Twyning School - Newsletter 22 may 2026

Here is this week's news:

I hope that this week has been a good one for you all. I can not believe how quickly this term has gone!

This week, our year 5&6 children went on residential at the Pioneer Centre - as I am sure you have seen on Class Dojo, they had a really enjoyable, fun time together! Thank you to the staff who gave up their time to go with them.

Today it was Crazy Hair Day - a fundraiser run by our PTFA. It was great to see so many crazy styles! Thank you for your donations - this morning we counted £95.

Mrs Leggett took 10 Y4 children to QuadKids athletics at Tewkesbury Academy today. They competed against 6 other schools from Cheltenham and Tewkesbury, finishing in FIRST PLACE!! (Well done to Matilda, Willow, Ada, Evelyn, Montana, William G, Jacob, Charlie, Lucas and Lachlan).

Tomorrow is the reveal of the Kintsugi Lion. The concrete plinth has now been installed outside school by the lay-by and we are all getting very excited to meet Kintsugi. Further details are below, or have a look at the Kintsugi Lion Facebook page if you use social media. Our PTFA will be providing refreshments to raise money for the school playing field. Thank you for your cake donations !

Kind regards,

Miss Gladstone

Platinums

Congratulations this week go to...

Reuben F

Mark K

Sammie R

William B

Lily T-P

Sasha R

head teacher's award

This award goes to Molly E-C, who sadly leaves us today. Molly will be joining Oak Hill School after half term. We wish Molly all the best and hope that she will settle quickly into her new school. Molly has consistently been a polite, friendly, well-liked member of our school community who will be missed. We wish her and her family well.

Dates for your Diary

25 - 29 May - Half Term Holiday

2 June - Q&A meeting in school hall for all parents with Tewkesbury Academy leaders

10-11 June - Year 3 and 4 residential to Macaroni Wood

11 June - Hanley Castle High School Year 6 Parents information evening at Hanley Castle School

16 June - Bag2School day - please bring bags by 8:50am (or night before)

23 June - Tewkesbury Athletics evening at Tewkesbury Academy (KS2)

24 June - Hanley Castle Y6 Transition Day

24 & 25 June - Tewkesbury Academy Y6 Transition Day

25 June - New Reception 2026 parents information evening

24 and 25 June 2026 Big Step transition taster days are taking place at Tewkesbury Academy.

1st July - BIKER NITE on Twyning Green - school and PTFA providing refreshments

2nd July - THURSDAY 2ND JULY - Sports Day on the green (PM).

3rd July - BREAK THE RULES day!

7 July - Playgroup sports day at Twyning School AM

13 July - Leavers Play (Y5/6) dress rehearsal

14 July - Leavers Play (Y5/6) 2pm and 6pm

15 July - Leavers Service at Tewkesbury Abbey for Y6 Leavers - 1:30pm

15 July - Leavers DISCO and school discos

17 July - Leavers assembly (Y6 parents invited) 2pm

17 July - Last day of term

kintsugi lion - tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Saturday 23rd May sees the unveiling of the beautiful Kintsugi Lion at 12 noon outside school in the layby. All are welcome! Please bring any last cake donations to school tomorrow in good time. The PTFA will be running this to raise funds for our playground.

Congratulations to Charlie N and Daisy A who will be assisting with the unveiling at midday. It should be a fantastic event.

sports day - thurs 2nd july

As usual, we need many helpers to enable our sports day to take place. If you are able to offer your help to run an activity station (the first part of the afternoon), we would be very grateful. I would need to see you at 12pm on the green for a briefing. Please let Mrs Bowen know or email me directly at jleggett@twyning.gloucs.sch.uk

Thank you, Mrs Leggett

PARENT GOVERNOR VACANCY

From September 2026 we will have a vacancy for a parent governor. If you are interested in filling this important role, please see Miss Gladstone. The closing date for enquiries is 5th June 2026. Many thanks.

school uniform update!

I am sure you are all aware of recent news articles about the general cost to families School Uniform and plans to bring in a rule that uniform should have a maximum of three branded pieces of school uniform, so that parents can buy more generic items elsewhere. With this in mind, we have reviewed our uniform, and have decided that the 3 branded items are going to be:

School jumper / School cardigan
PE jacket / new PE fleece (see below)
PE t-shirt

Our PTFA have kindly offered to supply a branded school bookbag to each new starter - we are very greatful for this.

