Hillside Newsletter 11 May 2018

Hillside Kindergarten’s latest newsletter available to read now. Find out the latest news from around the school and upcoming events.

• • • Important Dates
    • Principal’s News
    • The Importance of Play-based Inquiry Learning in the Early Years
    • Upcoming PARENT WORKSHOPS on offer at Hillside
    • Hillside K2 Leavers’ Ceremony – REMINDER: SAVE THE DATE!!!
    • Parent Volunteers
    • Class Blogs

  Important Dates

  Click HERE for the Full Hillside Calendar and instructions to subscribe.

  15 – 18 May	K1 Parent Teacher Conferences
  21 May	Professional Development Day (School Closure)
  22 May	Public Holiday
  18 June	Public Holiday
  28 June	Last Day of School

  Principal’s Message

  Dear Parents

  This week we are pleased to welcome our K2 parents into Hillside for our Term (3) Parent-Teacher Conferences (PTC’s). K1 PTC’s will be held next week. Sound communication and on-going honest dialogue between school and home enables productive partnerships to be made with parents, partnerships which ultimately benefit the child. The PTC’s are a time for teachers to share the many aspects of learning that your child has been involved in during this academic year. It is also the ideal time for parents to ask questions about their child’s progress and find out how they can further best support their child.

  Please also remember that you are most welcome to contact myself or any member of the Hillside team at any time (not just during the scheduled Parent-Teacher conference period) if you have any questions regarding your child or if you seek further information about the teaching and learning program we offer.

  The Importance of Play-based Inquiry Learning in the Early Years (ages 3-8)

  It is now widely recognised around the world that the ‘Early Years’ (ages 3-8) is an extremely important period in a child’s life. A quality Early Years Education plays a major role in helping to set children up for success in later life. Both my own personal and school-wide goal for Hillside is for every child to have the opportunity to be the best that they can be.

  Each and every day the entire Hillside team is committed to providing all children with the opportunity to experience multiple, high-quality learning engagements. Children that are actively involved in their own learning develop a more positive attitude towards school and the education process – children do LEARN by DOING!! I want the children attending Hillside to view learning as something that is fun, and this, in turn, will greatly assist in developing the attitudes and attributes required to become true ‘life-long learners’ in an ever-changing world.

  Upcoming PARENT WORKSHOPS on offer at Hillside

  Bringing Active Learning Home
  (Workshop date: Monday 28th May 2018    TIME: 3:45-4:45 pm)

  Are the children just playing? Or are they actively learning? This workshop aims to demonstrate what active learning looks like at Hillside, and we hope parents will take away ideas on how to support and extend learning at home.

  Our K1 and K2 teachers will each share different learning opportunities with parents and explain the learning intention behind each one (with the aim of enabling parents to reinforce and extend their child’s learning at home). We hope that this parent workshop will provide parents in attendance with a bank of ideas and activities to do with their child at home (both now and over the upcoming long summer holiday break).

  Well-being for Early Years: (Friendships, Resilience and Transitions)
  (Workshop date: Thursday 31st May 2018    TIME: 9.00-10.00am and 1.00-2.00 pm)

  The social, emotional and well-being of young children is integral to their learning and development, but what does it actually mean? How do children establish and maintain friendships? How to deal with change and setbacks? How to face new challenges? As important grown-ups in their lives, what can we do to help? In this workshop, we hope to provide parents with some strategies for fostering well-being in young children.

  The workshops will take place at Hillside International Kindergarten. To assist in facilitating our planning we require participants to please register for a place (in either one or both of the workshops on offer). To do this please call Hillside on 25400066 and our reception staff will be happy to book a place for you.

  Hillside K2 Leavers’ Ceremony – REMINDER: SAVE THE DATE!!!

  One of the highlights of Term 3 is always our K2 Leavers Ceremony. The date set for your child’s K2 class Leavers Ceremony can be found below. Further details regarding this event will follow closer to the date.

K2 Leaving Celebration Arrangements

Parent Volunteers

Thank you for all the parent participation and volunteers last term, we are very fortunate to have so many parents assisting us to enhance teaching and learning opportunities and also making it even safer for the children by providing us with an extra hand, as well as keeping an extra eye.

A warm reminder to sign-up before the end of year, but please be conscious to limit or spread out your number of sign-ups, especially this last term, to allow all parents an opportunity on the rosters before the summer break.

At Hillside regular volunteering opportunities include:

• “Open Play” Time Parent Volunteer – Parents who wish to come along during this time have the choice of being stationed at an activity or spending the time with their child. This part of the session is approximately 60 minutes in length (10:00-11:00 / 13:45-14:45).
• Mystery Reader – Parents who wish to read stories to your child’s class can sign-up to be a “mystery reader”, please refer to the sign-up below for specific dates and times.

Please also read important information on the Parent Volunteer Guidance Notes HERE.

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.

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