Directors Annual Report 2012-13 ESF International Kindergarten

HILLSIDE

Principal: Christopher Duncan

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ANNUAL REPORT

ESF INTERNATIONAL KINDERGARTEN - HILLSIDE

2012 / 2013

Where Inquiry Grows……………………..

OUR VISION

“Through inquiry based learning and play, we encourage children’s natural curiosity and creativity, develop their personal and social skills, inspire them with a life-long love of learning and then confidence to fulfil their potential”.

What we believe good teaching looks like at Hillside 1. At their own level, children can explain what they are learning and why 2. The learning environment is safe, welcoming, stimulating, fun and inclusive 3. Activities are structured in a variety of ways and locations, they are challenging, well-paced,

differentiated and enjoyable 4. Expectations of children are appropriate to their developmental level, consistent and high –

both academically and behaviourally 5. Social and personal skills are developed through working in a variety of different groupings 6. Children’s progress is monitored by a range of assessments and is used to help inform the

planning of future learning opportunities

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7. Teachers and EAs encourage active participation by all children and parents are welcomed as partners in the learning process

8. Teachers and EAs should be informed, involved and enthusiastic leaders of learning and

engender a sense of pride in children’s achievements 9. Classes are appropriately resourced to meet the needs of the learners. Resources, including

the use of IT, enhance learning 10. Teachers will celebrate the international diversity of the children and staff to enhance learning

opportunities

Introduction

The year commenced with the appointment of new Principal, Chris Duncan. At the beginning of the school year the Principal shared his initial vision and aims for the academic year ahead – and identified the two areas that would have a constant focus throughout the year: Professionalism and Communication. Throughout the year, the Hillside team has worked tirelessly to constantly enhance all aspects of our Professionalism and Communication – and the results have been extremely positive, evidenced by the wonderful feedback from parents, visiting review teams and ESL and ESF Senior staff. This year was exciting in that it was an opportunity to really review and refine our practice, in view of our adoption of the IB PYP curriculum framework. We had the opportunity to critically question our beliefs about early years learning and were able to be true risk-takers and try out new teaching and learning approaches. At Hillside, our children are always at the heart of all we do and the decisions that we make. We know we didn’t always get it right the first time, but we also know that we ‘learn by doing’ in a secure and supportive environment – just as our children do. With the leadership and support of our Principal (ex PYP Coordinator for five years at Bradbury School and holder of the ESF PYP Learning and Teaching adviser post), PYP Coordinator (Audrey Tang) and our IB Consultant, based in Singapore, we moved through the first full year of PYP implementation very smoothly. Staff have been very motivated and positive, teachers and EAs alike, and the move to the new curriculum framework has been evident in teacher planning meetings, CPD, planning formats, reports and most importantly, in classroom practice and classroom environments. In October 2012, Hillside Kindergarten took part in a two day IB Consultation visit. Feedback from this visit was both positive and constructive. Below are some of the key commendations / recommendations we received after this consultation visit.

IB PYP ‘Consultation Visit’ feedback

Commendations:

• The kindergarten is very welcoming and high levels of enthusiasm are evident with both the children and Hillside Kindergarten staff

• Teachers are very reflective, open and honest about their practice • An incredible staff that have a high level of dedication – adapting well to the necessary

change / school improvement opportunities

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• Open play – well organized and linked to the program / PYP Transdisciplinary skills • Outstanding classroom displays / learning environment have been established that enables

children to inquire • Inquisitive and happy children • Excellent links made to the UOI focus Concept • High quality and engaging Putonghua (Chinese) program being delivered • Very supportive staff – good sense of collegiality • Clear evidence of providing a range of learning engagements and strategies to provide the

best opportunity for learning to occur • The Kindergarten Leadership team have a very good understanding of the program • Good parent education programs / support materials provided

Recommendations for further development:

• Identify / implement ways to support Mother Tongue • Revise and update ACTION PLAN in line with progress (use language similar to the • Standards and Practices to describe achievement outcomes) • Provide “Hillside Context” for Assessment policy (Essential agreements, Y chart, Assessment CPD

recently held for Hillside staff, new report format developed for Hillside that reflects UOI) • Map out the Assessment requirements over the academic year and publish for all stakeholders • Staff PYP Training – all staff have access and opportunity to attend PYP Regional workshops • Curriculum Mapping processes • Teacher collaborative planning space to be developed

Hillside International Kindergarten is scheduled to undertake our IB PYP Verification / Authorisation visit on the 11th – 12th of November 2013. We feel that due to our hard work over the past 18 months that we are in a very good position and feel confident that we will be authorised to be an IB World School.