Regarding the P.E. jacket, and following feedback, we have decided to offer an alternative, cheaper, branded item. Children will be able to wear a navy zip through branded fleece (no hood) as an alternative to the two-tone PE jacket. This will be available via our supplier, Gooch School Uniform in Cheltenham along with all other items. This new jacket could then also double up as a lighter weight coat if needed.

Please can we remind all parents that shorts/cycling shorts/leggings should be navy not black.

attendance information

Please see this week's infographics. It is really interesting to see how our attendance as a school fits within the county and national statistics. At Twyning, our whole school attendance is consistently above national and local authority. It is so important that, when well, children do attend school, however, we do appreciate that children need to stay home in some circumstances - please see Is my child well enough for school? for clarification.

SCHOOL DINNERS/PARENTPAY

Please remember to top up your child's ParentPay account to cover their school dinners. Your account should be in credit at all times. Many thanks.

Click here to view current menus: www.twyningschool.co.uk/page/school-lunches/106163

move more - titans club

MOVE MORE - TITANS CLUB

This programme is perfect for children who enjoy being active but

prefer a more relaxed, supportive setting.

Move More TITANS will be running weekly on a Thursday at Cleeve

Sports Centre, 5:30-6:30pm during term times.

HTTPS://WWW.MOVE-MORE.ORG/TITANS/

s.e.n.d. sports & social saturdays

Please can I remind you of the sessions being held at Tewkesbury Youth Support centre from 10-11.30am. Please see the following link for more details.

https://www.move-more.org/SEND-SPORTS-AND-SOCIAL/

Mrs Leggett

free school meals/pupil premium

Apply online for pupil premium and free school meals - check to see if your child is eligible using the confidential online portal available on our website www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/education-and-learning/free-school-meals/

You can secure a tasty free meal for your child and save yourself up to £480 per year. Plus our school receives extra funding for each eligible child registered. If you receive a qualifying benefit, we are entitled to extra funding. So even if you don’t want your child to take a free meal, you should still apply to make sure that we receive all the government funding to which we are entitled.

Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 already receiving an Universal Infant Free School Meal arranged by their school, will still need to apply to enable school to get any extra funding. For further information, including a list of qualifying benefits, click the link above.

communication with school

I just wanted to remind parents about the most effective ways to make contact with your child's teacher should you need to. You can also advise us if your child is off school sick/unwell on the School Spider app. This is also in the communications section of the website. This document also lists all of the emails for the teachers. We kindly ask that you do not use the private messaging system on Dojo but instead use email please. Many thanks for your support as always. spaces.schoolspider.co.uk/uploads/605/page/40075479_page_file.pdf

Some useful links:

Keeping children safe online: www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/children-young-people-and-families/keeping-your-child-safe-online/

Safeguarding and E Safety: www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/curations/anti-bullying-week

Gaming and social media : www.askaboutgames.com/pegi-age-ratings#:~:text=Essentially,%20the%20PEGI%20rating%20on,deemed%20suitable%20for%20adults%20only.

If you believe your family to be eligible for Free School Meals, please click on this link: https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/education-and-learning/school-transport-and-free-school-meals/apply-for-free-school-meals/

Health and sickness information "Is my child too ill for school?" https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/is-my-child-too-ill-for-school/

Please click this link to view our School Attendance Policy, Absence Request forms, and other attendance documentation. www.twyningschool.co.uk/page/attendance/101727

A collection of links to find and get help in all sorts of situations from Anxiety, Health related, young persons help, depression and much more:

hubofhope.co.uk/concerns?concerns=86&latitude=52.0286023&longitude=-2.1466844

Gloucestershire Families in Partnership news and information can be found by clicking here:

www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/education-and-learning/families-in-partnership-newsletters/families-in-partnership-newsletter-april-may-2025/?pageNumber=1

WELLBEING & MENTAL HEALTH

Please see below some useful links to a few excellent wellbeing and mental health resources and an amazing digital therapy app for children:

luminova.app/gloucestershire

www.onyourmindglos.nhs.uk/

www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/media/mujkq12k/gcc_3002-cyp-mental-health-handout_aw-crop-large.pdf

hubofhope.co.uk/concerns?concerns=86&latitude=52.0286023&longitude=-2.1466844

communications with school

Please click on these links to view our guides to contacting school. We have also linked relevant policies for reference.

communications with school

guide to contacting school

communications policy

parent code of conduct

Contact

Please feel free to make contact with me via email head@twyning.gloucs.sch.uk should you need to speak to me. During evenings and weekends, I may not be able to respond to you straight away but I will make contact with you during normal working hours as soon as I can. Many thanks for all of your support.

Kindest regards