Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 19th april 2024

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to the Summer Term, I hope you all had a great Easter break and that the children got to have fun despite the very mixed weather and the rare bursts of sunshine seen.

This week, our Year 1s got straight back into action as they visited The Hive Outdoor Centre for their final seasonal visit of the year. Yet again the children had a great time comparing the seasonal changes that take place outdoors across the year and well done to Newt Class in particular, who seemed to experience all-seasons weather as they had wind, rain, hail and sunshine to contend with.

A big thank you to all the Year 1 and Nursery parents that attended our phonics workshops with Mrs Bryant this week. We hope you found the sessions useful and informative. It is so important for us as a school to share how and what we teach your children, and there is another chance for parents to get involved next week with our Reading Rocks workshop for Reception parents on Friday 26th April, where you will be hearing about how we develop a love of reading in our children. Kingfisher and Owl parents should attend at 9:00am and Peacock and Woodpecker parents at 2:30pm. We hope to see you there!

We have just heard some great news and we are very proud to be re-awarded The Healthy Schools accreditation. Looking at areas across the school from playtimes to PE lessons, outdoor learning to mental health, from safety and wellbeing to our wonderful school meals, this award really recognises all the great work that goes on in our school to keep our children healthy. A big thank you to all the staff for their efforts in achieving this award but particularly Miss Golding and Mrs Bryant who had to collate and present all the evidence.

Scott Roche

Principal

Water bottles

Before the Easter holidays you will recall that we asked you to send children into school with a water bottle. Thank you to all the parents that have managed to do this already.

Please can we remind you that bottles should contain water only, (this is an expectation of our healthy schools status) as we have had a few bottles sent in containing flavoured drinks for example, Prime and AirUp.

We will also be getting a supply of plain water bottles in school similar to the first bottle shown in the picture below, so please get in touch if you would like to purchase one. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Nursery

It has been lovely to see the children after the Easter break. This half term our theme is ‘Around the world’. We will be learning about different animals from different parts of the world. Our story this week has been ‘My Granny went to Market’. We have talked about the countries that Granny visits and have also been talking about different countries that the children have visited.

In Maths we have been learning to count to 12 and backwards from a given number.

We have been learning about different times in a day. The children have been talking about what they do in the morning, afternoon and evening.

We have started RWI which is the phonics reading scheme that the school follows. The links below are videos of the sounds that have been taught this week in Nursery. There are also QR codes on the Nursery windows.

How to help at home:

Watch the RWI Virtual Classroom Video’s

REMINDER: Please do not let your child bring in toys, jewellery or Blue Tak into Nursery.

Could you please ensure that your child has a complete set of spare clothes at Nursery as we are running very low on spare clothes.

Could the AM starfish children arrive at Nursery before 8.40 as they are missing out on important learning carpet sessions Thankyou

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Parent Response to RSE Policy - 17.04.2024

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

Seeing all the children back after the Easter break with big smiles ready to learn was lovely. It has been a busy week and the children settled back into the daily routine with enthusiasm.

We have been learning about cold climate animals and listening to the story 'Penguin'. The children have completed pencil control, letter writing and number activities, word and number matching games and practising turn-taking skills.

They have enjoyed making arctic animals using different techniques and materials to create interesting features. We have continued with group activities and lessons, focusing and participating together.

Starlight

It’s been lovely to see everyone after the Easter break. The children have settled in well.

The theme for this half term is ‘Around the World.’ We have shared the story ‘Penguin’ and the children have been learning the names of animals that live in cold climates. We have used art and crafts to make animals that live in the Artic. The children have made sentences to match pictures from the story using colourful semantics.

Reception Year

It has been lovely to see so many happy, smiley faces this week, with all the children so eager to come back to school.

This half-term our theme is ‘Around the World.’ We will be learning about hot and cold countries and the animals that live in them. This week we have been reading the book ‘Penguin’ and in science have learnt the names of animals that live in cold climate countries. In geography we started by learning the names and location of some cold climate countries and continents. In DT this term we will be designing and making a fabric fish. This week we started learning about items that are sewn together.

