Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 9th february 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

There has been a definite Chinese theme across our school as our Early Years children learnt about Chinese New Year this week. They have produced some lovely work and were very excited to tell me all about their learning.

Year 2 welcomed parents into school again to watch our Maths Mastery lessons and yet again we had another great response with lots of parents taking the chance to see how we embed early maths understanding and asking lots of relevant questions. Thank you to everybody who attended.

Continuing the maths theme, some of our children were lucky enough to attend a great event on Tuesday at Thorpe Hall school that combined practical maths and physical exercise. The event was a real success and our children did themselves proud and had fun along the way.

Today, our KS1 boy’s football headed off to The Len Forge centre to take part in an inter-schools football tournament. We will let you know how they got on next week.

This week our Parent Council also met and discussed lots of important areas across the school including; our behaviour policy, the healthy smiles initiative, educational visits, handwriting and our dojo rewards to name but a few. Thank you so much to the parents that give up their time, its so important for us to hear your views and get a parental perspective of the school. Its not too late to get involved – if you would like to become a parent councillor, please give the office your details and we will gladly be in touch.

Here at Hamstel Infants we pride ourselves on being a fully inclusive school which means that we have lots of children with a variety of different needs - some physical, some emotional, some developmental and some social, who all present and act in different ways. Every child has the right to be respected and safe and it goes without saying that social media or WhatsApp groups are not the correct places to be discussing individual children, their needs or their behaviours. I would respectfully ask that should any parent or carer have a need to discuss any areas of concern, that they use the correct channels to share information and come to speak to a member of staff immediately. Thank you for your support in making Hamstel a safe place for all of our children.

Next week, we have a food theme taking place with pancakes and afternoon tea featuring heavily for some of our children. It’s also a four-day week for the children as Friday 16th is an Inset Day for teacher training.

We also thought we’d give you plenty of notice about our proposed Sports Days in the Summer. To make things easier for you around work commitments etc, this year we are planning on having one day, Wednesday 19th June, where all sports days, from Nursery to Year 2, will take place. Please save the date and more details will follow soon.

Also coming out next week will be our exciting plans for our Book Week that’s starts on 4th March – lots of things to look forward to.

I hope you have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday morning!

Best regards,

Scott Roche

Principal

Nursery

This week in Nursery we have enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year. We enjoyed tasting some Chinese food, learning about the animals of the zodiac, setting up a Chinese restaurant, making Chinese dragons and creating our own Chinese music and dances.

We also read ‘The Elves and the Shoemaker' and have designed our own shoes. In Maths we have been learning to match numerals to quantities.

Outdoor Learning - Will be on Thursday 15th February, children should wear suitable clothes for the weather.

Please ensure that your children have a full set of spare clothes at Nursery.

Can you please return any borrowed clothes as our stocks are getting very low. Thank you.

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week the children have been learning about the Chinese New Year, they have made some dragons and lanterns using different types of media, the children enjoyed learning about the dragons and how they are made. We also continued with number sequencing and additions, picture sequencing, pencil control and reading. The afternoons have been filled with sensory play, paint therapy and functional play.

There will be no Swimming on Tuesday, thank you.

Starlight

The children in Starlight this week have enjoyed their swimming lesson. It is wonderful to see how much more confident they have become in the water.

In Maths this week some of the children have been counting to 30 and beyond. They have been sequencing numbers and finding the missing numbers.

We have sequenced the pictures to the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'.

The children have also enjoyed completing Chinese New Year activities.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Measles/MMR Vaccination - 08.02.2024

Reception Year

The children have really enjoyed their second week learning about the story 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. We have written more words and sentences about the story.

In PSHE we have been learning about making good choices about which computer games we play.

In Maths we have been learning to describe quantities as having more than and fewer than. In Shape, Space and Measure we have been learning about shapes with 4 sides, investigating squares and rectangles and the different ways to make them using smaller shapes.

In Geography we have been creating simple maps from physical resources and by drawing.

In RE we have been learning why Chinese New Year is celebrated.

How to help at home

Reading

• Continue to listen to your child read 5 times a week.
• Continue to watch the Virtual Classroom videos.

Handwriting

Maths

• Make two groups of objects. Which has more than and which has fewer than?
• Can you spot rectangles and squares out and about?

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Measles/MMR Vaccination - 08.02.2024
• Woodpecker - Special Invitation - 07.02.2024
• Owl - Special Invitation - 07.02.2024
• Kingfisher - Special Invitation - 07.02.2024
• Peacock - Special Invitation - 07.02.2024
• Reception - National Child Measurement Programme - 06.02.2024

Year One

This week in Literacy we have been continuing with the story ‘Something Different’ by Jill Lewis and Ali Pye. We designed a new main character and wrote adjectives to describe what they looked like. We were introduced to what a story map was and used this to plan retelling the story.

Finally, we used all these skills and re-wrote the Something Different story but instead included our new main character. We had lots of fun making weird and wonderful looking creatures!

In Maths we have been looking at numbers to 40. We have been working very hard to learn about tens and ones and the value of a digit in a number. We did lots of practical work using tens frames and counters to help us.

This week we started our Design and Technology block. We have been learning about different mechanisms including levers and sliders. We finished the week by making our designs for a space themed moving picture. We are really looking forward to creating these next week!

How to help at home

Watch the following QR codes, encouraging your child to join in:

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Measles/MMR Vaccination - 08.02.2024

Year Two

Did you know that Penguins have a layer of fat called blubber to keep them warm in the cold climate? This is just one of many facts the Year 2 children have been learning about in their research this week, when finding out all about penguins. The children have thoroughly enjoyed using books, fact files and i-Pads to research information about penguins. Using this information, the children then wrote their own reports to share their newfound knowledge. They have learnt about the penguin’s life cycle, their habitat, diet and much more! Why not ask your child if they can tell you 3 interesting facts they have learnt this week.

In Maths we have been revisiting addition and subtraction and the methods we have previously learnt. We have spent time practising using our written methods, such as the column method when adding or subtracting two, 2-digit numbers. The children have also been applying these skills to solving a range of problems linked to addition and subtraction. The children have demonstrated their understanding through verbal explanations and their written methods.

This week in Outdoor Learning, the children have been taking part in The Big Garden Birdwatch which is organised by the RSPB. The children spotted pidgeons, seagulls and robins and kept a tally of how many they saw within a certain amount of time. The children also experienced a ‘sledge’ ride across the playground. They worked together as a team to pull the giant sledge with some of the children sitting on it to help them imagine what it might have been like for Captain Scott and his team on their expedition. The children really enjoyed this experience.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Measles/MMR Vaccination - 08.02.2024
• Year 2 - Mastering Number Lessons - 02.02.2024

Celebration Assembly - Working Together

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

Online Safety

This week's online guide tells trusted adults what they need to know about Monkey. With Omegle finally shutting down in late 2023, the top spot among video chat services is up for grabs – and Monkey has its eyes set on the crown. Randomly matching its users for 15-second conversations, the platform’s developers claim to have created a dynamic online space for people to make new connections and, potentially, even some new friends.

Despite these innocuous-sounding intentions, however, Monkey has been criticised for moderation which may not be comprehensive enough to defend against the obvious dangers that unregulated, random video calls pose to the younger element of the site’s userbase.

We have added all of our parent guides to the school website which can be found on at the button below;