Nash Mills CofE Primary School

School News

Friday 27th February 2026

Road Safety Training

On Wednesday, Year 4 took part in pedestrian training with Hertfordshire County Council. The children were taken out and learned all of the skills needed to be safe. The children learned how to safely cross roads and the things that you have to think about and do before you cross.

"I liked learning that there is spinning dial for blind people underneath the traffic light button that spins when it is safe to cross." Austin

"I liked learning all of the different skills we need to be safe when crossing the road." Katy

Y5 Maths Challenge

On Thursday, some children from Year 5 did an HFL maths challenge. There were two teams of four, Team A was: Sophia, Ethan, Ffion and Finn. Team B was: Anayah, Jonny, Archie, and Esme. The challenge consisted of four rounds, each getting progressively harder per round. Each team was provided with a pencil and paper, and on the board were questions. The top twenty schools/teams go to the grand finale.

GO NASH MILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sophia and Anayah

World Book Day and Science Week Update

We are looking forward to seeing what the children come to school dressed as for World Book Day next Thursday. This will begin a number of in-school events which tie together World Book Day and Science Week, this year all with a theme of Biodiversity and Animals.

You may have seen that the area to the side of the KS2 building has been cleared over half term, ready for our garden project, which we hope will take shape in the coming weeks. A huge thank you to one of our families who were able to provide support in getting the area cleared. It has been a huge help! The classes will now begin to think about what they will do with their garden beds all of which will be based on a different theme; please remember to send them in with an outdoor plant on the non-uniform day we are holding on Monday, 9th March, so this can be added to our garden.

Please also remember that after school on Wednesday 11th March, we shall be holding a Science Fayre to which you are welcome to come and see what the children have been up to.

World Book Day *Menu Change*

Thursday, 5th March

Our school caterers, HCL, are offering a special World Book Day menu on Thursday, 5th March. This means a change to the options advertised on our standard school menu.

Please see below, and the adjacent flyer, for the menu choices on the day:

Red - Sausage and Mash OR Veggie Sausage and Mash

Green - Green Pesto Spaghetti

Blue - Jacket Potato

Yellow - Ham Roll

We are also excited to share that, to tie in with the National Year of Reading, next week we shall be launching the 'The Great Big Nash Mills Chapter Challenge'. This will be a reading challenge for each class from Reception to Year 6 aimed at increasing the breadth of books that the children have access to and how they can both enjoy stories being read to them and gain independence in their reading.

What will the challenge be?

Which stories will be included?

Find out next week!

We hope that your child came home with their World Book Day Voucher this week. These can be used in many bookshops and supermarkets to either receive a free World Book Day book or a discount on an exsiting one.

There are some great stories on offer this year, including Bunny vs Monkey, Skandar, The Lost Bear and many more.

We look forward to hearing about what the children have been reading!

Don't Trust Fish!

Once or twice each year, every class in the school comes together to complete a shared topic in English. It is a great opportunity for the children to work together and to read each others' work, knowing the starting point and context.

Building towards our Biodiversity focus during Science Week, this year Miss Brewer has written a plan centred around the hilarious new book 'Don't Trust Fish' by Neil Sharpson. The book provides a range of funny ways in which fish could be suspicious when compared with other animals. The classes have begun exploring the text this week, before moving on to writing persuasive letters, fact files or funny descriptions of other animals.

To see the story, click on the link!

Half Term Updates

You may have noticed one or two changes in school this week, following half term. Whilst many of us were relaxing last week, Mr Winter was busy in school, completing a number of projects. These included:

Repainting and protection of walls in the dining room
Creation of boot and outdoor equipment store sheds for KS2 classes
Overseeing the completion of a heating system upgrade in our main building, which will provide greater reliability in future winters.

We are also pleased to share that, over the summer, we shall be having our KS1 building roof replaced, which is going to be a huge undertaking and may mean some short-term disruption for some classes. Last week, a number of companies visited the school to begin planning how this will be completed. Watch this space for more information!

