22 April

  • TODAY: Faust Performance

  • For this Week

  • Stakeholder Survey Results

  • Admin Situation

  • ESF Learning Walk

  • ESF Explore

  • Upcoming Free PDs

  • Staff Calendar

  • Old Posts

Morning all, TODAY: Faust Performance - Peter and the Wolf

Both K1s and K2s will watch the show together over in the Bradbury Hall.

Morning show: 9:15am

Afternoon show: 1:30pm

The performance is anticipated to have a run time of about 40 min. Children will be sitting on bleachers, K1s at the front, K2s at the back rows. 


For this Week

Tuesday - Photo rerun, Staff lunch meeting at 12.15 (PD Sharing)

Wednesday - ESF Learning Walk (Details below)

Thursday - Hearing screening

Friday - Hearing screening, Book-inspired Dress Up Day 


Stakeholder Survey Results

Thank you all for your excellent work, dedication and commitment. EAs, we hear you loud and clear on the issue of 12 months salary. I will continue to push this agenda forward and explore what else we can do to move this along. 


We’ve received an overwhelmingly positive feedback from the stakeholder (parent) survey. 💪🏼 Here are a few key headlines.


What are we doing well?

  • Staff's dedication, professionalism, and care towards children.
  • Safe and nurturing environment.
  • Transparent communication with parents.
  • Class blog updates on learning progress.
  • Community day (beach picnic, sports day) and opportunities for parent involvement.
  • Responsiveness to concerns and understanding of each child's needs.

What can we do better?

  • Update children's photos more frequently.
  • More diversity (ethnicities) within the school community.
  • Offer more individualised feedback for each child.
  • More details on ways to support my child. 
  • More information on Chinese.


There are a few single odd ones ...

  • Organise different activities and performances for different grade levels.
  • Enforce personal hygiene.
  • Toilet cleanliness.

  • Reduce class size/ ratio.


Overall, the feedback reaffirms our hard work and dedication while providing perspective and insights from the parent community. Go Team Hillside! 🎉 


Admin Situation

We are now back down to Jaz and CJ. Securing supply admin has been very challenging, but we will keep trying. ESFC has a pool of supply people, but they don't always want to travel this way. We might need to rely on our floaters at times for some support. 

We hope to start interviewing soon, but with notice periods, we're still determining if the new recruit can commence the summer. 

We thank you all in advance for your understanding and accommodation. 


ESF Learning Walk

Senior leaders across ESF have been involved in learning walks at different schools, the purpose is to observe and learn from each other's practices, share ideas, and promote a culture of continuous improvement. This Wednesday morning, we are hosting colleagues from Abacus and Kowloon Junior School for a learning walk with a focus on learning environments and transition. Thank you for accommodating their visit!  


ESF Explore

For those interested, please sign up for the ESF Explore summer roles. There will be some classes at Hillside, and I’ve asked the for them to prioirtise Hillside staff working at our campus. 

2024 Summer Teaching/Coaching Opportunities | ESF Explore 


Upcoming Free PDs

Toddle Play Summit

Saturday 27 Apr, all online via Zoom. Register for your free place here.

Dive into playful pedagogies to celebrate each child’s uniqueness with EY experts and educators from around the world. This day-long event will empower you to keenly observe and respond to diverse play patterns, interests, and children’s curiosity. Speakers include Teacher Tom, Anne van Dam, Tamsin Grimmer, and more.


Free to Play Summit 18-20 May

Join the summit to learn how to speak powerfully to the brain science and benefits of play and how play nurtures children’s self-regulation, socialization, and focus. The links to each day’s session will be emailed out and will be available to view for 24 hours. There are no individual times for each session, so you can pick and choose which ones you would like to watch and when each day. Register for a free pass here.

Upcoming Dates

Please check our internal calendar below, as we might forget to remind everyone of odd dates. We will continue to add events to the calendar as soon as it's confirmed. Here's the full 2023/24 Calendar 


Thank you!