Thank you to the parents who completed the form on last week’s newsletter. We really appreciate your suggestions to help with parking around school and wanted to take the time to address some of the points raised.  

Parking in the cemetery 
We have asked about using the cemetery for parking and this is the response we received:  

You suggested previously that we allow parents to park their vehicles in the Almond Lane Cemetery car park. I did ask approval from my colleagues managing the cemeteries but I’m afraid this has been denied. They believe that would not be appropriate to allow general public parking in the cemetery car park and they do not have resources to manage it. Furthermore, on-street parking is allowed in Almonds Lane near the cemetery but in our recent school peak hours inspection we noticed that parents do not use this area for parking their vehicle and instead they join the traffic congestion near the school entrance to park as close as possible to the school. 

Parking in Trafford Close  
We already receive a number of complaints from local residents about parking in the nearby streets. Parking in these roads are limited and I wouldn’t want to encourage parents to make our neighbours’ lives any harder than it already is. 

Encourage people to walk 
Walking, scooting or cycling would always be our preferred mode of transport for families. This isn’t always easy for those who need to get to work after drop off but we do encourage working parents to try to park further away and walk into the school whenever possible. We do have families coming from much further than we used to where walking is not feasible but believe those in the vicinity of the school could try to walk more often. 

Stagger start and finish times 
This is something we have often considered as a school but would take more planning to execute and there are some barriers to this. For example, many of our parents have children at Letchmore who finish at 3pm so we couldn't shorten the end of the school day as this would hugely inconvenience these parents so the day would need to finish later for some children. This also doesn’t benefit parents who have children in both the lower and upper school as they would still need to be here at both times. This is something we will be discussing further and will come back to parents over the coming weeks.  

The drop off doesn't work  
We don’t believe drop off in the morning causes a significant issue when we have been monitoring. The problems seem to occur at the end of the school day. We have considered closing the drop off at the end of the school day temporarily to see if this makes any difference to the congestion. It has been suggested that parents aren’t looking elsewhere to park and are joining the queue for the drop off so in theory, closing the drop off at the end of the day will remove the large queue. 

Increasing the car park size 
Increasing the car park is a great idea but is not something that is within our control. We will be contacting Herts County Council to see if this is something we are able to do.  

The form is still open if you would like to offer any suggestions. We understand many people are frustrated and the reasons why so please only complete the form if you are able to provide suggestions.

As you know, we are always looking at ways to improve our school and your feedback is invaluable in helping us to do this. Please can you take the time to complete the survey below to give your feedback on different aspects of school life. There is a section for you to add your child's name if you would like a response from school. Please only use this if you are hoping to hear from me, as previously, some people got phone calls who weren't expecting them. Thank you so much for the small number of parents who have already completed this – your feedback will be explored in the newsletter over the coming weeks.  

The Online Safety Group have been very busy!  Watch and be fascinated by our captivating exclusive.  The top, terrific team put questions to none other than Mrs Fordham and Miss Simmons about the heated topic of WhatsApp.  Watch our exclusive.  Find out what's going on.  Listen to what children really need to know.  Don't miss this must see, one of a kind opportunity.   

Thank you, Online Safety Group, for tirelessly making our school a safer place to be! 

Miss Simmons plans half termly meetings to discuss an agenda jointly formed between the school leadership team and parent volunteers. The most important thing is that parents get involved. We would love approximately three parents per year group and with so many new families joining, we wanted to remind you of this opportunity. 

Our next meeting will take place in January. Please complete the form below if you are interested in joining one of our meetings or would like to find out more. This is a really exciting opportunity to further develop the home school partnership. 

We are thrilled to see the diversity of our school community growing and thriving! We warmly welcome and encourage family members from all backgrounds and cultures to join our Parent Forum. Your voices and experiences enrich our community and we look forward to working together to continue to improve our school.

We recently spoke to all children in assembly about whether they may be a young carer as we are in the process of setting up a lunchtime support group. 

