Issue 3 - 20th September 2024
Dear Parents/Carers,
A big thank you to the parents who attended our open evenings this week. I hope you found them useful. For those who were unable to make it, we have added the PowerPoints at the end of the newsletter for you to take a look at.
We had our first FOAH meeting of the year on Monday where we discussed the events and activities they would like to run for your children throughout the year. We really need your support to keep Friends of Almond Hill going! If you are willing to help organise events for our children to help raise funds for the school, please let the office know. Even if you only have a small amount of time to offer, we would love to hear from you. Over the years, our parents have supported many fun events for the children and FOAH have paid for resources and educational activities which we are not able to provide from our budget. Thank you very much in advance. Any help is always so greatly appreciated.
On Tuesday next week, all parents and carers are welcome to attend our SEND/Pastoral coffee morning with Mrs Birchall (SENCo) and Mrs Burgess (Pastoral Lead). This will take place 8:30-9:15am in Beech Room in Acorn House. Your child does not need a diagnosis for you to attend. If you feel you could do with some support, resources, or just a chat with a knowing ear, please come along.
Emma Fordham,
Headteacher
Key Messages
School open events and key dates for secondary transfer
Moving on 2025 leaflet Information for parents with children in year 6 at primary/junior school. Further information about moving to secondary school in September 2025 will be available at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/admissions
The timetable below gives you an idea of what will happen over the next few months.
First week of September 2024 |
Admissions information is available online for parents to read or download |
Monday 2 September 2024 |
Online application system opens and the “Moving On” leaflet is distributed via children’s current school |
July, September and October 2024 |
Schools hold their open events |
Thursday 31 October 2024 |
Closing date for applications (online and paper) |
Drop off Zone
Please be aware there was an error on the gate times on the last newsletter. The vehicle gate to the drop off zone opens at 3.10pm not 3.00pm as we do not wish to encourage parents to come early and queue. This is because our neighbours complain about excessive traffic at the end of the school day.
Please think of our environment and switch your engines off whilst waiting outside the school.
Nut Free School
Can we stress to all parents the importance of not allowing children to come to school with any product containing nuts. At present, we have a number of children with severe allergies and therefore strongly require parents to be mindful and check that the snack and lunch items they are providing do not contain nuts.
SEND/Pastoral Parent Meetings
Tuesday 24th Sep 8:30-9:15am
Thursday 21st Nov 2:30-3:15pm
We want any parent who feels these sessions may benefit them to have the chance to attend so welcome feedback about the time/dates that these are planned.
Arbor Calendar/School Calendar
We are really pleased so many of you are getting used to using Arbor. As you know, there is a calendar within the app. This relates to your child’s school day and includes and clubs they have enrolled in and will also include sporting events they may have been invited to. All other events that take place in school (not child specific) will continue to be on the calendar on our school website.
Lost property
All of this uniform was collected at the end of ONE lunch time this week. PLEASE make sure all of your child’s uniform is clearly labelled with their full name so that if it is lost, we can return it to your child. Of course, it would be much better if children collected their belongings and took them back to class with them after break/lunch so please encourage your children to do this.