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!
| Class | Winner |
| Acorns (snack poem) | Aiyanna |
| Pine (snack poem) | Max |
| Conkers (snack poem) | Niamh |
| Yew | Alexis |
| Poplar | Leunisa |
| Rowan | Evie |
| Hazel (Magic lunchbox) | Alesia |
| Aspen (Magic lunchbox) | Gabriel |
| Juniper (Magic lunchbox) | Poppy |
| Maple (The sandwich) | Darsh |
| Elm (The sandwich) | Hassaan |
| Willow (The sandwich) | Roqaya |
| Hawthorn (Chocolate cake) | Sofia |
| Linden (Chocolate cake) | Muhammed |
| Beech (Chocolate cake) | Taylor |
| Holly (Food from around the world) | Mercedes |
| Lime (Food from around the world) | Jodon |
| Oak (Food from around the world) | Daniel |
| Ash (Ice cream) | Mahdi |
| Birch (Ice cream) | Natalie |
| Alder (Ice cream) | Aya |
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!
| Week beginning | Aviators | Brewers | Mechanics | Plaiters |
| 8th October | 518 | 644 | 774 – WINNERS! | 456 |
| 15th October | 497 – WINNERS | 414 | 449 | 390 |
The Gold Book
Well done to the following children who have been in the Gold Book this week.
| Class | 8th October | 15th October |
| Acorns (Reception) | Aiyanna | Archie |
| Conkers (Reception) | Niamh | Lilah |
| Pine (Reception) | Radu | Suharsana |
| Poplar (Year 1) | Sanaya | Oscar |
| Rowan (Year 1) | Iyan | Rocco |
| Yew (Year 1) | Alexis | Iqra |
| Aspen (Year 2) | Naomi | Gabriel |
| Hazel (Year 2) | Jake | Alesia |
| Juniper (Year 2) | Ojas | Tim |
| Elm (Year 3) | Robert | Phoebe |
| Maple (Year 3) | Brodie | Lacey |
| Willow (Year 3) | Levi | Alan |
| Beech (Year 4) | Ayesha | Zach |
| Hawthorn (Year 4) | Gabriela | Jacob |
| Linden (Year 4) | Amelia | Gavin |
| Holly (Year 5) | Leah | Matthew |
| Lime (Year 5) | Damla | Tanisha |
| Oak (Year 5) | Pawel | Jayson |
| Alder (Year 6) | Aswika | Aswika |
| Ash (Year 6) | Adam L | Bailey |
| Birch (Year 6) | Eddie | Maleeha |
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%.
| Class | 8th October | Comment | 15th October | Comment |
| Acorns (Reception) | 95.4% | Must improve! | 91.8% | Must improve! |
| Conkers (Reception) | 94.5% | Must improve! | 93.9% | Must improve! |
| Pine (Reception) | 87.1% | Must improve! | 93.7% | Must improve! |
| Poplar (Year 1) | 96.7% | Almost there! | 88.7% | Must improve! |
| Rowan (Year 1) | 92.3% | Must improve! | 97.2% | Outstanding! |
| Yew (Year 1) | 95.8% | Must improve! | 97.4% | Outstanding! |
| Aspen (Year 2) | 96.4% | Almost there! | 95.4% | Must improve! |
| Hazel (Year 2) | 96% | Almost there! | 93.8% | Must improve! |
| Juniper (Year 2) | 92.6% | Must improve! | 94.1% | Must improve! |
| Elm (Year 3) | 95.7% | Must improve! | 98.3% | Outstanding! |
| Maple (Year 3) | 92.7% | Must improve! | 93.7% | Must improve! |
| Willow (Year 3) | 98.2% | WOW! | 96.6% | Almost there! |
| Beech (Year 4) | 97.1% | Outstanding! | 97.5% | Outstanding! |
| Hawthorn (Year 4) | 97.1% | Outstanding! | 98.6% | WOW! |
| Linden (Year 4) | 96.8% | Almost there! | 92.5% | Must improve! |
| Holly (Year 5) | 95.1% | Must improve! | 88.1% | Must improve! |
| Lime (Year 5) | 97.2% | Outstanding! | 96.2% | Almost there! |
| Oak (Year 5) | 91% | Must improve! | 93.1% | Must improve! |
| Alder (Year 6) | 95.4% | Must improve! | 92.2% | Must improve! |
| Ash (Year 6) | 92.5% | Must improve! | 94.8% | Must improve! |
| Birch (Year 6) | 90.4% | Must improve! | 97.1% | Outstanding! |
| Whole school | 94.6% | Must improve! | 94.5% | Must improve! |
Lateness = lost learning!
| 5 minutes late every day | 3 days of learning lost |
| 10 minutes late every day | 6 and half days of learning lost |
| 15 minutes late every day | 2 weeks of learning lost |
| 20 minutes late every day | 19 days of learning lost |
Days off school = lost learning!
| 97% to 100% attendance | Excellent attendance! This is our goal! |
| 95% attendance | 10 days of learning lost per year |
| 90% attendance | 19 days of learning lost per year |
| 85% attendance | 29 days of learning lost per year |
| 80% attendance | 38 days of learning lost per year |
| 75% attendance | 47 days of learning lost per year |
With thanks for your continued support in the work we do with your children,
Mr Johnston
