The Buzz

Welcome back, I hope you had an enjoyable half term. The children have been impressing us this week with all of their efforts and excitement for learning. We spoke in our assembly about the importance of belonging as it is a basic human need to help us succeed. Y1 and 2 children came up with a long list of why our school is so great e.g. our staff, our friends, visitors we have, the food, our equipment and events like world book day.

We spoke about who belongs in Hampton Infants and one of the important people to get a mention was our chef and his team. He is extremely conscientious and monitors what food is popular with our infant children, to ensure every child is well fed and able to learn in the afternoon. If there is a meal that doesn’t get eaten he makes a change in consultation with myself. Before half term he noticed that rice was not a hit with our young children and substituted it with spaghetti which is well received and enjoyed by our children. You will understand that on occasions there are changes to the published menu this is because we are trying to ensure all children eat well. The salad bar is a great success with our children, in particular the chef’s homemade croutons!

On Thursday we have Paul Geraghty visiting us in preparation for world book day the following week. Thank you to HISNA for funding this special visit. A selection of his signed books will be available to purchase on Parentpay.

Y2 have their trip to Wisley Gardens coming up. If you haven’t paid for this trip and given consent via parentpay please do so as soon as possible.

If your child's pick up details change please notify the school by emailing the office with the name of your child, class and who is collecting, we can no longer be notified by a phone call or face to face.

Please take a moment to read through the HPP policy below.

I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend.

Claire Cook

Head of School

2P had the best attendance with 100%

1Y had no late students.

Before half term certificates were given out for Independence

AM Nursery Archer

PM Nursery Tadhg

RC Oliver

RF Gabrielle

RK Evie

RP Rayyan

1B Lewis

1C Asna

1D Myra

1Y Fraser

2C Robin

2J Jessica

2MC Joseph

2P Jasmine

Before half term each class got to meet their buddy class to share stories together. It was a great opportunity to read stories with older and younger children and continue to develop a love of reading for pleasure. This will continue to take place once per a half term and we cannot wait for the next buddy class session this half term.

It has been so lovely to welcome the children back after half term and hear all about their adventures over the school break. We have loved seeing all of the photos on 'Tapestry' and we are slowly working our way through them in class. It has been wonderful to see how confident the children are sharing their news from home in front of their friends.

We have started a new topic this half term focusing on life cycles and growing. We are reading the story 'Oscar and the frog' and learning about the life cycle of a frog. It has been fascinating watching time lapse videos of a tadpole changing into a frog and we have thoroughly enjoyed singing 'Mmm went the little green frog'.

In maths this week we are learning about 2D shapes and practising naming them and describing them too.

In PE we have enjoyed playing a ball game rolling a precious 'egg' back and forward to a friend. It has been a busy but fun week back at school.

Time to talk - Nursery

We all know how important talking at home is for exposing children to a wide range of vocabulary and ideas. This all helps them with their reading and to become future writers. Each week we will share an idea with you for 'talk homework' with your child.

We have been learning about growing this week. At home together, have a look at baby photos and discuss how you have changed as you have grown from being a baby to a toddler and now.

Our new topic this week is 'Growing and Changing.' Our focus text has been 'Oscar the Frog.' We have been talking about life cycles and how this is known as the stages or changes that an animal or human goes through in their life. We looked more closely at the life cycle of a frog and how the frog lays frogspawn, which turns into a tadpole, which turns into a froglet, which turns into a frog. We had lots of fun acting out the life cycle!

Phonics - We have continued to recap all of the sounds we have learnt so far and have also learnt 'ff' 'll' 'zz' and 'ss'. We talked about how these sounds have 2 letters but they make 1 sound. We have been building and blending words with our new sounds. Our handwriting letters this week are: b, m and k.

Maths - This week in maths we have been looking at the pattern within the numbers when we are counting past 20. We spotted that each time, the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 are repeated. We have also been talking about 1 more and 1 less. We looked at how numbers can be split into 2 numbers, for example to make 6 we have 5 and 1 more. To make 7 we have 5 and 2 more. Etc.

