Weekly Bulletin: Friday 27th January 2023
Headteacher’s message to parents/carers
Dear Parents/Carers,
Congratulations to our super swimmers and sensational singers for representing Team Tunbury at the Mini Youth Games swimming gala and the Young Voices concert at the O2. Children did an amazing job and we were so proud of them all. Please read our reports (below) to find out more. I would like to say a huge thank you to our dedicated staff members, particularly Mrs Bacon and Mr Kent for leading the swimming team and Miss Binns and Mrs Harding for leading the choir. It’s wonderful to be able to give our children these wider opportunities, which they will remember for a long long time.
Next week, we’re looking forward to our Spring Term Open Afternoons, so please join us in school if you are able to. Children will be very proud to share their school experiences and their learning with you.
As a reminder, our guidance and dates for Open Afternoons are as follows:
- Please come to the front gate of the school and wait outside the school office - we will then invite you in at 2.00.
- Please do not use your mobile phone during Open Afternoons. Ideally, all mobiles should be switched off. Taking photos, sending messages or making calls is not allowed while in our school buildings.
- If younger siblings come with you to Open Afternoon, we ask you to be responsible for making sure that they are well supervised and not disturbing others. School staff may ask you to leave the classroom if younger siblings are really noisy – thank you for your understanding.
- There is no space for pushchairs or buggies in the classrooms, but you can leave these items in the playgrounds ready for you to collect at home time.
- At 3.00 we’ll ask you to leave classrooms and move to the playgrounds for home-time collection as usual. (The only exception to this is for Year R, we’ll invite you to help your child get ready for home time and then leave together from the classrooms at 3.00-3.10.)
- All Open Afternoons are from 2.00-3.00. Next week: Year R on Monday, Year 1/2 on Tuesday and Year 5/6 on Thursday. Due to strike action, our Year 3/4 Open Afternoon has now moved to Wednesday 8th February.
We look forward to seeing you. Have a lovely weekend everyone.
Best wishes
Ruth Austin
Headteacher
Mini Youth Games Swimming Gala
On Friday last week, 20th February we took a team of 8 (4 boys, 4 girls) to Medway Park to compete against 30 other schools in the Cup tournament. The squad comprised 5 year 6 swimmers (Kate, Griffin, Charlie, Ruby and Layla as well as 3 year 5’s (Harry, Kieran and Phoebe).
In the first half of the competition we had the freestyle, breast stroke and butterfly events where we were ranked consistently in the top 10 fastest times with notable performances by Kate, achieving 2nd, 1st and 3rd places in these events respectively. Griffin also achieved 7th in the breast stroke and 9th in the butterfly.
These two swimmers also opted to compete in a lunchtime race against two GB athletes who started with a 10 second time advantage. Kate was victorious against the athlete in the breast stroke event with Griffin narrowly missing out on victory but finishing 2nd to the butterfly elite performer and beating the rest of the field.
The swimmers behaved exceptionally well and cheered each other on enthusiastically in all events. The relays at the end of the day (medley and freestyle) were the icing on the cake with thrilling finishes in both events for Team Tunbury!
After getting changed, we ventured back onto poolside to await the final results of the competition. It was a nail biting time as the placings were being read out and the numbers crept down and then eventually into single digits – we had made the top 10! With a little jump of joy at each team name being read, Team Tunbury finished in 5th place – top 5, what a jubilant way to start the weekend!
Young Voices
On Tuesday, the singing club went to the 02 in London to perform for a live audience. We left school at 12:00 after an early lunch and arrived at the 02 for rehearsals at 1:00pm. Our seats were really high up, which gave us a wonderful view over the whole arena. We spent the afternoon rehearsing all the songs, before having our packed tea, as the audience started to arrive. We had a fantastic surprise during the rehearsals, the whole Young Voices Choir recorded a song with Heather Small, her hit song, ‘Proud’, which is going to be released as a single for the ‘Place2Be’ charity, which supports Children’s Mental Health. Our singing club are famous! Fortunately, one of our group had brought a pair of binoculars with her so we could try to find parents in the audience.
At 7:00, the main lights went out and over nine thousand tiny torches were the only lights to be seen. The children performed brilliantly and remembered all their dance moves too.
The children had a fantastic time; they were wonderful ambassadors for Tunbury Primary School. We are so very proud of them!
Notices
Maths day: NSPCC Number day is on 3rd February. To support this amazing cause, we will be asking children to dress up for a donation of £1. For Years 1-6 we will be launching TT Rockstars (a fun and amazing app to help your child to learn their Times tables) on that day. As part of the launch of TT Rockstars, we will be taking part in a nationwide competition on the platform.
For Number Day, please dress up as either a number or a Rockstar. We cannot wait to see their fantastic outfits!
Message from School Council: We are working with the TSA to improve activities during wet play. This week, we are speaking with our classes about the types of entertainment they would like during wet play but before we purchase anything, we would like to offer an opportunity to be sustainable. Do you have any board games or puzzles that are taking up space in your home or haven’t been used for a long time? Are they complete sets? If so, we would love to have them! Please bring any donations to the school office. Thank you for supporting us, School Council.
