Wigmore Primary School

Dear Parents and Carers,

The week before half term, half term and the current week has passed very quickly and has been full of amazing opportunities for learning for so many different members of our school community. I do hope you all had a restful half term break and enjoyed some of the amazing colours on offer in the great outdoors! Autumn is an amazing time of year!

As the weather changes and the amount of daylight hours reduces it is important that parents and carers driving to and from school continue to use the Asda Car Park. We want all our families to arrive safely and without the bother of pollution caused by engines idling on Twyford Drive. Active travel opportunities give you a better opportunity to experience the best of autumn.

If you are walking to and from school please use the pedestrian gate and not the car park gate as this is very unsafe.

Running for Team Wigmore! 

Our Fun Run and teachers team taking part in the Love Luton Half Marathon was a real success. We have raised £10,375 (this includes £2500 from a local charitable trust who heard about the good work we are trying to do and some substantial donations from other local businesses).  Over the next few weeks our school council will be looking at different quotes that have arrived in school over half term. This amount is exceptional! Your kindness and generosity is most appreciated. Thank you to Mr Marshall and Mrs Williams who organised the fun run, Mrs Addision for all her hard work behind the scenes, Mr Addison for his helpful training programme for the teachers taking part and finally to the teachers who braved atrocious conditions to cross the line successfully on Sunday. Everyone living the values of determination and courage. A huge well done to some of our parents at Wigmore who took part in the school fun run and those who joined the teachers on the starting line at Stockwood Park on Sunday morning.

Well done to our Guess the Time competition winners. The children named have demonstrated some expert investigation skills!

Reading at Wigmore – Give Me Ten!

Our school library will be back up and in full operation from next week. One of our school governors, Mrs Jones, has kindly offered her time to oversee its use. Mrs Porteous-Heath and Mr Omer will be opening the library every Tuesday after school so our families can borrow books to take home and read with their children. All classes will have access to a library session during the week with their class teacher. Reading is at the core of the curriculum. We want children to reach the different Give Me Ten milestones.

Sporting life at Wigmore! 

If there were back pages on Headteacher blogs they would be full. Mr Marshall and Mrs Williams have been working incredibly hard to provide some wonderful sporting opportunities for the children at Wigmore.

Football Matches 

The boys football team travelled to Linden Academy and St Joseph’s before half term. Winning 3-1 against Linden and losing 3-1 against St Joseph’s. Well done to all who took part.

Sports Hall Athletics

Some of our Year 5 and 6 children also took part in the sports hall athletics championships and qualified for the next round. Well done to all who took part.

Parent and Carer Consultations

Thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us in school recently for parent and carer consultations. We hope you found these useful and had the opportunity to look through your children’s books to see the progress they have made so far this year. Thanks to the office staff for organising the evenings and to the teachers for putting the effort into developing good working partnerships with our families.

Awe and wonder in Year 3

Just before half term the children in Year 3 were treated to an amazing day with different reptiles in school. They have produced some quality work linked to this. Year 3 Maple also had their class sharing assembly and have set the bar very high with the sharing of their learning with Key Stage 2 and parents and carers. They were confident and articulate and the audience detectives listened very well. Thanks to the staff in Year 3 for continuing to do an amazing job with the children and to our parents and carers for their support.

Year 5 and 6 Outdoor Learning

Thanks to Mrs Clark who has been organising some amazing outdoor learning opportunities for the children in Year 5 and 6 on a Thursday afternoon. Ryebridge construction have donated some great resources the children have been able to be use to develop team work skills. The children are really enjoying these activities.

Religious Education

The children have also been learning about the festival of Diwali. Happy Diwali to all our families who are celebrating Diwali this week. Mrs Chavda did an amazing assembly with Key Stage 1 this week and children in Key Stage 2 will be learning about this next week.

This week in school Year 6 have been learning about the Islamic faith via a special visit from Imam Usman Shahzad Butt from the Stevenage Mosque. Thank you to the teachers for organising this wonderful learning opportunity for the children.

