OWN Trust Parent Portal - Issue 5 OWN Trust Update: 18th October 2022

Getting the Balance Right - Mental Health and Wellbeing

By Colin Marks, Headteacher, Orton Wistow Primary School, OWN Trust

Working in a school and playing a part in shaping the lives of the pupils who attend it is a privilege. I have enjoyed each role I have had during my twenty years at Orton Wistow Primary School, and taking on the Headship this year is a challenge I will relish and take great pride in.

One of the greatest challenges for any leader in a school, especially a headteacher, is how you ensure the safety, happiness, learning, and progress of all the children and ensure that all staff feel supported, empowered and have a real sense of job satisfaction. The mental health of all pupils and staff (including the Headteacher's) is paramount.

Any decision made by a Headteacher needs to take account of the impact it will have on the success of the school and the effect on individuals: indeed, the two go hand-in-hand. A positive change to how a school works can make a real difference to the children's outcomes and promote a sense of satisfaction within the staff, as their time is being used well and the impact is clear. On the flip side, a change or new initiative poorly implemented can make a limited difference to the children and cause unnecessary stress and frustration amongst staff.

I like to imagine a set of scales when introducing a new way of working or expectation in school. On one side is the time, effort, and cost required from the staff (and children). On the other side is the impact. At the very least, you want the scales to be balanced. It can then be argued that the work put in is worth the payout.

It is important to recognise that at first, the scales may not be balanced because a new initiative requires more time and effort to start with, and the real impact might not be seen until it is embedded. Over time the scales will balance as the amount of effort it takes (and possible initial cost) lessens and the outcomes improve. The best case scenario is when the scales continue to tip, and the impact outweighs the effort put in.

Careful consideration of all changes, initiatives, and priorities can affect the wellbeing of everyone in school but there are also other ways we can support ourselves and each other. A constant topic for discussion at the MySpace meetings I attended a few years back was around understanding what replenishes your own wellbeing. For me, exercise and time away from a screen help me to switch off. There can be days in school when I will be office bound, and remembering to take some time out to wander through the school during different times of the day, talk to as many people as possible and get my step count up can make a real difference to how I feel.

Something new I am keen to explore is the introduction of ‘Wellness Action Plans’. These individual and personalised plans for all staff are confidential plans that outline what can be done to promote positive mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. It is a proactive approach to helping everyone.

Getting this right in school could be the thing that makes the biggest difference to our young people. The scales could be tipped well in our favour!

^{Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash}

OWN Trust Training Day 02.09.22

By Stuart Mansell, CEO, OWN Trust

On the 2nd September 2022, the OWN Trust CEO, Stuart Mansell, together with headteachers Colin Marks (Orton Wistow Primary School), Jacki Mitchell (Woodston Primary School), and Neil Reilly (Nene Valley Primary School), and teachers from all three Trust schools met at Woodston for an inspiring training day.

This was an opportunity to bring together as many staff members from across the Trust as logistically possible, starting with teachers. The morning session aimed to share information about our identity and future plans and to develop our Trust community. The afternoon session was motivational; inspiring our teaching staff to be the best that they can be and ultimately ‘happy educators’ for the benefit of all the children. Elements of the day were then cascaded to schools to begin sharing with other staff.

The first part of the morning began by looking at the development of our new branding, including what our new logo represents. We looked at how the three letters of OWN (Opportunity, Work Together, Nurture) formed an image representing a sheltered (nurtured) child or adult.

We then had a presentation about how we are trying to create links across the Trust that develop a sense of community, both formally and informally.

We also looked at how we have developed ways of communicating what we do and why we do it through news items on the website, our half-termly newsletter, and blogs.

The second part of the morning was a longer session, where everyone was involved in a cafeteria-style activity to look at plans for the future within our newly published 5-year strategy. This was followed by a short session on how our improvement plans will help us to work towards the vision for the next five years.

Finally, in the afternoon, Shonette Bason Wood (Teacher Training - Spread the happiness), a renowned motivational speaker in education, led her fantastic session ‘Permission to be a Happy Educator’. Shonette reinvigorated all of those present to be the best teacher that they can be whilst ensuring a focus on the wellbeing of everyone so that we have a positive impact on the children. This was much needed after the period of challenge provided by the COVID pandemic.

Neil Reilly, the new Headteacher of Nene Valley Primary School, commented: 'An inspiring day bringing together our passionate colleagues to discuss the vision, strategy and development of OWN Trust'.

