16 Nov 2017

Hillside Newsletter 17 November 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.

 20 November – 8 December  Hillside Annual Christmas giving appeal (in partnership with local HK Charity – Impact HK)
 22 November 2017  Parent Workshop: Young Learners and Technology
 1 December 2017  Bradbury PTA  Winter Night Market
 6 December 2017  ESF 50th Anniversary Gala (HK Convention and Exhibition Centre)
 14 December 2017  Last Day of Term
  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

Thank you for another successful Sports Day! The weather was perfect – not too hot and not too cold. Thank you to Bradbury School for hosting our Sports Day and that scheduling Sports Day at this time of the school year helped us to ensure that we had both cooler and more cooperative weather. Finally, I would like to thank you all for taking the time to support your children on this day. Numerous Hillside staff members and parents commented that the day had a lovely feel to it and I personally think it was wonderful to have our whole school together at the same time for an event.

I would like to say a special thanks to the (10) student teachers from Yew Chung Community College for assisting us on this special day. Finally, thanks to the team at Hillside for their efforts in planning activities, collecting the required resources, setting up the field etc. The games offered last Friday were both very age appropriate and engaging for our children (and in many cases also our Hillside parents that joined in with great enthusiasm!!!)

To see more photos from our Sports Day, please log into your class blog on the Hillside Learning Hub.

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.

Impact HK is a registered charity that aims to support and help the homeless individuals and families of Hong Kong. They have a range of initiatives from collecting and distributing much needed food and blankets, to teaching English and other life skills to people less fortunate than ourselves.

At Hillside we shall be collecting supplies for Impact HK and these much needed donations will be distributed by Impact volunteers during their scheduled planned Kindness Walks in December.

There are over 1000 homeless people in Hong Kong and over 130 of them “live” in a park in Sam Shui Po, on benches, against pillars, in shelters made of packing crates, other “live” in underpasses near Happy Valley, on flyovers and under stairs in Yau Ma Tei and many other areas across our city.
If you want to check out Impact HK and the amazing work they do you can find them at http://www.impacthk.org/ or  https://www.facebook.com/impacthkcharity/

Please join us in caring for the less fortunate at this festive and cold time of year by donating food and bedding at Hillside for the Impact volunteers to distribute.
Please remember these people have no kitchen facilities – so only non- perishables that need no preparation. For example food items such as:

  • Packets of crackers, biscuits, dried fruits (no cans or tinned goods please)
  • Box drinks such as milk, lemon tea or apple juice
  • Bottles of water

Other items we are seeking include:

  • Toothbrushes and toothpaste
  • Towels
  • Blankets

Our appeal will run from Monday 20th November until Friday 8th December 2017. Collection boxes shall be available at the Hillside Kindergarten reception for the collection of donations. As always, we thank our wonderful Hillside community for your on-going support.

Parent Workshops at Hillside

We are planning to offer a number of parent workshops throughout the school year based on areas of interest identified by our parent community. To assist us to prioritise the needs of our parent community, we would appreciate if you could help us by completing a brief survey to express your interest. Please Click HERE to access the survey.

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, we will need to confirm final numbers with the production house before Christmas. Payments can be made by cheques, payable to “ESF Educational Services Ltd”. TICKETS ARE 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.

ESF Primary School Visits

Over the next few weeks, we will have teachers and leaders from the ESF Primary Schools visit Hillside to observe the K2 children (in preparation for the upcoming Year 1 ESF Admissions interviews that will take place in January). These visits continued to be an extremely positive and helpful for both the children and teachers involved. The children will be able to see a familiar face when they meet the teachers again at ‘big school’. We will not be informing parents of the visit dates ahead of time because it should be just another normal school day for the children and we don’t want the children (or our parents) to feel stressed or worried about the process.

It makes me proud when a number of my ESF Primary Principal colleagues mention to me that when their new cohort of Year One students commences at the beginning of each new academic year, they are able to quickly identify ex-Hillside children. When I ask them ‘why is that….?’, there is a similar theme to their responses and that is because of the Hillside children, on the whole, are confident, cooperative, articulate and are excited about learning, in addition to having a genuine interest about the world around them.

Bradbury School PTA – Winter Night Market – 1st December 2017

Winter Night Market is back, hosted by the Bradbury School PTA, providing a fun evening for families and friends. Guests will be greeted with international food and drinks stalls, games, activities, music and the opportunity to shop for a wide variety of products in the marketplace. There will also a raffle for this event, interested Hillside families can purchase raffle tickets from Hillside reception.

Details of the Winter Night Market:
Date: Friday, 1 December 2017
Time: 5:30-8:30pm
Venue: Bradbury School
Entry Fee: $20/person (Children under 2 years are free)
*entry fee, games, food and drink tickets are all CASH ONLY

ESF 50th Anniversary Gala

To celebrate the ending of the 50th Anniversary celebrations, ESF is holding a Gala Dinner on the evening of 6 December at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) in Wan Chai. We are hoping that this final event of our 50th Anniversary calendar will be a joyous occasion to end a year of celebration with the entire ESF community. Kindly refer to attachment for the e-poster (click HERE) of the upcoming ESF 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner.

Details of the Gala Dinner:
Date: Wednesday, 6 December 2017
Time: 7:00pm (Reception begins at 6pm)
Venue: Grand Ballroom, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC)
Special New Price: $988

Sales of tickets are already available through ESF website at http://www.esf.edu.hk/gala

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.

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