16 Apr 2018

Abacus Newsletter 16th April 2018

Abacus Kindergarten’s latest newsletter available to read now. Find out the latest news from around the school and upcoming events.

Coming Week Dates

Week Beginning – Monday 16th April

Monday
Tuesday  K1 Bilingual Class – Rescheduled Parent Conferences
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday K2 Story Character Dress Up Day
Next Week

Week Beginning – Monday 23rd April

Monday  K2 Story Sharing Day
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday Friendly Friday – K1 and K2 Classes mix
Important Dates

Monday 23rd April – K2 Story Sharing Day
Monday 30th April – Staff Training – No School
Tuesday 1st May – Public Holiday – No school
Friday 11th May – K1 Art Exhibition – N.B. Date changed
Monday 21st May – Staff Training – No school
Tuesday 22nd May – Public Holiday – No school
Friday 15th June – Dragon Boat Festival Celebrations in School
Monday 18th June – Tuen Ng Festival – No school
Wednesday 27th June – Splash Day
Thursday 28th June – K2 Graduation Celebration and Last Day of Term 3
Friday 29th June – School Closed for Summer Holidays

Our school calendar can be found here

Although we are not governed by the statutory holidays for schools, we follow the ESF schools calendar. During every year we have 5 teacher training days built into the calendar. This is in addition to the contact days with children. These CPD days are added onto our calendar not removed from the contact days with children.

Welcome Back

Welcome back for Term 3. We hope you had a restful break and are ready for an action packed Term 3. We have a few exciting events coming up- such as the Art Exhibition in K1 and the Story Sharing Day in K2 as well as Science and Drama days. We will also have one of our favourite days at the end of this term – Splash Day, a firm favourite for Staff and Children.

Also a big thank-you to Morgan Price for noticing and repairing the balance bikes together with his able assistant by Kurt Pederson. You have given the balance bikes a new lease of life.

Stakeholder Survey

Our Stakeholder Survey was very successful and overwhelmingly positive. Parents either choosing ‘Agree’ or ‘Strongly Agree’ in almost all cases.  The comments were extremely positive around the teachers and children’s development on the whole with only a few suggestions for development. We will be investigating these in the coming months.

Maths Outcomes

We had some feedback in the survey that parents felt they were unsure whether their children’s achievement in maths etc was at an appropriate level. With such young children it is not appropriate to be making judgements on their attainment compared to other children in the class as children develop at different rates.

During our parent conferences we deliberately don’t compare children as there is a huge spread of ages and abilities within each class and what is appropriate attainment for a 2 year old can be very different from a 3 year old in the same class. Instead we treat each child as an individual and look at what they can already do and what they need to learn next. This provides the basis of our teaching and learning.

In response to this feedback we have put together a booklet showing our ESF expected outcomes in Maths for K1 and K2 children. This is what we teach to and assess against. Please be aware it is only a guideline to show general outcomes for the end of K1 and K2 and if your child doesn’t reach them it doesn’t mean they are below the expected level especially if they are one of the youngest in the class. We have provided this to give you an idea of what we are working on in class and so that you can gain more understanding of how your child is doing in relation to theses general class outcomes for K1 and K2.

Maths Outcomes Document

We also have outcomes for Language and Literacy, however these are currently being revised, therefore we will share them when they are finalised.

Sports Day

Our sports day was a really fun day for all involved. We were lucky with the weather throughout the day and it provided a lovely end to a busy term.

Our Sports Day Photos can be found here.

Links

(All links open in a new tab/window)

Moodle – Your child’s portfolio and reports, class news, school news and photos.
Gateway – Change personal details, sign up for events and book parent consultations on Gateway.
The School Calendar – All important dates can be found here for this year.

Class Pages

K1 English Class
Liv Kotyck, Anita Jims and Michelle Chan
K1 Bilingual Class
Olivia Kane, Susanne Liu and Sue Tyson
K2 English Class
Fiona Hall, Bridgette Walker and Jackie Henderson
K2 Bilingual Class
Danielle Evans, Allison Fung and Hannah Smith/Julie Rose