The work on branding and the 5-year strategy was then launched in each school the following week, with the provision of cupcakes for everyone alongside the strategy document, each topped with OWN Trust’s new logo! The Trust would like to thank the catering teams in each of the schools for organising the delicious cupcakes, particularly Tina Edwards (Catering Managers, WPS), Elizabeth Anderson (Catering Manager, OWPS) and Deborah Donnor (Catering Manager, NVPS).

Trustee Board Meeting 20.09.22

By Mary Foreman, Chair of Trustees, OWN Trust

A new school year has started and not only do OWN Trust schools have lots of new pupils and their families in their classes, but we have also welcomed new staff, including our two new headteachers, Colin Marks at Orton Wistow and Neil Reilly at Nene Valley. Trustees were delighted to hear from our CEO, Stuart Mansell, that both heads have settled in well and are already making an impact in their respective schools.

Since this meeting was the first of the academic year there were some standing business matters to deal with, such as making our annual declarations of interest, acknowledging changes to the Academy Trust Handbook, and ensuring all trustees were up to speed with updates to Keeping Children Safe in Education and the Trust Safeguarding policy.

Our Scheme of Delegation was also updated and agreed upon. This is a key document that defines and makes clear which functions have been delegated and to whom. This is a simple way in which we ensure members, trustees, governing bodies, and individuals understand who is responsible for making which decisions in the trust.

All academy trusts have different ways of delegating decision-making across the different bodies, so it is essential that everyone involved is up-to-date with this knowledge. Each committee within our trust, including our governing bodies for each school, which have been re-named as ‘Local Governance Committees’, has updated terms of reference that sit alongside the Scheme of Delegation which make it clear what each committee does, including how often it will meet. We also now have role descriptors for members, trustees, and local governing committee members.

An important agenda item at every Trust Board meeting is the report from the CEO. This summarises many areas of work across the trust including looking at Educational Standards – an area that the newly formed Quality of Education Committee will be examining in depth in our first meeting in October.

Finance is another key area, and like all Education Trusts across the country, we are very concerned about the impact increasing energy costs and staff pay rises will have on individual school budgets and the central trust budgets. As Trustees, we are committed to ensuring that every staff member is paid fairly, and we understand how much pressure people in our employment are under in balancing their own budgets at such a tricky time. However, we must make sure we can balance our own books even with a hefty increase in our staffing and energy budgets that were not predicted when budgets were being set.

Trustees received an update about marketing and communication from Fiona Schneider within the CEO report. We were kept up to date with the rebranding that OWN Trust has undertaken since our original launch which included updates to the website, marketing, and communications. Launches for this took place in all our schools at the start of the term.

As we move forwards with white and green papers, a main aim is for ‘all schools to join a strong multi-academy trust’. At OWN Trust we continue to work with 6 ‘good’ LA maintained schools within Peterborough that are taking part in the Schools Partnership Programme. One of the headteachers from these schools is now working closely with us to help improve other schools. Our level of support for such schools is now extending to include finance and estates. Trustees were pleased to see how this work is growing and having a very positive impact.

Trustees continue to be very positive about the progress OWN Trust is making and are looking forward to providing support and challenge over the next academic year.

OWN Trust Schools' Sports News

Discover how the children at Nene Valley, Woodston and Orton Wistow Primary Schools have been keeping active this half-term.

Nene Valley Primary School

During the week of October from the 2nd to the 7th, Nene Valley took part in Bike to School week. Over 300 bike journeys happened over the week. On Wednesday 5th October, Dr. Bike, from Sustrans, boosted the numbers to 146 on the day (nearly half the school came on two wheels). It felt like every child had biked to school!

As a local school with a geographically small catchment, we are teaching our children to travel in an environmentally-friendly and healthy way. It is also a great way to get young brains active first thing ready for learning, and we were delighted with the amount of support from all those involved.

Woodston Primary School

Woodston Primary took a group of 10 girls to participate in a football tournament at Jack Hunt School. The girls played 5 games, playing very well in each game. Every girl that participated came away with a feeling of achievement as they had tried their best in each game that they played. It's lovely to go to these events as you can see their confidence growing in each game.

Woodston Primary boys' football team played against St Augustine’s Primary on Tuesday 11th October. Woodston played very well against the opposition winning 8-0. The boys played the whole game as a team and their confidence grew throughout. This was the first game we have played this year, so it was a great way to start.

Orton Wistow Primary School

Orton Wistow Primary School has taken part in a range of activities this term including football and netball matches.

One of the team members in Year 6 wrote this account of her team's success at the football tournament at Jack Hunt:

On Thursday the 6th of October we (a group of year 5 and 6 girls) played in a girls' football tournament at the secondary school Jack Hunt.

