Weekly Bulletin:Friday 18th September 2026
Headteacher’s message to parents/carers
Dear Parents/Carers,
At Tunbury we’re all about teamwork, which you’ll see in lots of different ways throughout Tunbury school life, and is also what we understand by our Tunbury school value of Solidarity. Today, children in Years 1-6 joined together in their House Teams, for the first House Team Meetings of the year. All the children in Holmes team gathered together in one classroom, whilst the same was also happening for Rowling, Attenborough and Hawking.
Each team had two important jobs to do: elect new House Captains and Vice Captains for the new school year and create their new House Team display board for the hall. Children in Year 6 could choose to step forward (as they’ve seen previous Year 6 children do before them) and make a speech to stand for election. Huge congratulations to every child who felt able and willing do this – it’s a big achievement in itself to be brave enough to try for something like this. Children had prepared speeches which were heartfelt and passionate – even bringing a tear to the eye of staff members on more than one occasion! We all love the fact that children feel a sense of belonging and pride, as part of their school and House Teams.
After elections in each House Team, our new Captains and Vice Captains for 2026/27 are as follows. Later on the year, you’ll see them waving the flags at Sports Day, but for now, they will be getting on with their jobs of leading and encouraging their teams. Here’s to an exciting year!
|
House Team |
Captain |
Vice Captain |
|
Rowling |
Jessica N |
Hendrix J |
|
Attenborough |
Jayden H |
Tegan W |
|
Holmes |
Charlotte B |
Harrison V |
|
Hawking |
Freddie H |
Layla O |
House Captains and Vice Captains are elected, whilst other Pupil Leadership have an application and interview process. These applications are now open, so your child may bring home an application form today. This will be for subject ambassador, librarian, peer mediator, online safety ambassador, eco champion, diversity ambassador or Opal play ranger. Thank you for any support you can give with these applications and encouraging your child to be ambitious.
Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Best wishes
Ruth Austin
Headteacher
Notices
Opal programme: As you know, we’ve been working with the Opal (Outdoor Play and Learning) programme since January 2025 to totally transform Tunbury lunchtimes. Recently, we’ve even had one of our neighbouring primary schools visit us and be inspired by what children experience at a Tunbury lunchtime. As we’ve come so far, we wanted to gather feedback to compare to the baseline surveys we did for parents/carers, children and staff at the beginning of this journey. Please could you help us by completing this quick survey? Thank you.
OPAL Questionnaire - Parents – Fill in form
After School Clubs: Our Autumn after school clubs started this week. There are spaces available on the following clubs on Mondays: Girls Football (Years 4-6) and Maths investigation (Years 4-6). Please contact the school office to join either of these clubs.
Flu Vaccination Programme: Monday 30th November for all year groups. Please see the letter which was emailed yesterday and published in the Parents – Letters and Forms section of our website: www.tunbury.kent.sch.uk/Parents/Letters-Forms/. Please note the e-consent portal closes at 4 pm on 25th November, and NHS cannot accept late consents or consents on the day of vaccination.
If any parents/carers are having issues completing the online consent form, please call the immunisation team via: Text chat: 07700140385 Live chat via website: www.kentcht.nhs.uk/imms Email: kchft.cyp-immunisationteam@nhs.net Telephone: 0300 123 5205
An opportunity for your child to join a band, iRock: Exciting news! Your child has the opportunity to join their very own band through fun weekly music lessons here at our school. Through weekly band lessons, children can learn drums, electric guitar, keyboard or vocals, play songs they know and love, build confidence and enjoy making music with their bandmates. All instruments are provided and no previous experience is needed.
If your child would like to join, you can enrol them here:
Click Here to Enrol Your Child
(If you’re not sure whether iRock is right for your child, all new starters are covered by a first lesson money-back guarantee.) To find out more, iRock has created a short year-group guide showing what children can learn and achieve through the iRock curriculum at each stage of primary school. Learn more about iRock by year
If you have any questions, the iRock team will be happy to help. Please contact them on 0330 174 2655 or info@irockschool.com.
Weekly Class Attendance: This is a weekly feature on our bulletin to highlight and celebrate good levels of attendance. Our top class in KS1 is Blue class and our KS2 winners are Turquoise Class! Great work!
Tunbury Primary School Facebook: 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: Our first Team Points of the new school year are as follows. All teams have over 1,100 points and Attenborough are into the lead – well done Green Team.