A young carer is anyone under the age of 18 who provides care and support to a family member usually because of; illness, disability, addiction or mental health issues. Young carers often take on practical or emotional caring responsibilities that would normally be expected of an adult. If you feel like your child fits this criteria, please get in contact with our pastoral team, Mrs Burgess or Mrs Barker. You can also find a wealth of knowledge, access support and formally register your child as a young carer at https://www.carersinherts.org.uk/young-carers/ 

Our volunteers for Voices of Hertfordshire had their second session at Shephalbury Park primary school.  They were involved in discussing scenarios where those who are neurodivergent might find it challenging.  They were fully engaged and gave many great suggestions. There were representatives from the NHS mental health teams who were interested in their views on what mental health means. They also started developing their ideas for when V of H take over social media on 3rd December.   

Some people don’t have what they need to live and that's why we have the reverse advent calendar. The reverse advent calendar is where people donate dried goods, sweet treats, tinned items, toiletries, presents and clothing to a charity.. This year, Almond Hill is donating to Foodshed (a charity) so people can enjoy their Christmas. You can take part by bringing in your donations (it has to last till Christmas) and dropping it in your child’s class room. Merry Christmas.

Written by Fiorella, Jimmy and Stanley in 5P

We have been made aware of a WhatsApp group called ‘The World’. It has been reported that there are children in the group who attend Almond Hill as well as local secondary schools and there is some inappropriate content being shared within this group. If your child has a phone/access to WhatsApp, I would urge you to check the groups they are in and monitor the content.  WhatsApp groups are a consistent issue for children in KS2 and the Almond Hill Online Safety Group have been preparing a video – look out for this soon! 

There are times during the day where someone from school may need to call home. We know as parents, when you see your child’s school calling, it can be a worry - especially if it is a missed call. If a member of staff calls you, we will try to leave a message (providing there is the option to do so). Please listen to the voicemail before calling back as the office team may not always know who has called and we don’t want to cause any more worry. In an emergency, we will try the other contacts on the list and/or text you. Teachers sometimes call during their free time but are not always available when a parent calls back – if the call was urgent, they would leave a message and let the office team know. It is always best to listen to your voicemails before calling back.  

The definition of disability is a broad one.  ‘A person has a disability if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’ (Equality Act 2010). The Equality Act 2010 replaced previous discrimination law and provides a single piece of legislation covering all types of discrimination that are lawful.   

We would like all parents who feel they and/or their child fits the definition outlined above to complete the disability equality questionnaire. The data collected will be used when writing our school’s accessibility plan and disability and equality policies. In most cases, we know if a child in our school has a disability but it is not the case for our parents and it would be useful to know how we can better support our school community as a whole. You do not have to provide identifying details about yourself or your child but there is the option to do so at the end should you wish to be involved in any future focus groups etc.   

https://forms.office.com/e/htcdMFtbak  

Please find attached the E-consent letter for your child’s Flu vaccination for this coming winter. Please note that you can consent for either the Flu nasal spray, OR the non-gelatine IM Flu vaccine. Please make sure you complete the form online as soon as you can. The portal will close 48 hours ahead of the Flu session. Vaccination UK East Anglia Immunisation (schoolvaccination.uk) Flu can be very unpleasant for children and can sometimes cause serious problems, such as pneumonia. Children can catch and spread flu easily. Vaccinating them also helps protect others who are at higher risk of getting seriously ill from flu, such as babies and older people. The School Immunisation team will be coming into the school on Thursday 14th November to deliver the vaccine. Please be aware that children can NOT receive this vaccination with their GP unless they are clinically vulnerable.

Children in Years 3-5 will be bringing home a maths game today. These have been kindly donated by another local headteacher and are excellent for learning times tables. All children are expected to know their times tables by the end of Year 4 so this is a great way to help your child learn at home in a fun way. It will also be really helpful for the upper school maths curriculum too as times tables knowledge is crucial for many topics such as fractions and ratios. 

