

The Buzz
9th February 2023

Message From The Head of School
As we come to the end of the half term I would like to thank all of our families for the continued support you give to our fabulous school. On Monday we hosted a Y2 SATS information meeting and we have our third Y2 assembly tomorrow. I am so impressed with the amount of parents that support these events and the positivity you bring.
We recently had an assembly by ‘Lazerlions’ where Y1 and 2 children were given the insight into what might happen at a Lazerlions session. As always the children impressed us with their polite nature and enthusiasm. Lazerlions are giving us a free session for every class as part of their inclusion programme giving equal opportunities to all children. These will begin on Wednesday mornings after half term.
This week we have focused on the principle of ‘pride’ which is an easy one for the adults in school as your children make us proud every day. I look forward to handing out certificates in tomorrow’s celebration assembly. I hope you have a wonderful half term and I look forward to welcoming children back for hopefully the warmer and sunnier half of the year.
Claire Cook
Head of School
Nursery Admissions
The 2023 application process for nursery will close on Friday 3rd March 2023, with decisions made by Friday 5th May 2023.
Please use the following link to register your interest Nursery 2023 Admissions
Attendance
The class with the best attendance last week is RDC
The class with the least numbers of lates last week is 1B, 2D, RC
CERTIFICATES OF EXCELLENCE
w/c 30.01.2023
Last week certificates were given out to children who focussed on the HPP principle of OPPORTUNITY
RC Adrian
RDC Levi
RF Yousef
RK Mia-Taliah
1B Hamid
1C Mason
1H Lock
1K Robin
2A Harmony
2D Ayden
2J Jai
2T Charlie B
Nursery
After half term we will be starting a new topic about 'Growing'. Some of the ways we will explore this will be through planting, focus texts and looking at different life cycles. Our first focus text will be 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle.
Maths: In maths we will recap the number three. Alongside this we will be learning about the order-irrelevance principle. This involves children understanding that the order in which we count a group of objects is irrelevant. There will still be the same number. To support this at home you can encourage your child to count objects left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top. Once children have counted a group, move the objects and ask children how many there are. Explain to them that the total is still the same.
Phonics: In phonics we will focus on consolidating the children’s understanding of rhythm and rhyme. We will play a game called ‘Odd One Out’ and ask the children to identify the word that does not rhyme.
Reception
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.
It is also Children's Mental Health Week. We have been talking about our feelings and using Zones of Regulation to help us put our feelings into words. We have been thinking of ways in which we can help ourselves get back into our Green Zone and be ready for learning and play. The children were also introduced to a ‘There’s Something I Want To Tell you’ box in class and talked about when you feel worried, what could you do? We had lots of ideas and one that came up the most was "we could always come and talk to an adult or use our special box too." If the children have something they would like to tell the teacher, they put their photograph in the box and the teacher will come and find them later in the day to have a chat.
In maths, we have been using our new knowledge of time to help us identify the key parts of a clock and linking these times to the key events in our school day - as you can imagine our favourite time of day is 11.30 which we all know is lunchtime!
This week, we have been using the adjectives, nouns and similes from our latest text, ‘Elephant Dance – A Journey Through India’, to inspire our very own poetry writing. We began by thinking about the structure of our poem, before planning it and finally using our bank of vocabulary to write one ourselves.
In Maths, we have been using our skills to work out missing number problems. Focussing on finding the important information in word problems before deciding whether we would need to add or subtract. We thought about the different ways we could work these out before choosing the best method for us.
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.
Our History topic has culminated this week in a transport scavenger hunt. We had to search for the answers by following the clues, collecting letters, and putting these altogether to answer the final question with an anagram.
We have been putting the finishing touches to our ‘Fishing Boat on the Beach’ collages, as inspired by Vincent Van Gogh. We created a boat from card, adding this to the scene, before painting the different textures to complete our works of art. We think they look amazing!
Year 2
English: Year 2 have been inspired by our text 'The Dreamer' and have begun to write riddle poetry about the different animals in the story. This week the children are working on using descriptive language to write their own riddles.
Maths: We have begun to think about what division is and the different methods we can use. Through grouping and sharing, the children have made a good start to learning a new mathematical operation.
History: Coming to the end of part one to our 'Sky Riders' topic, we have been learning all about the Wright brothers as the first inventors and successful fliers of an airplane. We have moved onto thinking about Amy Johnson, the first solo female pilot to fly to Australia. We have compared the lives and successes of both of these aviators.
SAFER INTERNET DAY
On Tuesday 7th February we celebrated Safer Internet Day 2023. This is an annual global event that takes place in over 170 countries, in an effort to make the internet a safe place for children and young people. This year the theme was ' Want to talk about it? Making Space for conversations about life online'. The children in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 all completed Safer Internet Day activities and learnt about how to stay safe online, as well as completing an online safety quiz. Safer Internet Day provided us with a great opportunity to have a conversation with our children about their online lives and how to stay safe when using the internet. At Hampton Infant School and Nursery the children are taught the SMART rules to help us do this.
How can I find out more?
The UK Safer Internet Resource Centre (UKSIC)
The USIC have created some fantastic resources, which includes, quizzes, top tips, how to talk about difficult topics and what to do when things go wrong.
NSPCC
The NSPCC provide some great advice on how to be a good digital role model and talk with your child about online safety.
World Book Day - Wednesday 1st March 2023
World book day has been changed from 2nd March to 1st of March due to possible industrial action by the NEU.
Children should come to school dressed as their favourite book character.
February Half Term - Family Workshops at the Museum of Richmond
During the school holidays the Museum of Richmond will be offering free activities for families.
There will be simple crafts available in the exhibition area from 1pm until the Museum closes.
Everything you need will be set out for you to get creative as a family, including instruction sheets and materials.
February Half Term’s free crafts will be Valentine’s Day Cards and Origami Hearts. There will also be free colouring sheets and a trail.
Please note: these activities are self-led and all children must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
Princess Mary Gift Boxes Tuesday 14 to Friday 17 February, 10am to 12noon
Part of the season of events linked to our exhibition: Richmond Remembers – 100 Years of The Poppy Factory
Discover the story of Princess Mary and how she wanted to say thank you to the soldiers, sailors and nurses on the front line in 1918. Then get creative and make your own origami gift boxes so you can say thank you to the special people in your life.
Contact details
Email: office.hisn@hpp.school
Website: hpp.school
Location: Hampton Infant School and Nursery, Ripley Road, Hampton, UK
Phone: 0208 979 1815