Dear Parents and Carers

Well, we made it to half-term, and what an eventful half-term it has been! 

Although we have had to introduce some additional measures in the last couple of weeks, it has felt like we have started to return to normal this term and a highlight for me has been to see the children in assembly rather than having to record an assembly via zoom. I’ve also enjoyed seeing children bringing their work down to me either because they’ve used one of my challenge words or because they’ve done something amazing. You only need to look at the tweets from classes across the school to see what a rich and varied curriculum we offer children and what amazing work they produce.

As you know from other letters I’ve written this week, the Local Authority is still concerned about the rising number of Covid cases in schools and our local area has been highlighted as a particular area of concern. I know that many of you have had cases within your own family, particularly with older siblings, and we are starting to see the knock-on effect of this in school. We have had more cases in the last two weeks than at any time in the last two years. As a school, we will continue to promote the children washing their hands regularly, regular cleaning of classrooms and shared spaces as well as ventilating rooms as much as possible.  I hope that we will be able to start seeing you in school again for activities but trust that you can be flexible and understanding if we have to cancel things at short notice. Believe me, this is the last thing that we want to do, but everyone's safety is our priority.

I also wanted to say thank you to parents who took notice of the message I sent last week and who have started to let their children come onto the school site on their own in the morning. There’s been a noticeable reduction in the number of adults on the playground in the morning and yet again I’ve been impressed to see just how confident our youngest children can be when coming in on their own.  I also wanted to say thank you to all of you who attended one of this week's parent consultations. I know Mr Marks did a fantastic job in promoting these appointments, chasing down parents who hadn't been able to make an appointment and doing his best to solve any IT difficulties. We were really pleased that 97% of parents made an appointment and that 94% of parents managed to keep it.  Our consultations in the autumn and spring provide you with formal scheduled opportunities to speak to your child’s teacher about how they’re getting on, where we want them to be and how together, home and school can help them get there. I’d also recommend that you take time to have a look at the curriculum and year group sections of our school website as these provide you with lots of detail of what your children are studying in school.

A few days after running the Cambridge half-marathon, and I am starting to feel back to normal. Thank you for the messages of support I received. As you know that the half-marathon had a special meaning to me because of the charity I was supporting.  I really enjoyed the race, and it is a fantastic way to see parts of Cambridge that you don’t normally get to see. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a half-marathon in March next year. I started the race sure that I wouldn’t plan to run a second half-marathon, but finished it already planning to sign up for the next one! 

I now have my second HUGG (Huge Unbelievably Great Goal) to work on, the cable pattern scarf I am knitting for my dad. As you may have guessed by now, I like to plan in detail what I work on and I’ve had a shock to realise I need to knit 17 cm of scarf each week. As this is the most complicated pattern I’ve ever done this is a massive challenge, but one I’m determined to rise to. This challenge in particular has made me reflect on how children must feel when they’re starting something that is big, uncomfortable, and can feel unsurmountable. I’ve used this as an opportunity to talk to the children about the learning pit and how we can feel that we want to give up when things are difficult, but we just need to come up with strategies and a positive mindset. I’ve already started to think about what my HUGGs might be for 2022!

Finally, I would like to give our best wishes to Mrs Morris as she starts her maternity leave next week.  We wish her lots of luck for what I'm sure will be an exciting and rewarding time.  

I shall be keeping my fingers crossed for warm dry weather this half-term. I hope that you are able to spend time with your family and loved ones. No doubt we will all need a rest before we start the busy half-term that runs up to Christmas.

Kindest regards

Simon Eardley

Headteacher 

^{Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash}

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

Harvest Collection

Thank you to everyone who donated to our Harvest Collection this year, which was collected by the Foodbank and the Soup Kitchen this week. We are also grateful to our Year Six children who helped to carry the items out when they were collected on Thursday and Friday this week. 

The Foodbank and Soup Kitchen were delighted with the number of items and the generosity of those who donated and have asked us to pass on their thanks to you all.  So far, we know that a whopping 204KG of food was donated to the Foodbank. We have yet to hear the weight of items donated to the Soup Kitchen.

Arts Mark Cultural Passport

By Miss Ellis (Drama Lead) and Mrs McIntosh (Art Lead)

As part of our work towards gaining an accreditation towards the ‘Arts Mark’, we are launching a Cultural Passport to all pupils at Orton Wistow Primary School.

One of the biggest impacts of the Coronavirus was its ‘hit’ on the arts. Theatres, galleries, museums, street theatres and live acts disappeared or closed- some may never reopen. This has had an impact on the amount of cultural involvement children have experienced.

 Therefore, we have developed a ‘Cultural Passport’ which will encourage families of Orton Wistow Primary School to seek out and explore different cultural opportunities at home, locally and nationally.

All children will be issued with a cultural passport containing suggestions of experiences in the arts at home (or school), local and national level. We will promote awareness of activities via our Twitter Page @OWPSart_culture.  

