Happy Christmas!

With some very tired and very excited children (and staff too!) we made it to only four sleeps to go! May we take this opportunity to say a big thank you for all the cards, gifts and well wishes from our pupils and families. We wish you all very happy Christmas and we look forward to seeing you in 2019!

Two very different Assemblies!

At the end of a very busy term the school enjoyed two very different but very special assemblies! On Wednesday 19th December the whole school filled the hall for a very energetic 12 Days of Christmas. The next day, by complete contrast our Year 2 pupils shared their Christingles - telling us all about the meaning of each element of the symbolic object and sang Away in a Manger so beautifully, leaving us feeling very festive indeed.

Christmas at All Saints Church

On Thursday 20th December, on a beautiful sunny morning Silverhill Primary walked to All Saints Church for a lovely Christmas service. Thank you to the school choir and our Year 6 readers who kept each of the services running smoothly and also to the parents and adults who joined the three groups during the walk. It was beautiful setting to remember the true meaning of Christmas.
Mr Burley

Our amazing PTFA

You may have noticed that the new climbing area has now been completed in the Junior Playground, this was spearheaded by the PTFA's 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!

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears for FS2

Details coming soon

Hansel and Gretel Theatre Trips

Year 3 children enjoyed a trip to see a performance of Hansel and Gretel at Derby Theatre on 6^th December 2018.  We were the first group of school children to arrive at the theatre and were seated straight away. The children were an absolute credit to our school, waiting patiently, full of anticipation and excitement. They watched in awe as the cast of about eight performers not only acted but also sang, danced and played a variety of musical instruments. It really brought to life the story that we had been reading in English earlier that week.   The ice-creams in the interval were a big hit too! A fantastic performance with fantastic children and super organisation by Derby Theatre.To round of an extremely busy and exciting first term, Years 4 and 5 went to watch Hansel and Gretel at Derby Theatre. We knew we were in for a treat when we arrived, with front row seats and a magnificent set design! We watched with great anticipation as the trail of breadcrumbs led us into the deep, dark forest, where we were then greeted by a delicious house made of sweets! However, we held tightly to our seats, as the wicked witch soon had us under her spell! 
Mrs Hardy

We all thoroughly enjoyed the magical and enchanting production of this well-known fairy tale and we all managed to escape the forest and get back to school in time for lunch, without being cast under the wicked witch's spell!  

Mrs McBride

It's behind you Year 2!

On Friday 14th December Year 2 visited Derby Arena to see "Jack and the Beanstalk". All the children enjoyed the fantastic show which was full of fun and laughter and lots of songs.  We are all singing and clapping along by the end. A great way to end a very busy and exciting term.


Mrs Goodchild

Leigh Timmis inspires our Year 6

Leigh Timmis is a world record breaking, round the world cyclist and Year 6 had the opportunity to meet him and listen to his inspirational story. As part of a whole day arranged for us by Cycle Derby, Leigh spoke to the children about believing in themselves and dreaming big and how, if they set their mind to it, they could achieve anything they wished for.

Leigh, who had previously spent seven years on a mammoth 44,000-mile cycle across the globe, left the most western tip of Europe – Cabo da Roca in Portugal – on September 10th, intent on breaking the existing record of 24 days.

He arrived at the most Eastern tip in Ufa, Russia, close to the border of Kazakhstan, having completed the 3,956-mile (6330km) ride in an extraordinary 16 days, 10 hours and 45 minutes.

Leigh told Year 6 that it was an epic journey across ten countries through heat, through exhaustion, through everything  they could imagine. 

Leigh’s journey took him though 10 countries: Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, before arriving in Russia.

He averaged around 250 miles a day, cycling 14 hours a day.

A truly phenomenal man with a phenomenal story - thank you Leigh!

Foundation Stage Church visit

Robins and Wrens had a lovely time visiting Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Thursday 14th December.  They enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree with their super star and stable decorations and singing a few of their songs from their nativity.  Thank you to all the people at the Lady of Lourdes Church for making us feel so welcome.

