January 2013

Hazelwick School

Newsletter

Headlines Ms A Fearon, Headteacher

Dates for your Diary:

Fri 1Feb:

Year 11, 6th Form

application deadline

Mon 4 Feb:

Years 7 & 11 photographs

Thur 7 Feb:

6th Form photographs

Wed 13 Feb:

Years 7-12, Alternative

Timetable Day

Wed 13 – Fri 15 Feb:

Year 13, Mock

Examinations

Mon 25 Feb:

Start of Year 7

assessment fortnight

January Reflection:

“It’s impossible.” said

Pride. “It’s risky.” said

E xpe r i en ce . “ I t ’ s

pointless.” said Reason.

“Give it a try.” whispered

the Heart.

Author Unknown

Hazelwick Flyover

As reported in the local press, the Hazelwick flyover, situated in

Three Bridges between Tesco and the Industrial Estate, will be closed

for major repairs from Saturday 9 February for sixteen weeks. This

will undoubtedly cause immense disruption and delay in the local area

and parents are respectfully requested to ensure that time is allowed

for this when delivering their children to school.

The unpredictable, inclement weather has certainly made the start

to the Spring Term eventful! I am delighted that we managed to

keep the school open for the majority of the time, with minimum

disruption to lessons and no impact on the schedule of public and

school examinations. We are fortunate to have an excellent and

hard-working property team and determined and resilient staff,

many of whom travelled to work in difficult conditions.

Thank you to all parents who attended last Monday’s Year 11 Parents’ Evening. I hope that you

found the discussions you had with teachers both informative and helpful. I held a well-attended

Parents’ Drop-in session that evening, where parents with children from a range of year groups came

to discuss a variety of issues. My next Parents’ Drop-in will be on Tuesday 12 March from 4.30pm-

7.30pm. Please contact my PA, Mrs West, via the school number (01293 403344) or by e-mail

(jwest@hazelwick.org.uk) for a definite appointment time, or please do simply turn up, but be aware

that you may have to wait.

St Catherine’s Hospice Enterprise Challenge I am delighted to report that, for the second year running, Hazelwick has entered a team for the St

Catherine’s Hospice Enterprise Challenge. Five teams put themselves forward to be chosen to

represent the school, delivering a business plan and a presentation to myself and Mr Chalmers.

The team chosen was a group of Year 10 students; Lee Grice, Ben Jesson, Fran Dabrowski,

Nishil Patel, Ayisha Khan and Stewart Feasby, who gave an excellent presentation, with a wide

range of exciting ideas on how they will raise a minimum of £1000 in nine weeks. They certainly

plan on raising a great deal more than this! Details of fundraising events and progress made

towards meeting their target will be given in forthcoming newsletters.

Page 2

Crawley Open House On 20 December, a group of Year 8 and 9 students visited Crawley Open House to deliver

their Christmas boxes. The boxes contained lots of goodies for the Open House residents

to enjoy over Christmas. Whilst they were there, the students had a tour of the facilities

including the surgery, outreach centre and the bedrooms. The students also heard some of

the residents rehearsing for “Open House Has Got Talent” which took place on Friday 21

December.

Peter from the Open House said: “The generosity of the students was overwhelming...all of the donations will make this Christmas

more enjoyable for people less fortunate than ourselves.”

Mr Evans

I really like cooking and we get to

make some really interesting and

different things in this club.

Cooking Club News!

Cooking Club was a great success last term. Students from Years 8 and 9 have cooked

a wide range of great dishes, from Higgidy Pies to Cake Pops!

Every Wednesday

3.15pm – 4.30pm.

New members are welcome.

Here are some comments

from the students.

Miss Maides

Cooking Club is the best

club. I have always wanted

there to be a cooking club

and I’m really happy that

there is now one at

Hazelwick.

I look forward to Cooking Club all

week because it is a really fun club!

Year 7 X-mas Factor Year 7 prepared for Christmas in their traditional way,

by having a Super Form Christmas Carol competition.

Congratulations to 7.T06 who won the competition for

a very original dance and singing act. Great fun was had

by all.

Mr Bagnall

Page 3

Read On! THE HAZELWICK BOOK AWARDS

For this month I have featured three of my favourite titles from The Hazelwick Book Awards shortlist.

A group of Hazelwick students and Year 6 students from our feeder schools will read all the titles on the list

and vote for their favourite book in June.

Itch by Simon Mayo

This is the first book in an excellent new series for boys. The central character, Itch, is not a

superhero and has no superpowers, gadgets or sidekicks. He has a love for science and it is his

decision to collect all the elements in the periodic table that leads him to discover a new

element. Itch finds himself in mortal danger when the news of his discovery spreads and this

is where the adventure really kicks in. The characters are well drawn and the plot races along

at a fast pace.

(Reading age: 10 to 12 / Interest age: 10 to 14)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time

Award-winning author Frank Cottrell Boyce has written the sequels to the original story by Ian

Fleming and this is his second book about Chitty. In Boyce’s stories, Chitty is a VW camper van

owned by the Tooting family. In the first story, the family discover that the van has been

fitted with the engine from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and discover that it is a magical car! In

this story, Chitty and the Tootings travel back in time to save the world! Join the family on

their funny adventures with a truly magical camper van!

(Reading age: 8 to 10 / Interest age: 9 to 12)

The Sleeping Army by Francesca Simon

This is a very different style of story to the Horrid Henry books written by the same author.

