ZERO TOLERANCE towards illness at Hillside, and we will send children home if they come to school with a fever, runny nose or a productive cough, to protect both the ill child and the rest of the student and staff population at Hillside.
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health reminds members of the public, as well as the staff of institutions and schools, to maintain good personal and environmental hygiene as a preventative measure against influenza and other illnesses.
Below are the guidelines from the DH CHP (Department of Health – Centre for Health Protection)
2.3.3 Reference range for temperature screening If oral thermometer is used, temperature not higher than 37.5° (99.5°) is considered normal. If ear or rectal thermometer is used, the measured temperature will be 0.5°-0.9°) higher than that of an oral thermometer. As such, ear or rectal temperature not higher than 38° (100.4°) is considered normal. June 2014 Edition 9Guidelines on Prevention of Communicable Diseases in Schools / Kindergartens / Kindergartens-cum-Child Care Centres / Child Care Centres.
2.3.4 Body temperature varies with age, time of day and level of physical activity. For screening purpose, temperature above the reference range quoted below will be considered as significant and one should consult a doctor for suspected fever. Measuring method Celsius scale (°C) Fahrenheit scale (°F)
Annex: Upper limit of normal body temperature by different measuring method.
| Measuring method | Celsius scale (°C) | Fahrenheit scale (°F) |
| Oral | 37.5 | 99.5 |
| Tympanic | 38 | 100.4 |
| Rectal | 38 | 100.4 |
| Armpit | 37.3 | 99.1 |
ESF 50th Anniversary Marathon
The ESF 50th Anniversary Marathon is the major community engagement event organized by the English Schools Foundation (ESF) among the 50th-anniversary calendar of events. It will be comprised of a running course of 1km to 10km along the Central Harbourfront, with adjacent community activities and carnival at Edinburgh Place in Central. For full details, please refer to the event poster HERE.
SAVE THE DATE: Hillside Sports Fun Day – Friday, 10 November
We cordially invite all parents to join us at our annual Hillside Sports Fun Day on Friday, 10 November at Bradbury School). The day will begin at 09:00AM for all children (both morning and afternoon classes) with a welcome and a warm up. Please do not arrive before 08:45AM so that we have time to set all the activities and equipment on the pitches before the children arrive. The day will conclude around 11:15AM with a break built into the rotational activities to rest those little bodies. Parents can also take their child for a break whenever they feel their child may need one.
Due to both the AM and PM classes coming together for this event we will have reached the maximum number of participants allowed on the pitch, therefore we do not have the capacity for additional children (such as siblings) to attend. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding with this request.
Please note: We will meet all families at the Bradbury School, and there will be no classes operating at Hillside and no school bus service on this date. More information will follow closer to the event.
SAVE THE DATE: Theatre Trip for Hillside – “Kids Fest 2018” – Monday, 15 January
We have received information from HK ‘Kids Fest’ 2018 about an upcoming opportunity for the Hillside children to see a live theatre production. Over a number of past years, Hillside children, staff and parents have attended this event and we have always found the live theatre productions to be of an extremely high standard, along with being well targeted to the age group of our children.
We are pleased to inform you that we have secured a booking for the entire theatre (for both the Hillside AM and PM sessions) to see the production titled The Gruffalo. The date for Hillside to attend this production is Monday, 15 January 2018. We believe this will be a great experience for our children and we are excited to be able to accommodate the whole school to see this production on one day!
We will meet all attending families directly at the venue; please do not come to the Kindergarten on that day and the school buses will not operate. The show runs for approximately an hour. The morning families are invited to the 9:45 show and the afternoon families are invited to the 12:00noon show.
We get a special school discount price of $215 for each ticket. We will start taking bookings later this term. More information will follow closer to the event.
That time of year… Mosquitoes and Biting Midges are back!!
At Hillside we are extremely fortunate to have a large outdoor play space that backs onto a lovely natural ‘green’ space (which is quite rare on the densely populated HK Island. The only downfall of this area is that at this time of year those annoying little mosquitoes begin to cause issues for us. There is also an increasing number of biting midges (also know as sandflies) this year that is causing havoc around HK.
“There are no known efficient methods of controlling biting midges, but personal protection will help in reducing exposure to their bites… and apply a repellent to exposed skin. These measures will assist in limiting exposure to these biting flies.” – Dept. of Medical Entomology
Unfortunately, some children are more susceptible to being bitten. If this is the case with your child, we would encourage you to apply some mosquito repellent/patches onto your child before they leave for school each day. We do take health and safety issues seriously, of which mosquito control is one, and in actual fact, have put measures in place to address and alleviate this problem. For example, there is a mosquito lantern installed under the covered area outside and four (4) industrial fans.
In addition, regular eco-fogging is carried out fortnightly after school and, at the start of every term, we arrange to have pest control measures to be carried out in our classrooms and in the outdoor area. We have also tried to be pro-active by purchasing two types of anti-mosquito machines. We are currently sourcing more powerful anti-mosquito machines, which will also need to be child-friendly. Finally, we have sourced some plants that are known to have anti-mosquito qualities and placed these in the Hillside garden and around our outdoor play spaces.
We constantly ensure there are no areas with stagnant pools of water and carried out major repair work on the cracked and broken bits of concrete in the driveway, along with the drainage grillwork and we also resurfaced our driveway last term.
We are regularly inspected by ESF Centre facilities staff to check for possible mosquito breeding grounds. As you may have noticed when you visited our outdoor play area, we are in an area that is surrounded by a lot of trees and foliage, and because of this, we have an on-going battle in carrying out measures in controlling the incidence of mosquitoes at Hillside. We will continue to work with ESF Centre facilities to explore options that will help to alleviate the issue of mosquitos in our playground.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Kind Regards
Chris
Principal
Class Blogs
Please click on the links below to visit our class blogs on the Hillside Learning Hub for your child’s latest class news and photo gallery. Please contact kinder@hillside.edu.hk if you cannot access the Learning Hub.
| Dolphin | Dragon |
| Frog | Gecko |
| Monkey | TigerAM TigerPM |
| Panda | Turtle |
| Chinese | |
| Parent Volunteer Sign-up | |
Inspiring Futures
Data Privacy The information we collect from you is in accordance with the ESF Personal Data Handling Policy and its related Personal Information Collection Statements (“PICS”). Our PICS statement is available online. http://www.esf.edu.hk/privacy
