9 Oct

 

  • For this Week

  • Upcoming Dates to Note

  • Maintenance Updates

  • Library Book Borrowing (Next few weeks)

  • IB Evaluation To-do

  • School Buses

  • Digital Communication & Data Privacy Update

  • New Tech Blog by TCK Anna

  • Staff Calendar

Morning all, what an unusual and unexpected turn of this typhoon. Please stay safe!


For this Week

  • Tuesday - School visit at 9am with Jaap Marsman (ESF Adviser for Safeguarding & Child Protection) and Tracey Chitty ESF (Wellbeing and Mental Health Adviser), and meeting with Laura & Audrey
  • Friday - School visit at 9am with Chinese Adviser Tina Tian, and meeting with our Chinese team


Upcoming Dates to Note

  • Dress Casual Day (Halloween) - Tuesday, 31 October 
  • Family Winter Picnic - Let’s pencil in Friday, 8 December. With the new school holiday (HK district election on 11 Dec), the last week of school is a bit choppy and not ideal.
  • K1 Admission Day - All ESF Kindergartens will hold the K1 Admission Day on Thursday, 14 December, so the last day of term for current children is Wednesday, 13 December. We will not pull teachers out of class during December for play visits but ask staff to help on this day instead. SLT will also run extra play visit sessions on other days to make up for the number or late applicants.


Maintenance Updates

  • ESF Facilities confirmed the car park flooring will be refurbished over the Christmas holiday period. 
  • They are also looking into moving the door handle on the staffroom door higher. However, they are still looking into fire safety regulations as this is a fire door. 
  • They are continuing to look into options to address the dripping roof in the library. We will keep you updated as this progresses.  
  • Works on the sub-room (current teacher planning area) within our staffroom is scheduled for Christmas break. Once completed, it will be a new quiet space for zooms and meetings..etc.


Library Book Borrowing (Next few weeks)

The library will be open for classes to use throughout these 2 PTC weeks. Looking ahead, it will be closed on 1 & 2 Nov to accommodate the K1 Discovery Dome incursion in the lobby. At any time, if classes prefer to borrow books in the classroom rather than in the library, you’re welcome to bring upstairs one of the two laptops located inside the library.


IB Evaluation To-do

Ahead of our CPD day on 30 Oct, where we will be doing some IB evaluation preparation, please check that you have a MyIB account, which we will be using to access documents on the day. If you need to create one, here is a video tutorial on how to do so. Please let me know if you’re having any trouble, and ensure you have this done before the term break. 


School Buses

At the beginning of each school year, we observe that it does take some time for the city to absorb the school traffic and for everyone to adjust to the new bus routes and routines. The arrival and departure of the school buses has largely settled now. Thank you to all the EAs for keeping our children safe while loading them onto the buses - teaching them to board safely and buckling them in.


For any parents who discuss school buses during PTCs, please kindly note that school bus arrangements are a private agreement between the bus company and parents. While we are happy to continue speaking to them, all decisions around routes and schedules are made by Kwoon Chung. 


Digital Communication & Data Privacy Update

ESF is drafting a new policy that includes guidance for using digital communication and parent/ student data handling within schools. A few key points to note for now.


Whatsapp comms should not involve any student data i.e. info/photos/videos. This is the same for other social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. (Some schools have their own social media accounts, and ESFC will review what is acceptable and what is not.) The goal is to maintain an "ESF Ecosystem" where all internal comms is accessed through Assembly. A current 'approved' platform they're considering is Gchat, whereas WhatsApp is unacceptable because it cannot be traced back. ESFC is primarily concerned with having access to student data.


At the moment, the internal Hillside WhatsApp group is ok as we only use it for general info messaging, and we do not use it for any student data sharing.

Another point to note is direct marketing: "Sending information or goods, addresses to specific persons by name, by mail, fax, email or other means of communication or making telephone calls to specific persons." To cover all bases when emailing, please ensure to always BCC, as TO/ CC is considered as sending to specific persons.


Any class parent WhatsApp groups are fine because the adults have consented to be in them and do/should not include student data.


New Tech Blog by TCK Anna

A message from Anna Kuiti @TCK

"In the spirit of sharing the love of technology in early years and all the challenges and triumphs we face, I have created a blog to share with you tools and tricks for us as parents, educators and tech users in general!

https://spillingtheteaontechinearlyyears.blogspot.com/


You can find links to important ESF digital framework documents alongside cool stuff and, of course, some ever-changing AI goodness!


I will be posting and updating on a regular basis and welcome all feedback! Please feel free to comment. If there is something you would like to see more of or know more about, please leave a comment or let me know :) 

I hope you enjoy it and it can be helpful in however small a way!” 


Upcoming Dates

Click on the calendar for full display or add events to your own calendar.

2023/24 Calendar


Thank you!