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Newsletter 6- Friday 22nd November
Dear Parents/ Carers,
It is pretty astounding how busy the school has been recently in regard to tours of parents interested in spaces for their children at Tudor from September 2020. Over the past few years, the number of applicants has risen sharply and last year the furthest distance away a ‘new’ family was successful in their application was under 350 metres. Whilst this is a worry for many of those on our tours, I am delighted that Tudor Primary is a school with a super reputation and it is a school that remains at the heart of the community it serves. Many of those walking round from across Hemel Hempstead share how our school has been highly recommended to them. Our school advisor even said in her feedback to me that she would love her own grandchild to come to our school- I must say that I was rather pleased with that comment!
A message about the festive performances at Tudor over the next few weeks…
As highlighted on the website for a number of weeks, you will have noticed that we will be holding some Christmas performances/ concerts in the final week of the term. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight why we have decided to not offer a number of different performances (like last year) to different age groups in the school hall. There is no doubt that the 5 separate concerts that were offered last year proved popular but I have to say that the impact on the organisation of the school was pretty intense. It is not just the evening of the performance (or the management of ticketing), it is the impact on the hall space for rehearsals and practises as well as the issues relating to our lunchtime arrangements. It really was a struggle and was not sustainable. I am aware that such activities must remain a part of our school and I will endeavour to get the balance right. The performance schedule is:
- Nursery and Reception will perform to parents in the school hall on Tuesday 17th December at 10am. Following the show, there will be a range of family craft activities to enjoy in classrooms.
-Year 1 and Year 2 will perform to parents on Monday 16th December at 2pm. This will take place in the school hall.
-Years 3,4,5 and 6 will perform a festive singing concert in the ‘Open Air’ after school on Tuesday 17th December. This will take place on the playground in front of the ‘Tudor Towers’.
Alongside a number of other fun activities in and around school including special assemblies, the ‘Tudor Christmas Lunch’ and more, I believe the children will have a super time. See the FOT section for news on our first ever pantomime too. Thank you in advance for your support.
A new RECORD for Tudor Primary…
A recent day saw Tudor Primary achieve something it has never done before. On that day, EVERY child in EVERY class from Reception to Year 6 was present and attending school. We had 100% attendance on that day. This is fantastic to see and this was followed up with fantastic attendance scores for the whole week. We did not just hit our target of 97% that week, we smashed it. As I have said before, there is NO bigger indicator in the success of a school and the overall wellbeing of the children, than positive attendance scores. What with some recent new family arrivals to our school, Tudor Primary is likely to be full and at complete capacity in the not too distant future. In more ways than one, we think we are ‘the school to go to!’
Whilst we enjoying some success- we must share some areas of high concern…
As you are aware, Tudor Primary invested in a high quality E-Safety event in the first half term of this academic year. The parent meeting was well attended and the children were able to enjoy some bespoke teaching sessions about how to keep themselves safe online. Richard Maskrey who is a leading voice in this area of education did share some concerns with the access a number of our children have online and how many are using apps/programs that are not age appropriate. WhatsApp continues to be the biggest problem across schools in Hertfordshire (this was a big area of concern at Tudor last year in Years 5 and 6) and a number of local heads can share stories of parent disagreements in relation to social media!
TikTok Concern- The latest area of concern relates to a program that was highlighted in the parent meeting. TikTok is a program with a 12+ rating as well as additional guidance of ‘Teen Maturity’. This is an app in which children share videos dancing and lip-synching to music. Currently, we have a high number of children in upper key stage 2 who are active users of this app and are being competitive in finding as many followers as possible. We have been informed of children with approximately 1000 followers and this is not surprising considering previous children at Tudor have had similar numbers of followers on Instagram.
As a school we recognise our duty in keeping children safe at all times but I would strongly encourage all parents to take an active role in understanding and managing their children’s experiences when online.
THANK YOU to the Friends of Tudor- what a fantastic Fireworks Event! And there’s even more fun in store…
The first ever Tudor Fireworks Spectacular was a super event. Despite the wind and rain, we had over 700 in attendance and the display did not disappoint- a huge well done and thank you to the fabulous Friends of Tudor.
The next FOT event is the Bingo Event on Friday 13th December- see the flyer below- this is always a popular event so do try and join us!
Looking into 2020, Tudor Primary will be holding our first ever Pantomime on Saturday 25th January at 2pm. More information will be released soon but this is bound to be great fun for adults and children alike- Oh yes it is!
Please do NOT send packed lunch snacks containing nuts
Tudor Primary is a school of nearly 450 children now and some of our children have severe allergies- and nuts can be a real danger to their safety. Can I take this moment to remind all parents (and children) that nuts are NOT allowed in our school.
And finally- During the last few weeks we have been holding our Autumn cycle of monitoring and evaluation activities. The outcomes of this have been very pleasing and I would like to conclude this newsletter by highlighting the impressive work of the teaching team at Tudor. There is so much evidence of their commitment to the children in their care and they take their role incredibly seriously.
Thank you to you all for your support as we continue to grow and progress as a school…
Mr Rob Weightman/ Headteacher