Nash Mills CofE Primary School

School News

Friday 18th July 2025

As we come to the end of another year at Nash Mills, I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone—children, staff, parents and carers—for making it such a positive and place to be. Throughout the school year, various visitors (governors, potential parents and advisors to name a few) come into school. All notice the calm and focused classes, the exciting curriculum and the real sense of community within the school, not to mention the amazing children that we are so fortunate to have! None of this would be possible without each of you playing your part to support our school, so thank you.

And there has been so much to celebrate! This last week has been an excellent culmination of many hours of work, from our Year 6 production to our art week projects and the fantastic musical performances that we were treated to on Monday. We have seen some fantastic written work (one Year 4 child's story blew me away this week!) and amazing creativity and independence. Earlier this term, we saw a multitude of exciting trips and visits, including our two residential trips and days out to London, Verulamium and Hampton Court, each bringing plenty of laughter along the way. Our pupils have worked incredibly hard and shown real kindness and resilience, and it is an honour to be part of each of their journeys.

A huge thank you to our amazing staff team for their dedication and care, and to all our families for your continued support—it really does make a difference and without their hard work, we wouldn't be able to offer all of these wonderful experiences.

This morning, we said a fond 'goodbye' to our Year 6 class as they move on to their new secondary schools. I shared the story 'Oh! The Places You'll Go' by Dr Seuss with the school and discussed how many opportunities and exciting adventures lay ahead for all of us. We wish all of the Year 6 children the very best in their new schools and hope that they come back to visit from time to time. As members of the Nash Mills family, they are always welcome here.

From everyone at Nash Mills, I would like to wish you all a restful, safe and hopefully sunny summer break. We look forward to seeing everyone back in September, ready for a new year of learning and adventures.

Take care,

Mr Maher

Headteacher

Oliver...with a twist!

This week we were treated to a spectacular performance of Oliver with a Twist! The Year 5 and 6 class' talent, energy, and dedication lit up the stage and brought the story to life. From the powerful acting to the brilliant singing and dancing, every moment was a joy to watch. We especially loved the number of pupils who showed the confidence and ability to sing solo pieces.

Especially for our Year 6's, who led the production, it was a testament to the hard work that had been put in, which truly showed. This production was not just a performance—it was a celebration of the teamwork and growth of the children throughout the year.

You should all be incredibly proud of what you've achieved. Bravo!

Message from the Governors

Dear Parents, Carers and Children,

We have reached the end of another school year, and it is fair to say it has been a busy one for everyone. Over the year, governors have visited the school to see what has been happening in our school and witnessed lots of busy, happy children who are clearly engaged in school life. These activities include heartwarming class assemblies, day to day school activities like, reading, maths and English lessons, practice for performances and many more.

Furthermore, the school environment continues to be well-maintained, and the improvements made all ensure an engaging, welcoming, and fit-for-purpose place which allows the children in our school to develop physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually.

In addition, governors have also met regularly for various committee meetings to be kept informed on how your children are making progress, updating policies, knowledge and to give oversight of the financial status and maintenance of our school. We feel this has been another great year for our school. Thank you for your continued support over the year. Have a wonderful time with your family over the summer holidays.

Best wishes, Nash Mills Governing Body

A Day of Marvellous Music!

On Monday, we were treated to not 1, not 2 but 3 amazing musical performances in which the children were able to show their amazing talents and skills.

During the morning, we enjoyed a performance from our school choir. We also heard songs from our Early Years and Key Stage 1 classes who have been taking part in a singing project, led by Herts Music Service. The children were all incredibly confident, clear and showed great skill, with one song even having a three-part round (which is very complex)!

During the afternoon, it was the turn of our Key Stage 2 classes; firstly our children who have been learning instruments shared some amazing pieces. This was followed by performances from our Year 3 and 4 classes (with a few more individuals too), who shared their learning from this year with the recorders and ukuleles.

Well done to all and a huge 'thank you' to Mrs Barrett, who leads our music provision in school.

