Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News 24th october 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

I can’t believe that we are already at the half way stage of this very busy autumn term.

I must start by celebrating your children, who have been a real credit to you for the way they have settled during this half term. They have started the year well, have adapted to the routines of their new classrooms and have been eager and enthusiastic to come to school to learn lots of new things and take part in lots of different activities. We hope that you feel the same way and are happy with how the first part of the year has progressed.

After the success of our Colour Run last Friday, I am delighted to share that we made over £4900 from your kind sponsorship donations. Our wonderful ‘Friends of Hamstel’ have also given us a further £2000, giving us an amazing £6900 to spend on our outdoor learning project to improve our wildlife garden. Mrs Shine is champing at the bit to get spending and we can’t wait to start putting our ideas in action. Thank you so much to everybody that gave donations, sponsored the children or came along to cheer them on. It was a great day and had a real Hamstel community feel about it!

This week we had a visit from our Read Write Inc phonics assessor, who comes into school each term to assess the quality of our phonics teaching and suggest ideas for developing our practice further. It was a really positive day and again our staff demonstrated some highly skilled, exemplary practice to highlight that our phonics teaching remains a real strength of our school.

We were also joined on Thursday by our Reception parents who came into school for a handwriting workshop with Mrs Bryant. Thank you to everybody that attended and I hope you found the session useful and informative.

After listening to feedback from parents, it seems clear that a very much-missed area of our newsletter was the section around our celebration assemblies. We have decided to return to sharing this information and it will now be found just below my review of the week. Our celebration assemblies always focus on one of our core ‘We Care’ values but we also celebrate;

• ‘Going for Gold’ awards
• WOW moments
• Sporting achievements
• Numbot maths awards
• Best attendance
• ‘Reach for the Stars’ winners

So with so much to celebrate, every Friday afternoon is a real recognition of the many brilliant things going on in the school. You may notice that our Reception classes are not currently included, this is simply because we give them time to settle in school first before they join our large assemblies. However, I have already had the privilege of awarding some of our amazing reception children Going for Gold awards, so we hope they will be joining us in our assemblies soon.

After half term, we are straight back into action as we host Year 2 parents for our first ever ‘Wake Up Wednesday Live’ workshop on Wednesday 5th November and Year 1 parents for a maths workshop on Friday 7th November. We hope to see you there!

Have a great half term, I hope you get to enjoy some quality time together. Thank you for all your support and positive comments during the first part of this year, it always means a lot to us and we look forward to seeing you all again on Monday 3rd November.

Scott Roche - Principal

Weekly Celebrations!

This week in our celebration assembly we had a double celebration as last week’s assembly was postponed due to the Colour Run, so the report is slightly longer than usual.

Our certificate winners for last week’s value of ‘Working Together’ were Oliver & Luke (Hedgehog), Hermione & Dylan J (Otter), Hollie & Jesse R (Fox), Lorenzo & Thea (Squirrel), Lyra & Emilia (Duck), Clara & Emily (Heron), Marlo & Savannah (Newt) and Olivia & Archie (Dragonfly). All of the children shone in areas such as helping other people, being kind, being a supportive learning partner and working well in a group.

While this week’s values of ‘Enthusiasm and Determination’ saw Archie & Isabella (Hedgehog), Joanie & Clementine (Otter), Whole of Fox class, Elijah, Kehlani & Isla-Quinn (Squirrel), Hugo & Leo (Duck), Archie & Esme (Heron), Lewis & Ellie (Newt) and Molly & Benjamin (Dragonfly) all earn achievement certificates for determination in their work and being enthusiastic in their learning.

Reach for the Stars golden stars are given to the classes earning the most dojo points. These were won by Dragonfly & Heron classes in Year 1 and Otter & Squirrel classes in Year 2.

This week we also gave out 19 Going for Gold awards to those children earning 20 or more personal dojos. These went to Floyd, Joseph, Teddy, Ruby A, Buster, Gracie, Daisy, Tommy, Ellis, Dougie, Atticus, Wrenly, Hallie and Lila in Year 2 and Willow H in Year 1.

Alfie, Safiye, Ruby E, Ezio, Gracie and Esme all earnt special Principal certificates for achieving three going for gold awards in the term.

