On Wednesday 7th May, Year 5 had a fun event at school called 'Bags of character'. In this event, we had to get into groups of 5 and 6 and completed five challenges. There was a skipping challenge where two people were swinging a giant rope and the others had to jump it, a blindfolded challenge where we had to guide our partners carefully to 'safety', a connect four challenge and a colour challenge where we had to try and remember an order of set colours. We had to work well as a team and show our 'working together' learning behaviour. We had lots of fun! - Eva (5W)   

Year 4 were lucky enough to take part in Bags of Character last week. The children had to work in groups to achieve all the challenges and tasks such as skipping in a very large rope, crossing the river, a blindfolded challenge and more! They had to be resilient and work together in order to be successful. All the children tried really hard and enjoyed themselves. Their teachers will be looking to see if they can apply these skills in their future PE lessons - there are definitely house points on offer! 

On the 23rd and 24th April, year 5 took part in a KNEX challenge. Children worked in pairs and each pair had one hour to create fairground ride. One winning pair was selected. In 5W, the winners were Jack D and Adam D, in 5S the winners were Addison and Millie R and finally in 5P the winners were Ava and Mason. Everyone enjoyed it very much. Our leader, Andre, taught us to persevere and always ask questions. At the end of the session, he asked us what we wanted to do for a job when we were older and to always follow our dreams. He taught us that STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and that lots of jobs use these skills. We said a big thank you to Andre and then he left the building. 

Written by Liv and Ava in 5P 

On Saturday 23rd March, the Almond Hill choir went on a school trip to London. In London, we went to The Royal Albert Hall to sing in a concert. The concert only happens every two years. There were primary and secondary choirs. There was also dancers, musicians, a conductor and some actors. We sung 5 songs. These songs were Believer, Make Your Own Kind of Music, When I Grow Up, If I Had Words and Your Voice.  

The Royal Albert Hall is a big circular building with lights that are orange and yellow at night. It was a 1-2 hour drive by coach and about 50 other schools took part. Inside was giant with about 2000 seats and lights that shone in their colours: yellow, orange, red, blue, pink and purple. Everyone wore different coloured t-shirts. Thank you to Mrs Fordham, Mrs Cleaves and Miss Simmons for being there.  

Written by Elizabeth and Savannah. 

Year 4 had a fantastic trip to Bhaktivedanta Manor on Wednesday. We learnt so many new things to support our learning about Hinduism and saw some amazing things. We were allowed into a service in the shrine and saw all the different murtis. We rode down to the farm in a cart pulled by oxen before getting to feed the cows. We were able to try wearing some traditional clothes and we even visited the garden dedicated to George Harrison (who bought the manor so it could become a place of worship)

About two weeks ago in year 5, we had a special delivery ......CHICKS! On day one when the chicks arrived at our school, Miss Porter and Miss Wase decided to make the chicks a cage in 5W because they were the quietest and calmest class (and chicks need calm!). 

 If you didn't know: 

1. chicks need a bigger space when they get bigger  

2. they need a quiet room at all times   

3. they need to be in a warm and happy place   

Update...  

Last Friday in assembly, two people from 5W came up and spoke about what has been happening. Thank you to Adam D and Kayal. On Monday the 17th and Tuesday 18th, the chicks were ready to be held. Each of us got the chance to hold one of the chicks and have a photo taken too. These photos will be used to make an Easter card nearer the end of term. 

The chicks have now left us but we are so grateful to have had them. We got to see them hatch, grow and develop personalities! There were quite a few mischievous chicks in there! Thank you to the children who gave up their time to help clean the chicks too. 

By Amelia 5P and Miss Porter  

On Monday the 3rd of March 2025, 6 year 5 children took part in a maths competition. There were 4 heats, and we were in the third one. In our heat, there were 4 rounds with lots of difficult questions. There were different kinds of questions such as estimating or just general maths questions. We had to enter our answers into a sheet of paper to then put them into answer boxes online. We will get our results on Thursday the 6th of March and we’re excited. Everyone that took part tried hard while helping others.  We were a great team and I’ve never seen anybody work so well together. I just want to say a huge thank you to Miss Porter and anyone else involved in the challenge.  

Written by Pollie.

Miss Porter's update: All the children worked so hard but unfortunately we didn't make it to the final. We scored 150 points which was amazing! Teams that made it through to the final scored 158 and over so we were quite close! Well done Pollie, Emelia, Emmanuel, Nilashini, Kayal and Adam! 

Year 3 had a brilliant time at the North Herts Museum where they explored a range of artefacts spanning from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, linking to our History topic. They got the chance to try on clothes, build a shelter and even held a real bronze sword! Our hosts were very knowledgeable and we left feeling like expert historians. The children were very well behaved and asked lots of interesting questions demonstrating a real sense of curiosity

Year 4 have spent the past few weeks learning all about the Romans and their invasion of Britain in their History lessons so they were very excited to meet a visitor from North Herts Museum on Monday. They were very lucky to be able to see and touch Roman artefacts found in the local area including the sole of a child's shoe, roof and floor tiles from a villa and a bone hair pin. They pretended to be archaeologists and thought carefully about what they could learn about these Roman families from the artefacts. They also got to see what a Roman solider would wear and learnt how to put on a toga. It was an excellent addition to our Year 4 unit - thank you to Miss Porter for organising. 

The Year 6 children had a fantastic trip to Grafham before half term. The children were heard telling each other how it was "the best time of my life" and that they would never forget it! Children tried new things and conquered fears, they worked collaboratively as teams and had a whole load of fun while doing it. The Grafham staff commended the children's behaviour with two instructors suggesting our children this year were the best groups they'd ever worked with - what a lovely compliment to receive. This made Miss Simmons and the other attending school staff very proud (but it didn't mean we squirted them with water any less on the Grafham challenge!)  

All in all - a fantastic weekend with wonderful children - parents you should be very proud! They didn't sleep much however but you can't win them all!!