Staffing news

Congratulations to Miss Keenan and her family who welcomed baby Ellie into the world on 28th October. I have heard that everyone is doing very well. Exciting times ahead!

Dear Parents and Carers,

“And being in school every day to make the most of every learning opportunity really helps that…” (Mr Johnston)

The last two weeks in school have been action packed and full of amazing learning opportunities for the children. The children and staff are working incredibly hard and I would like to thank them for their efforts. There is an important focus on making every minute of every lesson count. We know the children have missed out on huge chunks of their in-school education due to the pandemic and our focus has to be on the children, making sure they make good social, emotional, physical and academic progress is at the core of everything we are doing in school.

Reminders

• Children should not be using the climbing frames before or after school.
• Parents and carers who are accessing breakfast clubs should not be using the school car park at the beginning of the day unless you have a permit.

• I am very pleased with the efforts parents and carers are making with using the Asda Car Park. Please continue to use this on the rainy days. Parking and striding up the hill is good for your health and well-being.

• If your child is unwell please leave details of what symptoms they have when you contact the school and leave a message. If your child has Covid symptoms they should be taken for a PCR test and the result of the test needs to be communicated with the school. If your child has a cough and you have completed a lateral flow test please inform a member of staff when your child arrives for school.

Year Group Blogs

If you visit our new website www.wigmoreprimary.com (which is now live and our only website) and our school Twitter feed @wigmoreprimary you will get a taste of what the children have been doing in school, what is coming up in the future and an opportunity to celebrate the success of the children in our school. The blogs will develop and evolve over the year and these will be updated on 2 occasions in the Autumn term, 3 occasions in the Spring term and 3 occasions in the Summer term. We hope you find them informative and a springboard into conversations with your child about what they are learning in school.

Reading at Wigmore 

Reading has been and will be a continued focus at Wigmore. We have launched our “Give Me Ten” reading at home drive to ensure the children are reading regularly and enjoying the benefits of this. Our library will be open for business once again after half term. Mrs Porteous-Heath has been leading a reading task force in school to ensure children continue to have access to high quality reading sessions, in class shared reading and whole school events linked to reading. There are so many exciting opportunities being planned.

Assemblies at Wigmore

Thank you to the children in Holly (Year 5) and Juniper (Year 2) classes for leading our first sharing assemblies over the last 2 weeks. We had a good number of parents and carers in attendance and the children enjoyed sharing their learning with others. Thank you to the parents and carers who were able to attend these.

Parents and carers of children who are in the Gold Book have also been attending our Friday Celebration Assembly. The parents and carers I have conversed with have all enjoyed the opportunity and I know the children have enjoyed having their parents attending. It is often a nice surprise for the child to see their parent or carer sitting at the back. Huge thanks to the office and teachers for getting the information out in good time to help make this magic happen.

National Poetry Day – Thursday 7th October 

Last Thursday was an amazing day in school. So many creative learning opportunities were designed by the teachers for children to achieve their personal best in writing. We used food as an inspiration for writing. Huge thanks to Mrs Chavda, Mr Omer, Mrs Gilbert and our fantastic office staff for all their helpful organisation behind the scenes. The quality of the poetry was exceptional. Congratulations to our poets!

Music at Wigmore 

Last week our Year 6 children were involved in a drumming workshop in school. Our Year 3 children are thoroughly enjoying their weekly lessons with Billy from the Luton Music Service. Billy is also running a percussion club before school once a week and this is very popular. I had the opportunity to teach Year 5 Music this week and the children were thoroughly enjoying the lesson from the Charanga music scheme. This scheme is being used across the school. Year 5 went back to 1986 and enjoyed the appraising the music of Bon Jovi as part of their learning. This type of motivating activity is being reflected in a number of classes.

Our choir is back up and running and the children have a weekly singing assembly. Huge thanks to our music subject leaders (Miss Squires and Mrs Lim) for organising all the opportunities and to Miss Jenkins and Mr Omer for their help in singing assemblies and with our choir.

