Headteacher News for October 2025
Dear Parents and Carers
Living Our Values: Kindness and Respect
This term, we’ve been thoughtfully focusing on two of our core school values — Kindness and Respect — especially as we navigate some of the complex and challenging events taking place both globally and closer to home, including within our own school community.
Within our school, we are proud to see these values lived out every day. Year 4 have been connecting with residents at our local care home, sharing time and stories across generations.
Anna in Year 4 has been spreading positivity with her poster campaign: “Talk to someone new - they might be your next best friend!”
Year 1 have been collecting and organising small-world toys to make playtime inclusive for everyone.
Behind the scenes, Ms Davies has been working hard to ensure every family has access to wraparound care — supported by teachers who have kindly offered up their own workspace to help make this happen.
These moments capture the best of our school — people looking out for one another, showing respect, and leading with kindness.
We embrace and foster a school environment where everyone feels respected, valued, and safe. Our staff work thoughtfully to ensure that personal beliefs are kept separate from our shared learning space, allowing every child to feel included and supported. We understand that events - whether global, national, or local - can shape how we feel and respond. In these moments, we focus on nurturing empathy, encouraging our children to consider different perspectives and to approach differences with kindness and understanding.
At the heart of this, we focus on teaching children how to express themselves thoughtfully and respectfully through the Oracy Voice 21 framework, which helps them develop the skills of listening, reasoning, and debating with empathy. We recognise that many of the issues being discussed in the wider world are complex - even for adults. As a school, we approach these conversations through our core values of nurturing kindness and leading with respect, helping our pupils to understand different perspectives while feeling safe to share their own.
Every day, our staff work tirelessly to help children settle into routines, support their learning, and create a caring, inclusive environment where everyone can flourish. While we can’t always control events or the behaviour of others, we can choose how we respond. As adults, we have such an important role in modelling the values our children see and learn every day.
We’re also excited to share that we now have a new Instagram page- follow us @tetherdownschool, where you can see our Year 6 children living our values at PGL, along with so many other amazing things happening across our school. From acts of kindness to moments of teamwork and respect, these snapshots truly capture what our school community is all about.
When home and schoolwork together uphold these shared values, our children thrive — they feel safe, respected, and inspired to show that same kindness to others. If you’d like to share a few words of appreciation for our staff, we would love to hear from you – please send them an email. Your encouragement truly makes a difference to the many members of our team who give so much of themselves to our school community.
Thank you for continuing to support our school and for helping us make these values not just words on a poster, but part of our shared daily life.
Wishing you all a wonderful break and a happy Halloween — I loved seeing the children’s creativity come alive as they stitched their little ghosts in Stitch Club!
Annie Ashraf
Headteacher