If anyone ever has any doubt as to what makes the Hazelwood spirit special, then they should have been a fly on the wall during the Chapel Choir and String Quartet’s tour to Prague last weekend. Thirty nine of the school’s most gifted musicians travelled to the beautiful city to take part in Young Prague 2015, an International Music Festival which drew choirs, orchestras and ensembles from countries as far apart as Ireland, Indonesia, Slovenia, Norway, Australia, Turkey and South Africa. We were flying the flag for the United Kingdom and were one of the two youngest groups there. The children had all worked incredibly hard in the run up to the competition learning a native Czech song, finessing new pieces and putting the ‘slick’ into some cool jazz movements. Mrs Young and Mrs Louw knew that the children would do their best but nothing could quite prepare them for the brilliance of the performances and the effect that both the choir and the string quartet had on the watching audiences and adjudicators. And all in the face of adversity and sickness which sadly meant that the Head Chorister (and soloist) and one other member of the choir were unable to take part and had to fly home ahead of the rest of the pupils.

Perhaps it was in honour of them that both groups gave the performance of a lifetime. Perhaps it was the sight of the four adjudicators which spurred them onto such magnificence. Perhaps it was the incredible team spirit which binds this group of musicians tightly together. More than likely it was a combination of all three. Whatever it was, both the Chapel Choir and the String Quartet way surpassed expectations and the Gold and Silver accolades which were awarded on the final night’s Presentation Ceremony were justly deserved. The staff and parents who accompanied the children on the tour couldn’t have been more proud. It was a glorious moment. When we have had the adjudicators’ notes translated from their native Czech tongue we will bring you news of what the experts thought. Suffice to say that one judge, in his assessment of the string quartet wrote just two words on his sheet which google kindly translated as ‘Award for Elan!’ The boys charmed them from the minute they walked on to the stage, wide smiles and bright eyes. Dwarfed by the magnificence of the National House, Vinohrady, William, Jack, Freddie and Elias became giants when they began to play. They breathed as

Congratulations to Stéphanie Clark and Alex Mylet who have stormed to their Gold Awards. They have shown RESILIENCE and FOCUS in achieving this milestone so early in the academic year!

one, played as one and rocked the auditorium as their programme crescendo’d towards Celtic Roots, their final piece. Less than 40 years between them, the occasion did not phase them. Indeed they blossomed as performers and rose to the challenge set by Mrs Young in September of being able to play as an ensemble without the security of her conducting.. Such confidence and maturity in boys so young.

The choir too won over many hearts. A conductor of one of the visiting Danish choirs delayed the start of his choir’s performance to pay tribute to the Chapel Choir. He said he had never heard singing of such a ‘sublime nature’ from a group of such young voices. Their programme was varied, polished and full of what a children’s choir performance should be: fun, enjoyment and engagement with the audience and with each other. Outside of the competitions and performances, the children were able to see the sight of Prague from King Charles’ Bridge, from a boat on the river and from the castle courtyards. They heard musicians from Denmark, Slovenia, Austria and the most amazing Tamburitza Orchestra from Croatia. Throughout the four days, they were polite and well behaved, excitable and eager – everything you would want a group of children to be. It was a pleasure and a privilege to share the experience with each and every one of them. The dancing at the end of festival disco was something to savour and behold!

I am sure the experience will be equally pleasurable when we enjoy our first lunchtime meal of the new term. As you are all aware, after almost twenty years of combined service, Sally, Alex and Josie have decided to pursue new ventures away from the Hazelwood Kitchen. We are hugely indebted to them for their loyal and delicious service and they leave behind them

a legacy of healthy and hearty eating. After much deliberation and review, the decision has been taken to place this legacy in the most able hands of Holroyd Howe, an organisation which works with over a hundred leading schools in the Independent Sector (www.holroydhowe.com). Under the leadership of our new catering manager and chef, our much-loved catering teams on both sites will continue to provide an exemplary round-the-clock service. There will be some menu changes and some adjustments to how the food is served and presented, day-to-day and on match days. There will be wide ranging opportunities for the team to learn new skills and engage with other like-minded people working at Holroyd Howe’s other local schools which include Lingfield Notre Dame, Bedes, Notre Dame in Cobham, St Edward’s Witley and Frensham Heights just outside of Guildford. This in turn will further raise the standards of our service and make it the very best in class! We are very excited about the new partnership and will publish more details over the course of the Easter holidays. For the children at the Nursery site, Holroyd Howe will take the reins immediately, overseeing the meals and snacks from Monday 30th March.

Bon appétit and a Happy Easter to you all.

