Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News 6th february 2026

This week Year 1 went out and about to explore the Christian Fellowship church along Southchurch Road and they had an interesting time learning about this building and the work that goes on inside. They learnt about the features within the church and how events such as baptisms take place. Did you know this well-known building is almost 100 years old and used to be The Plaza Cinema in years gone by? This is just one of the trips we do to our local churches, with each year group visiting a different place of worship to show the children just some of the places and people that make up our local community. A big thankyou to Southend Christian Fellowship for letting us visit and to all the parents who volunteered their time to help support the children.   On Monday and Tuesday, we had the dental nurses in school from Inspire Dental to undertake the ‘Lift the Lip’ teeth checks in school.  The children were brilliant throughout and the nurses commented on how great it was to see so many children take up the offer over the two days. Thank you for supporting this new initiative and we hope you find any feedback useful.   Tuesday was a busy day as our KS1 children also took part in a water safety assembly led by Essex Fire Service. Being a coastal school, the messages around ‘respecting’ the water even if it looks calm and what to do if they or somebody else is in trouble, are even more important and relevant to keep our children safe. A big thank you to the fire service for their continued support.    We really enjoyed having our Year 2 parents in school today to see our Number in Mastery lessons in action. We hope you enjoyed spending time in the classroom and that the visit helped show how we nurture children’s confidence, fluency and understanding of number that will support their learning as they move forward.   Next week, we will be learning about Children’s Mental Health week across the school. The theme this year is ‘This is My Place’ which is based around how we can feel a sense of belonging and helping others feel like they belong.   It’s also our whole school Science Day on Tuesday, where we are looking forward to some fantastic and slightly crazy science experiments with the children. This has become a favourite annual event and it promises to be great fun again this year. We hope the children enjoy their day.   Next week also sees Team Hamstel return to action in the KS1 boy’s football tournament – we wish them luck and will let you know how they get on next week.   On a more serious note, you have probably seen my message yesterday regarding the safety of our children and site regarding the recent sightings of a convicted individual in the local area. I just wanted to again reassure you that our site is safe and secure and that the safeguarding teams in both the Infant and Junior schools are working closely with the police who will supply us with any additional information or safeguarding measures if necessary. We will of course, advise you of any important updates but in the meantime, we would like to remind you of the importance of having conversations with the children about staying safe and ensuring that young children are supervised when they are out in the local community, outside of school hours, including before and after school.   I hope you all have a relaxing weekend and we will see you again on Monday for the last week of this half term!   Scott Roche Principal

Weekly Celebrations!

This week our focus value was ‘Enthusiasm and Determination’.   Due to our maths mastery workshops this afternoon, achievement certificates, Going for Gold awards, Wow moments and Numbots awards were celebrated in the classroom but it was still great to hear about the enthusiasm, effort, determination and hard work happening across the school.   The classes earning stars this week were Squirrel class (Year 2), Duck Class (Year 1) and Kingfisher Class (Reception)   We will get back to our usual celebration assembly next week!  

Attendance

This week our attendance figure stood at 94%, yet again just below our 95% target. Our attendance cups went to….

• Woodpecker class who finally broke Kingfisher class dominance with 95.5% in Reception
• Duck class, who recorded the best attendance in school of 97.4% to just pip Heron Class by 0.1% to win in Year 1
• Fox and Hedgehog classes, who tied the Year 2 cup with 96%

Let’s hope we can beat the 95% target next week!

Jump to a section...

Spring 1 Diary Dates - 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 ‘The three little pigs’. We have enjoyed building houses for the pigs, making puppets and retelling the story. We have been practising our cutting skills to cut materials for the pig's houses. In maths we have been learning about the properties of 2D shapes such as counting how many corners and sides a shape has. How to help at home: Neli special words- hungry, angry, build, blow Maths: why not go on a shape hunt to see how many shapes you can find. Nursery rhyme of the week: If you’re happy and you know it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSdb5wrDHnU

REMINDER: Please ensure that your child has a complete change of clothes at Nursery thank you.

Reception

This week we have been reading the book ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and writing words and sentences about the story. We are working hard on holding a sentence in our heads and writing them into our books, trying to remember all the words. In PSHE we have started our new unit ‘Media Literacy and Digital Resilience’ and have started learning about different digital technologies and the internet. In PE we have been practising throwing a beanbag using an underarm throw.  In maths we have been using our fingers to show 6 using ‘5 and a bit’ and how 7 is ‘5 and two more’. We have been matching die representations to numbers 1-6. In shape, space and measure we have been building squares and rectangles by combining two or more shapes. In RE we have been learning that Jesus teaches Christians about keeping promises. In DT we have been joining materials with staplers and hole punches.   How to help at home: NELI special words: dentist, optician, glasses, check, pet, loud, quiet, his/hers, family, friend, mine, yours. Handwriting:

Nursery rhyme of the week: Happy and You Know It - CBeebies House Nursery Rhymes - CBeebies

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Young Einstein - 03.02.2026

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

This week, the children have been exploring sizes, shapes and prepositions, as well as learning what it means to be a good friend, using kind hands and showing consideration for others. Our story of the week was 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'. The children really enjoyed learning about the troll who lives under the bridge and about the relationship between the three siblings. We have been developing new descriptive vocabulary and learning about colours and shapes found in nature. The children created some beautiful artwork, using their fine motor skills and imagination, and showed great determination and progress during daily reading and blending activities. Sensory Friday was another success, with the children leading their own learning by choosing games and activities, practising turn-taking, and sharing toys with their friends. RWI (Read Write Inc): Revise and practise sounds c, k, u, b, CVC words and simple sentence building. Maths: One more, one less, subitising, sets of numbers, prepositions, comparing lengths, counting in 2s, and using 10 frames.    

Year 1

This week we have been reading ‘The Extraordinary Gardiner’. We discussed the amazing settings throughout the story. We created a work bank collaboratively with lots of exciting vocabulary and used this to support us in writing our own setting descriptions.  In maths we have been learning about height and length. We compared the difference between height and length and used measured some classroom items using non-standard units of measure e.g. whiteboard pens and glue sticks.  In design and technology, we have been learning about textiles. We also looked at how to thread a needle and hat a go at a running stitch.  This week we also had a great trip to the church where we got to learn lots of things that happen there! It was very interesting and we had lots of questions about it. 

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Young Einstein - 03.02.2026
• Year 1 - Phonics Information - 02.02.2026
• Year 1 - QR Code - 02.02.2026

Year 2

This week, the children have really enjoyed learning all about penguins. They researched where penguins live, what they eat, and shared lots of interesting facts. Using their research, the children created their own fact files and were very proud of their work. In maths, the children have been learning about temperature and practising how to read scales carefully. In art, we explored the work of the artist Alma Thomas. The children enjoyed looking at her colourful style and then planned and designed their own artwork inspired by her work, linking their ideas to the polar regions.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Young Einstein - 03.02.2026
• Otter & Squirrel - Visit to Colchester Castle - 03.02.2026
• Fox & Hedgehog - Visit to Colchester Castle - 03.02.2026

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

Does your child turn 3 before 1st Sept 2026? Nursery Tours are available to book now.

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.

Are you eligible for tax-free childcare? This can be used to pay for wraparound care at our setting. Please see the information below.

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