What I love about teaching, and being the Head of Hazelwood in particular, is that no two weeks are ever the same and it is never the same handful of pupils who seize the opportunity to shine week in and week out. There is always a new star to applaud and to celebrate for outstanding effort, achievement or progress. We have spoken at length most recently about some of our sporting prowess. This week I wanted to raise the cup of congratulations to the school’s budding poets who charmed and amazed the English Department and the school’s librarians with their wordsmithing on the occasion of World Poetry Day last week. I cannot give too much away as the winning poems will be showcased at an assembly at the beginning of next half term, suffice to say that every child from Year 1 to Year 7 (Year 8 were excused because of the play) excelled themselves with the creativity and imagery captured in their writing. I was particularly drawn to the winning poem below, written by Harry Evans in Year 5, which is so full of pathos and promise. A very mature and evocative piece of writing in one so young, it left me feeling full of hope and wishing I could be empowered to fulfil Harry’s dreams. Impossible gifts for Mum and Dad by Harry Evans 5J These are the gifts That I would, if I could Give to you. The first spell of summer The last spire of snow. Put them together, ready to go. The silence of sound, Echoing air, A stream of dreams entwined within realms. The essence of a rainbow with the colours of space, Captures the timeline of the human race. These are the gifts That I would If I could, give to you. The feedback from last week’s Open Day too has left me feeling proud of our children and privileged to work at Hazelwood. Without exception, our visitors who toured both the Nursery and the main school were full of praise for the children they met, the teaching they witnessed, the facilities they saw and the insight confidently given by the tour guides as they roamed both sites. We sometimes get too close and begin to take for granted all of the above and forget how lucky we, and the children, are to work in such a place with our friends and colleagues around us rooting for the same excellence in all we do. It can take an outsider’s view to remind us all of our individual star quality and the collective brilliance of the Hazelwood galaxy of stars! Whilst available spaces at the school and nursery are becoming few and far between, we are doing our best to accommodate as many prospective families as possible within our stated maximum class and cohort sizes. Thank you to many of you, our parents, who continue to speak so positively about the school at work, at dinner parties, on the commuter trains to work and in the Waitrose queues. I would like to add my thanks to Nicki Wisniewski who stepped down last week as the Chair of the Hazelwood Parents’ Association after a tireless and committed six years of leading the

This week we say a sad farewell to Mrs Calver who is leaving Mrs Shaw in the capable hands of Mrs Greenwood after 5 years of dedicated service. Mrs Calver will be missed but the school wishes her the very best in her new challenge.

committee. In her time she has achieved many fund raising milestones but her most memorable and ever-present legacy will be the school’s classroom-in-the-trees which was made possible entirely through HPA donations and events. It continues to give the school’s outdoor learning the ‘WOW’ factor and I look forward, in years to come, to extending the satellite platforms to realise our dream of having a network of landing stations amongst the tress reached via a variety of rope bridges, zip wires and precarious crossings. I am only sorry that her final act of being Chair was not to orchestrate a return-to-victory for the Boiled Eggheads in the HPA Quiz Night. A (begrudging) well done to this year’s victors! Whilst Nicki will be sadly missed, I am delighted that Hayleigh Russell has agreed to take over the HPA Chair. Hayleigh and I have already met and she, and her committee, are full of ideas as to how to continue the good work of the HPA balancing the social with the fund raising. They are keen to recruit new members and to hear your ideas as to what you want from your association. It is call the Hazelwood Parents’ Association (School and Nursery) for a reason. You decide what you want to do, how it is to run and how, in consultation with the school, the money raised is spent. Everyone is invited to meet them on 12th November (6.30pm until 9pm) in the TOSH to begin this sharing of ideas. I strongly encourage as many of you as possible to come along and show your support. Involvement in the HPA is flexible and can be as much or as little time and energy you feel able to give. What is guaranteed, is the fun you will have giving and the sense of purpose and community that you will get from being involved. And finally, I am delighted that following on from the successful Senior Schools’ Fair, our bespoke website containing web links to and information from all the attending schools is now up and running on the school’s website. Go the Parents’ Section and scroll down the right hand menu to find the pages populated with a plethora of outstanding and impressive independent Senior Schools. Thanks to Mrs Mitchelson for pulling this wealth of information together. If we have missed anything, do let us know and we will do our best to fill in any gaps. For Year 7 parents, the notes from the recent CE Information Evening have also been posted on the Parents’ landing page this week. I wish you all a happy half term break and can only apologise to parents of Year 2 children as I know they have been already rehearsing, and been encouraged to practise, their Christmas Nativity songs over the next couple of weeks. A first Joyeux Noel of the festive season!