I am disappointed to report we have had complaints from our neighbours about how early parents are arriving for collection at the end of the school day which results in engines idling, streets blocked and long queues of traffic outside of school. This poses a huge safety risk too as people are overtaking the queue of cars to continue their journey. I would urge families to avoid driving if at all possible or car share and certainly not queue for long periods of time outside school. Please be mindful of access to homes and local streets - if tempers flare there is more likely to be an accident.   

Thank you to the majority of parents who have completed the swimming ability form. We will phone anyone who has not responded by the end of the day today in order to ascertain any barriers and to plan swimming groups after half term. Families can expect to hear about swimming groups before half term.  

Thank you to the Year 4 parents who have already completed the collection arrangements form for the cinema trip. If you haven’t already done so please do ASAP. Please note, if a form is not completed by Friday 25th October, your children will be expected to walk back to school after the film.  

https://forms.office.com/e/SpYXKX6ueW  

Unfortunately, headline is a recurring issue. We do urge all parents to check their children’s hair regularly and treat any cases immediately. More information on what to look out for and how to treat headline can be found on the NHS website http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Head-lice/Pages/Introduction.aspx  

Please ensure you check your child’s hair routinely. For further information on head lice and how to treat, please visit https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/head-lice-and-nits/ 

Thank you for taking the time to read the letter regarding the pop-up swimming pool. I am really pleased to see that parents have taken the time to ask questions and give feedback and it is fantastic to see all the positive comments about the pool. As previously mentioned, we will answer questions via the newsletter so that all parents can be informed and information can be shared with everyone at the same time. Please see below for answers to the comments raised so far. Please feel free to submit the form if you have any other questions.  

When will lessons take place? 
There will be 12 children in a group and 10 half an hour lessons across the school day. 

Will there be an option to pay the swimming fee over the term/year? 
Yes. Payments will be made via School Gateway and you will have the option to pay over a number of months with a deadline being around February/March 2025. 

Does my child have to take part? 
We would like every child in Years 5 and 6 (even if they are competent swimmers) to get at least one chance to have a go and also be assessed but we appreciate some children already have lessons outside of school and can swim the 25 metres required. We will be asking for consent for children to use the pool so you are able to decline this opportunity if you would prefer.  

Where will children get changed? 
Children will be separated into boys and girls for changing in the same way they are when they go to the pool. We do not want any children to feel uncomfortable getting changed for lessons so will of course accommodate a space to change privately where we can. You can help with this by allowing your child to wear their swimming costume under their uniform to make getting ready for lessons quicker.  

How deep is the pool? 
It is a 10m x 5m x 1.4m heated pool with an average temperature of 30° C. 

What year groups is this for? 
For this year, we will be offering this opportunity to Years 5 and 6. I thought it would be very tough for the Year 6 pupils to miss out on such an exciting chance and in this way all the children in the school currently will get a turn this year or next. 

If the trial is successful, we will book this provision annually and it will be offered to the children in Years 4 and 5 meaning that children who need it will get two sustained periods to secure this skill.  

Please can you clarify the cost? 
We have calculated that each lesson costs £4.50 which means if your child swims for the whole month (20 lessons in total), this will cost £90. The lessons take place daily and last for 30 minutes. 

We appreciate that this will be very difficult for some families. No child will be denied the chance to swim if their family cannot or does not pay. However, we would not be able to fund a huge shortfall each year so if we were not able to cover the costs with voluntary contributions and possible fund-raising activities, we would not be able to make this an annual feature of our school offer. 

Please can I ask parents in Years 5 and 6 to complete the form below as soon as possible.  

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. 

As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, these are the dates for the cinema trips. 

