Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 16th may 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

This week ended up being much quieter than we had originally planned, with the unfortunate postponement of our Gemma‘s Farm visit. While of course, it couldn’t be helped due to their staff being unwell - I’m sure you will be pleased to know that this has been rebooked for the 1st and 2nd July, so not too long to wait before we get to meet our farmyard friends again.

The children took the obvious disappointment of this event being cancelled in their strides, and instead focused all of their energies on their learning, in particular around Mental Health Awareness Week. Across the week the children have been taking part in activities and learning about promoting and maintaining good mental health in children. The theme of this year’s mental health week is community and yesterday we all came together across our school community to show our support by wearing something green. The children (and staff) looked fantastic and our school was a sea of green! Thank you to Mrs Hartigan, our wellbeing lead, for organising this event.

It was lovely to welcome our Nursery parents into school this week for their phonics meetings. A big thank you to everybody who came along, the events were really well attended and we hope you found the information useful. Thanks go again to Mrs Bryant for organising these meetings.

This week we were also joined in school by Mrs. Evans, one of our Portico trustees. We always enjoy having Mrs Evans visit, because as an ex-teacher and grandparent of Hamstel pupils, her experience and support is always very much appreciated. She spent almost two hours in school chatting to the children about their recent enrichment events, the clubs that they attend and generally getting their thoughts on school life. The children all spoke amazingly, they were articulate, confident and could recall lots of the learning around these events. This really brought home to us just how important our enrichment curriculum is to give all of our children these additional learning experiences.

Talking of great experiences…today our intrepid Team Hamstel headed off to the Quad Kids event at Garons. As reigning champions there was a lot at stake and they certainly didn’t disappointment, with each child displaying brilliant team work, putting in their best effort and generally showing off their great all round running, jumping and throwing skills. We are so proud to report that yet again, they came 1st and brought back the shield as well as individual medals. Becoming back-to-back champions is an amazing effort, so congratulations to our team and Mrs Walker and Mr Sayer who have worked so hard to prepare the team.

Next week a letter about our year group sports days will also be coming home. Weather permitting these are planned for the 18th of June for Nursery and the 19th of June for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Please take the time to read this letter when it arrives as it contains lots of important information about how this day will work.

Unbelievably, we are almost at the end of the first part of the summer term, but next week we have one of our highlights of the year as our Year 1 children take to the stage to produce their eagerly awaited spring show. This year’s offering is titled ‘Hats Off’ and I am sure all the children and staff can’t wait to show parents and carers the results of their hard work on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Here’s to another great week at Hamstel Infants, I hope you have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday morning.

Scott Roche

Principal

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Summer 1 Diary Dates - Nursery - Rainbow & Starlight - Reception - Year 1

Year 2 - First Aid Workshop - Dinner Menu - Parent Council - PTA

Messages from the Office - Community Information - Key Dates for Summer Term

Nursery

This week we have read ‘What the ladybird heard.’ and talked about the different farm animals that were in the story. The children enjoyed looking for farm animals hidden in the garden and ticking them off.

In Maths we have introduced one more than a given number.

In PSHE we talked about who our friends are and what we like about them.

In RWI Phonics we have learnt the sounds ‘n’, ‘p’, ‘g’ please look on tapestry for the QR codes to watch the videos at home with your child.

REMINDER: As the weather is getting warmer please apply suncream before coming to Nursery and provide your child with a named hat thank you.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Green Day - 09.05.2025

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week the children have continued their learning about the different countries and landmarks in the story 'Emma Jane`s Aeroplane'. The children have looked at different vehicles and what they are used for. WE have continued with RWI and pencil control/formation. We have been concentrating on understanding the different parts of 5/6 etc in line with the children's ability.

Starlight

This week we have been reading ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Browne. The children have looked at the animals and fruits in the story. We chose words to describe the animals and fruits, playing a ‘What am I?’ game.

In maths, we have been learning about time. We have made and read o’clock times on our own clocks to demonstrate our understanding.

We have continued learning about how to keep our bodies healthy through being active eating a variety of fruits. We practised our basic cutting skills to make fruit kebabs.

How to help at home:

Point out o’clock times on an analogue clock during the day.

REMINDER: Outdoor Learning on Monday. Please dress your child in appropriate clothing, apply sunscreen and insect repellent if you feel this is appropriate. Please also provide a change of clothing. Thank you.

