Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 13th September 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to our first newsletter of this new academic year at Hamstel Infants School and Nursery!

After the initial three days, it is lovely to have a full school again and a very warm welcome to the new children and families that have joined us this week in Reception and Nursery. I must say for their first experiences in school, the new children have been brilliant and are already starting to settle into school life. In the most part they have been happy and excited to come in and we really hope this continues through the year ahead.

Not forgetting, our Year 1 and 2 children, who have been equally as brilliant but then again, they are now experienced, old hands at doing this ‘coming back to school’ thing!

All our staff are looking forward to lots of exciting learning experiences this year and I am pleased to introduce two new members of our Hamstel team, Miss Blake and Mrs Stibbards, who will be working in Badger Class as part of our Year 2 Team. We hope they have a happy time at Hamstel Infants and enjoy working here.

As a dad with three children still currently at primary school, I can fully appreciate that parents get bombarded with lots of information at this time of year. While it does seem extremely busy at the moment, we are always considerate of your time and will always try to find a balance when sending out our communications. The weekly newsletter and our website are the main sources of ‘general’ information each week, and letters sent via ParentPay tend to be sent out for more important notices such as educational visits, important events, specific year group news etc. Please also remember to look at your child’s classroom windows for important information or any changes to timetables.

Last week, you will have received information about all the events we have planned for this year and it is certainly going to be a fun packed time ahead. Please check these letters and save the dates as we would hate you to miss out on these experiences with the children.

Our aim at Hamstel Infants is to always provide you with outstanding communication and plenty of notice for any upcoming events but if you feel that we have deviated from this goal at any time, please speak to us.

Next week, we have our Healthy Schools workshop on Tuesday 17th at 9:00am and 2:15pm for Reception and Nursery parents. Please try and come along if you can. Another important date for your diaries is that Monday 4th November is a school INSET day, so children will not be in school. This means that the children won’t return from half term until Tuesday 5th November.

Please also remember that should you ever have a problem or a concern about anything to do with school life, no matter how small it may seem, that you speak to the class teachers for day to day issues or contact the school office via the main email office@his.porticoacademytrust.co.uk, for more complex issues, where we will be happy to help.

I’m sure after this first full week at school the children will be exhausted come Friday evening, but I hope that you get to enjoy a relaxing weekend and we look forward to seeing you again on Monday morning.

Parent Council

We are always looking for parents to become even more involved in school life by volunteering to become a parent councillor. If this is of interest to you, please give the school office your name and we will be in touch shortly.

Scott Roche

Principal

Nursery

A warm welcome to our Nursery Children. They have had an amazing first week, they enjoyed their two stay and play days and are beginning to settle in Nursery.

They have coped well with learning our new routines, well done. Many of the children are forming friendships with their peers and the adults.

Next Week

Tuesday 17th September: Healthy Schools Workshop 9am or 2.15pm.

Please be prepared for your child to be tired next week especially towards the end of the week as the children are very busy in Nursery.

Letters sent home this week

• Nursery - Autumn 1 Theme Overview
• Nursery - KIRFs
• Nursery - Curriculum Meeting
• EYFS - Healthy Schools Workshop - 12.09.2024
• Nursery - Events Diary - 09.09.2024

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

Welcome back Rainbow Room! It was lovely to see the children return with the biggest smiles ever. They were excited to get back into the Rainbow Routine, and settled in immediately, eager to work and learn.

We started the week with the story 'All About Me' learning about differences, likes and dislikes, and what makes us all different. The children continued their learning of numbers, letters and CVC words, pencil control, writing skills, sentence building, recognition and group work.

It has been a very successful week for Rainbow Room.

Starlight

This week we have shared the story ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.’ The children are beginning to join in with the story language – they especially seem to enjoy the squelchy mud part of the story!

We had Outdoor learning on Monday and looked for signs of Autumn. We then made our own Autumn leaf sun catchers, using sticky back plastic and tissue paper.

Reception Year

An amazing week for our new Reception children who have enjoyed two stay and play sessions as well as their first three full days of big school! All the children have settled beautifully and have excelled with learning all the new routines and expectations of school. A big well done!

This week we have been reading the book ‘Worrysaurus’ to continue our transition from Nursery. The children have enjoyed bringing in their dinosaurs and telling the class what they have been up to with their dinosaur. We have introduced the children to our maths meetings, and they have enjoyed singing ‘We Love Maths!’ All the children have mastered the lunchtime routines and been amazing with carrying their trays and clearing away!