A Fantastic Finish for Year 6

It was an early start for our Year 6 on Thursday 14th December, as they travelled to Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, home to the code breakers during World War 2. The children were given a guided tour of the site to experience what it may have been like for the tens of thousands of highly intelligent individuals who helped in essential but highly secretive code breaking missions during the war. They saw first hand the incredible Enigma machines and heard about the work of Alan Turing in creating the Bombe machine. After trying their own hand at breaking some codes, the children left in awe of the incredible odds that the code breakers worked through. A truly fascinating finish to the Year 6 autumn theme.

A Truly Fantastic Finish for Year 4

Year 4’s Visit to the CAPITAL! What a FABULOUS FINISH!

On Thursday 14th December, the Year 4 children had an extremely early start (6:45am at school to be precise!) to the day, as the long-awaited trip to LONDON was about to begin…

Arriving in London, we were soon able to spot some of the infamous landmarks that we had been learning about in our Theme work all term! We visited Buckingham Palace – Her Majesty was at home! We had the most wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit the Houses of Parliament, where we lucky enough to sit in the House of Lords whilst the Arch Bishop of Canterbury was delivering a speech! This was topped off by a workshop and a visit from an actual LORD! We encountered the extremely regal ‘Changing of the Guards’ and got up close with Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflower’ painting in the National Gallery.

We spent the evening walking around Trafalgar Square and soaked up the festive feel as we had our photo taken in Covent Garden. This was all topped off by a visit to The Cambridge Theatre where we watched the West End version of, ‘Matilda’ the musical.

On our second day, we had time to visit the Natural Science Museum and take part in some awesome ‘hands-on’ science experiments in the Wonderlab and our very own Professor Felix was chosen to take part in the ‘Flash, Bang, Wallop’ live experiment! We all then rode the London Eye, with many of us overcoming our fear of heights. We had the most fabulous view over London! We then managed to experience the 4D show!

We managed to complete all of this in just two days and clocked-up sixteen and a half miles on foot.

Both the staff and the children have created memories for life! Here’s to next time….

A Fantastic Finish for Year 3

Year 3 finished their ‘Prehistoric Britain’ theme in a blaze of glory, huddled around the fire pit, just like our Stone Age ancestors!  Mr Seeley acted as chief Cave Man, starting and maintaining the fire safely.  We aren’t sure if the Stone Age people would have toasted marshmallows on their fires, but it seemed a shame to waste the opportunity.  We all enjoyed a cosy and fun ‘fantastic finish’ to our wonderful topic!

Mrs Hall

Mini Mozarts in Assembly

Details coming soon

Key Stage 1 Nativity

What fabulous performances our Year 1 and 2 children gave on 11th and 12th December. They performed ‘A Midwife Crisis’ which tells the traditional Christmas story with a twist! The Sparrows were angels, the Swallows were sheep and the Year 2 children played the main roles. The singing was as beautiful as ever and a special mention has to go to Jude for his wonderful portrayal of Steve the donkey and to Alice, our incredible, if a little stroppy, midwife! Well done everyone. 
Mrs Brundish

A fantastic Finish for Year 5

On the 5^th December, Year 5 visited Jodrell Bank for the Fantastic Finish at the end of their Space topic. They took part in different hands- on science activities and tested their science knowledge during two team building workshops – Solar System Science and Mars Rover Challenge.  Even though the weather let us down, a great day was had by all!

Foundation Stage Nativity

Christmas truly began at Silverhill with the FS2 Nativity! We performed to the school as well as to our parents and families and although we were maybe a little nervous, we were so excited to be able to share the hard work we had put in to learning all the songs. We raised the roof with our singing and told the story beautifully. Although special mentions have to go to Bobby and Chloe who played Joseph and Mary, Freya as the Angel Gabriel, Amelie as the Star and not forgetting Felix the Donkey,  every single child performed brilliantly and it was a real team effort. All the FS2 staff were so proud to see the children performing confidently in front of our audiences. Well done everyone! 