Late arrivals: Thank you to everyone who arrives on time every day at school. Unfortunately, we have a growing number of families arriving late at school. We appreciate 'one-offs' and exceptional circumstances do mean that occasionally children may be late into school. However, we have a growing number of children who are persistently late. Being late affects children negatively both socially and academically. It is really important that children arrive on time. It also means that staff time is taken up with ensuring children who are late get into school, rather than focussing on teaching and learning.
School gates close at 8:50 am every morning. Please ensure that children are inside the school gates by this time every day. Being on time creates positive, lifelong habits which are vitally important for children to develop.
We will be contacting all parents whose children arrive late at school to see if we can work together to ensure that the children are not missing out on vital school time as a result of arriving late. We would very much appreciate your support with this.
Messages via the school office: The school office staff are receiving a lot of last minute phone calls about changes to adults picking up children at home time. We are happy to accommodate these as a one-off emergency, but ideally prefer you to sort out going home arrangements with your child, in the morning, prior to the start of school. However, if you do need to get a message to the class teacher, please email the office at office@tunbury.kent.sch.uk so that we can help.
Team Points: this week’s totals are as follows. Hawking still in the lead, but it’s very close!
|
Rowling |
Attenborough |
Holmes |
Hawking |
|
3726 |
3678 |
3753 |
3860 |
Dates for your Diary
Term dates for 2022/23: https://www.tunbury.kent.sch.uk/Term-Dates-22-23/
Monday 30th January – Open afternoon YR: 2-3pm
Tuesday 31st January – Open afternoon Y1 / Y2: 2-3pm
Wednesday 1st February - Amazing Animal World visit for Year 1 and Year R
Wednesday 1st February – Partial school closure due to NEU strike action NEW
Wednesday 1st February – Open afternoon Y3 / Y4: 2-3pm: Moved to 8/2 due to strike action NEW
Thursday 2nd /Friday 3rd February – NHS Health Checks, Year R NEW
Thursday 2nd February – Open afternoon Y5 / Y6: 2-3pm
Friday 3rd February – National Number Day - ROCK STAR DRESSING UP DAY NEW
Friday 3 February – Year 5 Online Q&A Session with Abi Elphinstone (author) NEW
Tuesday 7th February – Safer Internet Day
Wednesday 8th February - Open afternoon Y3 / Y4: 2-3pm NEW
Wednesday 8th February – Year 5 ‘Poles Apart’ theme day – dressing up optional NEW
Thursday 9th February – Year 2 Pirate day
Friday 10th February – Y4 Roman Day
Friday 10th February – Last day of term 3 for pupils
Monday 20th February - INSET Day – School Closed for pupils
Tuesday 21st February – Start of term 4 for pupils
Thursday 23rd February - Parent consultation evening – 3.30-6.30pm
Friday 24th February – NHS Health checks, Year 6 NEW
Tuesday 28th February - Parent consultation evening – 3.30-6.30pm
Thursday 2nd March – NEU strike date NEW
Friday 3 March – Character Dressing Up day for World Book Day NEW
Wednesday 15th March – NEU strike date NEW
Thursday 16th March – NEU strike date NEW
Friday 17TH March – National Science Day
Monday 20th March – Francophonie Day
Thursday 30th March - IRock Performance to parents am
Friday 31st March – Last day of term 4 for pupils
Monday 17th April – First day of term 5 for pupils
Monday 1st May - Bank Holiday – School Closed
May – Year 2 (KS1) SATs
Monday 8th May – Bank Holiday in honour of the Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III
Tuesday 9th – Friday 12th May – Year 6 (KS2) SATs
Friday 19th May – Y5 Visit to Maidstone Museum
Monday 22nd– Friday 26th May – Outdoor learning week
Friday 26th May – Last day of term 5 for pupils
Monday 5th June - INSET Day – School Closed for pupils
Tuesday 6th June – First day of term 6 for pupils
Tuesday 6th- Friday 9th June – STEAM week
w/c Tuesday 6th June – Year 4 Multiplication Times Tables check
w/c Monday 12th June – Year 1 Phonics check
Friday 30th June – Sports Day
Friday 7th July – Reserve Sports Day
Friday 21st July – Last day of term/academic year for pupils
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 approximately 2.45 pm. The assembly will begin at 2.50 pm 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 27th January Orange Class Assembly
Friday 3rd February Scarlet Class Assembly
Friday 10th February Amber Class Assembly
Friday 3rd March Lavender Class Assembly
Friday 10th March Yellow Class Assembly
Friday 17th March Crimson Class Assembly
Friday 24th March Turquoise Class Assembly
Friday 31st March Ruby Class Assembly
Friday 28th April Sapphire Class Assembly
Friday 5th May Pink Class Assembly
Friday 12th May Red Class Assembly
Friday 19th May Bears Assembly
Friday 26th May Owls Assembly
Friday 16th June Hedgehogs Assembly
