Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 23rd may 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our last newsletter of this half term, which also happens to be the last one of spring and last before we embark on a very busy second half to the summer term!

This week has been largely dominated by our brilliant Year 1 performers. On Monday, they performed the dress rehearsal of their ‘Hats Off’ show to a packed school hall. Not only did our performers wow their audience containing children from nursery through to Year 2, but it was also the first time we have had everybody back together again in our school hall since the fire in January, which was great!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we welcomed the Year 1 parents into school to watch the performance…and what a performance it was! The narrators told the story of Apple the Pony and her unusual hat brilliantly, the actors all managed to be in the right place at the right time, and deliver their lines to show off their funny characters, the singing was amazing from the whole year group from start to finish and there were some truly terrific dance moves that I will now be stealing for my own repertoire of embarrassing dad dances!

The Year 1 children and staff truly deserved the loud applause, cheers and whoops that were given by our very full, and appreciative audience. Thank you to all the parents, carers and other family members who came to support the children, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Today a letter was also sent out about our whole school sports days. In contrary, to last week’s message the nursery sports day has been changed to Tuesday 17th June to avoid any clashes for parents that may have siblings in the junior school. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. Sports days for the rest of the school remain on Thursday 19th June. Please read our letter carefully as it contains lots of information about the day and how it will run. We will of course, share even more details nearer the time.

Just a reminder that Friday 20th June is also an INSET day, so children are not in school, giving them plenty of recovery time after a day of sporting activity.

When we return after the half term break, we are straight back into action as the Year 2 children will be visiting the beach during the first week. Those children taking the Phonics Screening Check will also be hard at work putting in their final practice efforts before the test itself in the second week back. We also have lots of other things to look forward to including; beach visits for the rest of the school, the aforementioned sports days, our eagerly awaited Gemma ‘s Farm visit and of course, our Year 2 Leavers assembly, which I am sure will prove a fitting finale to what has been another great year at Hamstel Infants.

But for now, it’s time to relax and recharge in preparation for the next half term. A big thank you to all the staff and children, for just being simply brilliant each and every day and a big thank you to all our parents/carers for your continued support. I hope that you enjoy a relaxing and fun break and we look forward to welcoming you back on Monday, 2nd June.

Scott Roche

Principal

Jump to a section...

Summer 2 Diary Dates - Nursery - Rainbow & Starlight - Reception - Year 1

Year 2 - Quad Kids Report - Year 1 Spring Show - Dinner Menu - Parent Council - PTA

Messages from the Office - Community Information - Key Dates for Autumn Term

Nursery

This week we have shared the story ‘Dragon goes to school’, the children have enjoyed talking about their experiences in Nursery. They have enjoyed finding different objects to wrap in bubble wrap.

In Maths we have been counting forwards and backwards and have ordered numbers.

In PHSE we have talked about keeping safe in the sun such as the importance of wearing a hat and suncream.

In RWI we have learnt the sounds ‘o’, ‘c’ and ‘k’

Please click on the link below to share the videos with your child.

REMINDER: As the weather is getting warmer please apply suncream before coming to Nursery and provide your child with a named hat thank you.

We are unable to apply suncream.

Could you please ensure that your child has a complete change of spare clothes at Nursery, as the weather is getting warmer we are having water play in the garden. Although we have aprons some children still manage to get wet.

Letters sent home this week

• Nursery - Sports Day Details - 23.05.2025
• Whole School - ISP Information - 20.05.2025

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week the children have been learning about minibeasts and listening to the book 'Mad about Minibeasts'. We have looked at where they live, where they can be found, why they are needed, and what colour and shapes they are. The children really enjoyed looking for some minibeasts on Monday during Outdoor Learning, we found a bumblebee in a flower, we saw some ants, we even noticed an earwig and saw a black beetle, we also found a spider! The children found this fascinating and enjoyed learning about all the different types of minibeasts. We have made some lovely changes in Dilly`s Den, the children have planted some flowers and evergreens, we had lots of fun talking about what colours we may see in a garden or a park, what minibeasts we might find, and what their purposes are, and how important they are to the environment.

The children have continued with RWI, and CVC words, letter formation writing and pencil control. Additions and subtractions, recognising numbers and sets of numbers. Learning to count a beat, and understanding what an emotion is? And why we may be feeling that emotion. How to calm down and take a break.

RWI:

Letter Family: Random letters Revisit and review

Maths: recognising numbers and sets/counting something you cannot see/additions/subtractions/partitioning etc.

Subject: Minibeasts

Starlight

This week we have continued to read ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browne. The children wrote made their own story maps and used these to write their own versions of the story.

In Outdoor Learning, the children looked for hidden cards in the outdoor learning area and followed the instructions on the card to carry out some physical activities. They then invented their own new actions.

In maths, we continued our learning on time, learning how to read o’clock and half past times on an analogue clock.

At the end of the week, the children made some lemonade. We practised using a measuring jug and a cup to measure the ingredients. The children then tasted the drink; there were differences in opinions about the taste!