For a list of emails/letters/texts sent home each week please see the ‘Notice Board’ further down the Nutshell.

News from The Nursery

Well half term is finally upon us and it has certainly been a busy one. Everything is now in full flow and the children are confidently engaging in all the different learning activities inside and out. We have also found learning in some quite unexpected places:

This week has seen a castle emerging in Robins and some peculiar spells happening in Oak. I am pleased to report that Mrs. Twyman is fully recovered from being turned into a frog! Over half term Skylarks will be visiting the building site up at the Prep School. They are keen to see the ‘real’ builders and diggers at work before they come back and create their

own construction site, but perhaps with a little less excavation! We have started to receive offers of help for our ‘festivals of light’ topic after half term. If you or any of your friends and family have any resources, books or are free to come and speak to the children please do contact Jane O’Keefe. This will enable us to give the children as rich an experience as possible. As well as our site improvements this term we have also ordered brand new uniforms for all the Nursery staff. So look out for the bright pink and navy polos after half term. A few reminders:

If your child has sickness or diarrhoea they should not return to school/Nursery for at least 48 hours.

Please ensure your child has a coat in school every day which is clearly named.

All Skylarks should be in the new uniform please could any old Larks uniform be replaced over the half term break.

Robins have the option to wear the school polos and tracksuits if you wish and these are available to order from School Blazer.

Please remember to sign up for your parents evening – signup sheets are outside each room.

Finally, I wish Oak and our term-time children a very happy half term and I look forward to hearing what the other children have been doing on my return.

News from Hazelwood

Pot of swimming gold at the end of the rainbow The rainbow over Hazelwood pool on Monday must have been a good omen, because through all their hard efforts, the swimming team did us proud this Thursday - winning against fierce Hawthorns competition! A first for many years. Well done team! A full report will follow next half term.

It’s smiles all the way for this cheeky trio in Wrens as they explore shapes and sounds.

NATIONAL POETRY DAY COMPETITION

Thank-you to all the children and their teachers who worked very hard to ensure the poems were with us and judged before half-term. As Year 8 pupils have been so busy with their wonderful play, we have not asked them to participate in the competition. Years 6 and 7 have been judged in their English sets, not their forms. So the winners are the best from each set. An Assembly after half term will celebrate the winning poems and the runners up. Mrs Alexander Here are the winners from each year form/English set:

Year 2P Lilian de Bruin Year 2B Harry Record Year 2M Hayden Townsend Year 3M Alex Powney Year 3R Isla Murray Year 3F Camilla Savelieva Year 4H Harry Thomas Year 4L Daniel Sharp Year 4W Lily Wynn Year 5D Callum Murray Year 5J Harry Evans Year 5K Holly Davies Year 6 Sam Hartley, James Lucas, Anne-Lisa Ras and Archie Proctor Year 7 Emily Kerr, Oliver Payne and George Limpenny

Anger vs Happiness by Camilla Savelieva 3F

Anger, anger,

Cunning anger,

Never stops,

Boiling up.

Anger, anger,

Always going,

Always winning.

But again,

Happiness takes over.

