Issue 2 - 13th September 2023

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope you are all settling back in to school life and all of our new pupils, parents and staff have felt welcome.

Before we finished for the summer last year, we asked parents to complete a feedback survey. These responses are invaluable and are used to aid decision making for the year ahead so a big thank you to those who took part. We didn’t have quite as many responses that we have had previously and would urge parents to take the time to complete these surveys when the opportunity arises to ‘have your say’. In our newsletter over the coming weeks, I will share the feedback with you and any actions taken as a result. This week we will begin with sharing the graphs (see below).

Year 6 will be taking part in a Writing Day on Thursday which is a fantastic day with the aim to inspire children to write. All year groups have a day booked in this academic year. We have invited visitors from the NSPCC in to speak to children in Year 5 and 6 about safeguarding and ways to keep themselves safe. Look out for information on our newsletter about these visits.

Next week, we invite parents to come in for their parent information meetings in the hall and hope to see many of you there. This is a great time to ask questions. A reminder of these dates and times can be found below. After school clubs will also begin from Monday. I hope parents found the new system easy to navigate. This is the same system we use for parents’ evening and will use it going forward to book events and clubs.

Have a good week.

Emma Fordham,
Headteacher

Key Messages

Parent Survey Graphs

A Reminder of our Uniform Expectations

My Clothing supply Almond Hill Junior School uniform complete with embroidered school logos. www.myclothing.com/almond-hill

Please support us by following our uniform expectations. You will see that skorts have been added to our PE kit if children would prefer these to shorts. Please ensure both shorts and skorts are an appropriate length.

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 or skirt
In summer, children may wear red and white gingham dresses.
Black shorts/skirts
Plain black shoes/trainers
Black/red tights preferred

PE kit

Red crew neck t-shirt (no collar)*
Black shorts/skorts (appropriate length) for summer and black jogging bottoms for winter
Children can wear their usual red school jumper or black sweatshirt/hoody
Black unbranded tracksuits for PE are preferred

*items can have the Almond Hill logo on but without is absolutely fine.

We run regular pre-loved clothing sales to help keep the cost down. The next one is after school on Wednesday 4^th October. Please let us know if you have any issues with uniform or PE kits. Mrs Hukin or Mrs Burgess will be happy to help.

Stationery and items from home

Please do not allow children to bring stationery in from home - we have all they need in the classrooms and friendship room and resources for lunchtimes. It is better for children to all have the same resources as it can cause upset when items are lost, borrowed or broken. Please send the minimum into school and ensure all items are clearly labelled (I.e. uniform, PE kit and water bottles).

A message for new families to the school

Please can all parents log on to Arbor and complete the consent section. Without consent, children may miss out on opportunities throughout the year like local trips/visits, photos, films etc. Parents are of course welcome to decline consent but please do this on the portal.

Thank you to those parents who have already completed this but there are still lots outstanding. If you need any help with completing the consents on Arbor, please come and speak to us in the office. As previously mentioned, we know parents are keen to get started on Seesaw however this cannot be done without parental consent.