16 • April 2025
A message from Mr Copeland
As we relax and re-energise over the Easter holidays it is a great time to reflect on the wonderful experiences and achievements we have shared over the last half term.
The highlights in this newsletter touch upon some of the wonderful opportunities the staff provide in order to allow the children to develop at their own pace both academically and personally. We are delighted with the progress the children are making and look forward to more exciting learning adventures in the Summer Term.
The Year 1 and 2 pupils continue to amaze us in their swimming lessons this year and are excited to showcase some of their skills in the House Swimming Gala next half term. Swimming is such an important part of our curriculum, not only is it essential for physical health and water safety, but it also plays a key role in the development of fundamental movement skills such as balance and coordination. Additionally, swimming has proven benefits for mental wellbeing: the calming nature of water, coupled with the rhythmic movements help reduce stress and anxiety, offering a great way for children to unwind. A big thank you to Mr Mills, Mrs Farr and Mr Bailey for their dedication.
Very early in the half term all pupils (and some staff) took part in the Annual House Pancake Relay Race. Pupils lined up in their Houses and took part in an obstacle course carefully carrying their frying pan and pancake. Pancakes were tossed, caught, dropped and eaten (during lunch) and lots of fun was had by all. It was fantastic to see the children showing speed, agility and balance but also supporting each other and encouraging others regardless of their Houses. In the penultimate week of term we were treated to the wonderful
performance of There’s a Sunflower in my Supper from our fabulous Year 1 children. The children performed three times and then took the songs on the road to Tranby Park Care Home to spread some Easter joy to the residents. It was amazing to see how the pupils have grown in confidence, the acting and singing was simply superb, however, the most pleasing
thing to see was how much fun they were having putting on the show in their fantastic costumes. In the final week of term Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 were treated to a performance of Peter Pan by the Year 5 pupils. It was great for the younger children to watch the older ones in the Judi Dench Theatre and I must congratulate the Year 5 pupils and staff on a super production.
The visit to the theatre was a useful transitional experience for the children and there will be a number of opportunities for pupils to be part of more visits in the Summer Term in order to prepare them for the move to the main campus.
I hope you all enjoy some restful family time over Easter and it would be lovely to see you at some of the events taking place next term.
This half term the children continued to enjoy playing with each other and continued to welcome new pupils to the group.
As we grow and learn together the children are developing and refining new and existing skills each day. We would like to say a huge well done to everyone in Pre-School for showing kindness to each other, including amazing turn taking, and always trying their hardest.
PRE-SCHOOL
As the weather improved we began to observe changes around us, enjoy some bright spring sunshine and snippets of blue sky. We looked at the concept of growing by learning more about vegetables.
We explored the story of The Gigantic Turnip where after planting the seeds it became apparent that one of the turnips had grown so large it had become stuck and many different animals and people needed to work together to pull it up.
We enjoyed finding out how different vegetables look, feel or smell and thought of different words to describe them. We discovered potatoes had tiny brown marks on them and were yellow inside, onions had a crinkly skin with
Reception have had lots of fun this half term learning all about superheroes! We especially enjoyed the stories of Supertato by Sue Hendra.
Supertato is a hero who saves the day by rescuing his vegetable friends from his archenemy Evil Pea! The children had fun helping Supertato capture Evil Pea after he escaped from our school freezer and caused havoc in the Reception classrooms! They made wanted posters, designed and set traps in the classroom and wrote letters to Supertato asking
small roots and broccoli reminded us of little trees. We drew their shapes, coloured them in and also began to print with the potatoes and onions which was a lot of fun.
Other books we read included Jasper’s Beanstalk and the traditional tale of The Little Red Hen, learning about growing beanstalks, grains or flowers, and the care needed to nurture the seedlings. We made lists of things we needed to grow our own beanstalks during the half term; we carefully filled little pots with soil, pushed tiny beans into the pots and watered them. It has been amazing to see the children’s reactions when the green shoots appear and the roots start to grow. We also looked at the life cycle of hens and saw a video of chicks hatching from their eggs.
We may be lucky enough to watch real ducklings hatching in the not too distant future!
We are looking forward to a restful break and hope for a visit from the Easter Bunny before returning back for the Summer Term!
RECEPTION
for his help. I am pleased to report that Evil Pea was captured and is now back in the freezer where he belongs!
As part of this half term’s learning, we have also been finding out about spring and Easter. The children enjoyed finding out about seasonal changes and going on a walk to spot the different signs of the changing season. We were lucky enough to see some birds’ nests in our trees and lots of different birds and minibeasts in our woodland area.
