LOOKING back at this week’s photos behind the headlines.

Hundreds turned out to greet Santa as he arrived at Snape Maltings by barge on the River Alde.The annual charity event, which has taken place for the last 20 years, raised money for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the Co-op Juniors. While it was cold outside, this year’s show certainly warmed the audience’s hearts.

From dancing penguins and pirates to princesses and fairytale characters, there was plenty of festive cheer to be had.

A hospice which cares for children with life-limiting conditions has enjoyed yet another royal-related visit this week.

The Treehouse in Ipswich – which was thrown into the national spotlight earlier this year when the Duchess of Cambridge made her first public speech at the hospice – got into the festive spirit by welcoming two of Santa’s helpers, reindeers William and Harry.

An enterprising group of home-educated children have been getting creative this week in the run up to the festive period. What started as a commerce project has now turned into a successful business venture for the seven youngsters of the Happy Potters team, selling ceramic Christmas decorations.

A brewery has been raising more than a glass to the Royal Anglian Regiment by donating the proceeds from a special beer to the soldiers’ own benevolent charity. Lowestoft’s Green Jack Brewery sold more than 14,000 pints and a limited number of bottles of its pale ale The Vikings – the nickname of the regiment’s 1st battalion – to raise �1,500 for troops and their families.

After Ipswich Town were beaten 2-0 by Leeds at the weekend, Andy Drury is predicting a “promising future” under Mick McCarthy for the Super Blues. He believes the level of disappointment felt in the away dressing room at Elland Road shows how far the side have come in recent weeks and is calling on his team-mates to take the negatives from their first defeat in five and turn them into positives for the hectic Christmas schedule.

A creative youngster is celebrating after his impressive design won a festive competition this week. The White Lion Hotel in Aldeburgh set the town’s primary school the challenge of coming up with ideas for this year’s Christmas cards and the winning design, a drawing of the front of the hotel in the snow, was created by Jake Firman, aged 11.

A teacher is retiring this week after 38 years in the profession, and all but five of those have been at the same primary school.

Heather Corbell will be saying farewell to staff and pupils at Hardwick Primary School, in Bury St Edmunds, at the end of term having celebrated her 60th birthday.

Pupils and teachers at Eyke Primary School have been celebrating an early Christmas present this week as the school has received a “good” rating from Ofsted. It is an improvement on the previous inspection, Headteacher Wendy Kelway said: “We are all delighted with the positive comments - it is an early Christmas present for us all to validate many months of hard work and good teaching.”

Business chiefs were urged to seize the opportunity and not miss out on a �500million energy bonanza from the construction of a giant wind farm off the Suffolk coast on Monday night. If given the green light, construction of the East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm could start as early as 2016 – with the first power exported just two years later.