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

News from The Nursery

The Oak classes enjoyed a fun final morning of term. They took part in an Easter Egg hunt organised by the Form Reps which was a great success, the children hunted for clues, solving problems to find their final prize – fun and educational too! The children had also made Easter bonnets at home which they wore in an Easter parade around the courts watched by their parents. They all looked amazing and a great deal of time and effort had gone into making such superb creations. The only problem was the headache it gave the poor judge trying to decide on three winners. In the end the prizes went to Elle MacDonald, Oscar Rush and Bea Deacon, with a special mention to Henry Ducker Bradley Young and Will Castell. A huge thank you to the form reps, Mrs Nixon and Mrs Yorke for their organisational skills, to Mrs Young, Mrs Thomsen, Mrs Jones and Mrs Potter for helping out but also to all the other parents for helping their children with their hats! A big thank you to Father James Percival for his support and insightful words during the term’s Chapel Services. His presence has added a new depth and resonance to the exploration of faith at Hazelwood. He wishes all our families a peaceful, reflective and joyful Easter.

News from Hazelwood

Unbeaten U9s win further medal Last Thursday the U9 A team took part in the St Michael’s Netball tournament. The B team tournament was unfortunately cancelled due to a power cut at St Michaels meaning their Sports Hall could not be used.

The girls played really well winning all but one match by a single goal in their section winning against Kent College, Hilden Oaks, Sutton Valence, Holmewood House.

We then went into the semi final against Sevenoaks Prep winning this match and then went into the final against Russell House. This was an exceptionally close match with each goal being matched by the other team. The whistle finally blew just as we were about to score another goal meaning that Russell House won by one goal meaning we ended up as Runners Up. A fantastic achievement for the U9 team so well done to Camilla Eerdmans, Jas Fletcher, Harriet Lowe, Hannah Richards, Emilia Slade, Freya Dunn and Lucy Louden. This marked a great end to the season where the U9 A team have won every match they have played.

Hazelwood boys represent Edenbridge in the Kent Finals 5 boys from Hazelwood were selected to represent the Edenbridge “A” Rugby Squad and participated in the Kent RFU Under 10 Preliminaries Rugby Festival at Blackheath on Sunday 22nd March. After coming second in their group matches they convincingly won the final qualifying match and will play in the Kent Finals in a few weeks time - a fantastic result and great team effort. The Hazelwood quintet are Sam Hartley, Johnny Naylor, Harry Pluck, Matty Thomas and Josh Willoughby

Hazelwood vs Aberdour Swimming Gala Report – Thursday 19th March On Thursday 19th March, the U8-U11 swimming team gathered on poolside to compete against Aberdour - a rare home gala! All swimmers have been training very hard since the start of term and were obviously keen to perform well! From the start, it was clear to see Hazelwood dominated many of the races and I was incredibly impressed with the team’s performance and support for each other. To date the U8-U11 teams have won all but one gala this year, which is a huge achievement. Well done team!! The final score was 245 points to Hazelwood and 157 points to Aberdour.

Parry emerge as champions in the Interhouse Swimming In the last two weeks of term, the Interhouse Swimming events took place for the Juniors, Middles and Seniors. All events were great fun and extremely loud! The overall results were very close, with 1 point separating 2nd and 3rd place! Well done to all swimmers this year - especially Parry for winning overall! Miss Lloyd

Interhouse Swimming Results 2015

JUNIORS (Year 3 & 4)

1ST Parry 97pts 2ND Baily 75pts 3RD Irving 73pts 4TH Dowling 64pts

MIDDLES (Year 5 & 6)

1ST Parry 76pts 2ND Irving 72pts 3RD Baily 64pts 4TH Dowling 56pts

SENIORS (Year 7 & 8)

1ST Dowling 76pts 2ND Parry 67pts 3RD Baily 56pts 4TH Irving 40pts

OVERALL RESULT

1ST Parry 240pts 2ND Dowling 196pts 3RD Baily 195pts 4TH Irving 185pts

Well done Parry House. A fine performance in the pool!

IAPS Swimming Update For all the IAPS swimmers awaiting news, I am still waiting to hear the final results. I am hoping to hear by the end of the month or early April – apologises for the long wait! The IAPS finals will be held on Saturday 9th May in Guildford. Keep training hard swimmers!

Vote of thanks given by Jade Taylor, Head Girl “Today is the last day for three of our well respected kitchen staff. Sally Freeman, our wonderful Head of Catering and school chef, along with her daughter Josie and second-in-command Alex. We have been very lucky vas a school to enjoy Sally’s wonderful cooking. Not only do they cook for our school meals, they do so too for our parents at school events such as the Christmas Concert and Burns Night Supper. We are all extremely grateful and thankful for your service to the school. We all wish you luck in your future.” Presentations were made on behalf of the school, the HPA and the Form Reps.

