Issue 23 - 15th March 2024
Dear Families,
A big thank you and well done to everyone who took part in the sponsored read. We finished collecting sponsorship money today and will update you on how much was raised when it has been counted. I hope the children enjoyed reading their books and enjoyed dressing up for World Book Day.
What a busy week we have had this week celebrating 'British Science Week!'
Children across the school have taken part in 'The Great Biscuit Investigation' to see which biscuit makes the 'best dunker.' Year 3 investigated a range of different biscuits; Year 4 observed whether the type of liquid the biscuit was being dunked in made a difference; Year 5 thought about whether the temperature affected 'the dunk' and Year 6 compared different brands of the same biscuit.
Yesterday, we held our 'Science Morning' and saw children (and parents) get their hands dirty with lots of hands-on science experiments. Children investigated what happens when cornflour is mixed with water. They also marvelled at the reaction that takes place when vinegar is added to bicarbonate soda. Finally, some children managed to 'grow a rainbow.'
We had more than 120 parents attend the morning and It was so lovely to be able to share this with you so thank you for joining us and fully embracing the morning.
We took on board the feedback from the previous DT afternoon and made some adjustments to this event (changing it to the morning for example) and would love to ask you for your feedback again. Please leave a comment below – positive feedback or constructive criticism – we plan these events for you to enjoy so it is important we hear your views.
Have a good weekend.
Emma Fordham
Headteacher
Key Messages
External After School Clubs
We have lots of wonderful staff here that are always keen to volunteer their time to run after school clubs for our children. We offer these clubs free of charge as we never want cost to be a barrier for accessing extra-curricular activities. However, parents will understand that staff have huge amounts of other commitments at the end of the school day so we can’t always offer as many as we would like. To increase our offer, we have begun introducing external clubs which are paid for by parents. We currently host a dance club on a Wednesday afternoon and will be introducing a Performing Arts club on a Friday and a football club on a Monday and Tuesday. We agreed for these clubs to use our space with the proviso that there were some (limited) funded spaces available for our children. If you feel that cost is a barrier for your child accessing these clubs, please email admin@almondhill.herts.sch.uk FAO Mrs Fordham. All emails will be treated confidentially and I really want to build up a list of children who can benefit from these extra opportunities who might not otherwise be able to. Please do get in touch.
Year 5 Cycling
We were pleasantly surprised to see so many people interested in the cycling proficiency this year so much so we had to book an additional slot. Last year, we struggled to fill a slot of 16 spaces! We know, despite adding the additional spaces, there are still people who missed out and we have been in contact with the company to see if we can increase this further. Watch this space...
In future, we will endeavour to give advanced notice of booking systems opening to allow parents to plan for this. If possible, we will also offer some spaces to the current Year 5s next year should there be space available.
Arbor Parent Portal
Please remember, we have moved onto Arbor for communications so all messages will be sent via Arbor not School Gateway so if you haven’t already, please ensure you download the app to continue to receive important information from us. We will continue using Gateway for payments. School Grid and School Cloud have not been affected by this change.
Attendance
As much as it was lovely to see such a high attendance percentage on Tuesday for school photo day (96.4%), please remember education is more important than school photos and it would be even better to see this level of attendance every day.
Coming to School Before 8.45am
Children are not supervised on the playground before 8.45 so should not be arriving without an adult before this time as it is not safe. Bagels are available after 8.30am.
e-Scooters in School
Further to the information shared on last week’s newsletter, please can I remind parents that e-Scooters are not allowed on the school site.
Last Day of Term
The last day of term is on Thursday 28th March and we finish at 12.30pm. Please note, there will be cold lunch options only on this day (cheese and ham). Please help us by clearing any dinner money debt by the end of term. Thank you.
Diary Dates
For our full calendar, please click the 'button' link below.
Click here for next week's diary dates...
Attendance
Year 3 95.78%
Year 4 93.29%
Year 5 96.89%
Year 6 87.25%
Class Winners - 5P 99%
All Students 93.48%
The government expectation for attendance is 96%
Almond Hill Achievements
Click the button below to see all the wonderful things our children have achieved outside of school.
Upcoming FOAH Events
FOAH Movie Night – Wonka
Inspired by the Oscars and with Easter fast approaching, Friends of Almond Hill have arranged a movie night for Year 3 and 4 students on Tuesday 16th April and Year 5 and 6 students on Tuesday 23rd April. Screening Wonka, the origin story of Roald Dahl’s quirky chocolatier, children will be treated to movie goers’ firm favourite of popcorn and a drink. Tickets are £5 per person and must be purchased in advance on School Gateway by 27th March. There can be no exceptions as we have to write risk assessments based on attendees so please do prioritise getting a ticket if this is important to your child. It may seem a long way in the future but two weeks of that is Easter holidays when staff won’t be available. Please note this film is classified PG and teaching staff will be present throughout the film. Children should be collected at 5.15pm from the school hall on screening days.
In Other News...
Football Match
We went into the match 3 key players down so it was always going to be a tough one. Despite the scoreline the team played well and definitely deserved the win. It wasn't our day today but there were lots of positives to take from this match. Good effort all.
Player's player - Oliver - who took an absolute belter to the face, took a minute to shake it off and was straight back in goal. Superb!
Manager's player - Alex - another solid role model performance.
A big thank you to Roman who stepped up for a second time this season to help the team out when we were low on players (Well done Roman) and to Mr Gibson, Teddy's (Mr Penalty Taker!) Dad for stepping in to ref - very much appreciated.
A Plea from Mrs Burgess
Polli, our Worry Monster has gone missing. If Polli has been brought home by mistake, please can she be returned to Mrs Burgess – thank you!
DSPL2 Information