Context

Site facilities During the 2012-13 academic year we did not do any major refurbishments or works in classrooms (Summer works projects including the reconfiguration of the K1 floor and re-vamp of the outside playground was undertaken in August 2013). Carpets on the ground floor reception and office areas were replaced. The classroom sized space on the ground floor, which had been used to store ESF archives, was successfully transformed into a professional Teachers Planning room, equipped with a computer and projector to aid teacher planning. This space is also shared two days a week with the newly established ESF Centre – enabling our children to receive on-site Speech and Language, Occupational Therapy and Educational Psychologist services. We also turned our large ‘goldfish’ bowl waiting area into a priority teaching / learning space.

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Hillside Garden and Environment Enhancement Project The outdoor environment is a rich, dynamic and natural space for learning and development in children of all ages. Its value as an essential learning resource has been recognized by many pieces of research into best practice in the Early Years. At Hillside we are fortunate to have an outdoor space (a very rare commodity for most Kindergartens in Hong Kong). This is an area we would like to develop over the next couple of years so that our outdoor area is a natural and authentic extension of our classrooms. Stage (1) of this project has been to establish a natural garden setting – this task was directly linked to the recent K2 Sharing the Planet Unit of Inquiry. Thank you to both members of our Parent Support Group (PSG) and a number of Year 4, 5 and 6 students that are in the Bradbury School Environment club for assisting our children to develop this garden at Hillside. We also asked our parent community if they would be able to donate a potted plant to our Kindergarten. Our new Garden space has actually been established in an area that does not get much sun (we needed to develop an area that would not impact on our twice daily bus drop off and pick up) so we were particularly interested in parents donating shade tolerant plants if possible (but all donations of any types of plants were very, very welcome). Thanks to all those parents who donated a plant to help “GREEN” our Kindergarten

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We also applied to the Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department for a grant to assist with the on-going maintenance of our newly established garden. In June we were delighted to be informed that we had been provided with a $2000 grant awarded to Hillside Kindergarten by the HK Green School Subsidy Scheme. Our Hillside Garden four months on after being established………

Student numbers Through the year we maintained almost 100% capacity, our average enrolment was 350 children (175 K1 and 175 K2). SEN We have 30 children on our SEN register, with identified special educational needs (SEN), varying from speech and language issues to autism/global delay. Last year we had 16 children on our SEN register so this large increase has been very demanding on our resources (and has led to a change in the way in which we conduct our K1 admissions interviews – see further in this report). We had one identified SEN child that received support from a parent-funded, one-on-one educational assistant. All of our SEN children that applied for a 2013/14 Year 1 ESF Learning Support Place were successful. Staffing We have (11) teachers, including our full-time Putonghua teacher, a Vice Principal plus Principal on staff – new Principal Chris Duncan being appointed at the commencement of the 2012/13 academic year (August-Dec in an acting capacity and from Jan 2013 has held the permanent post). We also had four full-time cleaners, three full-time administration staff and in Term 3 appointed a temporary Part time clerical assistant (to help with the increasing administrative workload, for example dealing with the huge number of Admissions applications that we receive from parents eager to secure a place at Hillside).