Mrs Allen

Year 3/4 Football

On Wednesday 5th December our wonderful team of Year 3/4 girls football team took part in the Derby City SSP festival  with Mr Turner. The team played a total of 7, winning 5 games and drawing 2! Unbelievable results girls - well done!

Super Tess Saving Polar Bears

Thanks to everyone who supported Tessa in her drive to raise money to adopt a polar bear. Tessa had been very busy at home baking cakes and making a wide range of gifts. Along side this, by selling hot chocolate at home time in some very cold weather, the total raised was £119.38! Amazing - now we can afford to adopt two polar bears and one penguin! Thank you to everyone who supported Tess (including Solomon for braving the cold and rain while manning the stall!) 

Future at Silverhill

Future@silverhillprimary.co.uk

Mr Gallagher and Mrs Roberts have written to all parents and stakeholders of Silverhill to gain their opinions and ideas about what the future for Silverhill could look like.

This Review of Silverhill life is currently in phase 1 with a window of opportunity for everyone with a vested interest in Silverhill to share their thoughts by 21^st December. 

In January selected stakeholders will be invited to explore Silverhill’s potential future in more detail. 

By the second half of the spring term the intention is to form a small team of representatives from each of the stakeholder groups that will feed ideas into our future plans.

For more information regarding this exciting project please see the letters section of our website.

Super SPIRIT for Macmillan Cancer Support

Two of our Year 3 children, Alice & Le, have excelled in their fundraising skills this term by organising their own ‘World’s biggest coffee morning’ event to raise money for the Macmillan Cancer Support fund.

Alice’s coffee morning took place on her parents’ farm, in the barn that houses their egg vending machine, and customers to the farm were enticed by a range of tasty cakes and drinks. She also bolstered her funds by putting on a few games, a tombola and a ‘guess the weight of the pumpkin’.

Le’s coffee morning took place at his house where he too entertained his visitors with a range of activities to improve his fundraising potential. ‘Stick the cherry on the cake’ & a ‘make the best train competition’ kept the coffee lovers amused and happy to part with their money for a worthy cause.

Together Alice and Le raised a fantastic amount of £305.60! So great to see our children living our SPIRIT values out of school and for the benefit of others – well done you two!

Christmas jumper and dinner day!

Our wonderful dinner staff have done it again! It may only be the 4th December, but Christmas has arrived at Silverhill! With everyone in their Christmas jumpers, Sally and the kitchen team served a fabulous Christmas dinner to all the pupils and staff whilst our super team of midday supervisors made sure there was a sprinkling of Christmas magic in the hall! Thank you teams for starting Christmas at Silverhill so wonderfully!

Young Journalist Academy

This year, pupils in the Barn Owls are working with Toni, a trained journalist from the Young Journalist Academy.  After the er first two visits this term steps are now well underway process of creating our own School Newsroom and have been busy researching some amazing current news stories.  Hopefully, we will be publishing some of our writing on the Young Journalist Academy website. Exciting times ahead! Look out on the blog next term for more details on where you will be able to read our work!

Postman and Postlady visit

 Robins and Wrens were very excited on Friday 30th November as we had a visit from a real life post man and post lady! We have been learning all about the Jolly Postman, as well as people who help us so we had had lots of questions for our visitors. They told us all about where they deliver their letters and parcels, and what they have to watch out for, including unfriendly dogs and fingers trapped in letterboxes. We found out what happens to a parcel if the person isn't in and they even gave us some 'sorry we missed you' cards for our post office role play in the classroom. Thank you so much to Mr Bains and Mrs Allen (not that one!) for coming to visit us. 

Dragon at Silverhill!

Key Stage 2 children made their first steps towards becoming the next Alan Sugar or Deborah Meaden by pitching their entrepreneurial plans to the Silverhill Dragons!