Hymers nurses, Mrs Picton and Mrs James, wanted to join the fun on World Book Day!
Next, we decided to find out about plants and what they need to grow, planting our own sunflower seeds. We would love to see photographs of how big they get in your gardens!
The children have been very busy mathematicians this term learning how
Wow - in the blink of an eye, another half term has passed already! And what a busy one it has been.
We started off the term with our Annual House Pancake Day Race; this brings the whole school together in their respective Houses to compete in a carefully constructed obstacle course. The children in Year 1 loved it, and we were so proud of how well they supported and encouraged their teammates. We also loved dressing up for World Book Day and we were so impressed with the children’s amazing costumes! In English, our focus text has been the story Look Up! by Nathan Bryon, which is about a little girl named Rocket who just loves all things to do with space. The children enjoyed reading the story, learning about meteor showers and about the work of the inspirational astronaut Mae Jemison. We have also been finding out about the life and work of the Hull-born pioneer, Amy Johnson, which has prompted the children to keep a keen eye out for the sculptures that were created for the A Moth for Amy project.
to add a smaller number to the number 10 and how to make a repeating pattern using colours and shapes! In Phonics they have been learning lots of new digraphs and practising how to write their own words and sentences. It was also lovely to share lots of the
YEAR 1
Perhaps the most exciting part of our learning this term has been the preparation for our Year 1 production of There’s a Sunflower in my Supper! The children worked so hard to learn the songs and remember their lines, and we are sure you will all agree that they put on performances to remember!
Whilst some children love to be in the limelight, for others taking part in a production can be quite scary; we have been so proud of the boys and girls for facing their fears and giving it their all.
children’s favourite stories on World Book Day and to see everyone dressed up as their favourite characters! After the holidays we will be starting our new topic Minibeasts and we have lots of exciting activities planned for the children!
We would like to say a big thank you to all the parents for their support with the costumes, helping the children learn their lines and for being such incredible audiences! We have much to look forward to after the Easter break, including some exciting new topics to explore and a trip to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park! We hope you all enjoy a few weeks of rest and relaxation before then, and we are crossing our fingers for more nice weather - nothing beats playing outside in the sunshine!
This has been another busy half term for Year 2. We have been practising our Scottish accents as we read the Katie Morag Stories and we are enjoying getting to know the characters.
We then wrote some very persuasive letters encouraging people to visit the beautiful Isle of Struay where Katie Morag lives.
April
YEAR 2
We developed our measuring and weighing skills in Maths with a lot of hands-on practical work, using different sized containers to learn the difference between volume and capacity.
In Science, we have studied some of the scientists who have changed our world for the better; we learned how Charles Mackintosh invented the raincoat, how Louis Pasteur was responsible for pasteurisation and vaccinations and how Rachel Carson discovered the effect spraying pesticides on fields had on ocean animals. We had a fun afternoon observing the chemical reaction between
vinegar and bicarbonate of soda as we launched our bottle rockets!
In History, we have compared nurses now and in Florence Nightingale’s time, and have looked for evidence to find out how hospitals have changed.
A definite highlight of this half term was our brilliant trip to Humber Forest School. We played games, found fox dens, lit fires using flints, made jewellery out of elder wood and had great fun on the mud slide!
Mon 21 - Bank Holiday (Easter Monday)
Tues 22 - Summer Term commences
May
Fri 2 - Year 2 Trip to Eureka
Mon 5 - Bank Holiday Monday
Fri 9 - Pre-School to Year 6 Open Event Hymers Junior School (am)
Mon 12 - Swimming Gala - Year 1, Year 2 & Year 3 10am
Thu 15 - Parenting in the Digital Age: Ask the Experts (Pre-School - Year 6 Parents) 4pm
Fri 23 - Year 1 Trip to Yorkshire Wildlife Park
Mon 26 - Half Term to Friday 30 May inclusive
The children got stuck in to every activity and we were very proud of their super attitude and excellent behaviour. Well done Year 2!
We hope you are all having a lovely break and we look forward to preparing our Year 2 production of A Hint of Snow White after half term.
June
Thu 12 - Year 2 Performance - Snow White 2pm
Fri 13 - Year 2 Performance - Snow White 2pm
Wed 18 - EYFS & KS1 New Parents’ Evening 5pm
Fri 20 - HHM Sports Day (Junior School Field) 1:30pm
Fri 27 - Pre-School Performance and Graduation 2pm
Mon 30 - Induction Day
July
Wed 2 - HHM Summer reports to parents
Thu 3 - HHM Leavers’ Party 3pm
Fri 4 - Last day of Summer Term half day