Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 27th September 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s been multicultural week at Hamstel Infants this week and we had a fantastic time celebrating different cultures from around the world. The children explored the food, language, landscape and people of various countries including Italy, France, Spain and China. It was inspiring to watch their creativity shine through the work on display and I hope you were as impressed as we were, if you came to see it during our open-door event at the end of the day.

A big thank you to Revd. Andy Goodliffe for leading our Harvest assembly on Thursday. The children were in fine voice as they got to sing ‘Cauliflowers Fluffy’ and they then heard from our friends at HARP, who explained how all your generous donations will be used to help local homeless people. These occasions really help to bring our school community closer together – a big thank you for all your support!

A very big thank you to all the parents who joined us for the Year 2 Maths workshops. I hope you found it enjoyable and informative. Its not to late to tell us your thoughts, so if you have any feedback, please feel free to leave your thoughts via the link provided below.

Year 2 Maths Workshop feedback

Next week looks a bit quieter, but we’re looking forward to welcoming Reception parents in on Tuesday, 1st October, to observe a phonics lesson.

It’s also the week we kick off our first swimming sessions in the pop-up pool, with Year 2 starting their swimming lessons. A huge thank you to everyone involved in making this happen – we hope the children will have a wonderful time and get to enhance their existing water skills and confidence.

I just wanted to give a shout out to Miss Whiston who hosted a Macmillan Coffee and Cake event in school today and managed to raise well over £400 for the Macmillan Cancer Support. A big thank you to Miss Whiston for organising and the team of avid bakers who supplied us all with cakes on a windy and rainy Friday. What an amazing effort – you all deserve Paul Hollywood handshakes for your delicious bake-off delights!

I hope you have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you bright and early on Monday morning.

Scott Roche

Principal

Nursery

Bonjour! This week the children have enjoyed learning about France for Multicultural week, we learnt about the French flag and learnt how to say the colours in French. We also learnt how to say hello and goodbye in French. They also enjoyed trying some croissants. The children suggested that we could get to France in a Pirate ship, this could be due to our story that we have been reading ‘Pirates love underpants’.

In Maths we have been looking at and describing the different patterns on the underpants in the story and matching them.

We have been learning about and naming facial features and have enjoyed painting our self-portraits.

REMINDER: Please ensure that your child has a coat at Nursery as we have access to the garden in all weathers.

Can you ensure that your child has a spare set of clothes at Nursery Thank you.

Please put your child's name in their uniform.

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This is the second week the children have been listening and role-playing to the story 'We`re Going on a Bear Hunt'. We have delved deeper into the story to understand the characters and the concept of the story. and the children love it, singing at every moment through the day, making the noises like the swishy grass, and splish splosh water. We have continued with letter formations, number sets, and subitising, sentence building and building communication skills.

The children have made some lovely artwork during group activities and have mastered this week's one-armed robot letter family.

The children have enjoyed building social skills while playing tag in the garden and catching a bear!

The children have enjoyed learning about China, dragons, and the Great Wall of China. It has been a full week of lots of learning, and the children have enjoyed working together as a group to get the work done.

REMINDERS:

Swimming will commence on the 30th of Sept. Emails will be sent out to parents asap.

Books to be changed on Friday.

Outdoor Learning 7th October.

Starlight

This week we have been learning about Italy for Multicultural Week. We learnt about some of the places in Italy and about some of the foods that are eaten. We made cheese and tomato pizzas, which the children enjoyed eating. The children also made collages of the Italian flag.

In PSHE, we have continued looking at families. We looked at the family from the story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and decided if the family member was a baby, a toddler, a child or an adult. We thought about ways we have changed since being a baby.

How to help at home:

Reading: continue to listen to your child read at home.

Maths: find different ways to add two numbers together to make 5.

REMINDER: Outdoor learning on Monday 30th September. Please ensure that your child is wearing appropriate clothes according to the weather. Please provide a change of clothes in case the children get muddy.

Also on Monday 30th September, we have a swimming session in the afternoon.

Letters sent home this week

• Rainbow and Starlight Swimming - 23.09.2024

Reception Year

This week we have enjoyed learning about France for multicultural week, we learnt how to say hello and goodbye in French, the song Frere Jacques, made French flags and loved trying some traditional French food.

Along with learning about France, we have continued to learn about the journey we have been on from being a baby to starting big school. This week we have been reading the book ‘I’m Growing!’ and thinking about how we have changed. We all enjoyed looking at pictures of ourselves as babies and talking about how we have changed, practising our oracy target to look at the speaker when listening to the other children talking. In PSHE we have been learning to recognise feelings in ourselves and others.

In Handwriting we have been learning to draw circles, remembering to start at 1 o’clock and draw the circle in an anticlockwise direction. In Maths we have been learning to subitise up to 3 and represent quantities on our fingers. In Art we enjoyed learning how to paint our self-portraits that we drew the week before. In DT we started learning how to join materials together using glue and sticky tape.

