Important visitors, important news, important dates...
Newsletter 3
Thursday 30th September 2021
Dear Parents/ Carers,
A visit from our local MP
Sir Mike Penning visited the school this week. He was able to tour the site and see how the school has changed over the last few years. When we doubled in size, we faced many challenges but we should all be proud of what is now in place. Mr Penning also had the opportunity to field some questions from the children- the things they asked him were current and enabled him to share how he supports the local area.
Responses about sports facilities for young people as well as the current fuel crisis were interesting and the children represented the school well. I was also proud to share how the school responded during the recent school closures- the fact that we placed the school at the centre of the community and placed a high focus on mental health and wellbeing as well as the academic support was key. It was super to receive further correspondence from him after his visit:
'What a pleasure it was to visit the school yesterday; the children were a credit to the school... may I also praise the teachers and your staff for battling through this very difficult situation; I think we forget sometimes that, particularly your staff have coped brilliantly well through this very, very difficult situation; many of them worked all the way through as I am very aware of. A big THANK YOU from me.'- Sir Mike Penning- MP for Hemel Hempstead
Thanks for your supportive comments regarding the positive behaviour in our school
In the last newsletter, you will recall how I shared some points regarding behaviour. EVERY school will experience challenging situations regarding behaviour of pupils and I remain delighted at the standards of behaviour for learning that are displayed at Tudor each day. Please recognise that school approaches/ information regarding children must remain confidential. On occasion, families may believe that a particular situation is not being pro-actively responded to but be assured that Tudor Primary is a school that is highly responsive and staff remain on hand to support our young learners in a range of ways. Moreover, we are able to access and (proven to) deliver a raft of approaches to maintain standards we want… and expect.
In addition to the committed teaching team, the leadership team remain HIGHLY visible to families at the start and the end of the day and we are also very accessible to children throughout the day- and the children DO know this! Our most important strength is the open and honest relationship that we seek to have with EVERY child in our care.
Attendance is (also) an Ofsted indicator for Behaviour -it’s about positive ENGAGEMENT!
The area of ‘behaviour’ we have less influence on is attendance and I trust that all families do what they can to ensure their children receive a full education. Tudor is the fifth school I have worked in and I have never had to work so hard in my attempts to ‘persuade’ a minority parents to consistently send their children to school. Things have massively improved but the next period of time is vital as the children have experienced such an unsettled period- children NEED school! We hope parents are receptive to any additional learning opportunities that we invest in and provide.
A little more about ‘Investing in supplementary learning opportunities’- Tudorites ASSEMBLE!
A key tool in ensuring children progress well at Tudor is our ongoing investment in learning opportunities outside of the normal school day. Whilst it would be easier to remove children from other lessons for catch up learning in English and Maths, we believe all children should be able to experience the full and balanced curriculum that we offer. Therefore, providing supplementary learning clubs from 8am (including a free breakfast) ensures that children can access regular high quality revision (and extension) opportunities. The impact of these is huge too- it is not unusual to see a group of children of which 30% are age related to reach upwards of 70% by making accelerated progress. As the quote from of our parents highlights:
Primary school is where this progress needs to be made- the statistics on outcomes (in a range of ways) for children who are not age related when they start secondary school is very worrying.
Another successful learning club that is returning is our year 2 reading drive. We look forward to seeing as many parents as possible joining us each morning at 8.45am for 10 minutes. Once again, the impact on progress of this regular support has been highly evident in the past. Children do enjoy learning alongside the most important teachers that they will ever have- their parents…
Inclusion at Tudor Primary- a message from Miss Reading- our Leader for Inclusion
It was wonderful to see so many new faces at the first 'Tudor Coffee Morning', of this academic year, last week. Our coffee mornings are an informal opportunity to ask any questions you may have, share experiences, and see some friendly faces (with a hot drink and biscuits!) We will meet again on Friday 5th November at 9am, I hope you can join us. I have recently updated Tudor School's information report which can be found under the SEND/Family Links section of the website. Tudor's information report provides information about how Tudor School support pupils with special educational needs. If you have any feedback or comments or would like to discuss the contents of the information report further, please do not hesitate to contact me at: inco@tudor.herts.sch.uk.
A message from the office- Individual photos will take place on Monday 11th October- online orders will be available after this date. Also, please sort any outstanding payments for clubs ASAP!
Tudor has already shared information about transition to year 7. The links will remain on the website (see below). Do make sure you visit a range of schools to help your child in this transition from Tudor.
And finally- When I read back my newsletters I do try to ensure that there is a balance in the tone. I make no apologies for being a little ‘busy’ at times with my expectations for us all but this relates to my aspirational outlook for the children that come to our school. It IS a fact that children sometimes do not want to come to school- if I offered all the staff the choice to stay at home instead of working some days, I think they would take advantage! Resilience is a focus across schools and we must be mindful to make the right decisions- allowing children to strongly ‘influence’ what are decisions that parents have a duty to make is a slippery slope and, whilst they may be easier to make in the short term, they are likely to create longer term issues.
Follow our twitter link - https://twitter.com/TudorPrimaryHH- it shares a number of awesome things that your children experience each day. I am confident in saying that I do think Tudor does go ‘above and beyond’. If you want to experience the atmosphere for yourself, arrange a tour with the school office. Seeing truly IS believing!
It’s not long until our FOT Fireworks Spectacular on Friday 5th November either- the fun just does not stop at Tudor Primary!