The first half term of the new school year seems to have flown by.

All of our new staff and children have settled in to the routine and the year has started well.

Staff News

At the beginning of this term, Janet Barnett, the School Business Manager, gave birth to a little girl. Both are in good health, but at the time of writing, a name has not yet been agreed.

Good News

There has been a slow start to Good News this term but congratulations to the following children, who have all been entered in the Good News book for exceptional work during this half of the term:-

Red Awards: Reception: Ladybirds – Adam M, Megan, Davide, Bilal, Weronika & Suhayb

Dragonflies – Wiktoria, Summer, Mariana, Kellesha, Kyra & Tommy

Caterpillars – Ava, Omar, Mekhi, Billy, Ronnie & Evie

Sport

Football The Golden League is once again underway. There are ten Wandsworth schools taking part this year.The Hillbrook team made a good start to the season winning four games in the first two weeks. Keep it up team!

Wandle Boys Football KS2 boys made a good showing, beating Penwortham in the quarter finals. They went on to meet Fircroft in the semi-finals and were narrowly beaten 1-0 in a close fought match. This was the only goal they conceded in the whole tournament and were placed 3rd in the whole of Wandsworth. Well done boys!

After School Clubs

As you will have seen from the letters sent home, there are a whole lot of after school clubs catering for more than just sport. All of the clubs have filled up very quickly, but if your child did not manage to get into the club of their choice, there will be a re-advertisement next term when children will again get the chance to choose. Priority will be given to those children who were unable to take part this term.

Events

Black History Assembly This was a very informative event led by Year 6. They explained the history of the slave trade in great detail and went on to deal with apartheid and to relate the stories of some of history’s black heroes. Everyone who took part is to be congratulated on the confident way in which they handled the subject. Well done to all!

Harvest Assembly Year 5 presented the harvest assembly in an amusing manner, which reinforced the message of helping others who are suffering due to starvation. Particular mention should go to the Dancing Cow (Tyler & Szymon) as well as to all of those children who spoke to confidently and eloquently. The money donated during the half term Mufti collection will be sent to the ‘Send-a-Cow’ charity, highlighted as helping those in need during the assembly.

Book Fair Once again this has proved a popular event with over £450 worth of books being sold. Thank you to everyone for your support as the school will benefit greatly with a large number of new books.

WoW

As part of our School Travel Plan, some of the children have taken part in ‘Walk once a Week’. Those children who managed to walk at least once a week have earned badges which will be distributed when we come back to school next half term. Hopefully, next half term all classes from Year 1 to Year 6 will take part, so that more children have the opportunity to win a badge.

Christmas Cards

During half term, the children are invited to design a Christmas card. We have two options for the design; the first is to design something for our local MP, Sadiq Khan, to use as his Christmas Card and secondly, we need a design for the school Christmas card for the school to send out. Either design should be no bigger than A4 in size and can be completed in crayon, paint, collage, etc. anything you like, as long as it’s bright and colourful.

P.F.T.A.

The Parent’s, Friend’s and Teacher’s Association is looking for more active members to give ideas, supply talent and generally support the school in raising money and raising the level of communication between school and home. If you can spare the occasional hour to attend a meeting or help at an event please leave your details in the school office. Everybody is welcome!

Promotions

Boxtops 4 Books We have now received the books ordered under this scheme earlier in the year and the reading corners of several classes have benefitted. Please continue to collect and bring in the vouchers as we will put them towards next year’s order.

Attendance

Our aim this term is to achieve a level of, at least, 95% attendance. So far we are doing reasonably well, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. Any day or part of a day taken off school, for whatever reason, reduces the attendance level. Please ensure that your child is in school on time, every school day.

Payments

Dinner Money The cost of a school meal has increased to £2.30 this term. Please remember dinner money must be paid in advance. Due to staff shortages in the office, a payments desk will be available in the ground floor hall on Monday mornings and at the front desk on Friday afternoons. To help the office staff it would be helpful if you could bring the correct money. Any enquiries relating to dinner money can only be dealt with at these times. If you believe you are entitled to free school meals, please complete a free meals application form (available from the school office) as soon as possible.

And finally……… enjoy a relaxing mid-term break and come back ready to start again at 8:45am on Monday 31st October.

As we come to the end of a very busy half term, tired but happy, we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Good News

Congratulations to the following children who have all been entered in the Good News book for exceptional work during this half of this term:-
Red Awards: Anila (6M), Urusa (6M), Bisma (6M), Aya (5E), Loren (5E), Tauqeer(5E), Issak (2S), Shathana (2S), Jacob (2S), Sungyoon (2S), Kieran (6M), Afia 6M), Hisham (6M), Dareen (1A),
Shukri (1A), Sakib (1A), Shanawaz (1A), Kiara (3T)

Events

Scholastic Bookfair  At the end of last half term, sales made at the book fair  generated £228 worth of free books for the school.  Thank you for your support in this event and as it was so popular there will be further Bookfairs in the coming year.
Bollyood Night  A first for Hillbrook! The ground floor hall became a cinema as the assembled throng settled down to watch a Bollywood film and enjoy a taste of Asia.  The organisation of this event fell to Nabila Waseem-Saeed, Chair of the PFTA, and she did an excellent job. Some of the families also took part in Indian dancing and had intricate Henna designs painted on their hands. The PFTA raised £100 for school funds with the sale of tickets for the event. Thank you to everyone who supported the school in this way.

