At the end of the summer term, we asked parents, families and staff for their feedback and comments on our aims and values. Using this feedback we have changed the monthly values to the following:  

September Aspiration  
October Honesty 
November Respect 
December Generosity 
January Gratitude 
February  Courage 
March Kindness 
April Positivity 
May Empathy 
June Acceptance 
July Responsibility 
August  Service  

Please be reminded, gates close at 8.55am  and if you arrive after this time, you will need to come via the main office to be signed in.  This is to ensure the site is secure and it is imperative children don’t ‘squeeze in’ at the last second as they could get missed if their class has left to go to the hall for example.  

Parents will receive a letter in the next few weeks reminding them of the expectations and the national regulations with regards to school attendance. I would urge you all to take the time to read the information. With the cost of living crisis and more pressure on families, we continued to see an increase in the number of holidays taken in term time last year. I would like to remind parents that I cannot authorise time off during term time unless for exceptional circumstances. I understand parents may feel that the time off will not affect their child significantly negatively however the overall education of the class is hugely affected if the teacher has to repeatedly catch up those who have missed prior learning. 

We use Seesaw across the school to share and celebrate the children’s work. Parents tell us they love these updates. New parents will receive an invitation to join the app but only once consent has been given. This has been sent to you via the Arbor Parent Portal. Please allow us some time to get this set up. For more information, follow the link below: www.almondhill.herts.sch.uk/Seesaw 

For those of you who don’t know, we have a school Facebook page. We already have lots of you following but would love to see many more of you including our new families! Please follow the link to follow our page: https://www.facebook.com/121almondhill  

Parents of children who have joined us this term, you will need access to the Arbor Parent Portal. Many of you have already logged in which is fantastic but if you haven’t and need help with this, please contact our office.  

School policy allows for children in years 5 and 6 to bring a mobile phone to school for safety reasons if they travel to and from school independently. Mobile phones must be switched off whilst on school premises and not be used during the school day. There is no need for parents to inform the class teacher/office if their child is walking home independently. I would ask that children do not however bring their phones on school trips or after school events. Please can I remind parents, especially those in year 5 and 6, unaccompanied children should not arrive at school before 8.45am. I appreciate some children are keen to get to school but the school grounds are not supervised before this time and accidents do happen.  

There will be times, as parents, where you need to contact the school and general enquiries can be made via the school office by phone or email. You are also very welcome to email the year group email addresses to contact your child’s year group. Please only use the year group email for NON urgent queries/questions as they are not monitored during the day  

Year3@almondhill.herts.sch.uk  
Year4@almondhill.herts.sch.uk 
Year5@almondhill.herts.sch.uk 
Year6@almondhill.herts.sch.uk 
 
If you have any questions regarding your child, please make an appointment after school to see the class teacher initially as in most cases they will have the most up to date information on your child. If at this point you still feel you would like to speak to someone at our school, please first contact Miss Simmons, our Deputy Head (simmons@almondhill.herts.sch.uk) or if your child has special educational needs or disabilities, Mrs Birchall our SENCo (iep@almondhill.herts.sch.uk). If the issue is of a pastoral nature, Mrs Wright our pastoral lead can be contacted at wrighth@almondhill.herts.sch.uk. The Designated Teacher with overall responsibility for Child Protection is Mrs Fordham, with Mrs Birchall, Mrs Wright, Mrs Barker and Miss Simmons as deputies. The deputies deal with day-to-day safeguarding issues but all cases are shared with the whole safeguarding team. Mrs Fordham can be contacted using the admin email address and will respond accordingly. However, depending on the nature of your email, it may be passed on to a more appropriate member of staff for a response.  Mrs Fordham is often unavailable at short notice and an effective and more efficient response is often achieved by speaking to someone else on the team. That being said, Mrs Fordham will always make the time to speak to parents if all other avenues have been exhausted, the matter is extremely urgent or parents have a specific reason why they believe she is the only person who can deal with the matter. 

Now, you can report on the day absence in the following ways:   
by phone (01438 233660 option 1)    
by completing the form on our website   
by submitting on to the Arbor Parent Portal (How to Guide)   

Please do not use the year group emails for this or admin@almondhill.herts.sch.uk. The year group emails are not regularly monitored and there are so many emails coming into admin and with only one person managing this box,  they may be missed. You will still be contacted by the office team to check absence if you have emailed one of these as it may not have been passed on and we have a duty to check children’s attendance.   

We also reinstated the online form for requests for time off in term time. If you are requesting time off in term time for holidays, a religious festival or other events, please submit the form on our website. You will also find a form here to inform us of medical appointments.  Please be advised that the government does not consider holidays to be an exceptional circumstance. These are highly unlikely to be authorised and are very likely to incur a fine.   

We understand that there are times when parents need to arrange for someone else to collect their child, whether at the end of the school day or for transport to and from sporting events or other activities. For safeguarding reasons, it is essential that we are informed of any such changes in advance. We cannot allow a child to be collected by someone who is not their parent or usual carer without prior confirmation from you. Currently, these messages are sometimes shared via phone calls, the main admin email, or year group email accounts. This can occasionally result in information being missed, delayed, or not seen in time. To improve both safeguarding and efficiency, we have introduced a dedicated Change to Collection form on our website. We kindly ask that you complete this form (in the same way you would report a same-day absence) whenever there is a change to your child’s usual collection arrangements. Please also use this form if another parent is collecting your child, including for school events.   