Happy, happy,

Wins again,

Never, never,

Losing the game.

A Kenning by Lily Wynn 4W What Am I? Mice Lover Dog Hater Hiss Giver Bird Taker Meat Eater Spit Maker Furry Creature Woods Dweller Fierce Fella.

Harry 2P

Milly 2P

This week 2P had their forest school session at the other site, the treehouse. We made our way down to the site thinking and reflecting about our last session. When we got there we sat round in a circle and played a game of the ever popular 'Down in the jungle!' After this the children were tasked with going off to explore to find one item that really interested them. When we joined together again we all spoke about our items which included sticks, feathers and some very colourful leaves. We played 'Who am I?' ensuring we thought about our questioning and everything we have been learning throughout our topic. A lot of great questions including 'Is your animal diurnal?' Furthermore, the children were provided with animal fact cards, metre sticks, rulers and tape measures. They worked in partners and had to find items that would add up or were the same length as the animal. For example, a hedgehog can measures between 15-25cm but a fox was over 1 metre! We did also have good fun measuring ourselves in free time and completing a scavenger hunt. A great session 2P full of fantastic questioning, co-operation and fun!

“I just want to say how considerate most Hazelwood parents are when doing the school run. We have all adapted and making it work, we turn left even though it's much quicker to turn right, we don't clog the roads and we try and share transport or use buses. I have just driven down blue house lane where drivers stop where they like, park on double yellows and kids walk in the road in their hundreds. All schools have hideous traffic problems and I think it's awesome how Hazelwood School and its parents are working together to make our lives easier and those of our neighbours. If everyone was this considerate the rest of my school run would be brilliant!”

On Friday it was 2B's turn to make their way down to the woods for their first forest school session. Thinking about everything they did there last year in forest schools we set off enjoying the sunny weather! During the session we talked about our topic of habitats and the children played a very interesting game of 'Who am I?' We had questions like 'Does it fly?' 'Does it leave slime?' and 'Does it hibernate?' Great questioning 2B well done. The children were keen to set off and become detectives looking for clues as to what animals use our forest as a habitat. We used magnifying glasses and looked high and low. It was a great session, well done 2B! Miss Parr

Asking questions and examining evidence in the woods with Year 2

The children in Robins had a wonderful week exploring a host of different skills –

construction, fishing, ball and fine motor skills. With the sun out, the children

made use of magnifying glasses to investigate evidence around the playground.

And they are off: Pictures taken at the start of the girls’ IAPS cross country competition last week shows how determined the Hazelwood runners were to get off to a flying start. The picture below captures the grit and determination written all over Luke’s face as he narrowly missed out on the silver medal. He threw everything into the race and even more into the last 100 metres. An example to us all.

Over the half term break the changing rooms will be painted. Any kit abandoned in the changing rooms will be placed in lost property sacks ready for the children’s return in November. Thank you to those who heeded Mr Reay’s request to take kit home over the half term break. Makes life a lot easier for those with the paint brushes and rollers!

Friday 13th November at Fruit Break

Top Tennis Courts

Madame Jones

Due to staff holidays the Nutshell on Friday 6th November will be brought to you in its shortened form. Normal full length service will be resumed the following Friday. Apologies for spoiling your weekend!

Friday 13th November at fruit break

Top Tennis Courts

Madame Jones

Keeping the Match Attax peace! Following the annual explosion of popularity with these types of cards and the issues they can cause, would parents please note that the following rules will be put into place after half term. We appreciate that this is mainly a Lower School issue, but all children throughout the year groups will be expected to observe these basic principles in order to protect everyone and their precious property. The children can have lots of fun with the number they have and are welcome to trade outside of school.

Maximum of 10 cards in school.

No swapping or trading.

Cards can only be played with in the courtyard during break time and lunchtimes.

No ‘folders’ to be brought into school.

Anyone with cards out after school at pick up or during lessons will be banned from bringing them in.

