Hello and welcome to the first blog of the year! Happy New Year everyone! To summarise 2022 here are some of my top headlines from each month:

 

January UK’s warmest New Year’s day.

February Winter Olympics started in Beijing.

March After 6 years in prison in Iran, Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe was finally set free to return to the UK.

April Boris Johnson to pay fines as a punishment for going to parties during the covid lockdown.

May Eurovision Song Contest. Ukraine came first, and the UK came second. The Norwegian entry is our family favourite!

June Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee celebrated.

July UK’s hottest weather was recorded at 40.3 Degrees Celsius.

August Mack Rutherford aged 17 became the youngest person to fly solo around the world.

September Liz Truss becomes Prime Minister.

October Rishi Sunak becomes Prime Minister.

November UK and France agree on a deal aiming to prevent people from making the dangerous journey across the English Channel in small boats.

December construction started on the world's biggest telescope, it will be strong enough to pick up a phone signal from Mars.

 

Time flies by and two terms have come and gone. As you can expect, school life has been extremely busy.

 

On the last week of school, we had fun learning with some  Christmas-themed work, solving mathematical mysteries along the way. Luckily, we also got to have a few snow days that we enjoyed on the field. I will miss playing on the field with my Park hill friends when I leave for high school. We took part in many arty projects like making Christmas cards for the residents of McAuley Mount which were very well received. Evidence shows that helping others can also benefit our mental health and well-being. It can reduce stress as well as improve mood, self-esteem and happiness. We crafted some clay Nativity scenes and although it was fun it was quite difficult to paint the clay figures. At one point, Mrs Taylor agreed that baby Jesus resembled a hot dog 🤣

 

We were practising extensively for our carol service and I think all the hard work paid off. it was fun to present ourselves on the stage in front of an audience of loved ones and well-wishers. It was an amazing night but sadly, it was my last carol service at Park Hill ☹️. On the night of the carol service, it also happened to be Mrs Whitehead’s 21^st  birthday. I think we missed a huge opportunity to embarrass her by not singing her happy birthday…

 

Having “enjoyed” our “yummy” packed lunches for quite some time, we were thrilled to find out that our annual traditional HOT Christmas dinner was to be cooked by Mrs Whitehead. We had chicken dinner, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and gravy. To top it off we had a dessert of Christmas-themed ice cream lollies! Can it get any better than that?

 

At the school disco, multiple stalls were set up including:

·       a chocolate tombola

·       jumbly jar

·       chocolate bouquet

·       face painting

·       tattoo station

·       splat the rat 🐀

·       coin sliding 🪙

·       feed the clown 🤡 

We all had a great time and Arthur got the most sought-after chocolate bouquet and everybody wanted to be his best friend.

 

The Next Term

On the Friday of the first week back, the whole school were transported by the coach to watch a Cinderella panto!!! (Oh no we weren’t, oh yes we were). The actors were all extremely talented, I thought Buttons was marvellous. The costumes were over the top and hilarious 🤣. My favourite part of the show was the end scene where the characters sang about what they would do if they were not actors.

 

At the end of last term, the Year 6 sports leaders organised a world cup football tournament. The final was postponed into the new year due to poor weather. It was between Japan and Saudi Arabia. I was fully supporting Saudi Arabia due to Yahya being on the team, but sadly despite their best efforts, they lost. Well done to Japan who was awarded the trophy for winning the Park Hill World Cup Football Tournament 22 – 23

 

Sadly, Mrs Nuttall, our beloved cook, has retired after 17 years of exceptional service to the children and staff at Park Hill. Mrs Nuttall turned me from a very fussy eater into someone who enjoys a wholesome healthy school dinner daily. My favourite dinner is a chicken wrap and I always looked forward to the chocolate ice cream cake for dessert. My mum is eagerly awaiting Mrs Nuttall’s recipe book which is sure to be a sell-out! Reflecting on my faith, one of the actions which are most emphasised in Islam is feeding other people as it carries many rewards. I pray Mrs Nuttall is rewarded for all her hard work. If you are reading this Mrs Nuttall,  I wish you a speedy recovery and a happy retirement. I have full faith that Mrs Kostilek will continue the good work and carry on the legacy of yummy hot food at Park Hill school.

 

Fact: Macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs so keep your dogs away from the snack drawer!!!

 

I’ll see you in two weeks!!