2 June: Hillside Parent Webinar: Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on the socio-emotional development of children

28-29 June: End of Year Celebrations (Children Only)

29 June: Last Day of School

Dear Parents

The ESF transition plans are well underway for our K2 families. We believe all primary schools have been in touch with their new Y1 families about induction plans. Many held parents and/ or children sessions last week, and others will conduct the sessions later in June. To support this K2 to Y1 transition, we’ve invited Suzie and Stripey to a special assembly dedicated to answering some of your questions (parents and children). Please take some time to watch it HERE with your child.

To support our current K1s moving up to K2s, we are working on a webpage to help the K1 children prepare for their new K2 experience. There will also be a Suzie and Stripey show for the K1s next week to answer questions about the move to K2. We are also planning an opportunity for the K1 to meet their new K2 adults, friends and visit their new classroom before the summer. More details to come in the coming weeks.

Kind regards
Audrey and the Hillside Team

K1s: Interest Week! As part of the Unit of Inquiry How We Organise Ourselves, children have been connecting to others via common interests. To celebrate and honour their interests, children exercised agency by co-planning and co-constructing Interest Week together with the teachers...

K2s: How does open play support learning? At Hillside, we offer 1 hour of Open Play every day for children to exercise agency and lead their own learning. Learning engagements are intentionally planned by the teachers to support their current inquiries, develop approaches to learning and more importantly, provide opportunities for children to engage in the 3 facets of agency: Voice; Choice; Ownership...

Click on the images to read more. 

The photo sessions went well for most with the exception of a few who were uncomfortable with the lights and setup. As the next steps, Peter will be processing all the individual photos first. Once the individual proofs are ready, we will share a link with you to view them online. 

The class composite will take a little longer, as it is graduation season, Peter’s schedule is a bit tight and will need a bit of time to work on the class composites. Thank you for your patience on these. 

As you all know, we are taking steps in becoming an ‘eco-friendly school’ by minimising the impact of our human footprint on our planet. As such, we would like to provide a forum for interested parents to connect and recycle their “too small” uniform items. If you are interested to buy, sell or giveaway second-hand uniforms, please leave a post HERE to connect with other parents.

Or if you rather donate any of your unwanted uniforms - we also welcome donations for a backup change of clothes at school. 

New sunhat option! Members of our community expressed an interest in having a 'baseball cap' style sun hat for outdoor play, and we have managed to ask our supplier to make this available. The baseball caps will be for sale over the summer in readiness for the new academic year.

Date: 2 June, 1-2pm
Title: Resilience in the time of COVID-19: Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on the socio-emotional development of children

Please register in advance - [Web Link]

Talk Description:
Since 2020, people around the world have had their lives upended because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Children and their families have had their daily lives disrupted: closed schools, extended periods of time spent online, substantial limitations on socialization with peers, and even quarantine, hospitalisation, and loss. This talk will shed light on how the pandemic has affected children’s socio-emotional development and provide insight into the resiliency of children. Professor Chen will present an array of research findings relating to this to provide a balanced perspective on these topics. Using this information, this talk also looks to explore ways in which a supportive environment can be created for children and their families.

About Professor Eva E Chen:
Professor Chen received her doctorate in Human Development and Education from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree with Honours and Distinction in Psychology from Stanford. Her research interests centre around the social and cognitive developmental processes of young children across different social backgrounds, and she has worked closely with kindergartens in the United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China.  She has also been interviewed by the South China Morning Post and the New York Times and has given talks at research conferences, the SCMP Learning Festival, Hong Kong Children’s Discovery Museum, and the Reach Out and Read Foundation.

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 ● Newsletter Archives