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All of the teachers are full time except for two part time teachers (both teaching K2).One new full time teacher was appointed to Hillside at the beginning of the 2012/13 academic year. One of our EAs (who is a qualified teacher)”stepped up” into the teacher’s role in both term (1) and again in term (3) to cover a 10 week period of Adoption Leave and a 10 week period of Maternity leave. We have 18 educational assistants (EAs), three of whom are qualified to be teachers and can provide cover for teaching positions as required. This year we have had (2) floater EAs and this arrangement has worked extremely well in relation to the continuity of the children’s educational program as well as saving $1000’s of dollars in teacher / EA supply cover costs. Catchment Area Priority is given to applications from children who live on Hong Kong Island. Feeder Schools Our feeder schools are Bradbury School, Glenealy School, Kennedy School, Quarry Bay School and Peak School. Many of our children also apply to Discovery College and Renaissance College as dual or triple applicants. Physical size of Kindergarten The ground floor area that we use is approx. 2900 sq. ft. First floor area is approx. 4000 sq. ft. Second floor area is approx. 3900 sq. ft. Outside area is approx. 800 sq. ft.

Annual Plan priorities and associated development

To work through the process of implementation of the PYP at Hillside

This year was about really looking deeply into all aspects of our planning and practice, in light of the implementation of the new PYP curriculum framework. Collaborative planning meetings for year groups took place weekly, with PYP Coordinator and/or Principal attending all meetings. Teachers took part in numerous CPD around the PYP and were interested and enthusiastic about the new approach – and were very willing to share what they had learnt with colleagues. PYP workshops included:

- Teaching and Learning in the PYP - Assessment in the PYP - International Mindedness - Play based learning 3-5 year olds - Action in the PYP - Pedagogical Leadership

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There was clear evidence of a shift occurring in classroom practice, the use of questioning by teachers and EAs becoming deeper and the professional dialogue taking place in meetings and in planning formats continues to develop and improve.

To review and re-write our K1 and K2 Report formats to ensure they are outcomes based and relate directly to the Units of Inquiry

In Term 1, following a full in-house Assessment CPD day, we re-wrote our report formats so that they were both outcomes based and linked directly to the Units of Inquiry (UOI). We changed our report formats to ensure that we were assessing and reporting on the knowledge, skills and concepts that we covered during our Units of Inquiry (and commenced the practice of producing a written report at the end of each at the end of each UOI.

In anticipation for our move to GATEWAY for reporting, we ensured that our report template would easily fit into the GATEWAY fields, ensuring a smooth process when we commenced reporting only electronically to parents in Term 1 of the 2013/14 academic year. Parent feedback towards the new reporting format was very positive and teachers felt that the identified key outcomes greatly assisted in planning relevant, targeted and linked learning engagements for the children.

To develop a dedicated Teacher Planning Room that will help facilitate cooperative and collaborative planning, ensuring that a professional environment is available for teachers to meet and plan effectively

The classroom sized space on the ground floor, which had been used to store ESF archives, was successfully transformed into a professional Teachers Planning room, equipped with a computer and projector to aid teacher planning. This space is also shared two days a week with the newly established ESF Centre – enabling our children to receive on-site Speech and Language, Occupational Therapy and Educational Psychologist services.

To ensure all children have access to and opportunities to use IT resources within the classroom: iPads to support student learning

In Term 2 we purchased (25) mini iPads to support and enhance student learning. The iPads are going to be the main learning technology tool we will use in the Kindergarten and we have retired all of our old stand alone computers that were previously under-utilised in the classroom.

Teachers have been using the iPads across all areas of learning and the children are highly motivated and excited to be able to use iPads to help them with their daily learning. For example, in Chinese the children have been using the iPads to record the various words and phrases they are learning and then have the opportunity to listen back to hear if they are using the correct pronunciation before they try again.

Teachers have also reported that iPads have provided both a tool and motivation for boys to explore and develop their early writing and reading skills. Before the iPads we found it was difficult to get many of the boys to the writing/language table during ‘open play’ sessions – now we can’t get them off the writing table!!

Staff also had the opportunity to participate in a number of iPad training sessions and we have made recommendations to parents of suitable apps to use at home with their child.

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To improve parent participation in the Kindergarten programme and develop better home/school links.

We again ran a schedule of workshops for parents throughout the year (start of year issues, PYP, Admissions process for an ESF Year 1 place and Inquiry etc.). There was good attendance at all of the workshops and our Parent Support Group (PSG) organised a number of parent information evenings, bringing in a number of Guest speakers such as Educational Psychologists, Behaviour Management specialists and Speech and language / Occupational Therapist advisers. A number of evening social events for parents were also organised by the PSG and attendance at these events was extremely well supported.

