Newsletter 5- Friday 6th November

Dear Parents/ Carers,

Welcome to the second half of the Autumn term! It is very clear that we continue to work in ‘different’ times but we promise to ensure your children continue to enjoy their time in our care. The work that the children are completing at the moment is really impressive and there is an awesome atmosphere in school. Whilst we now find ourselves in a second national ‘lockdown’, Tudor Primary is a place of joy and we are delighted with how the children are responding in school. On Wednesday this week, there were only 3 children absent out of over 440 children and that evidences our joint commitment in the wellbeing and development of our young learners. Masks and face coverings are more evident outside but I promise you the smiles of the children continue to shine in school. Talking of our increased measures…

Responding in the right way

As I am sure you can understand, I have been spending a lot of time reading (new) guidance as well as evaluating our practice so that I can be confident that Tudor is a safe and well managed environment for your children to attend each day. Additional measures that have been introduced this week include the wearing of face coverings for parents at drop off and collection and your supportive response has been really appreciated. We are not a shop or a place of work that can ‘enforce’ such measures but it is clearly evident that you are keen to work with us in support of the health and wellbeing of our school community.

Please also continue to use the one way direction of travel that we have implemented when entering and exiting our site. Do refrain from hanging around in groups and try to keep areas moving freely. I am aware that such expectations sound ‘cold’ to request but we all have a collective interest in helping society return to some form of normality as quickly as possible.

I do believe that school is the right place for your children to be and I pledge that we will maintain clear and transparent communication with you throughout this period and beyond. The fact that we have not yet had to close any particular classes or year groups yet is pleasing- many other schools have had to do so. However, if (and when!) we do have to close a classroom due to a confirmed case, be assured that your school will be fully ready and prepared to deliver the highly supportive and interactive home learning approaches that were so well received in Summer- in fact, we would try to make the support even better! Talking of improving our performance…

Parent Consultations- Thanks for supporting your children. Let’s make those ideas work!

Parent consultations were a little different this year! Whilst there were a few ‘blips’, the vast majority of meetings were able to work well and I hope you appreciated the approach that we put in place. I had given the teaching team the choice between a few approaches and they were all unanimous in being able to see the parents of their children face to face. We believe it is a duty for all parents to engage in the process of working together to support the children so please do respond to any reminders to complete any outstanding meetings. Furthermore, if you would like any more information about how to support your child, do contact your child’s class teacher- we remain available to help in any way we can. We are pleased that nearly all the parents and families that have been offered additional tuition/ learning support have enabled their children to benefit from it. Whilst one particular ‘Super-Tudorite’ should remain nameless, they have gone from 0 to 15/20 in their early phonics understanding in less than half a term- that truly is amazing and highlights the impact that teamwork has!  

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT- A high-quality PRE-SCHOOL provider is coming to Redwood Drive

During the summer months, the selection process for the new pre-school provider was completed. ‘Little Fawns’ will soon be operating from the pre-school building next to the school.

For more information, follow the link below to find out more. Tudor Primary School looks forward to working alongside our new neighbour! Info at:

www.littlefawnspreschool.co.uk

Should we really mention Christmas?!

The Christmas cards that the pupils designed are coming home this week – parents can keep the sample card as a “freebie”, and place orders for copies of cards, gift tags, mugs and tote bags etc.  Please order by Friday 13th November and include the correct change or a cheque payable to “Friends of Tudor”.  Please do check the spelling of your child’s name and write any amendments clearly on the order envelope.

Let’s keep the children safe outside school too!

Please do take extra care and consideration when parking- please also do not park/ stop on the yellow markings at the front of the school. Consider parking a little further away and walking some of the journey- as well as supporting healthy lives, it will mean that the capacity of the road is not stretched!

Tudor- the school for YOU

Reception applications are now open. We have been delighted with the level of interest in our school over the last few years and we now regularly receive approximately 200 applications for our 60 space Reception year group and around 100 families in Hemel Hempstead put Tudor as their FIRST choice each year. Thank you to those families that continue to share their support of our school on social media too- it really does give us a boost when we hear about such positivity!

Due to the open layout of our school we are still able to deliver socially distant/ safe school tours. Reception place applications open until the 15^th Jan 2021. The school site has been upgraded in so many ways over the last few years and we are keen to share it!

Tudor Primary’s evolving approach to school improvement- learning is not limited to children!

The monitoring and evaluation of the teaching and learning at Tudor Primary has been an area of high focus since I became headteacher. It is fair to say that it has been a rather formalised process so far when evidencing how effectively the teaching team supports your children. It has been an effective approach and we are confident in our ability to say that the standard of teaching in our school is strong, in fact evidence suggests that there is ‘outstanding’ performance in all phases within the school. Going forward, input from the children as well as evaluation from the teachers’ themselves will have a much higher focus. I share this information on the newsletter as I trust it highlights how we continue to want the best for your children and we are determined to keep learning ourselves. Be assured, it is not just the children that seek to improve and develop at Tudor- every one of us should try to be the best we can be.

To conclude this newsletter though, I must commend the staff team at Tudor- they remain incredibly committed to the children in their care and they always show willing to ‘go the extra mile’. In this period following school closure, they really are on TOP form!

Mr Rob Weightman/ Headteacher                      

#TeamTUDOR