Hillside Newsletter 1 December 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.
| 20 November – 8 December | Hillside Annual Christmas giving appeal (in partnership with local HK Charity – Impact HK) |
| 1 December 2017 (TODAY) | Bradbury PTA Winter Night Market |
| 14 December 2017 | Last Day of Term – Children’s Party |
| 15 December 2017 | School Closed – End of Term Staff Meeting |
| 16 Dec 2017 – 7 Jan 2018 | Christmas Break |
| 8 January 2017 | School Resumes for Term 2 |
| 15 January 2018 | Theatre Trip: The Gruffalo (HK Academy of Performing Arts) |
Principal’s Message
Dear Parents
As an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, it is a requirement that each school undertakes a formal yearlong evaluation process – addressing all aspects of the PYP program. During this period of evaluation (which takes place once every five years), evidence will be sought from both internal and external stakeholders to verify that the school is meeting all the requirements of the programme. The emphasis of our IB Evaluation process will come from the school’s self-study process, the school’s IB PYP action plan, as well as the school’s commitment to follow the IB Standards and Practices for the Primary Years Program (PYP). The final stage of this process will involve a team of educators representing the IBO visiting Hillside to conduct an in-depth, three-day school-based, evaluation visit.
Since the start of this academic year, we have been working closely with our staff reviewing the IB Standards and Practices and started some initial work on our Self-Study. Parental input and support play an integral part of this process, and we will continue to keep parents informed throughout this process.
Please help us by completing a short survey regarding your views on the implementation of PYP at Hillside. Click HERE to complete the survey.
You may wish to visit our website on https://www.hillside.edu.hk/pyp-overview/ to learn more about PYP at Hillside and find a copy of our Programme of Inquiry, Language Policy and Assessment Policy.
If you have any questions about the IB Authorisation, please contact audrey.tang@hillside.edu.hk
Hillside Annual Christmas Appeal – supporting the work of local charity Impact HK
Each year, Hillside selects a charity to support at Christmas time. This year Hillside Kindergarten are teaming up with local based charity Impact HK to help Hong Kong’s homeless as the temperature begins to drop.
Impact HK is a registered charity that aims to support and help the homeless individuals and families of Hong Kong. They have a range of initiatives from collecting and distributing much needed food and blankets, to teaching English and other life skills to people less fortunate than ourselves.
At Hillside we shall be collecting supplies for Impact HK and these much needed donations will be distributed by Impact volunteers during their scheduled planned Kindness Walks in December.
There are over 1000 homeless people in Hong Kong and over 130 of them “live” in a park in Sam Shui Po, on benches, against pillars, in shelters made of packing crates, other “live” in underpasses near Happy Valley, on flyovers and under stairs in Yau Ma Tei and many other areas across our city.
If you want to check out Impact HK and the amazing work they do you can find them at http://www.impacthk.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/impacthkcharity/
Please join us in caring for the less fortunate at this festive and cold time of year by donating food and bedding at Hillside for the Impact volunteers to distribute.
Please remember these people have no kitchen facilities – so only non- perishables that need no preparation. For example food items such as:
- Packets of crackers, biscuits, dried fruits (no cans or tinned goods please)
- Box drinks such as milk, lemon tea or apple juice
- Bottles of water
Other items we are seeking include:
- Toothbrushes and toothpaste
- Towels
- Blankets
Our appeal will run from Monday, 20 November until Friday, 8 December 2017. Collection boxes are located at our Hillside Kindergarten reception, ready for your donations. As always, we thank our wonderful Hillside community for your continuous and generous support.
Parent Workshops at Hillside
Thank you to those of you who have attended the Technology and Young Learners parent session last week. At Hillside we all value the development of positive partnership, and we know that this is an overall important factor in ensuring the children’s success.
We are planning to offer a number of parent workshops throughout the school year based on areas of interest identified by our parent community. Please click HERE to access the previous presentations from this academic year for your information.
Theatre Trip for Hillside – “Kids Fest 2018” – Monday, 15 January 2018
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 at the HK Academy of Performing Arts (1 Gloucester Road, Wan Chai). The date for Hillside to attend this production is Monday, 15 January 2018.
Over the 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 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 in 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.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: Normal classes are suspended on this day, as all staff will be at this special event.*
We get a special school discount price of $215 for each ticket. Please send in payment to secure your booking as we will need to confirm final numbers with the production house before Christmas. Payments MUST be by cheque, payable to “ESF Educational Services Ltd”. NB: TICKETS WILL ONLY BE CONFIRMED UPON RECEIPT OF PAYMENT. Payments can be sent in with your child (please place your cheque in a sealed envelope labelled with your child’s name and class, along with the number of tickets you wish to purchase).
Please contact us on 2540 0066 or kinder@hillside.edu.hk for any enquiries.
ESF Primary School Visits
Over the next few weeks, we will have teachers and leaders from the ESF Primary Schools visit Hillside to observe the K2 children (in preparation for the upcoming Year 1 ESF Admissions interviews that will take place in January). These visits continued to be an extremely positive and helpful for both the children and teachers involved. The children will be able to see a familiar face when they meet the teachers again at ‘big school’. We will not be informing parents of the visit dates ahead of time because it should be just another normal school day for the children and we don’t want the children (or our parents) to feel stressed or worried about the process.
It makes me proud when a number of my ESF Primary Principal colleagues mention to me that when their new cohort of Year One students commences at the beginning of each new academic year, they are able to quickly identify ex-Hillside children. When I ask them ‘why is that….?’, there is a similar theme to their responses and that is because of the Hillside children, on the whole, are confident, cooperative, articulate and are excited about learning, in addition to having a genuine interest about the world around them.
Bradbury School PTA – Winter Night Market – 1st December 2017
Winter Night Market is back, hosted by the Bradbury School PTA, providing a fun evening for families and friends. Guests will be greeted with international food and drinks stalls, games, activities, music and the opportunity to shop for a wide variety of products in the marketplace. There will also a raffle for this event, interested Hillside families can purchase raffle tickets from Hillside reception.
Details of the Winter Night Market:
Date: Friday, 1 December 2017
Time: 5:30-8:30pm
Venue: Bradbury School
Entry Fee: $20/person (Children under 2 years are free)
*entry fee, games, food and drink tickets are all CASH ONLY
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
