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Friday 9th May 2014

Dear Parents and Guardians

I am delighted to share with you some of the exciting things which have been going on at Hillside this week.

On Wednesday we were delighted to welcome the award winning author Joseph Delaney to our school. Joseph spoke to all students in

Years 7 and 8 and following his presentation, he signed copies of his book and spoke at length to individual students. As a school we

believe it is imperative to nurture a love of reading in our students and bringing authors into school for our students to meet is a wonderful

way to ignite their interest and passion in reading. We will be having more authors visiting over the coming weeks.

I would like to say a personal thank you to all the Year 11 students who have been involved in PETxi for three days this week. PETxi are

a company who provide intensive maths revision in schools across the country. The students had to work extremely hard over the three

days, in fact they looked exhausted when it finished yesterday, but by the end of the three days the gains they had made in their maths

grades were considerable. The tutors from PETxi were struck by how motivated and focused this group of students were. I can't wait to

see their results this summer!

A group of our students entered into the Dot Art Schools competition earlier in the year and Thomas Goggin 9DB was chosen to represent

our school at the Walker Art Gallery. His work, along with other local students’ work, will be on display in the Gallery from 17th May to

8th June. We hope you have the opportunity to visit the Gallery and view his fantastic work. Well done, Thomas!

As you will know from reading the newsletter each week, there is a

wealth of exciting things going on at Hillside and it is imperative that

students are in school every day to benefit from these opportunities. I

am therefore extremely disappointed that we are struggling to maintain

the excellent improvements we made in attendance during the Autumn

and Spring terms. Last week’s attendance was 92% which is almost 3%

lower than the attendance we had been achieving in previous weeks. It

is crucial that your child is in school every day to make or exceed the

progress they are capable of and fulfil their potential. We are starting to

notice a worrying pattern of decline with attendance on a Friday.

Obviously Friday is just as important as any other day in school, with

five lessons taking place, five lessons which will contribute to the

progress your child makes at Hillside. Please ensure that your child

attends school every day and if they do become unwell at any point

during the day we will ring home to speak to you. I would also take this

opportunity to remind you that holidays in term time will not be

authorised and may lead to a fixed penalty notice. As always if

you need any support with attendance please do not hesitate to

contact Mrs Foster, Attendance Officer or Mrs Clague our

Education Welfare Officer. I would take this opportunity to

thank all parents who support us by ensuring their child is in

school every day, we really do appreciate this.

Amanda Ryan,

Headteacher

Leader Readers

These students have been nominated as

exceptional readers by their teachers.

Jack Edwards 7GS

Maci-Jo O’Hare 7TW

Carly Brown 7TW

Morgan Walker 10LEB

Jay Hughes 8GN

Leader Reader

Jack Edwards and Maci-Jo O’Hare

Attendance (Week Commencing: 28.4.14)

Year 7 91.8

Year 8 94.5

Year 9 85.0

Year 10 93.3

Year 11 94.8

Whole School 92.0

Year 7 Interform Football

A big well done to all the 39 players and the Year 9 and 10 Sports Leaders who acted as referees and team managers in the Year 7

Interform Football this term. Here we can see action pictures of the 7IP team that became 2014 Interform Champions narrowly defeating

7RVP, the runners up by one point!

The next Interform will be on Monday 12th May with the Year 8 boys’ football and the Year 7 and 8 Girls’ netball competitions.

The Year 11 Sports leaders will be organising the events as their final assessment for their Sports Leaders Award.

Top 5 winning teams:

1) 7IP

2) 7RVP

3) 7GS

4) 7SWa

5) 7TW/KR

Help with Maths for Bedford Pupils

On Thursday 1st and Thursday 8th May six of our Year 11 students visited

Bedford Primary school for a maths booster club. Catherine Summers,

Millie Dawber, Amy Doherty, Faye Hornby, Daisy Benson-Murray and

Kathryn Wain, who are all predicted to achieve grade A in their

mathematics GCSE, worked one to one with Year 6 pupils who are sitting

a level 6 maths SATs test. Level 6 is equivalent to grade D at GCSE so the

students have really benefitted from working with our students. The girls

were able to teach some algebra and go through past papers with the

Bedford students helping them to understand what to do and why it works.

Well done to these students for giving up their time to help our upcoming

Year 7s!

The Dot Art Schools Exhibition displaying our students’

work is open from 17th May to 8th June.

Author Joseph Delaney Visits Hillside

Award winning author Joseph Delaney visited us on Wednesday 7th May to speak to our Year 7 and Year 8 students. Students were

enthralled by tales concerning his own individual writing process, Joseph's inspirations and hear about the characters and their origins

from his tales. Students also had the opportunity to ask questions and purchase individually signed copies of his books.