This adventure story starts off in modern Britain, with the central character, Freya, caught

in the middle of her parents’ divorce. There is a plot twist as we discover that the people of

modern Britain in the story worship the Viking gods! One night in the British Museum, Freya

blows a Viking horn that is near the Lewis Chessmen and is amazed to discover that the pieces

transform into people, two slaves and a Berserker warrior. All four characters are then

transported to Asgard, the land of the gods. Freya discovers that the gods are dying and she

must save them. A must for anyone who enjoys reading stories based on myths and legends.

(Reading age: 10 to 12 / Interest age: 9 to 13)

‘Soldier Dog’ by Sam Angus

‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ & ‘The Race Against Time’

by Frank Cottrell Boyce

‘Power of Three’ (Secret Breakers # 1) by H.L. Dennis

‘Hero on a Bicycle’ by Shirley Hughes

‘Itch’ by Simon Mayo

‘The Treasure House’ by Linda Newbery

‘Dead Man’s Cove’ by Lauren St John

‘The Sleeping Army’ by Francesca Simon

The Shortlist

Happy reading!

Mrs Thornton

Page 4

Festive Number Fun … continued! I hope you had fun puzzling out the answers to the three “Festive Number Fun” questions that appeared in last month’s newsletter.

The answers were:

Junior Challenge: (A) The sum of their ages now is 13.

Intermediate Challenge: (A) 10 is paired with 36.

Senior Challenge: (A) The mean was 250.

If you enjoyed the challenge, why not pit your skills against these UK Mathematical Challenge questions? Answers to follow in next

month’s newsletter. No calculators allowed!

Junior Challenge:

48% of the pupils at a certain school are girls. 25% of the girls and 50% of the boys at this school travel by bus. What percentage of

the whole school travel by bus?

A 37% B 38% C 62% D 73% E 75%

Intermediate Challenge:

If the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 are all multiplied together, how many zeros are at the end of the answer?

A 1 B 2 C 3 D 4 E 10

Senior Challenge:

A newspaper headline read: “Welsh tortoise recaptured 1.8 miles from home after 8 months on the run”. Assuming the tortoise travelled in a straight line, roughly how many minutes did the tortoise take on average to “run” one foot?

A 3 B 9 C 16 D 36 E 60

Our most able Mathematicians from Years 9 and 10 will be sitting the Intermediate Challenge on February 7th.

For more problems and information about the UK Mathematical Challenges go to www.ukmt.org.uk

Mrs Zeidler

‘Top of the Bench’ Chemistry Competition On Wednesday 16 January, I took a team to the Royal Society of Chemistry’s ‘Top of the Bench’ competition at Roedean School. The

students were:

Daljit Sidhu (Year 11)

Kerushan Thomas (Year 10)

Melissa Torkizadeh (Year 9)

Gopi Patel (Year 9)

They were chosen for their aptitude for Science and were competing against eight other

schools. The first round of the competition was a practical activity. Daljit had to perform a titration, Kerushan had to carry out a

reaction rate experiment and Melissa and Gopi investigated the reactivity of metals. This was followed by a challenging test on

Chemistry theory. Each student performed excellently during the competition and, although we didn’t win, it was a very enjoyable

experience for all.

Miss Reid

Sport

The PE Department regrets that there were no fixtures to report on in this month’s

newsletter, due to the inclement weather.

George Cook Form 8.T08 Congratulations to George Cook (8.T08), who has been selected

from 90 boys to be in Harlequins School of Rugby. Only 25 boys

were selected. Well done, George!

Page 5

Music News! "Battle of the Bands!" Thursday 28 February The Music Department is delighted to announce "Battle of the Bands!" which

will take place at 7pm on Thursday 28 February. We are very excited to give

Hazelwick students the opportunity to perform in this exciting competition to

win the title of ‘Best Band’, along with a trophy which will be held all year by

the winners. We already have sign-up sheets outside Room 8 for the auditions

which will be held on Friday 8 February after school, so get down to Music

and sign up to take part. Families of band members will be needed to come

along and cheer, so it will be an occasion for all the family. All band types are

welcome, so come and see your Music teacher for more information.

Miss Burchill

Group Guitar Lessons The Group Guitar Lessons, run by Steve Gladman from the B Sharp Guitar School, have got off to a flying

start with all places taken up and some students on the waiting list. If you would like to go onto the waiting

list, please let your Music teacher know, so that you can be given a place, should any become available.

Year 9 Food and Nutrition Practical

Session with London Chef On Tuesday 15 January, 24 Year 9 students spent a very

enjoyable morning working with William Best. William is a

very experienced chef who works at the iconic restaurant,

Wiltons, in St James’s, London. The students made chocolate and orange cheesecakes with

chocolate ganache topping. The results looked very

professional and tasted delicious.

Hazelwick is very grateful to Wiltons for enabling William to

come to Hazelwick to impart his knowledge and expertise

to our students. We are also indebted to the restaurant

suppliers, who donated many of the ingredients.

A brilliant time was had by all and we look forward to

William’s next visit, which will hopefully be to work with the

Year 10 Food & Nutrition class.

Mrs C Truesdale

Homework Club

A reminder that Homework Club runs in the Learning Resource Centre, Monday to Thursday, from 3.10pm to 4.30pm,

for students in Years 7, 8 and 9 to study and, where necessary, to receive support from a team of Teaching Assistants.

For further details, please ring Mrs Bending on the school number (extension 2333).

For more details, please see the school website - www.hazelwick.org or contact us on 01293 403344

The majority of the photos featured in this newsletter were taken by Barry Holder and more of his excellent photography

can be viewed on the school website.