Please click to download the 2024/25 Hillside Calendar. You can also access the school calendar via the ESF App.

May (Fridays): K1 Chinese PTCs

20 May: K1 Incursion - Author Visit

19-22 May: K2 PTCs (Separate App Message)

28 May: K2 Incursion - Move for Life

26-29 May: K1 PTCs (Separate App Message)

30 May: ESF-wide K2 to Y1 Transition Day

19 June: K1 Celebration of Learning 

20 June: K2 Celebration of Learning

Dear Hillside  Families,

As we continue our journey through Term 3, we'd like to take a moment to focus on the importance of early literacy skills and the transition process for our K2 children. Supporting your child's literacy development is essential as they prepare for their educational journey ahead, and we are here to provide you with the resources and information you need to help them thrive.

In this week's communication, we delve into early literacy skills, offering practical tips on how to support your child's reading and writing foundation. We also highlight the collaborative efforts we're making to ensure a smooth transition for our K2 children into primary school, as well as important updates for current K1 families regarding school place confirmation and advance fees for the upcoming academic year.

Thank you for your continued support as we work together to create a nurturing and enriching environment for our children. We hope you find this week's information helpful!

Warm regards,
Audrey

Did you know the bones of a typical 4-year-old are vastly different from those of a 7-year-old? To find out how you can support learning at home, please check our upcoming social media posts on Pre-literacy Skills [IG: @esf.hillside].  Here’s an overview below. We hope you find it useful.

Developing early literacy skills is essential. However, it's important to remember that timing is key! Early literacy skills encompass a range of abilities that form the foundation for children's reading and writing development. These skills are typically acquired during the kindergarten and early primary school years and serve as building blocks for future academic success. Here are some key early literacy skills and ideas on how to support them:

• Print Awareness: Read books together and point out letters, words, and sentences. Show them how to handle books properly.

• Phonological Awareness: Engage in rhyming games, sing songs, and play with sounds by emphasising the initial sounds of words.

• Letter Recognition: Introduce letters through alphabet puzzles and letter-themed playful activities

• Vocabulary Development: Talk and converse with your child frequently, introducing new words and discussing their meanings in context.

• Narrative Skills: Encourage storytelling, have conversations about daily experiences, and ask open-ended questions to promote expressive language.

• Comprehension: Ask questions about stories you read together, encourage making connections to personal experiences, and discuss the main ideas of the stories.

• Writing Readiness: Strengthen the hands and fingers with sensory play such as playdough and goop. Provide opportunities for drawing, colouring, and tracing lines and shapes to develop fine motor skills.

Remember to keep activities age-appropriate, engaging, and fun. Play-based learning is especially effective at this age, so incorporate games, songs, and hands-on activities to make the learning experience enjoyable for your child.

For K2 children, we have been collaborating with our feeder schools and working with our primary colleagues. For example, we shared student notes, and primary school teachers visited the children at the kindergarten. We're pleased to know that many ESF schools offer several induction activities/ visits to orient families before the summer, and K2 families should have received communications from the primary schools already. A friendly reminder that our K2 families with children transitioning to an ESF Primary school should attend the transition day on Friday, 30 May.

Hillside children have consistently earned praise from our primary colleagues for their strong inquiry skills and independence in accessing learning. This feedback reinforces our confidence in their ability to transition smoothly to primary school.

To support our current K1s moving up to K2s, we will keep the children with some of their K1 classmates while balancing the needs and personalities of the class. The K1 and K2 teachers will have an opportunity to collaborate during these last few weeks to understand the class's needs, build on prior knowledge, and prepare for the start of next year.

In addition to this, we are working on an induction website to help the K1 children prepare for their new K2 experience. We are also planning opportunities for the K1 children to meet their new K2 teachers and visit their new classrooms before the summer. More details will come in the coming weeks.

You should have received a separate App message with details from ESF Central. Every year, parents need to reserve a school place for their child for the following year by making an advance payment of September’s fees as a surety.

The advance fees for K2 students in the next academic year 2025/26 are HK$9580. The advance payment will be debited from your designated bank account on 1 August 2025. 

These advance fees will be used to offset the tuition fees for September 2025. If there is a revision of fees in the next academic year, the difference will be payable in September 2025.

If you are withdrawing your child at the end of this academic year, please submit the Student Withdrawal Form via the ESF App on or before 1 June*. Otherwise, we will assume that your child is returning for K2. 

*Your debenture on account will not be redeemed without the one-month advance notice of withdrawal.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Billing Team at billing@esfcentre.edu.hk for assistance. 

K2 children graduating by the end of June are not required to submit a withdrawal form.

We are excited for an upcoming incursion with Move For Life that connects wonderfully with the current K2 Unit of Inquiry "How We Express Ourselves" and the concept of perspective. This workshop will provide an opportunity for active inquiry into how people express their ideas and imagination in different ways through movement and dance. We will also explore movement as a powerful and unique way of storytelling and conveying meaning and ideas to others. We can’t wait for the children to take part and do what they do best - learn through movement!

We are taking steps to be more sustainable as a school. As such, we would like to provide a forum for interested parents to donate and purchase preloved uniform items at a nominal price. All proceeds will go to enhancing our incursion provision for the children.

If you are interested in donating, please send the preloved uniform items to school anytime from now onwards. 

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Please contact kinder@hillside.edu.hk for any general enquiries.