Fir Class enjoying Forest School 22.3.21
Fir Class have really embraced Forest School this half term. They have been learning new skills and also carrying out a range of science based activities as a follow up to Science Week.
Around the School in 13 Bubbles!
I was lucky enough to take a socially distanced journey around the school to take some photos of the children dressed up for World Book Day. There were some fantastic costumes from all year groups. Thank you to everyone who joined in both at school and at home. Photos of the children who are currently home learning will be added to the blog at a later date.
Here is the personal PE challenge for Week 4. This week’s challenge is to have a go at some frog jumps within a relay course. Have a look at the video to see what the challenge entails:
One of our delightful Year 3 children has completed a marathon through January. She ran a total of 26.2 miles with her Dad (and younger sister for the last mile) in aid of Prostate cancer U.K. She managed to raise an incredible £420.
What an achievement that is!
Here is the personal PE challenge for week 3! This week’s challenge is to see how long you can hold the plank position for. You can use the video to help you if you need to:
Remember to share any photos or videos of your efforts!
Well done to everyone who took part in the Week 1 PE Challenge.
Here is the second challenge: the ‘Step Up’ challenge. Remember to send any pictures or videos of your attempts!
On Wednesday, Mr Ludford took delivery of 5 new tablets from Mark Thompson, Senior Negotiator, at Chamberlains Estate Agents in Teignmouth.
The company gifted them to the school as part of their charitable work supporting the local community. They are a very welcome addition along with 16 Chrome Books from the Government. This means the school is in a great position to support all the children and families with their Remote Learning during lockdown if they don’t have the technology at home.
For the Hook day, we had an exciting time learning about the digestive system- including the names of each part such as the oesophagus, stomach, small and large intestines as well as the rectum and anus. We learnt how the food enters and moves through our body.
We carried out an investigation to show the journey and we made “poo” !!!
We also made models of the digestive system and posters to reinforce our new learning.
Then we used our IT skills to explore Curioscope – an app which maps 3D views of the internal organs of the body.
By the end of the week, we journaled the Hook and wrote reflections on our new learning including the Learning Values that supported us to achieve!
Hello Hazeldown,
Each week, there will be a PE challenge for you to have a go at to make sure we are keeping active whilst learning at home.
This week’s challenge is ‘Speed Bounce’. Watch the video below and then have a go yourselves. Remember we would love to see your efforts – you can send a photo or video to Miss Tapp if you would like to!
Good luck!
Year 5 have been extremely busy completing their remote learning. They have shown some fantastic resilience in taking everything in their stride. We have really enjoyed our zoom sessions and it’s been so lovely seeing all of your smiling faces. Keep up the fantastic work year 5!!
Have a look at this video of all of your amazing learning you have been sending to us – music courtesy of our very own Alex from Monkey Puzzle!
https://vimeo.com/498617564/7afc700583
It has been an incredible first half term of forest school. The majority of our pupils (including our children from Little Acorns) have enjoyed several sessions so far!
This week’s focus has been celebrating the Autumn harvest alongside enjoying some Halloween fun. There has been a clear focus on building positive relationships and collaborating to design and make potions and pumpkins. Children have also learnt how to weave and make tea light holders using materials from the wild.
The magic has been sprinkled and the forest school team await to continue their adventures in the winter.
Thank you to Mrs Carpenter and Mrs Elliot for making the forest school experience so special for our pupils!
Last week, in Ebony Bubble, years 3, 4 and 5 all focused on their art skills in their learning journeys. Here are a few examples:
We are so proud of one of our fantastic Year 6 pupils – Jay! Jay was out on his boat when he heard that a kayaker was in trouble out on the water. He motored out on his boat and attached the kayak so that he could tow in the kayaker until the Lifeboat could complete the rescue.
Here is the link to the article in the newspaper:
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/drowning-kayaker-drifting-out-sea-4253558
Well done Jay – we are so proud of the way you acted. You are a credit to Hazeldown School!
This is a fun song to help the children remember to social distance. We talk about staying in our bubble and not going into anyone else’s bubble!! Sing along – you will recognise the tune!!
This week the children have really enjoyed themselves back at school. As one of the extra SOLE tasks set by Mrs Simister, the children have put together a video to show what they get up to.
