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  • Year 5 KNEX Challenge

    Published 29/04/25

    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 

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  • Easter School

    Published 22/04/25

    Thank you and well done to the Y6 children who attended Easter School. Excellent behaviour. Impeccable manners. Lots of gratitude and some learning thrown in for good measure! On the final afternoon the children completed an arithmetic test in the 'comfort' of an outside camp they made. It was a lovely day for some outdoor learning. 

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  • Group photo of the school choir sat on the steps outside The Royal Albert Hall

    School Choir Perform at Royal Albert Hall

    Published 02/04/25

    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. 

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  • Children participating in their science work

    Science Week

    Published 26/03/25

    This year, the theme for British Science Week was 'Change and Adapt'. Children across the school took part in an investigation that focused on how water lilies adapt to live in ponds. These beautiful flowers are able to open and close their leaves at different times of the day. We made paper water lilies and investigated how long they took to fully bloom. Each year group tested a different property of the paper flowers with Year 3 investigating paper types, Year 4 investigating the size of the flowers and Year 6 investigating the number of petals on the flower. This investigation really got the children talking and there was such a buzz across the school! Well done Almond Hill for such great science work!

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  • Year 4 Temple Visit

    Published 21/03/25

    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)

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  • two children participating in the STEM challenge

    Year 5 STEM Challenge

    Published 21/03/25

    Year 5 took part in a STEM challenge to design a glider. Children worked in small groups with specified resources provided to us by the Smallpiece Trust. The challenge linked to children's learning of air resistance and provided an opportunity to create an aerodynamic glider. The children thoroughly enjoyed the activity, especially testing out their designs! It was a lovely opportunity for the children to be creative and we were thoroughly impressed with their efforts. Well done Year 5! 

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  • Happy Chicks - Update

    Published 21/03/25

    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  

    1. they need a quiet room at all times   

    1. 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  

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  • Year 5 Happy Chicks

    Published 14/03/25

    In year 5 over the next two weeks, we have the incredible opportunity to incubate and care for some very special visitors- chicks!  Our adventure began when we received a set of eggs from the Happy Chick Company on Monday. The children were buzzing with excitement. At the beginning of the week, all year 5 children were eagerly checking the incubator, wondering when the eggs would hatch. It was worth the wait when on Wednesday, we witnessed the magical moment of a chick hatching. The children were so fascinated. Once hatched, the chicks were kept in the warm incubator for about 20 hours to dry off and fluff up. They have grown and have now been moved to their brooder box for some more space and some food and water. The children have really enjoyed this opportunity and have been fully engrossed by it. Next week, we will continue to observe and care for them. 

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  • Maths Challenge

    Published 07/03/25

    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! 

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  • Stevenage Underpass Competition

    Published 28/02/25

    Many of you submitted entries for the underpass competition and we have now had the results back. There were a total of 950 entries from a number of schools in Stevenage. Of these 950, 268 were chosen as winners and 32 of those came from Almond Hill! The artwork will be featured in the underpasses in Martins Way and the Hitchin Road roundabout. We have also been invited to the unveiling in the Spring and Mrs Campbell will be selecting 2 children, from the winning entries, to join her.  

    The competition has even made the press! Click the following links to see our success celebrated in the Comet, on the local government website and on Instagram. 

    Children's artwork to be displayed in Stevenage underpass | The Comet 

    Designs from Stevenage school competition to feature in underpass 

    @Stevenagebetter  

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  • Year 3 Visit to North Herts Museum

    Published 14/02/25

    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

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  • TTRockstars Battle of the Bands!

    Published 31/01/25

    From 16th to 22nd January, Year 5 took part in a TTRockstars Battle of the Bands! The tournament was girls vs boys. Initially, the boys gained a massive lead over the girls and it seemed almost impossible that they would catch up. However, the girls fought hard and had an amazing comeback! The final scores were 1434 for the boys and 1433 for the girls. A massive well done to the children who took part- I'm sure they will enjoy their reward of an extra play time!

    An extra special shout out to Barnaby, Jack and Nabhan who were the top contributors for the boy's team and to Pollie, Millie R and Scarlett who were the top contributors for the girl's team!

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  • North Herts Museum visitor for Year 4

    Published 31/01/25

    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. 

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  • The National Space Centre

    Published 29/11/24

    On Wednesday the 27th November year 5 went on a trip to The National Space Centre. There we got split into groups. I was in Miss Porter’s group. First, we went to the rocket tower and there were all sorts of rocket themed games and facts. We got to see a real-size rocket which was 43m tall! Next we went into lots of different rooms where we learnt about The Sun, The Universe and Earth. After lunch, we went to The Planetarium which in my opinion was the best part! There we watched a video about how to become an astronaut and learnt how difficult this job is! Last but not least we went to the gift shop. People bought posters, chocolate, sweets, pens, keyrings, crystals and more! Each pupil could bring £7.50 to spend in the gift shop. A big thank you to our parent helpers! 

    Written by Ava 5P (and Miss Porter) 

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  • Grafham Water

    Published 08/11/24

    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!!

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