Year 1 Scientists are in an explosive mood This week was the final explosive week for our super scientists this half term. We were armed with mentos and diet coke ready to see who could make the biggest eruption. Some children chose to change the amount of coke in the bottle to see if this would affect the size of the eruption. Lots of fun was had by all. Miss Parr and Mr Garlick want to thank all the children who were so sensible and enthusiastic this half term.

The Year 8 play, Big Al was a theatrical triumph and trumped even the brilliance of last year’s pantomime dames. The talented pupils on and off the stage took us back to a world of corruption and prohibition punctuated with the occasional spilling of stage blood and the mastering of some very authentic and impressive Brooklyn accents. The final scene, above left, was moving, dramatic and captured the essence of a gung-ho gangster reduced to frailty and fear. It was amazing. If you missed it, you missed out on a very special evening. Well done to Year 8.

Chestnut Early Room Due to the popularity of the Chestnut Early Room we are changing the timings slightly to improve the flow of children into the classrooms. From 8.15am children will be allowed to go through to their classrooms from the Chestnut Hall.

The external doors to the classrooms will not be open until 8.30am, when the Chestnut Early Room finishes and drop off will continue as it does now. There will be no change to the start time of the school day.

The drop off is remaining to be very popular and is helping the smooth running of the car park in the mornings. May I take this opportunity to thank all who are using this service and encourage everyone to try it out after half term.

James Walton

Although no silverware was collected this time we certainly gave it a good go. We finished 5th overall in the team competition competing against the likes of Millfield, Reed's and several other large schools with rather well established golf teams. The ISGA are now very much aware of who we are and already in touch about future tournaments. We have a few boys in year 6 that have the potential to start competing alongside James so things look promising for the next 2 years.

It’s thumbs up from these happy Year 2 children as the Chestnut playground takes on the appearance of a Kwik Fit depot! They used their imagination, sense of balance and proposition to build a structure that they christened their Pyramid Palace. Budding architects and civil engineers each and every one.

The Year 1 children stage a mock election to become familiar with and understand the British electoral system. For their first experience of ballot papers and boxes, the children were voting for the guinea pig names from a list supplied, all with distinctly arborous elements. By a landslide margin, Mrs Acorn and Miss Buttons now reside in the Chestnut building.

The Vocab Express national championship has now finished . Congratulations everyone!This year has been the software’s largest competition so far: 35 million points were achieved by

over 33,000 students from over 250 schools across the UK and aboroad.

At Hazelwood, our three French geniuses are:

Maud

ElinPhilip

Close came the following competitors:

Fourth place Alice Wisniewski, Fifth place equal Annabel Thompson

Sixth place Tom Richards, Seventh place Amelia Flanagan

Eight place Ben Shepherd, Ninth place Luke Woollard equal with Daniel Coates

"Félicitations" to them all for their special effort, enthusiasm and self belief!

Car Park Corner (extended to a full page due to parental contributions)

“On the upside, our delayed journey home did mean we saw an incredibly vibrant rainbow, with the end of it visible in a field to the left of Titsey Hill, which was an uplifting end to the day!”

On the way out of the car park, Mr Cartwright is doing a stoic job of getting everyone to turn left (I know, as I did try to plead with him to make up some time by turning right myself as I was in the tail end of pick up, to no avail!)

I wonder if extending this one way principle may improve things? That is, asking all school traffic to enter Wolfs Hill from the Limpsfield end, turning left into the school and turning left out, with no right turn into school from Wolfs hill allowed at pick up. That would stop the congestion with cars trying to squeeze between the parked cars and those waiting to turn right into school in between the entrance and exit, and so ease the whole process.

“I hope for Mr Cartwright's sake that the owner of the Silver BMW parked to the left of the school exit, causing more mayhem, came out of the school whilst he was standing there, so that he could explain the error of their ways! Will photographic evidence be put in Nutshell to 'name and shame' this week?”