Physical Education 

The children have been working hard in their PE lessons to prepare for our community Fun Run which is now less than a week away. We are doing very well with raising funds via the sponsorship of the children with close to £2000 being raised so far from approximately 85 donations. We currently have 591 pupils on roll and with a strong push over the next few weeks and with fundraising on the day we could hit the magic £5000 or even more! Please spread the word far and wide to support what we are trying to achieve in school.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/wigmoreprimary2021

We have had a number of successful outings for children over the last few weeks. Our Year 5 and 6 Boys TAG Rugby Team finished the schools tournament unbeaten. Our Year 3 and 4 Girls TAG Rugby Team took part in a tournament today and some of our children in Year 1 and 2 took part in an indoor athletics event yesterday. Well done to the children who represented Wigmore so well and thanks to the adults who organised and supported the children to prepare and take part in these events.

Harvest, Maths and much needed donations to the Food Bank 

On Thursday the children were involved in some fun, creative Maths in the classroom based on cereal boxes. We created a huge cereal box dominoes which finished in the hall near our Harvest display from all the kind donations that were sent into school on the day. The children also sang some of the Harvest songs they have been working on in our singing assemblies. Thank you for all your donations and to the staff who organised these wonderful learning opportunities for the children.

Peter from Stopsley Baptist Church had to complete several trips to and from school to store all the donations ready for distribution to families in need. Huge thanks to Zachary (Poplar – Year 1) and Isla (Juniper – Year 2) for their help with handing over the donations with a number of staff from Wigmore.

House Points

The children have been working incredibly hard in school to earn points for their House!

The Gold Book

Well done to the following children who have been in the Gold Book this week.

ATTEND TO ACHIEVE!

At Wigmore we have to aim to be here every day! Excellent attendance is 97% or above. There are strong links between good attendance and good progress in school, both academically and socially.

Attendance for this school year at Wigmore stands at 94.5% which is above the national and Luton average. At Wigmore we do not want to be better than average – we want to be the best we can possibly be and reach our school target of 97%.

Lateness = lost learning!

Days off school = lost learning!

With thanks for your continued support in the work we do with your children,

Mr Johnston

Dear Parents and Carers,

October is upon us already and it has been another very busy fortnight in school with children making the most of every opportunity in and out of the classroom.

Family events at Wigmore 

On Thursday morning we had our first family event in school. This took the form of a coffee morning for parents of children with special educational needs. This was an opportunity to meet with a number of different parents to discuss what the school is doing well for their children and how we can make provision even better at Wigmore. Our discussions really highlighted how we are all very fortunate to have a wonderfully inclusive school community We will be organising a focus group that will work to together to make the school even better for children with special education needs. This will benefit all members of our school community. Working in partnership with parents and carers is very important to me. Our next family event will be focused on developing speech, language and communication. This will take place on Thursday 2nd December and invites and adverts will be sent out very soon. Thank you to the parents and staff who attended on Thursday.

Meet the Headteacher/Leadership Team 

Thank you to the parents and carers of children who attended these different meetings over the last few weeks. It was good to meet with parents to explain my values and vision for Wigmore.

Parking improvements! 

A huge thanks goes to all parents and carers who are consistently using the Asda Car Park at drop off and collection times. It has been a challenge this week with people queuing for petrol but it clear that many parents and carers prioritise the safety of all children and their families at Wigmore. Even when it rains it is important to park and stride up the hill. A brisk walk up the hill at 8:40 am is very good for your health and well-being.