Year 4 - Kung Fu Panda 4 - 13th November 1:00 - 2:40  
Year 3 - Garfield - 27th November - 10:00 - 11:45 
Year 5 - Asterix and the secret of the magic potion - 19th November 10:00 - 11:40 
Year 6 - Despicable me 4 - 28th November 10:00 - 11:45 

Year 4 parents, as the Year 4 film is in the afternoon, we wanted to give you the option of collecting children from the cinema or from school. We will need to know before the day so we can plan for the correct number of staff waiting at the cinema as well as those walking back with the children.  Please complete the form (linked below) to let us know your plans as soon as possible. Parents will need to collect from the cinema at 2.45pm. We will not be in a position to wait so anyone who has not been collected at this time, will be brought back to school. We anticipate we will be back at school by 3.30pm. The time of arrival is approximate. 

https://forms.office.com/e/SpYXKX6ueW 

We are planning Parents’ Evenings for the Autumn Term on Tuesday 8th and Thursday 10th October.  

Booking is now closed - please contact the school office if you need to make any changes or you have not yet booked an appointment. For those classes with a shared teacher, your appointment will be with one or both of the teachers. 

You will receive a paper copy of the parents’ evening information today to give you an opportunity to digest the information and ask questions during the appointment.

Please be reminded that school uniform is a white polo shirt or shirt and red t shirt for PE. Red polo shirts are not part of the school uniform. We like the children to look really smart and to differentiate between the two uniforms. Please help us by supporting our uniform policy. We appreciate that cost can be a barrier so invite parents to attend our uniform sales which are held monthly. We wouldn’t want anyone to purchase unnecessary uniform so if you are reusing an older siblings uniform or have already purchased for this year, please don’t worry I would just ask that when you replace the uniform, you replace with the correct items. 

 https://www.almondhill.herts.sch.uk/page/?title=School+Uniform&pid=48  

Can I ask parents to please be mindful when signing up for clubs and ensure your child wants to attend as parents and children are disappointed when they are full and it is a shame when then they have spaces due to people regularly not attending. The idea of these after school clubs is to provide additional enrichment opportunities outside of the curriculum – they are not intended as childcare so please make sure your child wants to join the club you have selected.  

If your child is part of a club that they don’t want to attend, please contact the school office so we can remove them from our register. Not only does it take a lot of ‘admin time’ to follow up on attendance to clubs, but we also have a waiting list of children who we could offer these spaces to. 

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.

This year, we have combined our achievement and singing assemblies into one feel good weekly celebration assembly which is run by Mrs Small and Mrs Cleaves.  We will begin with celebrating the children who completed the summer reading challenge over the holidays. If your child took part, please email a photo of their certificate or send them in with their certificate FAO their class teacher. I know children are very keen to be awarded their 10 house points. On this note, we continue to invite children to bring any trophies, certificates, awards or photos from achievements outside of school to share with pupils in assembly (as well as being added to our website/newsletter).  We also celebrate the musical talents of our children and invite those who play instruments to play for their peers whilst they enter the hall for assembly. If your child would like to do this, tell them to speak to Mrs. Small. 

In our assembly today, we introduced our new pupil leadership teams. We have a range of roles available for children across the school including, play leaders, sports captains, reading mentors, headteacher assistants and lunch time leaders. A big well done to those children who were selected to take on any of these roles this term.

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 new 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 affected if the teacher has to repeatedly catch up those who have missed prior learning. 

Please download the School Gateway app to make payments for school trips etc. You will need to give your email address and you will be given a PIN number to set up your account.  To order and pay for school dinners, you will need to use School Grid.  

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, that 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 can happen.  

Children in Years 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 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 (admin@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 Burgess our pastoral lead can be contacted at burgess@almondhill.herts.sch.uk The Designated Teacher with overall responsibility for Child Protection is Mrs Fordham, with Mrs Birchall, Mrs Burgess and Miss Simmons as deputies. The deputies (especially Mrs Burgess) 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.

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 2024 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. 

The launch of our Pre Loved uniform sales have been overwhelmingly successful and we would love to extend this further with the aim to reduce waste ‘one jumper at a time’. As well as old uniform, we would like to ask families to consider donating shoes (that no longer fit but are in good condition), coats, Christmas jumpers, World Book Day costumes and hangers. Please remember to remove your child’s name from any donated items or they may eventually make their way back to you!