Charlotte in Holly Class has written this lovely poem to mark Year 6’s time at Hazeldown:
Our time at Hazeldown
The coronavirus pandemic may have impacted our ability to attend school but it has not prevented us ‘Hazeldowners’ from demonstrating the fact that we have growth mindsets!
All of the individuals in the attached video have been nominated by their teachers for doing just that during either the second half of the Spring Term (before Easter) or the first half of the Summer Term (the term that we all spent accessing our learning online at home).
Well done to each of the nominated individuals!
As always, here at Hazeldown we find different and unique ways to show Empathy, Collaboration and our Relationships. We show respect to others and value our community. Our values shine through in all that we do.
All of these values and beliefs can be seen throughout these difficult times and none more so from this video created by a family from Hazeldown. Thank you Annalise and Freya.
A big thank you to everyone.
John Dougherty author of over 30 books including ‘There’s a Pig Up My Nose’ and the ‘Stinkbomb and Ketchup Face’ series of books was in school reading extracts from his story and poetry books. John also played his guitar and sang songs with the children. There was time for questions and answers at the end of each session.
John stayed at the end of the day to sign copies of his books.
We are very grateful to The Helen Foundation for funding this event and the Pavilions Teignmouth for helping us to organise it.
Using a green screen app, our year 6 pupils have brought their writing to life, creating news reports on the importance of exercise. Watch their reports below:
We all had a fabulous treat today as we were entertained by two exceptional classical musicians Alfie and Rebecca. This was organised as part of the Teignmouth Classical music Festival. They played all manner of instruments including violin, viola, bassoon, glockenspiel, xylophone and piano. They played music from a range of composers and periods. Both were amazing musicians who swapped instruments constantly. We would like to thank Rachael Shearmur from the Teignmouth Classical Music Festival who organised this event.
We would also like to encourage you to visit some of the many events that are taking place in the following weeks in Teignmouth, a leaflet was sent out last week.
The children were absolutely engaged throughout the performance and we all had a wonderful afternoon.
The children all looked amazing in their World Book Day costumes, thank you to everyone that helped with the costumes.
In addition to dressing up for World Book Day, we held a Share a Million Stories assembly. The children sat and listened to a story called “Ameliaranne and the Green Umbrella” which is 100 years old! We also had a visitor from Morrisons in Teignmouth who presented us with a selection of books for our library, these were received by two of our librarians. Thank you very much Morrisons.
Foundation children were invited to the library after school where they enjoyed colouring in pictures of Zog and making Zog masks. The session finished with the children listening to the story of Zog with some great audience participation.
One of our hard-working librarians has been helping Mrs Hurt to collect the ‘Share a Million Stories’ totals from each of the classes.
The total of stories shared so far are a whopping 1374!
Well done everyone; keep on sharing!
Wow, what a brilliant week! All of us (children and adults!) have had a fantastic 5 days. The children have demonstrated so many of our school learning values and we have been incredibly proud of how they have pushed themselves to achieve things they didn’t think were possible! Additionally, they have been so polite and encouraged and helped each other through all of the activities.
For our last activities, some groups ventured up to Berryhead for orienteering whilst others climbed the high ropes or went stand up paddle boarding.
Well done year 6 – you have been a pleasure to take on residential!
We have had another excellent day at Grenville House with the sun even making an appearance for us! Pupils have continued to overcome fears and have achieved things they never thought they could. They have also continued to demonstrate excellent positive relationships and collaboration – always offering to help and encourage one another. Some of the activities today have included: orienteering, canoeing, indoor climbing and caving.
Year 6 have had another amazing day with caving, coasteering, canoeing, high ropes and stand up paddle boarding.
We have put together a short video capturing some of the best moments so far.
Enjoy.
Today was a day of overcoming fear and showing a great deal of resilience! Throughout the day, all pupils took on the elements during their coasteering activities. Some of the groups were jumping off rocks into a stormy sea during a hail storm- which seems to have become a bit of a Hazeldown tradition at Grenville. We were so proud of them all. They were incredibly brave and so caring towards one another, supporting each other through the challenging times. During the storm, other groups were taking on the high ropes- not allowing the hail to prevent them from carrying out the ‘leap of faith.’