Puss in Boots

This pantomime, presented by LADA Productions, was hugely enjoyed by all of the children. Loud responses could be heard throughout the school together with peals of laughter. This was definitely an experience which will be repeated.

The Sleeping Princess

This innovative puppet production was pitched at just the right level for the Foundation stage children, who sat mesmerised by the action. A very professional entertainment by The Krazy Kat Company, which may well appear on the Hillbrook calendar in the future. Thanks go to Rachel Manolson for sourcing this production company..

Hillbrook’s Got Talent

Once again this proved to be a very popular event and many of the children took part. There was singing, dancing, magic and drams from all age groups giving a very wide variety of acts. Our thanks on this occasion as he found himself in sole total control of the whole event, when the rest of his team were unable to continue.  Well done Andrew for creating such a superb event and well done to all the children who took part.

Carols by Candlelight

Due to the very cold weather this year, this event was moved from the playground to All Saints Church at very short notice.  Thanks go to The Reverend Simon Metzner for giving us permission to use the church.  Everybody involved in this production had worked very hard to make it a thoroughly enjoyable occasion, but special thanks go to Caoimhe McMillan for pulling everything together so successfully and the PFTA for providing the refreshments.

The Sleepy Shepherd

Reception presented the nativity production this year and what an excellent job they made of it! Well done to all the children who took part and the staff who patiently rehearsed them and helped to create lovely costumes. It is great to see such young children performing so confidently.

Nursery Christmas Sing-a-long

The jingling of bells during this performance really let us know that Christmas is in the air.  These very young children created a delightful show and put on two performances for their parents. They sang and played their percussion instruments with panache. Well done to the nursery teaching staff for helping these children to excel!

Sport

Ernest Bevin Volleyball   Hillbrook fielded two girls’ teams and two boys’ teams for this event. All of the teams performed to a high standard The 1st girls team acquitted itself very well only being narrowly beaten in the final all of the other teams reached the semi finals in their sections playing well against very tough opposition.   Well done to all the teams!

Staff News

Tracey Green has given birth to a bouncing baby girl. Both mother and baby are doing well!

Punctuality & Attendance

Attendance and punctuality are continuing at a good level and we hope that this can be maintained when we come back to school next term.  The classes with best overall attendance this term are 5N and 4K.

Housekeeping

Dinner Money  School dinners now cost £2.25 per day.  Dinner money should be paid in advance on a Monday for the whole of that week.  If a child has had dinners without payment for 5 days, then they will be unable to have further meals until full payment is received.  If you believe your child is entitled to free school meals, please complete and return the application form, which is available from the General Office.

PFTA

Class Representatives   We are still looking for parents to represent each of the classes at PFTA meetings.  These parents would act as go-betweens to tell the class parents what is happening and to get feedback from the class as to what the PFTA can do for them.  If you feel you could do this for your class please contact the office with your details and you will be put in touch with the PFTA Committee.

Communications

Hillbrook website  Don’t forget to check out the website to see the improvements that have been made. www.hillbrook.ismyschool.net  Also your child should have log in details to access Fronter. www.fronter.com/wandsworth, where they can keep in touch with their friends and access some work to keep their brains working during the holidays.

And finally, … we hope you have a very enjoyable Christmas holiday and come back refreshed at 8:45am on  Wednesday 5th January.  We look forward to seeing you then!

Special visitors at
Carols by Candlelight

The first term of the school year is now well underway and all the new pupils and new staff are settling in well. The rest of the term will be very busy as there are many exciting entertainments planned to punctuate the normal lessons.

Good News

Congratulations to the following children who have all been entered in the Good News book for exceptional work during this half of this term:-

Red Awards: Anita (5M),Kelliece (5M), Millicent (5M), Fleur (3W), Zack (3W), Hannah (3W),

Poppy (3W), Mima (3W), Kyle (5N) Aleena (6M)

Orange Awards: Millicent (5N)

Summer Reading Challenge

It is always good to see Hillbrook pupils taking part in this event and this year we have no fewer than 23 children who completed the challenge by reading six books during the summer holidays. These children are:- Sameer (1A), Amrin (1A), Lena (1W), Tyrese (2S), Jacob (2S), James (2S), Dinah (2S),

Dhania (2A), Mobeen (3T), Aahil (3T), Hassan (3T), Zack (3W), Shammonie (3W), Kassius (3W), Mohid (4M), Rayyan (4M), Salma (4K), Aya (5E), Tauqeer (5E), Amirah (5E), Josiah (5N), Megan (6B)

Events

Eid Assembly This was the first special assembly of the year and was an amazing effort by year 2. They spoke clearly and put together a very special Eid presentation. This was very well attended by parents, who greatly enjoyed the event. Well done to Miss Singh , Ms Thistlethwaite and to all of the children for the effort put into this production.

