Old Ford Newsletter

Principal’s Message

We had some amazing news to share this week.

Rashida Khanam, our Y5 manager and class teacher has won the ‘Primary School Teacher of the Year’ award at the National Muslim Teacher Awards!

As highlighted in her award recognition, Rashida has earned the trust and admiration of pupils, parents, and colleagues alike. Her consistency, principled approach, and deep devotion to the children she serves truly set her apart. We are lucky to have you at Old Ford Rashida!

Attendance

We all know how important regular attendance is. If children aren’t in school, they will miss out on important learning.

I know sometimes children are genuinely to ill to come to school, but if they only have a minor cold or cough it is find to send them in. There’s some good advice here from the NHS if you’re ever not sure.

From this week, we will be sending out weekly messages via MCAS with your child’s attendance percentage for the year to date. 90% may sound like high attendance, but over the course of a whole school year, it’s equal to FOUR WEEKS of missed school!

Measles (MMR Workshop)

You are invited to an informal session which will give parents and carers the opportunity to learn more about measles and the MMR vaccine, ask questions, and take part in an open Q&A discussion. The MMR vaccine will also be available for children who have not yet received both doses.

The session will take place at Kobi Nazrul Primary School but is open to all parents and carers from primary schools across Tower Hamlets. We would be very grateful if you could share the attached flyer with your school community.

Date: Wednesday 6th May 2026
Time: 9:00am – 10:00am
Location: Kobi Nazrul Primary School

Further information is available at: www.schoolvaccination.uk

Academy Council – Parent Workshops

We had our regular, half termly Academy Council meeting this week (see the minutes here). We had a really good discussion around how we can get parents/carers more involved in the school.

The councillors came up with the idea of having regular events at school, maybe on a morning straight after drop off, which parents could participate in. Some suggested ideas were keep fit classes, self defence, budgeting advice, cooking etc. There would probably be a small charge for this depending on the course and the instructor, and this would be split between the number of participants. The school would provide the venue free of charge to keep costs for parents down.

Councillors thought it would be a good idea to put a survey out to see what parents would be interested in but also to see if any of you have your own ideas or skills to share.

Fill in the survey here

Fire Safety

Community Resources for Families

• The government has launched their Best Start in Life supporting the Plan for Change target of 75% of children being school-ready by 2028. Visit the Best Start in Life website and sign up for personalised weekly emails.
• Have you ever considered volunteering? The Early Help service allows parents to come together, learn new skills and prepare for work. 
• The new expanded funded early education entitlements are available now – discover more about the 2-year-old childcare extension.

Online safety

Start and end of the day

Please remember that there are no staff on duty in the playgrounds before and after school so parents/carers should supervise their own children. Children should not be playing with balls or on the climbing frames.

To keep children safe please do not park on the double yellow or zig-zag lines when you are collecting or dropping off. Tower Hamlets parking enforcement officers are conducting regular patrols in the area.

When collecting your child at the end of the day please wait until all pupils are in their lines before speaking to the teacher and collecting your child. We need to make sure that all of our pupils go home with the right adult!

Bow Foodbank