17th May 2024

Dear Parents

The highlight of this week was the Year 5 pupil trip to the Sikh 'Guru Nanak Gurdwara' in Luton.

After the results of the ‘Cultural Capital Survey’ at the beginning of the year we will be making more trips to places of worship from all religious faiths.  This was an area of the survey which showed a ‘gap’ in children’s experiences.

The children and staff had a really informative and interesting time, and when asked afterwards said they would recommend going again.  It is always really helpful for parents to join these trips – particularly to a place of worship – because as adults its often something we haven’t been exposed to either.  Mrs Burgess who accompanied the Year 5 children had a great time and was discussing how she could return with her whole family.

Thanks to Ms Alshamari and Mr King for organising the trip and allowing me the opportunity to come along too!

Year 6 SATs week

The Year 6 children completed their SAT papers this week – many congratulations to them and team Shakespeare for getting through the week.  Some of the papers were a little tricky and would have stretched much older children if not adults in some cases.

The results are not out until July so we can put it to the back of our minds and concentrate on preparing our Year 6 children for Year 7 and being secondary ready.

Classes have had lots of visitors into school this week. Here are some of the things we have been up to:

Ancient Greek Workshop, Dahl Class

Dahl class participated in an Ancient Greek workshop and time travelled to 490 BC when Persia invaded Greece. The children entered this uncertain time as residents of Athens. They took on typical roles found in the Athenian Agora (marketplace) at the time. They serve as wax tablet makers, pottery painters, fresco painters and jewellers.

As the children worked, news and rumours swirl through the Agora about the battle. Can the Persians be defeated? Is Athens safe? The school workshop finished with a Greek theatre in the afternoon.

The children's enthusiasm was contagious and they all tried so hard! Thank you to all our volunteers who joined us to make the day such a success.

The Return of Mark the Science Guy

Mark joined Year 4 on Thursday to teach them all about teeth. They investigated what our teeth tell us about human beings. They studied model animal jaws and compared them with humans.  The children made their own tooth models.

On Thursday evening approximately 33 ‘families’ attended Marks science evening and his ‘Elastic Racers Event’ sent many parents and children racing with adrenaline and high levels of competitiveness.

Mark's evenings are always filled with fun and laughter and this year was no exception.

There always has to be a winner and a few runners up.  This year's winners with their families were:- 1st place - Sam and Charlie, 2nd place - Lucy and joint 3rd place - Jacob - Matilda and Ludo - Bo and Arley. 

Congratulations to all the families that attended and who took part so brilliantly.  Hope to see you again next year.

Year 3 Forces & Magnets Drama Workshop

On Thursday Year 3 explored the world of physics with hands-on activities in an Science workshop. They imagined and raced through different substances to see how air resistance affects movement. Year 3 explored how friction works and thought about what life would be like without it.  They looked and polarity and strength of magnets and also imagined what it would be like to live in places with less gravity and acted out how gravitational pull works.

Eco-Council

Non-Uniform/Animal Dress Up Day, 28th June 2024, World Wide Fund for Nature | WWF

The Eco-Council are passionate about taking care of our planet and its wildlife so they have been considering how we as a school can contribute to the world wide efforts. As a result they have decided to host a Non-Uniform/Animal Dress Up Day on Friday, 28th June. Children have the option of dressing up as an animal/wearing animal print or just wearing non uniform and a donation of £1 made which can be paid via Parentpay and will be a donation to the charity, World Wide Fund for Nature | WWF

Earth hour

In addition we are also going to honour a one hour time slot (2.00-3.00pm) on the same day , Friday 28th June, where all lights and technology are turned off and time is instead spent on activities reflecting on wildlife/wild spaces. We are hoping it will have a positive impact not only on the schools electricity bill but also an appreciation of nature.

Social Media and Children

As staff we have noticed that through conversations with children the level of social media usage is increasing.  Some of our children are telling us they are up to 3 hours a days on some form of social media/youtube/gaming.

The internet, as we have said many times, can be a wonderful invention, but like everything it has its negatives too.  Two negatives that are affecting school life currently are:-   a)swearing and attitude and b) Whatsapp.

