As If the Term Hadn't Been Busy Enough, We Got the News Last Friday
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As if the term hadn’t been busy enough, we got the news last Friday that a team of ISI Inspectors would be with us for the middle two days of the spring term’s final week. Both the school and nursery welcomed their arrival, eager to showcase the many outstanding features which make Hazelwood School in its entirety from top to bottom, a wonderful place to be. Calm has once again descended and we await the final report which will be shared with parents in due course. In the meantime it is worth mentioning that the Inspectors were impressed with the children with one commenting, up on the main school site, that she hadn’t had to open a door herself for the full two days of the inspection. They found all the children to be polite, charming and articulate. On the Nursery site one young man, whilst preparing to blast off into space, recounted information he had learned during the recent Health & Safety Week during his observed lessons which impressed the Inspector hugely. I would like to say thank you to the staff and to the children who pulled together to make the two days pass so smoothly and to those parents who completed the ISI Survey giving their honest and balanced views. We will wait to hear the outcome. News of a good number of the awarded scholarships is now in and the children below are to be congratulated. Whilst sorry to see them go, I am confident that they will represent themselves and the school incredibly well as they start their journeys at their chosen Senior Schools. Many other children narrowly missed out on securing an award and these children too should be very proud of how they equipped themselves in their recent assessment days. We continue to build our relationships with a good range of senior schools, putting Hazelwood and its pupils very much front of mind when assessing pupil performance and maturity for such awards. Our warmest congratulations go to.... Pupil Name School Scholarship awarded Freddie Bosshard Worth School Academic & Music Emily Bo Cooper Wells Cathedral School Major Music Jonny Naylor Caterham Sport Harry Pluck Caterham Sport Jake Taylor Bethany Art & Drama Matthew Thomas Whitgift Sport Felix Curson Whitgift Sport Daniel Coates Hurstpierpoint All Rounder Alex Dean Tonbridge Art Luke Louden Lingfield Notre Dame Drama Catherine Pearce Benenden Academic Exhibition Tom Richards Hurstpierpoint All Rounder Lottie Shaw Hurstpierpoint All Rounder Luke Woollard Hurstpierpoint All Rounder Bethan Sharps Brighton College Sport Huge congratulations to our band of poets, mime artists and budding thespians. Your outstanding performances have put you, your talents and the school in the spotlight of glory this week. These are the very best school LAMDA results ever! Well done Miss Gash. This week saw another Hazelwood first: our very first, and most definitely not our last, Girls’ Football Tournament. Throughout the term Mr Fagg and a number of Upper School pupils have been arriving at Hazelwood in the semi dark to enjoy Early Morning football. They have enjoyed both the energetic start to the day and the delicious breakfast which follows. On Monday they put their skills to the test against teams from Sevenoaks and St Michael’s Prep Schools. Played in the Sports Hall, the pace of the games was frantic with every loose ball keenly contested. There were goals a plenty and a determination to quickly close down the opposition. It was a fantastic event and one which I hope will become a regular feature in the Hazelwood sporting calendar. Thanks go to Mr Fagg for both his coaching and his organisation. And finally hot on the heels of the near-miss National Rugby Champions, the school’s Milano Gymnasts headed to Stoke at the weekend to take part in the National Finals. Already Regional Champions there was high expectations resting on the shoulders of Hannah R, Georgie L, Edward M and Daniel H. Preparations had gone well with a few minor scares namely Edward spraining his ankle and almost giving himself concussion in two separate incidents! The girls travelled up to the competition arena after the final night of the Year 6 play eager to do their best in spite of the inevitable fatigue from three nights of performances. The squad missed out on being placed third by the very narrowest of margins yet came away delighted that they are now the fourth most highly rated gymnasts on the floor and vault in the country! Again an amazing achievement and, to borrow the rhetoric of cheesy TV talent shows, what a journey they have been on over the past 18 months. From an idea and an ambition in Mrs Bradshaw’s mind, to becoming a top performing national team. Brilliant! I wish you all a very Happy Easter. I hope that those of you who are travelling abroad enjoy fantastic sunshine or perfect snow. See you back for the start of the summer term on Tuesday 12th April. For a list of emails/letters/texts sent home each week please see the ‘Notice Board’ further down the Nutshell. Good luck to the staff and pupils who are on the school ski trip and the school French trip over the holidays. We hope you have fun, stay safe and come back full of stories to tell your teachers and friends. Bon voyage! News from The Nursery As another busy week draws to a close and with the inspection now behind us, we look to the future in the sound knowledge that the Nursery & Early Years was showcased to the very best of its ability. Rooms looked fresh and exciting, staff were dynamic and motivated and most importantly the children had another full and creative week with plenty of messy play, lots of learning and primarily fun. Wrens have focused on Nursery Rhymes this week, in particular Rock a Bye Baby. The children have enjoyed caring for their babies, washing and dressing them and attempting to put nappies on them, needless to say this was an interesting exercise! They have also explored finding animals in the mud and straw, loving every minute of messy play and testing out the hammock on their outside area. Wagtails have continued their Elmer the Elephant theme and the collages continue to develop into a wonderful explosion of colour. In addition they have had great fun on their decking mixing soil, sand and water. They have also talked about the weather – which this week provided plenty to discuss, showing us the full range of Winter, Spring and Summer in a typically British way. Sue’s Robins have been exploring the Very Hungry Caterpillar and have created some lovely play dough caterpillars and hand print caterpillars. Matt’s Robins have been thinking about Six Dinner Sid with lots of emphasis on counting and number recognition. A vet’s surgery has also appeared in their role play area with some very sad looking patients sitting in their ‘cages’ awaiting treatment. Skylarks were last seen in a shower of shamrocks as they celebrated St Patrick’s Day. They have also been making moon rocks, going on a space journey and building a giant rocket in the book corner as part of their study of the book Whatever Next. In response to parent’s requests we will be emailing out a full list of the books we have covered this term next week. As the week draws to a close I know that many of you will be heading off for the Easter break. For those of you travelling abroad, I wish you a safe journey and a well earned rest. We look forward to seeing the term time children back on Tuesday 12th April. For those of you who are back with us next week we look forward to seeing you all. Reminders: Weekly resource appeal – cardboard tubes (not toilet rolls please) to be handed to rooms or into the office. Thank you for kind donations of soft toys and our lovely new pink arm chair. Nursery & Early Years Closure throughout the Easter holidays – Friday 25th March – Good Friday Bank Holiday, Monday 28th March – Easter Monday Bank Holiday, Monday 11th April – Staff Training Start of Summer Term Tuesday 12th April (term time children) Please ensure that allergy forms are fully completed and returned to the office Inspired by the book ‘Whatever Next’ the children in Skylarks spent the week on another planet, building a rocket and preparing for Blast Off. News from Hazelwood Boys Rugby is full of promise Last weekend Warlingham entered two teams into the Guilford and Edenbridge tournaments. Both were big competitions and the boys won both of their matches. We are lucky to have their skills here at Hazelwood and the boys enjoyed a competitive Interhouse tournament on Tuesday showing off their skills against the other houses. The boys have all made great progress from the training and matches undertaken both at school and at the weekend and we look forward to a successful U9 season next year! Year 1 'Storybox' Workshop Tom from Treehouse Theatre came to visit Year 1 on Tuesday this week to help us with our story writing. We all dressed up as different characters that you might find in a Knights and Castles fairy tale and gave ourselves characters and names. We collaborated to make up and act out our very own story which included superheroes who can do gymnastics and trees that came to life! We then all sang 'Puff the magic Dragon' while each playing a different percussion instrument. To finish off, Tom told us the story of St.