Thank you to all the parents who attended the curriculum meeting this week. If you were unable to attend, all the information came home with your child, please speak to your class teacher if have not received the information booklets.

How to help at home

• Reading: please listen to your child read their book, encouraging them to talk about what they can see in the pictures. Please write the date, title of book and brief comment in their Home School Book.
• RWI Phonics: watch the videos linked to the QR codes, encouraging your child to join in.
• Maths: have a go at the Autumn 1 KIRF.

Next Week

Tuesday 17th September: Healthy Schools Workshop 9am or 2.15pm

Reminders: Please bring in named wellington boots for your child to keep in school.

Provide your child with a book bag. This should come into school every day with their home school book and reading book.

Letters sent home this week

• Reception - Autumn 1 Theme Overview
• Reception - KIRFs
• Reception - Home Learning
• Reception - Curriculum Meeting
• EYFS - Healthy Schools Workshop - 12.09.2024
• Reception - Event Diary - 09.09.2024

Year One

A big warm welcome to all our Year 1 children! We are so proud of how well the children have settled into their new classrooms and Year 1 routines. They have all had a great start to the school year.

In Literacy we have been reading the story ‘Tidy’ and writing some simple sentences based on pictures from the book. We have been practising our skills in using capital letters and full stops.

In Maths we have been practising our numbers to 10. We have been comparing numbers looking at ‘more’ and ‘less’.

Our theme this half term is ‘Out and About’ which is a Geography based topic. We have been learning about different kinds of homes and have been looking at maps of our local area, including where the school is and which street we live on.

This week we have also had Outdoor Learning, we went on a seasonal walk and made bird feeders.

Next Week Year 1 local area walks next week.

• Duck – Tuesday 17th 9:15am
• Heron – Tuesday 17th 9:30am
• Dragonfly - Wednesday 18th 9:15am
• Newt - Wednesday 18th 9:30am

Letters sent home this week

• Year 1 - Autumn 1 Theme Overview
• Year 1 - Home Challenge
• Year 1 - Spellings
• Year 1 - Parent Information Booklet
• KS1 - Clubs - 06.09.2024​
• ​Year 1 Local Area Walk - 06.09.2024
• Year 1 Principal Letter - 06.09.2024
• Year 1 - Autumn Term Events - 06.09.2024

Year Two

What a great start we have had in Year 2! The children have started the year with our book 'Alice in Wonderland' and have been exploring adjectives and noun phrases to write simple character descriptions. The children had some lovely ideas and have worked hard with their handwriting to present their work neatly.

In Maths we have been developing our knowledge of place value and our understanding of what the digits stand for in a two-digit number. We have been representing the tens and ones using our ten sticks and ones and then moving onto representing this knowledge using pictures. The children have also begun thinking about if there is more than one way of representing their two-digit numbers e.g. 46 = 40+6 or 46 = 30 + 16. We will continue with this unit next week.

In PE we have started our Gymnastics unit in the hall and have begun thinking about exploring different ways we can move our bodies and begin to link these together. Over the next few weeks, we will develop these skills and start to put linking movements together to form sequences.

In Science we have been learning about different habitats and understanding what a habitat is. The children have also thought about living things, things that have never been alive and things that are dead. Using these categories the children have been classifying different items.

Next Week

Outdoor Learning. Please be prepared for the changing weather!

Letters sent home this week

• Year 2 - Autumn 1 Theme Overview
• Year 2 - Home Challenge
• Year 2 - Spellings
• Year 2 - Parent Information Booklet
• Year 2 - Maths Workshop - 12.09.2024
• KS1 - Clubs - 06.09.2024

Celebration Assembly - Working Together

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

Online Safety

With most children today having access to their own tablets, phones, computers and other devices, it’s vitally important that parents and educators know how to keep young people protected while using them. Between targeted adverts, age-inappropriate content, and other online safety concerns, it can sometimes feel overwhelming to keep on top of.

Parental controls, present on most devices and several apps, can make this job significantly easier – but a certain amount of knowledge is required to use them effectively. This free online safety guide will provide you with the information you need to activate and maintain parental controls on children and young people’s devices.

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.