

The Buzz
Spring Term - 1st February 2024

Message From the Head of School
We have been hosting Y2 showcase events over the last two weeks and it has been lovely to see our children proudly sharing all of their hard work with their family members.
Keep an eye out in the ‘Dates for your diary’ section of The Buzz for future events at HISN. We will also do our best to send reminders for future events via ParentHub.
Thank you to the Y2 parents who attended our information session on the updated Y2 assessment process. SATS are no longer compulsory and the papers can be used at schools discretion. It was a good opportunity to share the expectations for learning at the end of year 2. The presentation is available on the school website for those who were unable to attend.
This week we have been focussing on the principle of Challenge. In assembly I challenged our Infant children to name all nine of our principles and they did brilliantly! We then spoke about the challenge of keeping ourselves safe online, within school and out in the community.
On Wednesday, Polly Davies, our link safeguarding governor, enjoyed a visit to school and was really impressed with our Infant children’s knowledge and understanding of how to keep themselves safe.
Have a lovely weekend.
Claire Cook
Head of School
WHITE RIBBON WALK: SATURDAY 17TH FEBRUARY 2024
STARTING AT 1PM HAMPTON SQUARE
Dear Parents/Carers,
The next White Ribbon Walk, organised in partnership with Hampton and Richmond Football Club, is taking place on Saturday 17th February starting at 1pm at Hampton Square when we will be walking through Hampton to Hampton and Richmond Football Club. We are inviting local residents to participate in the walk – everyone is welcome. The walks are always incredibly good natured (it will take about an hour with the walk and speeches) and the intention is to raise awareness of the issue of all forms of violence and abuse against women and girls, show how much we as a community care about tackling and reducing it and encourage local residents to get involved.
Richmond Council has White Ribbon Accreditation – CLICK HERE to take you to the White Ribbon website for more information.
Thank you for your support.
Abi Jonas
Richmond VAWG Community Safety Officer
Serving Richmond and Wandsworth
Community Safety Service
Stronger and Safer Communities
Children’s Mental Health Week will take place from 5-11 February 2024
The theme this year is ‘My Voice Matters’.
My Voice Matters is about empowering children and young people by providing them with the tools they need to express themselves.
As parents and carers, you play an important role in your child’s mental health. You can find resources and ideas of how to support your child's wellbeing and mental health at Place2Be
Achieving for Children Webinars
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.
HISN Job Vacancy - Lunchtime Supervisor
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.
⏰Attendance
w/c 22.01.2024
2J had the best attendance last week with 98%
1D & 1Y each class had 1 late last week
🌟Certificate of Excellence
Last week certificates were given out for Independence
AM Nursery Yasmin
PM Nursery Owen
RC Tymon
RF Oliver
RK Rudy
RP Arthur
1B Arush
1C Flossy
1D Jack
1Y Angelina
2C Noah
2H Dervla
2J Grace
2MC Benjamin
👋 Makaton Sign of the Week
🟨 Nursery
We had great fun this week listening to the story ‘What the ladybird heard’. In the story, the ladybird stops two thieves from stealing the Farmer’s fine prize cow. The ladybird asks all the animals to make different noises so the thieves cannot find the cow. We thought it was a clever plan but also funny when the cats say ‘oink’ and the dog says ‘quack’. We had great fun making our own animal headbands so we could retell the story ourselves. We practised making the animal sounds too. We chose which animal we wanted on our headband and the colour of our headband. We coloured the animal in and then used our brilliant cutting skills to cut around the animal. We loved getting our photograph taken wearing our headbands.
As well as learning all about the animals we find on a farm we have had fun this week using directional language.
During our maths learning this week we learnt to use the words ‘forward, backwards, left and right’.
In PE we practised using this language to move in different directions and then enjoyed singing ‘the hokey cokey’.
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 are going to be learning about space next week. We will be reading the story 'Whatever next' and thinking about how to travel to the moon. At home talk about how you would travel to the moon. What would you pack in your suitcase? What picnic food would you take with you?
🟥 Reception
Reception has had another busy and exciting week. Our story focus this week has been 'What the Ladybird Heard at the Farm.' We looked at the front cover and discussed what we could see and where the setting of the story was. We played a game of 'Who Am I?' listening to clues and guessing which farm animal was behind the box. We all made our own 'Who Am I?' books and shared them with our friends. We have also been looking at maps and why we use them. We created our own maps of the farm.
Phonics: We have been continuing to recap all the sounds we have learnt so far and have learnt three new sounds this week: x, y, ck. The children have used these sounds to read and build words as well as use their listening ears to manipulate sounds to create new words. Our handwriting letters this week are: s, d and f.
Maths: We have been looking at showing different numbers on our fingers and how we can show numbers in different ways. E.g. for 6, we could show 5 and 1 or 4 and 2 etc. We have been singing the song '5 little astronauts.'
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 are going to be learning about space next week. We will be reading the story 'Whatever next' and thinking about how to travel to the moon. At home talk about how you would travel to the moon. What would you pack in your suitcase? What picnic food would you take with you?
