Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News

Dear Parents and Carers

Our Year 1 beach visits took place this week in some very windy but fortunately dry conditions. The children all seemed to thoroughly enjoy their days as they explored the shoreline, discovering a variety of large and small shells, as well as different types of stones. There was great excitement as they searched for “sea glass treasure,” carefully examining and comparing their finds and sharing them with one another. The children also worked collaboratively to build some very impressive sandcastles. Many groups created some great detailed structures complete with water-filled moats that successfully connected to the sea, showing super creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. Always one to get fully involved, Mrs Riley literally ‘threw herself into her work’ as she experienced one of the huge holes dug by the children at close hand. Thankfully, no harm was done, and Mrs Riley was safely rescued from the said hole but it will certainly be a great story to tell in the future when we relive our beach trip archives. Huge thanks go to all the parents that helped to support these visits – we literally, could not do it without you giving up your valuable time and thank you as always to the staff for organising these experiences for our children. This week we also had two great sporting events – firstly Team Hamstel set off to compete against the other four schools in the Portico Academy Trust, as we took part in the cross-academy sports event. The focus of this event was ’participation’ and across the nine different events all of the children competed well, gave 100% effort and most importantly had a great time.  The second event was the ever-popular Southend Creative Dance festival, where our team of cowboy hat clad line dancers took to the stage to wow the very large audience with their 9 to 5 routine.  This is always a great annual event, taking place in the picturesque grounds of Alleyn Court school and giving the children a fantastic opportunity to perform in front of an audience made up of 23 other primary, junior and secondary schools. Our dance troupe did us and themselves proud! A big thank you to our PE lead Miss West, along with Mr Sayer and Mrs Walker who always work so hard to prepare our children for events such as these. Next week, Reception are out and about again, as they are heading off to one of our local churches for their yearly visit and Gemma’s Farm is only a week away! However, we still desperately need your support for this event to continue to take place so if you haven’t already and are able to make a £3 contribution towards the cost of this fabulous hands-on event, it would be very much appreciated. Thank you! Don’t forget it’s a bank holiday on Monday, so I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and we look forward to seeing you again on Tuesday morning.

Scott Roche Principal

Very important message re WhatsApp groups

A number of parents have approached us asking if anything can be done about the parent WhatsApp groups as these are not always being used for the correct purposes. While we obviously have limited powers to manage what people post on these groups, I would respectfully appeal to all of our parents and carers to ensure that these are used respectfully and for the correct purpose. Typically, these should only be used for school or class related messages or questions and are certainly not the forum to be posting personal comments about other parents, children or our staff. I would urge anybody who has any issues related to our school to come and speak to us in person, rather than post it to social media. Thank you.

Other important messages

Apologies again to speak about car parking, but we've had another near miss during this morning's drop off, when one of the children was nearly hit by a dangerously parked car when it moved off. Please can I ask all parents to be extra vigilant both when parking and when supervising their children around these busy times. There have been a number of instances recently where children from our school have been using either our own school play equipment or entering closed Junior school areas before and after school. If an area is closed, please ensure that these are not entered by children or parents. I must also stress that school equipment including climbing frames etc are not to be used before or after school in case of accidents occurring. Thank you for your cooperation with these matters.

Weekly Celebrations!

Attendance

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Summer 1 Diary Dates - Nursery - Reception - Rainbow & Starlight Year 1 - Year 2 - Lunch Menu - PTA - Messages from the Office - Community

Nursery

This week our NELI story has been Dinosaur rocket. The children have enjoyed learning about the moon, making spaceships and pretending to be astronauts landing on the moon.  Our maths focus has been to count objects and recognising numerals 1-7 In PSHE we have been learning about how being active can keep people healthy, we thought of lots of different activities that we do at home and nursery that will keep us fit and active. How to help at home NELI special words: moon, splash, brave and quiet Nursery rhyme of the week: Zoom zoom zoom we’re going to the moon https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/watch/numberblocks-zoom-zoom-zoom  

REMINDER: As the weather is getting warmer and the children will enjoy spending more time in the garden, please ensure that your child brings a named hat to nursery and that you apply suncream before they attend their session. Could you please ensure that your child has a spare set of clothes at nursery and if you have borrowed any clothes could you please return them. Thank you