We won all of our games and scored lots of goals. Here are some of the scores: 5-0, 5-1, 4-1, 3-1 and 2-1.

In our opinion, the matches went very well, and we enjoyed them a lot. A few of the members of our team play for football clubs outside of school as well as in school. In some of our games, we found it quite difficult to win, but in others, we found it pretty easy. Our team is very good at passing, and we work well as a team. Here is a quote from one of our members: “I enjoyed playing against other primary schools from around the area at the event”.

The girl's football team continued their success on Friday 14th October with a 3-0 victory over Winyates Primary school. Both teams battled tremendously hard, but the girls stuck together to earn the 3 points. A great start to the footballing season for them.

On the 7th of October, the first-ever competitive Orton Wistow Primary School netball team took part in a match. The girls played their first fixture this year and represented the school brilliantly. Even though the result didn’t go our way, the girls stuck together as a team and battled on.

On the 12th of October, the year 5/6 netball team represented Orton Wistow at the Nene Park Netball Festival. The girls demonstrated the Learning Toolkit Skills in abundance and scored some great goals.

Beginnings...

Stuart Mansell was born in the heart of the Black Country in a very deprived area in Tipton. His first house was a back-to-back dwelling with an outdoor toilet shared by five houses. Back then, he didn’t have specific ambitions, but a strong work ethic was instilled in him and his sister.

As a child, he attended Great Bridge Primary School. It was 100 years old and a world away from the primary schools of the OWN Trust. It had a concrete playground, a blocked-up air raid shelter from World War II, outdoor toilets, and was overlooked by the local abattoir! Nonetheless, Stuart has some vivid and positive memories of that time: school trips to Weston-Super-Mare, the Cheddar Gorge and Kinver Edge, learning about the Titanic, and a particular recollection when he read the word ‘pneumonia’ to his teacher at a very young age after she'd said: "You’ll never manage this one!"

Finding a vocation...

After Stuart finished secondary school, he started a degree in French and Russian but soon found that career prospects at that time were likely to involve sitting for hours listening to Russian radio broadcasts at GCHQ. Instead, Stuart found work as a glass collector in a local bar to earn some money, but it wasn't long before he was taking on a managerial role overseeing two bars in Dudley and West Bromwich.

Although he made the most of this time, he began to look for a new vocation. Customers to the bars included some Teaching Assistants, and conversations with them about their work in schools intrigued him. During his time off, Stuart volunteered at one of the schools and found it immensely rewarding.

This experience inspired him to re-train, and he went to college to get an extra A Level whilst working full-time, before entering Birmingham University to do a Bachelor of Education degree in Primary (3-8 years) with English Language and Literature. He qualified in 1993 and started his first job as a teacher after moving to Peterborough, which led to him becoming Headteacher of Nene Valley Primary School in September 2006.

Current role and inspirations...

After thirteen years as a Headteacher, Stuart took on a new challenge as Chief Executive Officer of the OWN Trust, which he founded together with the Headteachers of Orton Wistow Primary School and Woodston Primary School.

As CEO of the OWN Trust, he has a clear sense of what he’d like to achieve, which is to bring together a strong community of people who all have the same desire – to provide the best for the children in their care. As he comments, "If staff feel valued and want to stay and are enabled to work together to get the best for all the children, then I’ll feel I’ve achieved something."

Indeed, the children themselves inspire him in this role, as well as the staff. He remarks that, "The idea of enabling any child to make their mark on the world in the future is inspiring. To see the efforts and commitment of staff, far beyond what is generally recognised in the outside world, is awe-inspiring too". He enjoys working within the OWN Trust: "Staff genuinely care about each other and are supportive of each other in their aim to benefit and support the children."

Life lessons...

If Stuart could go back to when he was at primary school and give his younger self a message about life and careers, he would say: "Whatever you do, do something that makes a difference. I’ve always liked the ideas behind the poem ‘The Dash’ by Linda Ellis – ‘Would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?"

Issue 5 OWN Trust Update: 18th October 2022

This week's edition includes:

OWN Trust Blog

Getting the Balance Right - Mental Health and Wellbeing

OWN Trust News

OWN Trust Training Day 02.09.22

Trustee Board Meeting 20.09.22

OWN Trust Schools' News

OWN Trust Schools' Sports News

Introducing...

OWN Trust Community

Happy Birthday Jacki!

Staff News

OWN Trust would like to bid farewell and good luck to the following staff members who have left since the last newsletter:

We would also like to say a warm welcome to the following staff members who have joined us:

A Day in the Life...

If you work in the OWN Trust and would like to contribute your A Day in the Life for future editions of the newsletter, please click here. We would love to hear from you!

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