We hope you have a lovely half term break.

How to help at home

Handwriting – curly caterpillar letters:

REMINDER: Could you please ensure that your child has a complete change of spare clothes at school; as the weather is getting warmer, we are having water play in the garden. Thank you.

Please can you send in a photo of your child as a baby so we can use these for our PSHE lessons after half term.

Reception Year

This week we have been reading the book ‘Mad About Minibeasts’ and writing about some of the minibeasts in the book.

In PSHE we have been learning about how to keep our bodies healthy by being active. We talked about all the things that we do at home and school to keep our bodies moving. In maths we have been learning about time and how to tell the time to the hour on an analogue clock. In RE we have been comparing religious communities, thinking about their similarities and differences.

We hope that you all have a lovely break after half-term!

How to help at home

Reading: Continue to listen to your child read over the half-term and watch the QR codes.

Red Words: I, no, the, he, she

Letters sent home this week

• Reception - Sports Day - 23.05.2025
• Reception - Library Visits - 20.05.2025
• Whole School - ISP Information - 20.05.2025

Year One

Thank you to everyone for coming to watch our spring show. We hope you enjoyed it and we are very proud of all the Year 1’s.

In literacy we have been continuing with ‘Town Mouse, Country Mouse’. We planned and wrote a diary entry using the pronoun I in the role of one of the mice. We worked hard to include some emotive language.

In maths we have been continuing with our learning on time. We have been using vocabulary such as ‘next, before, after’ and ‘earlier and later’ to describe our daily routines.

In outdoor learning we were learning how to make daisy chains and made nature bracelets.

Have a fantastic half term holiday and see you all in a week ready for the final half term of Year 1!

Letters sent home this week

• Year 1 - Sports Day - 23.05.2025
• Whole School - ISP Information - 20.05.2025

Year Two

Wow! We can’t believe this half term has already come to an end! It’s been another super busy week in Year 2, writing Fairy Tales, creating some excellent African artwork and much more!

On Monday, we thoroughly enjoyed watching our friends in Year 1 in their dress rehearsal perform their show Hat’s Off! It was a great show, and we really enjoyed being in the audience.

In literacy we have continued with the now familiar fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty to write our own versions. Using the structure of the story and the characters, we changed the curse that was put on Sleeping Beauty. We worked on planning our ideas and then writing our own versions. We finished the week with some brilliant story writing using story language to signal events and lots of descriptive vocabulary.

In maths we completed our unit on fractions but applied our knowledge of fractions to number. We explored finding ½, ¼, and a 1/3 of a number. We had to remember that the whole number had to be split into equal groups. We used equipment in class to help us with this. We challenged ourselves by recording this in our books as well, for example 1/3 of 9 is 3.

We have also enjoyed finishing off our artist studies and produced our final pieces of artwork using the inspiration of Edward Tingatinga. We created our backgrounds and using African patterns on a chosen animal to put in the forefront. There were some thoughtful and careful designs across the Year 2 classes. Well done children!

If you haven’t already, please read the letter about transition to Year 3 that was sent out this week. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to speak to your child’s class teacher. Also, a reminder that the Year 2 children will be going their beach visits in the first week back so please make sure you have filled out your lunch request.

We hope you have a lovely half term break, and we look forward to seeing you ready for the second part of the summer term when we return.

Beach Visits:

• Thursday 5th June: Squirrel and Badger Classes
• Friday 6th June: Fox, Hedgehog and Otter Classes

Letters sent home this week

• Year 2 - PSHE/RSE Lessons - 23.05.2025
• Year 2 - Sports Day - 23.05.2025
• Whole School - ISP Information - 20.05.2025

PTA

FATHER'S DAY GIFT SALE

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY - HELP NEEDED

The PTA are busy planning for the Summer Fair, taking place on Saturday 5th July and they need willing volunteers to make the day a success.

Volunteer opportunities for Hamstel School Summer Fair 2025 are now open.

Messages from the Office

Lost Property

The lost property box can be found at the main school office and is full to bursting with 'lost' items! If you are missing any of your child's clothes please come and have a look.

To ensure that any of your child's items are returned safely to them in class please check that their name is clearly labelled on every item.

Medicines

If your child requires medication during the school day or during wrap around care please bring it to the school office, a parent or guardian will be asked to complete a permission form.

Antibiotics - in general if a child has been prescribed antibiotics to be given three times a day these can be given at home. If it has been prescribed to be given four times a day then we are happy support with this. Please bring the antibiotics in their original bottle to the school office and the parent or guardian will need to complete the permission form.

Please note that in general we will only be able to support with giving prescribed medicines. For all other medication please contact the school office to discuss your child's needs.

Community Information

Reporting a Parking Issue

Following on from Mr Roche's message regarding parking issues all Southend City residents can report parking problems to the council using the website - link provided below. Please note you will need a MySouthend account to use this.

01702 468461 - office@his.porticoacademytrust.co.uk