Big thanks to our PTFA

Back in June the PTFA Committee met with Mr Gallagher to set out our funding goal for this year, it was decided that we would provide £600 per year group for enrichment activities to bring the children's learning to life. So far we have provided a Wendy House and play guttering for Reception, new outdoor learning equipment for Year 1, some Titanic resources for Year 2 and there are some upcoming visits and special guests that we have paid for in the Juniors (we don't want to spoil the surprise!). It has been so nice to see the money raised by the school community put to use by the pupils and knowing that all our hard work is directly benefiting our children!

One of the ways in which we raise money for these activities is our Christmas Fundraising. This year we made a magnificent £3200 in total. This includes the Reception Children's Tea Towels, Personalised Christmas Cards, the Raffle, Santa's Grotto and of course our wonderful Christmas Enterprise Fayre. The Junior classes that took part did an amazing job, the ‘Dragons’ were so impressed with their professional approach to pitching and invested in all of the ideas. In total the enterprises raised £395.96 which was passed directly back to the classes to choose how to spend. The ultimate winners were Barn Owls who ran a variety of stalls and made £67.40 profit!

To help us to continue raise funds the PTFA has purchased a shed, this will be used for both storage and to provide refreshments at outdoor events, such as sports day, we hope that this investment will make a real impact on the way we fundraise.

You may have also noticed that the new climbing area has now been completed in the Junior Playground, this was spearheaded by our previous Chair Julie and has made a massive impact on the children's free times. In total the PTFA contributed £3500 to this project - definitely money well spent, thank you all for making it possible!

As always, the PTFA is open to new ideas, if you'd like to get involved or find out more then please drop us a message via our Facebook page or email us at silverhillptfa@gmail.com.

U11 Girls Midlands Regional Finals

It was a very cold and windy early start on Saturday 9th March for our amazing Girls Mini Soccer team took part in the Midlands regional final. As the only team representing Derbyshire they performed admirably throughout the day. Each game was evenly contested as they won 1, drew 1 but lost 3 meaning we didn't progress any further. Unfortunately, it wasn't our day but Mr Turner was so incredibly proud of the achievement to get to regional finals. Outstanding girls - well done!

Dance Festival 2019

On Friday 8th March some of our Year 6 children took part in the annual Dance Festival run by Derby City SSP. This year's theme was 'Number ones' and Mrs Brundish decided to go with 'Born this way' to reinforce the 'tolerance' stand of our SPIRIT values. The children have been so committed to rehearsals and practising at home over the past month or so and it really paid off! It was an utterly superb performance which can be viewed here and the children received lots of compliments from spectators on the day due to their superb timing and enthusiasm. A huge well done to all involved. 

Year 5 and 6 Bikeability

Many congratulations to our Year 5 pupils who, over recent weeks, have all completed their Level 1 bikeability with Cycle Derby and to the Year 6 pupils who have all passed their Level 2 bikeability and are now competent cyclists on the roads.Well done to you all!

World Book Day 2019

A massive thank you to everyone who took part in our World Book Day celebration, including our very own Freddie Mercury (a.k.a. Mr Turner - we were a little confused about the 'book' connection - apparently it's an autobiography!) Over the day children enjoyed reading,listening to and sharing some of their favourite and books taking part in book swaps while our parents enjoyed attending our PTFA Book Cafe and the launch of our latest book fair. Thank you to every one for supporting World Book day and remember - keeeeeep reading.....

Year 4 skype with Cressida Cowell

Year 4 have been doing a lot of work in their writing and reading lessons linked to Dragons, so on 6th March they really enjoyed their Skype and live Q'N'A session with the author of 'How To Train Your Dragon' - Cressida Cowell. They took lots of tips away for their writing and were really inspired!
Miss Garrington

Year 3 trip to Conkers

On Wednesday 6th March, Year 3 had an amazing day out at Conkers to support our Romans theme work! We met a Centurion, designed our own mosaics, talked to a Roman slave and attended a workshop with Boudicca.  Our behaviour was amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed our day from beginning to end!