Enterprise ideas for stalls and games for the Christmas Fair were pitched in a Dragons’ Den style experience to Mr Gallagher, Mr Coupland & Mrs Haywood. The goal was to achieve up to a £25 investment to support the resourcing of their plans.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for the children as the Dragons showed their teeth and refused to invest fully in both Year 5 & 6 projects. Optimistic pricing strategies, confusion over profit margins and issues with suppliers’ costs gave the Dragons plenty to query and doubt! 

The Year 3 & 4 projects ,however,  stole the dragons’ hearts and purse strings with poems and songs to bring their pitches alive! Mayia and Jack pictured above acquired a £15 investment for their Pom Pom baubles!! 

Despite the Y5/6 entrepreneurs leaving the Den with their tails between their legs they did return a week later with improvements to their business plans and won the confidence of the Dragons to secure their full investments!

All in all, it was great fun and a worthy financial education experience! Big thanks to Mrs Haywood, Mrs Jervis and the PTFA for coming up with the idea and funding the projects.

Year 3/4 Spellathon

A massive well done to all the Y3/4 children and thank you to the sponsors who gave their support to the Spellathon. We have raised almost £1000 to buy reading books and class books for Lower Key Stage 2.

The children were given twenty words to learn from the Y3/4 spelling list and many got them all correct! Now let’s see them applied to your everyday writing!

Congratulations to all of you, your teachers are very proud! 

Year 5/6 Gymnastics

On Thursday 29^th November Silverhill competed in the Year 5/6 Gymnastic Competition held at Mickleover Gymnastics Club. We competed in two Groups, Team A and Team B.  Each gymnast had to perform two floor routines and one vault. Schools from all over Derby were there and we were hoping to do well, as we were Gold Winners last year.

We started on the Vault with a practice and then two real performances.  Our best score was the one which went through. We then moved to the floor where we were given time to stretch and practice our movements.  

The first performance was Body Management. This involves demonstrating core strength skills and every gymnast has to perform the exact same routine. Some examples of moves are Dish where your back is pressed firmly into the floor, your squeeze your stomach muscles and keep your chin on your chest while your legs are held 10cms from the floor.  This position has to be held for at least 2 seconds. Japana is where you sit on the floor with your back straight and your legs stretched out.  You then lower yourself, keeping your knees pressed to the floor and toes pointed, until your tummy is touching the floor.

Other skills were Press Up, Splits (right leg, box and left leg) and Bridge. We all showed fantastic strength and performed their routine showing great flexibility.

Next it was time for the Floor Exercise. This is where you have to perform 6 skills which you can choose from a list of 10.  Some of these are: Round off, Y balance, Backward roll to straddle, Handstand forward roll, Bridge and Splits.  You can then either just perform these moves on their own or you can link them by adding dance, leaps and spins to travel and use more of the floor space. 

The more schools we watched, the more nervous we became! When it was finally our time, we knew that we had to show off and perform our best. Our routines were energetic but graceful at the same time.  We all remembered our sequences and were happy with our performances. We showed great Silverhill Spirit by being strong, persevering, respecting other schools when they were competing and well behaved!

Mrs Brundish and Mr Turner were very proud of us all and were very impressed with our creativity with adding dance and extra travelling moves.

A big well done to Year 5/6! Team A placed 1^st and Team B placed joint 3^rd.  This meant that Silverhill were overall WINNERS. Congratulations to Maisy who placed 3^rd individually.

By Tess (Year 6)

Fitness is Fun

30 of our Year 6 pupils had a fun filled fitness afternoon at Derby Tennis Center on Wednesday 28th November with the Derby City SSP Fitness is Fun festival. Showing great Silverhill SPIRIT the children energetically threw themselves into all the activities showing that all our Super Hero moves in PE are really paying off! Well done Year 6!

