Issue 437: 6th October 2023

Dear Parents and Carers,

October has arrived and with it has come another busy and successful week in school.

This week our first Honours Award assembly celebrated the children who had settled well into their new classes. It was striking how many of the individuals had been selected by their teachers not just for demonstrating our PRIDE code but also for their determination to succeed and apply open mindsets in lessons. A huge well done to all of our winners. There will be a shake up to the themes of some of our Honours Awards this year. Our Learning Toolkit skills, now very much rooted in the life of school, will be replaced by the 5 Ways to Wellbeing. We have utilised the 5 Ways to Wellbeing for a number of years and recognise how fundamental they are in shaping healthy, happy, successful and productive pupils. Our next award will focus on Kindness and will prove a tough choice for teachers, I’m sure!

School Visits

We open our doors to visits from many professionals in our commitment to school improvement and as part of the OWN Trust we also benefit from the offer of further academy wide support. This past week we have welcomed separate visits from Mary Foreman, the OWN Trust Chair of Trustees and Sarah Levy, Quality of Education Consultant. Both visitors commented on the calm and focussed atmosphere present as they toured our classrooms. As part of her advisory role, Sarah met with Katy Wyatt (Maths lead) to review our curriculum coverage and provided some great insight into how we can further improve the quality of teaching and learning in Maths.

Books

We have made changes to the exercise books each year group use this year. Children now have an individual book for each of the subjects they cover in class, with the aim for many of the books to travel with them throughout their school journey. We see this move as a positive way for the children to strengthen their ability to review their learning and revise previously taught skills. It will also help to significantly reduce waste.

Where possible, we have re-allocated our current book stock for year groups to use. However, we do have some excess books which are no longer required. We will be holding a ‘freebie table’ after school on the KS1 playground next week- please help yourselves to any you can use at home.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Mrs Fidgett, the Director of Learning

^{Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash}

Each week, we publish the latest achievements of the children at Orton Wistow Primary School.

FOWS News

By Jo Watson, Chair of FOWS

Plant donations

In a recent newsletter, we reached out to seek assistance in revitalising the planters outside the school office, and we had a couple of positive responses so far.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to those parents who have already donated plants, as well as to Nottcuts Garden Centre, which kindly provided us with both plants and compost.

However, we still have a couple of planters that are in need of some greenery to complete our project. If you have any unwanted plants that you would be willing to donate to help brighten up our school surroundings, or if you can spare some of your time and expertise to assist us in maintaining these planters, we would greatly appreciate your support.

Please feel free to contact us at fows@owps.org.uk if you are interested in contributing to this initiative. Your involvement will help to create a more welcoming and pleasant environment for our students, staff and visitors

Thank you for your continued support in making our school a better place.

Honours Awards

Congratulations to the following children who all received the first Honours Award of the Year for Setting In.

Celebrating Success 06.10.23

Here at Orton Wistow Primary School, we recognise that success comes in all different shapes and sizes! We celebrate the children's achievements in school in the Achievements section of the newsletter and website.

Many of the children, however, are also achieving things outside of school.  We would like to recognise these successes too.

It might be that your child has passed a music or dance exam, gained a karate belt, starred in a show, volunteered, taken part in a sporting event, or done something that they didn't think was possible!

If you would like to share your child's achievements with us so that we can celebrate their success, please complete the Celebrating Success form. Contributions will be considered for inclusion in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

We look forward to hearing about your children's extracurricular achievements!

Celebrating Success this week!

This child is now a sworn in probationer at Pembroke College Chapel  - an amazing service and a fantastic choir! 8 years of fun ahead. Congratulations!

Congratulations to these brothers on successfully passing their karate belt tests Leonardo achieved his orange and white belt, while Santo achieved his brown and one white. 

Discover what is coming up in the OWPS Dining Car.

Read about what is happening in the local community.

^{Disclaimer: Orton Wistow Primary School does not endorse any products, services or activities that appear in the Community section of this newsletter, and is not responsible for any contract entered into by either party. We would recommend all parents check with any providers regarding the status of these services, activities and clubs}