The Buzz

We are terribly excited today as we welcome Author and Illustrator Paul Geraghty to school, all the children will get a chance to listen to him and see him create wonderful illustrations. We will do a full report next week, once again a huge thank you to HISNA for raising the funds for this visit, as an early world book day experience. The children will also be bringing home their world book day voucher which can be spent at bookshops.

At HISN we practice our Fire Drill termly and we did this on Wednesday. Our children did exceptionally well making sure they were quiet and calm whilst following their adults instructions. We were extremely proud of them.

I would like to thank all the parents who are respecting the No PHONE ZONE we currently have at HISN, however, we have noticed a number of parents seem to have forgotten and are on the phone when collecting their children or even when talking to teachers or members of staff. Please put your phone away on the school site.

As we are now organising school visits for the children, all parents will need to access ParentPay, this enables you to provide a voluntary contribution as well as providing permission for your child to attend. If we do not have permission via ParentPay, your child will not be able to attend the visit. I have noticed that a significant number of parents in Reception have not signed up to ParentPay or ParentHub so are missing vital communication.

All school visits and visitors are funded by voluntary contributions, if the school does not receive enough contributions, we will regrettably have to cancel the visit and refund those who have paid. This is not something we wish to do however the school is unable to fund these visits.

Enjoy your weekend when it comes and it's the first day of meteorological spring tomorrow!

Helen Lockey

Executive Headteacher

AM Nursery had the best attendance with 100%

1Y had no late students

Before half term certificates were given out for Opportunity

AM Nursery JJ

PM Nursery Jonah

RC Ali

RF Natty

RK Hifza

RP Sophia

1B Ibrahim

1C Sybella

1D Yousuf

1Y Klara

2C Krishna

2J Arjun

2MC Lock

2P Luna

This week in Nursery we have been enjoying learning about shapes. We have been singing lots of shape songs and learning the shape names. We have had fun drawing shapes in the garden using chalk, finding 2d shapes in the environment and drawing around shapes in the classroom. We have been using the magnetic shapes, using round plates and square fabric to make frogs and trying our best to describe the shapes too.

In PE this week we have been learning some yoga moves. We tried so hard to balance and stretch our bodies and worked with a partner. We have continued to enjoy learning about the life cycle of a frog, singing frog songs and learning some facts too. What a busy and fun week we have had!

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 thinking about fruit and vegetables over the next few weeks as we start to read 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Discuss what is your favourite fruit and favourite vegetable to eat and why? Can you find a recipe that includes your favourite fruit or vegetable?

This week, we have continued the topic of 'Growing and Changing.' We read the story 'Oscar and the Frog' and talked about the different changes that they can see in the story. We have been looking at the signs of Spring. We talked about the changes in nature that we might see such as plants, trees, flowers, insects, animals and birds. We talked about the weather in Spring and how the weather changes between the different seasons. We did lots of lovely activities linking to Spring both in the classroom and outside in the garden!

Phonics - We have continued to recap all of the sounds we have learnt so far and have continued to practise '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: p, h and n.

Maths - This week in maths we have been looking at ordering numbers and recognising what one more than the numbers are using the sentence 'One more than 2 is 3.'

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 thinking about fruit and vegetables over the next few weeks as we start to read 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Discuss what is your favourite fruit and favourite vegetable to eat and why? Can you find a recipe that includes your favourite fruit or vegetable?

We have made a great start to our ‘Up, Up and Away!’ topic, with this week seeing us travel the different continents of the world. We have been learning a song to help us to remember the different continents and then used our knowledge to locate them, place them on a template and create our own map of the world.

In English, we have continued on our writing journey through the book ‘Elephant Dance: A Journey Through India’ written by Theresa Heine and illustrated by Sheila Moxley. This week, we have been using our knowledge of nouns and adjectives to help us to identify and write our own similes. We then made a list of our own colour-based similes, which we are going to use to help us write our poem based on the text.

We have been subtracting in maths week, exploring the different ways we can take a one number away from another. We practised subtracting using our knowledge of number bonds, counting backwards on a number line, and finding the difference.

In PE, we have continued with our gymnastics topic by exploring our muscles and how they tense when we are making shapes and holding positions. We have also been practising playing against an opponent and how we can keep score in our game’s lessons, focusing also on being a good sport and showing resilience when a game might not be going the way we had hoped.