Each week the children get the chance to share a WOW moment for brilliant achievement in or out of school. This week’s WOW moments went to Mylee (amazing artwork), Maria (fantastic story writing at home), Hannah-Lee (athletics superstar), Tommy (Level 4 and 10 metre swimming awards), William (completing 21 junior park runs), Delilah (first park run completed) Savannah (moving up a level in swimming), Sophie (10 metre swimming badge), Isabella (great maths homework), Ruby A (independent story writing), Florence (dancing medals) and Gracie & Ruby (awarded Blue Peter badges).

Our Numbot certificates are a new award that celebrate maths brilliance in basic number sense and this week, Luke in Hedgehog class managed to get to his first Numbot award. Well done Luke!

We also gave out a special half term certificate to the classes that have earnt the most dojo points since September. These awards went to Duck class in Year 1 who earned over 2800 dojos and Otter Class in Year 2 who achieved 2000.

We also celebrated the success of the Colour run and wished our lovely Miss Whiston good luck as she leaves us to have her baby.

Well done to all of our winners this week.

Attendance

Our whole school attendance for last week stood at 95.1% which is above our 95% target – Well done Hamstel Infants!

All three winning classes did the double this week…

• Reception attendance cup was again won by Woodpecker class with 98.4%
• Heron class continued to have the best attendance in Year 1 with 98.9%, our best attendance across the school this week
• In Year 2, Fox class won the cup again with 98.2%

Can anybody beat these classes to win the attendance cup after the half term break?

The challenge is on!

Jump to a section...

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

Year 2 - Media Team Report - Dinner Menu - PTA - Messages from the Office

Key Dates for Spring Term - Community

Nursery

We have come to end of our first half term in Nursery. The children have settled and learnt our routines well.

This week we have been learning about body parts and talking about what we use different parts of our body for. For example, we use our legs to walk, our hands to draw, our eyes to see, ears to listen etc.

In maths we have continued to learn about the properties of 2D shapes, such as how many sides and corners a shapes.

We hope that you have a nice break and look forward to seeing you after the half term.

Letters sent home this week

• Nursery - Autumn Term Events - 22.10.2025
• Whole School - Swimming Pool Information - 21.10.2025

Reception

This week we have been learning about growing and reading the book ‘I’m Growing’. In history we have been looking at baby photos of ourselves and talking about how we have changed.

In PSHE we have been learning about what it means to keep something private, that no means no and learning the PANTS rules.

In PE we have been walking in different directions, at different speeds and at different heights.

In maths we have been comparing two sets of objects, saying which has more than or fewer than. We have been representing given numbers on our fingers without looking.

In art we have been completing our observational drawings of pumpkins.

How to help at home

PSHE: talk through the PANTS rules at home Talk PANTS: Conversation to help keep children safe | NSPCC

Handwriting: Revisit all the long legged giraffe letters

Reading: Continue to read your books over half-term and share lots of stories over the break.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Attendance Letter - 23.10.2025
• Whole School - Portico Attendance Letter - 23.10.2025
• Whole School - Portico Attendance Policy - 23.10.2025
• Whole School - Premier Clubs Letter - 22.10.2025
• Whole School - Swimming Pool Information - 21.10.2025

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week the children have been listening and learning about the book 'The same but different too', the children enjoyed learning about differences, and that they can be found in everything around us. We have been covering the concept same or/and different.

Outdoor learning was rather wet, but the children had a wonderful time, we sat in the hobbit hut and Mrs. Shine read us the story 'We`re going on a bear hunt' the children loved it, and joined in, we had a very good morning. The children have been learning about the seasons and the weather, and what changes we can see. The children have made some lovely artwork and created some independent drawing. We have been revising set 1 sounds and the long-legged giraffe letters, writing CVC words and playing matching games. In Maths this week we have been learning about being able to show a given number on our fingers, ordering numbers up to 20/30, subitising and making sets of numbers.

Thank you for your continued support.

REMINDER: When we return after the half term, on Tuesday 4th November, Rainbow Room will be presenting their Colour Circuit Run fundraising event in the hall. This will be at 2.30pm all parents are invited, please dress children in bright colourful clothing, and put on your trainers!

Starlight

We had a rather wet but wonderful outdoor learning session on Monday! The children showed great enthusiasm as they explored the natural world, identifying different leaves and some children even created beautiful leaf wreaths.

In English, we’ve been enjoying 'The Owl and the Pussycat' poem. The children have been learning the first verse by heart and had great fun adapting the poem by changing the characters — some of the new versions were very imaginative!

