17 February
- For this Week
- Impact Walk on Wednesday Morning
- Lunch Meeting Change (Wednesday)
- Social Media Posts
- Sports Fun Day on Friday
- ESF EP Trainee Project
- Upcoming PD Opportunities
- Bright and Striped Dress-Up Day
- Staff Calendar
Good morning!
For this Week:
K1 Curiosity Kids Incursion - thank you teams, for helping with the cleanup 🙏🏼
Tuesday: K2 Therapy Dogs Incursion
Wednesday: Impact Walk (AM), Staff Lunch Meeting
Friday: Sports Day
Impact Walk on Wednesday Morning
We will host the Bradbury team for an Impact Walk to provide an external lens on the progress of our current enhancement initiative focused on differentiated instruction and personalisation in the classroom.
The visiting team will include Kate (Principal), Chin (Y1 teacher), Siobhan (Y2 teacher), Joanne (Y1 EA), and JP (ESF Learning and Teaching Advisor). They will observe how well we balance providing support while fostering independence, particularly when children are encouraged to try new things or explore challenges. e.g. do something for them without encouraging them to try - are we providing different access points?
During the Impact Walk, the team will spend around 15 minutes in each classroom and the hour of Community Play time, observing interactions, student engagement, and differentiated instruction practices.
After the observations, JP will hold a debrief session to discuss the team's findings and how they align with our school's focus. Please refer to the Hillside Impact Walk document detailing the visit.
Thank you, Jiya, Amy and Robyn, for representing our team for the visit to Bradbury School next month (18 March). Your efforts are greatly appreciated!
Lunch Meeting Change (Wednesday)
Please note that our lunch meeting has been moved to Wednesday this week due to a scheduling clash. I can share some feedback from the Impact Walk. Then we will have time for an Observable Impact check-in within your class teams.
Based on your feedback from last time, we've scheduled time for teams to engage in this. Please use this Heat Check template to help collate and document your ideas.
As we discuss these points, let's remember how everything ties back to our school enhancement focus on personalised learning.
Hillside Social Media Posts
Now that we've launched our social media platforms, we aim to celebrate our community. Please share any student and staff achievements that we can feature. We also plan to utilise this platform for parent education, so any suggestions or ideas you have would be most welcome.
Sports Fun Day on Friday
Fingers crossed, the weather will be on our side for our Sports Fun Day. Each EA team will be stationed at a specific activity, and teachers will guide their classes around the various stations. Each team will get a water break; we have 5 stations for each rotation. Sports Day Rotation Map
We'll kick off the day by greeting everyone and leading both an English and a Chinese warm-up song to get everyone energised and ready to participate. After the warm-up, we will move to the first station for your, which your class EAs will run. For example, the Gecko class will head to the station managed by the Gecko EAs.
The ESF Explore Sports coaches will be working with the K1 rotation, while the K2s will have a rest station supervised by the LE team. We anticipate that each activity will last around 10 minutes, but we will monitor the pace and adjust as needed.
Please arrive before 9 am to set up, and let's ensure all equipment is collected in the office by Wednesday, so our admin team can deliver it to the club. Make sure to check the spreadsheet for station details and any specific equipment needed.
Thank you all for the teamwork in making this Sports Fun Day a success!
ESF EP Trainee Project
The ESF Educational Psychology Team is excited to partner with HKU to offer a free training program for domestic helpers and parents aimed at promoting and supporting the behaviour and wellbeing of young children. Due to limited capacity, they can accommodate only 8 families, and ESFC has requested that we prioritise families supporting children with learning diversity. Please see the attached flyer for more details.
We are currently finalizing details with the ESF EP team and will send a separate app message to invite families. If you have any questions, please reach out to Laura and Audrey.
Upcoming PD Opportunities
Journey Through a Day in Kindergarten: Nurturing a Culture of Inquiry
Facilitators: Anne van Dam & Sean Walker
Dates: 5, 12, 26 Apr & 3 May; each session is 2 hours online
Bright and Striped Dress-Up Day
We’re excited to announce that we will be joining forces with Bradbury School to celebrate Rare Disease Day on 28 February! As some of you may know, one of our PE teachers, Mr. Maclay’s daughter, Freya, is living with a rare condition called Tay Sachs, and we want to show our support by coming together as a community.
Staff are also invited to join the Rare Run on Saturday, 22 February
For more information:
Rare Disease Day - https://www.rarediseaseday.org/
Freya’s Story - freyfrey.org
Upcoming Dates
Please check our internal calendar below. We might forget to remind everyone of odd dates. We will continue to add events as soon as they're confirmed.
Here's the full 2024/25 Calendar and DRAFT 2025/26 Calendar.
Thank you!
