Sports Day is a highlight of the year for many children in Forest Phase! Competitive heats and relay racing took place alongside team games and challenges like skipping and bat-and-ball races. It was impressive to see how fast some of the children could run and turn whilst balancing the tennis ball on their bat! Well done for a great sports day, and congratulations to Yellow Team for totalling the highest points.

Supporting LIV village in Durban, South Africa, is a long-standing partnership at Hillside. Now part of our Geography curriculum, the week-long whole-school LIV Village week enables children to learn about all aspects of the area, the village, its purpose and the changing landscape of Durban. Brilliant work produced by the children included amazing animals drawn by Y2, research in Y6, study of maps, drama, and even gardening like the children in the village! Children also learned some African language, saying greetings and counting in zulu. We were able to have some live links to the village this year, as Mrs Rayner travelled to Durban specially for our LIV Village week, and joined us via video link as well as gathering all sorts of resources, photos and information to enrich our studies.

On 5th May 2023 we had a wonderful Coronation celebration day in school! Super singing, a role-play coronation, flags, artwork and our delightful coronation cakes made by our kitchen team - which we had for an indoor picnic! Well done everyone for contributing to this historic occasion.

See more photos and hear our singing in the gallery here: https://www.hillsideavenue.org/kings-coronation-celebration-day/

Our Y6 children had an amazing time at their 2023 North Yorkshire residential. Every day, the excitement built up as they explored more of the Yorkshire landscape through adventurous activities - climbing, beck scrambling, canoeing, bouldering, and even dry-slope sledging! 

Daily updates from the visit can be seen along with lots more pictures in the gallery. https://www.hillsideavenue.org/y6-residential-visit-2023/

We had a wonderful experience with our Norfolk Music Hub Jazz ensemble on 29^th March. Children learned the basics of jazz and blues music – how rhythm, off-beat notes and syncopation create the ‘feel’. The ensemble group said our school was one of the best audiences they have had, with our children joining in enthusiastically with rhythms, riffs, sung refrains and coming up with ideas about oceans, swimming and plastic pollution for an improvised blues sad song! Children asked the group how long they have been playing instruments, what it is like to be in a band ‘on tour’ and whether the oboe is the hardest instrument to play. The group, all of whom are Norfolk music teachers, mainly started young, playing instruments from around the age of 6, and they have come together just for this tour of schools (and rather brilliantly, we would say!)

It was a great experience for all.  

Video clips of the performance are in the gallery here: https://www.hillsideavenue.org/jazz-ensemble/

The Year 5 children began their residential by exploring the site and looking ahead to the activities to come. Over the three days they took part in shelter building, canoeing, zipline, team challenges, fire-lighting and archery. News and more photos that were published each day can be seen here on the school gallery page here: https://www.hillsideavenue.org/y5-residential-visit-2023/

Well done to all the children and many thanks to all our school staff for the amazing Christmas productions this year. Have a look at our gallery for a full video of the Polar Express and more pictures here.

Polar Express

The angel who nearly missed it all

We had a delicious Christmas lunch today, enjoying turkey, sausages, vegetables, roast potatoes, stuffing, followed by ice cream dessert. A huge thank you to our wonderful kitchen staff who cook superb food every day and today prepared over 400 Christmas lunches!

Well done and thank you to our wonderful Year 6 Christmas Choir who sang beautifully to bring Christmas cheer to everyone at the dementia cafe. It was a magical atmosphere and lovely to hear many of the audience join in with old favourite carols and Christmas songs. We hope to have stirred up some happy Christmas memories and are grateful for the warm welcome we received.

We were pleased to be able to hold two Open Days for parents with children due to start Nursery or Reception in September 2023. 

The Open Days were on Monday 14th November at 9:15 and Wednesday 16th November at 1:30.

We also had six visit sessions which parents could book to come and see our Reception or Nursery classes in action.

More details are on our website here.  https://www.hillsideavenue.org/open-days-2023/

It was great to have a big turnout for each of these events, and thank you to everyone who attended for sharing in an experience of our school.