We would love to develop this further, seeing more pupils learning an instrument. We are currently able to offer a range of instruments including guitar, bass, ukulele, clarinet, flute, saxophone and piano to name a few! Please take a look at the Herts Music Service website if you would like further information. Funding support is available for some families.

Art Week

This week, our school embarked on an inspiring art project exploring portraits through a wide range of styles and historical periods. From Early Years to Year 6, each phase of the school engaged with a different artist, resulting in a stunning and diverse gallery of work that celebrates identity and creativity.

Early Years created expressive collages inspired by Hannah Höch.
Year 1 used bold colours and shapes in the style of Henri Matisse.
Year 2 experimented with Cubism through Pablo Picasso.
Year 3 studied Roman statues, focusing on form and symmetry.
Year 4 explored symbolism in Tudor portraits.
Year 5 created narrative art inspired by Faith Ringgold.
Year 6 used stencils and slogans in the style of Shepard Fairey.

A Wonderful Term at Forest School

We’ve had a very exciting and busy summer term at Forest School! The children have continued to explore, nurture, and develop the space, showing great care and enthusiasm for the natural world around them.

Year 4 worked hard designing and building habitats for both vertebrates and invertebrates, thinking carefully about how to make homes for different creatures.

Year 2 focused on learning how to care for plants, helping them to grow strong and healthy.

Meanwhile, Nursery grew their love for nature by learning the names of birds and mini-beasts. They also helped to plant and care for our very own herb garden!

Children who attended the Forest School Club have also been busy looking after the plants in our polytunnel. This term, they successfully grew sunflowers, tomato plants, new potatoes, and nasturtiums. The children also learnt how to use our watering system, and they showed such enthusiasm for helping our plants thrive.

A special highlight this term was when some of our Year 6 children harvested the new potatoes they had grown and used them to make a delicious potato salad for their end-of-year leavers’ party!

We are so proud of how hard the children have worked at Forest School this term. They continue to show a real passion for the outdoors, and we can’t wait to get started again in the autumn term.

Attendance

This Week’s Attendance Highlights

Year 3 tops the chart with a fantastic 99%—a brilliant finish to the term!
Nursery also had a strong week at 98.4%, followed by Year 6 with 96.7%.
Year 2 and Year 1 posted solid figures at 96.5% and 96.2%, with Reception close behind at 96.1%.
Year 5 came in at 95.7%, and Year 4 rounded out the week with 94.7%.

Whole School Attendance for the Year

Year 3: 97.7% – Outstanding consistency all year!
Year 4: 97.2%
Year 2: 96.6%
Year 5: 96.2%
Year 1: 95.7%
Year 6: 95.9%
Nursery: 95.6%
Reception: 93.6%

It’s been a fantastic year, and it’s wonderful to see how committed our pupils and families have been to attending school regularly. High attendance means more learning, more friendships, and more fun—and it’s clear that everyone has worked hard to make the most of every day. Thank you for all of your support in making this happen.

Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots!

Our final TTRS leader board is for the most correct answers this academic year, between our top 3 they have amassed a whopping 189,821 correct answers this year! Well done.

Our Numbots leader board reflects the most correct answers in challenge mode, our top 3 combined to record 53,405 correct answers this year! For KS1 that is phenomenal, well done all!

Mr Shane

Leader board

1st - Erin (Y1)

2nd - Alex (Y2)

3rd - Bella (Y2)

Leader board

1st - Noah (Y6)

2nd - Ali (Y4)

3rd - Finn (Y4)

Staffing Updates

Sadly today, we said 'goodbye' to a few members of our team.

Mrs Setterfield has worked at Nash Mills for 18 years, having started by helping at lunchtimes and moving on to supporting in classes - working with children from across the school. Her contribution has been invaluable and we're sure that many ex-pupils will fondly remember Mrs Setterfield as she moves on to new challenges!
Mrs Gazzard has been with us for 3 years, working for much of that time with our current Year 6 class and having a huge impact on some of the children within the class. We wish her all the best at her new school.
Miss Pace will also be leaving us to move on to her first full teaching role, having trained at Nash Mills this year in our Year 4 class. We have really enjoyed working with Miss Pace and appreciate all of the fantastic opportunities offered to the children.