The staff at Grenville have also commented on the lovely manners that our pupils have demonstrated throughout their stay so far. They are all having such a great time, accomplishing things they never thought they could. Parents… you should all very proud!
Year 6 arrived today in a slightly wet and windy Brixham! After making their own beds and unpacking their cases, the children took part in a variety of activities. Some groups ventured to Buckfastleigh to go caving; others climbed the high ropes and some took to the sea after building their own raft.
Yesterday, a team of 8 footballers went to TCS to compete in the annual learning community football tournament. Out of 7 games, they won 6 and drew 1, conceding no goals along the way. They demonstrated all of our school learning values, with all of them putting in 100% effort, which made them a group to be proud of! Congratulations Team Hazeldown!
Cherry class have been working really hard over the Autumn term learning to play the plastic trombones. 
The children were so proud of their achievements that they invited their parents in for a full performance to see their progress. The class performed amazingly!! The parents were then invited to have a go…… it’s not as easy as it looks is it?!!!
Special thanks to Mrs Price.
Year 3 have been working really hard on their fantastic learning journey “SCRUMDIDDLYUMPTIOUS”. 
All the children were invited to their celebration event with a special golden ticket inside a chocolate bar wrapper. The year group (including the teachers) then came dressed as their favourite characters from the class reading book ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, to show-case their learning to their parents. All involved had an amazing time creating their own smoothies, making peppermint creams and decorating various Christmas gingerbread shapes, amongst other activities!!!!! Mmmmmmm delicious!!
At Hazeldown, we are extremely passionate about supporting our pupils to achieve anything they want in their later lives.
After working alongside Floyd Woodrow, who is an internationally known, motivational leader, we were inspired to use his ‘Compass for Life’ theory to help our children plan their journeys towards their ‘North Star.’
Thank you to Bibi in year 5 for her detailed articulation of her Compass for Life- we have no doubt that you will continue to push yourself and one day, after your career as a detective, you will publish your own book.
What is your North Star? How will you get there?
Tonight, a team of year 6’s took part in a netball tournament at TCS. They played brilliantly as a team, with lots of communication and collaboration. The team played six games altogether, jointly winning their group. Overall, they finished 4th after a very close semi final and then only missing out on third place by one goal in a penalty shoot out.
Well done Team Hazeldown – excellent effort!
Today, some of our year six children started their new roles as part of ‘the lunchtime training team.’
They sat with the younger pupils, modelling the importance of table manners and supported them to follow the rules and routines during lunchtime.
In addition to this, they helped our lunchtime staff to serve the meals and helped with the cleaning up process.
Great start to all those involved; keep it up!
Congratulations to the children who were chosen by their teachers as our ‘Always Pupils’ for the first half term of the academic year!
The children were chosen because they are role-models to others; they always do the right thing at the right time and they always put maximum effort into their work. They have been polite, well-mannered, helpful members of our school who always show an enthusiasm for learning.
To celebrate their hard work, we organised a celebratory afternoon of fun and games, led by our deputy headteacher, Mr Goodenough and assistant headteacher, Mr Hardee. This included table tennis, ball games, arts and crafts, boardgames and gymnastics using the apparatus- eventually working up an appetite to enjoy a few biscuits. In addition to this, they have all been awarded a special badge to clip onto their school uniform.
Will you aspire to be an Always Pupil?
Keep working hard and next time, you could be chosen!
Thank you for all your donations to help with the upkeep of the defibrillator and we were also able to make a donation to the British Heart Foundation.
In total we raised a whopping £335.10.
This morning, Year 3 visited a river to see all the features they have been learning about in school.
The children took part in a variety of activities to further their growing knowledge of rivers. The activities included: kick sampling to find creatures that live in the river; taking water and soil samples for further experiments back at school; sensory observations to help with their future poetry writing and finding features like meanders, waterfalls and oxbow lakes.
We had a fantastic morning and all the children were very excited during the activities. They were also very successful find: water boatman, pond skaters, fresh water shrimps and even a mayfly nymph!
This week the whole school have been focusing on their Super North Stars. The children have worked extremely hard on mapping out their future aspirations. These have included their values, strengths, the team around them and magnets (barriers to achieving their goal). This has also been linked to Growth Mindset and Inspirational Maths.
