School News
Friday 2nd October 2026
Embedded Files
Nash Mills CofE Primary School
Year 5 and 6 Tag Rugby Tournament
Our Year 5 and 6 pupils recently took part in an exciting Tag Rugby Tournament, where they proudly represented the school both on and off the field.
Throughout the day, the children demonstrated excellent sportsmanship, showing kindness and respect towards their teammates, opponents and referees. The children encouraged and supported one another, especially when it was highly competitive, displaying resilience and striving to do their best. We are incredibly proud of how they remained positive whether they won or lost a match, reflecting the values we promote in school.
Most importantly, the children thoroughly enjoyed the experience and had lots of fun.
Well done Year 5 and 6 for the way you conducted yourselves throughout the event!
Year 6 Crucial Crew
Today, Year 6 visited Hemel Fire Station to take part in an afternoon of activities designed to make them more aware of their safety. The children covered a number of topics including: how to dial 999 and interact with emergency services, fire and water safety including water rescue awareness and personal online safery. All topics were delivere by local emergency services.
'I really enjoyed the afternoon. I loved the water safety session where we had to 'save' each other from drowning by throwing a rope to our partner and dragging them to safety'. Emel
'I learnt that for CPR you use your dominant hand first then interlock the fingers of the other hand on top. You have to press quite hard on the chest and you might even break some ribs when giving CPR'. Jonny
'We had a scenario about fire safety at home. We had to find hazards in a bedroom and my group found 15!' Sophia
'For an emergency we must call 999. If it isn't an emergency and we need help, we must call 101' Pyper
MacMillan Coffee Afternoon
We are pleased to advise that we raised a grand total of £291 in last week's sale! Thank you again for all the donations, and for coming along to make the event so enjoyable.
Star of the Week!
Star of the Week!
Nursery
Arthur
For great listening, being ready to learn, fabulous tidying up and playing nicely. Well done on a great week!
Reception
Emilia
For displaying amazing classroom values all week, particularly when we had a visitor in our classroom. Well done Emilia.
Year 1
Maxwell
For becoming increasingly independent and for doing a fantastic job of organising yourself and getting started with your activities. I am especially proud of how confidently you are asking adults for help when you need it. Keep up the fantastic work!
Year 2
Fraser
For his amazing listening, focus and effort in Year 2! Fantastic!
Year 3
Savannah
For her determination and confidence in all lessons. She has settled in beautifully! Keep it up!
Year 4
Melo
For his class engagement and fantastic contributions, really articulating his answers.
Year 5
Bobbie
For her hard work and for using feedback to make her work even better. Well done!
Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots!
Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots!
This week's TTRS is for the most coins earned in the last year. Our top 3 accumulated 43,069 coins, that's 6,152 coins a day! Well done to our top 3.
Our Numbots leader board is also for coins earned. Our top 3 earned a total of 48,635 coins. That's 6,947 coins per day! Well done to all of our leaders this week!
Leader board this week
1st - Asher S (Y1)
2nd - Lily (Y2)
3rd - Eren (Y2)
Leader board this week
1st - Oliver (Y6)
2nd - Jacob (Y6)
3rd - Teona (Y4)
Best Bedtime Reads
Best Bedtime Reads
As you know, reading regularly at home with your children is incredibly important. A good bedtime story is not only helpful in maintaining a strong routine in the evening, it also helps children to develop their imagination and vocabulary.
Each week, we will ask our staff what their current recommendations are for the best bedtime reads. We hope that it provides you with some ideas!
Miss Lyden recommends...
The Turtle who turned the Tide by Rachel Bright
From the brilliant author who wrote 'The Camel who had the Hump', 'The Lion Inside' and the 'Koala who Could', now has released 'The Turtle who turned the Tide'. This story follows newly hatched baby turtles racing towards the big ocean! Little Tula, and her brother, Tiny are part of the race. As they set off, Tula realises her brother has gone off-course and got lost in the sand. Tula has to make the biggest decision yet - carry on or turn back and save her brother....
