Friday 16 October 2026

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have had another great week here at school, seeing our learning community come together in so many different ways. Here are a few highlights…

We have been so busy in school starting with our assemblies focusing on responsibility. The children have been exploring what it means to take responsibility for our communities and how we can best look after each other. It was brilliant to see so many parents in school for our Year 3 and Year 4 CLIC (Children Learning in Class) sessions. We hope that those of you who came enjoyed joining your child for their learning and getting a firsthand look at their hard work. And we had a surprise visit from a tortoise in Year 2, as part of our science topic! The children were absolutely fascinated to learn all about these fascinating creatures.

Thank you to everyone who has been volunteering time to support the school this week including in our Parent Forum on Tuesday. It was a fantastic session filled with great discussions, and we truly value your feedback and collaboration. Our next meeting is scheduled for 12 November at 9am. It would be great to see you there if you can make it. The PTA did us proud again by organising two wonderful Halloween Discos. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this event possible. Well done to all of the children and families for your creativity for such wonderful costumes too! Also, the Jupiter Team had a wonderful time getting creative and designing some brand-new learning stations in the Reception garden after school this week. It has been so exciting to see the children exploring these new outdoor zones and thank you to the staff who gave up time to make these changes possible.

We were thrilled to welcome our first group of families who are considering applying for places for their children to start in our reception next year. If you, or any of your friends and family have any children who are due to start reception in September, please do consider coming along to one of our information meetings and tours. Information about our events can be found on our website by clicking here.

Please remember to check our website, since there is lots of information available there. We recently updated the curriculum section with details about each subject which will give you an insight into what is being taught. Click here to explore this page.

We are looking forward to seeing you at our parent consultation evenings next week. This is a wonderful opportunity to discuss your child's progress and how they have settled into the term.

We are currently advertising for Learning Support Practitioners ( LSPs) to join our fantastic team. If you or someone you know is passionate about supporting children's learning and wants to make a difference, and has the necessary skills, please check the Teach in Herts website for more details.

Thank you for your continued support in making our school such a great place to learn. Have a wonderful weekend!

Mr. Robinson

Headteacher

Upcoming dates

Monday 19 October

3.30pm -6.30pm Parents Evening (club will run as normal)

Wednesday 21 October

3.30pm -7pm - Parents Evening (club will run as normal)

Friday 23 October

9.15am - Y5 Harvest Festival performance to parents/carers

Children break up for half term (Normal finish time)

Attendance

At Danes Educational Trust, we believe that regular attendance is vital to support high-quality teaching and learning. Learners cannot reach their full potential unless they attend school consistently.

Reception | Hedgehogs

Weekly attendance: 89.6%

Attendance YTD: 90.7%

Reception | Rabbits

Weekly attendance: 93%

Attendance YTD: 92.4%

Year 1 | Deers

Weekly attendance: 97.1%

Attendance YTD: 97.7%

Year 1 | Foxes

Weekly attendance: 96.6%

Attendance YTD: 96.2%

Year 2 | Owls

Weekly attendance: 95.6%

Attendance YTD: 95%

Year 2 | Puffins

Weekly attendance: 95.8%

Attendance YTD: 93.6%

Year 3 | Ducks

Weekly attendance: 95.9%

Attendance YTD: 94%

Year 3 | Swans

Weekly attendance: 95.6%

Attendance YTD: 97.2%

Year 4 | Kingfishers

Weekly attendance: 98.5%

Attendance YTD: 95.5%

Year 4 | Woodpeckers

Weekly attendance: 96.7%

Attendance YTD: 94.9%

Year 5 | Otters

Weekly attendance: 95%

Attendance YTD: 96.4%

Year 5 | Pine Marten

Weekly attendance: 83%

Attendance YTD: 88%

Year 6 | Eagles

Weekly attendance: 94.2%

Attendance YTD: 94.9%

Year 6 | Wildcats

Weekly attendance: 89.7%

Attendance YTD: 92.9%

Awards and celebrations

We are so proud of these students for earning the Values Award, being recognized as Star Learner, and becoming the Timetable Champion! Your hard work, positive mindset, and commitment to learning shine through in all that you do. Keep it up ! You’re setting a fantastic example for others, and we’re excited to see all the amazing things you’ll achieve next!

