End of term...

Owing to the significant number of pupils and staff who are ill as a result of an extremely infectious virus the governors have taken the decision to close the school a day early in order to safeguard the health of the rest of the school population. I am sure you appreciate that this decision has not been taken lightly but we have more than 100 pupils suffering from the illness.

School will be closed from Thursday December 20 ^th and will reopen on Wednesday January 9 ^th.

I hope you all have a very happy, peaceful and healthy festive season.

Kate Nash

Happy Christmas!

Despite an unbelievable amount of children being absent from school due to colds, flu, sickness, headaches and high temperatures, the remaining Key Stage 2 children this week gave 3 superb musical performances. Featuring songs, carols, poems, instrumental performances and our 'award winning' school choir, parents and careers where all highly entertained.

 

 See you in 2013! 

Choir Success

Many congratulations to our fabulous school choir who came 1st in the Westfield School Choir competition winning £500 for the school. The children really pulled out all the stops and beat off the other schools with their beautiful version of 'Old Man Winter', as well as wonderful renditions of Silent Night (Stille Nacht) and 'This Child'; being judged on different categories including accuracy, posture and tone. Thank you again to the parents who came to support the children, Trent Barton for their services to take the children to and from town and to Mr Roberts for putting together the music. Well done choir - you've made us very proud!

PS Apologies for the low resolution videos, due to the large file size of the high resolution. The children still sound wonderful!

Panto Treat

It's been a busy week in Key Stage 1 this week with two performances to parents of the Key Stage One Nativity 'Off to Bethlehem' and the separate Foundation Stage Nativity '***' which were all enjoyed by a full hall of supporting parents. On Friday all the Year 1 and 2 pupils enjoyed a trip to the pantomime to see 'Peter Pan'. With lots of classic lines and poor jokes the children had a wonderful time.

We're off to Bethlehem.....

It's nativity time again and this year our Year 1 and 2 pupils are taking us 'Off To Bethlehem! In a full dress rehearsal, the children performed wonderfully well to all the Staff, Foundation Stage and Key Stage 2 pupils in preparation for their full performances to parents. We saw some superb acting from Mary and Joseph, Kirthi and Oliver, and a beautiful solo from Angel Gabriel James.Well done to all the children for speaking so clearly and to all the teachers who put it all together!

Choir success

Well done to the school choir who, yet again, made it through the first stage of the Westfield School Choir competition. The children, led by Mrs Nash, sang three songs beautifully to sing again next in the final next Wednesday. Many thanks to the parents who came to support the children and to Trent Barton for their services to take the children to and from town.

Exciting times ahead!

 We are growing! As our pupil number rise our school is getting fuller! We are delighted to announce exciting times ahead as we reveal plans for the several extensions to the school. These plans include a new entrance and office area, a new classroom off the upper junior wing, internal changes to the foundation stage wing to create office and meeting space AND the building of a new classroom and meeting room connecting the hall, Key Stage 1 and foundation wings! If you wish to look in  more detail at the plans for all this work they will be on display in school soon. Watch this space for more information as the project moves forward!

Samaritain's Purse shoeboxes

Many, many thanks to the 30 children and families who kindly put together a shoebox full of gifts for children in a third world country. You kindness will bring an enormous amount of happiness to a young child Thank you.

Book fair thanks

Many thanks to everyone who visited our book fair over the last week. Your support this time provides the school with £225 commission to spend on new books for the school libraries and reading books.

Children in Need

On Friday 16th November, children and staff all donned their pyjamas and their onesies in support of Children in Need. With all their £1 contributions Silverhill proudly raised a total of £430 to send to the charity. Well done everyone!

Ocean enrichment

 On Thursday 15th and Friday 26th pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 took part in our enrichment sessions, term on the theme of 'Oceans'. Children spent their afternoons on a wide range of activities, from debating to the Titanic.

Samaritain's Purse

This year Silverhill is proud to again support the Samaritan's Purse 'Operation Christmas Child' appeal. Pupils have brought home information leaflets on how to fill a shoebox as a Christmas gift for a child in a third world country but if you still need a leaflet please see the school office. Previous years have seen us send over 50 boxes to Romania and Mozambique. This year, with your support, we would love to donate even more. To find out more visit www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk. Thank you for your support.