|
Rowling |
Attenborough |
Holmes |
Hawking |
|
1153 |
1237 |
1187 |
1208 |
Dates for your Diary
Term dates for 2026/27: www.tunbury.kent.sch.uk/Parents/Term-Dates-26-27/
Term 1
Thursday 24th September – Parents’ Information meeting PGL, 3.30 pm (Year 6) NEW
Monday 28th September – NHS Height and Weight check – Year 1 and Year 6
Friday 2nd October – Macmillan Coffee Morning for Parents/Carers 9am – NEW
Tuesday 20th October / Thursday 22nd October – Parents’ Consultation meetings
Wednesday 21st October – Viking Day – Year 5
Thursday 22nd October – Ancient Greek Workshop – Year 6 - NEW
Thursday 22nd October – Last Day of Term 1
Friday 23rd October – INSET DAY – SCHOOL CLOSED FOR PUPILS
Term 2
Monday 2nd November – First Day of Term 2
Wednesday 4th November – Friday 6th November – Year 6 Residential Visit to Grosvenor Hall
Thursday 5th November – TSA Fireworks – NEW
Monday 9th November – Open Afternoon, Year R – 2 pm
Tuesday 10th November – Open Afternoon, Year1 / Year 2 – 2 pm
Wednesday 11th / Thursday 12th November – Individual/Sibling photos – Tempest Photographers
Thursday 12th November – Open Afternoon, Year 3 / Year 4 – 2 pm
Friday 13th November – Open Afternoon – Year 5 / Year 6 – 2 pm
Monday 30th November – NHS Flu Vaccinations
Tues 1st to Thurs 3rd December – TSA Christmas Present Room – NEW
Friday 4th December – Great Fire of London theatre in-school experience for Year 2
Wednesday 9th December – Year 1 Christmas Production 2 pm
Thursday 10th December – iRock Concert, Main hall, 9 am
Thursday 10th December – Reception Nativity 2pm – NEW
Friday 11th December – Christmas Dinner Day
Wednesday 16th December – Year 2 Christmas Production 1.30 pm
Friday 18th December – Carols on the Playground, Year 3/Year 4 – 2.45 pm
Year 5/Year 6 – 3 pm
Friday 18th December – Last Day of Term 2
Term 3
Monday 4 January – INSET DAY – SCHOOL CLOSED FOR PUPILS
Tuesday 5th January – First Day of Term 3 for pupils
Tuesday 12th January – Start of Swimming lessons for Lilac class
Wednesday 3rd February – Young Voices O2 Concert
Tuesday 9th February – Safer Internet Day
Tuesday 9th February / Thursday 11th February – Parents’ Consultation meetings
Thursday 11th February – Amazing Animal in-school experience for Year 1 – NEW
Friday 12th February – Last Day of Term 3
Term 4
Monday 22nd February – First Day of Term 4
Wed 24th to Thurs 25th February – TSA Gifts for Her Present Room – NEW
Monday 1st March – Book Week
Monday 1st March – Open Afternoon, Year 5 / Year 6 – 2 pm
Tuesday 2nd March - Open Afternoon, Year R – 2 pm
Wednesday 3rd March – Open Afternoon, Year 3 / Year 4 – 2 pm
Thursday 4th March – World Book Day with dressing up
Friday 5th March – Open Afternoon, Year 1 / Year 2 – 2 pm
Thursday 25th March – Last Day of Term 4
Term 5
Monday 12th April – First Day of Term 4
Tuesday 20th April – Start of swimming lessons for Scarlet Class
Monday 3rd May – Bank Holiday – School Closed
Monday 10th-Thursday 13th May – Year 6 SATS Week
Monday 24th May – STEAM Week
Friday 28th May – Last Day of Term 4
Term 6
Monday 7th June – INSET DAY – SCHOOL CLOSED FOR PUPILS
Tuesday 8th June First Day of Term 5 for pupils
14th June to 17th June and 28th June to 30th June – Bikeability training – Year 5 NEW
Wed 16th to Thurs 17th June – TSA Gifts for Him Present Room – NEW
Friday 25th June – Sports Day
Friday 2nd July – Reserve Sports Day
Monday 5th July – INSET DAY – SCHOOL CLOSED FOR PUPILS
Friday 9th July – End of year reports sent home to parents /carers
Friday 16th July – TSA Dare to be Different Day – NEW
Wednesday 21st July – Last Day of Term 6 / Academic Year
Class Assemblies
Class assemblies will be held in the school hall on Friday afternoons. Parents/carers and family members from each class are warmly invited to join us in school for these events, as our children love to share their learning with you. Please come to the front of the school and wait outside the hall entrance doors. You will be invited in at just before 2.50pm. The assembly will begin at 2.50pm and last for about 10 minutes, finishing in time for you to collect your children at the end of the school day, as normal.
Friday 13th November – Ruby Class Assembly
Friday 20th November – Crimson Class Assembly
Friday 27th November – Emerald Class Assembly
Friday 15th January – Scarlet Class Assembly
Friday 22nd January – Indigo Class Assembly
Friday 29th January – Pink Class Assembly
Friday 5th February – Lavender Class Assembly
Friday 26th February – Violet Class Assembly
Friday 12th March – Magenta Class Assembly
Friday 19th March – Amber Class Assembly
Friday 23rd April – Turquoise Class Assembly
Friday 30th April – Lilac Class Assembly
Friday 7th May – Sapphire Class Assembly
Friday 21st May – Blue Class Assembly
Friday 28th May – Red Class Assembly
Friday 11th June – Owls Class Assembly
Friday 18th June – Bears Class Assembly
