Outside the classroom
There’s more to any school than what happens within the classroom walls.
This section tells you about some of the many aspects of school life that aren’t necessarily framed within a 45-minute lesson. Some, like homework or school trips, are nonetheless central to our approach to teaching. Others are educational in a wider sense: clubs, assemblies, the School Council. Still others enrich the whole school community—by which we mean they’re just massively fun.
After School Clubs
We have a great range of clubs, both at lunchtime and after school. We’re thankful for the staff, parents and others who give us extra help to make them a success.
For detailed information about what’s on offer right now, who can join and how, take a look at our dedicated Clubs page.
If you have any questions about clubs, get in touch and we will pass your message to the admin team.
Assemblies
We hold school assembly every day for children from Year 1 upwards.
Each Friday morning at 9:15, assembly is presented by one of the classes, often based on other work they’ve been doing at school. Families are invited to these mini-productions: please come along!
Check the calendar or headteacher’s bulletin to find out out which class is hosting when.
At Friday assembly we also give out the week’s “Well Done” Awards, nominated by teachers for a child in each class. If your child is going to get one, we’ll let you know in advance so you can attend.
Homework
Home support and enthusiasm about learning make an enormous difference to children’s achievement at school. The more you’re able to read with your child, listen to them reading and encourage them to complete the written exercises, games and research tasks they’re set, the more they will benefit.
Pupils start getting homework from the very beginning of their career with us. You’ll find homework sheets and a reading diary in the red PACT folder each child brings to school every day. We introduce homework early to help children consolidate and practise what they’ve learned in school, but also to get into good learning habits. It shouldn’t become a burden – please speak to your child’s teacher if you’ve any concerns.
The reading diary will be checked at least once a week. Please fill it out for your child in the earlier years and later encourage them to fill it out themselves. Your interest means so much to them.
Visits & trips
We support classroom-based learning with trips and visits that help bring the curriculum to life. You’ll get a letter in your child’s book bag, telling you about the trip and its purpose and asking for your permission plus a voluntary contribution. Please make sure you sign the slip and return it or your child will miss the trip – we can’t take them without a parent or carer’s permission.
For older children, we arrange longer, residential trips. These have included weekends at Oxenwood Outdoor Education Centre in Wiltshire for Year 4s and, for Year 6s, week-long trips involving outdoor activities and sports in a rural or coastal setting.
In the summer term, classes often go on trips they have chosen for fun, sometimes supported by money they’ve made in PTA cake sales.
Reception children visit Cat and Mouse Library every week and we’re grateful to parents who accompany us. Please come along with your child’s class any time that you’re able. Children in years 1 and 2 also visit the library with their teacher, either weekly or fortnightly.
School Council
We have an active School Council, making decisions about issues that have an impact on all the children’s school lives. The Council is made up of two pupils (one girl, one boy) from every class in years 1-6, elected by their classmates.
Meetings are at least once per half term, facilitated by Dilara Kalique and Martin Scarborough. The agenda consists of issues raised by the children themselves and issues passed to Council for resolution. For example, Council has made decisions about playground design, choosing our new logo, and what to do about adults smoking at the school gates. Sometimes the Council passes individual issues back to the whole student body for a general vote.
Events
Tufnell Park School has several time-honoured traditional events throughout the year, and we invent more all the time!
Our Hat Parade, which is the finale of every Spring term, is a thing of creative legend – at least, among families of pupils and alumni. Whenever you’re reading this, it’s not too soon to start on your design.
We’re also proud of our International Evening, which happens (almost) every year and demonstrates some of the joyful features of diversity in song, dance and the most amazing feast in town.
At Christmas, Year 2 children stage our annual Nativity play in which Reception children also star as… stars. There are Christmas parties for every class and a Winter Wonderland put on by the PTA. Year 6 students have a special party or other event before they leave us.
The PTA also organises our annual Summer Fair and September welcome picnic for families of Reception children, and is responsible for any number of one-off events. Check the PTA pages for more information.
The whole school supports a variety of charities during the year, including Children in Need, the NSPCC and Sport Aid, with dress-up days, food stalls, games and more.
Other activities
Tufnell Park is a national “Healthy School”, a status awarded by Camden & Islington Councils to cover good practice in promoting pupils’ health in the widest sense – physical and emotional. Among many other things, this means that we educate about nutrition (ie, what constitutes a healthy lunch), ensure that physical activities are promoted and enabled at school and in after-school clubs and support health-based initiatives throughout the year.
We’ve got a well-filled sports trophy cabinet in the school reception area. In 2013-14, Tufnell Park supplied the Islington Primary School Girls Football Cup Winners and Islington Primary Schools Sportshall Athletics Champions. In 2018-19, our boys’ Football Team became Islington League Champions – in the most dramatic way possible, via a penalty shootout!