The Buzz

I know that you are all looking forward to a well deserved break, this break marks the halfway point of the year and I am sure we are looking forward to seeing a few more daffodils and the return of the sun.

This week we have enjoyed marking safer internet day across the school with activities to remind children how to keep themselves safe online, please talk to your child about what they know and remember to check the permission settings on the devices they are using. Children should not be accessing social media and certainly should not have their own accounts. I know many parents are now sharing books from devices with their children however, some recent studies have shown that stories from physical books are remembered more by children, something to consider I think. Please click on the link below for further information on safer internet day.

The children have enjoyed sharing stories with their reading buddies across the school and are talking about our upcoming author visit for world book day, which thanks to HISNA funding, is a visit from Paul Geraghty on Thursday 29th February, which is very exciting. 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. Polite reminder no football kits.

I wish you a happy half term and look forward to seeing you all on Monday 19th February.

Helen Lockey

Executive Headteacher

1C and 2P had the best attendance last week with 97%

1Y, 2J and 2MC each class had 1 late last week

Last week certificates were given out for Independence

AM Nursery Alvin

PM Nursery Scarlett

RC Charlie

RF Ares

RK Florence

RP Jonas

1B Mia-Taliah

1C Iris

1D Georg C

1Y George A-T

2C Ben

2J Ameerah

2MC Alice W

2P Leo Mason

Our focus story 'Whatever next!' has allowed us to imagine flying to the moon and who we would take with us. We made rockets out of junk modelling and shiny materials and drew the planets using metallic coloured crayons. We made craters in the playdough and added colour and objects; using pictures to see what our planet could look like.

We learnt Makaton signs and sang along to 'Five little astronauts' as we continue to learn to recognise our numbers in maths. We have been practising counting forwards and backwards to 5 and then 10. We loved the rocket, small world astronauts and wooden planets and used our imaginations in our play like the bear did in our story.

As we are approaching Chinese New Year, we also opened our own Chinese food restaurant this week using wool for noodles. We also tried using chopsticks to pretend to eat the yummy food. We enjoyed reading the menu and ordering food whilst chatting with our friends. We took it in turns to be the restaurant manager and spent a lot of time answering phone calls too!

To end our week we got to enjoy reading stories with another class in school. The morning nursery read stories with 2C and the afternoon nursery got to enjoy reading stories with 1D. It was really exciting meeting new friends and visiting other classrooms at our 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.

As next week is half term we would like you to share photos on tapestry of your half term activities. This could be going to the park, baking at home or sharing a story. Talk about what activities you would like to do together and at the end of half term think about what has been your favourite activity together. We will be sharing the photos after half term.

This week is Internet Safety Week and the children have been thinking about how to stay safe when using the internet. We have talked about what we use the internet for, such as listening to our favourite music and playing games on our ipads. With the help of Smartie the Penguin, we have learnt that we should always ask for help from a grown up if we are ever unsure what to do.

Our story focus this week is 'Whatever Next!' We have been linking it to the topic of 'Space' and we have been talking about what we might need if we were going to fly to the moon and have been acting it out in our classrooms. We have also been talking about the different planets in the solar system and that our planet is called 'Earth.'

Reception have also been learning about Chinese New Year and have been looking at some of the different traditions that are carried out to celebrate. We have been doing some of the traditions in our classrooms and outside too; dancing to music, making paper lanterns and making red envelopes. We have also been learning a dragon dance!

Our handwriting letters this week are: r,b and h.

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.

As next week is half term we would like you to share photos on tapestry of your half term activities. This could be going to the park, baking at home or sharing a story. Talk about what activities you would like to do together and at the end of half term think about what has been your favourite activity together. We will be sharing the photos after half term.

In History, we continue to look at transport and how this has changed over time. We have been learning about the first moon landing, looking at photos and videos of this historic event, including the three astronauts that went to the moon, their mode of transport and what they did on the moon. We then re-enacted this historical event in groups and performed our journeys through space for our classmates.

In English, we have been using all of our amazing ideas and descriptive language compiled from last week’s lessons to create our very own lion fact-file. We sorted our noun phrases and facts into subheadings and wrote these out as sentences in our books.

In Maths, we have been focusing on adding two numbers within 20 using a variety of methods. We began adding by counting on, using a number line to start at a given number before jumping the number of required spaces to find our answer. We then looked at how we could use our number bonds to 10 to help us to add larger numbers. We learnt that if we know 7 + 3 = 10 then 17+ 3 = 20 and 7 + 13 = 20.

We have had great fun using the BeeBots in Computing this week. We learnt about simple algorithms and how we can use these to move the BeeBots around obstacles, debugging them as necessary. We have also been revisiting the SMART rules and how to stay safe online, during Internet Safety Day. We then created posters to remind ourselves of the importance of following these rules when working and playing online.

In dance this week, we have continued with our pirate-inspired theme in dance, looking at how we can use clear actions in our dances and expressions to help tell a story. We also discussed the importance of being respectful when watching others perform, and practised our moves so that we could perform our sequences with confidence and in time with our partners.

We have been putting the finishing touches to our ‘Fishing Boat on the Beach’ collages, as inspired by Vincent Van Gogh. We added the sand to complete our collaged beach scene and add texture to our artwork, before adding our boat made from card. We think they look amazing.

For opportunities to practise writing, phonics, reading and maths skills at home, please look at the ‘Home Support‘ tab on the school website for details, as well as activities linked to topics we are learning about in school this term.

We have had a lovely week enjoying a range of books with our reading buddies across the school. Each class has joined together with a Nursery, Reception or Y1 class. We loved sharing stories and discussing our favourite stories together.

In English we finished writing our own story 'The Dreamer Part 2'. In our stories we decided the pig from 'The Dreamer' would like to go scuba diving to see the sea creatures living under the sea. We loved using our imaginations to go deep sea diving ourselves, thinking about the rusty, gloomy shipwrecks we would swim through with the scaly, green sea snakes. We really impressed our teachers with our careful choice of adjectives to make our writing really interesting.

In Maths we have been thinking about multiplication and division, focusing on writing multiplication sentences using the concept of groupings. We have worked hard on writing multiplication sentences and after the half term break we will focus on learning our 2,5 and 10 Multiplication tables. Please help us at home to learn these too.

On Tuesday it was 'Internet Safety Day'. We always start our computing with a safety reminder, thinking about our SMART rules and how we would react to a problem. In computing this week we spent our lesson focusing on our SMART rules and identifying our 'trusted adults' who could help us if we ever saw something that made us upset or worried when using the internet. We often talk about our use of devices at home and what steps we can take to help keep us safe. Please remind us to be safe online when using devices over the half term break.

Hampton Infant School is a vibrant, friendly and successful four form entry infant school. We are looking to appoint a committed and caring person to join our highly professional team as a Lunchtime Supervisor. You will work as part of a team to oversee the school’s lunchtime arrangements.

Click on the link below for further information and to apply.

Are you tech-savvy with a knack for using applications such as Google Docs, have a tenacious attention to detail and a flair for administration and record-keeping?

We are a passionate, friendly and dynamic governing body supporting two fantastic schools in leafy Hampton (TW12) to ‘be the best they can be’ and are recruiting for a clerk to join the team.

You might have previous experience as a clerk, governance professional or as an administrator or PA supporting a board of trustees, directors or legal professionals.

Alternatively, you might be someone who is passionate about education, has strong administration skills and is looking for a role that fits around family and caring responsibilities.

For further information please click on the below "Eteach" button.

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