After the disappointment of the bad weather postponing the main Sports Day on Wednesday there was at least some clear skies on Thursday for the Nursery Sports Day. The children participated in various different races, including a space hopper race, ring on head race, hurdle jump followed by going through a hula hoop as well as the traditional egg and spoon race – which thankfully contained fake eggs!

The children, parents and staff all enjoyed what was a brilliant event that saw some very good competitive races but most importantly people having lots of fun.

Curriculum Enrichment Project

This term Year 5 have the opportunity to complete a mini course in cookery, dance or film making. They are learning new skills and useful new knowledge about their chosen subject. The project got off to a great start, with very positive reports from pupils and staff.

Reception - 'My Magical Garden'

The reception children attended the 'My Magical Garden' workshop on Tuesday and created their own magical gardens. When they returned from the workshop some of them decided to draw the magical gardens they had created using their imaginations.

Healthy Minds - Art Therapy

During 'Health and Well-being week' the children are experiencing many different activities to develop their understanding of improving their well being. Art therapy lessons, are providing the opportunity to think about themselves and what them special. Using words, drawing and colour, the children have expressed how they feel and shared what is important to them. Embarking on a journey of discovering, they have learnt many interesting facts about each other.

Year 1 - Meditation

This week Year One have been thinking about healthy minds for wellbeing week. We did Some meditation in the hall called 'The Secret Garden.' This linked with the exciting book we have looked at this week, 'The Magic Garden.' We really enjoyed meditating!

Year 1 - Yoga

Wednesday saw Year 1 participate in Squish the Fish’s children’s yoga in the Infant Hall. Followed by some meditation, all the children really enjoyed their time doing the yoga and learning the new moves from the instructor on the board.

Braintree Museum - Year 6

On Tuesday, year 6 spent an eventful and educational day at the Braintree Museum. Dressed for the occasion, we re-lived the experience of wartime evacuees and discovered the hardships of life during World War II. The children were 'treated' to an authentic classroom session with a very strict teacher, where they improved their handwriting, solved calculations using 'old' money and practised reacting promptly in an air-raid drill. An object handling workshop allowed the children the opportunity to try on original wartime uniforms and examine a wide variety of World War II artefacts including ration books, pieces of bombs, a parachute, tinned dried eggs and even 1940's toilet paper!


It was a very busy day, where everybody developed their historical understanding and had a lot of fun too.

Golden Mile

Monday saw the start of Well-being Week here at Hilldene Primary, a week designed to learn and help towards healthy bodies, healthy minds and ultimately a healthy lifestyle!

First up for the children was the chance to participate in the Golden Mile. The children were allocated a time to run or walk for around the golden cones to see how far they could run in that time. Although the challenge was an individual one it was good to see some teamwork by many of the children in motivating fellow pupils to finish.