News and Events 2011-2012

Holocaust Memorial Day

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:30:34 GMT

This year the Holocaust Memorial Day theme was “Speak up , speak out”. On Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January) the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) asked us all to address hatred still apparent in our society. The “Speak up, speak out” theme requested that we consider our own responsibilities and duties in creating a safer and better future, where prejudice and discrimination are thins of the past. We were also asked to consider the dangers in choosing not to speak up and encouraged us to speak out when we see or hear something which we believe to be wrong. At Hillside High School the week of Holocaust Memorial Day was marked with a series of school assemblies taken by our performing arts pupils. The pupils’ assembly delivered their message of hope for a future without hate and racism, where differences are celebrated. The assembly encouraged our pupils to reflect on their own actions and responsibilities in the fight against hatred. Throughout the week in Religious Studies all pupils were involved in the Holocaust Memorial Day campaign by participating in activities that discussed the impact of prejudice and discrimination in our society. This addressed ways in which we can stand up to hatred and eliminate racism in our community. In Year 9, pupils met Anita Canter, a Danish Jew who survived the Holocaust. Anita gave a talk to the year group about her experience during the Holocaust and led a workshop discussing the repercussions of prejudice in our society today. Once again, our pupils at Hillside have shown sensitivity and maturity in their approach to the issues raised by Holocaust Memorial Day, proving that they really are the hope for a better future where differences are celebrated and not condemned.

Ashfield Music Festival

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:21:52 GMT

Hillside hosted the Institute of Physics, Ashfield Music Festival activity and teams from Hillside and Archbishop Beck competed against each other. The aim of the activity was to develop skills in work-related learning and to inspire pupils to see physics as a realistic option for GCSE and beyond. The teams watched a short film about the setting up of the ‘Green Man’ festival and then had to organise and budget their own festival. The pupils worked in teams against each other and were supported by under-graduate physics students from Liverpool University. Each member of the group took on an ’expert’ role and became: project manager, health and safety advisor, construction manager, electrical engineer, sound engineer and lighting engineer for the day. The teams used a mixture of physics knowledge, creativity and financial capability and enterprise skills to put together their proposal. Everyone enjoyed the challenge of working at a high level and against time constraints. There were several individual winners but the overall winning team was led by Joseph Jones from Hillside.

Latin Club

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:33:06 GMT

An exciting new club will be available for pupils at Hillside from 18th January 2012. Starting from absolutely no knowledge of Latin, the classes will gradually introduce students to Latin and how it works. Latin is not taught like a modern foreign language through conversation, but has a strong emphasis on understanding language structure from the first class. This helps challenge students to think about how their own language works, how it is similar and different to Latin, and gives invaluable assistance when they come to learn other languages. Students will also be stretched to think about how many of the words we use in English and other languages come from Latin.

Christmas Promanade Performance

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:52:15 GMT

This year our traditional evening of Carols and the Nativity story has a new look. It takes the form of a promenade, which means that the audience actually move from scene to scene as the story unfolds.

This style of theatre is very interactive and always popular with the audience who find that they are drawn into the action with the actors. This is the first time we have taken our Carols outside of the building and we are hoping for a clear, dry evening to capture the real spirit of the Advent season. We want to create a festival feeling in the air so the audience will get a sense of the crowd experience all of those years ago as they travelled to Bethlehem for the census.

The Promenade will begin outdoors with an opportunity to purchase novelty gifts and hot food, Wrapped up for the weather you will be entertained by our choir, jazz musicians and street performers. There will be the opportunity to purchase novelties, hot chestnuts and potatoes, and food for Santa’s reindeer!

We will then process indoors as the Nativity story unfolds, travelling alongside shepherds and kings, maybe Mary and Joseph themselves, as we all follow the star towards Bethlehem.

This aims to be a very special evening, which will be especially enjoyed by younger members of the family. There is a strong rumour that Father Christmas himself will join us!

We have a group of performers drawn from years 7 to 11 and they have been working hard to ensure that this evening brings a touch of awe and wonder to our lives as we head busily towards Christmas.

The evening promises to be sprinkled with magic with some unexpected surprises, so please, take some time out to join us for what will be a lovely way to begin the countdown to the special day. We hope that for a couple of hours we, as a community can remember the real meaning of Christmas, which as we know is not just about shopping, but kindness of spirit an goodwill to all men.

Click here to see the official page and preview some exclusive on set photos!

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.”

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:58:26 GMT

In order to recognise Armistice Day, Year 10 Performing Arts students devised an assembly to mark Remembrance Sunday. The aim was to ensure that every pupil in our school was aware of the importance of this day and to give them an opportunity to reflect and pay respect. This year due to circumstances beyond our control, we did not have an evening Remembrance Tribute, a regular and moving school event, so we wanted to capture the spirit of this evening and share it with the younger generation. The GCSE students worked independently as a group of performers, choosing emotive poems and music from our archives. It was important to incorporate the ceremony of laying poppy wreaths and observing a silence as well as relaying the message of loss and remembrance, all of this to be presented at the start of each day. This was a difficult brief, not only because it took a high level of confidence to appear before your peers, but traffic and public transport was to prove problematic. However, all students made an incredible effort to ensure that they were in school before 8.15 each morning to set up. This assembly ensured that all of our pupils were able to understand about conflicts past and present and take a moment to contemplate those that we have lost. The result was a moving and very professional performance which left the audience quiet and respectful. It is a credit to all of our pupils that they behaved with real dignity and respect, particularly as the Last Post sounded and heads were bowed in silence. It is a requirement of their GCSE course that the students work as a professional company. Throughout the week leading up to Remembrance Sunday it can be said that that these students exceeded this expectation. They were outstanding.

