On Saturday 22nd April, a large team of Hazelwood children, led by Miss Hammond, took part in the TCS Mini Marathon. The children were able to run the famous last mile of the official London Marathon. They were absolutely incredible and Miss Hammond is bursting with pride!
A special mention to Lucas, Scott and Howie for raising over £600 for the Alzheimer’s Society.
The whole Hazelwood community was deeply saddened to learn that Eleni Vassiliou, our much-loved member of staff, passed away on Saturday 1st April 2023. Eleni worked with us at Hazelwood as a Teaching Assistant for many years and was very much an integral part of our staff here.
Eleni was dedicated to the children in her care, a much-loved member of the staff team, enthusiastic and professional in everything she did. Her calmness and compassion for the children shone through, alongside her wonderful sense of humour.
Everyone who met Eleni was immediately struck by her kind, caring and compassionate nature and, even though she was struggling with her health, her huge sense of loyalty to the children and staff of Hazelwood.
After battling cancer for many years, Eleni was diagnosed with Leukaemia in April 2022 and was unable to return to work from this point. Following a long battle and despite her ongoing courage and resilience, Eleni lost her fight on 1st April 2023. Throughout her sickness, Eleni continued to speak positively about everything and everyone around her. Staff at Hazelwood spoke to her regularly and shared many memories and funny stories.
We are sure that many of you will remember Eleni with great fondness and affection. She will always be a member of staff at Hazelwood and forever loved.
This week has been Mental Health and Wellbeing Week, where the children have really focused on their mental health and wellbeing by using their superpowers such as kindness, patience, courage and teamwork to identify how they connect with others
and how ‘connecting’ helps us in our lives. The children have participated in a range of activities to develop strategies to support their own mental health and wellbeing.
Year 2 worked with our very own John Gilbert to look at confidence and courage and how to be proud of themselves.
Year 3, 4 and 5 took part in online live workshops focusing on specific areas of mental health and wellbeing.
Other activities for the week included: using ‘The Invisible String’ by Patrice Karst as a focus for English; an art activity where the children created personalised paperchains that display how they feel connected; and a flashmob dance where the whole school connected together through dance.
Please see below a video of our whole school connected through dance and paperchains!
Finally, Friday marked the end of term and the end of Mental Health and Wellbeing Week – what better way to end it with asking children to dress to express. They certainly didn’t fail to express and impress with children wearing outfits that reflect who they are. It was lovely to see so many children having the confidence to wear what they felt comfortable in and shows what a brilliantly diverse yet connected community we are at Hazelwood.
What a fantastic way to end the term! The Spring Music Concert was a roaring success.
Last week, the Year 2 children visited Firs Farm Primary School for the annual Singing Partnership Festival organised by the Enfield Music Festival.
The Reception children have been learning that although families come in all shapes and sizes, they are all very special. Friday was a joyful celebration of all our wonderful families at Hazelwood in Our Special Families Assembly. The children have worked extremely hard to learn their songs and particularly enjoyed using a microphone to share with you all why their families are so special. For one last surprise, the children drew their own family portrait as a wonderful reminder of the event. Thank you parents for coming to the assembly. We hope you had fun watching it and join us is saying huge congratulations to the Reception children.
The Juniors Choir represented Hazelwood at the EMS Spring Sounds Festival this week.
World Book Day is always a special day at Hazelwood as children and staff seem to go the extra mile to dress up as their favourite book characters. We had plenty of wallies, wizards and witches as well as lots of animals, superheroes and princesses. Huge thank you to the parents for supporting this lovely day - I know that it can be a challenge!
The Day included special assemblies, 'drop everything and read' and a special teacher swap with many of the staff reading their favourite books to other classes. What a lovely way to end the week!
Hazelwood Players performed Aladdin with 3Ds or the Ballad of Curly Slippers to the children on Wednesday. It was an amazing show - oh yes it was!
Huge thanks to all the cast, crew, the amazing band, backstage and Panto Kids for all their hard work and brilliance.
The snow fell hard on Sunday evening and left a huge blanket all over Hazelwood Schools. With many members of staff unable to get in to school, we had no choice but to close. That said, it did give everyone a chance to have a lot of fun in the snow! A bit of a rarity in these parts, it seemed only fitting to build snowmen and snow women, create some snow angels and to sledge until the hearts content, or in my children's case: they were soaked through and I couldn't feel my fingers anymore!
The Year 1 Big Little Nativity was such a beautiful performance and got everyone into the Christmas spirit! There were the traditional angels, shepherds, wise men and a donkey but also the very important presents, sheep and doors... It was lovely to see so many big voices in the hall, confidently singing and saying their lines as well as the obvious enjoyment on their faces whilst dancing - and that was just the teachers! The children looked fabulous, sounded amazing and brought the younger children (who saw the show in the morning on Wednesday) and parents/carers clapping and whooping for joy! What was so special is that every Year 1 child who was able to, was part of the performance - A real Christmas treat!
Huge thank you to all of the adults that made this happen: Mrs Dunn, Mrs Naik, Mr Stimson, Mrs Tye, Miss Bispham, Mr Wills-Virk, Mrs Ashwell, Mrs Phillipou, Miss Beltran, Miss Waters, Mrs Esendagli and, of course, the director of the show: Miss Michel!
What a wonderful event we had last Sunday, with hundreds of children, parents, carers, friends, Governors and staff attending in the cold weather to create an incredibly warm family feeling. There were bouncy castles, tombolas, curries, candy-floss, cakes and burgers, fire pits, 'we made it' stalls, games, arts and crafts, present wrapping, bric-a-brac, book stalls and of course a special visit to Santa's grotto! Not to mention a headteacher being stuck to a wall with gaffer tape! Huge thank you to all of the parents and friends as well as Chris and Sango who helped make this very special day a reality. But the biggest thanks of all must go to our wonderful HPSA team of Anna, Hannah, Beata, Amy, Andree and Mel - you are amazing!