We have been continuing with our cress experiment this week in science, looking at how our seeds have or have not grown. We noticed that the seeds with water, both in the sunlight and in the dark, had begun to germinate, whilst those without water still remained the same. We look forward to seeing what happens with the seeds next week. We also spent time identifying the different parts of a flowering plant and their jobs. We then pieced together our own flower and labelled it.

In DT, we have begun exploring and investigating ways in which we can make our structures strong and robust. We looked at various structures around school and famous landmarks around the world, such as the Eiffel Tower, and used scrap paper and masking tape to experiment with and build our very own structures, identifying what they might need to make them stable and strong.

Year 2 have wowed us this week with their 2 x tables and their 10 x tables. We started the week focusing on our 10 x tables and their associated division facts. We looked at sharing objects into groups to find our division facts. We will end the week learning our 5 x tables and relating these facts to their inverse division facts. Please keep helping us learn our 2 x, 5 x and 10 x tables at home.

In English we have continued to think about our story of Ignis and are getting ready to re-write the story ourselves next week. We think we might do an even better job than Gina Wilson, using our amazing adjectives to write a new and improved story. To get ready to write our story we have also been thinking about how we speak and write in the present and past tense.

In Science we have continued with our topic of plants and have been thinking carefully about what plants need to grow and different climates plants can and cannot grow in. This links to our Geography topic of 'Hot and Cold Places' where we are learning about different climates across the world. This week we have earnt about the Equator, The Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer.

Thank you so much for all your offers to volunteer with our upcoming sewing project and our trip to Wisley Gardens. The school office will be in contact by the end of the week if you have offered to help.

At Hampton Infant School and Nursery, we ensure that our children progress in gaining a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. Through our teaching of History, we aim to inspire the children to develop a curiosity to know more about the past, by equipping them with the skills to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement.

History is woven through all subjects and topics and assessed within the Early Learning Goals. Teachers plan opportunities and experiences for the children to gain an understanding of the world around them. The children are encouraged to talk about experiences that are familiar to them and explore how these differed in the past. They develop an understanding of the past and present through exposure to a range of resources, stories, poems, role play and toys.

Our children gain experience in organising events using basic chronology through using a daily visual timetable, the half-termly learning journey on display in the classroom and through oral retelling of personal events such as holidays or birthdays. They are provided with regular opportunities to talk about their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. They also learn about key figures in our local community through our ‘People who Help Us’ topic, which includes visits from our local community policeman, nurse and lollypop man, Toby.

The children develop an awareness of the passing of time through exploration and discussion of the changing seasons, for example seasonal treasure hunts, daily discussions about the weather, changing uniform needs such as wellies and coats in winter, hats and suncream in summer. The children also discuss changes in themselves, considering how they have changed since they were babies and toddlers and how they are different from older siblings.

At Key Stage 1, children develop their historical knowledge, skills and understanding through the teaching of three History units both in Year 1 and Year 2. Each unit is carefully planned to ensure high quality progressive lessons support the development of the children’s historical understanding. This progression of skills is developed across four strands: historical interpretations; historical investigations; chronological understanding; knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past.

Each term, History and Geography topics are alternated to ensure that our children receive a well-rounded teaching of the humanities subjects throughout the year. Children use learning journals and working walls to record learning in a way that is memorable to them at the end of each unit or lesson.

“Sticky” must-know vocabulary has been identified for each scheme of work and is revisited at the start of each lesson to support the children in long-term memory retention. Artefacts, workshops and trips are used carefully to bring units of work to life and ensure a rich learning experience for all children.

At Hampton Infant and Nursery School our History thread focuses on Britain’s Monarchs. This thread is interwoven throughout Early Years and Key Stage 1. In Early Years, Britain’s Monarchs is introduced through making crowns and learning the words “crown”, “king” and “queen”. Children are exposed to texts relating to the concept of monarchy and have access to role-play resources. This History thread is then continued through the “Kings and Queens” unit in Year 1. Children in Year 2 learn who the ruling monarchs were during each of their units of study and the school timeline in the hall is explicitly referred to during teaching to support chronological awareness.

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 ‘Helping children with worries’ webinar will help you learn ways to support your child in dealing with their big feelings, worries and fears. This webinar will give you practical ideas on how to help your child to think more positively and develop their self confidence. You will also be introduced to some helpful cognitive behavioural therapy concepts.

Click on links below to register.

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