Nash Mills CofE Primary School

School News

Friday 6th February 2026

Young Voices

This week, a very excited group of 37 pupils from our school attended the Young Voices concert. After weeks of practice and rehearsals, they joined thousands of other children for an unforgettable musical experience, singing songs from Wicked, Madness, Electric Umbrella and many more. The atmosphere was electric from the moment they arrived, and their enthusiasm shone through as they took part in one of the largest children’s choir events in the world. It was a wonderful opportunity to showcase their hard work, teamwork and love of music!

In choir, we have been practising very hard to go to Young Voices. On Tuesday, we travelled on minibuses and then walked to Wembley Arena. When we got there we had a very long rehearsal so we were really ready for the performance. It was amazing singing with 5,000 children! There were famous people who came on stage to sing with us and everyone had a fantastic time. By Thea and Ffion.

For parents of children in the choir who were unable to come to Wembley, we shall be holding a short performance to showcase a few of the Young Voices favourites at 2.30pm on Wednesday 25th February. Videos are also available on Bluesky.

Amazing writing

Year 1 have been writing poetry inspired by ‘Ning, Nang, Nong’ by Spike Milligan. They had great fun inventing nonsense words to create rhyming couplets – and discovered that rhyming can be quite a tricky skill!

We followed a clear writing process: first exploring and performing poems, then generating ideas and sharing them with others. The children wrote their first drafts and, after receiving feedback, carefully proofread their work to check for capital letters and full stops.

As always, we finished by publishing our poems. We hope you enjoy reading some in the newsletter, and even more will be shared during our class assembly next week!

Feeling Good Week

This week in school, children have been celebrating Feeling Good Week. The theme this year, “This Is My Place,” encouraged pupils to explore the importance of belonging and to reflect on where and with whom they feel a strong sense of belonging.

Throughout the week, all classes across the school took part in thoughtful discussions and creative activities linked to this theme.

Each class created their own Belonging Jars, which were filled with words, drawings, and messages expressing what makes them feel safe, valued, and included. These reflections highlighted the many ways our school community helps every child feel that they truly belong.

Feeling Good Week has been a fantastic opportunity to celebrate kindness, and connection, and it has been wonderful to see the children engage so positively and thoughtfully with the theme.

Miss Bentley

Travel Plan Success

We are pleased to announce that Nash Mills School has once again been accredited ‘Good’ for our Travel Plan in 2026.

Modeshift STARS is a national awards scheme in England that supports schools in promoting sustainable, safe, and active travel such as walking, cycling, and scooting. The scheme aims to reduce car use, minimise pollution around school journeys, and improve pupils’ health and wellbeing.

We would like to thank all parents and carers who work alongside our school community to support these goals—by walking to school where possible, encouraging recycling and promoting healthy, sustainable travel choices.

Mrs Wilson

Year 6 meet The Addams Family...

On Wednesday afternoon, Year 6 had the privilege of being invited to Abbots Hill to watch the Addams Family matinee performance. The children had a wonderful time as the cast entertained them with their brilliant acting and singing.

It was a fantastic experience that sparked a lot of excitement and conversation on the way back to school. A huge well to the cast for such an engaging and memorable performance!

World Book Day 2026!

This year, World Book Day will take place on Thursday 5th March and, as in previous years, children are welcome to come dressed as their favourite book character. Our theme for both World Book Day and Science Week will be the wonderful variety of life in our world. With this in mind, we are setting an additional challenge: we would love to see how many children can come dressed as an animal from a book. We are already looking forward to spotting Gruffalos, Fantastic Mr Foxes, and perhaps even a few monsters from Where the Wild Things Are!

The theme of biodiversity will then continue into Science Week, where the children will explore how we can care for the world around us, considering the plants and animals that share our environment.

As part of the National Year of Reading, we are also developing a new whole-school reading challenge. To support this, we are creating a “best reads” list and would love to include your recommendations. If you have a favourite book that you have shared with your child—particularly one that offers a good level of challenge—please follow the link to share it with us. We look forward to telling you more about this new reading challenge on World Book Day!

Help needed!

As part of Science Week, we have some exciting plans to develop the area behind the Year 4, 5 and 6 classrooms into a Biodiversity Garden that all of the children will use during class time and at break and lunchtimes.

As part of this, we will initially look to build a number of different areas and garden beds into which the pupils will be able to explore planting a range of different plants for various needs, including those that are Bee or Butterfly friendly.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO START THIS PROJECT! The area we wish to develop has not been used for a number of years. To start our project, we need some help to clear and level the area. This will require some machinery, possibly a digger. We can get a skip to remove any waste.

Do you know anyone who might be able to give some time, equipment or expertise to help with this, possibly during half term? Please get in touch if you do! Thank you

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 now open! 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 - Click here for upcoming tour dates.