Futsal Champions

Congratulations to our Year 4/5 Futsal City Champions! (5-a-side football with a smaller heavier ball).  We are very proud of Oliver, Henry, George, Ben, Harry, Issac and Rehan...and of course Coach of the Year Mr Turner who, on Tuesday 27th November traveled to Noel Baker School for the Derby City SSP Futsal competition! Special mention to George for his superb display in goal; an inspired goalkeeping performance saw us win gold, beating Chellaston Juniors 1-0 in an extremely tight final.

Well done to everyone involved in another sporting triumph for Silverhill🌟🤩🥇 - City Futsal Champions!! 

A Fantastic Finish for year 2

Year 2 had a 'Fantastic Finish' to their Where is Sunny?' topic on Tuesday 27th November and all came dressed as animals! They started the day with a spot of animal yoga in the hall. In the afternoon parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles and other family members all joined us to make a shoebox habitat. Mrs Goodchild and Mrs Brundish were amazed with the incredible designs, some of which are on display outside Mr Gallagher's office. 

A huge thank you to everyone who made the day a success!

Science Week

Listen up! Year 4 Science Week

The Year 4 children had a hands-on, jam-packed week learning all about sound and how we hear. 
We learnt all about the parts of the ear as well as finding out how sound travels. The children used lots of different scientific investigation skills, creating sound 'telephones' as well as incorporating various musical instruments into our learning, fine-tuning our listening skills and use of technical terminology. Please see last week's Twitter feed for lots more photos and updates of how the Year 4 Science Week went! 

The Tale of Shakepeare's Macbeth

On Friday 23rd November, our Year 5 and 6 pupils were again visited by The Young Shakespeare Company and on this visit were enthralled by a stunning performance of Macbeth. The children were inspired by just the right mix of participation, explanation and the traditional play itself. It was a real treat to be so close to such excellent actors and the children were utterly mesmerized and buzzing; a memory to inspire and treasure.

Year 2 Fundamentals

On Wednesday 21st November, our two Year 2 classes headed to Derby Tennis Centre for a Fundamentals session with Derby City SSP. the children had a super afternoon with some scooter training and tennis skills before showing off their dance moves. You can visit our Twitter feed to see some more pictures and video from the afternoon.

Year 1 visit Pickford House

On Tuesday 20^th November Year 1 visited Pickford House for the fantastic finish to our ‘Through the Keyhole’ topic. We had a brilliant time and were able to see a house from a long time ago and all of the objects within it. We asked some super questions and were keen to find out as much as we could.

A play date with Year 5/6 and FS2

As we opened our doors for the afternoon of Friday 15th November to welcome prospective new parents and children to our school, our Year 5 and 6 pupils took the opportunity to spend some quality time together. Making new friends, sharing stories and practicing lots of skills our pupils had a fabulous afternoon together. Silverhill Spirit at its best!

CycloX Champions

It was a fresh and crispy day on Thursday 15th November when our CycloX team headed to Markeaton Park to join Derby City SSP and Cycle Derby for their cycling event. Congratulation to our Year 6  team, Addison, Carter, Ayla, Solomon, Charlotte and Imogen, who came away with GOLD! Super Silverhill SPIRIT - well done team!

Year 6 trip to Denstone

On Wednesday 14th November our latest Year 6 recruits returned to Denstone College to experience their cadet accademy for a cadet experience. After a delicious dinner in the beautiful college dining hall, the children tried their skills at marching in formation, wearing the cadet uniform, holding a genuine (but unloaded!) rifle and even sampling some ration pack food! Thank you once again to Denstone College for their wonderful hospitality.

Supporting Children in Need

Due a very busy week ahead, Silverhill dressed in spots and stars for BBC Children in Need on Tuesday 13th November. Thanks to pupils, parents and families generous support we raised a fantastic £386.92p This money will go towards supporting the charity to try to change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people across the UK. Their vision is for every child to have a safe, happy and secure childhood and the chance to reach their potential. Thank you to everyone who supported the day.

