Weekly Bulletin:Friday 17th July 2026

Headteacher’s message to parents/carers 

Dear Parents/Carers, 

Huge congratulations for our wonderful Year 6 children for their school production this week, ‘Gigglebox’.   After dress rehearsals to the whole school, they had two performances to families/guests yesterday.  They did a wonderful job!  I haven’t heard such loud and enthusiastic singing for a long time!  My favourites were the songs about primary school essentials like pritt sticks and ice packs, as well as the Strictly Fun Dancing scene.  Overall, a brilliant team effort for the whole Year 6 team: children, teachers and teaching assistants. Well done! 

Thank you everyone for your participation and support in today’s Dare to be Different Day, as well as last Saturday’s GlasTunbury.   Today, we have a myriad of different looks in school, which is enough to brighten anyone’s day.  A huge thank you to our hardworking TSA volunteers for making events like this happen – as always, a blend of fundraising events as well as memorable occasions for team Tunbury children to enjoy.  The TSA has been fundraising all year and already pay for many of the ‘extras’ for our children.  As well as this, we have a big project ahead, which is the refurbishment of our pond area so that this can be a new Opal zone for lunchtime play next academic year.  We’ll keep you posted with some before and after pictures – TSA-funded work on the pond is scheduled for the summer holidays.  

As we near the end of year, we are saying goodbye to a wonderful group of Year 6 children, as well as members of staff who are moving on to pastures new.  More to follow on our Year 6 children in next Tuesday’s final bulletin, but today I’d like to share our public thanks to members of staff who are leaving at the end of this year, and wish them all the very best for their next steps.  Doing this today (rather than on Tuesday) hopefully gives you time to say thank you to them too! 

We are sadly saying goodbye to our wonderful Deputy Headteacher Mrs Davies, as she moves on to be Headteacher of her own school in September.  Mrs Davies has been a central part of Team Tunbury for the last four years and will be missed by all of us in the leadership team, as well as children, families and staff.  We have a special assembly for Mrs Davies planned on Monday…. so maybe, ask your child to sing you her song?  It’s a classic! 

On the teaching team, we are wishing a fond farewell to our Year 1 teacher Mrs Nelson (formerly Miss Landa-Arresse) and Year 4 teacher Mrs Cole, whilst on our support staff team we are wishing all the best to our Year 2 TA Mrs Cooper, our Year 4 TA Miss Hollands and our midday meals supervisor Miss Murphy.  We are thankful to all of these colleagues for their many contributions to our school, having brightened so many children’s school experiences over their time with us. 

We look forward to seeing children back in school for the last two days of term next week – nearly at the holidays!  Have a lovely weekend everyone. 

Best wishes 

Ruth Austin

Headteacher 

Notices 

School Lunches: The new Autumn/Winter menu for September is detailed on our website at
https://www.tunbury.kent.sch.uk/Parents/School-Meals/

Please note that you will not be able to pre-order/pay for next term’s lunches until our systems update to the new Academic year in September. School lunches can be ordered and paid for via the School Gateway app. Parents can install the School Gateway app from www.schoolgateway.com/apple (Apple) or www.schoolgateway.com/android (Android).

Reminder: all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 can receive a school lunch every day, without having to pay, under Universal Infant Free School Meals. For children in Year 3 to Year 6 the cost of a school meal is £2.75 (which is paid via the SchoolGateway app).

Important information about Changes to Free School Meals: From September there will be significant national changes to Free School Meal (FSM) eligibility that may benefit your family, alongside updates to how eligibility is checked by Kent County Council (KCC). Please see the School Meals section on our website.

Class Photos:  Order details for the class photos taken on Wednesday will be emailed to parents as soon as we receive this in school. There will be a free delivery option for 2 weeks and these photos will be delivered to school in September. However, you will be able to receive your photos earlier by paying for the delivery to home option.

Strive Holiday Club: Looking for a fun way to keep your child active this Summer holiday break? 

Strive PE and Sport August Multi-Activity Camp at Tunbury is now open for booking! https://pbbl.uk/3P4KxRs Designed for children aged 5–11, their teacher-led camps are packed with sports, games, and exciting activities to keep children moving, laughing, and making new friends — exclusively for current Tunbury pupils only. 

Why children love Strive Holiday Club camps:
• A huge mix of fun sports and optional themed activities
• A great place to make friends and build confidence
• Sibling & FSM discounts available 

Weekly Class Attendance: This is a weekly feature on our bulletin to highlight and celebrate good levels of attendance. In KS2, our winners are Indigo class with a fantastic 99.57%. Our KS1 winners are once again Bears class with a fantastic 99.04%. Amazing work everyone, keep it up! 

Tunbury Primary School Facebook: This week we’ve posted about Reception’s trip with Tunbury Airways, Year 3 Hero Day and our New Entrants meet ups. Please take a look at Tunbury Primary School | Chatham | Facebook and follow us to keep up to date with all things Team Tunbury. 

Team Points: Congratulations to Attenborough team for winning the Term 6 Team Point race.  They have just had their reward, which was organised by our Year 6 House Team Captains.  This was a water run on the field (like a colour run but with the Team Captains having water balloons, squirters, super soakers and wet sponges).  This was lots of fun…. luckily, it’s a sunny day! 

Dates for your Diary 

Term dates for 2026/27: www.tunbury.kent.sch.uk/Parents/Term-Dates-26-27/ 

Term 6

Friday 17th July – Dare to be Different Day (TSA)

Friday 17^th July *NEW* - Scarlet Class Library Visit

Friday 17th July – Year 6 Prom

Monday 20^th July – Year 6 Open afternoon – 2 pm

Tuesday 21^st July – Year 6 Leavers' assemblies: Emerald - 9am / Violet - 9:45 am / Crimson - 10:30 am

Tuesday 21^st July - July end of term/ academic year 

Term 1
We are delighted to invite you to our annual "Meet the Teacher" sessions in September, held in the school hall. These sessions provide an opportunity to meet your child’s new teacher(s) and receive important information about the year ahead at Tunbury Primary School. We look forward to seeing you there!

Please find details below: