Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News 23rd january 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s been another settled and quiet week at Hamstel, which has seen the children enjoying their learning and having lots of fun in the process. There were some real highlights ranging from brilliant work being produced, to children writing their first words independently, to children meeting personal milestones or our outdoor learners learning how to make stretchers from tarpaulin and branches. The week culminated in a double celebration assembly where we celebrated all of the great things that have happened around the school this week. You can read more about this in our ‘Weekly Celebrations’ section below.   On Monday, we were visited by our Read Write Inc phonics consultant, who was very impressed by our exemplary phonics teaching and the personalised learning that she evidenced for those children who need a little support. It is great to get such a positive endorsement in an area where we feel we excel.   On Tuesday, Team Hamstel headed off to the Panathlon Bowling event at Festival Leisure Park in Basildon. The team spent the morning honing their skills before the real competition started with the scores being tallied up. It was a great day with everybody doing brilliantly, enjoying the experience, showing great team spirit and representing Hamstel Infants to compete against lots of other schools. A huge well done to Lily, Thea, Eddie, Andre, Joanie and Kennedy who made us so proud with their performance and sportsmanship and a special shout out to Thea and Eddie, who joined the prestigious ‘100 Club’ for scoring 100 points or more. The children all received a special certificate in our assembly today.   Across the last year, we have been taking part in Southend’s Clean Air project. This has included special assemblies, having air quality monitors in school and promoting the reduction of exhaust fumes and walking to school. Well, we also had more good news to share because as part of the project, our ECO team, led by Miss Parmenter, entered the poster design competition and we are pleased to report that some of our children were winners! A big well done to Esme (Heron), Ruby A (Hedgehog) and Ruby E (Fox) who each win a scooter as their prize.    This morning we held a very successful coffee morning for parents and carers as part of a newly established S-Well Group, the first in a series of sessions aimed at offering support with managing overwhelm for children and young people. Led by Ms Verkooijen and Mrs Eastment, it was a great opportunity for parents to share ideas and ask questions and we hope to do more events like this in the future. Thank you to everybody who attended and our staff who supported this event.   Next week, we welcome Year 1 parents into school on Friday at 2:45pm to watch a live ‘number in mastery’ lesson taking place in your child’s classroom. This is a great chance to see how we teach the foundational number skills needed to be successful at maths but also a chance to see our brilliant teachers in action. We hope you can come along and enjoy this rare opportunity to see live lessons taking place.     Following last week’s save the dates, we are also pleased to announce the dates of our spring term Parent’s Evenings. These will take place on Wednesday 11th March until 7:30pm and Thursday 12th March until 5:30pm. More details will follow about how to book appointments, but please save these dates to your diaries.   It seems hard to believe that we are already three weeks into this half term, it’s certainly flown so far! I hope you all have a good weekend - we look forward to seeing you again on Monday morning for another week at Hamstel Infants.   Scott Roche Principal

Weekly Celebrations!

