We have been researching safer practices for using images on our school website. One theme that has come up more often is the importance of limiting the use of single images of children on the website. 

Although we have not experienced any incidents of poor use, we believe it is important to follow the guidance available in order to help keep our children safe. With this in mind, we ask parents not to send individual images of children for the website moving forward, including for our achievements page. 

We would still love to celebrate children’s achievements. A photograph of a certificate, medal or anything else that symbolises the activity would be a great way for us to showcase these achievements on our website without using an individual photograph of a child. 

We will continue to review our use of images, but we felt this was a good opportunity to ask parents how they feel about photographs appearing on our school website and/or Facebook page. Do you like seeing the photographs? Would you miss them if we decided to stop using photos? Perhaps you have suggestions that could help us make photographs more secure on our website. 

Please share your thoughts with us so that we can take your views into account. 

We will be having an outdoor learning day on Thursday 5th November. Please make sure your child brings a coat and wears sensible shoes, as we will still go outside if it rains. If the weather has been particularly wet, you may wish for your child to bring in some wellies to change into. Thank you for helping your child to be prepared for an enjoyable day of outdoor learning.

Every year, children at Almond Hill vote for their Prime Minister and government. This is an exciting opportunity for pupils to experience democracy first-hand and to have a real say in the priorities that matter to them.

Children in Year 6 are invited to form ‘parties’ and canvas children for their votes. Working together, each party discusses the changes they would like to see and prepares a clear set of promises to share with the school. Each party has to come up with a school, local, national and international pledge that they promise to fulfil throughout the year.

The campaign gives children the chance to speak confidently, listen carefully to different opinions and explain their ideas respectfully. It also encourages teamwork, responsibility and thoughtful decision-making. As pupils consider their votes, they can compare each party’s pledges and think about which promises would make the greatest difference. The elected Prime Minister and government then have the important job of representing children’s views and working towards their pledges during the year.

Our Year 6 children have been busy canvassing votes and I can now reveal our School Government for  2026-2027 are the Disco Ducks. Congratulations to Lilly, Daisy, Kit, Sophie and Harper. 

As previously mentioned, we have a new teacher, Mr Hipkin, to support in 4W, who will join us after half term. This will allow for an extended handover period to ensure a smooth transition for both staff and pupils in 4W when Mrs Waldrom goes on maternity leave. 

Hi Almond Hill children and parents. I am very excited to be joining your school. I've recently returned to Stevenage after teaching in China for two years and while my experiences were amazing, it's great to be home and starting the next part of my journey with Almond Hill. I enjoy teaching maths and phonics and am also excited to teach Geography. I absolutely love sports, especially football (which I coach and play) and in my spare time I like to make music and watch travel documentaries. I have heard and seen great things from Almond Hill and can't wait to be part of your team. I look forward to seeing you all soon! Mr Hipkin.

Bookings are now open for the after school football club with WB Coaching. Please use the following link to book: https://coaching-wb.classforkids.io/term/14

At Almond Hill, we believe in the all-round development of children and aim to provide a wide range of clubs and sporting events to encourage this. Most of our clubs are either facilitated by staff who volunteer their time or run by external providers. External clubs are chargeable but they offer some funded places too. Our funded sporting events are provided by Stevenage Sporting Futures. The following number of clubs and sporting events have previously been funded by school: 

Autumn term – 5 Sports clubs – 3 Creative arts clubs – 1 Outdoor learning clubs - 1 Language club – 1 Choir club – 1 Debate club – 8 Stevenage Sporting Futures Events  

Spring term - 4 Sports clubs – 1 Creative arts club – 4 Outdoor learning clubs – 6 Stevenage Sporting Futures Events 

Summer term - 6 Sports clubs – 2 Creative arts clubs - 1 Stem club  – 9 Stevenage Sporting Futures Events

Please see the table below for a round up of events and their costings.