Rehearsals in church

It was a beautiful, clear, sunny morning as all of our 240 Key Stage 2 pupils created the longest crocodile of pupils that Mickleover village has ever seen, as they walked to Our Lady of Lourdes Church. By the afternoon the sun had gone but all of our 120 Key Stage 1 pupils made the same journey. The rehearsals went very well and the children sound fantastic. Please note due to space, no more than 2 family members for the concerts please. Key Stage 2 starting 2pm Wednesday 11th December and Key Stage 1 starting 2pm Thursday 12th December.

Building part 9 - nearly there!

On Wednesday 27th November Year 6 moved out of the hall and into their new classroom! With just a few finishing touches to be completed before Christmas the Curlews are VERY happy to be in their home! By Friday 6th December the Year 1 classroom was about finished and after a busy weekend for Mrs Freeston, the Sparrows have now moved in to their lovely new room! While the builders have moved onto creating new offices and changes to the Foundation Stage block, the end is in sight! The builders' offices have been moved off site and the grounds are beginning to be repaired and cleared. Not long now! The build should be fully completed by the end of term!

Year 6 learn the Dhol

On Monday 9th December 30 lucky Year 6 pupils met Jag, who gave them the wonderful opportunity to learn some basic rhythms on the traditional Indian drum - the dhol. The children learned 4 basic rhythms on the drum followed by a mix of two traditional Indian dances. The children used fantastic listening skills and showed brilliant technique at their new skill. The results, after just a 20 minute session were amazing!

Year 2 at the Pantomime

It's that time of year again when our Year 2 pupils head off to the pantomime! Oh yes they are! On Thursday 5th Decemeber, with a 'Fee Fo Fi Fum' the children laughed, giggled and shouted at poor Dame Trott, who was down on her luck and her daydreaming son Jack was no help at all. When Jack was sent to market to sell their beloved cow Daisy, he came home not with money – but a handful of beans! But things weren’t always what they seemed and soon their luck was on the up and up. The children enjoyed their favourite pantomime characters, jokes galore, fantastic dance routines and lots of audience participation!

Year 5 and 6 gym competition

Many congratulations to our fantastic team of Year 5 and 6 gymnasts who won group silver today in the inter schools competition! Special mention to Anna and Isobel for their individual golds! Super effort girls - you did us proud!

Samaritan's Purse shoebox appeal

Many, many thanks to more than 40 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. The boxes were collected today, packed into the boot by our fantastic School Council and are now on their way to bring a big smile to a young child at Christmas Thank you.

Westfield Christmas Choir Competition

It's that time of year again when the Derby Westfield Choir competition returns and Silverhill has again got a super strong group of singers to try and retain our title! On Monday 5th December we returned to perform for a chance to win £500 for the school. Sounding as beautiful as ever the children will find out on Friday if they have been chosen to sing again  in the grand final on Wednesday 14th December between 11am and 1pm by the Christmas tree on level 1!

Cycle Derby in Year 5

This week, out on the frosty playground, eight year fives went out for a one to one session with the Cycle Derby team to learn how to ride a bike! Learning skills such as balance, braking and figures of eight, our cyclists were eager to ride, and quickly grasped the basics! Next stop, bike ability level 1! Well done and fabulous effort from all who took part.

Open Morning & People's Millions

Open Morning

@ Silverhill

Saturday 23rd November 10am - 12noon.

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

Mickleover RBL needs your help on Monday!!

The Mickleover Royal British Legion (Western Road) has been shortlisted for The People's Millions competition.  The People's Millions is a partnership between Big Lottery Fund and ITV, where the public decide which community projects get up to £50,000 of Lottery funding.

The project will re-surface the existing multi-use games area at the Royal British Legion, replacing the existing concrete with an artificial grass pitch suitable for a wide range of sports.  The current surface is deemed too unsafe to be used by many groups but a new surface will provide the community with more opportunities to participate in physical activities.

To help us win this grant, please vote for this worthy project, by calling the number that will be sent out via text message on Monday.

You only have until midnight to vote and you can vote up to 10 times!  Each vote costs 10 pence.

A short video about this project and the competing project will also be shown on the ITV regional news between 6.00pm and 6.30pm. Further information can be found by clicking here.

Kode Club

Kode club is now very much up and running at Silverhill! With a kind donation of ten raspberry pi computers from the rotary club, the children, will be learning a range of computer science and programming based skills. So far we have discovered all the main components, as well as playing around on our new programming tool 'Scratch'. Anyone interested in our progress can follow us at www.kode-club.com 

Year 3 trip to Derby Museum

In Year 3 we have recently been on a trip to Derby Museum to take part in a ‘Habitat Heaven’ workshop. It was really interesting, we got to explore maps of Derbyshire, look at different habitats in detail and even see some animals up close that come from our local environment. 

Operation Christmas Child

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.

