Keep up to date with the latest news at Orton Wistow Primary
From teasing and exclusion to privacy worries and inappropriate content, children can experience a wide range of challenges in group chats.
This guide helps parents and educators recognise the signs of trouble and offers simple ways to support children in using group chats safely and respectfully.
Photo rights: Unsplash Mariia Shalabaieva
This is a reminder that the deadline for ordering school photos with Van Cols and receiving free delivery is Friday 14th November 2025, at midnight. (this was extended from the previously advertised date of 12th November)
Please make sure any orders are placed before this time to qualify.
For any further assistance placing an order with Van Cols please contact the customer service team on 01206 273711 or aftersales@vancols.com
Since joining Meridian Trust a few weeks ago, we have been making a number of changes, including updating our email systems. Because of this, some parents have told us they are not receiving school emails.
If you are having problems receiving our messages, please check your junk/spam folder and mark email@connect.owps.org.uk as a safe sender. This is the main address we use to send school updates and the Wistow Ways newsletter.
New Email Addresses
Please use the following email addresses from now on:
When reporting an absence, please include your child’s full name, their class, and the reason for the absence. Sharing this information as early as possible helps us update the register promptly. If we do not receive these details, you may receive a follow-up call from our office team as part of our safeguarding procedures.
Our dedicated absence phone line is still available if you prefer to leave a message that way.
If your child has a future appointment (for example, a medical appointment), you can also use the absence email address to let us know in advance.
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 extracurricular achievements!
This Week's Successes!
Bruce Year 3, achieved his 400 metre distance swimming certificate last month. He swam front crawl in just over 20 minutes to achieve this. Well Done!
easyfundraising.org.uk
As we have done for the past few years, FOWS are once again running our Easyfundraising competition throughout November.
For anyone not familiar with easyfundraising.org.uk yet, please visit the link above, or use the QR code in the poster to sign up and set Friends of Orton Wistow School as your cause. It costs you nothing, but whenever you open online shopping website and apps through Easyfundraising, it generates a donation for FOWS, funded entirely by the retailers.
It is, as the name suggests, really easy!
Have a browse through the different companies available, it may surprise you!
Whoever raises the most Easyfundraising donations for FOWS in the month of November will win £30 to be awarded at the Christmas Fair on 05.12.25.
Unfortunately, the FOWS team are still unable to access emails, so in the meantime, please make sure you are following Friends of Orton Wistow School on Facebook for any news and updates.
https://www.facebook.com/share/19rt5gv34j/
Thanks
The FOWS Team
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We are pleased to announce that we have been recognised for our positive attendance record, being awarded the National School Attendance Award for the 2024/25 Academic Year. OWPS is within the Top 25% of all FFT Primary Schools in England.
A big thank you to all the adults who joined us for the Year 2 Family Learning session this morning!
The children thoroughly enjoyed sharing their maths mastery learning with you and demonstrating the strategies we’ve been using in class. It was wonderful to see everyone getting involved and having a go.
We hope you found the session helpful and that it gave you a clearer insight into how your children are developing their mathematical understanding at school.
If you have any questions or would like to know more, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Thank you once again for your support!
The Year 2 Team
Next week we will be marking Anti-bullying week, the week commencing 10th November, alongside many other schools across the country.
Throughout the week we will use assembly and lesson times to teach the children about this important issue. The theme for the week this year is 'Power For Good', encouraging children to think about the positive actions they can take to make our schools a positive and happy place to be.
On Monday we will also be celebrating Odd Socks Day as we do each year. On this day we encourage children to come to school wearing odd socks as we celebrate diversity and the benefits of living in a world where everyone is different. Children don't need to bring in any money, just wear a pair of odd socks.
On Tuesday, Year 4 visited Ferry Meadows, as part of their History topic of The Romans. It's great to have evidence of Roman life right on the doorstep of OWPS! We visited Roman Point, to see evidence of a Roman farm and military training camp. Everyone enjoyed the walk and found out some interesting facts about our local area.
Please see information shared with children this week. Completed entries should be brought into school by Wednesday 5th November.
St Andrew's is excited to be partnering again with OWPS to design this year's Church Christmas Card. The winner's drawing will be on the front of our card, and will be delivered to every house in Orton Northgate, Orton Southgate, Orton Wistow and Alwalton!
We are looking for:
To enter:
Put your entry (with your name and class on the back) and the reply slip below into the postbox in OWPS reception by home time on Wednesday 5th November.
Any questions?
Speak to Mrs Granville at OWPS.
On Thursday 16th October we hosted a very successful family learning session. We focussed on arithmetic and looked at some of the formal written methods we will be teaching the children this year to help them solve calculations with all four operations. We practiced all the different methods as well as discussing some common mistakes. We had a brilliant turn out of lots of adults and it was lovely to see so many families working together. A massive thanks to everyone who made the effort to come.
On Monday, Year 3 enjoyed a fascinating trip to Flag Fen, where they stepped back thousands of years to explore life in the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages.
The day began with a look at timelines, helping the children understand where these historic periods fit into the past. They then ventured into a reconstructed roundhouse, discovering how Stone Age people lived, worked, and stayed warm.
The children had plenty of hands-on experiences — they tried spear throwing at (pretend!) deer, learned how different parts of an animal were used, and even used berries to create rock art. Later, they got creative making clay pots, met some very unique sheep, and had a go at building a wattle and daub wall — an ancient technique used to make houses sturdy and warm.
Everyone enjoyed investigating real artefacts from the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, gaining a deeper understanding of how people lived long ago.
Despite a little mud, the class had a wonderful day full of fun, learning, and discovery — truly bringing history to life!
