Hillside Newsletter 4 October 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.
| 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
Many thanks to all our parents and staff for helping us to have a great first half term here at Hillside. We have had a number of visitors in the past few weeks from our ESF CEO, Ms Belinda Greer and other ESF senior members, to other ESF primary colleagues. They were really impressed with the positive and calm atmosphere and how quickly our children have settled into the new routines, particularly our K1 children.
We have enjoyed the opportunity to meet many of you in the past few weeks and we look forward to having a chance to get to know you all through the various parent events that we will continue to offer throughout the year. A warm reminder the Parent-Teacher Conference is scheduled after the mid-term break. Please see below for details.
Please save the following dates for planned family events:
- 1 November 2019 – Sports Fun Day at HK Football Club (see details below)
- 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)
The ‘Introduction to the Primary Years Programme’ parent workshop enjoyed such an enthusiastic response from parents that an extra session was scheduled on the 2 October. It was unfortunate that both this and the other workshop on ‘The Importance of Open Play’ had to be cancelled as a contingency response to the flash mob protest in Central, on the same afternoon. We hope to reschedule both of these soon in order to provide parents with an overview of the PYP framework, and an understanding of our inquiry and play-based curriculum.
Hopefully, theory can be put to practice when parents come in as Open Play Visitors, happening soon after midterm.
For the meantime, have a lovely term-break.
Kind Regards
Audrey
Acting Head of School
Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parent-Teacher 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 |
Professional Development Days and School Closure Days
To ensure that we offer the highest quality educational programme here at Hillside, it is essential that we provide high quality and regular professional development for all staff.
On Monday, 30 September, all ESF staff (teachers and EAs) came together for an annual ESF-wide Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Day. The aim of this day was for ESF teachers, EAs and leaders to learn from each other and develop our collaborative culture. The theme of the day was Effective Teaching in the PYP.
Two of our very own, Brenda and Juliet, presented at this event and we were super proud. Their workshop entitled: Using Thinking Routines to Develop Child-Led Inquiry in the Early Years, was very well received – full house in both sessions!
We also had two CPD days at the beginning of the school year. The first day was an inspiring Music and Drama workshop with the amazing team from the Muse Circle, and the second day was basic First Aid training with Red Cross HK for all staff.
As we know, from any good practice and research, it is important to provide regular, timely and encouraging feedback for staff members to increase engagement, satisfaction, motivation and results. At Hillside, we have introduced Learning Sprints as a way to improve our work and to build the capacity of teaching teams. This will help us to try new approaches and to determine impact on learning and teaching.
We are very fortunate to be a part of a big organisation such as ESF that is well-known for providing professional development opportunities. These opportunities are offered throughout the school year in different formats, such as twilights after school, weekends, or during the school day. Please make note of the following school closure dates:
- Monday 6 January 2018 (K1 Admissions Interview Day – the Kindergarten will be closed for current Hillside children as all staff will be involved in the Admissions Interviews for the new K1 intake.)
- To be confirmed: two days in February/March, pending IBO approval of our in-school workshop on ‘Encouraging Children’s Creative Instincts in the Classroom.’ We will inform parents as soon as the schedule has been confirmed.
Hillside Sports Fun Day
Save the date! We cordially invite all parents to join us at our annual Hillside Sports Fun Day on Friday, 1 November at the Hong Kong Football Club on the hockey pitches (3 Sports Road, Happy Valley).
The fun starts at 9:00 am for all children (both morning and afternoon classes) with a welcome and a warm up. We will meet all families directly on the hockey pitches at the Hong Kong Football Club. Please arrive after 8:45 am to give us time to set up all the signage and equipment on the pitches.
The children (in class groups) will rotate through a series of activities that will encourage the participation of both children and parents in physical movement – running, jumping, balancing, climbing, throwing, kicking and hopping etc… Parents can take their child for a break whenever they feel their child may need one. Please note that we are not permitted to bring food or drinks into the Football Club. However, a cash snack bar will be available for parents to purchase snacks or drinks (cash payment only please). To prevent long queues, the cash bar will also operate throughout, from start to finish.
Due to both the AM and PM classes coming together for this event, we request at least one adult to accompany each child for safety reasons. The day will conclude at around 11:30 am. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding of this request.
SPORTS FUN DAY CLASS T-SHIRTS
We would like the children to wear a coloured t-shirt to add to the atmosphere on the day. Please have your child wear a coloured t-shirt to the event according to the list below. The t-shirts do not have to be identical!
| DOLPHINS | PINK | GECKO | YELLOW | |
| PANDA | WHITE | DRAGON | RED | |
| MONKEY | PURPLE | TIGER | ORANGE | |
| FROG | GREEN | TURTLE | BLUE |
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
