Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News 19th september 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

The weeks are already whizzing by in this first half term as the children continue to settle well since returning from the summer holidays.

This week our Year 1 children went out and about exploring the local area. While, this may seem like something they do every day on the way to and from school, it’s amazing how much learning can be taken from these walks, as the children identified and appreciated all the great facilities and features, we have around our school. Thank you to our parent volunteers for your support with this walk. Sadly, Heron and Newt classes were beaten by the weather, so they will try again next week!

A big thank you to all of the Year 2 parents that came to our maths workshop with Miss Goodman today. These events are always important to us because they give you as parents, a valuable opportunity to learn how we teach certain concepts in school, but also the chance to work with your children in school. We hope you found the session useful; we have similar workshops planned across the year covering a whole range of different subjects so please try and attend if you can.

We have had a number of different drinks coming into school over the last week, so this is just a reminder that in line with our healthy school status, water bottles should only contain water and that juice should not be supplied. We have also shared recently that no drinks are to come into school with children’s packed lunches from home. Unfortunately, this week we have seen a range of soft and fizzy drinks being sent into school which we have then had to send home, which understandably causes unnecessary upset for the children concerned. To clearly outline our position, should a child come to school with any drink other than water, it will be returned to you at the end of the day and your child will be given water in a cup to drink throughout the day. To alleviate any upset or distress for children, I would respectfully ask for your cooperation with this by only sending water into school, unless there has been a prior agreement made with the office for complex medical reasons.

Next week, Team Hamstel are in action for the first time this year as they head off to Garon’s Park on Friday for the inter-school cross country competition. We wish them good luck and will let you know how they get on next week. Friday also sees the return of our Open-door sessions, where you have the opportunity to come into class to look at the books and let your child talk you through the work they have done so far this term. We hope to see you there!

Never a dull moment at Hamstel Infants!

Have a fantastic weekend and we will see you all bright and early on Monday morning.

Scott Roche

Principal

Jump to a section...

Autumn 1 Diary Dates - Nursery - Rainbow & Starlight - Reception - Year 1

Year 2 - Dinner Menu - PTA - Messages from the Office

Community Information - Key Dates for Autumn Term

Nursery

We have had a great week at nursery. The children are settling in well and are continuing to learn our nursery routines. It is lovely to see the children beginning to form friendships.

During our carpet times we have been listening to familiar stories and singing number songs to practice our counting.

REMINDER: As the weather is changing could you please ensure that your child has a pair if named wellies and a spare set of clothes Thank you.

Reception

The reception children have had a fantastic week, embedding all the new routines and becoming more confident in school. This week we have been reading ‘The colour monster starts school’ and talked about how we felt when we started school. Through our PSHE lesson we learnt the names of different emotions, and we showed different facial expressions for different emotions.

In handwriting we have been practising some pre-handwriting patterns ready to start our letter formation next week.

How to help at home

RWI: watch the QR code videos at home and return your homework to your class children the following Thursday.

Handwriting: Practise these pre-handwriting patterns at home

Letters sent home this week

• Reception - Baseline Assessment Information - 12.09.2025

REMINDER: Outdoor learning will start next week on the following days:

• Tuesday: Woodpecker
• Wednesday: Kingfisher
• Thursday: Peacock
• Friday: Owl

Can you make sure you have brought in a pair wellington boots for your child with their name on.

The week after next we will be learning about families. Could you please post a photo of your family on Tapestry so the children can talk about the members in their family with the class.

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

It has been a busy week for Rainbow Room, and the children have been learning about differences, acceptance and understanding. We have continued the theme emotions and feelings, and the children are enjoying expressing their feelings by drawing, painting using play dough, sand and other media to make faces. We have been following the Zones of Regulation colours to support learning. The children have created some wonderful art work using lots of different materials and media.

We have continued with RWI, writing, pencil grip and posture, number work, subitising and missing numbers.

RWI: Set 1 sounds m a s t d

Letter Family: Long Ladder Letter Family

Starlight

We’ve had a super busy and exciting week in Starlight!

In English, we have been exploring the features of a diary and wrote our own diary entries in the role of Alice from Alice in Wonderland. We thought carefully about the order of events and used time connectives like first, then, next, and finally to help us sequence what happened in her magical adventure.

