Dear Parents and Carers

I trust that you are all well and looking forward to finishing work sometime soon so that you can enjoy the Christmas celebrations and have time to be with family and friends. I think I said earlier this term that the autumn term is perhaps the busiest of the year as we go from starting a new school year and settling children into the routines of a new year group all the way through to the busy events that happen in December. With an increase in Covid cases, particularly this half-term, I have started to feel that this term has been an endurance race, one that we are determined to get to the end of. 

As you know from my letter earlier this week, we have a particularly high spike in Covid cases at school, both for children and staff. I want to take this opportunity to thank the staff in school, particularly Mr Marks who has to coordinate it all, for their perseverance, resilience and most of all flexibility. We have been able to cover staff absence without having to use supply staff from an agency. This can only happen when teachers are willing to give up their release time, often at short notice, so that other classes in school can be covered.

I know that some of you have been disappointed that we have had to change plans at short notice. Believe me, we feel equally disappointed that we haven’t been able to do everything that we wanted to this term. However, the government announcement this week about changes in safety measures has highlighted for us why we need to be particularly vigilant. Having had my own family Christmas and New Year last year spoilt by Covid cases at home, the last thing I would want for any of you is to have poorly children or family members at a time of year when you want to be able to celebrate. We just need to remind ourselves that there will be other opportunities in other years to host events at school. 

There are some topics that are re-occurring themes in newsletters. Sadly the issue of parking ranks highly on this list. At the end of this term, I will have been Headteacher at Orton Wistow for 16 years and in every one of those years, I have had to deal with numerous complaints about parking. This morning when I stood at the gate, a parent wanted to speak to me about the issue. They were keen to point out that they recognised that this is an issue parents need to find a way to resolve and that as a school, we have limited power to dictate where and how parents park. Whilst we stood chatting, another parent did a three-point turn on Wistow Way, bringing the traffic to a halt. Shortly after this, there was a stand-off between one of our parents in their car and a bus coming the other way. Both were in a difficult situation because other parents had parked on the opposite side of the road. Like many parents, I fear that it is only a matter of time before we have a serious accident or possible fatality. We are at the time of year when it is cold and dark and more parents decide to drive to school. I understand this. However, all parents who park outside the school or on neighbouring roads have a collective responsibility to do this safely and sensibly. 

When we became an academy in March 2019, all of our existing governors started a new term of office. This has meant that it has been a number of years since we have made any changes to the make-up of the governing body. I am pleased to announce that we have recruited a new Trust Governor to our governing body. Her name is Karen Hales and until recently she had been a parent at the school for many years. Not only was Karen a parent, but she had also played a very active role in supporting the school, both through her Bible stories group and Operation Christmas Child. We look forward to Karen joining our governing body in the spring. Two of our existing parent governors, Mark Bewick and Suzanne May, have also shifted their roles and will now be Trust Governors on our governing body. This has created two new vacancies for parent governors to join us. Jan Neish, Governance Compliance Officer for the Trust, will write to you all early next term to explain what the role of Parent Governor involves and how you would go about registering your interest. I have been a governor at all of the schools I have worked at and in those twenty-five years I know the benefits that come from having parents step up to this important role. I hope that if you have the time, capacity and skills to contribute to the work of the Governing Body, you will consider putting yourself forward as a Parent Governor.

This will be my last newsletter of this term and of 2021. I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy start to 2022. 

Kind regards

Mr Eardley

Head Teacher

^{Photo by Stephan H. on Unsplash}

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

The Wistow Online Safety Rangers Meeting

By Mr Marks, Deputy Head

On Monday 6th December the Wistow Online Safety Rangers met to discuss this half term's online safety week. They were all given their new badges and lanyards. The badges will help all the other children recognise them around the school and when they are attending a meeting or helping in an online safety lesson, they can wear their lanyards. I asked them all to write down a top tip to share with the children during Friday's assembly. They instantly came up with some excellent ideas and I recorded them introducing themselves and sharing their tip. The tips included:

• Don't share private information online
• If someone is mean to you online, don't be mean back. Take a screenshot or tell an adult.
• Don't click on random pop-ups, they could take you somewhere you don't want to go.
• Only play games that are suitable for your age. Check the PEGI ratings.

First Lego League Competition – 4th December 2021

By Miss Tansley, Year 6 Class Teacher and English Lead

Last weekend this year’s First Lego League team – The Cool Cargo Kids - spent the day at Perkins Engines ready for the annual competition against 12 other local primary schools. Some teams competed virtually. Our team was a credit to themselves, the school, and their families. 

Throughout the day, they had to present their project to judging panels, compete in the robot matches, discuss with engineers their robot missions and design ideas, as well as continually being observed for their teamwork. The day was non-stop and very intense, resulting in a few tired team members – including Miss Tansley and Mrs Simmons by the end! 

