Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 14th MARCH 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

It’s been another great week at Hamstel Infants, with lots going on and lots to celebrate!

On Monday, Miss Whiston headed off to the Infant Music Festival with our choir of young singers. They did themselves and the school proud and sung their hearts out! We were so proud of them for putting in so much hard work to learn all the songs and to then go up on stage in front of so many people to perform – well done to the choir and of course, Miss Whiston for all her hard work in preparing them.

On Tuesday it was our Science Day, and after the success of last year, we were joined in school again by the Einstein science team who undertook workshops with each class. Far from being deterred by the lack of hall space, we turned the art room in a laboratory and the children (and staff) were buzzing from seeing these experiments up close. The children really loved science being brought to life in this way! Thanks to Miss Carmichael, our science leader, for arranging this event again this year.

On Thursday, Team Hamstel headed off to the KS1 Panathlon Challenge at Alleyn Court school, where they had to participate in six different skills events including curling, basketball and bean bag and ball target games. Our team of six children, performed and behaved amazingly throughout and returned home as winners of the entire tournament beating six other schools to the coveted trophy. They all returned to school proudly showing off their gold medals to their classmates. Well done Team Hamstel, for another amazing job at representing our school and thanks to Ms Verkooijen and Mrs Walker for taking the children to the event.

There was more to celebrate as the prizes were given out for our Book Week Competitions today, with everybody that took part earning a certificate and our winners in each class also receiving a book prize. It’s also the last chance to enter our Book Week Raffle before the draw is made next week!

Another highlight of the week was our parent/teacher meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. It was lovely to welcome so many parents and carers into school and to hear so many positive comments upon leaving. We are extremely proud of everything our children at Hamstel Infants achieve and we hope you felt the same having heard about their progress directly from their teachers. If you were unable to come along this week but would still like a meeting with your child’s class teacher, please let us know.

Last week, we shared an update around our enrichment events and how your donations are greatly appreciated to help fund these. Thank you to everyone that completed one of our surveys, we had over 130 responses and this has given us a really strong understanding of your thoughts and feelings around these events. The next step is to share the results with our Parent Council before we come back to you with a plan for how we will run these events in the future.

Next week is slightly quieter; on Tuesday the PTA are running their annual Mother’s Day shop, with gifts costing £2.50 each. Please see the flyer that went home today for more details.

We are also celebrating World Poetry Day on Friday with some poetry workshops for each class and it’s also Comic Relief day, where we are asking children to come in to school wearing something red for a £1 donation and also bring in their best jokes to be part of a Hamstel Infants joke book to commemorate the 40 years of Comic Relief.

Lots to look forward to next week, have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

Scott Roche

Principal

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Spring Term Diary Dates - Nursery - Rainbow & Starlight - Reception - Year 1

Year 2 - Portico Photography Competition - Science Week News Story - Panathlon

Dinner Menu - PTA - Messages from the Office - Community Information

Key Dates for Summer Term

Nursery

This week we have been reading the book ‘Pip and Posy: Bedtime Frog’. We talked about what we would pack in our suitcase if we spent a night away. The children have enjoyed making frog hats.

In maths we have been matching the correct amount of objects to the numeral. We have also been finding shapes in the environment, such as triangles on the climbing, circles on the cars etc.

This week we have started to introduce RWI which is our phonics scheme, the children have been learning the pictures on the set one sound cards.

The children really enjoyed the visit from the Science man and watching his amazing experiments. Check out tapestry for videos of his visit.

REMINDER: Outdoor learning is on Friday, please ensure that your child dresses appropriately for the weather.

Please ensure that your child has a spare set of clothes at Nursery.

Check Tapestry for our weekly NELI newsletter.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Red Nose Day - 13.03.2025

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

Starlight

This week we have been looking at the book ‘The Way Back Home’ by Oliver Jeffers. The children have been thinking about ways to describe the alien from the story; they used adjectives to describe the different body parts, then used their imaginations to describe the alien’s voice, how he smells and how he would make them feel.

In maths, we have been learning to add two numbers together, using the part/part/whole model, using a number line as well as using tens frames.

In PSHE we identified and named different job roles, explained why people have jobs and understood that people earn money from working. It was interesting to hear the jobs that the children’s parents do – one parent works for Santa!

We learnt about the red zone this week in The Zones of Regulation. The children identified different behaviours that may be displayed in this zone, and we practised different ways of calming down to self-regulate.

Thank you for coming to parents evening this week. It was lovely to catch up with you and share the hard work your children have been doing and their achievements.

Reception Year

This week we have been reading the book ‘Look Out, It’s a Dragon!’ and writing about the dragon in the book. In history, we have been learning to identify features of a castle from the past.

In maths, we have been investigating ways of making 7 with two parts and using our fingers to show the two parts. We have then been working out the missing part to make 7. In shape, space and measure we have been comparing and ordering objects by their mass.

In science we have been thinking about how states of matter can change into a different state of matter, for example a solid can change into a liquid.

In art we have been exploring the collage technique by experimenting with different textures and manipulating materials.

In PSHE we have started our new unit ‘Money and Work’ and learnt about different types of jobs and how people can earn money from having a job. In RE, we have been learning about stories of Jesus as a friend.

How to help at home

Reading: Watch the QR codes and return the sheet to your class teacher by the following Thursday.

Handwriting: Practise all the curly caterpillar letters.

Maths:

• Make 7 using two groups of objects.
• Show the parts that can make 7 on your fingers.
• Count forwards and backwards to 7.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Red Nose Day - 13.03.2025

Year One

What an exciting week we have had! On Tuesday morning we had a fantastic session with Professor Peewee as part of Science Week! We enjoyed watching various experiments, learning some technical vocabulary and we even watched him set his own hand on fire!

In the afternoon we went to investigate a ‘Crash Landing’ in the Outdoor Learning area. There were pieces of Rocketship rubble everywhere and someone even spotted a helmet! We came back to the classroom to talk about what we had discovered. We used all this information to write a report about what had happened so we could give it to Mr Roche.

In maths we have started to learn about multiplication. We have been looking at what the term ‘equal’ means and have identified equal groups.

In science we have been consolidating our knowledge on everyday materials. We have reminded ourselves about the difference between an object and a material and have looked at the varying properties of materials.

Letters sent home this week

Whole School - Red Nose Day - 13.03.2025

Year Two

Year 2 have been working hard on developing their story writing this week and using their imaginations. The children planned and wrote their own fantasy stories about dragons using all the inspiration from our key text and other dragon stories and knowledge. We thought hard about the use of story language to signal events as well as some brilliant descriptive language and the results have been fantastic. Mr Roche and Mrs Tracy have had the privilege of reading and rewarding some of the fantastic stories and have enjoyed the creativity of character names Well, done Year 2! Keep up the hard work!

Letters sent home this week

Whole School - Red Nose Day - 13.03.2025

Portico Photography Competition

PTA

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