If your child would like to participate in the challenge, simply share photographic evidence of your child completing their chosen activity via class Dojo (years 1-6), Tapestry (Foundation Stage Children). Or alternatively, share the experience with their class in a ‘show and tell’ session.

As a reward for completing any 6 activities, the children will receive a certificate. There are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond certificates up for grabs for every six challenges that your child completes.

It has been wonderful to see that so many of you have visited places of arts and culture, however, just to clarify we are only accepting evidence of trips and visits taken from now onwards. We hope this will encourage new and exciting visits and opportunities.

We look forward to hearing and seeing about the adventures you go on and the activities which you complete as part of the OWPS Cultural Passport challenge.

Please watch our video, where we explain the Cultural Passport in more detail.

Celebrating Success!

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 those 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 extra-curricular achievements!

Celebrating Success this week!

Writing Poetry

Congratulations to Evelyn in Year Six who has been chosen for publication in a book showcasing young writers' work, called The Big Poetry Party - A Celebration of Verse.  Her poem, Balloon, was selected out of 1,000 poems from children aged 5-18 years from all over the nation.  A copy of the book will remain in the National Archives of the British Library forever! Here is Evelyn's winning poem:

Keeping the community litter-free

Well done to this child in Year 5 who regularly collects litter when out on walks to keep the community litter-free. It is great to see her helping look after the local surroundings.

Continuous Professional Development at OWPS - PIXL Training

On the 20th of October, Mrs Simmons led a Continuous Professional Development training session on PiXL (Partners in Excellence) to encourage all staff to take ownership of delivering therapies and interventions within the school. 

The PiXL Club aims to support the promotion of excellence for pupils. One of the strategic approaches that PiXL promotes within everyday teaching is the effective use of data to sharpen the focus on the key gaps in students learning, and the implementation of specific personalised intervention for each pupil to enhance their development. This is achieved through what PiXL term DTT (diagnosis, therapy and testing).

All teaching assistants and HLTA's were present, allowing for an interactive session, listening to the importance of gap analysis in children's learning and ways to find therapies for scenarios to various class situations.

The benefit of this training will be that Teaching Assistants and HLTAs can deliver the targeted support needed by different groups of children.  For example, if an assessment flags up the need for more practice on the past tense (in English) or adding fractions (in Maths), PiXL provides the resources for a focussed session to bridge the gap.

Secondary School Deadline

Just a reminder for those parents that have not applied already that the deadline for Secondary School Admissions is 31st October 2021. Please ensure that you apply for your child's place in time, otherwise your application will not go through. 

You need to visit www.peterborough.gov.uk/admissions

Request for Children's Magazines

If you have any spare children's magazines or ones that you no longer need that are still in good condition, please would you consider donating them to the school library? You can drop them in at the office or send them in with your child.  Thank you!

Covid Update

As Mr Eardley's letter to all parents this week explained, Covid case numbers in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire schools increased again last week, up 25% in Cambridgeshire and 6% in Peterborough. 

Case numbers at our school have also increased and we now have 9 children off school with Covid and others about to go for a PCR test. In most of these cases, the children have caught Covid from another family member rather than from someone in school.

Our experience is that Track and Trace are not contacting parents to say that their child has been in close contact with someone who has tested positive. The Local Authority has advised us to send a message to parents when there has been a positive case in their class. We are now emailing parents when this is the case. The advice is that we should remind you:

• of the importance of arranging a PCR test if a child is symptomatic and to not rely on a negative LFD test, and
• to be cautious and arrange for a PCR test for children with atypical symptoms e.g. cold/flu like symptoms if they shared a classroom with someone who has tested positive. This has to be booked online.  The child can continue to attend school whilst the test result is received. 

In school, we will continue with the following:

• Continue with enhanced cleaning measures, especially regular cleaning of high touchpoint areas and robust deep cleaning of spaces inhabited by positive cases, including those who are asymptomatic, 
• Continue to promote good hand hygiene measures, hand sanitiser and clear visible signage, especially in shared spaces i.e. staff/pupil toilets  
• Ensure rooms are well ventilated

We asked for a meeting with Public Health England regarding our current status relating to COVID within the school, as we had reached one of the trigger points. They are very happy with all the procedures currently in place within the school, but as an extra measure have also asked us to clean tables and chairs in classrooms at the end of the morning, in addition to being cleaned at the end of the school day.  

Our classrooms are well ventilated - as we move into the colder months you may need to consider sending your children into school in warmer clothing.

Hopefully, half-term will give us all a bit of a break and will help to avoid further positive cases. If your child does have a positive Covid test during half-term, please let us know by emailing covid@owps.org.uk.

A fortnightly article about mental health and wellbeing.

Discover what is coming up in the OWPS Dining Car.

Read about what is happening locally, nationally and internationally.

^{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. Given the current circumstances, we would recommend all parents check with any providers regarding the status of these services, activities and clubs}