Reception | Hedgehogs

Values awards: Harry

Star Learner: Aaya

Reception | Rabbits

Values awards: Oliver

Star Learner: Cody

Year 1 | Deers

Values awards: Oilver

Star Learner: Nectarie

Year 1 | Foxes

Values awards: Laci

Star Learner: Mohamed

Year 2 | Puffins

Values awards: Neomi

Star Learner: Blin

Year 2 | Owls

Values awards: Bridget-Chantelle

Star Learner: Cali

Year 3 | Ducks

Values awards: Cody

Star Learner: Louis

Timetables champions: Dominic

Year 3 | Swans

Values awards: Nell

Star Learner: Daniel

Timetables champions: Luca

Year 4 | Woodpeckers

Values awards:

Star Learner:

Timetables champions:

Year 4 | Kingfishers

Values awards: Lyra

Star Learner: Boris

Timetables champions: Geard

Year 5 | Pine Martens

Values awards: Daniel

Star Learner: Jacob

Timetables champions: Daniel

Otters

Values awards: Vienna

Star Learner: Isli

Timetables champions: Brie

Year 6 | Wildcats

Values awards:

Star Learner:

Timetables champions:

Year 6 | Eagles

Values awards: Lyla A

Star Learner: James

Timetable champion: Mary Felicity

House points

It has been another fantastic week of competition! Jupiter took the crown as this week's top scoring house, racking up an impressive 82 points. Saturn followed in second place with 65 points, closely trailed by Venus with 63 points and Mercury with 60 points.

When it comes to the overall term leaderboard, it is an incredibly tight race at the top! Venus is currently holding onto first place with a grand total of 455 points, but Jupiter is hot on their heels with 439 points. Saturn sits comfortably in third with 365 points, while Mercury continues to build their total at 312 points.

Fantastic effort from everyone this week, keep up the brilliant work!

Jupiter

Points this week: 82

Total points this term: 439

Saturn

Points this week: 65

Total points this term: 365

Venus

Points this week: 63

Total points this term: 455

Mercury

Points this week: 60

Total points this term: 312

Learning this week

This week in Reception

This week in Reception our children have been finding groups of 1, 2 and 3. We have used toys and other items like conkers to see what we can spot just by looking and then matching numbers to the correct amounts. At home have a go at looking for groups of 1, 2 or 3 when you eat your dinner - maybe you can see this in your baked beans or peas! We have drawn pictures of the troll on a WANTED poster and used our sounds to label it such as ‘t’ for troll or ‘h’ for hair and even attempted to write some CVC words such as ‘big’. We are very excited to have new zones in our Reception Garden as part of Jupiter’s great garden makeover. A big thank you to all of the teachers who helped set up such amazing spaces.

This week in Year 1

This week in Year One we started work on the story ‘Owl babies’ the children have really enjoyed learning this story and have been writing fantastic sentences based around it. In maths we have been looking at addition calculations and learning how to add 2 numbers together. We enjoyed making some autumn leaf pictures using nature as our inspiration. Thank you to all those who attended the CLIC session this week the children adored having you in class with them.

This week in Year 2

This week in Year Two the children have worked extremely hard to complete their Autumn assessments. They have conducted themselves very sensibly and shown great resilience whilst completing them. The children have been writing their own version of Meerkat Mail this week. It has been lovely to see them use adjectives and adverbs in their writing, they will complete next week. Continuing on from our learning in Science last week, it was wonderful to welcome Neomi’s Mum with Mortimer the tortoise. The children thoroughly enjoyed this visit and asked lots of interesting questions. In Art, the children used their skills to complete their sketches of teddy bears. They added tone and texture well and we know that they can’t wait to show you them on Parents Evening.

