Welcome to Twydall Primary School and Nursery

Part of the RMET (Rainham Mark Education Trust) family of Schools

I am proud to be the Headteacher at Twydall Primary School, an inclusive and caring school in Gillingham.  Along with a talented and dedicated team of staff, we strive to ensure children at Twydall are happy, cared for and are at the heart of everything we do.  Our Trust Values of CHARACTER (Curiosity, Happiness, Aspiration, Respect, Articulacy, Community, Teamwork, Equality, Resilience) are woven through our school, ensuring children develop these values during their time with us.

In May 2023, Ofsted judged the school as GOOD in all areas and we are delighted that they commented:

"Twydall Primary is a welcoming and caring community. Pupils are kind to each other"

"Pupils behave well. All pupils know the school rules: 'Be Ready, Be Safe, Be your best' and these are evident in their actions."

"Leaders at all levels are dedicated to improving the school for the community. They have raised expectations of what pupils can achieve by implementing an ambitious curriculum that starts from the early years."

We deliver a locally rich Geography, History and skills based Art and Science curricula. We aim to provide opportunities to develop a thirst for new experiences, skills and knowledge. We believe that education goes well beyond the school wall and as such every year group has regular opportunities to learn outside and experience educational visits to places such as Rochester to study Charles Dickens, History and RE, or Horton Kirby to study rivers. These help to develop the cultural capital of our pupils. 

In EYFS our children learn through a mixture of child initiated play and direct teaching in small groups. The classroom environments are carefully set up to develop curiosity, independence and challenge. The development of language through rhyme and story-telling are a focus. Pupils are able to learn inside and outside across the sessions. Read, Write Inc phonics is introduced in the nursery as a foundation for reception. In Key Stage 1 children are registered in their home classrooms but then move for phonics lessons. All other subjects are taught in the home classrooms. 

We have a great deal of experienced, specially trained staff and a superb SEN team who work hard with all families to ensure that all pupils receive the very best care, provision and expert help.  The whole school benefits from having a broad intake including those with hearing impairments and physical disabilities. Our SEND provision is broad, and we aim to identify barriers to learning and work hard to reduce those barriers to ensure that all pupils can make progress to their maximum capability. We aim to stretch and challenge the most able and are proud of those pupils who decide to take the Medway Test and are delighted that so many of them pass the test and go on to local grammar schools including Rainham Mark Grammar, which is part of our local family of schools in a multi-academy trust. 

We have high aspirations for all members of our school community: we celebrate success via our Class Dojo, awarding points and our celebration assemblies. We are committed to extending our knowledge, developing our staff and all of our children.

Choosing a school is not an easy task we encourage you to visit us during a normal school day, to see how well our children learn. We look forward to meeting you and showing you around our unique school.

Louise Hardie

Headteacher