The Community Group met at Orton Wistow Primary School. It included the schools' Community Representatives, Jo Simmons, Mia Downs, and Kelly Fenton-Bradshaw (with apologies from Lucy Fogg), the OWN Trust CEO, Lorraine Greco, and the Marketing and Communications Officer, Fiona Schneider. We are very grateful to the schools for allowing the Community Representatives to attend these meetings. We appreciate the important role that Jo, Mia, Kelly, and Lucy play in strengthening the trust community.

This year, the Community Group will focus on the alignment of school events and activities, and staff voice. Lorraine explained how the group would be guided by the Trust Quality Descriptors on Workforce.

Events

We looked at the exciting Christmas events coming up in the schools during December. It's going to be a special time with Nativity Performances, Christmas Productions, Fayres, and Assemblies, not to mention the delicious Christmas Lunches, complete with Christmas Jumpers! The OWN Trust schools have all planned a fabulous schedule of activities for the children to enjoy.

There are several staff social events coming up in 2025 to which everyone in the trust will be invited. On the 28th of March 2025, we have the Quiz Night at Nene Valley Primary School (always a fun and competitive evening!), and on the 7th of June 2025, the End of Year Party at the Fleet.

Communications

The Community Representatives have been asked to conduct a focus group on Communications at their schools to add to the work we've been doing with SLT and office staff. This will help us to move forward with new initiatives to strengthen communications and formalise the internal communications process across the trust.

We will be moving to QDP for our annual stakeholder surveys, which will be sent to staff, parents, children, governors. There will also be an opportunity for the schools to give feedback on the services provided by the central services team. These surveys will take place in the Spring Term and will be completed by staff during a designated time in the school day to promote participation and to show staff that we value what they’re telling us.

After the annual survey, the Community Group can help to stress-test actions taken to address issues raised so that we can monitor progress.

Be part of our future

It was great to hear from the Community Representatives about what's been happening in their schools. We look forward to the next meeting on the 14th of January 2025 from 2pm – 3pm at Woodston Primary School.

If you would like to find out more about joining the OWN Trust Community, please contact us on 01733 259862.

We are always delighted to hear from new parents who would like their child to go to one of our schools, prospective staff and governance volunteers who would like to work with us, schools who would like to be part of the future of the Trust, and from local community groups and businesses who would like to be involved with our aims.