Issue 400: 7th October 2022

Dear Parents and Carers,

We are still clinging on to the last few break and lunch times when we can use the school field before it becomes too muddy. Unfortunately, with more rain predicted, it won't be long until it isn't an option for us. However, we have new lunchtime arrangements this year that will keep our children happy during that hour including shared play equipment, zones for certain activities and peer mentors (older children trained to support and facilitate positive play with younger children in the school).

Curriculum Evening

It was great to see many of you on Wednesday for this year's Curriculum Evening. The teachers planned and delivered two workshops for each year group focusing on how parents can support their children with their learning this year. We then had a session altogether looking at how school and home can effectively communicate with each other and the importance of well-being. We will share the slides from each part of the evening with you next week.

Parents Evenings

On Tuesday 18^th and Thursday 20^th October we will have our Autumn term parent's evenings. 73% of children already have an appointment booked, please make sure you log into SchoolCloud to complete your booking if you haven't done so already. Prior to the meeting, children in Years One to Six will have a report uploaded to the Parent Portal for you to look at before your appointment. We will send home some further information about this separately. 

Sporting Events

Yesterday, Mr Cowles took a group of UKS2 girls to a football festival in the city. This is just one of many sporting events planned for this year. For the first time in a long time, we have officially organised football and netball leagues and I know Mr Cowles and Miss Ellis are sure that Orton Wistow will have teams that confidently represent our school at each of the matches. We will keep you up to date with how they get on.

Talking of football - what a wonderful offer we got from Peterborough United for free tickets to the game tomorrow. I have booked mine, and I'm looking forward to cheering on The POSH (even though I'm a Happy(ish) Hammer!).

This week's 'Are you smarter than a Wistow pupil?' questions are:

1. What is an expanded noun phrase? (Year 2 English)
2. What is the difference between a rural area and an urban area? (Year 3 geography)
3. Why is cardiovascular fitness so important to the human body? (Year 6 science/PSHE)

Good luck!

Have a great weekend everyone

Mr Marks

Headteacher

^{Photo by Joseph Gonzalez on Unsplash}

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

Eco News October 2022

By Mrs Porter, Eco Lead

Big Walk and Wheel

Last year during our 'Big Walk and Wheel' competition we noticed that although we had lots of eager cyclists, some of our Year 5 & 6 children chose to walk instead of cycle to school.  We planned an activity this term to encourage them to bring their bike instead.  Sustrans set up an obstacle course around the playground to show the children how to navigate bends and turns and stopping and starting in different positions.  Hopefully these key skills will build the confidence of our older children and encourage them to use their bikes more often.

Eco

Our Eco warriors met this week.  We have two dedicated warriors per class who meet each week to help to ensure our Eco code is being upheld around school.  We have designed new posters that will be put up around school.  Our code begins with 'E' for 'Eat healthily and exercise'. We have added exercise as we understand the importance of instilling this from an early age.  We are lucky in school that the children have lots of opportunities to exercise, but we are always interested in outside sports activities too.  The Eco warriors will be asking the children in their classes whether they have taken part in any exercise that week.  These totals will be added to the rest of the Eco checklist and the class that has the most will have 'Eric' or 'Eddie' the Eagle at the end of week.

Harvest Collection

By Mrs Granville, LKS2 Team Leader

As in previous years, OWPS will be holding a Harvest collection in school, to support the work of the Peterborough Foodbank.

Please send any donations into school from Monday 10th October until 9am on Friday 21st October, when the Foodbank will be coming to collect the produce.

Children can bring these items into their classrooms and then will take them to the tables in the hall.

Please see below the items that the foodbank currently needs (updates to this can be found at Donate food - Peterborough Foodbank). Thank you for your support with this.

^{Photo by Nico Smit on Unsplash}

FOWS Update

By Jo Watson, FOWS Chair

FOWS AGM

At the start of each academic year, Friends of Wistow School (FOWS) hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM), to form a committee and discuss the plans for the year ahead.  At this year’s AGM on the 22/09 Sophie Chambers, Rachel Francis and Nicola Morris stepped down from their positions as Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary respectively.   They have done a fantastic job over recent years, organising fairs, quizzes, cake sales, break the rules day, easter egg gifts, raffle prizes…, and I would like to thank them for all their hard work and commitment. The new committee have big shoes to fill.

