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