Following some practice runs, we have made a small change to the schedule to help ensure the event runs safely and smoothly.

• Years 3 and 4 will complete their marathon at 2:00pm.
• Years 5 and 6 will complete their marathon at 2:30pm.

If your child is in Year 3 or Year 4, you will be able to collect them directly from their classroom door once they have finished their marathon, unless you are staying to support a child taking part in the Upper School event.

The Year 5 and Year 6 marathon will finish just before the end of the school day, so home-time collection arrangements will remain as normal.

Today, children will be bringing home a sponsorship pledge form. Please take a few moments to complete this with your child and return it to school before the marathon on Friday. During the event, teachers will record the number of laps each child completes. Once the marathon is finished, class teachers will add the total number of laps to your child's sponsorship form so that you know how much to donate.  Please make all donations via the GoFundMe link, as we are unable to accept cash payments.

To add a little extra excitement, the class who run the most laps in both the Lower School and Upper School will receive medals.

All children should wear their PE kit to school on this day.

Parents and carers are very welcome to join in (and actively encouraged to!) and we can't wait to see everyone taking part and giving it their best effort.

Please can we ask all parents and carers to ensure that children do not walk across the drop-off zone and instead use the designated pathways. We would also appreciate adults modelling this behaviour wherever possible. The drop-off and collection area is particularly busy and we have experienced near misses that could easily have been avoided by using the paths provided

The pop-up pool will be arriving during the October half-term break, ready for swimming lessons to begin in November. We are looking forward to providing this exciting opportunity for our children.

There are still a number of outstanding consent forms. Please log in to Arbor and check the ‘Notices’ section to ensure your child's consent has been completed and is up to date. We will also be contacting families of children in Year 4, 5 and 6 directly where consent is still required to see if any barriers can be addressed or request certificates where this are outstanding. Thank you for your support in helping us ensure all children are able to take part in this valuable experience.

Over the coming weeks, governors and staff will be reviewing our Anti-Bullying Policy. We want to ensure that the policy remains relevant, up to date and reflective of the needs of our school community. To help us achieve this, we would greatly appreciate feedback from all stakeholders.

Teachers have already been discussing this topic at staff meetings and we would now like to hear from children, parents and carers. Teachers will be having conversations with children and your views will help us to identify what is working well and whether there are any areas that could be improved.

Please take a few minutes to read the attached policy and share your thoughts using the comments section below.

Thank you for taking the time to contribute to this important review. Your feedback will help us ensure that our school continues to be a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for all children

Anti-bullying policy

The Stevenage Community Trust runs an annual Christmas Gift Card Scheme, providing £200 in gift cards to support struggling families and children in need across Stevenage and the surrounding villages.  Families are unable to self-refer for this support, as all applications must be submitted by a professional on their behalf.

If you feel this scheme could help ease financial pressures over the Christmas period and support with the cost of gifts or food for your children, please contact Mrs Wright in the strictest confidence: wrighth@almondhill.herts.sch.uk

Applications must be submitted by 31st October. To allow sufficient time for completion before the half-term break, please contact Mrs Wright no later than 19th October.

As the colder months approach, families who are experiencing financial hardship may be able to access support with their energy costs through a Heating Grant. Applications are open from 1st October to 31st March. The scheme is available to people on a low income, including those in employment, receiving state benefits, or receiving a pension. Please note that you do not need to be receiving benefits to be considered for support.

Successful applicants will receive a £300 grant, which will be paid directly to their energy provider to help with heating costs during the winter months.

If you think you may be eligible, we encourage you to explore this opportunity and contact Mrs Wright in the strictest confidence: wrighth@almondhill.herts.sch.uk who can apply on your behalf.

A reminder of the dates for the Year 3 parent lunches.  Lunch will be served at 12.20pm on separate days:

Wednesday 7th October – 3L (Mrs Lyons)

Wednesday 14th October – 3C (Miss Clarke)
Deadline for orders: 9:00am Thursday 8th October

Wednesday 21st October – 3B (Miss Bonfield and Mrs Geer)
Deadline for orders: 9:00am Thursday 15th October

Adult orders should be placed using the Arbor School Shop. Child meals are ordered in the usual way on School GRID. Please see the email sent to parents on Monday for a reminder of the details.

Face to Face Appointments

If your child is in Year 3 or Year 4, appointments will take place in the meeting rooms in Oak House. Appointments for Year 5 will take place in meeting rooms on the ground floor of Acorn House. Appointments for Year 6 will take place in meeting rooms on the upper floor of Acorn House. There will also be an opportunity to look at your child’s books either before or after your meeting.

Meeting rooms will be confirmed shortly and will be clearly signposted on the 8^th October.

I am pleased to be able to offer a free creche for all in-person appointments.

Online Appointments

If you choose an online meeting, please follow the link below for a guide on using the system. Please read this carefully as it tells you how to check that your technology will work correctly for the meeting. You will be sent a link for the meeting and you will need to ensure you are prompt to start. The meetings follow back to back so your time cannot be adjusted. The meetings will be timed to 9 minutes and will cut out after this time. There will be a clock on screen as an indicator for both you and the teacher that the meeting is coming to an end.

https://support.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/article/801-video-parents-how-to-attend-appointments-over-video-call

We must ask parents to comply with our remote learning policy to ensure safeguarding in the meetings. In attending the meeting, parents must be appropriately dressed, they should be in a neutral, quiet, downstairs area of the home. Parents should be aware of any backgrounds that could be seen by teachers - e.g. personal photographs of family and background noise.

All meetings are subject to technology working and we ask you to be supportive if things do not go quite to plan. Please be assured that if there is a technical hitch at the time of the meeting then your child’s teacher will contact you to rearrange.

Clubs during the week commencing 5^th October

As previously confirmed, there will be no DT club, Running club, Advanced Dance with Dani or Racket sports club. All other clubs (including Premier Wraparound Care) will run as normal.

Pedestrian gates will open at 3.10pm on the day of parents' evening.