In maths we have been revisiting counting, focusing on counting things that cannot be seen as well as counting larger sets of objects and things that cannot be moved.

In writing we have been writing sentences about some of the animals that we learnt about in science. We learnt about simple noun phrases; using an adjective before a noun for example fierce lion. In handwriting we focused on forming our numbers correctly.

In PE we started our new unit, Ball Skills. This week we have been exploring different ways of using our hands to move with a ball.

In PSHE we have been learning about food and drink that will keep us healthy.

How to help at home

Reading

Continue to watch the RWI Virtual Classroom Videos and listen to your child read their RWI storybook and RWI Book Bag Book at least 5 times a week.

Handwriting

Practise writing all the number 0-9.

Maths

• Count things that cannot be seen e.g. claps
• Count larger sets of objects and pictures

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Parent Response to RSE Policy - 17.04.2024
• Reception - Reading Rocks Day - 15.04.2024

Year One

Welcome back! It was lovely to see the children again after what has felt like a very long break.

What a great way to start a new term with our final visit to The Hive. The children enjoyed looking for signs and features of spring as they took part in a Spring Scavenger Hunt.

In Literacy we started our new book for the week called ‘Grandma Bird’ by Benji Davies. We looked specifically at the character of Noi and discussed not only his appearance but the kind of thoughts and feelings he had at different points in the story. We used all this information to help us write a character description about him.

In Maths we have been continuing to look at ‘arrays’. We have been focussing on rows of equal groups and working out how many there are altogether. We have also been consolidating our knowledge on doubles.

We started our new topic ‘At the Seaside’. We looked at lots of different artefacts from holidays from the past and discussed what they were and how they were used. We came up with some questions about what we would like to know more about.

How to help at home

Continue to watch the RWI Virtual Classroom videos:

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Parent Response to RSE Policy - 17.04.2024

Year Two

A BIG welcome back to the Year 2 children, it’s lovely to see such happy and excited children ready for learning this summer term!

We have begun our new theme ‘Africa’ and there has been lots of investigating already into where Africa is in the world and what kind of place it is. The children have been using atlases to locate the continent of Africa and know that it is one of our 7 continents.

In Literacy the children have been using the text ‘Meerkat Mail’ by Emily Gravett this week, which is all about Sonny the Meerkat who goes on a bit of adventure to lots of different places. Through using this text, the children have been exploring the concept of a postcard, understanding its features and why postcards are sent. Putting themselves in the role of the character, Sonny, the children wrote some brilliant postcards telling his family about some of his adventures.

In Maths we have continued our unit on fractions which we started just before the Easter break. The children have been learning to recognise, find and name quarters, thirds and halves. The children have been deepening their knowledge of the fraction symbol and beginning to recognise the numerator and the dominator. To help them understand this we have explained that the numerator of a fraction represents the number of equal pieces the whole is split into, and the denominator represents the number of pieces that are selected, this concept has been developed though practical and pictorial tasks. Why not explore some fractions when cutting up fruit, cake or pizza at home or even making some links between sharing quantities at home.

REMINDER: Next week is Outdoor Learning. The weather is still very temperamental at the moment, so please make sure you child has a warm, weatherproof coat.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Parent Response to RSE Policy - 17.04.2024

Celebration Assembly - Enthusiasm & Determination

This weeks value has been 'Enthusiasm & Determination', below are highlights from around the classes.

Online Safety

Potentially addictive online games are nothing new, but the specifics of this kind of media can vary enormously – and, as a consequence, the risks in each individual game are just as diverse. The city-builder Township is no exception: providing its legions of devotees with accessible, satisfying fun … but exposing them to potential hazards at the same time.

However, any safeguarding issues that the game might have can (with a little knowhow) be neutralised – allowing young players to have some engrossing fun without adults needing to worry about children’s data, their money or their mental wellbeing. Our guide outlines how to help young gamers enjoy Township safely and responsibly.