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Issue 18 - 31st January 2025

 

Dear Families,

This week has been packed with exciting trips and events, including Voices in Hertfordshire, a badminton event, sports hall athletics and football matches. We also welcomed a special visitor to the school—a museum representative who led a workshop for Year 4. Keep reading to learn more about these activities! 

Looking ahead to next week, we have even more exciting events planned. On Monday, the first half of Year 3 will visit North Herts Museum, Year 5 will take part in a writing day and Year 6 parents are invited to an evening SATs meeting. On Tuesday, Year 4 will have their writing day and some Year 5 and 6 students will compete in a Sports Hall Athletics event at Barnwell. On Wednesday, Year 3 will participate in a recycling workshop. Finally, we’ll wrap up the week with the Whole School Writing Project awards evening on Thursday—we can’t wait! 

Have a good weekend. 

Emma Fordham,

Key Messages

Parent Survey

We are pleased to see that everyone who responded felt we handle conflict appropriately and, when necessary, deal with it effectively.  
 
However, if you need to discuss any concerns with the school, please use the following communication channels: 

  • Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) enquiries should be sent to Mrs. Birchall, our SENCo (iep@almondhill.herts.sch.uk). 

  • Mrs. Fordham can be reached via the admin email. Depending on the nature of your enquiry, it may be forwarded to a more appropriate member of staff for a response initially. 

  • Child Protection concerns should be directed to our Designated Teacher for Child Protection, Mrs. Fordham. Deputies include Mrs. Birchall, Mrs. Burgess, and Miss Simmons if she is not available.  

We appreciate your cooperation and look forward to continuing to support our students and families. 
 
One parent has referred to trauma informed training which is provided by the Virtual School. This is training that is undertaken by staff annually and we agree it is very good. As a school we employ the Therapeutic Thinking strategy as supported by the Local Authority but are also currently undertaking further training in ‘unconditional positive regard’. This concept complements and supplements the strategies already used to ensure we meet the needs of the pupils in our community. 

Announcement  

I am very pleased to inform parents that Mrs Bond has taken the post of Acting Assistant Head for the rest of this academic year.  Mrs Bond will look after sport for Almond Hill. I am sure you will all join me in congratulating Mrs Bond on her new role.   

Parents’ Evening – Diary Date 

Details are still being finalised but please be aware the dates for the spring term parents’ evening are as follows: 
Tuesday 11th March and Thursday 13th March 

Parents of 3W please note parents’ evening with Miss Ward will take place on Monday 10th March and Thursday 13th March. 

Year 6 SATs meeting and Transition Workshop  

A reminder for Year 6 parents: Miss Simmons will be hosting a SATs information meeting online on Monday, February 3rd via Microsoft Teams. We encourage you to attend! For those who may be interested, DSPL2 are hosting a 6/7 Transition: Stevenage Parent/Carer Workshop – details can be found below.  

Microsoft Teams
Join the meeting now 
Meeting ID: 355 580 176 793 
Passcode: gD9Yz2s6 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/67-transition-stevenage-parentcarer-workshop-tickets-1214803773789?aff=ebemoffollowpublishemail&utm_campaign=following_published_event&ref=eemail&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eventbrite&utm_content=follow_notification  
 

Diary Dates

Did you know, you can subscribe to our calendar to keep up to date with the events going on within the school?

Follow the link below, select 'subscribe' and follow the instructions for your device.

School Calendar

Book Sale Dates

All sales will take place during the school day. Books cost just 50p each. 

  • 29th January  
  • 26th February 
  • 26th March 
Uniform Sales

Dates for Spring term uniform sales. 

All sales will take place from 3.00pm in the hall.

  • 6th February  
  • 6th March  
Parent Forum

Wednesday 12th February at 5.30pm via Microsoft Teams.

Join the meeting now

Meeting ID:
374 602 523 019
Passcode: 5BY3zQ34

SEND/Pastoral Coffee Morning

8:45-9:15am on 5th February. All parents are welcome so please come along – there is no need to book. 

Club Collection Points

Please check your child's Arbor calendar for dates.

After School Clubs
Club  Day Times Collection Point Year
Football Monday  3.15-4.15 Year 5 Gate  3 & 4
Netball  Monday  3.15-4.15 Year 5 Gate  5 &6
Football Tuesday  3.15-4.15 Year 5 Gate  3 & 4
French  Tuesday  3.15-4.15 Computer Room  3 & 4
Outdoor Activities Tuesday  3.15-4.15 Year 5 Classrooms 5 & 6
Badminton Tuesday  3.15-4.15 Hall 5 & 6
Street Dance Wednesday 3.15-4.15 Hall all
Cheerleading  Wednesday 8.00–8:45 N/A all
Football Year 6 (squad only) Wednesday 3.15-4.15 Year 5 Gate  6
Outdoor Activities Thursday 3.15-4.15 Year 5 Classrooms 3 & 4
Card Games Thursday 3.15-4.15 3B all
Multi Sports Friday 3.15-4.15 Hall 3 & 4
Booster Classes (invitation only) 
Club  Day Times Collection Point Year
Year 6 Maths Booster Monday  3.15-4.30 Acorn House  6
Year 6 SPaG Booster Wednesday 3.15-4.30 Acorn House  6
Year 6 Reading Booster Thursday 3.15-4.30 Acorn House  6

Attendance

Year 3 96.99% 
Year 4 96.14% 
Year 5 93.57% 
Year 6 96.21% 
All Students 95.73% 
Class Winners   
3B    97.86% 
6B    97.24% 

Almond Hill Achievements

Click the button below to see all the wonderful things our children have achieved outside of school.  

 

House Points

 

FOAH Update 

 

Next Meeting :Monday 3rd March at 6.00pm  

Microsoft Teams  
Join the meeting now 
Meeting ID: 341 658 310 38 
Passcode: ff76Uw7Q 

In Other News...

Voices of Hertfordshire

Voices of Hertfordshire Children from Almond Hill visited Fairlands School on Monday 27th January to represent the Voices of Hertfordshire. They discussed what SEND means and how this impacts on inclusion and designed posters around this. We also played a game to promote thoughts around inclusion.   

Y3&4 Sports Hall Athletics

Y3&4 Sports Hall Athletics A group of children from Year 3 and 4 were invited to take part in an athletics event at Barnwell School. All the Year 3 and 4s had alot of fun trying new athletic sports. Almond Hill were competing against 7 other schools. They all showed great team spirit and huge enthusiasm when taking part. Year 3 and 4 were wonderful representat…

Year 4 Badminton

Year 4 Badminton On Wednesday morning, 7 of our Year 4s took part in the badminton shuttle stars festival at Barnwell School. They had to work extremely hard, both as a team and individually, building their throwing and catching skills with accuracy and precision. The children took part in lots of different games which allowed them to learn the vocab…

Football Update

Football Update The team have been busy playing lots of games over the last couple of weeks and have not lost a game yet!   League games:  St Margrets 6 - 0 win  Martins wood 4-1 win  Friendlies:  Woolenwick 2-2  Wix Cup game:  William Ransom (Hitchin) 3-1 win

North Herts Museum visitor for Year 4

North Herts Museum visitor for Year 4 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, roo…

 

 

Half Term Activities