Click to download the 2022-23 Hillside Calendar. You can also access the school calendar via the ESF App.

13-16 February: K1 PTCs

20-23 February:  K2 PTCs

20 February: Parent Webinar - Developing Language Skills 

3 March: Hillside Family Event

14-15 March: School Photo Days

31 March: Staff Meeting Day (No Classes)

3-14 April: Spring Break (School Closed)

17 April: Term 3 Commences

9 May: Parent Webinar - Why Sleep Matters

2 June: K2 to Y1 Transition Day

Dear Hillside Families

I looked at my notes from a year ago, and we were beginning a very long stretch of distance learning. I'm hopeful we will have a F2F school year, but it does make me think about how the landscape has changed and how the needs of the children, families and staff have shifted. 

We are not returning to normal but rather adapting to a new norm. 

Last academic year, we looked into the impact of distance learning on early childhood education and development. We reached out to our primary colleagues for feedback on their expectations and also how the last K2 cohort settled into Y1. Please take a few minutes to watch this video on our findings. Note the video was made last year during distance learning, but the main message remains!

[Web Link] 

I was at two separate meetings last week, and many colleagues (kindergarten and primary) shared the same feedback. In summary, the main theme comes back to social connection and speech and (social) language development. 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 situation and will meet each child's needs as to where they are developmentally instead of blindly teaching the curriculum. On this note, please pencil in Friday, 2 June, as the ESF-wide Transition Day.

Warm regards
Audrey

We cordially invite all families to join us at our Hillside Family Picnic on Friday, 3 March. This has been a popular community event in previous years, and we are very excited to connect with our families. We hope the weather will be much kinder to us by that time. We will run two separate sessions for the morning and afternoon classes. 

Please complete the trip eNotice to confirm your attendance. You can access the Gateway eNotice via the ESF App, and see a “new eNotice to fill in now.”

The logistics:

• We will meet all families directly at Repulse Bay beach. 

• 9:30-11:15am (morning classes) and 12:30-2:15pm (afternoon classes)

• Meet your class teacher by your class picnic area for a quick briefing and greeting.

• Your class teacher will provide you with a set of instructions to go on a scavenger hunt along the beach.

• After the hunt, everyone can return to their class picnic area to socialise and connect.

What to bring:

• Wear your choice of comfortable clothing

• Water and a light snack

• A picnic mat

• Buckets and spades

• Sunscreen and sunhats

K2 Term 2 PTC sign-ups are now available. Please look out for a separate app message with further information and make an appointment at your earliest convenience. You will have a choice of 2 days, 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. These meetings will take place via Zoom, so please be reminded to Zoom from a quiet space to avoid poor audio connections. Please also note it will be a normal school day for the children as classes will continue as per usual throughout the PTC week.

We are constantly reviewing and refining our systems, and your feedback is an invaluable part of this process. 

We would therefore be very grateful if you would share your thoughts with us in our ESF Stakeholder Survey.

In the coming days, we will share an online questionnaire with you, which should take about 10 minutes to complete. We will also be sending surveys to staff and students.  

Our schools will fully analyse the information collected in these surveys, and the results will inform future planning. 

The survey will close on 12 February, and we assure you that respondents will be anonymous unless they choose to identify themselves. 

As always, I want to thank you for your continuous support.

Title: Developing Language Skills (and the impact from COVID)

When: Monday, 20 February 2023, 12-1pm

Speaker: Joice Almeida is a Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist and a specialist in the field of Feeding Therapy. 

The key topics Joice will cover are:

• Receptive Language development from 2 to 5 years 
• Expressive language development from 2 to 5 years
• Pragmatic skills development 
• Red flags for speech and language delay
• How covid has affected children's language development and pragmatic skills
• Parents strategies how to support language development

Please CLICK HERE to REGISTER in advance. 

Title: Why Sleep Matters

When: Tuesday, 9 May 2023, 12-1pm

Details and registration to follow.