I will let you discover what decision she made!
Can You Help Our Children Become Confident Readers?
We are looking for friendly and enthusiastic volunteers to come into our school and spend some time reading with our children.
Reading with a child is a wonderful way to help them develop their confidence, improve their reading skills and, most importantly, discover the joy of books. You do not need to be a teacher or have any special qualifications – all you need is a little time, patience and a love of reading!
Volunteers would be asked to regularly listen to children read (perhaps once or twice a week for as long as you can give!), talk about stories and encourage them as they develop their skills.
If you are able to volunteer, we would love to hear from you. Please contact the school office for more information or to register your interest.
Curriculum Spotlights - Art & Design Technology
Curriculum Spotlights - Art & Design Technology
At the start of the new school year, it is a good opportunity to share with you information about the curriculum we deliver at Nash Mills. This week, we will look at Art and DT.
Both Art and DT (design technology) require the children to develop physical skill and precision, as well as the ability to work imaginatively over time. For this reason, at Nash Mills we take a slightly different approach to most other schools in that we teach the majority of our Art and DT curriculums during whole-week blocks at the start and end of each term.
During the term in Art, pupils take part in weekly fluency sessions to develop specific skills needed for the end of term project. For example, if pupils will be painting a landscape at the end of the term, each week in the build up they will learn skills such as line drawing, blending paint colours or using different brush strokes. All of these skills build towards an end of term project in which the whole school has the same focus albeit with the stimulus of a different artist. For example, at the end of the spring term, all pupils have a sculpture project. Year 1 will use clay to look at the work of Anthony Gormley, whereas Year 6 will use modeling wire and modroc to recreate the work of Alberto Giacometti. The work is then displayed around the school so we can see how the pupils' skills develop as they move through the school.
At the start of each term, there is a very similar strategy used for DT, where each class has a project based on a certain area. For example, at the start of the spring term all classes carry out a food technology-based project. During their project, pupils will look at exisiting products and think about what they like and what they don't. They will then design, test and make their own product in a similar style.
As with our entire curriculum, more information about what we teach at Nash Mills can be found on the curriculum pages of our website. Please do have a look if you would like to learn a little more!
Attendance
Attendance
Wow! What an amazing week for attendance! A huge well done to pupils, parents and staff for helping to achieve such fantastic figures. An incredible six out of our eight classes achieved attendance above 98%, which is a brilliant accomplishment and shows the difference that regular attendance makes.
Year 4 led the way with an excellent 98.7%, closely followed by Year 1 on 98.4%. Years 3, 5 and 6 all achieved 98.3%, while Year 2 were just behind on 98.2%. These are outstanding figures and place all six classes well above our school target of 96%. Nursery also had a positive week, recording 95.8%, while Reception finished on 93.7%.
It is fantastic to see attendance at such high levels across the school. Thank you to all families for your support in ensuring children are in school every day and ready to learn. Let's see if we can maintain this excellent momentum and make next week just as successful!
This week, the government released new material aimed at helping parents to understand how to best support children to have good attendance at school. Please see one of the videos here.
Using the School Car Park
Using the School Car Park
Please remember that we ask parents and carers not to use the school car park at the start and end of the school day whilst the children are moving around the site. This is also the case for the period at the end of after school clubs, from 4.10-4.30pm.
Please find alternative parking at these times.
Thank you for your support in keeping our children safe.
MESSAGE FROM OUR PTA
MESSAGE FROM OUR PTA
Introducing Our PTA Business Partnership Initiative!
We’re excited to announce the launch of our brand-new PTA Business Partnership Programme — a fantastic opportunity for local businesses and our school community to work hand-in-hand for a brighter future.
By joining us as a partner, you’ll not only help enrich our children’s learning experiences, but also enjoy valuable visibility and connections within our vibrant school network. Whether you can offer sponsorship, services, or resources, your support will make a real difference. Please email the PTA if you have any further questions or wish to sign up.
