1 Sep 2017

Hillside Newsletter 1 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.

1-30 September (Starts TODAY!)	Application period for the 2018-19 Year 1 Admissions (current K2s) Application period for the 2018-19 K1 Admissions (2015 births)
4 September	K2 Meet and Greet
5 September	Parent Info Session: An Introduction to the Primary Years Programme (PYP)
2-6 October	Mid-Term Break
10 November	Sports Day (venue: Bradbury School)

Principal’s Message

Dear Parents

We have had another great two weeks at Hillside since our last Newsletter was issued. It was also wonderful to see so many K2 Hillside parents at the ESF Year 1 Admissions information session held at ESF Centre last Wednesday evening. Both Audrey and I appreciated the opportunity to talk to many of you at this event and look forward to touching base with you all at one of the numerous upcoming events that will occur this term.

Can we please remind parents and caregivers that drive their children to and from Hillside to please be aware of where you are parking and to not park in the grounds of Bradbury School or in front of the Exit gates of either Bradbury School or Hillside Kindergarten. Please do not leave your car parked on Stubbs Road for extended periods when dropping off your child as we all know there are very limited parking places. Parking is always going to problematic given our location on Stubbs Road and we thank you in advance for your cooperation with this request.

Hillside Learning Hub

We would like to introduce our new families to the “Hillside Learning Hub” (https://hshub.hillside.edu.hk). We hope this will be a more convenient way, for parents and teachers, to share the children’s learning journey. Parents can also access all general school information, such as the school calendar, uniform order forms, admission and fees information. Please keep in mind that parents will still have to access ESF Gateway for student reports, updating student demographics, and eNotices.

We will be using this platform for gathering individual evidence of your child’s progress in the form of an ePortfolio and this will be shared with you privately, in a similar way to our existing reporting system on ESF Gateway. This will replace the traditional hard-copy portfolios. We will be sending home any hard copies of the children’s work on the day, so it’s more relevant for young children when parents talk to them about their work.

We will also use this new platform as a way of sharing our whole class learning (class blogs) and parent communication, including sharing of policies and procedure, parent resources and parent volunteering. You can sign-up for parent volunteer by clicking on the green “V” icon to access the sign-up forms. The sign-up forms are now “live” for parents interested to volunteer.

You should have received your login details and a direct authenticated link to access this platform. Please contact us on kinder@hillside.edu.hk if you any difficulties accessing the websites.

Meet the K2 Teacher – afternoon of Monday 5th September

We cordially invite those K2 parents who would like to meet their child’s teacher to come along to Hillside on Monday, 4th September to say hello and see their child’s classroom from 4.00-5.00pm.

Please note: This “meet and greet” session is intended to serve as an informal opportunity for parents to meet your child’s new teacher and see their new classroom. It is not intended to be a time to discuss your child’s progress formally. You are not required make an appointment.

Hillside Parent Information Sessions (for parents new to Hillside Kindergarten)

On Tuesday 5th September, (9:00 – 10:00am or 12.45 – 1.45pm), we will be talking about the Primary Years Program (PYP). This is an opportunity for you to learn more about the curriculum and our PYP Program of Inquiry.

To attend one or both sessions, please call the Hillside office to reserve your place, but note that once a session reaches “capacity”, you may be asked if you can come on another day. The slides for both presentations will be uploaded to the Hillside website for parents that are unable to attend these sessions.

Please click HERE for last week’s Home-School Partnership Presentation.

ESF Year 1 Admissions for the 2018-19 academic year (K2 only)

A kind reminder to all K2 parents, 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

The deadline to lodge an application for an ESF Year 1 place is the 30th September 2017.
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 login to Gateway to print or save it as a PDF under the ARR section.

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.

Change to your child’s school pick up arrangements and the introduction of a new electronic bus identification card

Please remember if a change needs to be facilitated to your child’s going home routines such as being collected as a walker instead of going on the bus home please do write a note in your child’s diary or call us on 2540-0066 (NOT EMAIL) to inform us of this arrangement. Please also inform the bus company to ensure the bus mother of your child’s bus will be informed.

If your child is enrolled with the bus company, we will assume your children will be riding the school bus everyday UNLESS you inform us otherwise. It is very important for you to inform us as soon as possible, for any changes to normal going home routines.

On this note, please be reminded to always have your pick-up cards with you when you collect your child at school or off the school bus for safety reasons.

NEW electronic bus identification cards

Commencing this academic year, all bus children have been provided with an electronic identification card. This card is used when the children both board and depart off the bus. This is a great tool to enhance the overall safety and security for the Hillside children that currently use the bus service. It is imperative that the children always have the identification card attached to the side pocket of the school bag – as this will allow for ease of access when the bus escort scans the identity card. Please ensure that you have attached the card issued for this academic year as last year’s bus identity card will not work.

Please be aware that from 1st September 2017 children that do not have this bus identity card) attached to their school bag may be denied access to travel on the bus.

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 Harbour front, with adjacent community activities and carnival at Edinburgh Place in Central. For full details, please refer to the event poster click HERE.

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

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