We do not use a password system for collection; however, it is essential that you inform us of any changes to collection arrangements, as we will not allow a child to go home with someone unless we have been notified in advance. 

https://www.almondhill.herts.sch.uk/form/?pid=17&form=536   

Children in Year 3 and 4 need to be collected by an adult unless we have written permission for children to go home with older siblings. Please confirm this with teaching staff via the year group email. There are no laws about this as such as it relates to the level of the child's competency however we feel that most children in Years 3 and 4 do not have the experience to make safe choices when circumstances are not as they have expected. It is also sometimes not possible for an older sibling to keep a younger sibling safe. Ultimately it is the parents' decision however we are responsible for the safeguarding of the children so will want some dialogue if children younger than Year 5 are not being collected by an adult. As the school has become larger and access routes (both pedestrian and vehicle) have become busier, this becomes increasingly important.   

Children in Year 5 and 6 are allowed to leave school independently. Teachers will walk them up to the gate at the end of the school day but will not monitor collection. If your child is due to meet you from school, please ensure they know where they are going. It is also important to remind children to return to school if they find the person who is meeting them is not where they were expecting them to be. 

There are almost 350 children arriving and leaving our school every day. In the interests of the safety of all our children, we expect you to observe the parking restrictions when dropping off or collecting your child in a car. Please can you make your child aware that the raised area outside of the school is not a pedestrian crossing.  

If you park in the ‘drop off’ zone it must be in one of the marked bays. You may not park on the access roadway around these spaces. Adults who park in one of the allocated parking spaces at the end of the day need to get out of their cars and walk to collect their child. The ‘drop off’ area is for vehicle entrance/exit only NOT for pedestrian use. I am sure like me; you wish to keep our children as safe as possible. I hope the guidelines are clear enough for all parents/carers to follow. If you have any queries or concerns about the use of the drop off, please contact me. 

If you are driving to school, please park safely and in line with restrictions. Please also show respect to our neighbours in adjacent roads so their access is not restricted by inconsiderate parking. 

​Please supervise younger children in and around the school entrances and if you are waiting outside of classrooms. The main gates are automatic. Sometimes younger children are not supervised and are allowed to climb onto the gates and handrails and run around near the vehicle entrance. KEEP CLEAR OF THESE GATES AND ENSURE YOUNG CHILDREN STAY CLOSE TO PARENTS AND ARE PROPERLY SUPERVISED. 

Breakfast Club Drop off (either nurture or Premier) 
If your child attends breakfast club, please ensure that you walk them to the door. It is not appropriate to let them walk unaccompanied from the main entrance. 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the home learning feedback survey last term. It has been extremely valuable to hear your views. Based on the feedback received, it was clear that the vast majority of families feel that home learning (or homework) is beneficial. However, many also commented that, although they wanted it to continue, it can sometimes be a source of stress. 

Therefore, going forward, home learning will be completed online. The cost of resources has influenced this decision, as rising costs have made the use of paper increasingly expensive. In addition, families commented that completed homework was sometimes forgotten at home or not brought into school. Moving home learning online will make it easier for families to complete, reduce paper usage and support our goal of becoming more sustainable. It will also make home learning more accessible and easier for children to read. 

There was also reference in the feedback to issues of equality, with some families feeling that children who do not receive the same level of support at home as others may be at a disadvantage. This is precisely why we ensure that any home learning not completed at home is completed in school. This is not intended as a punishment; rather, it is designed to help reduce gaps in learning and ensure that all children have access to the same opportunities. 

The expectation that home learning is completed will remain the same, and teachers will continue to monitor and follow up on this. Where families genuinely do not have access to the internet or suitable technology to complete online learning, appropriate support will be provided in school to ensure that no child is disadvantaged. 

The home learning will consist of times tables (using TTRockstars and moving on to Maths.co.uk when times tables are embedded), spelling using Emile and reading. As a school we are really encouraging children to read for pleasure and would ask families to please encourage your child to borrow books from school and read daily – even if just for 10 minutes! We had some new books last year (some of which were kindly donated from our Amazon wishlist) so I am confident children can find some exiting books to read.  

There will be further information at the upcoming parent information meetings and would urge parents to attend these. A creche will be available. These meetings will take place in the hall from 3.15pm on the following days: 

Year 3 – Tuesday 22nd September  
Year 4 and 5 – Wednesday 23rd September  
Year 6 – Thursday 24th September  

It is really important that all uniform is clearly labelled to allow lost items to be returned to your child. We encourage children to look through and claim items that belong to them. Although some items are collected, we are still left with lots of uniform. Ordinarily, these items would be recycled but after listening to parents and understanding how successful ‘nearly new’ uniform sales have been locally, we have decided to hold uniform sales once a month at the end of the school day. We have lots of items including t-shirts, cardigans and jumpers and welcome all parents to come to the sales. We are asking for a voluntary donation of 50p which will be given back to the school.  

Please support your child to look after their uniform by naming items clearly.  

Click here for a reminder of our uniform expecations
 

At Almond Hill, we are passionate about fostering a love of reading while supporting our commitment to being an eco-friendly school. 

Each month, we hold a pre-loved book sale during the school day, giving children the opportunity to choose from a wonderful selection of donated books for just 50p each. 

Children are welcome to bring money to school and browse the exciting range of books available. These sales are always popular, and we are incredibly grateful for the generous donations we receive from our school families. 

To help keep our book sales exciting and well stocked, please consider donating any good-quality books that your children have outgrown. Thank you for your continued support.