The Spook's Apprentice is the first book in Joseph Delaney's terrifying Wardstone Chronicles - over 3 million copies sold worldwide!

'Someone has to stand against the dark. And you're the only one who can.' For years, the local Spook has been keeping the County safe

from evil. Now his time is coming to an end, but who will take over?

Many apprentices have tried...Some floundered, some fled, some

failed to stay alive. Just one boy is left. Thomas Ward, the seventh son

of a seventh son. He is the last hope. But does he stand a chance

against Mother Malkin, the most dangerous witch in the County?

Most of the places in the Spook's books are based on real places in

Lancashire, where the author was born and still lives, and the

inspiration behind the stories come from local legends of witches,

ghouls and boggarts!

Excitingly, the book has inspired the upcoming film ‘The Seventh

Son’, a big budget movie starring Jeff Bridges as the Spook and

Julianne Moore as Mother Malkin. Joseph Delaney told us about his

initial reservations about the casting for the film, especially for the

role of the witch Malkin, as in his books she is a hideous creature and

Julianne Moore is slightly more glamorously depicted. During the visit

our students were treated

to the very loud and

exciting film trailer.

The film is scheduled to

be released in 3-D and

IMAX 3D on 7th

February 2015.

We were very excited

about this opportunity to

hear from such an

established and talented

writer and hope his

achievements will inspire

our students in their own

literary endeavours.

After School Clubs

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Library Club 3.15-4.15pm

Art Club 3.00-4.00pm

Key Stage 4 ‘Tea and Toast’

Drama Study & Rehearsal

Group 3.00-5.00pm

Junior Choir and Drum

Club 3.00-4.00pm

Badminton (Years 7 - 11)

Fitness (Years 7 – 11)

Gymnastics

(Years 7 - 11)

Girls Football (Years 7 - 11)

Basketball (Years 7 - 11)

LIPA Dance (Years 7 - 9)

ICT Catch up and Support

sessions 3.00-4.00pm

German Club 3.00-4.00pm

Library Club

3.15-4.15pm

Art Club

3.00-4.00pm

Guitar Club

3.00-4.00pm

Basketball

(Years 7 - 8)

3.00-4.15pm

Library Club

3.15-4.15pm

Art Club 3.00-4.00pm

Drama Club

3.15-4.15pm

Senior Choir and Samba

Band

3.00-4.00pm

Football (Years 10 - 11)

Fusion Dance

(Years 7 – 11)

ICT Catch up and

Support sessions

3.00-4.00pm

History Club 3.00-4.00pm

Library Club 3.15-4.15pm

Art Club 3.00-4.00pm

Keyboard Club 3.00-4.00pm

Football (Years 7 - 9)

Girls Netball (Years 7 - 11)

Contemporary Dance

(Years 7 – 8)

Lunchtime Club:

Yacapaca Homework Club

12.25-1.00pm Room 23

ICT Catch up and Support

sessions 3.00-4.00pm

Library Club

3.15-4.00pm

Rock Workshop

3.00-4.00pm

Multi Sports Club

(every week is different)

(Years 7 - 9)

Lunch Menu B

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Sausage and chips with

peas and gravy

Chicken balti with rice

and naan bread

Quorn sausage and onion

baguette with chips

Summer fruit sponge and

custard

Southern fried goujons

with savoury rice and

wedges

Spaghetti and meatballs

with garlic bread

Pasta bake with a side

salad and garlic bread

Rhubarb crumble and ice

cream

Roast gammon with

mashed potato, cabbage

and gravy

Sweet and sour crispy

chicken with pilau rice

Mexican burrito wrap

with twister fries

Pineapple sponge with

custard

Scouse with crusty bread

Ham and chicken pasta

with garlic bread

Vegetable tikka masala

with rice and garlic bread

Cheese and crackers

Fish finger, chips and

beans

Chinese curry sauce with

rice and chips

Baked potato with cheese,

beans and coleslaw

Fruit salad and cream

Diary Dates

Key Stage 4 Information (Options) Evening

(Year 9 Students, Parents and Guardians): Thursday 15th May

Half term: Monday 26th May

School Commences: Monday 2nd June

School Prom: Friday 27th June

Welcome Evening

(Year 6 Students, Parents and Guardians): Thursday 3rd July

Summer Holiday: Friday 18th July 12.15pm

Thought for the Week "Then followed the beautiful season………..Summer……..Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and

the landscape lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow