Hamstel Infant School & Nursery Weekly News week ending 6th june 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back…I hope you had a great half term break! It was good to see so many of you at Wembley stadium on Sunday supporting Southend United in the playoffs final. Sadly the Shrimpers didn’t quite do it, but onwards and upwards for next year!

Scott Roche

Principal

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Summer 2 Diary Dates - Nursery - Rainbow & Starlight - Reception - Year 1

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

Community Information - Key Dates for Autumn Term

Nursery

Welcome back. This week we have read the story ‘The boy and the Bear’. We talked about what makes a good friend.

In maths we have been exploring 3D shapes by sorting them into which shapes roll and which shapes stack.

We have been busy practising for our Sports Day.

In RWI Phonics we have learnt the sounds ‘u’, and ‘b’ 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.

Rainbow & Starlight

Rainbow

Welcome Back! It's nice to see all the children happy to be back in Rainbow Room. This week we have been reading and listening to the story 'The Hungry Caterpillar'. The children have really enjoyed learning about the lifecycle of a butterfly and all the different types of butterflies; The children have been learning about how important butterflies are in our environment and what we should do to help them thrive in our gardens. We have made some lovely pictures and crafts, the children have been enjoying using different coloured materials and media to decorate and colour in their butterflies. We have continued with RWInc and CVC words.

This week we are also looking at feelings and emotions and how we are affected and what we can do to help ourselves.

The children have continued with pencil control, writing, maths and art.

RWI:

Letter family: One armed robot

Maths: count things we cannot see, additions, subtractions, number groups, finger counting, more or less, one more one less and subitising.

Other: Colourful Semantics, Pictoy, Sentence building and structure, matching games.

Focus: Number and Capital letter writing formation.

Starlight

Welcome back!

This week we have read ‘The Rainbow Fish’ by Marcus Pfister. We have looked at the main character and thought about how he was feeling at different parts in the story. We discussed the importance of sharing and being a good friend. The children then wrote about some characteristics of Rainbow Fish.

In maths, we have been learning about money. We have looked at different coins and sorted them according to their appearance and value.

The children have used paint in a variety of ways this week - to paint paper plates and to print using celery to represent fish scales.

Thank you for sending in photos of your child as a baby. The children have enjoyed looking at themselves and thinking about how they have changed over the years.

How to help at home

Handwriting: Practise writing the numbers 0-9

REMINDER: Could you please ensure that your child has a complete change of spare clothes at school; as the weather is getting warmer, we are having water play in the garden. Thank you.

Reception Year

We have kick started our new theme this week by reading the book ‘Supertato’. We were all surprised this week when Evil Pea made a very big mess in the classroom and kidnapped Supertato, so we have written Wanted Posters encouraging everyone to search for Evil Pea!

In maths we have been learning to use rekenreks to move a certain number of beads without counting them and explore the one more and one fewer pattern.

In shape, space and measure we have been exploring 3D shapes, finding out which shapes will roll and stack and sorting them into groups.

In history we have been comparing hospitals now and, in the past, finding out how hospitals have changed. In RE we have been talking about things we find interesting, puzzling or wonderful and sharing our experiences and feelings about the world.

In PSHE we have started a new unit, Growing and Changing, and started thinking about why we are all unique and special and some of our similarities and differences.

How to help at home

Handwriting: Practise writing the numbers 0-9

PictureReading: Continue to listen to your child read at least 5 times a week and watch the QR codes.

REMINDER: Due to the library visit Owl class will have outdoor learning on Tuesday.

Year One

Welcome back!

In literacy this week we have been reading the story ‘Grandma Bird’. We have looked at the main characters Noi and Grandma and discussed how they were feeling at different points in the story. We used this information to help us write a character description, focussing on what Noi looks like and also how he was feeling.

In maths we have been learning about money. We have been looking at the different coins and notes, describing what they look like and their value.

In history we have begun our new topic on seaside holidays. We looked at some old artefacts from holidays in the past and came up with some questions about them to find out more. We also looked at some modern and old photographs from seaside holidays and compared what we could see.

In PE we have started practising all our field events for sports day!

Year Two

A big welcome back to all our 2 classes for the last part of our summer term. It’s going to be a very busy half term with lots of exciting events planned. We have started the half term with our new theme, ‘Growing and Changing’.

Our literacy learning involved exploring a favourite book in Year 2, 'Tad' by Benji Davies, it’s a big story about a tiny tadpole who is growing up and taking a leap into life. It has some wonderful illustrations and was a perfect hook into the beginning of our science work, in which we have been learning about the frog life cycle. We have been researching what happens at each stage of the frog life cycle, drawing simple diagrams and then using our new factual knowledge we wrote our own simple explanations to describe each stage. In our sentences we had to include conjunctions such as because, then, when, to explain the facts.

In maths we have started our unit on time. We started the week by revisiting o’clock and half past, then we moved on to quarter past and quarter to. We have been practising telling the time using an analogue clock. We have had to use our stem sentences to explain how we know what the time is e.g. It is ______ because the hour hand is on the ____ and the minute hand is on the ___. We have worked very hard to use the correct vocabulary to describe the time: hour hand and minute hand. If you have an analogue clock at home, why not practise telling the time at different points in the day.

In PE, we have started practising for our Sports Day, which we are super excited about taking part in and in computing we have started learning that a sequence of commands has a start and an outcome. This is the start of our unit about programming quizzes.

Unfortunately, because of the rain and unpredictable weather we had to cancel the beach trips this week. We have moved these to next week. On Thursday 12th June, Badger and Squirrel will attend and on Friday 13th June, Fox, Hedgehog and Otter will attend. We hope that if you offered to help it did not cause too much inconvenience and that you will be able to help next week instead.

Spelling Pattern this week:

Adding the suffix –es (swapping the y for an I before adding es) e.g. family/families, baby/babies

Don’t forget to practise at home in your spelling book and bring in at the end of next week for your stamp.

Beach trips next week:

• Thursday 12th June: Badger and Squirrel
• Friday 13th June: Hedgehog, Otter and Fox

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