“As ever, it's the few who try and make their own journey a tiny bit quicker, that succeed in making it considerably longer for the rest. I don't envy the task you have on this at all.”

This week’s chaos causing car colour is SILVER! Thank you to the vigilant car park patrol who sent in the images. Special thanks go to the BVMW for almost inciting riot and rebellion on Wolfs Hill earlier in the week!

Year 6 investigated the layering of the earth’s crust with these fabulous 3D models.

Please leave zebra crossing clear so people can cross

safely. Thank you

Oak have enjoyed exploring shape this week. Activities have included creating shape pictures and a shape hunt around the site.

Hubble, Bubble Mrs Twyman’s in trouble!

Mrs Scott's class had a witch visit the classroom this week. She told the class that Mrs Twyman would not let her fly over the school (for health and Safety reasons). The witch was very disappointed and she came to visit Mrs Scott's class to get them to help her to turn Mrs Twyman into a frog....just for a few minutes. The children had brought in items from home to put in the witches cauldron. They thought of good describing words before they put their items into the pot. There was some soft green moss, shiny brown conkers and a huge hairy ant. The children said the spell

" Hubble Bubble, mix them quick,

Mrs Twyman let me fly my broomstick.

Big hairy ant and some slime from a bog,

please let me fly or you'll turn into a frog!"

The class then went to the office to see if the spell had worked and they found a small brightly coloured frog sitting on Mrs Twyman's chair. The children said another spell to change her back after a few minutes but we have noticed that she is still a bit croaky and jumpy now! Feeling very inspired the class then wrote potion spells with Mrs Scott and Mrs Cross and they made wands out of sticks, pipe cleaners, stars and ribbons!

After School Gymnastics from January

Velocity Gymnastics will take over the provision of after school gymnastics from January. A Years 1 and 2 session will be held on a Thursday before squad training and on Tuesdays there will be a separate Years 3-6 club. Velocity will also be holding a Club, open to non

“Croak, croak,

croak, croak,

croak”

Hazelwood children on a Thursday and Saturday morning. Full details to follow. The school would like to thank Taunton Manor for providing the service for many years. The school also welcomes Franki and her team from Velocity. Franki, Mrs Bradshaw’s sister, has helped coach the school gym squad to their regional title so we have high hopes for the future of gymnastics at Hazelwood.

More pictures and a full gala report will be featured in the Nutshell w/e 6th November. In

the meantime, CONGRATULATIONS to the squad who emerged victorious against a

strong Hawthorns side who swam brilliantly and made it a fabulous contest.

Finally, the original cartoons drawn by cartoonist and legend Tony Hart have found their final resting place on the staircase leading up to the Year 5 classrooms. Resplendent in their new frames, the four images brighten up the stairwell and are a constant reminder to have VISION and to carry ON its path.

HPA

NORTHBROOK FUNDRAISING

Your children will be bringing home this week the latest Northbrook Fundraising brochure. Northbrook supplies quality wrapping paper for both Christmas and general occasions along with tags, ribbons and a small selection of cards.

Please do look through this catalogue and help raise funds for the school. For every item sold they will donate 22% of the cost to Hazelwood.

All items ordered through the HPA will be distributed a few weeks after the order date of the 9th November.

HPA QUIZ NIGHT

Well what an evening 11 tables battled it out to fight for the trophy. Last years winners the Secretary States did not stand a chance as the Blue Room (year 4) took first place followed closely by Sir Lancelot in year 3 and Norfolk in Chance (with a mixture of years 4 & 6 parents). Well done to everyone who took part and especially to Duncan Shaw the quiz master for some great questions.

Friday 13th November

This year we are supporting Children in Need in 4 ways. Please join in!

Non Uniform Day

Wear Spots, Stripes

or Checks! £1 each.

Cake Sale at fruit

break - £1 per

Pudsey cupcake.

Year 3-8 “Guess

the Name of the

Teddy” 50p a go.