We formalised our Parent Support Group (PSG), with regular meetings and parents taking on specific roles to form the PSG Committee (Chairperson, Treasurer, Secretary and Workshop Coordinator). We are fortunate to have a wonderful PSG Chair, Anthony Sylvester and we thank him, and his wonderful committee, for all their hard work and dedication throughout the year.

This year, the Principal / Vice Principal and PSG chair have met on a monthly basis and we have been pleased with the highly supportive and complimentary partnership that has been built between the Kindergarten and PSG – assisting each other on many occasions, and in a variety of ways, throughout this academic year.

Our regular Parent Volunteer Programme was again an outstanding success, and is definitely an area of particular strength in our Kindergarten. We pride ourselves on having an ‘open-door’ policy for parents at Hillside and ensure that everyone that would like to get involved / volunteer their time has the opportunity to do so.

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The parents at Hillside are truly outstanding and have fully supported us in all of our events such as field trips, theatre trips, Sports Day, Halloween Events and Halloween Fair, dress up days, Guest speakers and so many more. To develop the leadership capacity of teaching staff – by identifying and nurturing leadership potential and capacity (Distributed Leadership)

At Hillside, all teachers now hold a curriculum leadership post (which supports the development of an ESF K-13 Curriculum). This was allocated to them after the Principal conducted individual meetings with each teacher to gauge their areas of interest and expertise, along with addressing their developmental needs.

Potential leaders have been encouraged and supported to lead projects linked to the Kindergartens improvement agenda. For example: Environmental Education, Library development, Child Protection and Learning Technologies.

The majority of teachers have also had the opportunity to contribute / participate in ESF wide Curriculum (Subject Specific) planning days – gaining a much better understanding of the overall Primary Curriculum, in addition to raising the profile and professionalism of the Kindergarten Teachers.

Teachers now provide feed-back / lead PD sessions at regular staff meetings and take the lead in a number of curriculum initiatives such as: Library, PSE (Fun Friends), Learning Technologies (iPads) and Environmental Education (establishment of a Garden at Hillside).

To develop and implement a new streamlined K1 Admissions Interview / Play Visit process for filling the (176) K1 positions that we have available each academic year

This year we conducted the majority of our K1 Admissions Play- Visits on one day, ensuring less disruption to the day-to-day operation of the Kindergarten. All ESF kindergartens had a school closure day for current students on Friday 18th January 2013 to enable all staff: Teachers, Educational Assistants, Administrative and Senior Leadership teams to be fully involved in the interview process.

The actual ‘Play- visit / Interview’ was conducted as it had been in past in past years, however rather than conducting a play visit for one group of approximately (8) children, this year we had seven play-visit groups running across the kindergarten at the same time (using most classrooms as the venue).

This structure allowed us to see up to (56) children in each play- visit session. The day was structured to facilitate four play-visit sessions so ultimately we were able see around 224 children (and their parents) on this day.

We interviewed our Hillside Sibling applicants earlier that the one day school closure interview day. The (56) Sibling applicants were interviewed in mid-December 2012 in small groups over a number of sessions. Current parents really appreciated the way in which we interviewed siblings first – and this created a lot of goodwill within the already established parent community of Hillside.

In total we interviewed about 280 Children for our K1 places. We had 176 places available so this provided us with an ‘interviewed’ wait list of around 100 children. After the first round offer of places has gone out to parents, and the place is subsequently declined, we were then able to draw from this group of 100 children to fill vacant places as they arose (especially as past years have shown

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that over the summer we do have quite a few ‘drop-outs’ due to Hong Kong’s often transient expatriate population). This year we also had a set of questions that we utilized with parents that we felt we needed more information e.g. we noted that the child had very limited English, parents didn’t understand English or had difficulty conversing with us, obvious SEN / Behavioral / Development concerns were apparent etc. Interviewing a number of selected parents helped us to gather further information so that we could make the most appropriate decision in regards to allocating our K1 places for the 2013/14 academic year.