This week we had a double celebration focusing on our core values of ‘respect’ and ‘effort and resilience’.   Firstly our ‘respect’ certificate winners were Eddie & Alayna (Hedgehog), Aliya & Clementine (Otter), Daisy & Oliver (Fox), Rosie & Goshen (Squirrel), Benjamin & Scarlett (Duck), Ollie, On Ting & Ayla (Heron), Aisha & Aiyla-Rose (Newt), Molly & William (Dragonfly), Una & Louis (Woodpecker), Alistair & Elena (Peacock), Isabella & Max (Kingfisher), Archer & Jack (Owl). Each of these children demonstrated respect in different ways including when talking to peers or adults, using great manners, caring for school property, for taking it in turns and for always saying good morning with a smile!   The children showing effort and resilience this week were rewarded for equally great reasons. These included; settling into a new school so well, working hard in literacy, effort in PE, working hard to improve handwriting and for following instructions brilliantly. Certificates went to Felix & Maria (Hedgehog), Lila & Mohid (Otter), Leo & Hei Yuen (Fox), Lily T & Goshen (Squirrel), Corey & Savannah (Duck), Ruby & Georgie (Heron), Phoebe & Niccolo (Newt), Olivia & Rocco (Dragonfly), Evelyn & Edward (Woodpecker), Primrose & Michael (Peacock), Noah & Ashley (Kingfisher), Kai & Sophie (Owl) and Seth (Starlight).   Lots of children also managed to reach the magic 20 dojos to earn a Going for Gold award – they were, Ollie, Ruby, Aliya, Andre, Clementine, Dylan J, Dylan N, Gracie, Hannah, Janani, Joanie, Lila, Salah, Tommy, Oakley, Leo, Ezio,  William,  Willow H, Harry, Eddie, Alayna,  Isabella,  Sofia, Ollie, Albie, Luke, Floyd, Joseph, Ellis, Hermione, Mikki, Safiye, Gracie, Levi, Hallie, Rosie, Harley, Isobel, Daphne, Qasim, Enrico, Harley, Hudson, Aidan, Amal and Nasrya.   Well done to those children who have also managed to earn multiple Going for Gold awards. Special Principal certificates went to Ollie, Tommy, Oakley, Eddie, Alayna, Isabella, Sofia, Archie, Ellis, Nasrya, Hermione and Mikki who have achieved the award three times. We also have several children who are well on the way to earning our coveted sapphire certificate awarded for reaching ten going for golds. They are Ollie, Albie and Luke who have now earned four awards and Floyd, Joseph and Safiye who have done the double hattrick by earning six going for golds already this year….WOW!     Talking of WOW…our WOW moments are always a favourite part of our assembly and well done to Maria (amazing story writing), Alayna (confidence to talk in front of class about her Muslim religion), Ella-Mae (maths at home), Oakley (subtraction work at home), Olivia (great character description), Ronnie F (super maths), Violet (making a word bank at home) and Eloise (lovely animal sentences).   We also had our first Numbot awards of the term which went to Romeo and Layla in Fox class who earned their copper badges for super maths work.   The golden stars for the most dojo’s over the last two weeks went to Woodpecker, Dragonfly and Otter classes for last week and Hedgehog, Heron and Woodpecker again for this week.   A great week all round – well done to all our winners

Attendance

This week our attendance figure stood at 94.2%, against our 95% target. We had two double winners this week as the attendance cups went to…

• Kingfisher class who for the third week running, recorded a fabulous 99% in Reception
• Heron class, who managed the best attendance in the school with 99.5% to hold onto the Year 1 cup
• Hedgehog class, who pipped last week’s winner’s Fox class to the cup by 0.1% with 95.5%

Well done Hamstel Infants!

Jump to a section...

Spring 1 Diary Dates - School News - Nursery - Reception - Rainbow & Starlight

Year 1 - Year 2 - Lunch Menu - PTA - Messages from the Office

Spring 2 Diary Dates - Community

Nursery

This week our NELI story has been ‘Pip and Posy the Bedtime Frog’. Our special words are pack, forget, giggle and excited. In maths we have continued to practise counting out objects from a larger group and have extended it by naming numerals and matching the quantity. How to help at home NELI: Please check Tapestry for our weekly NELI home learning newsletter. Why not challenge your child to find the correct amount of objects that you ask for such as 2 socks or 3 bricks etc.

REMINDER: Monday - Outdoor learning. Please dress for the weather, can you please make sure that your child has shoes to change into if they come in wellies as it is very muddy.

Reception

This week we have been reading ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and writing words and sentences about the characters in the story. In PSHE we have been learning about right from wrong, thinking about the right and wrong choices we can make in school. In PE we have been exploring bouncing a ball in different ways. In maths we have been subitising numbers, matching numerals to dot patterns and recognising die patterns to 6. In shape, space and measure we have been building our own squares and rectangles and describing their properties. In DT we have been learning to fold paper and card.   How to help at home NELI Special Words: old, new, thick, thin, postman, postwoman, postal worker, van, envelope, stamp. Maths: Bud's Number Garden - EYFS - Maths game - BBC Bitesize Handwriting:

