Dear Parents and Carers,

The last few days have definitely felt like (quite literally) 'the calm after the storm'. Luckily, other than a few bins, some playground equipment, and one of our trees falling in the wind, there was no other damage from the storms. I hope you were all as fortunate. 

Assemblies

After the further easing of restrictions, it has been great having assemblies altogether in the hall again this week. Mr. Eardley and I are still keeping Key Stage Two and Key Stage One as separate assemblies and Mrs. Ironside and Mrs. Phillips are doing the same for the singing assemblies. My assembly today was on being a good sport. We thought about the difference between a sore loser and a good sport and how their actions and emotions either positively or negatively affect ourselves and others. The children were brilliant in my assembly, many of them answering questions and showing a good understanding of what it means to show sportsmanship. 

Next week's Honours Awards assembly is on Wednesday 2nd March 2022 and will take place in school without a parent audience, but we hope to be able to invite parents in again for Honours Awards assemblies in the coming weeks.

Corridor displays

Our corridor displays are changed less regularly than the classroom displays but when we do change them, a lot of effort goes into making them look spectacular, and they showcase a lot of children's work. This week, all subject leaders in the school have put up a display using work from every year across the school.  The new displays demonstrate the vocabulary, knowledge, understanding and skills each subject develops within the children as they move through the school and the quality of the children's work is impressive. A big thank you to all the staff involved in creating these displays above and beyond their other responsibilities. 

School council

After the first round of school council meetings that took place in all classes before half-term, I met with the members and they shared their classmates' thoughts and ideas. The eight members did their job fantastically, the classes voted well! We discussed what summer term clubs the children would like staff to offer after Easter. There were some great ideas and I explained in my assembly today that my job was to now share those ideas with staff. I also explained that it would not be possible to do all of them (there were a lot!) but we would keep the list and offer others in the Autumn and beyond. 

The days are starting to get a little longer and hopefully a little warmer. I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend.

Colin Marks

Deputy Head Teacher

^{Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash}

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

RA Young Artists' Summer Show 2022

There is an exciting opportunity for children in Years 5 and 6 at OWPS to exhibit with the Royal Academy of Arts. Artwork will be judged by a panel of professional artists and then the chosen work will be displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in the summer.  

There is no theme to the exhibition, so all students have the opportunity to create a piece of work that truly expresses their own creative voice. 

If children want to take part, work MUST be submitted by Friday 25th March to Mrs. McIntosh or Mrs. Decena so that it can be photographed and submitted by the school.  

Artwork should be accompanied by your name, age, the medium used, and a short statement about why the student created the work and what it means to them. 

To register your interest and receive a permission form please contact the school office on 01733 370646 or email office@owps.org.uk using Young Artists' Summer Show in the subject line.

For more information, you can also visit the Royal Acadamy website.

Twos-Day FOWS Event 22.02.22

When the FOWS team realised that such an unusual date was approaching, we knew it was something to be marked in some way! The date on Tuesday this week was 22.2.22 - making the date a palindrome.

Falling on a Tuesday meant that very quickly the term Twosday was adopted to name the day. FOWS decided to set the children a quiz that they could enter if they wanted to, and many children accepted the challenge. There were, of course, 22 questions to be answered, and all the questions were set around a theme of 2's.

To be entered into our prize draw, children needed to pay £2, and one lucky child in each class won a box of delicious cupcakes.

There was a buzz around school as the children heard the official answers to the quizzes and the winners were drawn. There was even an assembly that day based on Twosday!

The event raised £326, which is a fantastic amount - we are planning to put the money towards the new bike racks that school are hoping to install.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the children who participated in the quiz, the families and friends who assisted with the quizzes, the staff in school for their support and Chef De La Maison, who generously donated the cupcakes to us. 

We are very excited to be planning our next event - it's one we've done before, and it was extremely popular...more news on this very soon! 

As always we're looking for people who may be able to match fund any of our events - if you are able to help with this please email us fows@owps.org.uk

World Book Day 03.03.22

by Mrs Edwards, Reading Lead

A reminder that OWPS will be celebrating World Book Day in school on the day, 3^rd March, and it will be a dressing-up day for your children. So get your thinking hats on for great book character costumes. 

There is no pressure to have fancy costumes or to spend lots of money. The most important thing is that the children recognise a character from a book. You can keep it simple with a homemade prop, clothes, or costumes that you already have. We know lots of children will want to go further, but there is no pressure from us to do so!

To celebrate World Book Day your child will bring home a Book Token worth £1.   

^{Photo by Theo Crazzolara on Unsplash}

Veg Power at OWPS

Starting on 28th February 2022, OWPS will be promoting Veg Power through our hot dinners.

What is Veg Power?

Veg Power was founded in 2018 to turn around vegetable consumption in the UK.

Veg of the Week at OWPS

Each week will feature a rallying cry around one of Britain’s family-favourite vegetables.

Here’s the schedule for 2022 and the vegetables that will be starring in the OWPS Dining Car:

• w/c 28th February - Carrots
• w/c 7th March - Peppers
• w/c 14th March - Broccoli
• w/c 21st March - Tomatoes
• w/c 28th March - Peas

These vegetables will feature in OWPS hot dinners at some point during the relevant week. If your child has packed lunches, why not consider offering them the vegetable of the week!

^{Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash}

Red Nose Day Friday 18th March 2022

By Mrs Johnson, Learning Mentor

A reminder that  on Friday 18th March, we will be raising funds for Comic Relief by having a non-uniform day and selling biscuits to eat at break time. Children will be asked to donate £1 to have a non-uniform day and 50p for a biscuit.

The money we raise is used to help in lots of ways:

£50 can provide training to a pre-school teacher and a health volunteer to help improve the health, wellbeing, and education of young children in Kenya.

£5 could provide support to a young person in the UK through a mental health helpline or live online chat.

£20 could provide a supportive coffee morning for families in the UK to share advice on caring for their children’s mental health.

Whether children dress differently or choose to wear school uniform, all of the children at OWPS will be using their super fundraising powers to make a difference to the lives of others!

We will not be selling Red Noses this year but if children have bought one elsewhere they will be allowed to wear it in school but only on Red Nose Day.

^{Photo: www.comicrelief.com}

Celebrating Success 25.02.22

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!

Celebrating Success this week!

Over half-term, this child in Year 6 went skiing to Val Thorens in France and completed the French Ski School’s two-star course. After passing the end-of-course test her instructor thought she should also attempt the three-star test. This included a slalom and downhill skiing with a brake stop. She confidently passed that test and proudly comes home with both badges. Well done!

OWPS and My School Fund

Did you know that Orton Wistow Primary School is part of the School Fund initiative? This innovative scheme allows for us to be able to boost our school's budget with your help.

How does it work?

Parents, guardians and carers can sign up to the scheme for free and start earning cashback on the things they buy in participating retail stores, including Sainsbury’s and Argos. As you spend you’ll receive 2% cashback in the form of eGift vouchers that can be redeemed in participating stores. By linking your spend to OWPS on the My School Fund website we’ll also earn 1% cashback on your spend. 

Add that all up across our school's network of families, and together we can all make a big difference!

How to get involved

We would be really grateful if parents and carers could visit myschoolfund.org to register for free and link to Orton Wistow Primary SChool. From there, everything you spend in participating stores will go towards helping boost our budget, plus your own!

Sign up today at myschoolfund.org and see the promotional video for more details.

Thank you for your support.

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}