Year 1 & 2

“Guess how

many sweets in a

jar” 50p a go.

News from the Kitchen

Please don’t forget that the new menus for both Hazelwood School and the Nursery & Early Years are now on their respective websites under The Parents’ Sections.

Friday 13th November

Hazelwood Years 1-8

Spots, Stripes or Checks Madame Jones

Music Timetable

The weekly music timetable can be viewed on the Music Notice Board outside the Dining room in the courtyard. I will endeavour to have the coming week’s music timetable on the notice board by the end of the school day each Friday. Please ensure that your child brings their instrument and music in on the relevant day. It is also important for them to take these books and instruments home when they do not need them in school.

Sports Department

Match Reports should be put in the folder on the wall in the PE office. They are then collected by the captain on Monday morning to be read out in assembly. If your child is nominated as captain, please encourage them to write the report in time for the assembly. The children do like to share their successes with the rest of the school. Thank you.

With the sun shining, Edenbridge U11s A team travelled to the Blackheath Festival on Sunday the 11th October. Featuring Hazelwood boys, Ethan Whenman, Samuel Hartley, Jonny Naylor, Matthew Thomas, Richard Cole, Felix Curson, Joshua Willoughby and Harry Pluck. A spirited display was put on by all.

The first half performance against Dartford was breath taking, with the team switched on and listening to their roles and responsibilities. They ran in 6 tries to basically conclude the game by half time. Having won that game, they beat Rosslyn Park 2-0 to set up what was always going to be a tough game against Tonbridge. A hard game it was with both teams giving their all before TJ s ran out winners 3-0 (Tonbridge went into the cup competition which they won!).

Notice Board

Former Hazelwood student (currently in upper sixth at Lingfield Notre Dame) available for babysitting. Lots of experience, including regularly working in the after school club at LND junior school. Own transport. Please call or e mail Georgina Campbell on 07408 852468, georgina@campbellinternet.com Wanted: House to rent Mrs McCusker’s parents are moving to the area and are looking for a one/two bedroomed house to rent. Ideally they want to be near Oxted and would be ready to sign on the dotted line in two weeks. Garden is not important. If you know of anywhere, please contact Mrs M on victoriamccusker@btinternet.com; mccusker@perry-company.co.uk Thank you.

Edenbridge then had 2 further games in the plate, having drawn with Blackheath 2-2. A win against Old Alleynians of 4 tries without conceding was required to be winners. Down to 9 players and some very dodgy refereeing decisions they dug deep and did the job required of them and thus be crowned plate winners ....fantastic result and very well done boys !

Key Events for w/c 2nd November when Term Restarts

Monday 2 2000 HPA meeting

Tuesday 3 1800-2000 Parents’ Evening for Nursery and Oak Reception

Wednesday 4 0900-1600 Year 4 Hindu Temple visit 1430 Football 1st XI, 2nd IX v Homefield (H) 1430 Football 3rd VII v Homefield (A) 1430 Football Colts A&B v Aberdour (A) 1430 Football Colts C&D v Aberdour / Russell House (H) 1430 Hockey U13 A & B v Copthorne (A) 1430 Hockey U11 A& B v Holmewood House (H) 1430 Hockey U10 A v Holmewood House (A) 1430 Hockey U10 B, C & D v Copthorne (H) 1800 HPA Bonfire night

Thursday 5 0835 House meetings 1430 Football U9 A-C v New Beacon (A) 1430 Football U8 A-C v Aberdour (H) 1430 Hockey U9 A, B & C v Derwent Lodge (H) 1400 Swimming U13 Tonbridge gala (A) 1800-2000 Parents’ Evening for Nursery and Oak Reception

Friday 6 1500 Senior Interhouse Football

Saturday 7 1000 Football U8 Hazelwood Tournament (H) 1000 Football Colts A Caterham Tournament (A)

Lilian 2P