Hillside Avenue Highlights

Dear parents and carers,

As we are approaching the end of the first half-term of the year, I find myself in a reflective mood. I am proud to say that a lot has happened in the first 7 weeks of the year and that they are all things to be positive about for Hillside Avenue now, and into the future. One of the traditional strengths is also something that I am focused on improving even further, this is the wider offer of the school.

At Hillside Avenue there is a lot of opportunity to learn beyond the classroom through participation in music, sport and off site visits. Our band practices with Mrs Robinson on a Wednesday and will be performing with The Hillside Singers to the school before half-term. Over 100 children learn an instrument, which represents over a quarter of the school. That is incredible and provides a form of learning for those children which reaches parts of the brain and the body that the classroom cannot. Our sports teams are going from strength to strength. The girls won their cup match and will meet the same school again on Friday after school in the league. The school team has won two out of three matches and are flying high. We have a cross-country event coming up and Mr Idrissi is lining up some basketball fixtures too. So far this term Year 1 has enjoyed a walking tour of the local area and Year 4 explored the Thorpe Marshes on one of the wettest days of the year. Well done for persevering Year 4. The Year 5 residential is fast approaching and then we will be into the Christmas season. Please check the school website and editions of the newsletter for key dates of all of the performances and events. Thank you for your support in making all of this possible and for helping all children to flourish at Hillside Avenue.

Mr Hutchinson

From the School Log

Between 12th and 16th October in 1939, it seems that there were regular problems with flooding on the playground due to heavy rain. The bad weather continued into late October and even led to poor attendance at school! Luckily most children have wellies and umbrellas now, so this should no longer be a problem.

Dates for the Diary

Our Parents Evenings this term will be held within school on Tuesday 12th November 3:30 - 5pm and Thursday 14th November 3:30- 6:30pm. You will need to log into Arbor to book a time slot, booking schedule will go live from Monday 4th November at 6pm.

Individual and siblings photographs will be on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th November. Please ensure your child/ren come to school in school uniform and not PE kit for those days.

After School Clubs

Minimoons are introducing an additional club ‘Creative Writing’ on a Monday starting after half term. For more information and how to book please click on the link below; 

https://minimoonsco.com/collections/after-school-clubs

FRIENDS of Hillside

Non-Uniform Day - Thursday 24th October

We'd like to invite the children to come to school in non-uniform next week on Thursday 24th October (final day of this half term) and in exchange we'd like you to please bring in donations for the Holly Jolly Hillfest adult Tombola.

Suggested donations are beer, wine, spirits, chocolates/sweets, confectionery gifts or other festive gift items. Please ensure items are all new/sealed and that edible items are well within date.

We will be in the KS2 playground in the morning next Thursday to collect your kind donations.

Preloved Soft Toys

Having a half term clear out? We will be collecting soft toys for the Teddy Tombola at Holly Jolly Hillfest on the following dates: Monday 4th November (at PM pick up) Wednesday 6th November (at AM drop off) Friday 8th November (at AM drop off) Please ensure all toys are clean and in good condition.

Volunteering at Holly Jolly Hillfest

If you are able to volunteer any time at Holly Jolly Hillfest on Saturday 30th November please speak to any committee member or email Carrie:

https://volunteers@hillsidefriends.com

The Friends

    Please follow us on Facebook. (and now on Instagram too! )

I am slowly improving my Facebook skills, so please be patient. For now I will just share key dates and events. Please follow us and encourage your friends and neighbours to do the same. 

Additional Advertisements

● 15th Norwich Air Scouts - Fireworks Night - see attached flyer

● T2T - see attached flyer for further info ● Thorpe St Andrew School Christmas Fayre 

● Norwich City CSF - Parents can claim £5 off one of our October half-term Soccer Schools by using code ‘partnerschool£5’. 

Greetings of the season! Wonderful performance from our children in Y4, Y5 and Y6 as they presented the story of Scrooge in this lively adaptation by Out of the Ark. 

The ‘Bah Humbug’ production was nothing short of spectacular. With incredible acting and beautiful singing, the story was beautifully told, full of emotion and promise. A huge thank you specifically to Mrs Wilkinson and Mrs Robinson for putting the production together and all their work on the singing and stage performances. As well as the wonderful actors, narrators and singers, thank you also to the children who did the ‘behind the scenes’ tasks - controlling the spotlights, special effects and mixing desk, and adding musical percussion, and those Y6 children who helped create the scenery. It all came together so well. 

Well done everyone, and Happy Christmas!

See a video with highlights from the show and more pictures here in the gallery:

https://www.hillsideavenue.org/christmas-production-2023-bah-humbug-a-christmas-c/

This week the Woodland Phases classes (Y1, Y2 and Y3) performed their Christmas production of 'It's a miracle'. Beautiful singing, great acting, coordinated dancing, musicians and readers - and all with smiling faces as the children have really genuinely enjoyed sharing the story with their audiences over three days of performances!

Great to have new basketball equipment in school, thanks to the Friends of Hillside. In use already for lunchtime basketball club, the children love the teamwork and skills they are learning.

Y3 had an amazing Stone Age day. With real 'stone age' people visiting school, it was an immersive day of experiences and hands-on learning. Our 'stone age' visitors stayed in character all day, and it was great fun at lunchtime as the children had to show them how to use knives and forks! 

Y3 thoroughly enjoyed their day and plenty of learning has followed on.

We started Anti-Bullying Week 2023 with Odd Socks Day, to celebrate our differences and recognise that everyone’s unique. We talked about seeing ourselves in a positive way and being proud of how we’re different to others. We went on to think about the importance of the words we say, that we mustn’t say unkind or untrue things about anyone, and the danger of media stereotypes which can allow untruths to get hold of our thoughts. The theme was ‘Make a Noise About Bullying’ and we hope that children will feel confident to speak out against stereotypes, speak up about wrong things that are said or done, and speak to an adult if they become aware of someone being unkind to someone else.

Our Year 5 children and staff have begun their adventure on Residential this October! The children were super excited to set off and started the activities with settling in to the house and dorms and having team-games together in the sunshine. More information on the visit features on the Gallery here.  https://www.hillsideavenue.org/y5-residential-visit-october-2023/

Children from Y1 to Y6 joined together for our 2023 Harvest Assembly. Singing three songs about water along with traditional Harvest singing, Father James shared a message about the importance of water for the harvest, for those in need around the world, and for our own lives.

The assembly was a wonderful occasion with superb singing and thoughtful, attentive children - and many thanks for all the donated food which will go to the Norwich Food Bank.

As part of their volcano learning, Year 3s have been busy making and testing their own volcano models. This created huge excitement and enthusiasm for science and experimenting with chemical reactions, as well as reinforcing the learning the children had done about rock layers, volcano shape and structure and surrounding vegetation - all of which featured in their models. Some 'vegetation' was even destroyed in the 'lava flow', just like might happen in real life!

Our amazing new climbing frame was installed this week! The climbing frame will be ready for use from Monday onwards. The climbing frame has been paid for with a sizeable contribution from Friends of Hillside along with grant funding. Many thanks to the Friends - the children will get so much out of this!

It was so much fun to watch being installed I thought I'd make a quick time-lapse to share, which you can watch here in the gallery.