Wow another amazing afternoon with 9 Year 5 Children, these children were selected as they have not yet represented Riverside in a competition yet and this festival was designed to broaden participation across the schools in Maidenhead.

They were incredibly enthusiastic and an absolute pleasure to take and were great Ambassadors for our school.  They played a game of Dangerball, Goalball and New Age Kurling and they seemed to really like the goalball and dangerball, this was such a great festival as they initially learnt how to play the games and then went round again but this time they played in a friendly way,  demonstrating values of Respect, Fairness and Friendship were encouraged all afternoon, they were all amazing!

Well done to Hend, Leo, Hayden, Inaya, Laiba, Lithanya, Ashley, Darius and Hashir, thank you for such an enjoyable afternoon!!

On Monday it was lovely to see the Sports Ambassadors from Year 5 in Whole school assembly,  they first infroduced themselves and they are  starting to spread the words of kindness amongst the whole school following their training at Hasbro Headquarters last month.  They are aiming to improve the kindness that is demonstrated in the School Development Plan on the playground.

They named some table tennis balls with Kind words and we will continue to do this periodically..

We have met since to decide what the children are going to do and we have decided to work with Year 1, 2 and 3's over the next few weeks to get some designs for our inspired rocks and have a place to put them and then after Christmas they are going to run a club for KS 1 for the children at lunchtime.

They introduced themselves to the whole school in Assembly today and told the children they are going to help them be kind on the Playground and that the children can go to them if they need help.

They worked with  the children from Year 1 designing  the picture and words  for their rock.

I was incredibly proud of them and really would like you to see some of the work they have started and will continue to do...

A very well done to Team Riverside today, there was nearly a river in the playground from all of the rain but I am pleased to say that we managed to play round it and showed our everlasting resilience!

Well done to the team as by half time we were losing 5-1 but by full time with a little switch of positions we ended up drawing 7-7, the sportsmanship was great  and well done to Charlotte who got player of the match as well as the rest of the team, who were Ezzah, Fahtima, Vaania, Sumaiya, Haleema, Safia and Hafsah, we have a match on Thursday at home against Courthouse,  I think this will be a tough game for Riverside but our resilience will shine through I am sure of it!

Another thrilling competition on the Netball courts at Furze Platt Senior School was tackled by the Year 5 and 6 Netball team today, the girls were very excited to be participating and representing Riverside today.....

There were 15 teams there and there were 3 pools, we were on Court 3 and had to play against St Lukes ( a win for us 7-0) and St Edmund Campian ( another win for us 4-0 ), we then lost 1-0 against Lowbrook A team and our last game was against Oldfield and they beat us narrowly by 3-1.   This meant that we got through to the next round and we ended up playing against St Edmund Campian A and lost by a small margin, final score Riverside 2, St Edmund 3.  Our girls showed resilience and a desire to go further but sadly on this occasion we did not get to play any more games but I have to say they did really well to get where they did, the final results will be sent to us but we came back to school with our heads held high and proud of our achievements today.  Well done team Riverside, a great result and well done to Sumaiya for being captain and to the rest of the team for excellent play.. Well done also to Charlotte, Ezzah, Vaania, Safia, Hafsah and Haleema some really great moments of good netball.

Wow, yet another privilege to work with such wonderful children from Riverside....What kind, courteous, helpful children and lovely personalities were taken to Stockley Park to Hasbro Head Quarters in the UK  today to undergo some training to four of our Year 5 children, Hanna, Sahil, Charlotte and Eisa to become Empathy leaders for the rest of their time at Riverside and to spread some Kind messages around the school.

This is all part of an initiative led by the Special Olympics GB team and Hasbro Unified Sport and how to get children in primary and secondary schools to spread kindness, courage and hope in the community under a scheme #Unified Rocks.  

Our morning started with seeing some of the secondary pupils being trained up to help the Primary School children  who would be there in the afternoon and a tour of the Head Quarters, our children were amazed by the size of the building and all of the toys on display...

This was followed by lunch which was provided by Hasbro and we were  with the other schools.....this was a hit and let's just say our children made the most of it didn't they Eisa?

After lunch, we went into a meeting room to discuss what Empathy meant and how we could go about sending this message out in the community and applying it into sport and our children had to go around and learn other childrens' names very quickly and also work with some secondary school pupils to come up with their own designs to put on their Rocks, the idea is then to hide it so someone else can find it and spread the word in the community.  So Eisa, Charlotte, Hanna and Sahil have gone home this weekend thinking how they can help spread the word through sport and through our Riverside community and we will meet up next week to give you an update of how they want to go forward.

Thank you to the children for a lovely day, it was a real pleasure to be able to take you and watch what kind and polite children we have who are always great Ambassadors for our school and I hope continue to be so, so please watch this space!!

