Weekly Bulletin: Friday 28th May 2021

Headteacher’s message to parents/carers 

Dear Parents/Carers, 

This week, we have seen some fabulous effort from children on improving the quality of their writing. It has been such a pleasure to see the pride and beaming smiles when our Tunbury children achieve more than before, and are keen to share their writing with us. Three children per class have been chosen as Golden Team Point winners, with a specific focus in Years 1-6 on precision, accuracy and effort in writing. A huge well done to all of our winners, as follows: 

Y6	Crimson Oliver Isla Sadie	Violet Harrison Louise Anna-Maria	Emerald Carissa Tyler Amelie
Y5	Magenta Damian Charlie Mia	Turquoise Shihab Kweku Rebecca H	Indigo Lexi Lillie Henry
Y4	Scarlet Harvey Ella Odelia	Ruby Isaac Lottie Ruby	Lilac Emily Owen Evie
Y3	Azure Millie Thomas Jack	Amber George Laren Milly	Sapphire Austin Holly Amy
Y2	Lavender Grace Joshua Dylan	Orange Dillon Arabella Billy	Pink Sienna-Mae Jahzeel Henry
Y1	Red Urunwa Amber Darcey	Yellow Florence Hayley Daniel	Blue Harry Ivy Esme
YR	Bears Jayden Jaxon Layla	Hedgehogs Charlie Layla Maya	Owls Jessica Harvey Flo

After the disruption of this year, we’re seeing some great progress in children’s learning this term. We are very grateful to have had an uninterrupted period in school, for the first time since the Autumn. Also, we continue to be so impressed with our children’s resilience and determination. Good job Team Tunbury! 

We wish all of our families a lovely half term holiday. After half term, we have an INSET day on Monday 7^th June, so we’ll see our children back in school on Tuesday 8^th June. Take care everyone and enjoy your break. 

Ruth Austin

Headteacher 

The Great Summer Read  

We need your help! For term 6, we are asking children to increase the amount of time they spend readingat home. We appreciate that it can be difficult to find the time to listen to, or read to your child every day but it will really help them if you could.

We will continue to share the top reading classes in each year group on our weekly bulletins.

Our aim is to encourage children to read for pleasure, but we realise that some children might need an incentive - so we will be offering the chance to win prizes of book tokens or a Kindle! Every child that brings in their reading record with at least 3 reads recorded in a week and signed by an adult will receive a raffle ticket. At the end of Term 6, we will pull raffle tickets from the box in each phase and the winners will receive one of our amazing prizes.

Your children will be bringing home a bookmark next term, which will have some examples of questions you can ask your child when you are reading with them.   These questions will help your child to focus on what they have read and will improve their comprehension skills. Alongside this, we will also share videos on the website showing how you can make the most of just a 10-minute reading session with your children.

Recent research has shown that:

• Reading increases intellect
• Children who enjoy reading are more academically successful
• Reading increases vocabulary
• Children who read more produce better pieces of writing
• Reading improves spelling  

We look forward to awarding Team Points and raffle tickets to our avid readers throughout the term. Why not make a start now and make the half-term break a wonderful reading opportunity? There are even more benefits for starting today! 

Studies have shown that those who read for pleasure have higher levels of self-esteem and a greater ability to cope with difficult situations. Reading for pleasure was also associated with better sleeping patterns. 

Children who read to someone at home for 30 minutes a day, 5 days per week will have read with an adult for 76,000 more minutes than those that do not. 

Young children whose parents read them five books a day start school having heard about 1.4 million more words than children who were never read to, a new study found. This 'million word gap' could be one key in explaining differences in vocabulary and reading development. 

Our Learning: Year 5 

During Term 5, Year 5 have been learning all about the exciting topic of Brazil and the Amazon Rainforest. Year 5 have based their learning around two texts, the Explorer and the Great Kapok Tree. The first sees four children stranded in the Amazon Rainforest due to a plane crash and plots their survival, based in large part on the discovery of an explorer, who is able to teach them survival skills. The Great Kapok Tree looks at the indigenous people of the Amazon region and explores the conflicts that they have with logging companies who threaten their way of life and survival.

 

Year 5 have really engaged with the topic and this can be clearly seen through their vibrant and colourful brain-builder projects. They have created carnival costumes, headdresses, maps, charts reports, games, PowerPoints and many other wonderfully creative ideas.

 

Our topic of study ended today with a brilliant Brazil Day! Everyone wore their own bright and colourful carnival clothes, had the chance to tie-dye a t-shirt and topped this off with their fabulous headdress that they created last week. A wide range of fresh fruit and juices were provided that grow in the Amazon region. The children also had the opportunity to eat some insects, just like the indigenous people! Despite being a great source of protein, the Year-group decided that they were more than happy with fish and chip day Friday from Jackie the school cook! All of this creativity occurred with a background of samba music, which the children were able to play along with on both tuned and untuned percussion instruments.

 

All of Year 5 wish you a brilliant half-term holiday and the teaching staff know that Year 5 are really excited to begin their brand-new topic for Term 6…CSI Tunbury! 

Online Safety: if someone needs help 

With the half-term holiday starting today, it is likely that your children will be spending an increased amount of time online. Over the past 2 terms I have shared lots of information, tips and resources to help ensure that your child remain safe whilst online.

