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This month’s Newsletter, as ever, gives an excellent flavour of the range of opportunities and experiences that students have had at Hazelwick. From the Year 8 Translation Spelling Bee to Engineering Tomorrow Bridges challenge, from the 100 Year 10 students visiting the Golden Hinde and the Clink prison in London to the visit to Sussex County Cricket Club in Hove for the some of our hearing-impaired students, from wonderful lessons that we get to visit on a weekly basis right across the school to the Sussex Sportshall Athletics finals that our students enjoyed participating in.

Our primary focus rightly remains on the quality of education delivered through the lesson on our students’ timetables. It is great to see our students engage, be challenged and thrive under the expert guidance of their teachers. However, we also recognise the benefit and impact of the activities outside of lessons and the range of opportunities that have taken place in May offer an excellent insight into the learning beyond the classroom that students have access to.

We hope that all our students have a positive and enjoyable half term break and we will look forward to seeing them all again on Monday 1st June.

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Our Year 9 students have been busy unleashing their creativity in an exciting design project inspired by the magic of Disney. Tasked with developing their own unique event concept, students explored a wide range of imaginative ideas—from delightful Ratatouille-themed dining experiences to thrilling proposals for brand-new Disney rides.

As part of the project, students stepped into the role of professional designers and marketers, producing a collection of promotional materials to advertise their events. These included eye-catching posters, professionally styled tickets, and branded tote bags, all carefully created to capture the spirit of their chosen theme and engage their target audience.

To bring their ideas to life, students developed their computer-aided design (CAD) skills using industry-relevant tools such as Canva and Techsoft. They demonstrated growing confidence in digital design, experimenting with layout, colour schemes, typography, and imagery to produce polished and visually appealing outcomes.

Alongside their digital work, students also expanded their practical textile skills. Each student created a tote bag, learning how to construct strong and durable items using French seams for a neat and professional finish, as well as reinforced handles for added strength. Adding a personal touch, they applied their own custom designs using heat pressing techniques, resulting in a high-quality product that reflected both creativity and technical skill.

This project has been a fantastic opportunity for students to combine imagination with practical skills, and their final outcomes demonstrate not only their creativity but also their growing confidence as designers and makers.

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Possibly the most exciting month of the year for the House system, May is packed full of incredible House opportunities; from Bake-Off to Origami to the Big Music Quiz, there has been plenty that our amazing students have got stuck into!

As House leads, we cannot wait to see your excited faces and proud House colours as we prepare for Sports Day and a final House showdown. Keep working hard in lessons and turning up to those final House events; we look forward to seeing you at the winners’ BBQ!

Mx Nolan

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As ever, the House point scores are pretty tight, with Sancho taking the lead but Lovelace close on their heels. It is going to be a good fight for those final house points in the last events before our summer BBQ for the winning house so make sure to get stuck in!

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During form times across the different year groups, students have put their music knowledge to the test both audibly and visually for the Big Music Quiz.

See results table above.

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The St Catherine’s Hospice Youth Enterprise Awards Evening

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The St Catherine’s Hospice Youth Enterprise Awards Evening

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The St Catherine’s Hospice Youth Enterprise Awards evening took place on Thursday 30th April. The team “Operation Orange”, comprising Aroush Ayub, Shrey Mathur, Kunaal Patel, Luke Thorne, Holly Winton and Olivia Winton, gave a fantastic presentation highlighting all their incredible hard work over the last 11 weeks! Awards were made in a number of categories and I am delighted to report that Hazelwick School won 3 awards; Most Amount Fundraised, Pounds Per Pupil and Best Marketing Strategy. The team really impressed the judges from St Catherine’s Hospice and People’s Partnership and were even offered future employment! The team raised an incredible total of £7690.94 which is a truly amazing result; their target was £1500, so to exceed that by over £6,000 is phenomenal.  The total raised by the 4 schools participating in the Youth Challenge was £16,123.87.