Run to raise funding for the children at Wigmore

Last week we sent out information about our school Fun Run on 21st October and the teachers team taking part in the Luton Half Marathon on 31st October. Our Just Giving page is now set up and we are looking for family and friends to sponsor the children and adults taking part. We have currently raised £1366 and have been overwhelmed by the generosity of people and businesses from across the planet. The children have been working incredibly hard in their PE lessons to prepare for the Fun Run. They have also been learning about the importance of determination and hopefully watching some of the London Marathon this weekend will reinforce these key concepts. I understand that we have some members of our school community taking part in the London Marathon – I would like to take this opportunity to wish them the best of luck and a huge well done for supporting the charities that benefit from this event. All the money raised from our Fun Run and teacher participation in the Half Marathon will go back to the children at Wigmore. It would be great if you could sponsor us on the link below.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/wigmoreprimary2021

Learning to learn 

Over the last fortnight I have been very busy visiting classrooms across the school. I have also had the pleasure of looking through the children’s books and Mrs Chavda and myself have been leading some additional group sessions with some very enthusiastic and eager Year 6 children. Some of my highlights are included below:

Year 6

Some fascinating learning opportunities taking place in Year 6 over the last 2 weeks. The children understand the difference between Athens and Sparta and the impact of Ancient Greek architecture around the world. They have also been writing some fascinating explanation texts about how dangerous Ogres are. In Maths they are masters of rounding numbers to the nearest ten, hundred and thousand.

Year 5

The scientists in Year 5 have been investigating the properties of thermal insulators. I have challenged them to come up with a way to keep my cup of Bovril hot during the winter months at the London Stadium. They have also completed some fantastic poetry on rivers. One of our Year 5 classes have started swimming and all classes are thoroughly enjoying different striking games, especially tennis.

Year 4

Coding in computing continues to inspire and motivate the learners in Year 4. They have also been learning about the Romans and can apply their knowledge of rounding to important dates they have learnt about in history. The children are working incredibly hard to develop their reading comprehension skills in their daily guided reading lessons.

Year 3

There are some fantastic learners in Year 3 who have been able to converse in simple French greetings and questions about how people are feeling. The children have been very active in their PE lessons doing different circuits to understand the benefits of good physical fitness. The scientists in Year 3 could use key vocabulary linked to their learning about light. They understand that different materials can be transparent, translucent or opaque.

Year 2

The Great Fire of London continues to captivate the learners in Year 2. The children have a good knowledge of the key facts about this event. The children have also been doing some amazing writing using Meerkat Mail as the basis of their work. The mathematicians have been busy learning how to count in 2s, 3s, 5s and 10s. They have also been learning about special books in RE.

Year 1

The musicians in Year 1 have enjoyed using Glockenspiels in music. In Maths the children have been learning about different models to group numbers. They have created some fantastic maps of the school and have been working hard to improve their writing using The Enormous Turnip as a stimulus for their writing. The children were very good at telling me the names of trusted adults they can talk to to stay safe on-line.

Foundation

The children in Foundation have started their learning journey with Read Write Inc to support their early reading and writing skills. Goldilocks and the Three Bears has been the book the adults have been using to provide children with the springboard to learn about their senses. They have settled in so well to life at Wigmore.

Cross Country Success! 

Huge well done to the children, Mr Marshall, Mrs Williams and Miss Bloomfield who have been working incredibly hard over the last few weeks to prepare children for the Luton Schools Cross Country run which took place on Wednesday after school. Their efforts show that hard work and determination gets results. All runners were able to sustain a good pace and complete the challenging course. They should all be very proud of the efforts. Wigmore scooped 3 out of the 4 team events that were on offer. Champions in the following categories:

* Year 5 Boys

* Year 5 Girls

* Year 6 Boys

Well done to all schools who took part. It will be interesting to see if any of our young athletes qualify for the next level of competition.

House Points

The children have been working incredibly hard in school to earn points for their House!

Our school value for the month – determination

Well deserved award winners for consistently demonstrating our value for the month of September. Next month we move onto

The Gold Book

Well done to the following children who have been in the Gold Book this week.

ATTEND TO ACHIEVE!

486 children’s names were entered into our attendance “Wheel of Fortune” family prize drawer.

At Wigmore we have to aim to be here every day! Excellent attendance is 97% or above. There are strong links between good attendance and good progress in school, both academically and socially.

Lateness = lost learning!

Days off school = lost learning!

With thanks for your continued support in the work we do with your children,

Mr Johnston