Fantastic Phonics

Wonderful news for our Year 2 pupils and Key Stage 1 staff who have received a letter from the Minister of School Standards, Nick Gibb MP, congratulating them on their fantastic year 1 phonics test - well done everyone for helping them on their way to be amazing readers of the future!

100 Years Remembrance

On Friday 9th November, Silverhill pupils marked the 100 years since the end of World War 1 in a special assembly. In front of staff, pupils and parents, featuring a display of work from all Year 6 pupils from the previous 4 years and class poppy wreaths created by every pupil currently in school, the children showed tremendous respect for those who have fought and lost their lives during conflict. Our Year 6 pupils performed war time songs and poetry and shared their own moving poems and their war-time shelters were on display for parents to see. Thank you to Steve Rogers from the British Legion for leading our minute silence, our PTFA for proving tea and coffee and Evie's mum for the wonderful cakes.

Girls soccer success

May we present to you our girls mini soccer team who, on Thursday 8th November, won the County finals! What an incredible achievement. These girls have taken part in our girls footie lunchtime club for most of their time at Silverhill and all that practice has paid off! Congratulations to Coach Turner for his commitment to lunchtime sessions, motivating the girls so well and attending the competitions and to Derby City SSP for providing the pathway to the finals.

Fantastic Futsal

Well done to our Year 6 boys Futsal team who competed in the Derby City SSP competition on Wednesday 24th October. This is a brand new competition for us and the boys did us proud winning 2 of their 3 games. Great job boys!

A huge well done to this awesome bunch who took part in Year 6/7 Futsal this on 6th November. They finished in Silver position after losing 2-1 on penalties in the final to a secondary school! We are so proud of you all and the amazing news is they have made it through to another County final! Amazing result girls with fantastic Silverhill Spirit! 

Stay Safe on the Internet

At Silverhill, we are committed to ensuring all our pupils leave school knowing how to stay safe, especially online. This year, we are introducing a new digital safety scheme of work, produced by Parent Zone and Google called ‘Be Internet Legends’. As a fantastic introduction, we were lucky enough to have them come in to visit us for an assembly. We were introduced to their own special land - Interland. It is made up of four separate places called Reality River, Mindful Mountain, Kind Kingdom and Tower of Treasure. Each place focuses on a key Digital Safety message. The assembly was great fun with lots of joining in, games and important messages, not to mention the incredible set up they came with! We are now all looking forward to finding out more about each of the different areas of digital safety in the classroom and learning how to keep ourselves safe when using the internet.  

Mrs Hall (Y6)

A busy afternoon

It was a very busy afternoon here at Silverhill on the 25th October when we welcomed our Year 4 grandparents and our Year 5 parents into school.

Year 4 really enjoyed their Grandparents Afternoon. They have loved learning about London, exploring our British Values and especially finding out about the traditional British Afternoon Tea. So what better way for generations to join together to share our stories and new learning, than over a good cup of tea and a slice of cake.

Year 5 had an exceptionally hands on afternoon with many parents helping build some wonderful space crafts as a part of this term's Journey into Space theme. Visit our Twitter pages to see the results of  the afternoon's work. There was a huge amount of cardboard, paint and glue but the outcomes were fantastic!

Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who were able to join us and share in our Silverhill SPIRIT.

Ofsted visit

We are proud to be able to share the report from our recent Ofsted inspection. After a Section 8 – short inspection, we are delighted to announce that the Lead Inspector feels that the school has improved considerably since the last inspection and that has found enough evidence over the day that indicated that we could be ‘Outstanding’ therefore she has recommended that our next inspection should be a full two day – Section 5 inspection where hopefully we can demonstrate that we are ‘Outstanding’.

This is fantastic news and everyone within the Silverhill community should be very proud. The support from parents, children and staff was overwhelmingly positive through the inspection. A copy of the letter sent from the inspector can be read here - we hope you enjoy reading how brilliant your children were and thank you once again for your continued support and positivity.