Year 5 and 6 visit Cadbury World

On Friday 9th November all our Year 5 and 6 pupils went on a trip to Cadbury World as part of their chocolate theme topic this term. The children explored the Aztec world of Mexico where chocolate originates from and how the name Cadbury began back in 1824. They watch the production line and heard how chocolate bars are designed, created and advertised. The children had a wonderful day out and may had sampled a little bit of Cadbury magic along the way!

Year 1 visit Pickford's House

On Thursday 8th November our Year 1 pupils visited Pickford House, Derby, where they learnt all about life before electricity. The children particularly enjoyed learning about the toys children would play with in Victorian times and how hard the servants had to work.

EVENTS...Ladies night and Open Morning...

Ladies Night @ Silverhill

Please come along and support the PTFA Ladies Night

Thursday, 8th November 7 – 9 p.m. 

Tickets are still available for this event 

Please contact the school office for more details

Open Morning

@ Silverhill 

Saturday 10th November 10am - 12noon.

For the chance to look round the school for new and prospective parents.

Year 4 trip to Bosworth

Text to follow....

Emerald Vice Captain

Congratulations to Casey who joins the Samuel, Bethany and Wisaal in the Emerald Team as their Vice Captain. We are sure you will do us proud!

Oliver Star

Sam, one of our Year 6 pupils is appearing in the Good Companions production of ‘Oliver’ at the Derby Theatre. Sam is performing on Tuesday 16th October, Thursday 18th October and Saturday evening on 20th October. Please go along and support him if you can! Tickets are available from Derby Theatre Box Office Tel: 01332 593939 or www.derbytheatre.co.uk

Dig and Chips

After school on the previous two Fridays we have seen an army of staff, parents, friends and pupils who have stayed after school for our 'Dig and Chips' nights. Our school grounds have been chopped, swept, planted, preened and generally tidied and are now looking better than ever, dispite the weather! Many, many thanks to everyone who came to help. We hope the yummy chips made all the hard work worth while!

Harvest thank you....

On Friday 5th October we held a very enjoyable Harvest Festival Assembly and the staff from the Padley Centre were very grateful for the food and toiletries they collected from us. Many thanks for all your generous donations.

CBeebies Get Well Soon....

You may recall back in July that we had a visit from Kindle Entertainment who chose Silverhill as a venue for making an exciting new pre-school series for CBeebies. The programme named 'Get Well Soon' is aimed at easing children’s fears about illness and going to the doctor’s surgery. We have now been informed that our pupils will appear in the programmes to be televised on  Wednesday, 21st November - Easy Wheezy (dealing with Asthma and Lungs) and Wednesday, 28th November - Sugar Sweet (dealing with Diabetes)

We hope you can tune in!

Harvest Festival donations

 As we move into October,our thoughts turn towards the Harvest Festival. This year we are asking for donations towards the Padley Centre in Derby to support the homeless and vulnerable individuals in the local area. Please find below a list of items which are of most benefit to the centre to ensure that they are able to provide support all year round.

Perishables - fruit, vegetables, eggs, cheese, margarine/butter

Other food and drink - drinking chocolate, sugar, tinned meat and fish, salt and pepper, flour, sauce and gravy granules, fruit squash, coffee, milk power/long life, sandwich fillings, tomato/brown sauce, tinned tomatoes or other tinned vegetables, tinned puddings and custard, mayonaise

Toiletries and cleaning materials - disposable razors, shaving foam, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shower gel, deodorant, liquid soap, kitchen/toilet rolls, washing powder, washing up liquid, sanitary towels

Many thanks in anticipation of you generosity.

School Council

Congratulations to Abigail and Ajay who have been voted as School Council President and Vice President respectively. The staff are looking forward to working with them leading the school council in helping give our pupils a voice in the running and improving of our school.