Our artwork inspired by Quentin Blake is now complete, and the results look fantastic. The children carefully added outlines to their watercolour paintings, giving them that distinctive Quentin Blake flair.

In maths, we’ve continued to work on addition, focusing on adding two-digit numbers. Everyone has been practising their strategies using different methods and building confidence.

Thank you for your support this half term. We hope you have a lovely break.

Year 1

This week in literacy we have continued with the story ‘The Gingerbread Man’. At the beginning of the week, we sequenced the main events and discussed what happened at the beginning, middle and end. We used this to help us write our own simple version of the story.

In maths we have been continuing with addition and looking at counting by adding on. We practised putting the biggest number in our heads and counting on with our fingers, we also used number lines as a different strategy.

In outdoor learning we looked at identifying different trees from their leaves, we also made spider webs by weaving wool around sticks. We made forest potions and explored the signs of Autumn.

We completed some observational drawing using some pumpkins as a stimulus.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Attendance Letter - 23.10.2025
• Whole School - Portico Attendance Letter - 23.10.2025
• Whole School - Portico Attendance Policy - 23.10.2025
• Year 1 - Teddy Bear Request - 23.10.2025
• Year 1 - Maths Workshop - 22.10.2025
• Whole School - Premier Clubs Letter - 22.10.2025
• Whole School - Swimming Pool Information - 21.10.2025

Year 2

Believe it or not, it’s been a bit quieter in Year 2 this week, but the children have continued to work hard in the classroom.

In Literacy we have focussed on the classic poem ‘The Owl and The Pussycat’. The children have had great fun working together to rehearse the words and learn the first verse of the poem together. The children put actions to the poem to help remember it and then with their teachers created a map of it using pictures to help remember the order as well. Once they had spent some time rehearsing the poem, the children worked on changing the animals and some of the objects to create their own unique versions. There were some great ideas! After planning their versions, the children used their plans to write them. It has been such a fun way to enhance the children's language and oracy skills using poetry.

In maths we have continued with our addition unit, moving on to adding two 2-digit numbers without renaming so for example 63+42=. The children have been exploring the different methods they can use to solve the calculations and are becoming more confident in using their tens frames to draw out their tens and ones and then try the abstract method; the column method.

We have also been lucky to have Rev. Andy Goodliff visit our Year 2 classes this week. He spoke to the children about how Christians believe in Jesus, seeing Him as a teacher who used stories to teach people and help them find meaning in their lives.

Have a great half term Year 2!

REMINDER: Don’t forget to join us for Year 2 Wake Up Wednesday Live Workshops in the hall on Wednesday 5th November.

The focus will be the safe use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Online Gaming. The children will join you for an activity afterwards.

• 9.00am – 9.45am - Otter Class and Hedgehog Class
• 2.30pm - 3.15pm - Squirrel Class and Fox Class

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Attendance Letter - 23.10.2025​
• Whole School - Portico Attendance Letter - 23.10.2025
• Whole School - Portico Attendance Policy - 23.10.2025
• Whole School - Premier Clubs Letter - 22.10.2025
• Whole School - Swimming Pool Information - 21.10.2025

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 or in the published booklet.

National Offer Day, when all that have applied receive the outcome for their application is 16 April 2025.

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

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

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.

Admission Arrangements

• Heycroft Primary Letter
• Heycroft Primary School Admission Arrangements

Community

Southend City Events - What's On

There is lots going on in the Southend Area this weekend and over the half-term have a look on the website for more details.

Early Help Autumn Community News

Southend SEND Information Event

Southend SEND Independent Forum (SSIF), and the SEND Local Offer Team invite parent carers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND), and professionals to a SEND Information Day.

• Date and time: 6 November 2025 from 9:00am to 3:00pm (drop in anytime)
• Venue: Southend Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, SS2 6ER

Attendees will be able to meet a range of local services and organisations at our SEND Marketplace, and attend information talks:

• 10am to 11am: Transitions from the Children with Disabilities Team to adult social care
• 11.30am to 12.30pm: Health information session; Decision making; young people with additional needs
• 1pm to 2pm: Collaboration Counts: Supporting your young person with SEND in education

No booking needed, just drop-in any time. Further information is available at: www.livewellsouthend.com/SENDInformationDay