The students have worked incredibly hard showing total dedication and commitment to this challenge, raising awareness of such a vital local charity to the school community and beyond. We are immensely proud of these students; they are an absolute credit to our school and deserve every praise for their incredible efforts.

Congratulations!

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‘Game of the Month’ is a competition run by the Digital Leaders of Computer Science and IT. Each month, they will review games made by students at Hazelwick School, with the winner to be awarded house points and featured in the online newsletter.

Submissions must be emailed to Mr Lloyd with all the information listed below:

·         Title

·         Description

·         Link

Email: JLloyd@Hazelwick.org.uk

Good luck!

Congratulations to this month’s winner, David Suszek!

Title:

Stella Infection 3000

see less

Description:

Players are thrown into a circular arena and challenged to defend themselves from the Stella Infection!

You can play David’s game by searching for ‘STELLA INFECTION 3000’ on Kodu Game Lab.

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Monday 8th June:

Year 8 Vaccinations

Wednesday 10th to Friday 19th June

Year 12 Exams

Thursday 11th June

Year 10 Parents’/Carers’ Evening – Virtual

Friday 19th June

Year 11 Prom

Wednesday 24th June

Year 7 Parents’/Carers’ Evening – Virtual

Monday 22nd June

Year 13 Leavers’ Ball

Tuesday 30th June

Year 12 Higher Education Meeting

Wednesday 1st July to Friday 3rd July

School Show, High School Musical

Sports Days

Wednesday 24th June

Year 10 – Lesson 1-2

Year 9 – Lesson 4-5

Thursday 25th June

Year 8 – Lesson 1-2

Year 7 – Lesson 4-5

Awards Evenings

Year 8 - Wednesday 8th July

Year 9 - Tuesday 14th July

Year 10 - Thursday 16th July

Year 7 - Monday 20th July

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This summer, the talented students of Hazelwick School are bringing the much-loved Disney classic High School Musical to the stage and you won’t want to miss it!

Packed with unforgettable songs, energetic choreography and plenty of school spirit, High School Musical follows Troy, Gabriella and the rest of the Wildcats as they discover that it’s okay to break out of the ‘status quo’ and follow their dreams. From catchy hits like We’re All In This Together to heartwarming moments and hilarious scenes, the show promises fun for all.

After months of rehearsals, the cast and crew have been working incredibly hard to create an exciting production full of music, drama, and dazzling performances. Whether you are a long-time fan of the film or seeing the story for the first time, this is set to be one of the highlights of the school year.

Performance Dates

Wed 1st – Fri 3rd July
6:00pm

Tickets

Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased online at:
www.ticketsource.com/hazelwick-school

Bring your friends and family along to support our amazing students and enjoy a fantastic evening of live entertainment. We can’t wait to see you there. Go Wildcats!

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Year 9 Students Take on the Engineering Tomorrow Bridges Challenge

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Year 9 Students Take on the Engineering Tomorrow Bridges Challenge

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A group of Year 9 students recently took part in an exciting and highly engaging STEM workshop delivered by Engineering Tomorrow, supported by Ms Bowen and a live professional engineer who joined the session via Zoom. The workshop, titled “Bridges: Building Structures That Last,” challenged students to think and work like real engineers as they designed, built, and tested their own bridge structures.

Working in teams, students explored different bridge designs including truss, arch, suspension, beam, and cable-stayed bridges before sketching and constructing their own models using specialist kit materials. The session combined creativity, teamwork, problem-solving, and practical engineering skills, with students learning about key concepts such as compression, tension, structural efficiency, and the engineering design process.

Throughout the workshop, students showed excellent resilience and collaboration as they refined and tested their bridges to see which structures could withstand the greatest load. The live interaction with a professional engineer gave students a valuable insight into real-world engineering careers and demonstrated how mathematics, science, and creativity work together in industry.