George and his torch

On Tuesday 18th September, local torch bearer George brought his Olympic torch to show the pupils and staff. George, a GCSE pupil at John Port, carried the torch through Derby on 29th June after being nominated by the school. Archie's cousin, George is 14 years old and has Achondroplasia which is the most common form of Dwarfism. Due to Spinal problems, he had metal rods inserted into his back when he was around 6 years. This has vastly reduced his agility, as he is unable to bend his back as everyone else can. George has been involved in sport Locally, Nationally and Internationally from a very young age, including competing in the World Games, every 4 years in Toronto, Paris and Belfast, He will be going to the next World Games which will be in the USA in 2013. Nationally, George started competing in the National Games held by the Dwarf Sports Association uk (DSAuk) when he was around 3-4 years. At that age he was throwing the Tennis Ball, and Frisbee and ran 10 metres. He then progressed onto Boccia, Swimming and Table Tennis as well as the normal team sports. In the last few years he has settled on the sports he likes, so he now competes in Table Tennis, Hockey and Basketball. George was kind enough to let all the children in school have a hold of his torch, so from all at Silverhill... Thank you George and good luck in your next competitions.

House Captains 2012-13

Congratulations to all the Year 6 pupils chosen to represent their House Teams this year.The children confidently gave some magnificent speeches and once the votes came in the results are as follows...

Ruby Captains - Angelina and Tarren 

Vice Captains - Lauren and Arjan

Amethyst Captains - Grace and Harry 

Vice Captains - Darcie and Matt

Diamond Captains - Imogen and Danny 

Vice Captains - Lucy and Archie

Emerald Captains - Bethany and Samuel 

Vice Captain - Wisaal

We are confident you will all do a wonderful job!

New chicken pen

As the first week back draws to a close, many of you have enjoyed watching the chickens enjoying their new home! With a lot of hard work from The Princes Trust the old pen was removed and a lovely new home was created. On a sunny August day many children and Mrs McBride and Miss Smith returned to school to see the Mayor of Derby officially open the new pen. Thank you to the Princes Trust for all their hard work. We are sure the chickens will be very happy in their new home!  

Miss Brandrick becomes Mrs McBride

On a warm and dry August day a group of our Year 5 and 6 pupils from the school choir sang beautifully at Sudbury Church during a very special marriage ceremony after they watched our very own Miss Brandrick become Mrs McBride!. Later, Mr and Mrs McBride were joined by lots of the teachers who help celebrate and dance the night away at the fairytale wedding.

Congratulations to the very happy couple!

Welcome back....

Welcome back to a new school year!

We hope you have had a lovely break and ready for the adventure to begin!

Come back later to find out what some of the teachers have been doing over the summer and to read all the latest news from Silverhill!

Olympic ticket winners....

Congratulations to Samuel who won 3 tickets to the paraolympics in September and also Laruen and Jamie who won ticket to an olympic football match after Mrs Brundish picked their names from the draw. We were allocated the free tickets due to the amount of work we have been doing around London 2012.  We hope the children enjoy this fantastic opportunity at this ‘once in a lifetime’ event!

Leavers...

At the end of an emotional day we say so long and farewell to our Year 6 pupils who move on to pastures new. We also say goodbye and good luck to Ms Rawson, Mrs Golder, Mrs Puszczynska, and Mrs Lowes and Megan. Good bye and good luck to you all!

Prize Giving

Congratulations to all our fantastic award winners this year. A lovely assembly attended by all pupils, staff and parents, saw Alice, Fynnly, Shammar, Alana, Emily, Charlie, Eleanor, Rachel, Safia, Niamh, Lucy, Grace and Lauren collect awards for their effort, progress or attitude to their school work. For our Year 6 pupils, Michael was awarded the trophy for creative writing, the award for creativity was awarded to Tamara, whilst Danyal received the Shield for effort and Molly was awarded the trophy for most improvement over the year. Year 6 awards were also presented to Catrin for art, Abbie for citizenship, Ben for music, Meazie for sports girl and Osama for sports boy. The award for English was given to Joe and the award for Maths was given to James. Mrs Brundish presented awards to Tommy who received the Golden Boot and Osama was presented with the Player of the Year Award. Finally, Mrs Nash presented this years Headteacher Award to Callum. The end of the assembly was a surprise for Mrs Cannon, when she was presented with her certificate of distinction from the Teaching Awards. Many, many congratulations to all our winners. We are very proud of you all! 

