Nash Mills CofE Primary School

School News

Friday 5th June 2026

Year 2 take on London!

Year 2 had a brilliant adventure in London this week, making the most of a very busy day exploring the capital. The children travelled by both Overground and Underground before visiting some of London’s most famous sights. They were excited to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, No. 10 Downing Street and Horse Guards. The Horse Guards were a particular favourite, and the children enjoyed seeing the horses up close.

At Buckingham Palace, Mr Gower pointed out that the King was in residence and explained how members of the public can tell when this is the case. This was a lovely real-life learning moment during our visit.

For most of the day, the sun shone, and we were lucky enough to enjoy our lunch in St James’s Park before a short downpour arrived. Thankfully, it did not last long!

Another highlight was meeting some street drummers in the park. The children were allowed to take part, and everyone got involved with the singing, copying back beats and patterns.

Throughout the day, the children were extremely well behaved, listened attentively and were able to discuss their learning from school, comparing Hemel Hempstead and London. They were a real credit to Year 2.

It was a fantastic day full of travel, landmarks, music and memorable experiences. Well done, Year 2!

Year 3 Maths Challenge

On Thursday, some of our Year 3 pupils took on the Herts for Learning Maths challenge, 4 rounds of different maths questions. The children worked fantastically as a team to solve some very tricky maths problems. Some examples are provided; how well would you do?!

'I enjoyed working as a team with my friends.' - Ottilie

'I enjoyed the problem solving questions.' - Tristan

A huge well done to our team! We were very proud of how well you worked together as a team.

Swimming

Lessons have got off to a swimming start again this year with children thoroughly enjoying being in the water. We've seen so much confidence across the year groups and lots of smiles. They have been learning all the swimming strokes - including dolphin - as well as learning important life saving skills such as how to do a star float.

"It has been really fun so far. We got to to lots of different activities to do with the different swimming strokes and at the end of each lesson we get free time to play with our friends" - Sophia

"It was really tiring but really fun. It's great to be with my friends in school doing a fun activity like this. It's really important to learn how to keep safe in the water" - Ray

Football Afternoon

Next Thursday, to mark the start of the men's world cup we are taking part in Monster kickabout, an initiative to get everyone involved in football.

We are going to have an afternoon of activities and mini matches to celebrate all the nations involved. Please can all of the children (including those in Nursery here for the afternoon) wear PE kits to school next Thursday.

It's a chance to bring the whole school together through sport and have a lot of fun!

PS - It's coming home!

Star of the Week!

Nursery

Mara

For wonderful carpet contributions and sharing lots of ideas. Its been wonderful to see Mara's confidence and communication develop so much. Well done Mara.

Reception

Jamie

For being incredibly brave, strong and resilient this week despite missing your brother. We are really proud of the way you have faced this challenge with such a positive attitude.

Year 1

Nusayba

For making excellent progress in joining group discussions on the carpet and sharing her thoughts.

Year 2

Lily

For being a fantastic helper this week and for kindly explaining learning to others who needed extra support. Well done. You should be proud of yourself!

Year 3

Joseph

For his determination, kindness, support and continued contributions to our class. He is a true role model to the class. Thank you!

Year 4

James

For his brilliant energy, interest in learning and his excellent effort and resilience with his work in class.

Year 5

Joshua

For his increased confidence in his own abilities and giving valuable contributions in lessons.

Year 6

Rosie

For her positive attitude to every aspect of her learning. She always takes pride in her work and is willing to take on new challenges.

Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots!

This week's TTRS leader board is improvement of accuracy over the last week, our top 3 have become more accurate in answering correctly first time. Well done to our top 3.

Our Numbots leader board is for most coins earned over the last week, our top 3 collected a total of 5,688 coins. Well done to all of our leaders.