Yesterday afternoon, the children who attend our after-school club were treated with a stunning, Alice in Wonderland- themed tea party!
Thank you to Mrs Heal for her incredible effort and creativity to organise this wonderful event; our pupils absolutely loved it!
Today Year 3 said goodbye to the butterflies we have been looking after for the past four weeks. When they arrived they were caterpillars, just 8mm long. We fed them and watched them grow until they were ready to become cocoons. In total, five of our cocoons hatched and today we released our five Painted Lady butterflies beside the Butterfly Bush on the school field.
Year Three have had a fantastic time over the last two days taking part in Forest School activities on our wonderful school field. We have hunted for treasure, played hide and seek, learnt about fire safety, lit a fire and baked damper bread and smores! How lucky we are to have these wonderful school grounds to learn in!
On Friday, a selection of Year 6 children were able to take part in a fantastic opportunity: a school speed check with two local police officers. Katie and Fynn have outlined what they had to do below:
“When we did the speed check there were two police officers. One of the police officers had a speed gun that checked the speed of the vehicles. There were some tools that we used to help us such as a clicker (to count how many cars passed), a checklist holding the information that we needed (such as car colour) and the speed and the time.
One of the police officers pulled over the cars into the loading bay and then talked to the driver about what was happening and what to expect. Once the police officer had pulled them over and told them what was happening then the children asked some questions”.
After a brilliant Sports Week, we can now announce the final results.
4th place – Blue Team with 933 points
3rd place – Red Team with 945 points
2nd place – Yellow Team with 962 points
And the winners, with 1003 points, are…
THE GREEN TEAM
Congratulations to the Green Team and to everyone that took part during the week.
An enormous thank you to everyone who came along to help with the construction of the pond on Saturday. We couldn’t have done it with out you. Here are some photos of the amazing team. One of our old pupils, whose now at secondary school, also came back to lend us a hand.
One of the Green Team members have contacted our expert ‘The Pond Man’ and we hope to update you about the next stage soon.
The whole school had a fantastic day yesterday! The children showed lots of resilience to get to the finish line in their individual races. They also showed that they could work well in a team when they took part in the team events. Well done to every child who took part!
Also, a big thank you to all of the adults who came to support and cheer the children along the way.
Here are the final sports day results.
Congratulations to the yellow team, who won the KS1 sports day and were joint winners with green team for the KS2 sports day.
However, remember that these results will be added to events from the rest of the week to give an overall Sports Week winner. Look out for this at the end of the week…
As part of sports week, 28 pupils from each of the KS2 year groups represented their team in a gymnastic competition. They had to perform a sequence which consisted of a range of elements including forward rolls, cartwheels and a number of balances. In addition to this, they performed a vault.
All individuals scores were added up to give a team total. Have a look at the results below…
To start off Hazeldown’s sport week, the whole school took part in wake up, shake up. We were all able to show off our dance moves!
Further to this, Years 3 and 5 took part in ultimate frisbee sessions and Years 4 and 6 took part in lacrosse sessions. The children were able to learn the skills needed for the sports and then apply them to mini-games.
What a great start to the week!
There are lots more activities coming up later in the week too.
Tuesday – Scooters for Foundation and KS1, KS2 swimming gala, KS2 gymnastics competition.
Wednesday – KS1 and KS2 sports day.
Thursday – KS1 dodgeball.
Friday – KS2 skateboarding and Foundation/KS1 Archery
Year 6 pupils have completed their SATs week!
We are incredibly proud of all the children’s positive, resilient attitude which they consistently demonstrated throughout the week.
A big thank you goes out to Booker Wholesale (who provided the children with Bacon for the week) and to Morrisons Supermarket (for supplying the rolls). Eating bacon rolls on the grass bank was an exciting way to start each morning and gave children an extra boost of energy!
Thank you to all out amazing staff at Hazeldown who helped cooked the bacon, washed up and went the extra mile for our fantastic pupils.
Well done everybody!
Mr Hardee
Look at our new arrivals! We have been watching all the developments and another chick has hatched this morning. It was all soggy when it first hatched, but it is starting to dry and look fluffy!
