Issue 27 - 26th April 2024

Dear Families,

What a jam-packed week it's been! We've had football matches, the upper school movie night, book sales, Year 5 library visits, special assemblies, and even some fantastic visitors. Keep reading to find out more about what the children have been up to this week.

Emma Fordham
Headteacher

Key Messages

Parent Singing Assemblies

I am pleased to tell parents that we will be offering another opportunity for parents to find out about their children’s experiences at school. Mrs. Cleaves our music co-ordinator has kindly offered to ‘throw open the doors’ for our weekly singing assemblies. Parents are invited straight after drop off on selected Friday mornings to spend around 30 minutes listening (and participating if they wish!) to our music assembly. There will be 30 places each week. Places can be booked on School Gateway on a first come first served basis and once full, it will automatically close. The booking will open on Monday 22^nd April and unless full, will close the day before each event.

Lower School – Friday 17^th May and 14^th June 9.00-9.25am
Upper School – Friday 24^th May and 5^th July 9.00-9.25am

Term dates for Next Academic Year

The term dates for 2024/25 are now on our website (including INSET days). Please follow the link to view.

https://www.almondhill.herts.sch.uk/page/?title=Term+Dates&pid=24

INSET/Occasional days for 2024/25:

Monday 2^nd September
Friday 20^th December
Monday 6^th January
Friday 20^th June
Monday 23^rd June (Occasional Day)
Wednesday 23^rd July

Clubs on Arbor

Thank you for bearing with us whilst we dealt with the issue with clubs over the weekend. As you know, Arbor is a new system and we are learning to get to grips with all the things it can do but unfortunately, when learning, this doesn't always go to plan. We open events on a weekend to make it easier and fairer for parents to book but our office staff do not work at weekends so if there is a problem, we will need your patience in getting it fixed for you.

Club	Year group	Day	Collection From	Start	End
3/4 Football	3, 4	Monday	Field Gate	15th April	Half termly
Gardening	5	Monday	Acorn House	29th April	24th June
Rounders	6	Monday	Field Gate	29th April	24th June
Reading Fluency Booster	4	Monday	Acorn House	29th April	15th July
Reading Fluency Booster	5	Monday	Acorn House	29th April	15th July
5/6 Football	5, 6	Tuesday	Field Gate	16th April	Half termly
Rounders	3	Tuesday	Field Gate	30th April	25th June
Street Dance	All	Wednesday	Hall	17th April	24th May
Stop Motion	4	Wednesday	4L	1st May	26th June
Rounders	4	Thursday	Field Gate	2nd May	27th June
Musical Theatre	All	Friday	Hall	19th April	24th May
Rounders	5	Friday	Field Gate	3rd May	28th June
Mad Science	All	Friday	4O	3rd May	28th June

Year 3 Writing Day – Pirates!

We will be welcoming some Pirates into school on Wednesday 8^th May for our inspiring writing day. We would like to invite Year 3 children to join them in dressing like a pirate! We welcome all forms of pirate dress but ask that no weapons (swords, cutlasses etc.) are brought into school and that outfits are still suitable for break/lunch time. We are looking forward to an exciting day with our new pirate friends!

This is not compulsory and if children would prefer not to dress up, they should come to school in their uniform as normal.

Goodbye to Miss Baxter

Miss Baxter will be leaving Almond Hill next Friday to start a new adventure in Early Years. I am sure parents will join me in wishing Miss Baxter all the very best in her new job.

Diary Dates

For our full calendar, please click the 'button' link below.

FULL CALENDAR

Please click here for upcoming events...

Uniform Sale

Our next uniform sales are:
Wednesday 1^st May
Wednesday 5^th June
Wednesday 3^rd July
The sale takes place from 3.00pm in the hall.

Book Sale

Our next book sales are:
Wednesday 22^nd May
Wednesday 26^th June
Wednesday 17^th July
The sale takes place during the school day and books cost just 50p!

Attendance

Year 3 95%
Year 4 92.91%
Year 5 96.07%
Year 6 92.18%
Class Winners - 6B 98.1%
All Students 94.14%

Almond Hill Achievements

Click the button below to see all the wonderful things our children have achieved outside of school.

ACHIEVEMENTS

In Other News...

Easter Home Learning – Cultural Diversity
Thank you everyone who took part in our Easter home learning project. We have had a huge number of amazing work showcasing how different and special we all are. The children (and parents, I'm sure!) have put in so much hard work into their beautiful posters, many of which are on display in classrooms now. Here is a lovely selection:

Coding Assembly
Years 3, 5 and 6 were delighted to listen to Simon Hermitage (Computer Game Design Director) about his experiences in the programming industry.

Quotes from Year 6 children after the assembly:
‘I got a deeper understanding about how games are made.’
‘We learnt about game loops e.g. objective, challenge and rewards.’
‘We learnt about programming and animating and how it could be our job if we were interested.’
Thank you, Simon, for an inspirational morning!

Year 4 - Wise up. Building Resilience
On Monday, Year 4 were visited by Wise Up team building to solve the mystery of the stolen pie! We took part in a range of practical activities which required team work and communication to earn clues. Some tasks were really challenging and took us a long time but we didn't give up with the support of each other and the adults. We are hoping to use these skills back in class. Children and staff had a great time and Jamie (our course leader) said the Almond Hill students were wonderful. Well done Year 4!

Athlete visit
We are thrilled to be able to share some more information about our upcoming Sports for Schools event. We are excited to announce that the athlete who will be visiting us will be Lesley Owusus.

On the event day, all pupils will take part in a sponsored fitness circuit run by their athlete, a terrific way to get all children excited about sport and realise that getting moving is really fun! Their athlete will then share their incredible sporting journey, a story of resilience and determination in a fun and interactive assembly. There will also be an opportunity to ask any burning questions in a Q&A session with their inspiring role-model at the end! The money raised for the event will go towards new important resources to improve levels of physical activity in our school, such as new sports equipment!

Year 5 Tag Rugby
Our brilliant Year 5 tag rugby players thoroughly enjoyed themselves at Stevenage Rugby Club on Thursday 25th April. The children worked around a circuit of very exciting rugby stations before having the opportunity to play some tag rugby matches against each other. Many players showed a keen interest in the sport and were noted for their great sportsmanship and effort at the festival - well done to all.