In Maths, we’ve been using practical equipment to help us count to 100 in 1s and 10s, both forwards and backwards. We’ve also been learning about place value – understanding the tens and ones in two-digit numbers – and we’ve compared numbers to see which is greater or smaller.

We began learning about the Zones of Regulation, helping us to understand our feelings and emotions. We talked about what kinds of feelings go into each zone – Blue, Green, Yellow, and Red – and how they make us feel inside.

We had our first PE lesson of the year. The children did a fantastic job trying to be independent when getting dressed and undressed – well done, everyone!

Have a lovely weekend and we look forward to more fun and learning next week

Year 1

In literacy this week we have been reading ‘The Bog Baby’. We have been learning about adjectives and have come up with a range of words to describe what the Bog Baby looks like and where he lives.

In maths we have been counting forwards and backward to 10, counting objects to 10, and reading and writing numbers.

In Geography we went on a local area walk, spotting and discussing street furniture along the way. When we came back to school we plotted our route to make a simple map.

In PSHE we have been learning about what makes a family, we discussed how everyone’s family is different and drew a picture of what our family looks like.

Letters sent home this week

• KS1 - Spelling Passports - 12.09.2025
• KS1 - Flu Immunisation Letter - 12.09.2025
• KS1 - Flu Immunisation Information Booklet - 12.09.2025

Year 2

It’s been a great week in Year 2 with our first time out in the Outdoor Learning Garden this year! We have had so much fun out there! We went back over the rules and expectations when learning and playing in the outdoor space as well as learning linked to our science work on habitats. We focussed on micro-habitats, and the children collected different items from around the garden to create their own micro-habitats. We used leaves, stones, twigs and soil and anything else we thought might make a good home for a small creature living out in the garden. We have been learning about what a micro-habitat is and what the mini-beasts need for a good home e.g. shelter, the dark, damp, protection.

In literacy we have continued with our book Alice in Wonderland and have written a simple diary in the role of the character, Alice. We had to think about the events and sequence them first before writing our sentences. We used the pronoun I when writing some of our sentences, including some interesting adjectives to describe events and feelings.

In maths this week have started exploring numbers to 100. We have used objects to help us count groups into tens and ones. We have been learning about what the digits stand for in a 2-digit number and using the correct vocabulary to describe the numbers.

Finally, a big thank you to all the parents and carers who managed to pop along to the Maths workshops today, we hope you found them useful and enjoyed spending some time with your child exploring some maths tasks.

Applying for a Year 3 Place

Applying for a Year 3 Place for your Child & Hamstel Junior School Tours.

The application window for on time applications for a Year 3 school place is between 14 September 2025 and 15 January 2026 and parents can apply via the online form which is available during this period.

Full details can be found on the Southend Council website https://www.southend.gov.uk/.../primary-school-admissions-1

National Offer Day, when all that have applied receive the outcome for their application is 16 April 2026.

Please remember all Year 2 children leave Hamstel Infants School at the end of this school year. You must make an application for a Year 3 place either to a Junior School or a Primary School, even if you want your child to move onto our sister school Hamstel Junior School.

Hamstel Junior School - Tour Dates

We have been asked to share the tour dates available at Hamstel Junior School, please see the attached flyer. For parents interested please contact Hamstel Junior via their office email office@hjs.porticoacademytrust.co.uk . Places will be available on a first come first served basis.

Letters sent home this week

• KS1 - Spelling Passports - 12.09.2025
• KS1 - Flu Immunisation Letter - 12.09.2025
• KS1 - Flu Immunisation Information Booklet - 12.09.2025

Messages from the Office

Reception September 2026 - School Tours

If you have a child born between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022 they will be due to start school in September 2026. The application process opens on 16th September and if you live within the Southend City Council area you can apply online at www.southend.gov.uk/admissions. Deadline for applications is 15 January 2026.

If you, a family member or friend have a child due to start school and would like to view our school please contact the school office either by telephone 01702 468461 or by email office@his.porticoacademytrust.co.uk to book onto one of the tours we have coming up.

SEND Surgery @ Hamstel Children's Centre - Wednesday 24th September

Christmas Fair

We know it is very early to be mentioning Christmas - but initial plans have already begun - please see the flyer below.

Community