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12th September 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

We had the arrival of our new Ladybirds this week and it was lovely to see the next generation of Harpenden Academy children come through our doors. Welcome to the parents of the new Ladybirds too - it is lovely to see you all.

Curriculum Events

Thank you to the parents who came to hear about the Autumn Term curriculum from the class teachers on Monday after school. The PowerPoints shown by the teachers at the event will be on the class pages on the website shortly.

If you ever need to know what is happening from a curriculum point of view there is a long-term planner which covers all year groups and all terms on the website, as well as much more curriculum information.

Dates for Diaries

Please see at the bottom of this newsletter an attachment showing a list of 'Dates for Diaries'.

Term Dates- INSET days

Please click here for the term dates for this academic year. The Trust Executive Team will be setting the new term dates for the academic year 2026-2027 shortly and when these are available, we will sign post parents to them.

2nd September 2025- INSET Day 1 - school closed to children
24th November 2025 - Occasional Day - school closed
4th February 2026 - INSET Day 2 - school closed to children
20th July 2026 - INSET Day 3 (school closed)
21st July 2026- INSET Day 4 (school closed)
22nd July 2026 - INSET Day 5 (school closed)

In addition:

23rd June 2026 - Trust Training Day (school closed)

Welcome to Our New Reception Families!

We are delighted to welcome our new Reception children and their families to our school community. The children have made a wonderful start, settling in beautifully and already beginning to form new friendships. It has been a joy to see their confidence grow with each passing day. Over the past week, the children have enjoyed a range of exciting activities, including exploring kinetic sand, creating their very own ladybirds, drawing self-portraits, and role-playing in the mud kitchen — where Mrs Withers and Mrs Welch were treated to some very imaginative (and rather muddy!) meals! They’ve also shown great teamwork by helping each other navigate the outdoor assault courses and showing care and curiosity when looking after the snails they discovered in the garden. Another big milestone was their very first school lunch — a brand-new experience for everyone! We were so proud of how well they managed the routine and embraced this important part of their school day. It’s also been fantastic to see them looking so smart in their school uniforms and proudly wearing the new school P.E. kit. What a great start to their journey — we can’t wait to see all the adventures this year will bring!

Reception Phonics workshop Tuesday 30^th September 9.00-10.00

Mrs Withers will be holding an important meeting for Reception parents to go through how we teach phonics and how to support your child with their reading journey.

Baby Stanger has arrived

Mrs Stanger's baby made an early arrival on Sunday 7^th September. She had a baby girl- yet to be named- and she, her husband and her son are all getting used to being a family of four. I’m sure you will join in with us in congratulating her on the safe arrival of her daughter.

HCC Travel Plan

Every year we work alongside Herts County Council on our School Travel Plan. This initiative encourages schools across the country to increase levels of active and sustainable travel in order to improve the health and wellbeing of our pupils. At the end of last academic year, for the first time, Harpenden Academy has been awarded the 'Very Good' accreditation for our dedication to promoting active travel and leading initiatives linked to safe travel. Well done to the Eco Leaders and to Mrs Curnow for this achievement.

Eco Schools

At the end of the Summer Term we were awarded the Eco Schools Award with Distinction for our work on sustainability. This is a step up from our 'Merit' award last year! As a smaller school with limited outdoor space, we are extremely proud of how hard our Eco Leaders worked to gain this award. This involved fundraising to raise awareness for environmental issues, weaving sustainable themes into our curriculum and working hard to run as sustainably as we can. Thank you to our staff Eco-Leaders, Mrs Bowyer and Mrs Curnow for their efforts.

Logos

Annual Authorised Pick Up Consent: Deadline: Friday, 19th September 2025

Annual Authorised Pick Up Form
To ensure pupils are only picked up by authorised adults please could you provide a list of nominated people who have permission to pick up your child. We need names of additional authorised adults other than those with parental responsibilities. If one of these people arrives to pick up your child no further checks will be made.

This e-form supersedes any information you have given to the school previously and this form will be completed annually to ensure we have up-to-date information to guarantee the safeguarding of the children.

If your pick up arrangements change over the year then please notify the office by email.

If you have an adhoc pick up arrangement then please notify the office by email and also post it on Class Dojo to the class teacher as early as possible.

Traffic Lights Workshop

Copy of SET Notice

About FoHA

Friends of Harpenden Academy (FoHA) is our Parent Teacher Association. We are committed to supporting the school and wider community.

The money we raise is spent on school infrastructure, materials, activities and equipment, all of which make a huge difference to the quality of the school experience our wonderful teachers and staff can provide to the children.

You can find out more about FoHA at www.foha.co.uk

FoHA News

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us at the Silver Palate Coffee Morning—it was a fantastic start to the new school year and a lovely way to welcome our new families.

A big thank you to Donna and Silver Palate for having us!

We’re excited to launch our Autumn/Winter events, with lots to look forward to in the run-up to Christmas. Tickets will be released over the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye on the school newsletter for details.

A reminder that our AGM takes place at The George, Harpenden, on Tuesday 7th October at 7pm—everyone is welcome to come along. We will share some more detailed information about the AGM next week.

FoHA events can only happen with the support of our amazing parent volunteers. If you’re able to lend a hand, whether it’s unloading Christmas trees, creating flyers to advertise our events or supporting at other events, we’d love to hear from you! You can get in touch via emailing, friendsofharpendenacademy@gmail.com

For more information visit www.foha.co.uk

FOHA CALENDAR OF EVENTS

FoHA Autumn Winter 2025 Events