Click to download the 2021-22 Hillside Calendar. You can also access the school calendar via the ESF App.

25 - 28 October: K1 PTCs 

29 October: Halloween Dress-up Day

8 November: Parent Hack S3: Fussy Eaters & Speech Development (Sign-up)

Dear Parents

We are very pleased the first stage of our playground upgrade has been completed. The children are enjoying the "new park" as some of the K2s call it, and the K1s are exploring the new modular play equipment for the first time. 

There is still a lot of work to be done over the next few weeks, with some deck seating and connections to the Bradbury undercover and the Bradbury back playground.

Our K2 children will participate in weekly PE sessions with the Bradbury PE teacher Sam and Liam as part of this partnership. This has been taking place mainly in the Hillside lower playground area. In addition, we are exploring ways for some Y6 students to model some of the PE skills for our K2 children. We hope this will enhance the children’s PE experience and support the transition to Y1. 

On this note, don't forget to apply sunscreen and insect repellent!

Kind regards
Audrey

Dress up days are a great opportunity to express ourselves, so we would like to invite all the children to join us for a Halloween dress-up day on Friday, 29 October. Children can come to school on this day dressed as a character that they enjoy. Costumes do not need to be elaborate or detailed – just something fun (and safe) for the children to wear. The children will be enjoying some fun and games within their own class. However, can we ask families not to send any goodie bags, sweets or treats on this day, please.

At Hillside, we are extremely fortunate to have a large outdoor play area that backs onto a lovely natural green space, however, this does mean mosquitoes and midges will be around. 

We work with an exterminator year-round and this includes weekly fogging out in the playground, drains, and other common breeding grounds. We also have mosquito-repelling lantern and industrial fans, but we highly recommend that everyone applies insect repellent before heading off to school. Sometimes natural repellents don’t last as long as chemical products, so we must reapply. Roll-on ones are very child-friendly and we noticed children are able to manage this independently. You can also apply repellent to clothing rather than directly to the skin. We’ve noticed some bites have penetrated through clothing!

We’ve also reported this to the authorities (FED & EDB) and requested them to increase pest control in our area. It is my understanding that they have set up a gravid trap in the area to monitor the index.

We also have child-safe insect repellent at school to spray the children when they play outside. Some children are more susceptible than others and can develop very itchy red lumps around the bites. For these children, we will apply an ice pack at school to help reduce the swelling.

Parent Hacks Session 3: Fussy Eaters & Speech Development

We are pleased to invite you to a lunch-time session with Joice Almeida, a specialist in the field of Feeding Therapy. During this session, Joice will be sharing her strategies for coping with fussy eaters and how this impacts their speech development.

The key topics she will cover are:

• Identifying red flags

• Reasons that children develop feeding difficulties

• Oral, sensory, motor and cognitive milestones relevant to feeding

• Strategies to promote enjoyment, confidence and internal motivation at mealtimes

Joice currently works at the SPOT Children’s Centre in Hong Kong.  She has over 13 years of international experience and holds the following qualifications:

• Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist 

• Member of the National Council of Speech and Language Therapy in Brazil 

• Certified in the S.O.S Approach to Feeding

• Oral-Motor Therapy, Beckman Oral Motor Assessment and Intervention Get Permission Approach to Anxious Eater

 Please click HERE to register in advance.