One final very successful aspect of the new process was that the Hillside Parent Support Group volunteered to man a Tea/ coffee / refreshment station throughout the entire day of the admission interviews / play visit process. This ensured that prospective Hillside parents had the opportunity to ask questions of current Hillside parents – and this helped to put the prospective parents (and more importantly their children) at ease.

The entire Hillside staff participated in a reflection session and it was agreed that the one –day process was an over whelming success - in so many ways. The extremely smooth start to our K1 classes in this current academic year is testament that our new admissions interviews / play visit process worked extremely well. All (8) K1 classes appear to be extremely well balanced and this in turn has had a very positive effect on the teaching and learning process taking place on the K1 floor. Feedback received from a potential Hillside parent after participating in the K1 Admissions interview / Play Visits day: Thank you very much for accommodating us on Friday for the observation / play session. It has been a very positive experience for us. Our son was up-beat and jolly after he completed his session and could not stop talking about it afterwards. We would also like to compliment the school, particularly the staff and teachers for conducting the sessions in a very professional and orderly manner. There is no doubt this was a stressful period, more so for the parents rather than the child, but in our opinion the school has tried to alleviate any further stress by minimizing waiting time and had clear communication to us before the day, about what to expect, and on the day so that there was no confusion. Please kindly pass on our congratulations to all staff involved for a job well done.

To enhance the Hillside Reading and Writing Curriculum: Introduction of a Phonics Program in K2

This year at Hillside, as part of our Language (Reading and Writing) Curriculum, we commenced implementing a formal Synthetic Phonics Program - Get Reading Right (GGR).

Synthetic phonics is the synthesizing or blending of phonemes (sounds) to make a word and enable children to read. The process of reading with synthetic phonics involves decoding or 'breaking' words into separate phonemes which can then be blended together to read a written word. The process of spelling with synthetic phonics requires children to hear and identify the phonemes in a word and then to use their knowledge of the letters associated with those phonemes to write or 'make' the word.

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The National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy recommended "an early and systematic emphasis on the explicit teaching of phonics". Both the National Curriculum in Australia and England has phonics at the core of their early literacy programs. To further assist the Hillside staff (all Teachers and Educational Assistants) implement this program we facilitated at Hillside, utilising the skills of one of the founders and authors of Get Reading Right (GRR, a full day of training that focussed on the best way to implement and effectively use the (GRR) program - including the wide range of related resource materials that has been developed to support this program.

We will continue to develop and embed this phonics program further in the new academic year.

To offer Personal and Social Education programs that develops emotional resilience (targeted K2 children): Implementation of the Fun friends program

In Term 3 we implemented an additional support program (for a group of targeted K2 students) to further develop emotional resilience and assist the participating children with preparing for their transition from K2 to Year 1.Fun friends is a program developed in Australia by Dr. Paula Barrett for the treatment and prevention of childhood anxiety in 4-7 year olds. It has been developed from the

highly successful FRIENDS for Life program with a focus on this younger age.

At Hillside we called our Fun friends program the ‘Koala Club’. The program was facilitated by a Hillside teacher that had completed the mandatory Fun Friends training required before the program can be implemented. The program at Hillside was delivered through a play based approach with a focus on teaching children essential resilience skills. These resilience skills were taught in a way that children in this age group could easily grasp and adopt.

Fun friends helped the children to feel more balanced and happy – parents also reported on the positive growth they had observed in their child. The most successful outcome for our Hillside program was that the K2 children that participated in this program had a noticeable increase in confidence and were more able to better express themselves and communicate more effectively.