Nursery Rhyme of the week: Five little monkeys swinging from a tree - BBC Teach

Relative Afternoon Tea - Confirm your attendance here

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week, the children have been listening to the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. They have been learning key vocabulary from the story, exploring what the words mean and how they are spelt. The children have created story maps and made predictions about different possible endings. They have also produced some lovely artwork inspired by the story, using a variety of materials to build colour and texture, along with lots of imagination. In our understanding of the world sessions, we have been learning about the seasons, with a focus on the features of winter. We have continued with RWI, practising CVC words and sentence building, and the children are showing good focus and interest with lots of participation. In maths, the children have demonstrated great perseverance while working on number recognition and subitising, as well as understanding one more and one less, and simple addition. It has been a very busy week. The children have used good language and understanding skills during both structured activities and 1:1 adult-led sessions. Overall, it has been a very positive week filled with lots of hard work. Well done, everyone! 

Starlight

In English, the children continued exploring 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers. They used story language and a range of story openers to help them write their own versions of the story, focusing on a journey. The children showed great imagination and worked hard to sequence their ideas clearly. In maths, we learned all about mass. The children practised measuring using kilograms (kg) and grams (g) and enjoyed comparing the mass of two different objects, using the language heavier, lighter and equal. In science, we discussed what living things need to stay alive, such as food, water and shelter. We also explored Arctic animals and identified their key features, thinking about how these help them survive in a cold environment. In PSHE, we continued learning about the different groups we belong to, such as our families, classes and wider communities. The children shared thoughtful ideas and showed respect for each other’s experiences. We are very proud of the children’s enthusiasm and effort again this week.  

Year 1

This week we have been reading the traditional tale ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. We have been revising nouns and adjectives and wrote a character description about Jack. In maths we have been consolidating our knowledge on addition and subtraction up to 20. We have been learning different methods to support us including using number lines, tens frames and crossing out. In science we have been learning about UK mammals, reptiles and birds. We have identified their common characteristics and have compared them.  In PSHE we have been learning about rules in different situations e.g. school, home and the wider community. 

REMINDER: Maths mastery parent session – Friday 30th January - 2:45pm 

Year 2

This week, the children have continued exploring the story 'Lost and Found'. They have spent time planning and retelling the story, thinking carefully about the key events and characters. We focused on using story language and a variety of sentence openers to make their writing more engaging and interesting. In maths, we have been learning about mass. The children were introduced to grams and kilograms and practised reading scales accurately. In science, we have been learning about what animals need to survive, such as food, water, shelter and air. We have begun linking this learning to polar animals, discussing how their characteristics help them survive in cold environments. We also took part in a bird watch during our Outdoor Learning session! 

Support Our School with Easyfundraising!

Our PTA is 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!

Messages from the Office

Parking around the school

Have you spotted unsafe, illegal and inconsiderate parking near to the school at drop off and collection times? As a citizen if you see problem or illegal parking you can report this - the link for Southend Council is here Report a Parking Problem and the link for Essex Police is here Report antisocial behaviour | Essex Police

Arbor Hints and Tips

How to make a payment towards the Enrichment Events:

1. The payment item can be found on your child’s main profile page under ‘Quick Actions’, ‘Trips’, choose this option.
2. You will see a section 'Trips Open to (your child's name), choose School Enrichment Events.
3. Now you can view the information and on the right hand side of the page is a 'Sign up ....' button, choose this option.
4. The cost for the Spring Term events your child will be taking part in is £6.00, increase the amount to pay to this figure or you can also choose to pay the full amount.
5. You can now choose to 'Add to basket' - use this option if there are other items you want to pay for in one total transaction.
6. Or choose 'Make Payment'. You will then be asked to add your card details and confirm the payment.

If you are unable to make payments using the system after following these steps please contact the school office.

Breakfast and After School Club

To change or cancel Breakfast or After School Club you need to contact the office. Parents are unable to change/amend their own bookings. If your child is booked into After School Club or Breakfast Club, it will show on their calendar in Arbor, including the session i.e SHORT, FULL, LATE. A full week view can be seen by clicking the blue arrow in the ‘Calendar’ tab.

Community

Course for Carers of children aged 0-25 years with SEND.

A six-week programme to support the health and wellbeing of carers. It is free and more information and registration is through Eventbrite.     https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ssif-6-week-healthy-parent-carer-programme-tickets-1976576391194?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl