Important information at this difficult time...
Before you read the newsletter, a small 'Tudor treat' for you:
Newsletter 13- Thursday 26th March 2020
Dear Parents/ Carers and CHILDREN of Tudor Primary,
This is the first time I have ever had to write a newsletter like this. As I have said in previous correspondence, the recent weeks have seen the best and worst of society. Rather than images of panic buying and the most vulnerable in society left to fend for themselves, let’s focus on how we can all work together in our response to this challenge.
Tudor Primary is very aware of the duty is has to engage and support the children on our school. Whereas, in the first instance, it looked like we may need to provide learning activities for a fairly short period before the Easter holidays, it is looking increasingly likely that we must do our best to support the children and families for an extended period.
Please do all you can to help your child access the learning…
Different schools may have different approaches and we are trying to ensure that the balance we achieve is the correct one. Despite the wealth of online material out there, we must empathise with the positions of different families and aim to provide ‘solutions’ that families can work with. We continue to use different forms of communication including: the website (our key information portal), twitter, school texts, email amongst others. The image below shows the detail you can EXPECT when your child contacts their teacher. As part of our duty to the care and wellbeing of all the Tudor children we do expect that families maintain contact with school and we will be monitoring this interaction. This is part of our pledge to remain alongside the children in this period. We are truly here to help- and in any way we can!
Here are the emails for each classteacher:
Nursery- nursery@tudor.herts.sch.uk
Red Class- red@tudor.herts.sch.uk Yellow- yellow@tudor.herts.sch.uk
Miss Adams/ 1P- 1p@tudor.herts.sch.uk Miss Foy/1O- 1o@tudor.herts.sch.uk
Miss Scott/2R- 2r@tudor.herts.sch.uk Miss Cosby/2Q- 2q@tudor.herts.sch.uk
Miss Manzie/3T- 3t@tudor.herts.sch.uk Miss Houston/3S-3s@tudor.herts.sch.uk
Miss Grundy/4V- 4v@tudor.herts.sch.uk Miss Sentence/4U- 4u@tudor.herts.sch.uk
Mr Crowder/5X- 5x@tudor.herts.sch.uk Miss McKenzie/5W- 5w@tudor.herts.sch.uk
Mr Munro/ 6Y- 6y@tudor.herts.sch.uk Miss Cohen/ 6Z- 6z@tudor.herts.sch.uk
The website has also been redesigned in the last few days so that key pages are more prominent. The HOME LEARNING tab is now much more accessible. Within each year group you will find the CLASS BLOGS that share daily updates from the class and additional learning support. Also, try to enable your child to engage with any interactive opportunities such as when teachers invite the class to ‘online assemblies’ or reading time!
Responding to your requests
We are also seeking the views of families on how things are going. We have been thrilled with the feedback about the provision of workbooks to families (as well as the super Friends of Tudor scrapbooks) as this has meant there is not an over reliance on printing and expensive printing supplies. Going forward, we will be investing further in high quality materials/ workbooks that children can work directly into. These have teacher support notes as well as other advantages in the engagement of children.
By mid-April, we will be requesting that families come and collect some further (substantial) learning packs from the school- especially in Reception and Key Stage 1. There is also likely to be some rewards, sweet treats and other goodies in these packs. We will be asking, though, that you use your walk to school as your daily fitness activity because we are keen to ensure no one is put in a difficult situation. After all, we must all be aware of the guidance on remaining at home as much as possible.
Keeping that focus on wellbeing
I have been really proud of the team at Tudor and all of them have been keen to help out as much as they can. Whilst some have been instructed to remain home (due to family situations, etc) they are all on board. Jobs include: distributing gift packages to the local area, dropping off food parcels, delivering learning packs and whatever else can make a positive difference. Teachers continue to interact with the children in their classes and the numbers of families engaging in this has been increasing each day. All of the activities for your children are shared online and there really is a wealth of opportunity- for educational support as well as social interaction. We recognise that ‘isolation’ can be a difficult experience so do look to take a full part in all this.
Fitness and FUN!
Mr Higgins also has been updating a daily fitness challenge too and these test children’s creativity skills as well as building their fitness. Check out The Tudor Sport twitter page as well as Mr Higgins’ brand new Tudor Sport YouTube Channel- use this link to find the first video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9R8VmATszI
Tudor in the community- Community@tudor.herts.sch.uk
A big thank you to those parents that brought in donations of tinned foods/ toiletries, etc in the days before school closed. Along with a phenomenal donation from TKMaxx we are able to provide substantial gift packages to people within both the Tudor community and wider areas. Some of the cards we have received highlight how such things can really brighten the lives of others. Use the community@tudor.herts.sch.uk email to help us reach out!
To conclude, please recognise that as a parent myself I recognise how difficult it is to meet the needs of children (and each other) in this difficult period. We ALL look forward to a return to normality when the children of Tudor can return with their big smiles Let’s do all that we can to make sure that day comes sooner rather than later.
Mr Weightman