Staff Professional Development

Teachers and EAs have been involved in a wide range of professional development activities throughout the year. In ESF we are fortunate to have access to very high quality CPD. In addition to the CPD offered both in house and at ES, all teachers had the opportunity to take part in an IB PYP three day professional development workshop. CPD undertaken by staff this year has included:

- Inquiry as a Stance - Performance Coaching Programme - Pedagogy in Action - Assessment for Learning in the Inquiry Classroom - Assessment and Reporting (in school CPD Day)

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- Visible Thinking – John Hattie (ESF wide CPD day) - Development of Emotional Wellbeing Curricula across ESF - First Steps - Writing - ESF Senior Leadership Conference - First Aid, CPR and AED - Refresher - MLATS Phase 1 Y-1-3 - The use of iPads in the classroom - Introduction to PYP - Concept Driven Curriculum - Social Thinking Training for Primary Schools - Introduction to the new ESF Capability frameworks for administrators - Get Reading Right – Phonics program (whole day in school CPD Day)

Community Connections and Partnerships

In addition to continuing to strengthen the links within our school community through development and widening of the Parents’ Support Group, we also organised some charity events with a focus on the SPCA and Orang-utan rehabilitation – making authentic and relevant links to our K2 Sharing the Planet Unit of Inquiry. We also supported a local HK charity this year: the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of children. Hillside children and families took part in a Christmas gift giving drive, resulting in Hillside donating the largest amount of presents with a total of over 220 parcels. It was a great opportunity to help children living in HK that are also the same age as the children we have here in K1 and K2 at Hillside.

We have had numerous visits from teachers from other local kindergartens and teachers from a variety of ESF Primary schools – something that we want to build on in the coming year. This year we have continued to develop our links with the Hong Kong Baptist University by having Education Studies students placed here at Hillside to undertake their teaching practicums. We have also had groups of students from the HK Institute of Vocational Education visit us to observe our practice.

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Hillside Kindergarten / ESF Therapy Centre Collaboration

Beginning in October 2013, Hillside Kindergarten and ESF Therapy Centre (TC) developed an agreement to work collaboratively to provide multidisciplinary services to the children and parents of ESF kindergartens. Hillside developed a child-friendly space on the ground floor, where TC staff can offer therapy and assessments for young children. Three days per week, a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist, and an educational psychologist have been available on-site for parent-funded sessions and collaboration with teachers.

The Therapy Centre’s presence within Hillside has naturally benefited the children and parents of Hillside ESF Kindergarten. Children who are dually-enrolled in Kindergarten and ESF Therapy services have benefited from a coordinated, multi-disciplinary approach to target-setting and evaluation – an efficient system for supporting developmental and educational priorities at a young age. This type of organised collaboration between teachers, therapists, educational psychologists and families is a unique service in Hong Kong.

Events/Excursions

K2 children went on excursions to the Flower Show and a nature walk along Bowen Road as part of their ‘Sharing the Planet’ Unit of Inquiry.

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As a part of their ‘Where We Are in Place and Time’, the K2 planned an International Food Day to celebrate our diversity.

K1 children went to the Happy Valley area for a community walk as part of their ‘How we organise ourselves’’ Unit of Inquiry.

The K1 children had a visit by the ‘Science Explorers’ as a part of their ‘How the World Works’ unit to consolidate their learning on their unit of inquiry.

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We also went to theatre performances again this year with K1 attending the production of “The snail and the whale” (October) and K2 attending “Room on the broom” (January) at the HKAPA. These trips were well supported by families and we again received positive feedback from parents and children. We also had a very successful and well-attended Halloween Fair (organised by the PSG and held in the Bradbury School grounds). Throughout the year we had a number of Dress-Up days and celebrations which the children (and staff) just love!! These included Green Choice day, Halloween, Christmas Party (and a visit from Santa!!), Chinese New Year celebrations and Lion Dance performance, Book Day celebrations, including the popular ‘book swap’ arranged by the Hillside Parent Support group, Pyjama Day and Community Helpers. These were all very much enjoyed by the children. Chinese New Year celebrations – Chinese Lion Dance performance This year as part of our Chinese New Year celebrations we managed to source a wonderful Chinese Lion Dance performance group that put on an entertaining and interactive show for both our AM and PM classes. The performances were extremely engaging and child-friendly, which is often rare to see (especially with children as young as ours). It was obvious that all of the children and adults in attendance enjoyed this colourful (and at times very noisy) performance very much. Once again, we must thank our wonderful Hillside Parent Support Group for funding both the AM and PM performance of the Lion Dance. It was truly a wonderful experience for the children.