Star of the Week!

Nursery

Mara

For her fantastic participation math this week. Well done for recognising the shapes and their emotions!

Reception

Charlotte

For making better choices and for extra focus during lessons this week. Well done! Keep it up.

Year 1

Ivie

For her positive attitude towards her learning, especially during phonics. Her enthusiasm is always a pleasure to see! Keep it up!

Year 2

Mia

For your steady perseverance when things are challenging.

Year 3

Ibrahim

For consistently being a well-rounded member of our class. He is a determined, focused student, who always tries his best and is growing in confidence weekly. Well done!

Year 4

Zachary

For his passion for learning across all areas of the curriculum and his recent efforts to make his writing even better! Amazing work Zach!

Year 5

Pyper

For her resilience and great work ethic to all she does in school.

Year 6

Camden

For his perseverance and enthusiasm in his English writing, creating well thought-out ideas that interest and engage the reader.

Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots!

This week's TTRS leader board is studio speed and our top 3 are all answering questions in under 1 second! Our top 10 are under 1.5 seconds and our top 20 are all under 2 seconds a question! Well done to our leaders.

Our Numbots leader board reflects correct answers in challenge mode, our top 3 have accumulated a total of 1,318 correct answers, in 7 days!

Well done to all of our leaders.

Mr Shane

Leader board this week

1st - Corin (Y2)

2nd - Francis (Y2)

3rd - Leo (Y1)

Leader board this week

1st - Ivy (Y6)

2nd - Edward (Y5)

3rd - Fatima (Y6)

Attendance

We’ve had a positive week overall, with some strong attendance across the school. Year 5 led the way with an excellent 98.7%, showing a fantastic level of commitment. Both Year 3 and Year 4 followed closely behind, each achieving a strong 97%. Year 1 and Year 6 recorded matching figures of 94.6%, while Reception finished just behind at 94.5%. Year 2 reached 94.1%, and Nursery ended the week at 92.2%.

Thank you to all families for your ongoing support—consistent attendance makes a real difference to pupils’ learning, progress, and confidence.

Please can we also take this opportunity to remind you about term-time holidays, as I am sure some of you will be starting to look for get-aways this year. As a school, we are unable to authorise a family holiday. The Local Authority have to be informed if this happens and are likely to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice when certain thresholds are reached. As a school, this creates a significant level of work and the monies raised from fines go to the Local Authority (not the school), so we would be very keen to avoid this if at all possible.

Please click here to see the latest Parent Newsletter which has been shared by the Delivering Specialist Provision Locally Team. This provides links and suggestions for supporting pupils who have additional needs.

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 Barrett is currently reading... all the books on the Year 4 bookshelves!

Mrs Barrett loves reading books from our Year 4 classroom!

She says, "There are so many brilliant stories to choose from! One of my favourites is Krindlekrax by Philip Ridley and I am often recommending it to the children. It is a fun and slightly spooky story that I enjoyed for its mix of adventure, humour, and imagination. The main character is a nervous, ordinary boy who turns out to be a great hero when a monster is discovered in the sewers. It also has a positive message about believing in yourself and not judging others too quickly!"

Upcoming Dates

9th February - Reception Coffee Morning

10th February - Y1 Class Worship

10th February - Safer Internet Day

16th-20th Feb - Half Term

23rd February - All pupils back to school

24th February - Nursery, Y5&Y6 Forest School sessions start

24th February - Y4 Pedestrian Skills Training

25th February - Young Voices Performance 2.30pm

26th February - Nursery Coffee Morning

3rd March - Y5 Class Worship

5th March - World Book Day and start of Science Week (Biodiversity)

10th&11th March - Parents' Evenings

11th March - Science Week Fayre - 3.30pm

12th March - Y3 Trip to Hudnall Park

13th March - Reception Coffee Morning

13th March - PTA 'Thank You' Sale

16th March - Nursery Coffee Morning

17th March - Reception class Worship

17th March - Y6 trip to Bletchley Park

18th March - Y4 River Study Trip

19th March - Reception & Nursery Trip - Hertfordshire Zoo

19th March - Y2 to Roald Dahl Museum

19th March - Last clubs of term

20th March - Red Nose Day Non-uniform

23rd March - Art Week - Sculpture

24th&25th March - Y3&4 Production

25th March - Y5 Trip to Kew Gardens

26th March - Whole School Church Service

27th March - End of the Spring Term 1.30pm

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

This week in worship, we looked at the Christian day of Candlemas, which brings to a close the period of Christmas. Candlemas focuses on light and how important light is in our lives.

In worship, we considered how we can all be a light in the world, helping and supporting those around us. We looked at how each one of us is important.

What light do you bring to those around you?

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