🟦 Year 1
In English, year 1 have been thinking about descriptive language to use in our own non-fiction writing. We have used the lion from the story ‘Katie in London’ as inspiration for our writing, compiling a bank of nouns and adjectives to use to write our expanded noun phrases. We then looked at various fact files, identifying their features and matching facts to their corresponding headings and subheadings ready to use and help us when we write up our own fact files all about lions next week.
This week, we have been building on our understanding of numbers from the autumn term to compare pairs of numbers, and order numbers, up to and including 20. We have been using ten frames and number lines to support our learning, using the inequality symbols and the language of ‘greater than’, ‘less than’ and ‘equal to’ to describe our findings.
In Science, we have discussing the weather during the winter season. We have been thinking about ways to describe it and looking at our surrounding area to observe the various features of winter. We have been investigating why the days are shorter and the weather is colder during the winter months, as well as what clothes to wear and why these are appropriate attire for this season.
In History, we have been looking at how planes have evolved over time and the impact these have had on our lives, from travelling abroad on holiday to moving products and cargo around the world, as well as the effect this has had on the environment.
In dance this week, we have continued using our counts to 8 to explore speed and actions in a pirate-inspired dance. We looked at different actions, levels and pathways we could use to interpret our pirate theme and put these into a sequence to create a group routine. We have also continued to practise our throwing technique in PE, focusing on the development of a passing for accuracy and distance using both underarm and over arm passes.
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.
🟩 Year 2
Thank you for coming to 2MC and 2P's showcase this week, the children loved sharing their hard work with you all, a real highlight of their week.
In English we have been learning about using different conjunctions in sentences and a wide range of adjectives to help make our writing even more interesting. We have planned our very own story based on 'The Dreamer' but instead of wanting to fly a plane, the pig now wants to go deep sea diving. Ask us what the pig has invented to let him explore the deep, dark ocean and who he will meet along the way. We can't wait to start writing our own stories.
We have continued to look at money so far this week in Maths, completing one and two step problems using money. We have been busy applying our knowledge thinking about which coins and notes might need to be used to solve these problems.
In History we have focused not only on the plane the Wright Brothers built but learnt about how the aircraft has changed in the past 120 years and how it will keep changing. We learnt about how planes changed from being made from wood to now being made of metal and how some planes don't even need a pilot to fly!
In Art we applied our inspiration from the artists Bridget Riley and Charles McGee to build our landmarks from clay and wire. Look at our amazing creations.
Spotlight - Art
‘Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.’
- Mary Lou Cook -
Young children are artists. They use all sorts of materials to show what they have noticed about the world around them. They might draw the rain falling onto a tent during a family holiday, paint a giraffe seen at the zoo, model a fish from clay and press patterns into its body. Here at HISN we encourage our children to nurture their sense of wonder and comment on what they see, feel and think through visual, tactile and sensory experiences. In addition to the development of their own free expression, our curriculum introduces our children to the inspirational works of a wide range of diverse artists, both male and female, both modern and historic, not only to further enrich their understanding of the world and its history and culture, but also as an introduction to different artistic techniques, empowering them to appreciate and engage with art in meaningful ways.
Art in Early Years
In our Early Years program, art is seamlessly integrated into our play-based curriculum to ignite curiosity and imagination in our young learners. Through carefully crafted, age-appropriate activities and open-ended exploration, students are encouraged to delve into a world of creativity using various self-accessible art materials, colours, and textures. Our provision is meticulously planned to allow students the freedom to express themselves creatively while honing essential skills such as fine motor control and sensory awareness. So whether they're experimenting with paintbrush strokes or exploring the tactile qualities of torn tissue paper in their collages, both inspire their artistic thinking to create imaginative inventions and express their experiences and observations through marks on paper, laying the foundations for their artistic journey ahead.
Art in KS1
As students progress into KS1, they embark on a deeper exploration of artistic mediums and learn to experiment with more complex artistic techniques, such as shading when using pencils as they develop their drawing skills, or tinting paint to add atmosphere and mood to their creations. Art lessons are dedicated sessions each week and are guided by the works of renowned artists and art movements, where children’s knowledge and skills are built upon over a sequence of lessons that lead to a final piece. Through this journey, they not only develop their individual artistic voice but also gain confidence in expressing themselves creatively through their art.
Art holds a special place at HISN, and our school community fosters a deep enthusiasm for it through various avenues. Students take pride in their sketchbooks as they chronicle their artistic journey, relishing the opportunity to hone new skills before applying them to their creations. We love to share the students' artwork with others, not only within classrooms and throughout the school displays, but also during our annual Art’s Week Exhibition in the Summer Term. This exhibition provides a wonderful platform for students to engage in discussions about their art with their friends and grown-ups in their very own art gallery!
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.
Useful Links
Linden Hall Hampton
Below are posters from Linden Hall. Little Larks is a parent toddler play group which might benefit families in having a fun and sociable place to go if you have preschool children.
Community Suppers offering people surplus food and freshly prepared meals to enjoy, helping out those in need through the cost of living crises.
More information on these activities and more can be found on Linden Hall website at www.lindenhall.org.uk.
Click on above tab to view HISN's virtual school tour
Contact details
Email: office.hisn@hpp.school
Website: hpp.school
Location: Hampton Infant School and Nursery, Ripley Road, Hampton, UK
Phone: 0208 979 1815