Nash Mills CofE Primary School

School News

Friday 4th July 2025

One School, One Team: Racing, Jumping, and Cheering Together!

This week, our school was buzzing with energy, teamwork, and a whole lot of fun as pupils came together to celebrate Sports Week. Working in house teams, class groups, and even supporting younger pupils, the children embraced a wide range of exciting challenges overcoming difficulties and showing resilience and determination throughout. The weather has been a little warm at times, but this has not stopped the children from embracing each day as it has come!

On Tuesday, each class tackled timed activities using Blaze Pods, testing their speed, coordination, and focus in a series of fast-paced challenges. The children had to work in teams to quickly press each button as it lit up. This required them to communicate and work well together to ensure that each pod could be covered.

Wednesday brought a special visit from Herts Cricket, who delivered fantastic workshops that had everyone batting, bowling, and smiling as they learned new skills and enjoyed playing Cricket together on the field. There was some fantastic feedback from the coach who visited; it seems that we have some budding cricketers in our midst...!

On Thursday, it was time for our official Sports Day. The morning was filled with house team challenges including long jump, goal shooting, and basketball, allowing every child to win points for their team. After a picnic lunch shared with parents and families—creating a wonderful community atmosphere—the children took to the field for an afternoon of thrilling races. Within these races, each class took part in sprint races, novelty races and the older pupils also did some longer distance running.

After the races were completed, the scored were added up and we were able to reveal that this year's Sports Day winning house was Durham! The points were as follows:

1st place- Durham (510)

2nd place - York (503)

3rd place - Canterbury (405)

4th place - Alban (403)

A huge congratulations!

We wrapped up the week on Friday with adventurous orienteering activities and a magical twist: learning how to play Quidditch! The excitement and imagination were sky-high as pupils explored this sport and learnt some new skills.

We have been joined this week by three ex-pupils who have been on work experience and on sports day, we had a team from Kings Langley School. It is always brilliant to see ex-pupils coming back to see us and we have been very appreciative of the support and skills shown by our visitors!

A huge thank you goes to all the staff who made this week such a success, especially Mrs Lewis for organising so much fun!

Transition Day Arrangements

Next Thursday will see our transition day, where the children will spend some more time getting to know their new classroom staff for September. On the day, the children should go to their current classrooms as usual for the start of the day. After worship, they will then go to their new classes, where they will stay for the remainder of the day. At 3pm, they will go back to their current classrooms where they will be dismissed to parents as usual.

Open classrooms - From 3.25pm to 3.45pm on Thursday 10th July, we will have an opportunity for parents to pop into school to have a look at the classrooms and to meet new staff. The children usually are excited to show you where they will be learning from September and who their teachers will be!

Year 6 pupils will be at their new schools for the day, exploring and learning the ropes! Please note that we expect them to be at their schools for the whole day; they do not need to come into Nash Mills to register or at the end of the day.

Attendance

Year 4 takes the top spot with a fantastic 99%, showing brilliant consistency. Nursery also had an excellent week with 98.5%, and Year 1 followed closely at 97.7%. Reception recorded a solid 96.2%, and Year 3 came in just behind at 95.9%.

Year 6 posted 95%, while Year 5 saw a slight dip to 92.2%. Year 2 had a quieter week at 91%, and we’re confident they’ll bounce back strong next week.

Thank you to all our pupils and families for continuing to prioritise attendance—every day in school counts for learning, friendships, and fun. Let’s keep aiming high as we approach the end of term!

Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots!

Our leader board this week reflects the most correct answers, our top 3 amassed a whopping 6,406 correct answers in the last 7 days!

Our Numbots leader board is the most coins earned in story mode. Well done to our top 3 who earned a total of 7421 coins between them! Well done to all of our leaders.

Mr Shane

Leader board this week

1st - Poppy (Y2)

2nd - Ivy (Y2)

3rd - Lily (Rec)

Leader board this week

1st - Fatima (Y5)

2nd - Oliver (Y4)

3rd - Emel (Y4)

SEND Consultation

If you have a child who has SEND or has experienced barriers to learning, Hertfordshire County Council are holding an SEND summit, in which they would like to hear the views of as many stakeholders as possible.