Cinderella and Rockerfella

 

Congratulations to all our fabulous Year 6 pupils in their end of year leavers production of Cinderella and Rockerfella. 

Cinderella and Rockerfella - The Cast

Paraolympian Leon Taylor visits....

On Thursday 12th July paraolympian Leon Taylor came to Silverhill to share his Olympic experiences with the children and to show off his Olympic torch. Leon talked about his condition, cerebral palsy, which affects the left side of his body and showed children photographs from when he represented England at 7-a-side football in the 2008 Beijing games. The children asked him lots of questions and some of them even had a hold of the torch!

It's show time....

The Year 6 Leavers production is almost here and after a superb dress rehearsal for the whole school, the stage is set, the props are ready and costumes all all hanging! See the short video in the main blog from the dress rehearsal for a sneak preview! Tickets are still available so if you haven't got yours yet please contact the school office.

CBeebies in school....

An exciting day today as the CBeebies television crew came into school to film some of our Reception and Year 1 pupils for a new programme 'Get Well Soon'. The school was chosen due to our fabulous grounds so thank goodness it didn't rain!

Football Presentation

Text to follow...

Key Stage 2 Sports Day

A sea of Olympic colours warmed up in energetic style ready for the Key Stage 2 sports day. We weren't going to let the threat of a bit of rain stop us.... Until the lightening bolted, thunder rumbled and the heavens opened and flooded the playground! We'll keep our fingers crossed for the re-scheduled date 16th July and hope for better weather! 

Food Fayre

On 27th June the school hall was full again and smelt delicious with all the wonderful cakes, biscuits and other scrumptious delights for the Food Fayre. Thank you to all the teachers for their 'fruit based' cakes,  the children for their 'food from the school grounds' inspired cooking and the parents for supporting the children in their biscuit making. Everyone greatly enjoyed the tasting!

Key Stage 1 sports day

Despite the forcast of heavy rain, a very special Olympic Key Stage 1 was a great success. With Olympic themed events including gymnastics, javelin, running, throwing as well as the traditional egg and spoon, sack and obstacle races the children had a great time and, as ever, took part with enthusiam and good spirit. Thank you to all the parents who turned up to support and encourage the children. This year saw the red China team take 1st place! Special mention to our 'Performance of the Day' pupils....Charlie and Oliver (reception), Kian and Shannar (Year 1) and Tyra and Deborah (Year 2).

Community Torch Relay comes to Silverhill

The school hall was again flooded with colour today for the Community Torch Relay. Children dressed in the colours of the Olympic rings and wore the most amazing home made 'flame hats' to welcome the arrival of the torch from Mickleover Primary in a special assembly. The children then lined the path as the Silverhill torch began it's journey to Ravensdale Infants. Well done children for your superb efforts on the hats, thank you parents for your support, the staff for all their help on the day, particularly Mrs Lowe and a massive thank you to Mrs Brundish for organising the event. Another very special day to remember. Click through to the full blog to see more photographs of the event.

Community Torch Relay in pictures

Our fantastic torch all ready and waiting!

Megan, Osama and Archie - our Community Torch Bearers.

Mickleover Primary arrives through an archway of Silverhill Staff.....

And are welcomed by the applause of Silverhill.

Callum tells us about the importance of the Olympic Values...

and Osama.... 

and Megan tell us how proud they are to be chosen as torch bearers.

Mickleover's torch 'kisses' the Silverhill torch. 

Thanks to James, Maddie and Sajun for delivering Mickleover's torch to us.

Our torch leaves on it's journey to Ravensdale Infants through a line of our Key Stage 1 pupils....

Down the path past Year 3 and 4 with our elected Torch Guards...

Out of the school gates past lots of cheering Mums and Dads...

Down the road past Year 5 and 6 (still cheering!)....

Past lots of pipping horns from the passing cars....

A sudden burst of energy....

To cross the main road....

To finally arrive at Ravendale Infants as they line the pavement chanting 'Sil - Ver - Hill'

We are welcomed into school to watch a lovely cheer leading display....

Our torcher bearers pass on the torch to George from Ravensdale....

and the 'flame' is passed on to continue it's journey!