Please also note that there will be an Information Fayre, for parents and carers of children who have SEND, held at the Grove Hill Adventure Playground. These sessions have been very well received previously. If you would like to go, you can walk in, or book a place using this link.
Breakfast Club - Booking System Update
We are so pleased to see so many of our children continuing to enjoy breakfast club. A huge thank you for all the donations of toys and games we have received, there is a fantastic variety of activities for the children to enjoy.
Following parent feedback, the booking system has been updated so you can book your child(ren) on up to one hour before the club starts. This will hopefully be easier for parents who may need the flexibility to book last-minute - however, please do book in advance whenever you can so that we can continue to plan for staffing.
A gentle reminder that even though Breakfast Club Session 2 (8.10-8.40am) is free of charge, please ensure that your child is booked on so that we can plan accordingly.
Upcoming Dates
Upcoming Dates
5th Oct - Individual Pupil School Photos
6th Oct - Y4 Mountfitchet Castle Trip
9th Oct - PTA Non-uniform
14th Oct - Y6 visit Diocese Harvest Celebration
15th Oct - Y2 Tring Natural History Museum Trip
16th Oct - Reception visit the Library
19th Oct - Whole School Church visit for Harvest
26th-30th Oct - Half Term - school closed
Google/Numbots/TTRS
Google/Numbots/TTRS
if your child is in Years 1-4, they will have a QR codes stuck into their Reading Records, which can be used to easily log into Google Classroom, Numbots and Times Tables Rockstars at home.
To use My Login:
Visit our school website (www.nashmills.herts.sch.uk)
At the top of the page, click on the 'Useful Links' dropdown
Select 'My Login'
Select 'Scan a Magic Badge'
Scan the QR code, which should then log you in!
Logging Absences
Logging Absences
Thank you to those who have now managed to log child absences on Arbor. It has really helped the office, meaning that we know where all of the children are more quickly in the morning. If The instructions on how to do this are set out below.
If your child is unwell, Hertfordshire Attendance team require that the nature of the illness is recorded, so please include this in your message (cough, cold, temperature, vomiting etc.). Please note that any absence requests for future dates will still need to made through the school office. In line with our attendance and safeguarding policies, a reminder to report your child's absence every morning, by 8.30am, until your child is well enough to return to school.
Step 1 -Click on Quick Actions button and then click Attendance followed by the green Log Absence button (top right).
Step 2 - Enter the absence details. If your child will be absent all day, there is no need to edit the start and end times that will automatically appear. If your child is ill, please ensure that you enter the nature of the illness and then press the green Log Absence button.
Step 3 - Once you have logged the absence, the school office will 'accept' it. Approved absences then appear in the Attendance tab of the Arbor App. It is not possible to edit an absence once it has been approved, so if you have any queries, please email the school office who will be able to help.
Pupil Premium
Pupil Premium
Did you know that your child may be able to receive additional support in school in addition to free school meals, if you qualify for certain benefits?
If you receive any of the following, your child may well be eligible for the Pupil Premium. This provides them with free school meals throughout their time at school, but also a range of additional things in school to help with their learning and engagement. If your child might be eligible, please visit the following site (https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/ufs/HCWH.eb?ebd=0&ebz=1_1717745705707) or speak to the school office who will be happy to help.
Income Support
Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit (as long as you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and you don't get more than £16,190 a year)
Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
Universal Credit (with annual earned income of no more than £7,400 after tax and not including any benefits you get).
The application process only takes a few minutes and we are more than happy to provide support if it is needed.
Clothing Bank
Clothing Bank
Thank you for your donations towards our clothing bank. If you have any old clothes following clear-outs, please drop things in. The clothing bank is emptied regularly so should be ready for more donations.
Members of the local community are more than welcome to use it too so please spread the word!
Final Thought
Final Thought
There are definitely signs of autumn on the way, despite the weather continuing to be so warm and dry.
If you are out and about this weekend, have a look around you. How many different autumnal colours can you see?
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