Hillside ‘Sports Day’ – a change of plan, but success in the end! It was a shame when we first had to cancel our scheduled Sports Day due to poor weather and high pollution levels. Fortunately we were able to reschedule our sports day as we found a date when Bradbury School had a school closure day – therefore we were able to utilise the Bradbury grounds. Our rescheduled sports day ran slightly differently than what we had originally planned to take place at the Causeway Bay sports field. On this occasion we had to run the sports day twice - to cater for both the AM and PM session. The day was a great success with most parents being able to attend as spectators. The children loved the activities and if possible we will try and use the grounds at Bradbury for our sports day again next year.

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Hillside K2 Leavers ceremony One of the highlights of Term 3 was our K2 Leavers Ceremony. In planning the event for this year, the K2 Teachers and Senior Leadership Team felt that it is important that every child in K2 is acknowledged individually during the leaver’s ceremony. This would be impossible to do if we hold a combined ceremony with all 176 children. Upon reflection of last year’s K2 Leavers event, we found that the Bradbury hall simply does not have enough capacity for the large number of students and parents that need to be accommodated – potential safety issues arise as access and exit aisles can become easily blocked. We also find that some children can get very distressed due to the very large crowd, even more so when they are not able to see their parents in such a large audience. This year, each class had its own Leavers Ceremony (hosted in the K2 classrooms at Hillside). The Leavers Ceremony was a huge success and it was wonderful that each and every child was recognised and had their time to individually ‘shine on stage’. Hillside Farewell for ESF retiring CEO Heather Du Quesnay At the end of the year the children and staff had the chance to farewell Heather Du Quesnay. Heather spent a lovely hour and a half with the children and staff at Hillside and as she toured the Kindergarten she was delighted by what she saw. Her visit concluded with the morning K2 children singing her a farewell song they had written. Two of our talented K2 children also gave a lovely farewell speech, thanking Heather for all she had done in supporting the ESF kindergartens over the past eight years.

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Hillside ‘ESF’ School Review (Conducted by senior members of the ESF Centre Education Team)

Hillside Kindergarten ESF Review process

On Tuesday 28th May 2013 Hillside International Kindergarten took part in an ESF led School review process. Reviews are an on-going element of the evaluative work of the Foundation by external and independent reviewers. As well as visits by accrediting bodies, such as CIS and IBO, the ESF may establish an external team to carry out an independent assessment.

The review of Hillside Kindergarten arose out of the appointment and arrival of the new Principal in August 2012. All ESF Schools and Kindergartens undergo a review process (facilitated by senior members of the ESF Education Team) when a new Principal is appointed. Overall the review was very positive and below you will find some of the key findings / recommendations made by the review team.

Hillside Kindergarten ESF Review - Key findings / Recommendations What is working well? The review team commended Hillside Kindergarten on a number of areas that were clearly evident in the majority of lessons observed and acknowledged through stakeholder forums.

• The development of child oriented play based learning activities which promote inquiry, literacy and collaboration

• Developing engaging and stimulating learning environments that clearly highlight student voice and student’s learning

• Teachers use a range and variety of teaching strategies • Teachers routinely select, develop and use a variety of appropriate concrete

manipulative including technology to engage students in learning • A welcoming kindergarten with a very positive reputation across the community • Happy, engaged and confident children • The use of parents to enhance the program on offer • A Kindergarten that has a clear plan for development and that is committed to

delivering a high quality early childhood experience for all children What could be even better? Given the findings of the review and on the basis of their experience and expertise, the review team concludes that the schools programmes would be even better if:

• Open-ended questions were used more consistently during ‘Open Play’ to move children on to their next steps in learning

• Communication between teacher and EA was improved prior to, during and after ‘Open Play’

• Develop a common and agreed definition of differentiation • Engage students more in reflection – the how, what and why they are learning

Review team concluding comment: It is clear from the open communication in the school community that Hillside Kindergarten is a kindergarten committed to self-improvement and in making what is clearly a very good school even better.

