Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News 21st NOVEMber 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

This week was all about the extremely crucial skill of reading! Our Year 2 children headed off to Southchurch library for a great chance to develop their love of reading further and to explore the huge range of books on offer there. This is always a popular visit and the children always come back buzzing to tell us all about the books they chose to read and what they have learned. Mrs Tracy also led a very successful ‘Reading Rocks’ workshop for Year 2 parents where we had over 60% parents attend. These workshops are so important for us as we strive to maintain a love of reading books in our children, so we hope you enjoyed the session and found it useful. A big thank you to everybody who attended and to Mrs Tracy for arranging this event. All of our children will get to visit the library across the year and Year 1 and Reception parents will also get the chance to experience our Reading Rocks workshop in the spring and summer terms respectively! Across the school, our children have also been taking part in practice phonics screening checks, not only in preparation for the real test in the summer term but also to help us highlight areas where they children might need a little extra practice. Our staff continue to work immensely hard to teach early reading as it provides a strong base for all future learning but your help with this is also vital to the children’s success. With that in mind, Mrs Bryant will be sending home some handy hints on how you can help support phonics at home. As a parent in a busy household myself, I know how difficult it can be to find time in the evenings and at weekends but any additional time you can give to support is very much appreciated. Christmas arrives next week as we are holding our Christmas Fair on Wednesday 26th, so all of the Hamstel Infants team are busy preparing the various stalls, games, raffles and tombolas that you can enjoy. The children can be picked up from their classrooms at 3pm and then you can head straight round to the Infant and Junior halls to enjoy the fun! Refreshments will also be available so please try and come along if you can – we hope to see you there! Our Reception children are also out and about in our local areas as they take on the very important job of walking to the post box to deliver their letters to Father Christmas. This is always one of our most favourite events of the year and definitely wins the prize for being the cutest. We hope they all have a great time and get those letters posted in plenty of time for Christmas Eve! Team Hamstel also return to action on Friday next week as our Year 2 Dodgeball team head off to an inter-school event. We wish them good luck and will let you know how they get on next week. This week, we had a parent open the wooden gates to our reception garden while some children were still using the area at the end of the day. While, I appreciate that many parents might have to rush off once the children have been collected, this is clearly a safeguarding risk. Please can I respectfully ask that parents do not open any of the school gates themselves and do not enter the learning areas until the allotted times. Thank you for your continued cooperation with this. Finally, with the weather taking a cold turn this week please can I remind all parents to make sure that the children have a warm coat, and if needed, hats and gloves in school. Thank you! Have a great weekend everybody and we look forward to seeing you next week! Scott Roche - Principal Weekly Celebrations! The crucial value of ‘respect’ was our focus this week! Earning certificate this week were Ryleigh & Kennedy (Hedgehog), Safiye & Janani (Otter), Maya F & Sophie (Fox), George & Arthur (Squirrel), Harper & Theo (Duck), Afeefa & Florence (Heron), Ellie & Pheobe (Newt) and Noah & George (Dragonfly) who all demonstrated respect in such brilliant ways which included; • Following school rules • Being a good role model • Being polite • Showing respect to others • Being a patient and thoughtful learning partner • Respecting the classroom • Always using good manners • Showing respect to their own work Going for Gold stickers this week went to Nasrya, Ruby A, Hermione and Savannah who all earned 20 dojos or more. Savannah also earned a special Principal award for reaching gold three times this year already! Our Golden Stars for the classes with the most dojos went to Newt class in Year 1 and Fox class in Year 2. WOW moments this week included being awarded a grade 4 swimming badge, great home learning, winning a rugby medal and writing an excellent diary extract at home. These awards went to Sophie, Maya F, Buster and Savannah who all shared their news with the whole assembly. Well done to all our winners of the week! Attendance Our attendance recovered slightly this week as we hit 93.1% but is still below our 95% target This week our attendance awards went to… • Woodpecker class who had the best attendance in reception with 93.9% • Heron class, who recorded a fabulous 98% last week, recorded an even better 98.7% to win the Year 1 attendance cup, • And Fox class, who continued their dominance for a second week in Year 2, with the best attendance across the whole school of 99% Let’s hope we can hit our target next week and have mor

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

Year 2 - Dinner Menu - PTA - Messages from the Office - Arbor Hints and Tips

Key Dates for Spring Term - Community

Nursery

Our book this week has been ‘The Gruffalo’. The children have enjoyed listening to the story and have helped to retell the story using a story map. We have also been learning about what a character in a story is and describing the Gruffalo and the other characters in the story. In Maths we have been learning about positional language such as in front of, next to under etc. We have also been practising our Christmas songs. How to help at home Hickory Dickory Dock Maths - Give your child instructions to put a toy in different positions such as on, under and next to

REMINDER: Upon arrival, please ensure that your child stays with you whilst you are waiting for Nursery to open and not run around the surrounding area, as this can disrupt other classes thank you. As the weather is getting colder please ensure that your child’s name is on their coats, hats, scarves and gloves thank you.

Reception

This week we are learning about nocturnal animals and reading the book ‘Hoot Owl’. In writing we have been labelling nocturnal animals, remembering to pinch the sounds in each word and forming our letters correctly. In maths we have been learning about parts and whole, identifying the parts in objects and animals and the whole when it is complete. In shape, space and measure we have been identifying and naming triangles in different environments. In PSHE we have been learning about how kind and unkind behaviour can make people feel. In PE we have been applying our jumping technique to a game. In RE we have been thinking about Eid and how it is celebrated. In art we have been adding white and black to make tints and shades of different colours. How to help at home NELI special words: body, head, small, big, wash, dry, dirty, clean, teeth, tongue, bite, lick. Handwriting:

Song of the week: Ring O’ Roses Maths: show a picture or a toy animal. Can you name the parts and the whole. For example, the cow is the whole and the legs are parts.