Time to talk - Reception

We all know how important talking at home is for exposing children to a wide range of vocabulary and ideas. This all helps them with their reading and to become future writers. Each week we will share an idea with you for 'talk homework' with your child.

We have been learning about growing this week. At home together, have a look at baby photos and discuss how you have changed as you have grown from being a baby to a toddler and now.

Year 1 are looking forward to a fantastic half term full of fun learning. We will be travelling the world through our topic ‘Up, Up and Away!’, exploring the places, continents, oceans and landmarks of the world in geography, as well as some of the people in it who have made a significant impact on our lives.

In English, we have travelled to India through our book ‘Elephant Dance: A Journey Through India’ written by Theresa Heine and illustrated by Sheila Moxley. We have been learning about nouns, identifying key nouns in the story and and exploring exactly what these are and what they look like. We recorded these in our books in preparation for us to use in our poetry writing next week.

In maths, we have been learning about doubles, using various manipulatives to help us add two equal quantities together. We then used our knowledge of doubles to add near doubles, for example using the double fact that 6 + 6 = 12 to work out 6 + 7 by adding 1 more.

We have been describing objects using labels in computing, matching objects to groups and identifying the label most appropriate for each group of objects. In design and technology, we have begun our topic on structures by identifying various structures around school and discussing what materials they are made from and what makes them stable and strong. We will be using our findings to help us to plan and create our own structures in the coming weeks.

In PE, we have begun our gymnastics topic by exploring various travelling movements. We have been using different parts of our bodies to travel on, as well as looking at travelling at high and low levels. We have also begun our net and wall games topic, looking first at how we defend our space using a starting position. We practised standing with our feet hip width apart and knees bent, and returning to our starting position after each roll or throw.

Finally, we began our new science topic, ‘Plants’, by thinking about what plants need to grow healthily before putting our theories to the test by placing cress seeds into four different environments. We are going to be observing what happens to the cress seeds over the forthcoming weeks. We’ll let you know what happens!

We hope you all had a lovely half term break. This half term we have started by looking at our new focus text 'Ignis' written by Gina Wilson. This is a beautifully illustrated story of a dragon named Ignis who has never been able to breath fire so he embarks on a journey to 'find his fire.' The children have been captivated by the story and we have discussed what it would be like to have a pet dragon. We thought about what we would need to do to own a pet dragon and what care they might need. We learnt about using imperative verbs to recgonise and write commands before writing a set of instructions of 'How to Care for a Dragon.'

In Maths the children have been super whizzy learning their 2 x multiplication tables. Please keep practicing these at home too. We have applied our knowledge of 2 x tables to problem solve as well as understanding their relation to doubles and halves, odd and even numbers too.

We are beginning this term with a new DT project where we will design our own dragon finger puppet ready to be sewn in a couple of weeks. We will think carefully about the design of our finger puppet, adding features of a dragon. We will then discuss what materials we will use as well as sewing techniques needed to complete our finger puppet. We will be making our finger puppets on Tuesday 5th March. A letter will be sent out soon via parent hub requesting parental help across all four classes from 9-11am on this, if you are able to help please let your class teacher know.

HISN external Summer 2024 Clubs Timetable will be released via ParentHub on Thursday 29th February at 7pm. In order to ensure as fair a process as possible, no bookings will be taken by the clubs until this time. Bookings all need to be made directly with the clubs and booking details will be included on the new timetable. Please note some clubs will be open to Reception children for Summer term only.

HISN are celebrating WBD this year on Friday 8th March where the children have an opportunity to dress up as a character from their favourite book - no football kits please.

Achieving for Children's Mental Health Support Teams are delivering a series of webinars for parents of primary aged children. The "Helping Children with ..." series of webinars will cover a range of common difficulties experienced by children.

The well being and safety of our children is everyone's responsibility. If you have concerns about a child please contact SPA on 547 5008 or out of hours on 0208 744 2442.

Click on above tab to view HISN's virtual school tour

Email: office.hisn@hpp.school
Website: hpp.school
Location: Hampton Infant School and Nursery, Ripley Road, Hampton, UK
Phone: 0208 979 1815