Hillside Newsletter 14 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.
| 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 year-long 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 participating in 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 our Vice Principal/PYP Coordinator, Audrey Tang at 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.
We would like to thank you for your wonderful support!!
ESF Hillside parents, children and staff collected enough food, socks, blankets, warm jackets, towels, etc.
Helping over 300 homeless individuals and families in HK.
“Impact HK” thanks the entire Hillside community for making a real difference to those in need.
Latest Unit Reports and Portfolios
Reports
The latest Unit of Inquiry report (for both K1 and K2) will be available for parents to access on Gateway. To access your child’s report:
- Please log into Gateway https://hs.tg.esf.edu.hk to access your child’s report. If you forgot your login details please use the “forgot password or login name” function. Gateway will send you an email for resetting password shortly.
- Once you’ve logged in, select ‘ARR Report‘ on the main screen. (Please see Screenshot below)
- Select the relevant report template “End of Year Report” or the complete “Full Year Report”. This will create a PDF file that you can save as a soft copy or print out if you wish. If you have more than one child, select the appropriate child in the top left corner.
E-Portfolios
Please follow the steps below to access your child’s e-portfolio:
- Log on to our virtual learning hub https://hshub.hillside.edu.hk/. The login button is on the top right corner. It is a different set of login details from your Gateway account. If you forgot your login details, please use the “forgotten username or password” function.
- Click on your child’s portfolio, under ‘Portfolio’ on the top menu bar.
- On the right-hand side under the heading: “Hillside Kindergarten Portfolio 2017-2018”. You should see a ‘document symbol’ (Please see Screenshot below)
- Click on the document symbol and your child’s portfolio should download automatically to your computer, and then you can save it as a PDF.
- Don’t forget to also click on ‘Children’ on the top menu bar to visit your child’s class blogs. This is not downloadable.
- For any individual PDF files, you should find a ‘download’ button on the button left to download and save to your computer. (Please see Screenshot below)
Please contact the office on admissions@hillside.edu.hk if you have any difficulties accessing these platforms.
FINAL REMEMBER: 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 soon 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.
Finally, I would like to wish you and all your family the very best for a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year. I hope that 2018 will be an exciting and rewarding year for everyone associated with Hillside International Kindergarten.
All the very best for this Holiday Season!!
Kind Regards
Chris
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
