

The Buzz
Spring Term - 9th March 2023

Message From The Executive Headteacher
This week we will celebrate in assembly the independence of our children. We are particularly proud of the level of independence shown by the youngest children at HPP as they come into school each morning, eager to start their day.
This week however, I have received several emails which once again raise the issue of parking by parents both at drop off and pick up. The issues raised focus on illegal parking on zigzags and double yellow lines and idling whilst waiting which impacts the air quality for all of us.
Hampton Infant School is a school street which underlines our commitment to promotion of walking to school where possible. If walking from home is not possible, parking further away and walking from there is very popular. As you know, I am outside school most mornings and I know most parents share the concerns regarding illegal parking.
Helen Lockey
Executive Headteacher
Attendance
w/c 27.02.2023
The class with the best attendance w/c 27.02.2023 was 1K
The class with the least numbers of lates w/c 27.02.2023 was RK
CERTIFICATES OF EXCELLENCE
w/c 27.03.2023
Last week certificates were given out to children who focussed on the HPP principle of OPPORTUNITY
RC Harry
RDC Hendrix
RF Dennis
RK Delilah
1B Naomi
1C Saoirse
1H Gracie
1K Ada
2A Adam
2D Stella
2J Juvan
2T Ehsan
Nursery
Our focus story Oscar and the Frog was a hit with the children this week; they were amazed to watch how a tadpole grows and changes. This sparked lots of questions around frogs such as "Do frogs have bones and a heartbeat?" and led to some research using the internet and non-fiction books to help us find out more about frogs. The children also loved learning about a tree frog and how it has the ability to glide from tree to tree which can help them to escape predators. Alongside this we have been singing Five Little Speckled Frogs and exploring a frog's life cycle in our small world play too. In the creative area the children discovered that bubble wrap printing creates shapes similar to frogspawn. Whilst out in the garden lots of conversations were had about the changing weather and the arrival of snow this week! In maths we have been working on matching numerals to quantities. In phonics we continued to explore syllables and counting the number of syllables in familiar words such as train, banana and scissors.
Reception
Reception children have continued to be fascinated by our growing topic. This week we have been learning all about the lifecycle of a frog where we learnt some interesting scientific words such as frogspawn, tadpole and froglet. We watched a very interesting video of a tadpole transforming into a frog. We learnt that from a tiny egg known as frogspawn, a tadpole emerges, who then goes off to munch on some pondweed to grow big and strong and the children were fascinated to watch what happens next - the tadpole's tail shrank and to our surprise out popped arms and legs that were perfect for a frog to jump high into the air! We have also been very lucky to have some real life frogspawn donated to us and we are excited to watch our little classmates grow - they are very wriggly at the moment and some have even sprouted little gills!
In maths, this week the children have loved discussing 3D shapes and have been using their maths language to describe the properties of each shape. We have noticed that lots of our 3D shapes have different faces which are interestingly made up of different 2D shapes! We have also been recapping our number bonds to 10 and have been using a tens frame to help us explain this.
In Forest Friday, we are starting to make our 'Lovely Ladies' Day cards. The children have been getting creative with flower prints and are excited to show and share this with our lovely Mummies, Aunties and Grannies.
MAG and DUG week
During the Summer Term, we are celebrating our wonderful Mummies, Aunties, Grannies, Daddies, Uncles and Grandads in Reception and we will be inviting our families into our classrooms to join in with some fun activities.
24th April from Monday to Thursday, we are holding a MAG week, where we invite our Mummies, Aunties and Grannies or a female family friend into school from 2 - 2.45pm to do a fun activity with their child.
5th May, Monday to Thursday, we would like to invite Daddies, Uncles, Grandads or a male family friend to our DUG week, where they too can join in the fun.
Please note that due to the large numbers of children in our cohort, we kindly ask for one person per family to join us and there will be a limit of 7 adults per day. We will be sending out an eform via parenthub for you to complete if you would like to attend.
We have begun a new focus book this week called ‘Handa’s Surprise’ by Eileen Brown. It is set in a village of the Luo tribe in south-west Kenya, and tells the story of a girl called Handa, who wants to surprise her friend, Akeyo, with seven delicious fruits. This week we have been focusing on making predictions, based on the book’s front cover. We have been thinking about where the story might be set, who might the main characters be, and what might happen in the story.
Maths - we have continued to use our knowledge of place value and number lines to estimate where numbers might be placed on a blank number line. We identified where the number lines began and ended, where the halfway points were, and whether the number lines were counting in ones or tens. We then used our number lines to help us find numbers that were one more and one less than a given number within 50, focusing on the direction we ‘jumped’ depending on whether we were finding one more or one less.
Science - We have been exploring the various types of flowers and plants we may find in gardens, and discussed which we would like to plant in our own gardens. We thought about which plants and flowers would attract birds, bees and other insects and the benefits of this, and whether we would want to plant edible plants for ourselves to eat. We then designed our own gardens based on our decisions.
Geography - we have continued to travel the world; swimming through the various oceans and identifying where these are located within the world. We learnt a song to help us to remember these and label them correctly on our map.
Computing - we have been looking at programming using the BeeBots; looking at the order of our ‘commands’, how these need to be sequenced in a particular way and how these can be ‘debugged’ if there is an error.
Year 2
English: As we come to the end of our focus text 'Ignis' by Gina Wilson, the children have been challenged to write their own version of the story following the point of view of another character. As a class we planned our ideas around the beginning, middle and end of the story and how we can use a range of adjectives, adverbs, similes and expanded noun phrases to improve our writing.
Computing: In computing we have been thinking about the different ways we can find out and record information. So far we have collected data around what is the favourite fruit in year 2 and how we travel to school. The children have recorded this information in a tally chart and have used software to input the data into a pictogram.
Design Technology: Beginning our new skill of sewing, the children have designed their own dragon finger puppet. Last week the children were challenged to practise their sewing skills on binker to create a running stitch and blanket stitch.
Science
On Monday this week Mrs Crook took 4 pupils to Hampton Prep for a science event. The children enjoyed the afternoon and we are very proud of how they represented HISN.
LazerLions Workshops
On Wednesdays for the next month LazerLions will be running complimentary workshops for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. This week kicked off with classes 1H and 1C.
MESSAGES FROM THE OFFICE
FUEL: Holiday Activity and Food programme - Easter 2023 - bookings open
Bookings have opened for the Easter 2023 FUEL Holiday Activity and Food programme!
FUEL provides free activities for children whose parents are eligible for benefits- related Free School Meals during the Easter, Summer and Winter school holidays.
If a child is eligible, you should have been given a 17 digit FUEL code either from your child’s school or us.
If you think a child may be eligible but you have not got a code, email the FUEL team at: fuel@achievingforchildren.org.uk.
If you have got a code, you can book on to sessions now: https://kr.afcinfo.org.uk/pages/community-information/information-and-advice/fuel-holiday-activities-and-food-programme
From the FUEL Team.
Please contact clubs directly if your child is absent or if there is a change in collection details.
Contact details
Email: office.hisn@hpp.school
Website: hpp.school
Location: Hampton Infant School and Nursery, Ripley Road, Hampton, UK
Phone: 0208 979 1815