6th February 2026

Dear Parents

What a busy first week of February.  Two parents evenings, one INSET day, Professor Pango Mango on Thursday followed by Number Day today.

Professor Pango Mango

To celebrate National Storytelling week we were visited by our firm favourite Professor Pango Mango.  Professor Pango Mango held assembly for all the classes and then visited all the children in their classes to tell stories and tales.  We love our visits from Professor Pango Mango and hope to see him again very soon!

Number Day 

Today, we celebrated Number Day as a whole school. Throughout the day, children across all year groups took part in a range of engaging, hands-on activities linked to numbers and mathematical thinking. 

As a whole school, we shared the text One is a Snail, ten is a Crab, using it as a stimulus to explore numbers through storytelling. Each class created their own small books inspired by the text, showcasing number of ideas in creative and imaginative ways. These ranged from counting the number of legs on the animals  to representing the number of legs using  simple algebra.

Number Day was a fantastic celebration of maths, showing that numbers are everywhere and can be explored in fun, meaningful, and imaginative ways.

Peer Review

Next week we are privileged to have some visitors from other schools in the Trust to visit our school.  They will be coming to talk to our children, staff, view our curriculum and observe teaching of learning within our school.

Please do not panic and think we have Ofsted - this is an annual process which is undertaken by the Trust. 

'Wear What You Love' Day, 13th February 2026

A reminder that on Friday, 13th February, FoHA is hosting a 'Wear What You Love' day! Children are invited to come to school dressed in their favourite clothes instead of their uniform. A £2.00 donation is kindly requested to support this event. Our finance department has set up the payment on MCAS, allowing parents to make the donation easily.  Thank you to those parents who have already paid their £2.00. We have currently raised £131. 

As we are now a cashless school, please ensure your donation is made through MCAS. 

Thank you for your support!

Half Term February Club

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are almost full for the “Paddington” themed holiday workshop at February half term. There are a few more spaces available for the Monday & Friday. If you are still wishing to book a place, please email admin@trafficlightarts.co.uk

Quiz & Chips

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who is already coming along to our Quiz and Chips Night this Saturday or has purchased a raffle ticket – we’re really looking forward to a fun and friendly evening together.

For those of you who can’t make the event, you can still support our school by purchasing raffle tickets. We have lots of lovely prizes on offer, all generously donated by parents or local businesses. If you can't make it on the night but are lucky enough to win a prize, we will contact you to let you know and you will be able to collect your prize from the school office next week.

Raffle tickets can be purchased until 12 noon on Saturday 7th February: Quiz and Chips Night Raffle Ticket — Friends of Harpenden Academy

Events like this are vital for helping us raise the funds we need to add those extra special moments to our children's experience at school - every ticket bought helps ensure we can keep enriching school life for all our children.

Thanks to your generosity, this year we have been able to:

• Continue our annual glass gift of £500 per class, this funding is often used to subsidise a class school trip or class experience
• Subsidise the travel costs for the Christmas cinema trip and provide every child with a snack
• Fund the World War I experience workshop
• Support the dance workshop on Belonging Day
• Fund some of the less visible but hugely valuable extras, such as library scanning software and the Times Table Rock Stars app

We've also been working very closely with Mrs Davies to support some lovely activities coming up over the next term and half (we will be supporting Science Week, an Orchestral Explorers workshop and have some funds set aside to enrich learning around World Book Week).

Whether you’re joining us on the night, buying raffle tickets, or simply spreading the word, your support truly makes a difference and is very much appreciated.

Thank you, as always, for helping us support our wonderful school community.

Tickets will be available soon.

Happy birthday this week to:- William D (Yr1), Robyn M-R (Yr2), Alison M (Yr6), Soul S (Yr6)

Please click here to view our Harpenden Academy vacancies

Please click here to view our Scholars' Education Trust vacancies