Letters sent home this week

• EYFS & KS1 - Gemma's Farm - 28.04.2026

Reception

This week we are learning about zoo animals and we have been reading the book ‘Dear Zoo’. We have been writing words and sentences about the giraffe in the story, trying to remember spaces between words and using our Fred Fingers to pinch the sounds in each word. In PSHE we have learning how to keep ourselves clean, thinking about why it is important to keep clean and the importance of hand washing. In maths we have been revisiting the counting rules and practising counting larger sets of objects and counting on from a given number. In shape, space and measure we have been learning to measure the length of objects using cubes. In RE we have been learning about different places of worship. In art we have been exploring colour mixing through printing and talking about the colours we have created.   How to help at home NELI special words: water, land, sky. Nursery rhyme of the week: Old MacDonald - CBeebies Handwriting: Learning to Count with these fun Counting Games  

 REMINDER: Friday 8th May: Reception Church Visit

Letters sent home this week

• EYFS & KS1 - Gemma's Farm - 28.04.2026

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

It has been a busy and engaging week! Our book of the week was 'Simon Sock', a lovely story about a lonely sock searching for his match. Along his journey, he experiences a range of events before discovering that a match doesn’t always mean being exactly the same. This story helped us explore themes of friendship and accepting differences. On Monday, we enjoyed outdoor learning, where the children explored shapes and colours in nature. They collected leaves and twigs, which they later used to create some wonderful and imaginative pieces. We have also been focusing on what it means to be a good friend and how to appreciate and accept each other’s differences. As part of this, we explored matching and non-matching (odd) items, linking this to both our story and our maths work. In maths, the children have been working very hard on addition up to 6, as well as practising partitioning and using tens frames to support their understanding. To support emotional development, the children made their own socks filled with rice. We used these to explore different feelings such as happiness, sadness, and anger, helping the children to recognise and talk about emotions in a hands-on way. It has been a very productive week, well done children!

Starlight

On Monday, we enjoyed a lovely outdoor learning session in the sunshine. Linked to our Africa topic, the children explored the outdoor area to discover animal tracks. They used identification keys to work out which animals the tracks belonged to and then created their own animal track prints using clay. The children also helped care for our environment by watering plants and worked together using wheelbarrows to transport woodchip and spread it along the pathways in our outdoor learning area. In literacy, the children sequenced instructions for making an African mask and then went on to write their own clear set of instructions. They worked hard to think about the correct order and how to make their writing easy to follow. In maths, we have been learning to recognise 3D shapes by identifying their properties, including the number of vertices, faces and edges. The children also practised grouping shapes based on these properties. In science, we explored plants and animals from hotter climates and learned about simple food chains, developing our understanding of how living things depend on each other. In computing, the children learned about making choices when taking photographs, such as deciding whether to use landscape or portrait orientation. It has been a busy and productive week, and the children have shown great enthusiasm in all their learning.  

Year 1

This week we have finished off our own version of ‘The Queens’s Hat’. We have worked hard to create our own stories that include a beginning, middle and an end and have shared them with our friends.  In maths we have been introduced to fractions by looking at the terms ‘half’ and ‘quarter’. We have folded shapes to ensure that each section is equal.  In geography we have been learning about human and physical features of the UK. We compared the different countries in the UK and looked at features such as skyscrapers, mountains, beaches and villages.  We all enjoyed a great trip to the beach this week, windy, but fun nonetheless! Thank you to all the grown-ups who came along to help. 

Letters sent home this week

• EYFS & KS1 - Gemma's Farm - 28.04.2026

Year 2

In literacy, the children enjoyed making African masks, linking creativity with their learning. We explored adverbs, particularly adding ‘-ly’, and used these to write clear instructions explaining how to make the masks. In maths, we have been learning about 3D shapes. The children have explored their properties, including faces, edges, and vertices. In science, we have been investigating unfamiliar habitats found in Africa, such as savannahs. The children have learned about the animals and plants that live there and how they are adapted to survive in these environments.

Due to the school being closed for the Bank Holiday on 4th May, Otter Class will have their Outdoor Learning session on Friday 8th May 2026.

Letters sent home this week

• Year 2 - Gemma's Farm - 28.04.2026

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

What's On - Southend

Free event for families and Star Wars fans - Saturday 2nd May.

Southend RNLI Open Day - Monday 4th May

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

Relationships and sex education in Southend-on-Sea: Survey for parents and carers

This survey is for parents and carers of children and young people who are school‑aged (up to 18, or up to 25 for those with additional needs). We want to hear your thoughts about Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in Southend‑on‑Sea. Your feedback will help Southend‑on‑Sea City Council and local schools understand what is going well, what could be improved, and what support families and schools may need. SMPL Research is carrying out this survey on behalf of the Council. Your responses will be kept confidential and will only be shared in an anonymised and combined format. There are no right or wrong answers, please simply share your experiences and views.