We were listening to the choir singing Christmas songs, when suddenly a special surprise guest appeared! All the children were delighted (and very excited!) to see Father Christmas, as he delivered a present to every class around our quadrangle. It really was a magical Christmas moment!

Here are some of the children's comments:

 

      It was brilliant!     Really exciting!    I can’t believe Santa came to see us!

He was so kind.                            A big surprise!

It was really good to see Father Christmas.

Do you know, he even brought us presents!

It was the best day of school!

I think he might have been a fake or one of Santa’s elves

because his boots were white not black!

 

Share in the magic....

Click here to watch a video of the moment Santa arrived

Cinderella came to school in style, as all our classes watched a special schools' film by Opera North. The children enjoyed the familiar tale, brought to life in music by the opera singers. They were delighted with the fairy godmother, and enjoyed helping her cast her magic spell to save Cinderella!

And some lovely fairytale outfits to really add to the occasion!

A delicious Christmas lunch - many thanks to our wonderful kitchen team for making this a very special and tasty lunchtime! Happy Christmas!

Everyone in school took part in a fantastic Santa Dash in lovely sunshine on Monday 14th December. Santa hats and reindeer antlers, tinsel decorations and Christmas tree hairbands - all these added to the occasion as we took part in a fun run around the school field in the different year groups. Great dashing everyone!

We held in-school Cross Country and indoor Athletics competitions this week. Congratulations to our winners for their highest scores, fastest times and sporting awards.

In the cross-country, children in Key Stage 1 completed 1000m, some of them in just over 6 minutes. In Key Stage 2, 1200m in Year 3 and 4, and 1500m in Year 5 and 6. The fastest Key Stage 2 times were around 5 minutes!

Very well done everyone!

Our Christmas Advent Calendar 2020 is now live on our website! Congratulations to Anya in Year 2 whose wonderful Christmas Tree artwork was chosen to become the interactive Christmas Tree for the advent calendar. You can access the advent calendar here   www.hillsideavenue.org/gallery/ 

and each day up to 25th December there will be something new to find! Simply click on a numbered bauble to see the different items. Children and staff are really enjoying putting together performances and items, in the absence of traditional nativities and productions this year.

We are delighted to welcome all classes back to school today, Monday 30th November, as the boiler repairs have been successfully completed. Many thanks to all parents for supporting children so well with online learning during the 3-day partial closure last week - this has given children good continuity with their learning. Thank you everyone, and welcome back!  

School was closed from 25th November to 27th November for children in Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 and Year 6.

This was due to boiler failure. Lessons took place for children online to enable children to keep up with learning, accessed by logging in to Google Classroom from home. 

Children in Nursery, Reception and Year 5 were able to continue to attend school as normal, as the heating system for those classrooms was unaffected.

 

We had a fun day in school for Children In Need 2020. Dressing up in clothes that make us happy - as part of our SMILE well-being theme - we had sports clothes, bright colours, sparkly clothes and of course lots of yellow and Pudsey Bear themes. It was great to have all classes taking part, and learning about the Children In Need charitable work. Almost £700 was raised on our school Children In Need justgiving page. Well done everyone!

Joining with people across the nation, we stopped for 2 minutes of silence at 11am on 11th November. Marked by a special video assembly watched in classes, and then an observation of silence outside, this gave chance for the children to reflect on the importance of peace in our world, being thankful for those who have given their lives in the past for peace today, and those who continue to work for peace in the armed forces around the world. Remembrance 2020 was particularly poignant as it was the first time since the start of the covid-19 measures that we were able to come together as a whole school - as we could safely distance between classes in silence out on the playgrounds.

Our Remembrance Day 2020 Video captures the silence, along with a reading of Flanders Fields which was recorded for our Remembrance Assembly.

Click here for the video in our Gallery.