Quick Links

Useful Links

Tunbury Primary

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

Noticeboard

Welcome back to Term 6!

The last day of Term Six is Friday 21st July 2023