This week saw the end of some of the PE and Games activities  with an Inter House competition with the children before they change activities after half term.  Falcons, Kites, Kestrels, and Eagles were all trying to get the 20 house points for 1st place, 15 house points for 2nd place, 10 house points for 3rd place and 5 points for 4th place.  The emphasis was for children to enjoy a relaxed competition but also practice the skills they have been learning for the past six weeks.

Year 1 was multi skill based - Kites won for Cherry Class and Falcons won for Chestnut Class

Year 2 was based on throwing, catching and target throwing - Kestrels won for Beech Class and Kestrels won for Birch Class

Year 3 was based on throwing and catching games - Oak and Olive will do their competition on Wednesday,  results are as  follows

Oak Kites came first and Kestrels came first in Olive class

Year 4 was based on hoop and zone ball - Kites in Pear Class were most improved and Eagles won for Poplar Class

Year 5 was based on Tag Rugby - Kestrels won for Walnut Class and Kites and Falcons were joint first for Willow Class

Year 6 was based on Football - results will be shared on Thursday - In year 6, the winning House for Holly was Kestrels.

The children have got stuck into the competition and is another good way to show progress in PE and for the children to be exposed to a bit more competition.  Generally there was a good feeling and wearing the house t shirts made the event even more special.

Wow what a lovely way to spend a Monday morning with none other than 8 Year 4 children in our First Mega Fest which is a Rugby Festival concentrating on the Values of Rugby which are T R E D S ( which stand for Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship ) which was demonstrated in abundance all morning, the children as ever  made me feel  so proud and had an excellent  attitude throughout the festival.

Although it was not a competitive event as such there were 180 children from local schools taking part in various stations where they learnt to play Rugby Rounders, Rob the Nest, Breakout Tag, Rugby Netball and four games of Tag Rugby, where I have to say the children really improved on with confidence, skill and knowledge!  The children completed 8 stations and were fantastic in each game and station, we had some great trys from Owais, Ismail and Bilal collectively with Oscar, Mustapha, Hiba, Elif  and Ibrahim making great tags to the opposition. 

Well done to the team and it was definitely a team Riverside effort! It was also a first for some of our children to represent the school and I really was proud and it made my heart have a warm fuzzy feeling, we had great support from the parents too so thank you for the lifts to and from the event and the cheering from the sidelines!

One of the staff from another school even asked if he could have one of our players so you can imagine how proud that made me feel too!!

Well done to Elif, Oscar, Hiba, Mustapha, Bilal, Owais, Ibrahim and Ismail, you were a real pleasure to take!

On a wet and wintry Thursday afternoon, Riverside Boys Years 5/6 football team had their first fixture of the new year academic year. They played two games against some strong opposition, neighbours Braywick Court and Waltham St Lawrence.
Considering it was the boys first few games together, they played well and can be proud of their efforts.

The first half of the first game against Braywick Court was tough and if it wasn’t for some strong tackling from the dynamic defensive duo of Salahuddin and Eisa, Braywick would have been out of sight. The second half saw much better cohesion and control from the middle of the pitch, Leo, Ameen and Murtaza all playing with their heads up. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and Braywick Court proved too strong.
Final Score loss 1-4

The next game started well with Azaan and Amaan showing great strength on the ball to hold off some tough tackling. Riverside took the lead through a determination to apply pressure when the opposition had the ball. As the game went on, goalkeeper Farhaan produced some excellent saves and was beginning to make excellent use of his hands. However, Waltham St Lawrence came back strong to equalise with a few minutes left. A neat little one two between Hasan and Salman nearly ended up with Riverside taking the win but it wasn’t meant to be and the game ended in a draw. 
Final Score Draw 1-1
Next fixture is on Monday 21st at Holyport, kick off 3:30pm.

What a wonderful afternoon at Newland's Secondary School, this was a first festival for some of our children this afternoon and what a credit to the school they really were, Miss Porter and myself were amazed at the excitedness of our children and they looked oh so smart in our new Competition polo shirts, we can literally spot our children wherever we go now as they look so smart...

We started the afternoon off with pushing the balls with the pillow polo sticks to get used to how to hold the sticks, this was a completely new festival for us to go to and the children got stuck into it quickly before they got caught by Olaf! They then went onto another station where they aimed at the goal area and cones and then in the last station they had to weave through the other players who were polar bears.

They then went onto play a game against St Marys and drew 0-0 and then went onto win against Furze Platt Junior School with a winning goal from Corey!!  Well done team.

Well done to Afsar, Emiko, Yusraa, Sahil, Corey, Killian, Abdul Raheem and Rameez, all children will receive a certificate and should be pleased with how they performed in the game situation.