We wish all three the very best in their new endeavours, we will miss them and hope to see them again soon!

From September, we are also pleased to share that we will be being joined by two new members of staff; Mrs Wiggins, who will be working with pupils in Years 1 and 2, and Miss Jansson Williams, who will be working in our Reception Class. We will also be being joined by Miss Cacerez, who will be completing her teacher training in our Year 4 class, working alongside Mr Shane and Mrs Barrett for some of the week.

Welcome to all of our new adults!

Goodbye to Mother Alice

On Thursday, the school walked to St Mary's for our termly church service in which we thought about all of the things that we were preparing to leave behind as we finish the school year and all that we are grateful for.

Mother Alice shared that, in September, she will be moving onto to a new role which she too was looking forward to. The children then presented Alice with gifts, thoughts and prayers that they had made in class.

As our time working with Mother Alice comes to an end, we would like to say a huge 'thank you' for all that she has bought to our school and the support and guidance offered, to pupils, parents and staff. We wish her the very best of luck in her new role.

Dates for Next Year

Alongside today's newsletter, you should have been sent our school diary for the next year. We hope that this helps with your forward planning and provides some ideas as to what we have in store for the children! Please also note that, due to the slot we have been allocated for swimming next year, we have had to move one of our planned INSET days. Instead of 1st June, this will now take place on 13th April. We apologise if this causes any issues.

Planning for next term

Please see below for the day when your child will need different clothing or equipment from September. These lessons will begin from Monday 8th September.

Monday

Year 4 & Year 6 - PE

Tuesday

Year 1 & Year 3 - PE and Forest School

Reception - Forest School

Wednesday

Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 - PE

Year 3 & 4 - Music lesson

Thursday

Nursery, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 &Year 6 - PE

Friday

Year 2 & Year 5 - PE

School Clubs

Clubs will start up for the Autumn Term w/b 15th September. A letter about the Autumn Term offering, and how to book,

will be sent out early in the 2025/26 Academic Year.

Walking to and from school from September

As the children move into older year groups, for some it will be appropriate to begin traveling to and from school with more independence. When the children are travelling to and from school, they are in your care as parents, and therefore you should be completely satisfied that they are safe if walking without an adult.

Year 4 and below

We expect that all of our children in Year 4 and below are brought to and from school by an adult and are collected by an adult from any of the after-school clubs. Should anyone be collecting your child who is not on our records then please contact the school office.

Year 5&6

Our Year 5&6 children can walk to and from school on their own if you feel that it is safe for them to do so. We ask that parents give consent by completing the form in the attached link: https://forms.gle/V9ULjipWuvLWNL536. Please provide this permission by Wednesday 3rd September. We ask that you continue to monitor this, especially as the evenings begin getting darker again as we head towards the winter.

This summer, once again, Hertfordshire Libraries are running a summer reading challenge, called "The Story Garden". It is so important that the children continue to read over the summer and have time to curl up and enjoy a book! We always love hearing about what they have read!

All children who complete the reading challenge and bring in their certificates to show us will receive 10 house points in the new school year.

We can’t wait to see all of the medals and hear about the fantastic books you read over the summer!

Local Special Need Service Update

Our local DSPL (Developing Specialist Provision Locally) Team have produced an updated newsletter for the summer holidays, providing ideas for activities and support services that can still be accessed if you need any help. Please click here to see the newsletter.

Upcoming Dates

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

At church on Thursday, Mother Alice shared with us one of her favourite readings from the Bible; Psalm 139.

'We are fearfully and wonderfully made' reminds us of the incredible uniqueness and potential within each of our children. This year, we've witnessed them grow in confidence, kindness, and resilience. Each child is special, and while we celebrate how far they've come, we also look ahead to all they have to offer.

Their journeys are just beginning, and we are so proud to have walked this part of the path with them.

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