The children all enjoyed their first PE lesson and Outdoor Learning day this week, learning all the new routines and expectations. In Geography the children enjoyed exploring the school wildlife area, learning how to be safe outside.

Thank you to all the grown-ups who joined us for our extended open door and watched the children show-off everything that they have learnt about France!

How to help at home

RWI Phonics: Continue to watch the RWI virtual classroom videos.

Reading: Listen to your child read their books at least 5 times.

Handwriting: Encourage your child to draw circles starting at 1 o’clock

Upcoming Events

• Tuesday 1st October: Phonics Workshop 9am

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Guidance regarding Earrings - 25.09.2024
• Reception - Phonics Workshop - 24.09.2024

Year One

Ciao Everyone! This week the Year 1 children have been learning all about Italy!

On Tuesday afternoon we boarded our plane and landed in Rome. We learned about the capital city, the foods they like to eat and the language they speak.

We did a tasting session where we got to try pasta, tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil, yum! We made pretend pizza’s and drew some flags.

In Literacy we have been continuing with our book The Bog Baby. We have been learning about adjectives and nouns and have been trying hard to including exciting vocabulary in our sentences.

In Maths we have been learning about number bonds to 10. We have been working practically to split 10 in multiple different ways.

We finished our Geography block by looking at an aerial view of the school, locating and plotting different areas around the building.

REMINDER: Outdoor Learning next week, please wear appropriate clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty as we will be making mud monsters.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Guidance regarding Earrings - 25.09.2024
• Year 1 - Dragonfly Swimming - 23.09.2024
• Year 1 - Duck Swimming - 23.09.2024
• Year 1 - Heron Swimming - 23.09.2024
• Year 1 - Newt Swimming - 23.09.2024

Year Two

Hola! Oh, my goodness! It's been such a busy week for the Year 2classes. In Year 2 we have been celebrating Harvest and learning about Spain as part of Multi-cultural Week. We boarded our plane on Monday afternoon and jetted off to the beautiful country of Spain. We have enjoyed learning to speak some simple words and count to 10 in Spanish with the help of Miss Iruskieta. We have tasted food from Spain which include chorizo, Spanish tortilla (omelette) and peaches, it was delicious! We have discovered lots of facts about Spain, danced the Flamenco, created a Picasso inspired piece of artwork and made fans.

In Literacy we have been learning about writing a set of simple instructions, but first we had to make potions! Using some inspiration from 'Alice in Wonderland' and her shrinking potion, we designed and made our own potions where all sorts of interesting items went in. We thought about what we used and the process and then wrote our set of instructions so someone else could make the potion if they wished. We had to think carefully about the order of the steps and the language we used. Our sentences had to start with a ‘time conjunction’ so our steps followed each other e.g. First, Then, Next, Finally.

This week we enjoyed our Maths Workshops led Miss Goodman where it was lovely to have our parents or family members come in and complete some Maths activities with us. We hope you found this useful.

However, back in the classroom we have been thinking about addition and developing their calculating methods when adding a 2-digit number to a 2-digit number without bridging the ten e.g. 42+33=. The children have been using equipment and learning how to use the column method.

Letters sent home this week

• Year 2 - Maths Workshop Parent Feedback - 26.09.2024
• Whole School - Guidance regarding Earrings - 25.09.2024
• Year 2 - Badger Class Swimming - 23.09.2024
• Year 2 - Fox Class Swimming - 23.09.2024
• Year 2 - Hedgehog Swimming - 23.09.2024
• Year 2 - Otter Swimming - 23.09.2024
• Year 2 - Squirrel Swimming - 23.09.2024

Celebration Assembly - Caring

This weeks value has been 'Caring', below are highlights from around the classes.

Online Safety

Instagram is one of the most well-known social media platforms around, frequented by users of all ages all over the world, and allowing them to share photos and videos with friends, family and the wider public if they wish. The site has many younger users, allowing people as young as 13 to create an account and engage with its community.

As a popular choice of platform for teenagers, it's vital that parents and educators understand the risks associated with the site and what can be done to mitigate them and how it might influence and appeal to children younger than 13. This free guide lets you know about the most prominent safety concerns on Instagram, offering expert advice on how to make young people’s experiences on the app as secure as possible.

Extra Second-Hand Uniform Sales added due to popular demand.

Our lovely PTA have signed us up for Asda Rewards Cash Pot - if you usually shop there please consider adding Hamstel Infant School so we can have a chance at some extra funds.

How does Asda Cashpot work?

Asda's new Cashpot for Schools initiative has raised almost £1million for UK primary schools in its first 72 hours. The industry first campaign sees Asda donate 0.5% of the value of its customers shopping to a primary school of their choice – every time they shop using Asda Rewards.

For full details on how to use this Reward Scheme follow the link to Asda

Messages from the Office

School Tours for Reception September 2025

If you or anyone you know has a child who is starting school next September, please let them know we have our school tours available for bookings.