This week in Year 3

What a busy and brilliant week in Year 3! In Literacy, the children have been taking inspiration from Oliver Jeffers’ The Day the Crayons Quit to innovate their own imaginative stories using paints and custom colour choices. Meanwhile in Maths, we have been flexing our mental arithmetic muscles by learning to add ones, tens, and hundreds to three-digit numbers in our heads. As part of our Europe topic, we travelled over to Italy to explore famous destinations like Venice while weighing up the pros and cons of tourism in major cities. Finally, it was a real treat to welcome so many of you into our classroom for our open handwriting session - we loved having you join us and hope you picked up a handy tip or two!

This week in Year 4

This week in Year 4 we enjoyed taking a tally chart and noticing the number of vertebrates, invertebrates, non, and flowering plants we could find around the school for Science. Mathematics will be finishing off our place value topic, and moving into measurement. For Art we are learning new techniques and skills to add realism to our sketching, giving some drastic improvements. Our Writing has been about recreating the story of The Wild Girl, particularly rewriting the Image 3 (imagine a character who, who, who). We really enjoyed sharing our spelling and handwriting skills at parents day, please keep practicing with us at home! We are also aiming to read to an adult for five minutes a day.

This week in Year 5

This week in Year FiveI has been a busy and fun week! In English, the children took our model text and innovated it, changing key parts to create their own unique versions of the story. In maths, we worked hard on finding multiples and spotting number patterns. We also explored history to discover what the Vikings left behind in Britain, from place names to everyday words. Finally, everyone has been working hard practicing their lines and songs for our upcoming Harvest Assembly!

Well done Year Five!

This week in Year 6

This week Year Six have been busy developing our understanding of long division and long multiplication in Maths, with the children demonstrating much resilience during their lessons. Our focus has been on writing our innovated suspense stories in English, with some very exciting pieces of work produced. Elsewhere in the curriculum, in Geography we presented our understanding of the pros and cons of tourism to Antarctica in the form of a balanced argument and in Art we have been continuing to learn about Street art. Another busy week of learning - keep up the good work Year 6.

Jupiter PTA

We are proud to have a dedicated and enthusiastic team of parent teacher association (PTA) at our school. The PTA plays a vital role in bringing together families , staff and the wider community to support and enhance the education experience of all our children. Through fundraising events, volunteer support, and community initiatives, the PTA helps provide valuable resources, enrich learning opportunities, and create a positive, inclusive environment for everyone. We welcome all parents and carers to get involved, whether by joining the committee, helping at events, or sharing ideas every contribution makes a difference!

PTA Events and website link

School News

Jupiter - Mental Health Awareness Parent Coffee Afternoon

Please come along and join us for our Parent Coffee Afternoon on Tuesday 10th November from 2.30pm - 3.00pm. The focus will be Mental Health Awareness. Please talk about this with other Jupiter parents, as it would be great to see as many of you there as possible.

Mrs Crute-Mussell & Mrs Waggeh

Secondary School Application Deadline

This is an important reminder that the statutory deadline for submitting your child's secondary school application is Thursday 31 October 2026.

All applications must be completed online through this link before midnight on this date.

Key Information:

Deadline: 31 October 2026 (11:59 PM)
National Offer Day: 1 March 2027
Where to apply: Hertfordshire County Council Admission Portal

Please note that any applications submitted after 31 October will be classified as "late". Local authorities process on-time applications first, which means late applications severely reduce your chances of securing a place at your preferred schools.

If you have already submitted your application, you do not need to take any further action. However, we highly recommend logging back into your portal before the deadline to double-check that your preferences are saved and submitted correctly.

Community News

Dacorum Family Services - Anxiety and Attendance Parent Workshop

DFS are hosting a free Anxiety and Attendance workshop on Tuesday 10th November from 10am - 11.30am.

DFS will explore practical ways to understand and support children experiencing anxiety around school attendance:

• Understanding anxiety and the signs to look out for

• Strategies to manage anxiety and build resilience

• Understanding your child’s responses and behaviour

This will be held virtually to make it more accessible to all, and in person at The Myatt Room at Hobbs Hill Wood Primary School, HP3 8ER.

To register your interest please click on the link at the bottom of the attached leaflet.