Weekly Bulletin:Tuesday 22nd July 2025
Headteacher’s message to parents/carers
Dear Parents/Carers,
The end of each academic year brings many changes, and today we’re saying goodbye to our wonderful Year 6 children and some wonderful staff members too.
This morning, all three Year 6 classes held their leavers’ assemblies, where a tear or two were shed! As well as hearing children’s memories of their time at Tunbury and marvelling at how they’ve grown since they were in Reception, we also awarded the following Year 6 awards:
Outstanding attitude and achievement in Maths: Jessica (Emerald class)
Outstanding attitude and achievement in English: Raya (Crimson class)
Outstanding attitude and effort: Bridget (Violet class)
Headteacher award: Hadley (Crimson class)
Congratulations! Also this year, the Year 6 team’s first ever Summer Fair Open Afternoon was a huge success. Through creating games and selling all kinds of homemade items, Year 6 children raised enough money at this event yesterday to fund both an ice cream van visit to school today, as well as a donation to charity. Clearly, we have some entrepreneurs of the future!
Today, Team Tunbury is also saying goodbye to the totally terrific Mr Taylor, who is leaving us to become Headteacher at Rochester Riverside in September. We held special assemblies for Mr Taylor yesterday morning, in which children shared their favourite memories of him (generally involving singing, dancing or fun!) and sung our very own version of the Tunbury Waving Flag school song in his honour. Mr Taylor is undoubtably going to be a brilliant headteacher and we all think that the children at his new school are very lucky.
As well as the retiring staff members, Mrs Hart and Miss McKenzie who I mentioned last week, we’re also saying goodbye to Miss Pickles, Mrs Maca and Mrs Halpin, as well as a temporary goodbye to Mrs Ward as she begins her maternity leave. Everyone at Tunbury wishes all of our leaving staff the very best for their future endeavours and thanks them for their hard work. Working in a primary school is incredibly rewarding, sometimes unpredictably so, but it’s always an honour to support children’s learning and see how they grow and learn. It’s been a pleasure to see so many successes among our staff and children this year, and it’s wonderful to look back on how far everyone has come since September.
After all this hard work, it’s definitely time for a rest! Have a lovely summer break everyone. Stay safe and enjoy your time together as a family, may it be restful or active, home or abroad, rain or heatwave – have a great summer holiday.
Best wishes
Ruth Austin
Headteacher
Notices
Meet the teacher meetings in September: Please take a look in the Diary Dates section for the timing of the Meet the Teacher meetings in the first week back in September. These will be held in the school hall, after school, but this year, we will also be offering the opportunity to join these meetings remotely via Teams.
New Parent Governor election in September: Thank you to Hayley Moylan for her many contributions to Tunbury school life in her Parent Governor role. Unfortunately, Hayley won’t be continuing in this role in September, so we will have a vacancy for a new Parent Governor. Full details will be shared in September, but for now, please do consider whether volunteering as a Parent Governor is something that you might be interested in.
Ukulele tuition: we are pleased to inform you of some musical developments taking place for the new academic year. In addition to the whole class ukulele sessions enjoyed by Year 3 for the last few terms of this academic year, we would like to offer your child the opportunity to experience ukulele tuition in one-to-one or smaller group settings with the music teaching company Andrew Parry Music. These lessons will take place in school during the school day with their teacher Estelle who has been teaching the Year 3 classes at Tunbury. For more information and to apply, please visit their website: https://www.andrewparrymusic.com/
Financial support for families with children receiving free school meals: Currently, the local authority is providing Household Support Funding for families with children eligible for free school meals. For the school summer holiday, families with children eligible for free school meals will receive a £80 voucher per child.
Could you apply for free school meals for your child? Did you know that the school receives extra funding called pupil premium for all children eligible for free school meals? We use pupil premium funding to improve the overall quality of education that we can offer in school, as well as providing additional resources and support. A benefit of Pupil Premium funding is that this can be used to pay for the cost of your child’s school trips, so you won’t be asked for parental contributions for these events.
To check if you are eligible for Free School Meals, please visit www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/schools/free-school-meals#tab-1. To apply, please visit www.cloudforedu.org.uk/ofsm/kent/
Tunbury Primary School Facebook: Lots to look back on this year on Facebook… we now have 442 followers, as well as hundreds of photos of Tunbury school life. This week on Facebook, it’s goodbye to the G.O.A.T. Mr Taylor! Please take a look at Tunbury Primary School | Chatham | Facebook
Team Points: After the award of Golden Team points, the final scores were as follows. Attenborough team held on to their lead and won the reward time and ice poles yesterday morning. Congratulations!
|
Rowling |
Attenborough |
Holmes |
Hawking |
|
7405 |
7663 |
7007 |
7362 |
Dates for your Diary
Term dates for 2025/26: www.tunbury.kent.sch.uk/Parents/Term-Dates-25-26/
Term 1
Monday 1st September – INSET day – no children in school
Tuesday 2nd September – 1st day of the new academic year for children
Tuesday 2nd September - Meet the Teacher meetings – Year 1: 3.15 pm, Year 4: 4 pm
Wednesday 3rd September – Meet the Teacher meetings – Year 2: 3.15 pm, Year 6: 4 pm
Thursday 4th September – Meet the Teacher meeting – Year 5: 3.25 pm
Friday 5th September – Meet the Teacher meeting – Year 3: 3.25 pm
Wednesday 10th September – TSA AGM – 7 pm (main hall)
Thursday 11th September – Kent 11+Test Day (in school)
Friday 17th October – Last Day of Term 1
Term 2
Monday 27th October – INSET Day – School Closed for pupils
Tuesday 28th October – First Day of Term 2
Wednesday 29th – Friday 31st October – Year 6 Windmill Hill Residential visit