Harvest Assembly Harvest was presented this year by Year 5. Ms Ewers and Ms Nicholas worked hard getting the children prepared and they performed an excellent play, read some harvest poetry and robustly sang a harvest song. A collection was taken in aid of CRISIS the charity for single homeless people and raised £31 .

School Journey Once again Year 6 went on an adventure holiday to Marchants Hill. This is how one of the children described the experience: “This was the best time of my life so far. I was able to try new things and get away from the city to a fun rural environment. My favourite activity was the giant swing where I was strapped in with a friend and pulled up by rope. We had to pull a white cord which let us fall at an alarming rate – swinging back and forth until the swing came to a stop. This type of holiday really gets the adrenalin going!” Louise Odden 6M

Sport

Golden League Football The league has now been running for two weeks and Hillbrook have put up a good show. In the first week they won 1 and drew 1 and this week the won both matches, putting then top of the league so far. Well done to all the children taking part.

Wandle 5-a-side Boys football Hillbrook field a team at this event which put in a good solid performance. They scored 1 loss, 3 draws and 4 wins only missing out by 1 point on going into the next round. Well done, boys! Better luck next time.

Community Multi Skills For two days this term, Hillbrook played host to 5 other primary schools in the area for multi-skills sessions. All of the children who attended had to take part in several different kinds of sporting skills. This was a thoroughly enjoyable event , which we hope to

Sports4All On Tuesday 19th October the school was visited by a Great British International Athlete , Chris Huff, British Javelin Champion who gave a demonstration to the children, who were then allowed to ask questions. This led on to a sponsored sporting event where all of the children were asked do as many repetitions of an exercise as they could in one minute. The children had previously been asked to collect sponsors. The money raised will be split between the School, Sports4All (to support GB athletes) and The Sparks Charity (Children’s Medical Research Foundation)

Staff News

Congratulations to Syreeta Charles Cole who gave birth to a son. Mother and baby are now back at home and getting to know one another.

Tracey Green has now gone on maternity leave and we send her our best wishes for the coming event.

Punctuality & Attendance

Attendance and punctuality are both very pleasing at the moment as they are showing signs of improvement. A big thank you for getting your children here and on time – the more they are here, the more they will learn and the more progress they will make. That is what is important to us at Hillbrook. The Local Authority has given us a target of 94% and we are nearly there, so please keep it up. Remember that if you have any issues regarding your child’s attendance or punctuality, please come and talk to us.

Housekeeping

Dinner Money School dinners now cost £2.25 per day. Dinner money should be paid in advance on a Monday for the whole of that week. If a child has had dinners without payment for 5 days, then they will be unable to have further meals until full payment is received. If you believe your child is entitled to free school meals, please complete and return the application form, which is available from the General Office.

PFTA

Class Representatives We are still looking for parents to represent each of the classes at PFTA meetings. These parents would act as go-betweens to tell the class parents what is happening and to get feedback from the class as to what the PFTA can do for them. If you feel you could do this for your class

please contact the office with your details and you will be put in touch with the PFTA Committee.

Communications

Hillbrook website Don’t forget to check out the website to see the improvements that have been made. www.hillbrook.ismyschool.net

And finally, … we look forward to seeing you all on Monday 1st November at 8:45am fully refreshed for the second half of this busy term.

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HOT OFF THE PRESS!

Panto at Hillbrook

Last year’s Panto outing was so successful, that this year the Panto is coming to us!

Oh no it’s not! Oh, yes it is!

LADA Productions will be performing

Puss in Boots

Friday 26th November

Look out for letters in your child’s bag after half term.

Events

Somalian Assembly

Some of our Somalian parents came to talk to the school about Somalia and sang a traditional song. It was good to see some of our parents taking part in one of our assemblies. Thank you very much for getting involved.

Chinese Assembly

Year 1 presented this assembly, ably assisted by Ms Whitbread and Ms Aguado the two class teachers. The children had all worked very hard making dragon masks which they wore during the assembly and they gave a presentation about the Chinese New Year. I am sure everybody who attended enjoyed the performance. Thank you Year 1!

Sport

Athletics

This half term Years 5 and 6 have represented the school at Wandsworth Schools Sportshall Athletics. There were twelve schools represented on the day and two of our pupil won their events in Vertical Jump and Speed Bounce.

Cricket

Pupils from years 4 and 5 went to the Oval to play indoor cricket against other Greater London Schools and although we did not win through, for a first attempt in this event the team showed promise. Ebony Rainford-Brent, England ladies cricket star, has been coaching in year 6 and has also been teaching an afterschool club this term, which has been well attended by pupils from Keystage 2.

Music

As most of you will know after school music lessons have started this term. Miss McMillan is giving some lessons herself and others are being undertaken by the Wandsworth Music Service. If anyone else in interested in learning piano, flute, guitar or Djeme (African drums), please contact Miss McMillan for further details. Those of you already making use of this service, please be reminded that fees must be paid in advance.