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Student Transition

• Hillside had 173 children apply to ESF primary schools this year. All children secured an interview with ESF schools.

• 169 children currently have places in ESF primary schools/kindergartens (98%) –

including (4) children securing Year 1 Learning Support places.

• 3 children were not offered ESF places after interview (however secured a Year 1 place at other HK International Schools.

• 1 child deferred his application until next year.

ESF Y1

No ESFInterviewNo ESF Offer

Deferred

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The Year Ahead - Challenges and Opportunities

IB PYP Verification / Authorisation Hillside staff are committed, motivated and excited about the implementation of the PYP at Hillside. Confidence is high and it is evident that staff does have a good understanding of the PYP Framework. We are looking forward to undertaking our IB PYP Verification visit in mid-November 2013 and hope to be an official IB World School by the end of Term 1. One major challenge is to continue to educate our parent community about the major elements of the PYP – stressing the importance of inquiry based learning. As we have the children for only two years (compared to six in the Primary School) it can be difficult to work extensively with our parents for extended periods. A further IB PYP challenge is that the current IB PYP Framework (for 3-12 year olds) is not very Early Years friendly. It is important that we continue to look at other approaches / best practice models of Early Years Education. For example the Reggio Emilia approach stresses that children must have some control over the direction of their own learning. To make learning meaningful it must also be of interest to the child. The implementation of the PYP has ensured we have a much more professional and collaborative approach to all we do – the IB Standards and Practices have provided our own accountability framework. We must continue to remain committed to learning together as a staff and work on ensuring a consistent approach and best practice across the kindergarten. Priority should also be given to encouraging some of Hillside’s outstanding Early Years educators to undertake the training to become an IB PYP Workshop leader. Competition Parents have a range of choice in terms of kindergarten options for their children in Hong Kong, of widely varying quality, cost and approaches to teaching and learning. Our K1 intake for the 2014-15 academic year will no longer have a priority for an ESF Year 1 interview. We will need to monitor the impact of this ESF Admissions Policy change extremely carefully. We have some clear advantages over our competitors, but we need to ensure we listen to feedback from our parent community and also from parents who choose other options than an ESF Kindergarten. We must continually strive for excellence and promote the key features that make us the best choice for a quality kindergarten education in Hong Kong. Some of our key advantages that must be maintained and continually improved are: our highly qualified, professional and committed staff, the quality of our IB PYP Teaching and Learning program (including our broad, balanced and innovative curriculum) and our state of the art learning environments / learning technology (such as our iPad resourcing). Possible expansion of programs and provision The opportunity exists for exploring the widening of provision. Parents in Hong Kong report a lack of quality Kindergarten programmes and at Hillside we are many-times oversubscribed in terms of applications. We receive enquiries about whole-day programmes, playgroup provision and bilingual programmes. In the new academic year we plan to work in partnership with ESF Educational Services Limited to implement high quality extra curricula programs such as Drama and Performance, Music and Art. We also hope to establish Play-group provision during the school day here at Hillside.

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Playground / Environment Enhancement: Making the outdoor area at Hillside more interesting and appealing – We have made some major improvements this year (such as establishing our Hillside Garden, however there is still much scope to make our outdoor environment outstanding.)

Hillside staff acknowledgement and thanks

As I have come to the end of producing my first Annual Report as Principal of Hillside International Kindergarten, I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all the staff for their outstanding dedication and professionalism. The team at Hillside have taken on a great deal of professional learning this year – and this has supported us when undertaking and implementing our ‘improvement driven’ change agenda – (for example changes to the Curriculum: PYP implementation, implementation of a phonics program in K2, introduction of iPads in both the K1 and K2 classrooms and a new Assessment and Reporting process – to ensure that we are aligned with the PYP). The Hillside staff has been magnificent in undertaking a number of new initiatives simultaneously – always remaining focused on our central goal of ‘enhance student learning for all’. The number of extra events and learning opportunities listed in this Annual Report for 2012-13, along with the daily classroom learning experiences, are further testament to their effort and professionalism. Christopher Duncan Principal ESF International Kindergarten Hillside October 2013