Operation Christmas Child

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 10:02:42 GMT

Operation Christmas Child is the largest children's Christmas project in the world, run by the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse. Each year our families donate shoes boxes filled with goodies, which are then sent to orphans and vulnerable children living in difficult circumstances overseas. This year Hillside High School and collected 69 shoeboxes for the Operation Christmas Child appeal, spreading the spirit of Christmas. The shoe boxes send a message of hope and love to children that live in desperate situations. Thank you once again for your support on making this Christmas one to remember for so many vulnerable children.

Visit from Local M.P.

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:37:03 GMT

Sefton M.P. Bill Esterson came into school recently to meet with a group of pupils who wanted to talk about some of the issues affecting young people. It was a great opportunity for the pupils to meet with a serving M.P. and for them to have time to talk about their concerns and worries for the future. Not surprisingly, university tuition fees were top of the list with all the pupils worried about their possible future student debt. They also discussed the withdrawal of the E.M.A. and other cuts which are affecting young people and their families. Mr Esterson spent an hour with the pupils and encouraged them to become more politically aware and to write to their local M.P. if there were things they were not happy with. We all felt the meeting gave us a better insight into the life of an M.P. and we were thrilled when Mr Esterson mentioned the school and pupils at the Labour Party Conference the following week.

Democracy Week

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:41:31 GMT

October saw Hillside pupils taking part in their second ‘Democracy Week’. Several schools across Sefton took part and the results of the workshops will help Sefton Council make sure that young people’s concerns are taken seriously. The pupils discussed issues based on six key areas:

Community Safety
The media and its perception of young people
Youth Provision/cuts to services for young people
Education, Employment and Training
Issues that affect young people; including the summer riots

Pupils worked in small groups to put together questions to ask the panel of experts who visited school. The debate which took place was both lively and interesting and pupils enjoyed the fact that although several of the questions were quite hard-hitting, the delegates did not fob them off. They listened and gave sound advice to the pupils. We noticed that last year, several responses given blamed ‘the cuts’. This year, the effect of ‘the cuts’ is starting to be felt by pupils and their families so the pupils were looking for solutions and ideas to deal with the reduction of services. We really enjoyed the afternoon and hope that this will lead to our pupils taking a more active role in the community.

Friends of Bootle Parks (Junior section)

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:42:00 GMT

We are proud that the local authority has asked a group of our pupils to be part of the team which is looking at refurbishing South Park. This local park has a long and colourful history and it is fitting that in Hillside’s 80th year, we are helping to bring it back to its former glory. Pupils will work with a local landscape architect and the park rangers to come up with ways of promoting the park as well as deciding how to spend the allocated funds wisely to get best value for money. There will be progress reports on the school website and in newsletters later in the year.

Family Learing evening: Diwali night

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:25:27 GMT

We have started this year’s series of Family Learning evenings with a night of spectacular activities to learn about ‘Diwali’. Families worked together to learn about the Diwali festival, which is the Hindu festival of light, and this year will be celebrated on 26th October.

Fireworks have a major role in Diwali celebrations and in the science department we learned about the science of fireworks and carried out experiments to make different coloured flames using the special metals which are actually used in fireworks. The maths department taught us about rangoli patterns which are a traditional way of decorating homes and buildings. These patterns are based on the lotus flower, which is a symbol of the goddess Lakshmi, and bring good luck to the families.

Miss McMahon, our Religious Studies teacher, worked with an Indian lady, Mrs. Parikh, to teach about the history and background of the Diwali festival. Mrs. Parikh spoke to the families, showed the decorations she uses in her own house at Diwali and even produced wonderful henna tattoos on some of the parents. Our languages staff were next door, busy helping people to make the beautiful paper garlands which are also worn at Diwali.

The evening was a great success and all families said they thoroughly enjoyed the different activities, and that they had learned so many interesting facts about a festival that they had not heard of before. At the end of the evening everyone got to sample types of tea from different parts of India and had the chance to taste some Indian sweets. No-one went away empty-handed as we made sure each family took away a goody-bag which had been designed and decorated by our year 8 pupils as part of the Diwali project in R.S. The goody-bags contained everything that you need to celebrate Diwali: tea bags, sweets and a tea light. Everyone had a great evening and we hope all the tea lights will be lighting up the local area on October 26th.

End of Year Charity Event

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:46:09 GMT

Our pupils and their families are renowned for their generosity. At the end of the summer term pupils decided to change the routine of the ‘Grand Charity Event’ and hold it on the last morning of the term. The whole school got involved and each year group had spent weeks planning and preparing for the activities. Years 7, 8 & 9 decided to hold a novelty relay race with old-fashioned races such as the egg-and-spoon race and the three-legged race. This was great fun and pupils spent more time laughing than they did racing. The final leg was the form tutors’ novelty race. Tutors had to complete all sections of the previous races and also had to dress up in summer holiday outfits along the way. Several tutors had been in training and so competition was fierce but in the end there were no losers, everyone was a winner. Year 10 decided to hold an inter-form tug-of-war, again competition was strong but in the end 10 GN beat the rest to be the overall winners. At the end of the day the real winners were the year group charities. The amount raised by the end of the charity morning was a staggering £765.57. This is fabulous news and will really boost the year group charities. We are now able to send off cheques for considerable amounts to each of our charities.