Merton
Infant School
Aiming High, Achieving Together
Motivation
Excellence
Respect
Teamwork
Opportunities
Never Give Up
Newsletters and Letters to Parents
Newsletters - Academic School Year 2025 - 2026
Merton Infant School Newsletter 2nd March 2026
Dates for your Diary
Please ensure you put the following dates on your calendar or sync them with the calendar on your phone
DATES FOR WHOLE YEAR
INSET days:
Monday 1st June 2026
Monday 22nd June 2026
School will be closed to all children on these dates.
05.03.26 - World Book Day
06.03.26 - YR trip to Wellington Country Park
13.03.26 - Special Relative Visit 2.30pm
25.03.26 - Y1 Easter Play to Parents 2.00pm
27.03.26 - Non-uniform £1.00 donation
27.03.26 - Y2 visit to Chineham Library
27.03.26 - Easter Egg Hunt and Easter Raffle
13.04.26 - Easter Disco 3.30pm
17.04.26 - Y2 Trip to Windsor Castle
11.05.26 - Movie Night 3.15pm
18.05.26 - Governor Monitoring Day
22.05.26 - Culture Dress-Up Day
02.06.26 - Y2 Career Dress-Up Day
03.06.26 - Y2 start Swimming
05.06.26 - Zoolab Visit to Y1
08.06.26 - Y1 Phonics Screening Check
09.06.26 & 12.06.26 - YR Trip to Chineham Library
19.06.26 - Special Relative Visit 2.30pm
03.07.26 - YR Beach Day
10.07.26 - Y1 Art Gallery to Parents
13.07.26 - Get Fit Theme Week
15.07.26- Summer party
16.07.26 - Sponsored Event
17.07.26 - Sports Day & Family Picnic
20.07.26 - Y2 Leavers' Disco
21.07.26 - Y2 Leavers' Assembly
22.07.26 - Non-Uniform £1.00 donation
Headteacher Highlight
Welcome back, we hope that you had a lovely half term holiday. This is a very short half term but a lot has been planned during the next 5 weeks so please keep checking the school website for up-to-date information.
My secondment at another school will continue to the Easter holiday. However, I am in close contact with the staff and Governors to ensure that strong teaching of our inclusive curriculum is maintained and that your child continues to make strong achievement from their starting points.
If you have any concerns, initially see your class teacher or arrange an appointment to see one of our SEND team ( who include myself, Mrs Relf, Deputy Headteacher, Mrs Jones, trainee SENCO or Mrs Gregory, trainee SENCO Assistant).
At the end of last term, we noticed more parents tailgating cars into the car park. The car park is primarily for staff. Even if parents/carers hold a Blue Badge for disability use, this does not guarantee using the disabled parking bays or the car park as it is private land. Please be courteous if staff ask you to move on as we are simply trying to keep your child safe on the school site. There are numerous areas to park off site and walk the short routes into school e.g. Abbey Road shops, Tintern Close, Glastonbury Close etc. Please also show respect to our neighbours and do not park across driveways.
Reminders
- Please label all clothing (including hats, scarves and gloves), water bottles and book bags. We are always amazed at how much lost property we collect.
- Wash your child's lunchbox daily
- Continue to practise with your child how to do zips, buttons, nose wiping, toilet wiping and using a knife and fork.
- We have noticed that a lot of children are starting to bring small items into school (keyrings, bracelets, lip balms) and giving these to their friends. Please can you remind your child that they are not to bring items in from home unless requested by the school. This is due to Health and Safety reasons and items being lost.
Year R topic - On the Farm
Our new topic is On the Farm! We are very excited to be launching our topic with our first school trip to Wellington Country Park. The children will have the opportunity to visit a farm whilst they are there and to experience a day out in the countryside. Following on from the trip the children will be learning about different farm animals and the food they produce. They will be finding out about all the different jobs there are on a farm and about the crops that are grown on the farm. We will also have the opportunity to observe chicks hatching from eggs. The children have already been thinking of interesting questions such as, 'What is a farm?' and ‘What are the names of the baby animals?’ We will be addressing some misconceptions that the children have as some think that they might find a monkey or a tiger on a farm.
Link to curriculum newsletter below.
Year R Curriculum Newsletter - On the Farm - Spring 2 - 2025 - 2026
Year 1 Topic - Fire! Fire!
Welcome back! We are starting the term of with a blaze, learning all about our new topic, the Great Fire of London! This is always such a fun topic and the children always learn so many historical facts.
With a focus on history, we are taking the children back to 1666 to when the fire started. The children will be comparing the materials we have available to us in the present day compared to what they had in 1666 to help put out the fire and have discussions about how difficult it must have been. We will also be having discussions on the cause and effects of the great fire of London.
In science we will be learning about plants and seeds and the children will have the chance to plant their own sunflower seed.
Soon we will be starting to rehearse our Year 1 Easter Play so please do keep practising those lines! We cant wait to see the play all come together before finishing for our Easter holidays.
Please check out the year group page on our website for further information.
Year 1 Curriculum Newsletter - Fire! Fire! - Spring 2 - 2025 - 2026
Year 2 Topic - The Titanic
Year 2 are continuing to be historians and exploring key events of the past. We're moving on from our significant person of Florence Nightingale and the work she did to a key event of the sinking of the Titanic. We're excited to be receiving another history trunk full of artefacts of the time to learn more about the Titanic. We'll be thinking of the key events leading up to the sinking of the Titanic and trying to understand the reasons why the Titanic sank. We'll be looking at the different people who travelled on the Titanic and we'll even be creating an afternoon tea in the style of the first class passengers.