Despite not winning overall, the team, yet again, did not come away empty-handed. They were presented with the trophy for ‘Core Values’ during the final awards ceremony, as their interview with the judging panel for their project work was exemplary and stood out from the other competitors. The feedback was that the theme of their presentation ‘Malnutrition in children and how poor transportation of food to market, is causing produce to be damaged en-route’ was a global issue and something of high importance. The team designed their own innovation project to try and combat this issue and presented their findings brilliantly. 

On a personal note, we would like to thank all the parents of the team, who enabled the event to be attended. Without you giving up your time (on a Saturday), the children would not have been able to be a part of such a great event. Thank you – please check out the Y6 Twitter pages for videos and pictures of the day! 

^{Photo by Xavi Cabrera on Unsplash}

OWPS Library Features in National Magazine

By Mrs Campling, Librarian

At the start of the summer term this year, the School Library Association put out an open call for contributions to their quarterly professional publication, ‘The School Librarian’, particularly interested in hearing from members in the primary sector.

I contacted the editor with a few ideas and she invited me to write an article for the winter edition about a project I was running with Year 6, to engage some of our more reluctant readers, which I was delighted to do and even more delighted to receive in print last week!

The article is a main feature with a double-page spread, a large photo of our beautiful library and my name on the actual front cover – so as you can imagine I am very proud of myself.

From my correspondence with the editor, when she mentioned they were looking for a regular contributor for the 2022 editions, I submitted some more ideas and am pleased to say she invited me to fill the ‘A View from a Primary School’ slot for the next four issues!

While I didn’t officially set it for myself, to have my writing feature in a publication read and respected by my professional peers is definitely a HUGG and I can’t wait to see what other opportunities this might bring!

Schools Partnership Program Visit

By Mr Eardley, Head Teacher

At the heart of the OWN Trust is a belief in Opportunity, Working Together, and Nurturing the talent of people in our schools. The three OWN schools are keen to look outside the Trust so that we can learn from other good practice within the city. For this reason, we are excited to be working with the Schools Partnership Program and have created a hub of schools in Peterborough to bring about school improvement. The Schools Partnership Program project involves nine schools in total, including the three from the OWN Trust. 

As part of the project, each school identifies an area that they want to improve, and they are then visited by heads and school leaders from other partner schools to look at this area in detail. These visits are then followed by a report to outline both the strengths and areas to be developed. Crucially, the next important part of this program is for Improvement Champions to facilitate training at each school on their chosen issue. 

Mr Marks and I really enjoyed being part of the team that visited the Beeches Primary School last month. We are also looking forward to their visit to Orton Wistow Primary School, which will happen early next term.  

As teachers, we all know that throughout our careers we magpie good ideas and practices from other schools. We also know that it is important to have a fresh pair of eyes look at the work you do as a school. The Schools Partnership Program allows us to share best practice and have a critical friend within a network of local schools. 

This is a three-year project which culminates in a self-sustaining model for school improvement. We are grateful that the other six schools in the hub all accepted our offer to be part of the programme and that we have this opportunity to work together and nurture talent. 

^{Photo by Dragos Gontariu on Unsplash}

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 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 which can also be found below.  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!

Congratulations to this child in Year 3.  He always dedicates a lot of hard work and focus into his Karate lessons. Last weekend he successfully passed his belt testing and is now a yellow belt! Well done!

Congratulations to Imogen who recently entered a Christmas card design competition for Fairline Yachts. They have now announced her as the winner of her age group! A fabulous achievement!

Congratulations to this child who is also in Year 3.  He was absolutely thrilled last week when he won trainer of the week and then man of the match for his new football team. He was even more pleased because he also scored his first two goals in the match. Well done!

Congratulations to this child in Year 1 who was pictured on the Evening Telegraph website after going to see Ortongate Christmas lights turned on.  It looks like he had an exciting time meeting the Peterborough Panthers Mascots!

FOWS Sweet and Chocolate Raffle

The Friends of Orton Wistow are holding a Sweet and Chocolate Raffle for the children next week.

As you know we haven't been able to do some of the usual events this term that we had hoped to, but we have been thinking of some alternative events that the children would enjoy. So we are very excited to bring to you, for one year only, the Sweet and Chocolate Raffle! 

This raffle is open to all children in the school. There are going to be 28 prizes to be won - 2 per class. Each winner will receive a Santa gift bag with sweets and chocolates to enjoy! 

So the burning question - how do we buy tickets for this? The school office has kindly set up online payment for us on Parentmail, so you can purchase tickets for your child/children online. Tickets cost £2, and you can buy as many as you would like. 

Each class will draw their raffle on Wednesday 15th December in the afternoon. 

Tickets must be purchased by 9am on Tuesday 14th December.

We really hope you will support this final event of the term - and if you know of anyone who would be able to match fund this event for us, please let us know.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas,

The FOWS team

^{Photo by Monique Carrati on Unsplash}

Discover what is coming up in the OWPS Dining Car.

A fortnightly article about mental health and wellbeing.

^{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}