Headteacher’s update
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents, carers, friends of Hazelbeck, students and staff for what has been a fantastic start to the academic year. This term has seen our returning students and our new Year 7 students settle and flourish in the school and our 6th formers have been supporting charities in the community and accessing Careers events. Most of the students participated in Hazelbeck’s Got Talent to showcase our classes’ skills and abilities. With your support through our Bingo night and enterprise activities we have raised further funding to support our school.
All our students have worked hard across the curriculum to enjoy, learn and succeed, and were rewarded at the end of term with festive gatherings and to top it all off, a fantastic performance from a local Christmas choir.
We can’t wait to see what next term brings! Have a lovely holiday and I will see you all on Monday 5 January 2026.
Lisa Little, Headteacher
News from the bases
Red 1
Red 1 have had a positive and productive half term of learning, everyone has shown great effort and made real progress taking on new challenges with confidence. Our story this term has been the enormous turnip which we have really enjoyed exploring all the resources. We have been accessing music therapy, therapy room, wheelchair swing, swimming and rebound this term which has been amazing for us all – music therapy has been a real hit! We’re proud of what has been achieved so far, and we are feeling excited, motivated and ready for more learning next half term! As part of our Christmas celebrations, Red 2 and Yellow 1 joined together to do a joint Christmas Shabang. We took part in a range of activities including parachute fun, dressing up as Rudolph, playing instruments, pass the parcel games and dancing.
Red 2
Red 2 have had a great term, topped off by our Christmas celebrations when we joined Yellow 1 joined together to do a joint Christmas Shabang. We took part in a range of activities including parachute fun, dressing up as Rudolph, playing instruments, pass the parcel games and dancing.
We sadly say goodbye to Annice, who is leaving the school to explore new opportunities, in her words “I have loved working at Hazelbeck and have learnt so much from all the students who have been part of my journey. I will miss everyone greatly and wish all the students and staff the very best for the future”. We are fortunate, to have had some crossover with the new Class lead teacher and Suzanne Lovell, who has joined us this month and will be taking the reins of Red 2 from January 5, 2026.
Red 3
Well, what a fantastic term we have had in Red 3 (the old Green Base). Some of our older students started in Sixth form to work on Gardening, Music and Creative Arts skills. This was a new challenge for them, and they did well and were rewarded with a trip. All our amazing students in class worked well on their independence and social skills, having real life lessons in Careers – Enterprise, going shopping, cooking and selling their produce to the rest of the school.
Looking forward to the next term and hearing about your news in 2026, wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from us all in Red 3.
Yellow 1
This term we have been focusing on developing our life skills. We have been learning about being part of the community and how to stay safe, including how to cross the road safely by remembering to stop, look, and listen! We have worked hard through a range of practical activities, such as cleaning and litter picking, as well as using a variety of tools to prepare different meals in our cooking lessons. There has also been a noticeable increase in independence, as pupils are becoming more confident in completing tasks and making choices for themselves.
Yellow 2
Yellow 2 have had a productive half term and students have continued to enjoy school life and their learning. We have particularly benefitted from our English and Maths lessons, learning through popular stories and role play. In Creative Arts we have been using percussion instruments and developing our sense of rhythm and patterns; in Understanding the World, we have been learning about ‘People who Help Us’. We’ve made some good progress in finding out about crossing the road safely using Zebra Crossings. Finally, and as ever, our swimming lessons remain a popular highlight of the week!
Yellow 3
This term, we have had a fantastic time learning through practical, hands-on activities. Our students have particularly enjoyed transferring their maths skills into cooking, where they have been practising counting, measuring, and following simple instructions. Everyone has taken part in making a variety of delicious dishes, including soup, pasta, pizzas and vegetable chilli. These activities have supported confidence, independence and engagement, while making learning fun and meaningful for all.
Orange 1
This term in Orange 1 has been absolutely packed with excitement and discovery! We’ve loved diving into the colourful celebrations of Diwali, Hanukkah, and the Christmas story, learning about different traditions and the joy they bring. In music, we’ve discovered a real love of rhythm and melody exploring a range of instruments and singing together has filled our classroom with laughter and song.
Our maths lessons have been a real treat too, especially as we’ve explored 2D shapes and used them to design a dazzling Christmas art display that’s brightened up our classroom.
In English, we’ve been investigating who our community heroes are and how they help keep us safe. From firefighters to nurses, everyone shared brilliant ideas and stories, making us appreciate the wonderful people around us. It’s been a term full of creativity, curiosity, and lots of festive fun, well done, Orange 1! Wishing you all a wonderful festive break and looking forward to seeing you all in new year.
Orange 2
Orange 2 have had a fantastic term, and we couldn’t be prouder of them! They have really enjoyed lots of cooking activities and spending time in the sensory room each week. In Maths, we have been following the White Rose scheme and working hard to build our number skills. In English, we started with fiction, exploring friendships through the story Lost and Found, before moving on to non-fiction to learn about firefighters and other people who help keep us safe in the community. We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, or if you’re not celebrating, a relaxing and enjoyable break!
Green 1
Our Year 7s continue to engage well in both Maths and English topic work. This half term they have focused on Safety and how to stay safe in the kitchen and bathroom, they have also put in to practice the information learned whilst cooking in their Food Tech Room. Most of the students have simple knowledge of electricity and how to stay safe around plugs and using equipment that is plugged in to a socket.