Your new FOWS Committee

Turning our attention to the year ahead, firstly I would like to introduce you to the new committee.

My name is Joanne (Jo) Watson and I have been elected as Chair. I have 2 sons at OWPS and have been a member of the FOWS team for the past 4 years. 

The role of Treasurer will once again be filled by Jo Piercy. Jo will be entering her 7^th and final year in this role, as her son will be off to secondary school in September. 

Mark Tomlinson will be shadowing Jo Piercy this year to ensure we have a smooth transition next September to a new Treasurer. This is Mark’s second year on the team and has a daughter in year 1.

Hannah Bass is the FOWS Secretary and will also be responsible for the FOWS communications (social media, webpage, newsletter updates etc).  This is  Hannah’s second year with FOWS, Hannah also has a son in year 1 and is hoping her younger son will join the Wistow family in September too.

Our parent representatives are Liz Machin, Kerry Barker, Esther Al-Samirraie, Amber Lorimer, Michelle Owen, Erin Kay and Jemma Wilkins.

Mr Cowles is our teacher representative, replacing Miss Ellis.

The role of Vice Chair is currently unfilled, so if you or anybody you know is interested in taking this role on, please email us at fows@owps.org.uk

Get involved

It was lovely to see some new faces at the new parents meeting last week.  If you were unable to attend but still wish to help, or find out more about what we do, please keep an eye on our social media pages for the dates of our next meeting and other ways to get involved.   

This terms events will culminate with the Christmas Fayre, our first one since 2019! Everyone is excited to put together a brilliant, festive event, as well as the Christmas gift sale, which the children absolutely adore! If you have your own business/work for an organisation who would be willing to donate a raffle prize, please contact us. In the past we have been lucky enough to source prizes including £100 cash, Ipad’s, family entertainment passes/tickets, restaurant/retail vouchers, gift hampers and beauty treatments, thanks to the generosity of parents and their employers.

Donation Days

On Friday 30th September, we had our first donation day, it has been a wonderful success, with families donating their unwanted gifts for us to make good use of. Lots of wacky socks were seen on the playground! 

Dates for the Diary

• OWPS Christmas Fair - 09/12/22
• OWPS Children's Christmas Sale - 14/12/22
• Donation Day - T shirts for bottles – 04/11/22
• Donation Day - Jumpers for Sweets/chocolate – 25/11/22

For More Information...

Finally, don’t forget to follow us on social media for updates:

Information on events – FOWS Facebook Page

Get involved/volunteer - FOWS volunteer Facebook page

Twitter: @OWPSfows

Website: Orton Wistow Primary School - Friends of Wistow School (owps.org.uk)

Email: fows@owps.org.uk to join the mailing list.

Honours Awards 04.10.22

Congratulations to the children who received an Honours Award this week...

Celebrating Success 07.10.22

Congratulations to these children in Year 3 and Year 5 who achieved fantastic A grade results in their orange belt and blue belt grading respectively last weekend. Well done!

Congratulations to this child in Yr3 who has achieved his Red belt at Inspired Martial Arts this weekend with excellent headings. Great work!

Congratulations to this child in Year 1 who took part in the fun run at the Equinox 24 running event at Belvoir castle. Well done!

If you would like to share your child's achievements with us so that we can celebrate their success, please click on the link to 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!

Parent Helpers

Thank you to our parent helpers who met this week to talk about the procedure for helping in school.  Now we are getting back to normal, it is lovely to see more visitors.  We are really looking forward to having some extra help, whether with admin tasks such as photocopying, or hearing children read.  If you would like to help in school please contact Ms Porter at office@owps.org.uk

Skirts/Trousers Year 1

Accidents happen and at OWPS we like to be able to provide a change of clothes for the children if needed.

We are low on supplies of Year 1 sized trousers and skirts and would be grateful for any second hand items that parents could donate to our 'Change of Clothes' box.  Please drop any donated items into the office. Thank you.

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}