At school we are experiencing a rise in ‘adult language’ with swear words just being common place in conversation. When asked where the children have heard this they answer ‘You Tube’  and ‘Music’. The same is true of a disrespectful attitude which has never really been an issue at Harpenden Academy.

The area that affects us most in school however is conversations outside school hours or over the weekend which relates to Whatsapp.

Whatsapp is legally designated at 16+ according to the advise from its creators.  Yet, I have children in Year 3 using it out of school hours.  As parents it is your choice as to whether you permit your child to have Whatsapp on their phones – or indeed to have a phone at primary school.  However, as a school we are urging parents to please monitor your child's phone very closely.  Issues that happen out side of school on such platforms subsequently get bought into school which affects school life, it isn’t the teacher’s job to police or get involved in squabbles and friendship issues which result from activities outside of school. 

I have a teenage child and as a parent I am totally aware of how much of their lives happen around ‘phone culture’.  It is far from easy sometimes to navigate this world they live in, but we would really appreciate it if parents could support our request to monitor what the children are viewing on their phones and the length of time they are using them too.

We have hosted online safety events in the past and I am currently investigating a date for another one too.  When this is finalised I will circulate to all parents.  Thank you for your support in advance.    

Walk to School Week - 20th – 24th May 2024

We are excited to be taking part in Walk to School Week next week. 

We all know the health benefits of walking so please help us this week to reduce congestion by supporting children in being more active and help reduce lower carbon emissions during this Walk to School Week.

We would like to encourage all our pupils to try and walk, cycle or scoot to school during this week. If it’s not possible to walk all the way, then it would be great if you could park 10 minutes away from school and walk or scoot the last part of your journey. Remember that we have the park and stride option and the permit is available from the school office.

Each class will have a poster of featuring a map of Hertfordshire and aim to take a ‘virtual’ walk by helping Buster The Dinosaur (the Active and Safer Travel Team mascot) walk around Hertfordshire. Every time a pupil travels sustainably, a dot can be coloured in.

Following on from Walk to School Week, we will be supporting Clean Air Day on Thursday 20th June 2024, more information closer to the date.

Sports Week

Miss Harvey would like to know if there are any parents who can help run a session with the children on either Monday or Tuesday of sports week which is sports related. Sports week is w/c 17th June 2024. Please get in touch with the school office if you can help. 

Year 5 Play

As part of our Hearts & Mind project Year 5 perform a play for the school and parents.  This year the play is based upon World War II evacuees and relates to much of the history work undertaken this year.

The performance is just over an hour long, and Year 5 parents can reserve their free tickets via Ticket Tailor. 

SEND

It has nearly been a year since Hertfordshire County Council SEND Ofsted report came out, and while there are a few green shoots appearing with necessary changes the SEND situation in Hertfordshire is still in difficulties.

Having spoken to the Trust Director of SEND and Mrs Moss I am proposing we have a SEND parents' coffee morning – date to be decided – so parents can be made fully aware of the SEND provision in Hertfordshire and why the services are taking so long.  Once I have a date available I will let all parents know so you are able to have an up to date information session regarding SEND.

Date for Diary - Reminder - Class Photos - Monday, 3rd June 2024

We will have our class photos taken on Monday, June 3rd, the first day back after the May half-term. Please ensure the children come to school looking smart, wearing either their jumper or cardigan for the class photo.

Year 6 students will also have individual headshots taken for their leaver autograph books.

We will send out the access codes for the photos once we receive them from the photographers.

Happy Birthday this week to: Muneeb A (R), Henry B  (Yr2), Myles C (Yr1), Inaaya K (Yr1), Amarveer N (Yr6), Lucy M (Yr3).  

Please click here to view our Harpenden Academy vacancies

Deputy IT Director – IT Support Manager

Scholars’ Education Trust

• Grade: M4
• Hours: Full Time, 37 hrs per week
• Contract: Full Year, Permanent
• Salary: £52,204 - £55,396 per annum, including Fringe (inflationary pay rise pending)

Due to expansion of the Trust, an exciting opportunity has arisen to appoint a Deputy IT Director – IT Support Manager to work alongside our experienced IT Director and his team.