Reception Year

This week we have been reading ‘Handa’s Hen’ and learning about animals that live in hot climates. In English we have been creating our own version of the ‘Dear Zoo’ book and writing about animals that live in hot climates. In geography we have been comparing life in this country to life in hot climate countries.

In maths we have been recapping the composition of numbers to 10 and matching numerals to quantities.

In outdoor learning we have enjoyed pond dipping and exploring the different creatures that live in our pond.

In RE we have identified features of sacred places. In DT we have been learning to sew using a running stitch.

How to help at home:

NELI special words: consolidation, traffic lights, safe, dangerous, drive, how much, ticket, sell pay.

Handwriting: Practise all the curly caterpillar letters and zig zag monster letters.

Reading: Continue to listen to your child read at least 5 times a week.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Green Day - 09.05.2025

Year One

In literacy we have been revising our knowledge on adjectives and noun phrases. We have read the story ‘Town Mouse, Country Mouse’ and looked at the characters and setting. We chose a character and wrote a character description using exciting vocabulary.

In maths we have been learning about time. We have been looking at o’clock and half past using our own clocks to demonstrate the time. We have been learning about daily activities and when they happen using the vocabulary morning, afternoon and evening.

We have been working very hard this week to practise for our show and can’t wait to show our grown-ups next week!

REMINDER: Spring show performances next week;

• Tuesday – Dragonfly and Heron
• Wednesday – Duck and Newt

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Green Day - 09.05.2025

Year Two

Year 2 have been working super hard this week with their re-telling's of Sleeping Beauty. Through their literacy lessons, the children have been exploring the structure of the familiar fairy tale and deconstructing it on a ‘story mountain’ to help them. We broke the story down into 5 parts beginning, build-up, problem, resolution and ending. We thought about the story language used and the events that happen at the different stages. Once the children had mapped out their stories, they used their own story language and ideas to re-tell a written version of the story. They wrote some brilliant stories and thought hard about the language they used and their presentation.

In maths the children have continued to learn about fractions. This week we have thought quarters and thirds and have been learning to recognise the numerator and the denominator in the fraction symbol. We have also explored finding half of a given quantity and that to find half each group needs to be equal.

This week we have also begun our artist study on Edward Tingatinga. Edward Tingatinga painted pictures of African animals like that found on traditional mud huts. We looked at some of his artwork and discussed what we noticed about his work, thinking about what we liked and didn’t like. We have represented some facts and ideas around his work in our sketch books.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Green Day - 09.05.2025

Parent Council

Due to our rescheduled Year 1 performance on Tuesday 20th May and Wednesday 21st May, Parent Council is going to move from 21st May to the new date of Wednesday 4th June.

We would love to have a representative from each class - if you feel this is something you could give an hour to every half-term then please email the school office with your details.

If you would like to submit an item for the meeting agenda please send this through to the school office email office@his.porticoacademytrust.co.uk or submit below;

PTA

FATHER'S DAY GIFT SALE

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY - HELP NEEDED

The PTA are busy planning for the Summer Fair, taking place on Saturday 5th July and they need willing volunteers to make the day a success.

Volunteer opportunities for Hamstel School Summer Fair 2025 are now open.

Messages from the Office

Lost Property

The lost property box can be found at the main school office and is full to bursting with 'lost' items! If you are missing any of your child's clothes please come and have a look.

To ensure that any of your child's items are returned safely to them in class please check that their name is clearly labelled on every item.

Medicines

If your child requires medication during the school day or during wrap around care please bring it to the school office, a parent or guardian will be asked to complete a permission form.

Antibiotics - in general if a child has been prescribed antibiotics to be given three times a day these can be given at home. If it has been prescribed to be given four times a day then we are happy support with this. Please bring the antibiotics in their original bottle to the school office and the parent or guardian will need to complete the permission form.

Please note that in general we will only be able to support with giving prescribed medicines. For all other medication please contact the school office to discuss your child's needs.

Community Information

Reporting a Parking Issue

Following on from Mr Roche's message regarding parking issues all Southend City residents can report parking problems to the council using the website - link provided below. Please note you will need a MySouthend account to use this.

01702 468461 - office@his.porticoacademytrust.co.uk