Hillside Newsletter 12 December 2018
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.
| 13 December | Last Day of Term 1 (Children’s Party) |
| 7 January | First Day of Term 2 |
| 10 January | Kids Fest Theatre Trip – HK Academy of Performing Arts |
| 17 January | Parent Workshop – Phonics Fun |
Principal’s Message
Dear Parents
Season’s Greetings!!! Once again we have had another full on and fantastic first term here at Hillside. Our Mission at ESF and Hillside International Kindergarten is to ensure that every student can be the best that they can be! To achieve this, it is imperative that high-quality learning and teaching is happening each and every day at Hillside. I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to lead a school that is staffed by highly experienced, well-qualified and professional Teachers, Educational Assistants, Administrative and Support staff. More importantly, we are a team that puts the needs of children first and strive to ensure that our children are at the CENTRE of all we do.
I would also like to take the opportunity to say a huge “Thank You” to all the parents who came into school to support us in different ways this term, such as being a regular parent volunteer, mystery reader or a special guest speaker for our units of inquiry. I know the children really enjoy having their special someone coming to visit and be a part of their school program. My team here at Hillside are also extremely grateful for the help and support we receive from our parent community.
Thank You for Your Support – Hillside Annual Christmas Appeal
Each year, Hillside Kindergarten selects a charity to support at Christmas time. This year Hillside decided to support the following HK based charitable organization: Kirsten’s Zoo. This HK based charity does a wonderful job coordinating the housing, food and veterinary care for an ever increasing number of abandoned and homeless dogs and cats in Hong Kong.
Thank you for your support in helping to care for a number of abandoned and unwanted cats and dogs this Christmas. Total collection from Hillside was around 32 kilos of dry dog food and 18 kilos of dry cat food, 48 cans of 80g canned food for cats, plus a variety of dog and cat treats! Further information about the great work that this charity does can be found at www.kirstenszoo.com
As always, we thank our wonderful Hillside community for your on-going support!!
Inclusion in ESF and Hillside International Kindergarten
Inclusion is an ongoing process that aims to increase access and engagement in learning for all students by identifying and removing barriers.
Over this past term, all staff at Hillside have been involved in a number of professional learning opportunities that has enabled us to develop and refine our understanding of what it means to always strive to embed a culture of Inclusion here at Hillside.
Hillside Staff Personal INCLUSION Pledge
Every staff member at Hillside had to come up with at least one action that they could personally take (this could be directed at a particular child, group of children or utilise a particular strategy) that will assist in building on the inclusive culture we have at Hillside.
Below are some examples from our staff that we would like to share with you.
Regularly spend time (10 minutes or more) interacting and conversing with each child during class-based time to get a deeper understanding of their strengths, needs and challenges – then recognizing these individual needs and collaboratively planning with all teachers / EAs to find equitable and effective ways to ensure they all have opportunities to achieve learning outcomes.
During open play talk with children in respectful ways about similarities and differences between themselves and their friends (recognising respecting diversity and reinforcing their sense of themselves as valued competent learners).
To build good relationship with the children and all staff at Hillside by giving respect, acceptance and fair treatment to everyone.
I will be aware of children’s different learning needs in my small groups and adjust my plan and teaching accordingly so as to best facilitate everyone to achieve their maximum learning outcome
My personal pledge would be inviting a few children in my class, who are usually the quiet ones, to have a start at my station during open play time, so they don’t need to stay in the same area all the time.
Each week I will scheduled time on my written planning, to spend time with children that for whatever reason, I struggle to find one to one time within the class.
Phonics Fun – Hillside Parent Information Session
Phonics Fun Parent Workshop
Thursday, 17 January 2019 (1:30-2:30pm)
In this parent workshop, our K2 teacher, Sharon Hubber, shared a basic understanding of “what do we mean by phonics?” and looking at some of the work we have been doing with the children. This session provided parents an introduction to the phonics programme offered at Hillside. Many parents found this useful, and we even had parents videoing Sharon when she was demonstrating phoneme pronunciation! We hope to do more of these workshops during the academic year, and we will also be sharing resources with parents via different platforms. For those parents who are interested, you can also find the phoneme pronunciation here on the Get Reading Right website. http://www.getreadingright.com.au/phoneme-pronunciation/
To attend the sessions, please call the Hillside office on 2540 0066 to reserve your place.
ARRANGMENTS: Theatre Trip for Hillside – “Kids Fest 2019” – Thursday 10 January
We have received information from HK ‘Kids Fest’ 2019 about an upcoming opportunity for the Hillside children to see a live theatre production. Over a number of 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 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 “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts (1 Gloucester Road, Wan Chai). The date for Hillside to attend this production is Thursday, 10 January 2019. 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 on 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 9:45am show and the afternoon families are invited to the 12:00noon show.
Please contact us on 2540 0066 or kinder@hillside.edu.hk for any enquiries.
ESF Hong Kong Run – Saturday, 26 January 2019
The ESF “Run for Our Future” is the major community engagement event organized by the English Schools Foundation (ESF) among the annual ESF
calendar of events. It will be comprised of a running course of 1km to 10km, with adjacent community activities and carnival at Hong Kong Science Park.
The ESF Hong Kong Run:
Date: Saturday, 26th January 2019
Time: start from 0830
Venue: Science Park, HK
Distance: 1Km, 3Km and 10Km
Open to: Students and families, teachers, support staff and their families and friends
Registration fee: Individual $200 / Family Run $450 (shuttle bus service from University Station to Science Park)
Online registration: https://hkrun.esf.edu.hk/en
Have a wonderful winter break!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
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
