Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 9th may 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

I hope you all managed to enjoy the long weekend! Despite it only being a four-day week, we have still managed to fit a lot of great experiences into our children’s learning this week.

Year 1 have been out and about in the local area, visiting Southend Christian Fellowship church that included a tour of this fabulous building and lots of great information provided by the team that work there. A huge thank you to everybody at the church and to all the parents that gave up their time to support the visit.

This week, the children have also been learning about VE Day and why it holds so much significance for us in our lives today. Throughout the school, children have enjoyed baking cakes, making flags and banners to show the celebratory nature of this event as well as learning why we celebrate VE day and why this year is extra special. It is always a difficult concept for young children to fully understand what the war would have been like for those who lived through it, but we hope that our skilled staff have managed to get the right messages across through the use of videos, pictures and stories in a child friendly way. The children all received a commemorative badge to help them remember this day in years to come.

We rounded the week off with our Year 2 children taking part in mini first aid workshops where they learnt a range of crucial life-saving skills including how to administer some basic CPR, how to make an emergency 999 call and how to care for somebody who has been injured. Although we hope that they never have to use them, we are confident that they will keep these skills for life.

Next week is a very exciting week for us as we have the visit of the wonderful Gemma‘s farm. This is one of the highlights of our year at Hamstel Infants where the children get real ‘hands on’ experiences with familiar farmyard friends. We will be taking lots of photographs over the two days and look forward to sharing these with you in due course. Thank you to everybody who has made a donation towards this event, we truly cannot do this without your support. We have currently only received a donation from about 40% of parents, leaving us significantly short of breaking even for this event, so please, if you are able and haven’t yet had the chance to donate, it’s not too late.

Next week it’s also Mental Health Awareness Week. Throughout the week the children will be taking part in lots of activities all geared around positive mental health in our young children and on Thursday 15th we will be wearing green to show our support for promoting good mental health.

Our Year 1 Spring Show titled ‘Hats Off' is now just over a week away. The children and staff have been so busy practising this performance so we are sure it will really blow your socks off. Thanks to some recently borrowed stage lighting, we also hope that this will be the first event back in our newly cleaned hall! While its not quite a full return to normal, it’s a step in the right direction.

A few parents have asked me recently on the morning gate about our plans for transition this year, and of course, with half term now only two weeks away, our thoughts are already beginning to turn towards next September. I just wanted to reassure you that as always, these key transition times are very important to us, and we will be starting the transition process as early as possible to allow our children the necessary time to adjust to the changes for next year. We hope that this will all go as smoothly as it does most years, but if you do have any questions or concerns about your child’s transition to their new classes, please speak to our teachers at the classroom door and they will be happy to answer your questions and pass on any concerns.

However, before all of that we still have an extremely busy summer term to complete which includes sports days, beach visits, library trips, summer safety workshops, The Friends of Hamstel summer Fair and of course our Year 2 leavers assembly… Never a dull moment at Hamstel Infant School and Nursery!

I hope you all have a great weekend and get to enjoy the forecast sunshine, see you all on Monday.

Scott Roche

Principal

Jump to a section...

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

Year 2 - Dinner Menu - Parent Council - PTA - Messages from the Office

Community Information - Key Dates for Summer Term

Nursery

This week our story has been ‘How to look a Dinosaur’. The children have enjoyed learning about different pets and what animals make good pets.

In Maths we have been practising counting backwards up to 10.

In PSHE we have been thinking about why it is important to be active and talked about different exercises and activities that we do.

The children enjoyed painting pictures using watercolours and painting in the style of the artist Monet.

On Thursday the children learnt about VE Day we had our own celebrations by decorating biscuits and having scones and jam for snack.

In RWI Phonics we have learnt the sounds ‘d’, ‘t’, ‘i’ please look on tapestry for the QR codes to watch the videos at home with your child.

REMINDER: Our Nursery Phonics Meeting is on Wednesday 14th May at 8.45 or 2.30.

There are QR codes in the Nursery windows for you to sign up.