Year 5’s Bough Beech trip by Francesca Carroll

On Tuesday, Year 5 went to Bough Beech for the day. You may be thinking that we all went to Bough Beech to go sailing, but no! We went to Bough Beech to learn about water and how to look after it better! We were split into 3 groups (our classes) and we had 3 activities to complete. First, the whole year had a talk about what we already know about water. For example: the water cycle, how water is treated so we can drink it without becoming ill, and what the water sources are at Bough Beech. After our introduction talk we headed off to our first activity which was learning lots of ways to save our water. We also learnt how much of the water is used for things like: showers, flushing the toilet, gardening, washing your car, the washing machine, the dishwasher and brushing your teeth. I leant that most water is used for flushing the toilet (that is around 30%) and 21% is showering and having baths, then 10% were for gardening and washing your car, then also on 10% was washing machines and on 9% was brushing your teeth and 2% was dishwasher! Here are some ways that I learnt on how to save water: if you are gardening you should stop using hoses as if you use it for 1 hour do you know how much water you are using? You are

using 1000 litres!!!! When you are showering you are using 30 litres for just 5 minutes! If you want to prevent this you should be only having 4 minute showers. If you are having a bath you would be using a whopping 100 litres of water! I learnt a lot in that activity about how much we actually all use for doing these things. I hope that everyone that is reading this should now start saving our water and not waste it!

We then went on to our next activity before lunch, and for that activity we went to look at the Treatment Works. This is where water is cleaned through eight different processes to make sure that it is clean to drink. The first process is chlorination which kills bacteria, followed by screening which removes large solids in the water such as fish, stones, plants and litter. The third process is clarification which is where alum is added to make the clay particles sink. After that there is sand filtration which removes any remaining solids, then carbon filtration which removes dissolved chemicals. The sixth process is the UV reactors which sterilise the water, followed by THM towers which remove any unwanted chemical by-products. Finally the eighth process is quality control where ongoing motoring and final checks are made before the water is distributed. What a lot to remember! After an interesting morning we went to have our well-deserved lunch. Our final activity of the day was going to have a look at the reservoir. First we ran up the enormous dam, made out of clay. At the top, we had a perfect view of the beautiful reservoir. The deepest part of the reservoir was 23 metres deep! Did you know that on average a human uses 160 litres of water a day?! We headed home with lots of facts and information. It was a very inspiring trip!

On the water with Year 2 On Wednesday 25th April Year 2 set off on what was to be a terrific day. With the weather on our side and the children ready to aboard some barges we set off on our way to Guildford

If you are applying for the Year 7 Scholarships, please remember to get your forms in on

time. Scholarship Week is w/c 27th April

in search of water. On arrival we were greeted by the lovely staff who volunteer at the National Trust centre, Dapdune Wharf. We had three activities to do so we got started straight away, after a biscuit of course! Becoming historical detectives was great fun for the children as they were handed different artefacts that were used when building barges. They had to think about the materials used, the texture and most importantly what it could of been used for. Furthermore, we took a tour of the site going into a display barge so we could imagine what it was like when full of coal, rags, chalk and lots of other goods. All the children whizzed right under the low beams whilst us adults were bending and squeezing into the tiny kitchen at the front of the barge. As the weather stayed dry but the cold air blew we took aboard two of the barges they have running which we found out run on car batteries. Not one but twenty-four! We sailed on up to the centre of Guildford waving to all the passers-by. A great day had by all and Dapdune Wharf emailed to say how beautifully behaved the children were and a credit to the school. Well done Year 2!

Cooking Club by Leo Steel I enjoy Cooking Club and it is great for people who love their cooking, want to learn how to cook or even want to be a chef when they are older. We have made all sorts of different foods such as cookies, apple pie and last week was yummy rice crispy cakes. My family couldn't wait to get their hands on them!

I really like Cooking Club because you get do try something that you haven't done at home and show your family how well you've done. They can then teach you how to make recipes that they know.

Congratulations to the Baber family on the safe and happy arrival of Francesca who was born at 2.18 in the morning of the 20th March. A great way to welcome in Spring and one which Joseph and Elisha are clearly over the moon about! We look forward to meeting the joyful little one.

a book. Not only this but as it is our 125 celebration year I have asked pupils if they wish to design a bookmark (this attracts a further 3 house points). Each bookmark will be entered into a prize draw and the winning ones will be made into bookmarks which we will be using in the library for the rest of this year and next. Please do encourage your children to take part. Thank You. I would like to wish you all a very happy Easter and of course Happy Reading! Nicki Wisniewski Librarian

Well done to Ali Geldard, riding Merlyn who qualified for the Regional Championships in Pony Racing (under 138cms in height) Congratulations – a great partnership!