Letters sent home this week

• Owl Class - Teacher Parent Meetings - 19.11.2025

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week, the children have thoroughly enjoyed listening to Hoot Owl: The Master of Disguise. The humorous tale of a very hungry owl kept everyone engaged, and it has been wonderful to hear their laughter at key moments and to see their excitement with every turn of the page. We have been exploring a range of nocturnal animals, learning to label them and noticing the different colours and textures in their features. About night and day, light and dark, light sources and routines. The children also created some beautiful artwork inspired by our learning—pieces we are all extremely proud of! Our outdoor learning session this week was all about exploring smells, textures, and connecting with nature. Even though it was a bitterly cold day, the children embraced the adventure. They warmed up inside the cosy Hobbit Hut, where we enjoyed stories together and a small snack. It has been a wonderful week of curiosity, creativity, and resilience! On Thursday the children made some pizza, this was a fun event that the children thoroughly enjoyed, although a little messy. In phonics, the children have been working incredibly hard, showing fantastic focus and determination. RWI: i n p g o Letter Family: n m h k b p r Maths: subitising, sets of numbers, counting fingers from said number, building towers from and to said number. Understanding 1+1 makes 2. number writing and recognition/ matching.

Could we please ask that hats, gloves and a warm coat are provided as the days get colder. Many thanks.

Starlight

Despite the chilly weather, we had a wonderful time exploring the outdoors this week! The children made magical leaf wands, created imaginative forest soup using stones and pumpkin seeds, and gathered in the cosy Hobbit Hut for a story. Everyone joined in brilliantly with the storytelling. In English, we continued learning about Queen Victoria. The children enjoyed looking at real artefacts such as washboards, a chamber pot, and chalkboards, and used what they learned to write clear factual sentences about the Queen. In Science, we identified and classified different everyday materials. We also explored how some materials can change shape through squashing, bending, stretching, and twisting—lots of fun, hands-on investigation. In Maths, we continued to build confidence with subtraction, working with two 2-digit numbers, including questions that required renaming. Well done, everyone, for a fantastic week of learning.

Year 1

This week in literacy we have been learning about what a fact is. We looked at statements and worked together to decide if it was fact or opinion. We used this knowledge to support us in our history lessons where we were looking at old toys. We chose some specific toys and wrote some factual sentences about them. In maths we have continued to consolidate our knowledge on subtraction by crossing out and looking at picture problems. In history we have looked at various old toys from different time periods, asking questions such as ‘what is it made from?’ and ‘how do you play with it?’. We all had a great time in outdoor learning this week where we got to make s’mores over the fire in the hobbit hut!

Year 2

Wow! It’s been a busy one this week, but Year 2 have had a great week with lots of exciting events. We loved our visits to the library and exploring some of the books on offer for us to read in our local community. We also really enjoyed our Reading Rocks Workshops and have our adults come and spend some time with us reading some of our favourite books. We also loved seeing Jacqui from Jacqson Diego Story Emporium with her pop-up-book shop, we always enjoy chatting all things bookish with her and listening to her read us a story. In the classroom this week, Year 2 have been using different sources of information to learn about Queen Victoria; we have found out lots of interesting facts. Some of the facts included when Queen Victoria was born, about her childhood and about her family. The children were very excited about some of the information they found out. We spent some time writing some factual sentences to share some of the new knowledge we have learnt. We have also enjoyed looking at some historical artefacts and finding out what they were and what they were used for, for example a chamber pot, and a washboard. In maths we have continued to develop our knowledge and skills on subtraction. We have been spending the time practicing subtracting a multiple of ten and then a 2-digit number away from another 2-digit number without renaming. We have been using our stem sentences to verbally share our understanding e.g. __ ones - __ ones= ___ ones __, tens -___ tens = ___ tens The children have also been getting crafty and making our Christmas hoops ready to display in our hall for all our upcoming Christmas events. We can’t wait to see ours with the rest of the school’s, it should be spectacular!

Support Our School with Easyfundraising!

Dear Parents & Carers,

We’re excited to let you know that our PTA is now using Easyfundraising to help raise money for our school and you can help too, simply by doing your everyday shopping online!

It’s completely free to use and takes just a minute to get started.

1. 🛒 Here’s how it works: Visit our fundraising page here
2. Click “Support this cause” and create your free account.
3. Start your online shopping at your favourite retailers (like Amazon, Argos, Tesco, M&S, Just Eat and many more!).
4. The retailer sends us a free donation at no extra cost to you!

It’s an easy way to support our school while doing what you’re already doing online. Every penny raised goes directly towards enriching the learning experience for our children from new equipment and resources to fun events and activities.

Please take a moment to sign up and share the link with friends and family too!

Thank you for your continued support,

Messages from the Office

Arbor Hints and Tips

Breakfast and After School Club

To change or cancel Breakfast or After School Club you need to contact the office. Parents are unable to change/amend their own bookings. If your child is booked into After School Club or Breakfast Club, it will show on their calendar in Arbor, including the session i.e SHORT, FULL, LATE. A full week view can be seen by clicking the blue arrow in the ‘Calendar’ tab.

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