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

It has been a hectic week, with our new book 'Emma Jane`s Aeroplane', we have been whizzing around the world looking at different cities and famous landmarks, from Paris to New York and then to Australia. The children have been enjoying learning about different places and creating some lovely artwork. We have continued with our RWI learning and are learning some new words containing some “special friends” sounds. We are looking at numbers and how they can be partitioned (divided) such as 4 and 1 makes 5, 3 and 2 makes 5.

Although the weather has not been as warm as we would have liked it, we have visited Dilly`s Den and the children have enjoyed playing in the sand, using the climbing metal dome. We are building our vocabulary by learning new words from our story and trying to build sentences to express those words. Alongside these activities we are supporting our children with colourful semantics and visuals and individual timetables.

Writing: Zig Zag letter family

RWI: Sh, qu, th, ng, ch, nk (we are revising 2 special friend sounds every day and looking at words that start or end with these sounds.

Math: Showing a said number with fingers/matching numbers to their written name/more or less/one more one less/building a tower to a said number

Starlight

This week in Literacy we have continued reading the story ‘Lost and Found’ by Oliver Jeffers. The children used the characters they made from the story to re-tell it, before writing the beginning, middle and end of the story.

In Maths, we have been learning to compare numbers using 10s and 1s, finding the largest and smallest numbers and exploring number patterns.

In PSHE, we have been learning why sleep is important and discussing things that might be stopping us getting to sleep. We talked about some strategies that could help us get to sleep.

The children have been continued practising their motor skills; we have scooped fish using nets, found treasures in the sand and rescued toy animals from ice cubes!

How to help at home

Letter formation:

Looking for number patterns in the environment, e.g. house numbers (odd/even, counting in 2s)

Reception Year

This week we have been learning about animals who live on the farm and reading the book ‘Farmer Duck’. In writing we have been writing descriptions of some of the animals you might find on a farm. In geography, we have been learning about hot climate countries and in science we have been learning about animals that live in these countries.

In maths we have been identifying missing parts of 5 and learning that 6 can be composed of 5 and 1 and 7 can be composed of 5 and 2. In shape, space and measure we have been learning to measure objects using cubes.

In PSHE we have been learning about keeping ourselves clean and why it is important. We have discussed the importance of washing our hands after going to the toilet and before eating. In RE we have been thinking about different places to worship. In DT we have been learning to thread a needle.

How to help at home

NELI special words: measure, heavy, light, weight, root, plant, dig, trunk, vegetables, fruits, apple, cherry, orange.

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

Reading: Continue to listen to your child read their book at least five times a week and watch the QR codes, remembering to give the QR slip back to your class teacher.

Maths: Show the numbers 6 and 7 on your fingers

REMINDER: Outdoor Learning next week

Due to Gemma’s Farm we are moving some of the days for outdoor learning next week:

• Wednesday: Woodpecker and Owl Classes
• Thursday: Kingfisher and Peacock Classes

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Green Day - 09.05.2025

Year One

This week in literacy we have been writing our own version of ‘The Queen’s Hat’. We changed the object that the Queen lost and worked hard throughout the week on our beginning, middle and end of the story.

In maths we have been continuing with numbers to 100. We have been comparing numbers looking at tens and ones and have used the dienes to work practically to support our understanding.

In science we have been comparing and sorting wild and garden plants and looking at different kinds of trees.

In RE we took a trip to the local church. We learned lots of things about what it means to be a Christian and what people do when they go to church.

Letters sent home this week

• Whole School - Green Day - 09.05.2025

Year Two

It might have been a shorter week, but we have certainly packed lots in, finishing the week with our brilliant Mini First Aid Workshops. The children really enjoyed these sessions and provide the children with some valuable early skills to help someone who may need it.

In Literacy the children have been reading and exploring the fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty. We have discussed the main characters and their characteristics, thinking about what Sleeping Beauty and the Wicked Fairy look like, how they behave and why. We have collected lots of adjectives to describe the characters and wrote some character descriptions using some of the language we gathered.

In Maths we have continued our unit on fractions from last week. We have been finding and recognising ½, ¼ of shapes. We have learnt that fractions need to be equal parts of a whole.

In Outdoor Learning we have been exploring micro-habitats, building on our knowledge from the autumn term. We have looked at the different micro-habitats in the wildlife garden and why the creatures choose those spaces as their homes. We have also built on our knowledge of compass points.

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

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