The Library We have had a very busy term in the library with the launch of the new MLS reading cloud, World book day as well as the pupil's library lessons which have included talks on Antarctica, Jamila Gavin's and her novel Corum Boy and the year 3's ESB to name a few. The pupils have enjoyed talking to their peers about new and exciting books they have read and it has been a pleasure to see them so inspired by the books we stock. Pupils can earn extra house points over the holidays by writing book reviews (each one attracts 3 house points - maximum of 3 reviews only), sending a postcard back to me in the library telling me where they are and what they are reading (2 house points) and for a further 2 house points they can take a photo of themselves somewhere unusual reading

Year 3 English Speaking Board Exam Year 3 took their English Speaking Exams on Friday and by all accounts, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The Examiners quickly put them at their ease and there were varied offerings from the children including lambing, electric train sets, ballroom dancing, Italian dolls, bird boxes, chocolate and playing the trumpet to name a few. It was a valuable exercise in public speaking, understanding, using and applying new vocabulary, as well as reading expressively too. All the hard work was definitely worth it as several children said to the examiner, “Please can we do it again?” Well done Year 3!

Hazelwood Skies at Night These spectacular photos were taken by Matthew Clarke on the recent Astronomy evening. The gathered pupils and parents had a fantastic evening with clear skies allowing them to see Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, the Plough, Polaris, Orion's Nebula.

About 50 pupils and parents attended and the Orpington Astronomical Society arrived with seven telescopes and gave us their time until 9.pm. A huge thank you to them for their excellent support and knowledge. The kitchen staff provided us with hot chilli and baked potatoes half way through the evening, a much needed warming up.

Thank you to everyone for making the evening such a success.

Lynne Brighting

Year 1 welcomed some furry friends into the Chestnut Hall at the end of the spring term. Not quite the Easter Bunny but Mrs Dickerson’s guinea pigs were the next best thing!

Congratulations to the staff team for winning the Comic Relief netball game. The prize for the most fouls went to Mr Pilkington and the wooden spoon for most unfit player was awarded to Mr Jarvis! Well done everyone!

1G shared their learning with all of Chestnut and their Mums, Dads, Grandmas and Grandads. They gave group poetry and sound-scape performances about pirates. They shared their own creative acrostic poems and revealed the co-ordinates of hidden treasure. They also shared why they love reading and their favourite books. All the children worked collaboratively and showed great resilience to put on a superb performance. Well done!

HPA

Easter Holiday Scooter Afternoon - Monday 20th April There are still spaces available at the scooter sessions being run by the HPA on Monday 20th April for children in Oak to Year 3 (details on the flyer below). If you would like to attend, please email Lucy Stuart Lee at hazelwoodhpa@gmail.com

The HPA would like to wish all the pupils and their families a very Happy Easter

News from the Kitchen

Please don’t forget that next week’s menus for both The Larks and Hazelwood are now on the website under The Parents’ Section

Music Department

Congratulations to our

Gold Award winners!

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.

Notice Board

Year 4 Hindleap Warren Residential Trip Initial Parent Letter Year 6 Theatre Trip – Against Captain’s Orders Year 7 Year 8 French Trip 2016 Oak – Year 3 HPA Scooter Sessions Years 1-8 Notification - Confirmation of Summer Term Club & Late Room Places Years 3 & 4 Theatre Trip – The Twits

Key Events for the first week of the Summer Term

Tuesday 21st April Am Bus service starts Early morning swimming begins All clubs, dance, late rooms and breakfast club start 0830 Term starts for Years 3 – 8 0900 Term starts for Years 1 and 2 0900 Terms starts for Early Years and Nursery (term-time only) 0900 PSHCE assembly for Years 3-8 Wednesday 22nd April 1430 Cricket: 1st XI & Colts B v Copthorne Prep (H) 1430 Cricket: 2nd XI, Colts A & Colts C v Copthorne Prep (A) Thursday 23rd April 0835 House Meetings Friday 24th April All day Year 6 Sutton Life Centre visit 0900 Year 4 Twits Workshop Pm OAC Yurt weekend in South Downs departs Saturday 25th April All day Staff Leadership training Year 3 and 4 Twits trip to Royal Court Theatre Sunday 26th April OAC trip returns

After a project in DT studying the principles of what makes a good bridge, it was time for Y6 to try out what they had learned. Fingers crossed no one ended up in the shark infested waters below. Time to let go girls!!

Greetings from Prague: concert venue, the silver award, the parade, the disco and the crepes!