Hillside Newsletter 20 September 2019
Hillside Kindergarten’s latest newsletter is 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.
| 24 September | Parent Workshop: Introduction to PYP |
| 30 September | ESF-wide CPD Day (School Closed) |
| 2 October | Parent Workshop: Importance of Open Play |
| 7-11 October | Mid-term Break |
| 15-18 October | K2 Parent-Teacher Conferences |
| 22-25 October | K1 Parent-Teacher Conferences |
| 1 November | Sports Fun Day |
| 13 December | Christmas Family Action Day |
| 16 Dec – 3 Jan | Christmas Break |
| 6 January | K1 Admissions 2020/21 – School Closed |
| 15 January | Theatre Trip (Kids Fest): The Gruffalo |
Principal’s Message
Dear Parents
It was wonderful to see so many of you at the recent K2 Meet and Greet session. We appreciate the opportunity to talk to many of you at these events and look forward to your continued support at future Hillside events. Please see below for details of upcoming Parent Sessions.
One of our school priorities is to strengthen Home-School Partnership by focusing on engaging parents in school participation and exploring ways to share our learning and teaching with parents (both virtually and physically).
In addition to our regular communications (such as eNewsletters, emails, and diary notes), we will streamline our learning blogs, ePortfolio, and reporting system. All records of the children’s learning will be accessible via the Hillside Learning Hub as described in the last newsletter. Brenda, our PYP Coordinator, will be documenting each year group’s learning and also share useful tips and research with parents on the learning blogs. Our class teachers will be focusing on individualised monthly ePortfolio pieces to share the children’s progress.
We will also be reporting on all four Units of Inquiry, as well as, hosting two Parent-Teacher Conferences throughout the academic year. The first Parent-Teacher Conference is scheduled after the mid-term break. Please see below for details.
Trips or excursions with our little ones are often tricky for safety reasons, so we truly appreciate parent support whenever we have such school events. Please save the following dates for planned family events:
- 1 November 2019 – Sports Fun Day at HK Football Club (8:45-11:45 for all families)
- 13 December 2019 – Christmas Action Day (8:45-11:45 for all families)
- 15 January 2020 – Theatre Trip to Kids Fest: The Gruffalo at HKAPA (9:45 morning families; 12:00 afternoon families)
Our Parent Participation programme has also changed slightly:
- Parent Experts – Please CLICK HERE to share your expertise with us. We will contact you when there is an opportunity to share your expertise and connect it to our learning.
- Open Play Visitors – Parents are welcome to visit and spend time with their child or help out at a station. This part of the session is approximately 60 minutes in length (10:00-11:00 / 14:15-15:15).
- Storytellers – Parents who wish to read stories to your child’s class can sign-up to be “Guest Storytellers.” You can simply read a story or put on a dramatic performance for us.
Sign-ups for parent participation will begin after the mid-term break. We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events.
Have a lovely weekend.
Kind Regards
Audrey
Acting Head of School
Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parent-Teachers Consultations (PTC) are coming up, you will need to login to your Gateway account to book your appointment. The online sign-up will be available from now onwards and will close on the Friday prior to your week of PTCs. Please follow the instructions HERE on how to make a booking.
Please note classes will continue as per normal throughout the PTC weeks. The appointments are about 10-15 minutes long for each child. Please appreciate that these are the dates when we have arranged cover for teachers and we would like to keep to them as much as possible. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us on 2540-0066.
| K1 | Dolphin | Frog | Monkey | Panda |
| Date | 24 Oct 25 Oct |
24 Oct 25 Oct |
22 Oct 23 Oct |
22 Oct 23 Oct |
| K2 | Dragon | Gecko | Tiger | Turtle |
| Date | 17 Oct 18 Oct |
15 Oct 16 Oct |
17 Oct 18 Oct |
15 Oct 16 Oct |
Snacks and Allergies
Proper nutrition during the early years is particularly important because this is a period of rapid growth and activity. Families are requested to supply snacks that are nutritiously balanced. Fruit, whole-wheat bread sandwiches, cheese or vegetables are great for growing bodies! Children are invited to eat their own snack during a ‘progressive snack time’ in their class. Bringing a snack is a great opportunity for children to practice opening boxes and water bottles. This will foster independence and self-help skills before they go to primary school. Please remember that we have a ‘No-Nut’ policy and don’t forget to clearly label all your children’s snack boxes and water bottles with your child’s name, class and session.
We do have children with severe nuts and sesame allergies. This is something that we kindly ask that you consider very carefully when packing your child’s snack box and sending in recycled items for the Creative Station.
Please relay the info to your helpers too!
Bus Helpers
The majority of our children travel by school bus everyday. The children’s safety is of utmost importace, and it is imperative that we form good partnerships with our bus helpers (bus mothers) as they are the main carers for our children for the duration of the bus journey.
We have been working with the bus company to resolve some routing issues, but more importantly, we feel it is essential to upskill our bus helpers on child handling and behaviour management. Last week, we faciliated a ‘Bus Helper Training’ for all bus helpers serving Hillside. It was very well received and our bus helpers indicated that they were very impressed with how well behaved our Hillside children are.
Parent Workshops
The Introduction to the Primary Years Program (PYP)
When: Tuesday, 24 September, 1-2pm; Where: Hillside
This is an opportunity for you to learn more about the curriculum and our PYP Program of Inquiry.
To attend the sessions, please call the Hillside office to reserve your place, but note that once a session reaches “capacity”, we will add you to our waiting list for possible openings or you may be asked if you can come on another day. The slides for our parent presentations will be shared at a later time with parents.
The Importance of Open Play
When: Wednesday, 2 October, 4-5pm; Where: Hillside
This workshop aims to demonstrate what active learning looks like at Hillside, particularly during our Open Play time. We hope parents will take away ideas on how to support and extend learning at home.
We will 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.
ESF K1 and Y1 Admissions 2020-2021 Academic Year
Y1 Admissions (2015 births): A kind reminder to all K2 parents, ESF Year 1 application period is from 1 – 30 September. Applications will close on 30 September. 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 upload all supporting documents requested by 8 October 2019.
K1 Admissions (2017 births): The ESF K1 application period is from 1 – 30 September. Applications will close on 30 September. This is the first cohort of children entering K1 to benefit from the ESF K-13 Through-train System. They will be guaranteed a place at an ESF primary school, providing they are able to benefit from a mainstream, English education.
To apply you will need to complete the online application via the ESF Kindergarten website. Please make sure younger siblings APPLY ON-TIME on http://www.esf.edu.hk/kindergartens-application-form/. Don’t forget to upload all supporting documents requested by 8 October 2019.
On this note, we will be conducting our play visit/interviews for our 2020/21 K1 intake on 6 January 2020. Please note that this will be a school closure day for current Hillside students. The reason for having a school closure day is to enable us to conduct the majority of our K1 play visits / interviews on one day, rather than spreading them over a three-week period as this causes major disruptions to regular classroom programs (as teachers need to be constantly released from teaching duties to conduct the play visits/interviews).
Learning Blogs
Please click on the links below to visit our year group learning blogs on the Hillside Learning Hub. Please contact kinder@hillside.edu.hk if you cannot access the Learning Hub.
| K1 Learning | K2 Learning |
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