Westfield lights switch on

On Saturday 16^th November 16 members of the award winning Silverhill choir visited Westfield to sing at the big switch on of the Christmas lights. They sounded amazing singing three songs in all in front of a huge audience. The children then had the chance to meet the ‘Luminites’ from Britain’s Got Talent where they got their autographs, lots of photographs and the amazing opportunity to sing with them on stage! What a wonderful opportunity!

Learning Champion

Congratulations to Charlie who becomes our first ‘Learning Champion’. Charlie has really impressed us this term by demonstrating some really important learning qualities; reliable, helpful, enthusiastic, considerate, sensible. By wearing our special plain green tie he represents a positive role model for the other children. Congratulations Charlie – let’s wait and see who else shines brightly in school!

Our House Captains

We are delighted to add Arvin and Danny to our wonderful group of Year 6 house captains. Congratulations boys – we are sure you will enhance the team and undertake your duties with pride.

Children in Need

On 15^th Silverhill Primary supported Children in Need by paying 50p to wear our slippers and pyjamas for the day. All the children, teachers and even the kitchen staff looked warm and snug in a range of nightwear, from dressing gowns to onesies and managed to raise a fantastic £370 for a great cause. Well done everyone!

Book Fair

During parent consultation evenings we opened our usual book fair. Thank you to everyone who came along and purchased a new book, we hope you enjoy then! Thanks to your support we are now able to spend £507 on new books for the new classrooms in school. Thank you!

Building part 8

We’re delighted to announce that the new, improved front entrance to the school is now open and is looking great!

The Year 6 classroom is nearly ready.

The Year 1 classroom now has its roof!

Ofsted

On 15^th and 16^th October we received our latest Ofsted inspection. The report from this inspection has now been published. To read the full inspection report please click here.

Year 6 cadet day at Denstone College

On a very cold and wet Wednesday all our Year 6 travelled to the beautiful Denstone College to take part in a cadet training day to support their topic of World War 2. Upon arrival, the children were treated to a delicious meal in the college hall where the children felt like they were sitting in the set of Hogwarts! After lunch the children took part in a range of activities from putting up authentic World War 2 tents (in the rain!), to drill formations and World War 2 rifles to modern day army essentials. Many thanks to the staff at Denstone for their kindness and hospitality and to the children for their impeccable behaviour.

Building part 7

It's been a busy week for the builders in school during half term!

The new entrance is nearly ready for visitors!

 The scaffolding is down and a new path laid around the Year 6 classroom.

 The brickwork is nearly complete on the Year 1 classroom.

Click through to the blog to see some pictures of how it looks from the inside!

Building part 7 - a sneak peak inside!

Larks's room has a new door!

 As does Barn Owl's!

 New carpet, painted walls and a ceiling in the office corridor.....

 And new security doors.... Nearly there!

Ofsted

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week we had our Ofsted visit and the inspectors will be publishing their report shortly.

We would like to thank all the pupils, parents, staff and governors for contributing towards the inspection. The school is extremely proud of the pupils' behaviour during the visit and the hard work and effort that has gone into preparing for and completing the inspection.

Building Part 6...

Very busy on site today! The new entrance area is starting to look wonderful...

 

and on the inside too!

 

 Suddenly walls appear on the Year 1 classroom.... 

 ....and a roof on the Year 6 classroom!

Building Part 5

 A very large lorry on site today as the concrete is poured into the new Year 1 classroom.

Only a few weeks now and the new entrance will be ready.

 Getting ready for the roof on the new Year 6 classroom.

Larks trip to 'The Journey'

On Wednesday 2nd October our Year 6 Larks class went on a trip to The Holocaust Center to see 'The Journey', in support of their current topic - World War 2. The interactive museum took the children into the life of a Jewish child living in Berlin at the start of the war and proved to be a very thought provoking and enjoyable day. The children learnt a great deal of historical facts balanced with exploring sensitive feelings.The children behaved impeccably, used some fantastic vocabulary in posing some brilliant questions and showed incredible empathy and understanding. What a fantastic day!

Building Part 4

  The front entrance is really starting to look great. The scaffolding has come down and windows are going in. 

The Year 6 classroom walls are up, as is the scaffolding in preparation for the roof.

The ground work is done and the foundations are down for the Year 1 classroom. 

New bike shed

Wow - look at our fantastic new bike shed that was put up over the summer holiday!

School Council

Congratulations to Ben and Danny who have been voted as School Council President and Vice President respectively, and also to Netra and Kieron who take on the roles of treasurer and secretary. 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.

Our house captains

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...

Emerald

Team Captains

Niamh and Ben 

Vice Captain

Ayesha

Ruby

Team Captains

Molly and Jed 

Vice Captains

Taylor and Daniel

Amethyst

Team Captains

Hannah and Kieran 

Vice Captains

Ellie and Charlie

Diamond

Team Captains

Layla and Kieron 

Vice Captain

Netra

Building Part 3

The new entrance has a roof!

The new Year 6 classroom has walls!

The ground is ready for the Year 1 classroom.

What will next week's pictures look like?