A huge thank you goes to Ms Bowen for supporting the event and helping to make the workshop such a success. Opportunities like these are invaluable in inspiring students to consider future pathways in STEM and helping them develop confidence in applying their learning to real-world challenges.

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The SSC and Learning Support students kicked off their cricket campaign in style this month with an exciting first taster session led by professional coach Dom from Sussex County Cricket Club as part of the club’s Disability Cricket outreach programme.

Taking to the astro turf with energy and enthusiasm, students got straight into action with a series of fast-paced warm-up games before competing in a thrilling cricket showdown. Powerful batting was on display throughout, with several huge hits sending balls racing the full length of the pitch, while sharp reactions and determined teamwork made for some outstanding fielding performances.

One of the standout moments of the session came from Miss Apps, who produced a spectacular one-handed diving catch that would not have looked out of place on a professional cricket field.

This opening session marks the start of a seven-week programme with Dom, giving students the chance to continue developing their cricket skills and confidence. The collaboration also included a special visit to Sussex’s home ground in Hove for DiscoverABILITY Day on 15th May.  Here the students got to experience blind football with Brighton & Hove Football Club, wheelchair cricket, tale cricket, boxing and meet England Disability Cricket star, Alfie Pyle!

Ms Grubb

Teacher of the Deaf/Teacher in Charge of SSC

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100 Year 10 History students recently had the opportunity to enrich their study of the curriculum with a trip to London.  The first port of call, was to visit the replica of the Golden Hinde ship which is in dry dock near London Bridge Station.   They visited the various parts of the boat, while being told about the circumnavigation of the world by Sir Francis Drake and his crew.  We had a picnic lunch on the Southbank and then  strolled along to have a look at the Globe Theatre.  After lunch, we visited the Clink Prison Museum, to find out more about how prisons and punishments have changed over time.  Staff and students had a great time and their excellent attitude was commented on by both venues.

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Year 8 Spanish Translation Bee Regional Finalists

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Year 8 Spanish Translation Bee Regional Finalists

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The Year 8 Spanish Translation Bee Competition has continued to build on the fantastic success of the first stage earlier this academic year, once again showcasing the exceptional linguistic talent, enthusiasm and dedication of our students at Hazelwick. Through our weekly Tuesday Spanish Lunch Club, students have prepared with tremendous commitment and determination, developing the ability to translate increasingly complex Spanish sentences into English within 60 seconds against the clock — an impressive challenge which requires rapid recall, grammatical accuracy and confident manipulation of different tenses.

Following a highly competitive second stage, we are delighted to announce the winners of the Year 8 Spanish School Translation Bee:

1. Nayonika Sujitkumar

2. Mikail Khan

These students will now represent Hazelwick at the South-East Regional Final, which will take place at the University of Bath on Tuesday 9th June 2026.

We would also like to congratulate the students who finished in 3rd to 6th place:

3. Melissa Tattolo

4. Iaroslav Sinkevich

5. Amelie Johnson

6. Heshretaa Gopavaram

We are incredibly proud of all students who took part and look forward with great excitement to the Regional Final at the University of Bath.

Buena Suerte

Mrs García and Mrs Fernández

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Year 7 student Nathan Powell with Mr Bagnall

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A huge congratulations to Year 7 student Nathan Powell, who has become the first student in Year 7 to reach an incredible 400 achievement points this year.

Nathan has demonstrated exceptional positivity and consistency across all areas of school life. His achievement points reflect not only excellent academic effort, but also his attitude towards learning, kindness to others, and contribution to the wider school.

Reaching 400 achievement points so early in the year is a fantastic accomplishment and a reflection of the hard work and dedication Nathan shows every day.

Well done, Nathan!

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Robin Stevens is a very popular author with our students so I thought I would focus upon mystery stories to read next after they have read both series by the author for this month’s newsletter. Many thanks to Mrs Comer for being our guest book reviewer this month.

What To Read Next?

