We are delighted to announce that we, Almond Hill Junior School, have achieved the School Games Gold Mark Award for the 2025/26 academic year.  

The School Games Mark is a Government-led award scheme launched in 2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.  

Our sporting achievements this year include:  

• Stevenage Sporting Futures Participation Highly Commended Award  

• SSFT Respect Awards at several events  

With a total of 72% of our pupils participating in either local inter-school competitions, events or school sports clubs this year, we are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our competitions possible.  

As part of our application, we were asked to fulfil criteria in the areas of participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year. A special thanks to our PE Coach, Miss Harris, who has worked hard to support these events by attending with children and coaching them to achieve their best.  

We look forward to applying once again in 2027!

We have achieved the Kindness Ambassador School award for the 2nd year in a row, which we are very proud of. To achieve this, each class picked a Kindness Ambassador and these children have been meeting to discuss ways that we can spread kindness across our school. They have come up with initiatives such as a weekly kindness task, writing poems of kindness, making cards for special people, making a school video to show how the children at Almond Hill are kind and much more.  

Each half term, the Year 6 ambassadors join a Zoom call with all other ambassador schools and they brainstorm ideas, celebrate successes and motivate each other to spread as much kindness as possible.  

The children will choose new ambassadors next year as we continue our aim to make Almond Hill the kindest school that we can. 

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to FOAH for their incredible work this year in fundraising and organising such wonderful events for the children. 

From our hugely successful Christmas Fair and the competitive Penny Wars to the Present Rooms and Frozen Fridays, every event requires careful planning, dedication, and commitment. We are truly grateful for all your hard work and support in creating these memorable experiences for our children. 

Thank you for everything you do! 

AND... A huge thank you from FOAH 

Together this year we have raised a whopping £8691... FOAH would like to say a huge thank you to every child, parent, carer, family member, staff member and local business that has helped make this happen. 

Thank you for the entries to the guess the adult from the baby photo event which we operated as a team event - the adults have clearly changed a lot as the highest score was 3/17! The adult that was guessed correctly the most was Mrs Pridmore and £154 raised for charity - the RSPCA. Thank you to the Frogs that Flip for organising this event! They have one more fun event that they are busily trying to organize involving classrooms as 'escape rooms'!

Branded school uniform can be purchased from the suppliers below:

www.smartyschoolwear.co.uk/
Not only can you order online with Smarty Schoolwear, they also have a shop in the town centre.
Unit 2
Mulberry House
Park Place Plaza
STEVENAGE
SG1 1BF

Please support us by following our uniform expectations.

 For our standard uniform we would like all children to wear the following:  

• Standard red cardigan or jumper*  
• White polo shirt* (children in year 6 may wear a shirt and tie) 
• Black trousers, shorts or skirt  
• Plain black shoes/trainers 
• Black/red tights preferred
• In summer, children may wear red and white gingham dresses.  
• No hooped earrings or other jewellery
• No makeup
• Watches are allowed but no smartwatches (must not have the function to take photos or receive messages)

PE kit 

• Red crew neck t-shirt (no collar)* 
• Black shorts/skorts (appropriate length) for summer and black tracksuit bottoms for winter
• Children can wear their usual red school jumper or black sweatshirt/hoody
• Black unbranded tracksuits for PE are preferred
• Long hair should be tied up on PE days 

*items can have the Almond Hill logo on but without is absolutely fine and most items can be purchased very reasonably in local supermarkets. 

Information for parents/carers with children in year 5. Further information about moving to secondary or upper school in September 2027 will be available at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/admissions from 1st September 2026. 

Important Dates  

The timetable below gives you an idea of what will happen over the next few months.