In Science we're going to be looking at the botanist Jane Colden and her work on plants. We'll even be conducting our own experiment on what plants need to survive. In literacy we're exploring the book Grandad's Island by Benji Davies, did you know he also wrote the story of the Storm Whale which we looked at in year 1. In maths we're building on numeracy skills we have learnt so far in year 2 and building on our maths mastery.
Year 2 Curriculum Newsletter - The Titanic - Spring 2 - 2025 - 2026
Is my Child too ill for School?
Many parents wonder whether to send their child to school when they are feeling a little unwell and also how long to keep them off, please see this helpful link from the NHS which can help https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/
Reminder
- For sickness & diarrhoea - 24 hours after last bout
- A high temperature is 38c or above
World Book Day 2026
Our children at Merton Infant school embody our mantra of "Reading is the most important skill" and were excited to hear that we would be dedicating a whole year of activities for the "National Year of Reading". Every month there will be a different reading activity to take part in. This link can give you more information on the National Year of Reading National Year of reading website.
March's reading activity will be World Book day (Thursday 5th March). Children are invited to dress as a noun, a verb or an adjective.
Nouns - This is a name, a place or a thing. Children could dress up as their favourite book character or person.
Verbs - These are activity words. Children could dress up as an activity they like doing E.g. football, swimming, painting
Adjectives - These are describing words. Children could dress up in stripes, spots, colours, cosy etc.
We cannot wait to see how the children express their love of reading. We would welcome photos of your child's daily bedtime stories. Please send to the school's admin email address.
Merton 'Opportunity' Value
On Friday, two of our Year 2 children got the opportunity to visit Miss Muffet's nursery in Popley to read to their younger children. The children read with such confidence and were wonderful ambassadors for our school.
Valentines Home work challenge
We had lots of amazing hearts emailed/ brought into school from the February homework challenge. There's definitely been lots of Merton love this week. Well done to all the boys and girls that worked really hard on these.
Merton Pre-School
Wednesday 4th March - Pre-School Celebrates Holi
Thursday 5th March - World Book Day
Monday 9th March - Sponsored Fundraising Event - More details to follow
Friday 13th March - Mother’s Day Tea
Wednesday 18th March - Beep Beep Day, Ramadan Ends
Friday 20th March - Pre-School Celebrates Eid
Wednesday 25th March - Easter Parade and Raffle
Friday 27th March - Last day of Term
Monday 30th March – 10th April - Easter Holiday Pre-School Closed
Monday 13th April - Pre-School Reopens 9.00am
Monday 4th May - Bank Holiday Pre-School Closed
Thursday 7th May - Stay and Play Focus – Communication and Language
Monday 18th – 22nd May - Walk to School Week
Thursday 21st May - May Movie Afternoon
Friday 22nd May - Last Day of Term
Monday 25th – 29th May - May Half Term Pre-School Closed
Monday 1st June - Inset Day Pre-School Closed
Tuesday 2nd June - Pre-School Reopens - 9.00am
Friday 5th June - World Environment Day
Friday 19th June - Father’s Day Brunch
Monday 22nd June - Inset Day Pre-School Closed
Tuesday 23rd June - Sports Day 9:30am
Tuesday 7th July - Stay and Play Focus – Physical Development
Tuesday 21st July - Summer Party (more details to follow)
Wednesday 22nd July - Last Day of Term
Pre-School Closes at 11:30am for ALL Children - Pre-School Graduation and Party (School Leavers Only) 1-2:30pm
Our topic this half term is The Great Outdoors.
Over the next five weeks we will be learning all about life cycles, celebrating World Book Day, holding our Sponsored Fund Raising Event, Celebrating Holi and so much more.
Reminders
- If your child is absent for any reason please call or email the Pre-School by 9.15am.
- Children should not attend Pre-School if they have had Calpol for any reason.
- Please ensure children arrive to their session with everything that is needed nappies, wipes, change of clothes (including socks), water bottle etc.
- Children should not attend Pre-School for 48hrs after the last bout of sickness and/or diarrhoea.
- Any children sleeping on arrival, will not be permitted to attend their session.
Tagalog/ Filipino
On Wednesday we launched our language of the half term. The children will be learning to use the greetings spoken in Tagalog/ Filipino. The children loved learning about the different facts especially that the Philippines are home to around 50 volcanoes. Of these, 10 volcanoes are currently active! But the fact the children loved the most was that banana ketchup is a popular condiment used in the Philippines.
How are you? – Kamusta
Goodbye – Paalam
Good morning – Magandang umaga
Good afternoon – Magandang hapon
Please – Pakiusap
Thank you – Salamat
Musician of the half term
Genre: Pop
English singer-songwriter: Harry Styles
Born: 1994
Harry grew up in England. Ever since he was little, he has loved entertaining people. He shone in his school plays and, after winning a competition at school, he thought that being a singer would be the best job in the world. He entered a famous talent competition called ‘The X Factor’. He was put with 4 other singers to form the band One Direction. They sold nearly 70 million records worldwide and became one of the bestselling Boy Bands of all time. Harry began his solo career in 2017. His motto is ‘Treat people with Kindness’ and he tries to spread this message with everything he does
Mental Health and Well-being
We have a dedicated section on our website with details of how we support children's mental health and well-being at school.
Please follow this link for more information -> https://www.mertoninfants.com/parent-guide-to-mental-health-support-for-children/
There are many ideas and strategies that you can do at home. One of our successful examples is Mindfulness colouring with relaxing music playing in the background.
Newsletters - Academic School Year 2024 - 2025