Robin Stevens

There are many mystery readers across the Year groups at Hazelwick School and the ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ series by Robin Stevens takes the number one spot! Stevens uses popular mystery story tropes with clever plot twists aplenty. The series is set in a boarding school and there is something about a boarding school setting that young readers find appealing. Our detectives Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong first feature in the book ‘Murder Most Unlike’ which was published in 2014. Daisy and Hazel are best friends at the Deepdean School for Girls, where they have set up their own detective agency. Their first case is very close to home when Hazel finds the body of a science teacher. When the body vanishes, the girls are convinced that they have their first murder to solve. Can Daisy and Hazel find the evidence they need to solve the crime? Will their friendship survive their first case? There are nine books in the series and five books in the mini-book series. Realising that her readers were growing up, Stevens then introduced the World War Two mystery series ‘Ministry of Unladylike Activity.’ There are three books in this series, and I have included the link to the ‘Fantastic Fiction’ website pages for Robin Stevens which details the reading order of her books.

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/robin-stevens/

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Year 9 have been making fresh pasta using an egg and 100g flour (Type 00). This strong flour with higher gluten content is ideal for pasta making as it allows the dough to become elastic and makes beautiful silky pasta.

Results were great and students enjoyed using the pasta machines.

Well done Year 9.

Mrs Roth

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Sussex Sportshall Athletics Finals – Competition Report

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Sussex Sportshall Athletics Finals – Competition Report

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On the 29th April, the following students represented the school at the Sussex Sportshall Athletics Finals:

Treasure Okeke, Joel Akujobi, Leo Trinidad, Delroy Tewe, Oakley Plumb, Logan Neupert, Hugo Stanfield and Valluvan Sivaseelan.

The boys delivered an outstanding performance against strong competition from nine other schools across the county, finishing an impressive 6th overall.

There were a number of standout performances on the track. Treasure, Leo, Valluvan and Joel set the tone early by winning their heat in the obstacle relay with a confident and well-coordinated run. Joel continued his excellent form by placing 1st in his heat in the 2-lap race, showing great speed and control.

In the 4-lap races, both Leo and Logan put in strong efforts to finish 3rd in their respective heats, while Oakley dominated the 6-lap race, taking 1st place in his heat with a determined performance. In the demanding 8-lap race, Logan and Hugo a secured 2nd place finishes in their heat, demonstrating impressive endurance.

The team finished on a high in the 4 x 2 lap relay, where Oakley, Leo, Valluvan and Joel produced a fantastic performance to win their heat convincingly.

Overall, the team showed great determination, teamwork and resilience throughout the event. They represented the school brilliantly and should be very proud of their achievements.

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James Hill from 9ZBA has had a busy spring with some fantastic achievements in gymnastics.  He has competed in both regional championships and again qualified for the British Artistic Championships.

In the British Championships he was 29th overall and in the regionals, 2nd in all the all-round competition. This involves competing on the Floor, the Pommel Horse, Parallel Bars, Rings, Vault and High Bar.

Gymnastics involves incredible strength, fitness and flexibility.  To attain such high standards, James works really hard alongside being an excellent student at Hazelwick.  We are really proud of him and always look forward to hearing about his achievements.

Well done, James!

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Bake off was a fantastic success this year with students of all year groups getting involved in creating their brilliant bakes for our Senior Leadership Team. It was amazing to see so many Year 7 students turning up and baking for the first time; hopefully they can form some of our new returning bakers next year!

A huge thank you to our brilliant Sixth form representatives for their support and well done to all of the bakers.

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A huge thank you to our astronomy whizzes in Year 7 who managed to land among the stars in our Astronomy Scavenger Hunt! A huge win for Lovelace and Parr – well done to the students listed above.

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We saw some incredible folding skills in the Origami house event, with students making frogs, penguins and even flowers out of paper. Well done to everyone who came along and crafted such beautiful designs.