Mrs Roberts

Dualthlon Competition

On Tuesday 5th March, 2 teams of Year 6 boys and girls went to Moorways Stadium to compete in a  dualthlon competition. With Emily as the only year 5 representative, there were some brilliant individual performances and also relay performances saw our 'B' team claim 5th position and our 'A' team claiming yet another gold to continue our success so far this year! Well done to our superstars!

FS stare into Space

Mr Turner the real life astronomer! We even got to look through his telescopes. What a fabulous experience as we come to the end of our Space topic

Dealing with internet safety and fake news

Following a week of heightened concern for children and online safety we would again like to remind our parents and families of some recommended web links where you can find reliable and factual help and advice when discussing internet safety and fake news with your child at home. If you have any specific concerns please speak to your child's class teacher or Silverhill Safeguarding leads Mr Gallagher, Mr Burley or Miss Nevin.

• E-safety - Net Aware - Stay up to date and keep your child safe in today's digital world

• CEOP - National Crime Agency - Child Exploitation and Online Protection

• E-safety - Think You Know - CEOP E-safety age related advice for adults and children

• UK Safer Internet - Stay up to date and keep your child safe in today's digital world

• National Online Safety - online safety guides for parents and careers

BBC Newsround have produced an article you might wish to share with your child regarding this week's news.

Year 4 Indoor Athletics

Many of the Year 4 children had a wonderful afternoon taking part in the Indoor Athletics Festival on Wednesday 27th February, held by Derby City SSP. All of the children got to take part in various different athletics activities, including javelin, speed bounce, long jump and vertical jump. Despite it not being a competition, we had 5 individual medal winners! What a brilliant achievement! Well done to all of those involved. 
Mrs McBride

Year 2 Indoor athletics

On Wed 27th February Mrs Brundish took a selection of Year 2 pupils to the Sporthall Athletics competition run by Derby City SSP. The children were chosen based on their attendance at a variety of sports clubs on offer at the school as well as displaying a positive attitude in the PE lessons. The children were able to move around a selection of different activities such as vertical leap, standng long jump and chest push. All the children were fantastically behaved and showed off their skills with a smile on their face. We also had 6 individual winners with Toby, Alex, Amelia, Matilda, Elodie and Seth all winning events! Well done to everyone involved.

Super Safety Seymour in Year 2

On Tuesday 26th February the Year 2 children took part in a Carbon monoxide safety workshop to help them learn about how to keep themselves and their families safe at home.  They met" Super Safety Seymour" the bear who told them all about the dangers of carbon monoxide. He also explained to them how to check their homes are safe as it is an invisible poisonous gas.  They enjoyed taking part in a variety of interactive activities and role play tasks and they all became experts!  During the rest of the term the children will also all have the opportunity to take Safety Seymour home to reinforce their understanding and awareness of carbon monoxide.
At the end of the day they all were given a carbon monoxide detector so they they could pass on their knowledge to their families and keep everyone safe.
Mrs Goodchild

A new floor for FS2

Just before 1/2 term, it was all hands on deck to clear the FS2 unit in order for our new floor to be fitted over the holidays. The children went and had fun with Mrs McBride and Miss Kersey in Year 4 while some willing volunteers from Year 6,  Mr Turner, Mr Seeley, Mr Coupland, Mrs Gratton as well as Mrs Allen and Miss Foster spent the afternoon moving everything out. The floor fitters ripped up the old stinky carpet and replaced it with new hardwearing flooring and then it was just a matter of putting everything back in. Again, there were lots of willing helping hands, and we managed to finish the job in one morning! Wrens and Robins are super happy with our new beautiful floor
Mrs Allen 😊

Year 5/6 Spellathon

On Thursday 14th February, it was the turn of Year 5 and 6 to prove what amazing spellers they are and raise money for books in the process. Many of the children showed excellent perseverance learning the 40 spelling words and when put to the test proved that hard work pays off! At the last count the sponsorship from the children raised £974.06 for new books. Over the next few weeks classes will be asked to choose some new reading books as well as new dictionaries, thesaurus' and atlas' for the year 5/6 wing. Thank you to all the parents and families for supporting and sponsoring the children.

