Previous newsletters available here

Wednesday 28th March

Dear Parents/ Carers,

I must begin this newsletter by wishing all of you a safe and happy holiday. School finishes for the spring term at 2pm tomorrow and we look forward to seeing you all again on Tuesday 17^th April. On a less positive note, the first main news item relates to some highly concerning issues regarding the continuing poor attendance and punctuality of some children at Tudor Primary.

Attendance Issues- please read

I have just been informed that there are 10 children absent today and the school has not been provided with any reason for why they are not in school. The office team will now be required to call these families and try to find out why their child has failed to arrive in school- our first priority being to ensure that the child is safe and well. However, the school staff also feel that there is an additional issue of a lack of consideration that is being shown to the school- for what we try to do each day in the educational and social support of children as well as the policies and guidelines for how the school is run.

As Headteacher I will always endeavour to enrich the lives of the children as much as I am able to. From improving and refining the school itself, both in respect of the building and what is inside to actively seeking ways to inspire children and ensuring that they remember their time in our school, I am committed to making the right decisions. I want Tudor to be known as a school of excellence and I trust that the vast majority of parents seek to support the school in that aim. To see that over 160 children will be given certificates and rewards tomorrow for 100% attendance makes me very proud but I have a duty to be equally concerned for children who are not able to benefit from a full education and/or children whose parents have not even informed the school of where they are and whether they are safe.

Please do read our website for our school attendance policy. There is also additional information about the use of Fixed Penalty Notices for persistent absentees.

To the vast majority of our parents who respect the school and what it wants to achieve, all at Tudor thank and appreciate all that you are doing for our young learners. After all, school can only ‘complement’ those who are the biggest influences in their lives- parents and carers. We pledge to do all we can to make sure your children’s time at Tudor is fun, safe and memorable.   

Important changes regarding access to the site- UPDATE- an adjustment

We have reached a position where we can now put in place the access arrangements of the site going forward. In the last newsletter, I highlighted the new arrangements and, whilst I do think the end of the day requires the use of the main middle gates to allow the movement of parents off the site, I do think that the morning needs to be handled a little differently. Therefore, in the morning, the access will be via the pedestrian gates (as with the arrangements before). We predict that this will be sufficient to allow movement on/ off the site because there is a window of 10 minutes to ‘manage’ this traffic. School opens at 8.45am and school starts at 8.55am.

After school, the use of the middle gate will be in operation (as with existing arrangements) so that when all classes depart at the same time, we do not have congestion in front of school.

To confirm:

8.30-9.00am/ 3.05-3.25pm- Parents/ carers to access/exit the site using the lower pedestrian gate or the ‘top’ gate. These gates are shown here below:

For families who have permission to drive onto the site, the lower main gate will be used for arrival and exit. There is now sufficient space to turn in front of the school.  From 9.00am until 3.05pm (during the day), the pedestrian access for those visiting the school office will be the lower pedestrian gate (next to pre school).

Be assured staff will be on hand to welcome you in and support with any problems.

Mobile phones and keeping children safe

Wherever possible, children should not have phones in school. For those parents of children who walk home alone who want to be able to contact their children before and after school, the children are able to keep the phone turned off in the bottom of their school bags. Please be aware that the staff do not have any responsibility for the security of phones in school so we recommend against the use of high value phones and/ or smartphones. Once again, such decisions are made with the intention of keeping children safe.

Did you know?

In respect of social media, I thought it would be interesting to share something that some local secondary school headteachers informed me about recently. Did you know that the time of the week that is most problematic for secondary schools (children and staff dealing with things) is Monday morning? The reason is that this is the time when all of the ‘online issues’ from the weekend all come into the schools. The role of parents here is obviously vital. I thought you would appreciate the ‘heads up’…

The first Friday back will be the Tudor Owls Cake Sale:

Tudor Owls- Friday 20th April is cake day. This time it will be the turn of the children in Year 1 to provide biscuits and Y6 to provide cakes. Tudor Owls charge 20p for each cake or for two biscuits. PLEASE DO NOT SEND IN CAKES/ BISCUITS THAT CONTAIN NUTS- THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Let’s continue to make Tudor a fun, inspiring place to be…

Let’s be honest- this has been a rather depressing newsletter and it troubles me to think that this is the last message that the Tudor community will get from me before the end of term. I do hope that you understand the concerns and frustrations of the school staff with the issues shared and it is certainly at odds with the wonderful atmosphere that can be found within our walls each day.

The teaching team are excited about next term and they have been busy planning what is in store for your children. We have the start of our new breakfast club (MAKE SURE YOU BOOK SPACES), lots of new after school clubs, a visit from the world BMX champion and much more.

Enjoy the break,

Mr Rob Weightman/ Headteacher