They are all moving steadily forwards during their Maths sessions within their small groups. Safety understanding has been extended to ICT and how to remain safe whilst online. Students are forming strong bonds with peers and are slowly developing their independent skills throughout different sessions in PHSE. Students continue to understand the importance of calming their mind and body through their weekly Wellbeing session in which they practice Yoga.
Green 2
We have had a positive and busy Autumn term in Green 2 and are very proud of everything the students have achieved. In RSE, we learned about what makes us feel safe. The students also enjoyed making their own calm cushions, which they can use to help them regulate their emotions and feel settled. In PSHE, we focused on friendships and working together. The students took part in collaborative learning, including creating shared artwork such as the Kindness Tree now displayed in our classroom. We have had lots of fun keeping active! The students enjoyed playing dodgeball, football, learning dance routines, and taking part in rebound. In Understanding the World, we learned about safe strangers in the community and online dangers including how to use technology safely and responsibly. Thank you for your ongoing support of students in Green 2 throughout the term.
Green 3
We have had a great half term. In English we have been using non-fiction books on Keeping Safe and Internet Safety to work on comprehension skills. We have been writing sentences and paragraphs to explain our understanding and using headings to make our work clear. We have been learning about what muscles move different parts of our bodies and doing circuit training in PE to feel and build up the different muscles in our bodies. Students have built-up stamina and strength doing this twice a week and we have even been able to work towards an AQA award in fitness.
We have enjoyed trips out to the Media Museum, shopping in Bingley, Woodbank Garden Centre and St Ives. Some students have got on public transport to go to Lidl to buy ingredients for our Enterprise projects. Students have used photos from our trips to make PowerPoints to pass onto other classes to show fun places to visit. Students are working with more independence to create a PowerPoint, adding photos and text and printing them out. We have continued to make money in our Enterprise lessons (which we will put towards trips) by making shortbread biscuits and made to order sandwiches. Students have worked as a team to prepare the sandwiches and deliver them around school. We have received great feedback on our baking and sandwich making!
We have had a trip to the local Fire station as part of our work on Fire Safety, made fires and toasted marshmallows. We are also exploring the topic of Volcanoes. What a successful first term at Hazelbeck. Well done to all the students for their hard work, commitment and resilience.
Sixth Form
This term many parents and all the students attended the Bright Futures event where they met with providers of Post 19 activities as well as colleges and life skills providers. It is never too early to start thinking about what we do after school. To support this, we have created a Vocational Morning on Wednesdays. Our Year 14 students who might go on to further education have visited colleges and other providers, and our other Year 14 students did work experience in Prince of Wales Park, clearing leaves. We were very proud of our Work Experience students who came out in all weathers and remained cheerful throughout their work time.
The other groups have been upcycling wood into dominoes that can be played outside, exploring the arts through music and painting, and creating their own playdough and doing food exploration and sensory arts activities. Next term we will swap the groups round to ensure as many sixth formers as possible get meaningful off-site experiences to build their confidence and prepare their next step beyond school.
We enjoyed performing for parents and for our friends at our coffee afternoon and Hazelbeck’s Got Talent. We also enjoyed our trip to Shipley Go Bowling.
Every Friday afternoon we have an assembly which is run by either The Valleys, The Meadows or The Rivers. We have learned about Children in Need, Advent, and heard reports about what classes have been up to. In PE on Wednesday afternoons, we do swimming, Circuits and the gym or Sensory and Yoga sessions.
The Woods
The Woods have been working hard on developing Maths and reading skills over this term, as well as spending time exploring Arts and Crafts and developing their space through some magnificent displays for Halloween and Christmas. The group have accessed parties for birthdays and loved having the chance to access the big choir for a tuneful end to the term.
The Valleys
This term we have been working on the basic understanding of number through talking about ‘more’, ‘fewer’ and ‘the same’ across the day, including in cooking and when looking at our reward charts, as well as looking at how things fit together to help us with practical tasks like tidying and carrying items. We have explored safety in English learning to read signs to help us keep safe on the road and around the house as well as practicing crossing the road. We have also looked at Hannukah and Christmas in English.
We chose to cook burgers this term, so we have been making some delicious veggie burgers with a variety of toppings. In PE we did table cricket with input from the Yorkshire Cricket Board.
The Rivers
We’ve had a great term in Rivers Base. One of the highlights has been going to volunteer at Action Point, a charity based in Keighley. Every Tuesday, we went and sorted, cleaned, packaged and priced up things that would be sold in the charity shop itself. We walked over to the charity shop to see the products we had sorted on the shelves, which really helped us to recognise the value of the work we had been doing.
In our Enterprise, we made both Halloween and Christmas/Festive candles that both sold well, helping us to raise money for future Enterprise endeavours and eventually an end of year class trip. Everyone has been working extremely hard on their Phonics, English (where we have covered instructional texts and books about friendships) and Maths (where we have worked on number and measurement). In Cooking, we have cooked a range of foods, including quesadillas, French toast and cornflake tart. We also had the opportunity to run a class café for other bases in school. Students worked in their teams and did an excellent job of serving food and drinks to their customers.
We’re already looking forward to a wonderful Spring term. We hope you have a great Christmas!