Mr Shane

Leader board this week

1st - Clementine (Y1)

2nd - Elizabeth (Y2)

3rd - Lana (Y2)

Leader board this week

1st - Ottilie (Y3)

2nd - Jacob (Y5)

3rd - Lola (Y6)

Attendance

We’ve had a solid week of attendance across the school, with several classes achieving excellent figures. Year 4 led the way with 97.5%, closely followed by Nursery at 97.4% and Year 3 with 97%. Year 5 also had a positive week, recording 96.5%.

A little less impressive were Year 1, who achieved 92.4%, Reception and Year 2 (91.8% and 91% respectively) and finally Year 6 on 90%. Thank you, as always, for your continued support in ensuring children attend school regularly—every day really does make a difference.

We have noticed an increasing number of requests for absence due to holidays being booked during term time. As a school, we are unable to authorise these requests unless there are exceptional circumstances. We kindly remind parents that holidays should be taken during the designated school holiday periods, and unauthorised absences may result in a Fixed Penalty Notice being issued. We make every effort to share term dates well in advance to support families with planning, and next year’s dates are already available on the school website. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Donations please!

If you have any old cooking equipment at home which could be used for play in our outdoor mud kitchen, it would be greatly appreciated. We are looking for any old pots, pans, wooden spoons or utensils.

Thank you, in advance, for your help!

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!

Mrs Lewis loves "The Midnight Guardians"

I do love a good adventure story and this one is up there as one of my favourites. The protagonist, Col, has been sent to the countryside during the Blitz in World War 2 and he senses danger back in his home, London. With the help of his guardians, he sets off on an epic and extremely dangerous journey to help. I love how it delves into the history of the war using real facts, as well as things in Col's life, brought to reality by his imagination. If you like The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - you'll love this.

Please click here to read the latest parent newsletter from the Developing Specialist Provision Locally Team in Dacorum.

Upcoming Dates

8th June - Y4 Multiplication Check week and Y1 Phonics Check Week

9th June - Y1 Class Worship

10th June - Y3 trip to Verulamium

10th June - Y5 Residential Parent Meeting 2.45pm

16th June - Nursery Coffee Morning

18th June - Reception to Ruislip Lido

19th June - PTA Thank you Sale

22nd - 26th June - Y6 Residential Trip

23rd & 30th June - Opera Project in school

23rd June - Y2 Class Worship

25th June - Reception Coffee Morning

30th June - Y3 Class Worship

1st-3rd July - Y5 Residential Trip

1st July - Governors Resource Meeting

6th-8th July - Sports Week

7th July - Reports sent home

7th July - Y4 Class Worship

7th July - Y4 trip to Electric Umbrella at the Cathedral

8th July - Sports Day - 11am EYFS, 12pm rest of school

9th July - New class transition day

10th July - PTA summer disco

13th July - Art week

13th July - Music Concert 2pm

13th July - Full Governing Body Meeting

14th July - Y1 RAF Trip

15th&16th July - Y5&6 Production

17th July - Y6 Leavers Party

20th July - Whole School Church Service

21st July - Leavers' Assembly and last day of term. School closes for the summer at 1.30pm

22nd &23rd July - INSET Days

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!

Nursery Admissions - September 2026

Please share with friends and family that applications to come and join our wonderful Nursery for the next academic year are about to close! Our Nursery pupils love coming into school each day to enjoy all of our fantastic facilities and benefit from the care of our dedicated Nursery staff who create a friendly, safe and stimulating learning environment.

In September 2026, we shall be admitting children born between 1st September 2022 and 31st August 2023 and are pleased to share that we offer either:

15-hour morning provision from 8.50am-11.50am

For working families in receipt of 30-hours government funding, daily provision from 8.50am-2.50pm, with the option to extend the day to 3.15pm for an additional cost of £12.50 per week.

Please do encourage family and friends with Nursery-aged pupils to come and see us.

Final Thought

Today in worship, we spent time recognising the importance of empathy; how we can think about those around us and how they feel at different times. We talked about how empathy can guide us to become better friends or more supportive family members.

Have a look at this quote. What do you think Barak Obama was trying to suggest?

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