Thank You to All Those Invited Parents Who Participated in the Snapshot Opinion Poll of Life at Hazelwood School Last Week
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Thank you to all those invited parents who participated in the snapshot opinion poll of life at Hazelwood School last week. We gave you just over 72 hours to answer the online survey and over 100 families gave us feedback. Your opinions were invaluable. They were fed into a kick-off Strategy Day with our Governors on Wednesday, the outputs of which will be developed and finessed over the coming weeks and months before being shared with parents. Needless to say, a host of exciting ideas emerged, some of which will be developed more quickly and implemented during the course of the early parts of this academic year. The aim will be to magnify the good, address the less strong and introduce new initiatives to address future challenges. My thanks go to the Governors who, once again, gave up a day of their time to participate in the strategy review and idea generation. Their expertise and overview proved invaluable and inspiring. They will be in school again in December for the annual Governor Immersion Day, another occasion which proves well worth the not inconsiderable investment of their time. The Governors also, on a rolling basis, participate in Pupil Shadowing Days. Each year, at least three Governors come into school to shadow a pupil in a particular year group for a whole day. They go to lessons with their nominated child and enjoy break and lunchtimes with both staff and pupils. In short, they enjoy a ‘normal’ day, immersed in the Hazelwood experience, able to observe the teaching and learning. What they see helps inform their views as they support the school in their role as Governor. Their observations are fed back to me in a report which I find equally useful and informing. Last week, Mr Paul Harvey, one of our more recently appointed Governors spent the day with Year 7. Paul is one of the Assistant Heads at Sevenoaks School in charge of the sixth form and of drama. He spent the day being most ably looked after by Camilla E and was hugely impressed with what he saw I have included some of his report below so that his own words can tell his story: “Focusing on the use of factor trees to help find Highest Common Multiples and Lowest Common Factors, the lesson was excellent. The warm-up activity of a speed times-table test motivated the whole class (of 13) immediately; the new fastest time was duly recorded on the wall display and the children were all evidently accustomed to this starting routine. Other features of the lesson which contributed to it being so enjoyable and stimulating were the teacher’s use of questions, her humour, the way the pupils helped each other so readily, the frequent connections to prior learning and the way the tricky wording of questions in the text book became the basis for a discussion about exams and the world beyond school. The teacher took advantage of the children’s best spell for concentration in the first half hour, leading them at a strong pace which still allowed for the slower ones to not feel they were being left behind. Opportunities for extension exercises were frequently offered and the teacher made sure she checked how the children who had tackled these were getting on….. The day ended with double English, just a short journey away up one floor in the superb Baily Building. The academic rigour continued, with analysis of persuasive language in Animal Farm drawing thoughtful and mature discussion from the pupils. In a well-structured exercise of finding and commenting on Orwell’s varied techniques, they found it difficult to articulate the effect each one has on the reader. Nevertheless, they worked hard at it and had continual encouragement from the teacher. As I said goodbye to Camilla and her classmates, I reflected on how amazingly harmonious they are as a class. I assume they have gone up through the school together and, now in their penultimate year, know each other, their teachers and the school very well. They collaborated brilliantly, were interested in each other’s contributions and showed no signs of rivalry beyond a healthy competitiveness in games or tests. I am very grateful to Camilla, her classmates and friends, her teachers for all their contributions to an excellent day; it was a very enjoyable and fascinating experience. It was also invaluable for my learning about Hazelwood – but on a simpler level, it was just a pleasure to spend time with such committed pupils and teachers in what is clearly a vibrant, purposeful and happy school.” The first Form Reps’ meeting of the year took place this morning and I thank the parents too who step up to the plate each year to take on this role. It was lovely to see some new ‘Form Rep’ faces and to have such a positive meeting. As the school has grown, so has the job of keeping classes and year groups informed, entertained, fed and watered. You do a marvellous job and the school could not function without you. During the meeting, I was reminded of my opening assembly to both staff and children at the start of this term. The culture of the school is something which is very close to my heart and I want each and every one of us to commit, and to strive towards a ‘positive culture’ at Hazelwood over the next ten months. Yes, we need to address areas which are open for improvement or to clarify matters which are muddled or confused, but we also need to celebrate and give due credit for those actions which are good and working well. I want this academic year to be the time when we, as a whole school community, pull together and invest our energies in establishing a positive culture. I think the rewards will be self-fulfilling and the benefits to staff and pupils‘ motivations immeasurable. Returning to the Strategy Day, one of the words (and there were many) which resonated with me and the group was LIBERATION. I love the idea of having the courage to break free from some of the shackles which may have held us back over the years (without becoming reckless or non compliant of course!) Of trying new ideas which are for the benefit of the teaching and the learning at Hazelwood. And of being part of a community which is able to take risks whilst delivering excellence, opportunity, variety and first choice senior school transition in a vital yet supportive environment. I cannot wait to share with you our exciting ideas for the development of Hazelwood School and Nursery. I promise not to keep you waiting too long! Let’s hear it for the boys – encore! Apologies that the big shout out last week only went out to the U8A team for their 10-0 victory over Sevenoaks Prep. On the neighbouring pitch, the U8B team, also enjoying their first real competitive team game, were enjoying an equally impressive goal rush. Their 7-0 victory, also over Sevenoaks Prep, maintained the same clean sheet and showed the depth of footballing passion and talent in our new Year 3 cohort. Well done boys! For a list of emails/letters/texts sent home each week please see the ‘Notice Board’ further down the Nutshell. News from The Nursery & Early Years In Fledglings 1 this week, we have been having fun learning about the farm. We have been exploring the small world farm and animals, the children particularly enjoyed playing with the pigs! The children have also had great fun making animal masks and clapping along to different farm animal songs. Fledglings 2 children have been busy making animal masks, painting a giant bus and printing lots of different animal foot prints using lots of different colours. It was very messy but lots of fun. In Upper Robins this week we have made Gingerbread men that were delicious, (Mr Garlick had two). We also enjoyed playing with cinnamon and ginger scented playdough. We created our own big gingerbread house and decorated it. We also added buttons and googly eyes to make Gingerbread men characters. This week in Lower Robins we have been looking at colour and we have made a large scale Elmer using sponge painting. The children enjoyed mixing colours and seeing how adding different colours together changes them. We have also had fun using the climbing equipment in the hall and looking at lots of different ways that we can mark make. This week Skylarks have been focusing on maths. They have enjoyed lots of activities that have developed their counting, number recognition, size, and shape knowledge. They have loved building creations with the new construction pieces and the light box jigsaw puzzles. All in a week’s work and play for busy Top & Bottom Robins and Oak Reception! Thank you to everyone who came along to the Fledglings to Skylarks Information Evening last week. We hope you found it interesting. The presentation, for people’s interest, is now hosted within the Parents’ section of the Nursery website. News from Hazelwood Congratulations to Freddie and Charlie Who have been clocking up the miles over the summer as they edged ever closer to the magical 13 miles required to complete the junior Reigate half marathon. It’s been a great way of keeping fit over the long holiday period and of being part of the Reigate Half Marathon which always attracts a large crowd of runners and spectators. The last mile was run on Sunday with the boys both collecting their medals at the end of the event.