What if they do encounter a problem whilst online? Here are 3 main suggestions to deal with the problem at source:

1. Communication with your child is essential. Talk to them and reassure them that they can always come to you if something upsets or worries them online. 
2. Save the evidence wherever possible. You may be able to report what has happened to the online service being used when the incident occurred. Evidence may include screen shots taken on a laptop or mobile device, emails, texts or online conversation histories. If you do need to make a report, evidence gathered will make it easier to show exactly what has taken place.
3. Knowing who to report to is a really useful step to resolve many issues, so do familiarise yourself with the services available below. Depending on what has happened, it might be necessary to let our school know too.

If you require further information or advice, please go to the link below:

https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/need-help

Thank you for your continued support in ensuring the children at Tunbury have a positive experience whilst enjoying exploring the online world. Have a wonderful, relaxing half-term!

Mr May, Online safety lead 

Notices 

Team Points: After the award of our Golden Team Points, worth a massive 50 points each, it was a very exciting end to this term’s Team Point competition. The final totals for Term 5 were as follows, with Attenborough our overall winners. Well done green team! Children in Attenborough enjoyed extra playtime on the field as their reward today.

Rowling	Attenborough	Holmes	Hawking
5640	5757	5711	5670

Year 2 team: To start our new topic of ‘On Safari’ Year 2 are planning to have a safari based day on Friday 11^th June. We would like your child to come into school dressed ready for a safari, e.g camouflage, animal print clothes, ready for a fun day of learning.

Also we will not be setting homework this week, so that you can enjoy half term! But please remember to read lots over the holidays, recording the reads you complete so that these can go towards the class reading totals. Spellings will restart for the quiz on week 2 of term 6.

Thank you for your support. 

Music lessons: As part of the development of music provision at Tunbury School The Math Music Academy provides both individual singing and keyboard lessons.  The Math Music Academy will be holding free 15 minute trial sessions on the 18th and 25th June for interested pupils wishing to commence lessons in September. During these trial lessons for singing, the teacher will do basic exercises, note recognition and some repertoire and for piano, the introduction to the keyboard and basic fingering.  Students have the opportunity to work towards school performances and concerts as well as graded examinations with both ABRSM and Trinity boards.

If you are interested, please could you email our singing teacher, Mrs Sophie Hyde, on  sophiehyde@aol.com by Monday 14th June to register for a free trial giving your child’s name and class. Thank you.

TSA own clothes day: Thank you for your £1 donations for the TSA ‘own clothes day’ today. Whilst our traditional TSA events have been put on hold, this is a simple fundraising event which our children really enjoy. The TSA held a committee meeting this week and approved funding for our Term 6 reading competition prizes, as well as a new Tunbury Art Gallery. We are also planning for the return of our Fireworks Extravaganza this Autumn! 

Covid-19: It is vitally important that nobody with symptoms of Covid-19 should approach or enter the school site. 

If you have any of the main symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19), get a test as soon as possible. Stay at home until you get the result. The main symptoms of coronavirus are:

• a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
• a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Most people with coronavirus have at least 1 of these symptoms. If you have any of the main symptoms of coronavirus:

1. Get a test to check if you have coronavirus as soon as possible.
2. You and anyone you live with should stay at home and not have visitors until you get your test result – only leave your home to have a test.

Anyone in your support bubble should also stay at home if you have been in close contact with them since your symptoms started or during the 48 hours before they started.

If you need to inform us of a positive Covid test result for your child, please do so straight away, either by phone (during the working day) or email (in the evenings, weekend or during the half term holiday) to the school office: 01634 863085 or office@tunbury.kent.sch.uk . In your message, please include the date of symptoms starting, the date of the test and your phone number.

Entry/Exit procedures

Year Group	Entry Time	Collection Time	Gate
Year R	8.35 – 8.45	3.05 – 3.15	Playground gate
Year 1	8.35 – 8.45	3.05 – 3.15	Front gate
Year 2	8.45 – 8.55	3.15 – 3.25	Front gate
Year 3	8.45 – 8.55	3.15 – 3.25	Playground gate
Year 4	8.35 – 8.45	3.05 – 3.15	Side gate
Year 5	8.45 – 8.55	3.15 – 3.25	Side gate
Year 6	8.45 – 8.55	3.15 – 3.25	Side gate

Dates for your Diary 

Term Dates for 2020/21: https://www.tunbury.kent.sch.uk/Parents/Term-Dates-2020-2021/ 

Term dates for 2021/22: https://www.tunbury.kent.sch.uk/Parents/Term-Dates-21-22/ 

Friday 28^th May – Last day of Term 5

Monday 7^th June – INSET Day – children do not attend school

Tuesday 8^th June – first day of Term 6 for children

Friday 11^th June – Year 2 safari day NEW

Monday 21^st June – Wednesday 23^rd June – Year 6 Residential visit to PGL, Marchants Hill

Monday 21^st June - New Entrants meeting at 4pm via Teams

Friday 25^th June 2021 – Graduoke filming – Year 6

Monday 28^th June – Friday 2^nd July – Bikeability Cycle Training for Year 6

Wednesday 21^st July – last day of Term 6