Year 5/6 Sportshall athletics

On Tuesday 12th February our Year 5 and 6 boys and girls went to Derby Arena for Sportshall Athletics competition. They had to perform 2 field and 2 track events each. We had some fantastic individual results throughout the afternoon and also performed brilliantly in the relay races too! Well done - super effort all round!!

Leigh Timmis back in school

Following on from his wonderful presentation to our Year 6 children in December, on Friday 8th February, Leigh Timmis returned to Silverhill to inspire the rest of our Key Stage 2 children.

Leigh personifies every value within our Silverhill Spirit and encouraged the children to believe that, if they set their mind to it, they could achieve anything they wished for.

Having cycled around the World, and more recently set a new record for cycling across Europe, Leigh once again proved that he is a truly phenomenal man with a phenomenal story - thank you Leigh!

Internet Safety Day 2019

Tuesday 5th February saw 2,100 school and organisations take part in Safer Internet Day 2019 with the theme: Together for a better internet. At Silverhill we take internet safety very seriously so over this week all pupils have engaged in a wide range of activities and discussions appropriate to the age to further develop their understanding of internet safety. We now encourage our parents and families to take the opportunity to discuss internet safety in the home. For help and advice please use the following recommended websites for the very latest in internet safety and gaming advice.

• E-safety - Net Aware - Stay up to date and keep your child safe in today's digital world

• CEOP - National Crime Agency - Child Exploitation and Online Protection

• E-safety - Think You Know - CEOP E-safety age related advice for adults and children

• UK Safer Internet - Stay up to date and keep your child safe in today's digital world

• National Online Safety - online safety guides for parents and careers

Year 3/4 gymnastics success

Surely not another Silverhill sporting triumph??! Oh YES indeed... and in fantastic style!! On Thursday 31st January our Y3/4gymnastics teamswent to Mickleover Gymnastics Club and totally smashed the city championships! The girls had to learn 2 routines and also perform on the vault. After they all performed magnificently, winning gold and bronze in the team event and matching that individually with Sophia and Maisie winning the gold and bronze respectively. What truly amazing achievement girls - well done from us all!

Year 4 Curling

On Tuesday 29th January, the Year 4's really enjoyed taking part in the Curling Competition at Derby Arena. Showing lots of SIlverhill SPIRIT, they had to work as a team to support one another, thinking about the force in which they had to push the curling stones and the best strategy to win. Well done children.
Miss Garington

Fantastic Footsal girls

Well done to Ellen, Kaylah, Tess, Ayla, Imogen and Fearne, our Year 6 girls footsal team who won the Under 12s County Finals at Derby Arena. Although the only Primary school there, our girls totally smashed the competition, winning 4 games and drawing 1, claiming the top spto on the table and therefore winning the competition. The entire squad played their hearts out and made Coach Turner and the Silverhill supporters very proud indeed! Onto the regionals next - come on girls!

Sporting success

Autumn term at Silverhill saw an unprecedented level of success in PE competitions and record numbers of children taking part in competitions,  festivals or activity days. We secured Gold in 11 different competitions, Silver in 4 and Bronze in 1. We also had 2 individual silver awards and 1 bronze.

The table below shows how many children have been involved in 1 or more competitions, festivals or activity days in the Autumn term - an amazing achievement!
Mrs Brundish

Year group	Number of ch’n	% of cohort
1	60	100%
2	60	100%
3	10	16%
4	15	25%
5	23	38%
6	49	86%