We know that the waiting times for much of the school provided externally to school can be extensive and that some parents feel that they don't always get the support that they need from the local council or support services.

If you would like to share your views on this, please see the flyer.

Star of the Week!

Nursery

Mary

For her fantastic letter formation during phonics.

Well done Mary, your writing is fantastic!

Reception

Elian

For your amazing enthusiasm for learning. We are super impressed with your progress in being able to express and communicate your understanding of new knowledge. Well done Elian!

Year 1

Clay

For showing great confidence, always giving his best effort, and being such a kind and hardworking boy, he truly is a wonderful role model to others. Well done Clay!

Year 2

Jamie

For showing hard work and a super attitude while working with an adult to improve your skills — and then using what you’ve learned all by yourself! Well done Jamie.

Year 3

Shoshanna

For always trying her best with a huge smile on her face.

Keep it up Shoshanna!

Year 4

Sophie

For having worked incredibly hard this week - from PE to English, you have put in a real effort and it shows! Keep it up Sophie.

Year 5

Eli

For his enthusiasm in all lessons and his passion to learn and do new things. Well done Eli!

Year 6

Siddhant

For his thoughtful actions, patience, and willingness to help the younger year groups. Thank you Siddhant!

Road Safety

We know that there is continued concern about road safety along Belswains Lane, particularly in the morning when the children are coming to school. As a school, we have been in continuous conversation with the local authority, local council and councillors and the local MPs for 5 years now to seek ways in which the area can be made safer. Unfortunately, we have not had huge progress in this time.

Following lobbying, we have had a provisional 20mph zone put into place in front of the school and the timings on the traffic lights were changed to allow for quicker crossing. The local councillor has funded our new signs that are placed outside of school in the mornings. However, it seems that there is little else that can easily be put into place that will physically improve the safety along the road due to funding and legislative decisions.

One option that has been suggested in the past is the introduction of a voluntary crossing patrol. If one or a few people came forward to do this across the week, the local authority have said that they would provide equipment and training as well as ongoing support. If this would be something that you are interested in committing to, please speak to the school office.

Aside from this, we will continue to push local decision makers to help to make changes that will really improve the safety outside of the school. We have mooted a different type of crossing, speed bumps, an enforced speed limit or a paid crossing patrol and will continue to argue for these.

Within our curriculum, we do have points where the children are taught and reminded about road safety and what they can do to stay safe when out and about and we would encourage parents to regularly share this message too. We sometimes see children waiting for the green man at the lights and then crossing; it may also be worth reminding them that they should also check that the cars have actually stopped before they step out. It is concerning that we have recently been told of pupils crossing the road looking at mobile phones or running across at other points in addition to pupils cycling on the road without helmets.

We hope that through continued support, we will be able to ensure the safety of all of the children on their way to and from school.

Upcoming Dates

7th July - Reports sent home

9th-11th July - Y5 Residential Trip to Phasels Wood

10th July - Pupils in new Classes in school.

Y6 to their new secondary schools.

14th-18th July - Art Week

14th July - Music Performances

15th&16th July - Y5/6 production 'Oliver with a Twist' - 2.15pm

17th July - Church Service

17th July - Y6 Leavers Party

18th July - Leavers Assembly

18th July - Last day of term - school closes at 1.30pm.

21st-23rd July - school closed for INSET and Occasional Days.

School reopens for the new school year for Years R to 6 on Thursday 4th September. The Nursery class reopens on Monday 8th September.

Good Shepherd Booking

Good Shepherd Club—to book spaces at Breakfast or After School Club, please visit

http://www.goodshepherdclubs.co.uk/

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

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

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.

The school carpark is open between 7am and 6pm on weekdays. Members of the local community are more than welcome to use it too so please spread the word!

Final Thought

When we play sports, it's not just about winning or scoring goals—it's also about how we treat others and how we grow as people. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” That means even when we play games, we can do it for something bigger than just ourselves.

Think about teamwork. When we pass the ball, cheer each other on, or help someone up when they fall, we’re showing love and kindness. And when we lose or make a mistake, we can still be thankful—for the chance to play, for our friends, and for the fun we have!

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