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

Bella

For showing such enthusiasm when taking part in Nursery’s first Forest School session, taking part in all the activities, particularly making mud pies in the mud kitchen. Well done Bella!

Reception

Ace

For working hard and showing improved focus this week. Keep up the fantastic effort — you are capable of amazing things!

Year 1

Lily

For always working so hard in every lesson, trying her very best even when things are tricky, and being such a cheerful, polite and helpful member of the class.

Year 2

Edith

For fantastic determination—your hard work has really paid off and your progress is brilliant!

Year 3

Arthur

For always engaging in his work; being a reliable and supportive friend and always eager to help someone in anyway. Thank you!

Year 4

Lily-Roma

For her brilliant concentration and effort in lessons and the great work that results from it!

Year 5

Archie

For being such an enthusiastic member of the class and alwayschallenging himself.

Year 6

Jacob

For being an excellent role model in Forest School this week by displaying great leadership skills and supporting others with their projects.

Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots!

This week's TTRS leader board is improvement in accuracy, how often the children are getting the answer right first time. Well done to our top 3 for this week.

Our Numbots leader board reflects the number of levels passed with 3 stars, well done to our leaders this week!

Mr Shane

Leader board this week

1st - Theo (Y1)

2nd - Raheem (Y2)

3rd - Lily (Y1)

Leader board this week

1st - Shoshanna (Y4)

2nd - Austin (Y4)

3rd - Ethan (Y5)

Attendance

This has been our strongest overall attendance week in quite some time, and we want to extend a sincere thank you to all our families for their continued efforts in getting children into school every day. Your support makes a real difference, and it’s wonderful to see this reflected in the numbers.

Reception led the school with an outstanding 99.5%, closely followed by Year 5 at 98.8%. Year 2 also had a brilliant week with 97.8%, and Year 4 achieved a very strong 97.5%. Year 3 recorded 96.9%, with both Year 1 and Year 6 achieving 95.4%. Nursery finished the week on 92%.

As we get closer to the warm summer months, please can we also remind you that we are unable to authorise any holiday during term time. Our term dates for the next 18 months have been published on our website and we would ask for you to ensure that you only book holidays during school holiday time. Unauthorised time away is likely to result in a fine being issued by the local authority; something we would all like to avoid if possible.

Thank you again for your ongoing commitment—let’s keep this positive momentum going as we move into the weeks ahead.

Staff Updates

We are pleased to share that, this week we were joined by Miss Swift, who is a new member of our teaching assistant team. She will be working with pupils in our Year 1 and 2 classes initially. Next week, Reception class will also have a new adult, Miss Davis, who will be completing some university training with us during March.

Sadly, Year 1 will this week be saying 'goodbye' to Miss Crawley, who has been with us as part of her university course in becoming a teacher. I know that the class have very much enjoyed her being here and we wish her all the best in the next stages of her course!

Donations Please!

If you are able to donate any underwear and socks for boys and girls, particularly for the younger year groups Nursery to Year 3 (from 4 up to 8 or 9 years of age), we would be really grateful if you could pass to the classroom at drop off. Thank you for your support.

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 Bentley is currently reading...

George's Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl.

I am reading this book with my own children at home. We thoroughly enjoy the potion-making scenes, which always create lots of laughter and excitement as we try to predict what will happen next. My children especially enjoy imagining their own outrageous ingredients and inventing new “marvellous medicines.” It’s a story that sparks creativity, encourages great conversations, and makes our shared reading time together fun and memorable.

Message from Rev David

Come & join us as we celebrate with an interactive service this Sunday the 1st March 2026. Join us for an informal family communion with activities for all ages. Whether you’re 3 months or 93 years, there’s a place for you!

All In - Family Service, Sunday 1st March 26, 9.30am

St Mary’s Church, London Road, Apsley End, HP3 9ST

Upcoming Dates

3rd March - Y5 Class Worship

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

9th March - Bring-a-plant Non-uniform day

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

Don't Trust Fish

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