23 Apr: Book Character Parade 

3-14 May: Parent-Teacher Conference

25-26 May: School Photo (New schedule)

28 May: ESF Wide Transition Day

Dear Parents

Welcome to Term 3! We hope everyone had an enjoyable and healthy term break.

It was wonderful to see all the children returning back to school today and resettling back into routines with ease.

Term 3 is often very busy and full of events. It is also the term we prepare for "transition". We appreciate that transition, especially from K2 to Y1, is an important milestone for many families. We have also been thinking about transition into the next year level and how we might need to support the families differently this year. We have been collaborating with our feeder schools and working with our primary colleagues. For example, we have started sharing some student notes and will have round-robin collaboration meetings between year group teachers to plan for the next phase together.

Our K1 and K2 teachers are also working together to plan for a smooth transition for our K1 children moving onto K2. Further details will be shared with parents as plans are confirmed. The induction will likely look very different this year, but we endeavour to support our children and families to the best of our ability.

As a foundation offering a through-train experience, all ESF teachers use the same Scope and Sequence as guiding documents to plan not only age-appropriate but level-appropriate learning for children. All teachers between different year groups are very sensitive to the current situation and will be meeting each child's needs as to where they are developmentally instead of blindly teaching the curriculum. On this note, please pencil in Friday, 28 May, as the ESF-wide Transition Day.

Kind regards
Audrey and the Hillside Team

PTCs are coming up, you will need to book your Zoom appointment via the ESF App. The PTC Zoom sign-ups will be available via the App later this week or so. We have booked in for K2s: 3-6 May and K1s: 10-13 May.

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.

We have planned for our popular book character parade to take place on 23 April this year. We would like to invite all the children to come to school on this day dressed as a character from a book/story that they enjoy. Costumes do not need to be elaborate or detailed – just something fun and safe for the children to wear. Please note all children will need to have suitable footwear on this day as the parade will take place at our outside play area. We recommend not to have over-the-head pieces or masks to maintain health and safety and surgical mask hygiene. 

We have scheduled Peter Inglis, a professional photographer, to come on 25-26 May to take photos of children in school. We have rescheduled Peter three times this school year, so I hope it’ll be the third time lucky for us :)

We have worked with Peter in the past, and he has been fantastic with the children. Peter has a selection of puppets and tricks, along with lots of patience to make the children smile. The children are now developing their confidence and characters; I’m sure there will be many fun sessions throughout the day.

Due to the pandemic, Peter will only be taking photographs of individual children and siblings. We will ask for a collage format for class photos.

Please note each child will have their face mask off momentarily for their individual photoshoot. Everyone else around will be keeping their face masks on throughout the whole time. Please inform your child’s class teacher in advance if you DO NOT wish for your child to participate in the photoshoot.

Please click on the links below to visit our class sites and learning blogs. You can also access these posts on the class site via the ESF App under the “Home Learning” tile.

K1 Class Sites: Dolphin ● Frog ● Panda ● Monkey

K2 Class Sites: Dragon ● Gecko ● Tiger ● Turtle

K1 Learning Blog ● K2 Learning Blog