Message from the Executive Headteacher

Our last week of term before hitting the month of December! We’re doing a wonderful in our schools of keeping learning focused as the festive season approaches. There is no doubt that things begin to get more Christmassy from next week!

In each school, there will be plenty of Christmas events to enjoy so please do take some time to consider the dates shared by each school so that everything is in your diary.

This week has featured more Federation activity than others this term as we instigated school visits for staff and a shared Professional Development Meeting for teachers. Two members of Whittington staff visited Morda this week to get a taste of ‘The Morda Way’ and were glowing in their feedback about the school. They commented on the welcoming atmosphere, the conduct of the children and the ‘above and beyond’ efforts of the staff. We will look forward to arranging more visits for staff to visit our schools.

During Wednesday’s Professional Development Meeting, subject leaders met to discuss action plans for this year and ideas for working together. The discussion was rich and purposeful and gives me cause for optimism about improved opportunities for our children.

Teachers then met their age-group counterparts (e.g. Conker class (Whittington) and Shamrocks (Morda)) to compare standards in books and to discuss way of working together.

Feedback from staff was very positive. What a brilliant team we have!

Enjoy the weekend, and bring on the Advent calendars next week!

Mr Carl Rogers
Executive Headteacher

Message from the Head of School

This week Shamrocks Class completed the Lions club of Great Britain 'Roar' competition. This is a programme for Primary Schools designed to give a platform to young people be innovators and entrepreneurs. The challenge was to think big and positively and design products which could change the world. Year 6 worked in teams to design, produce and market innovative products to improve our lives. The children thought up and designed some amazing prototype products. They worked collaboratively and their ‘Dragons Den’ style pitches were fantastic! This programme was generously funded by the Oswestry Lions Club. The winning Morda entry, by AJ Jones, Kia James and Mike Jones has gone forward into the national competition.

We held another successful Parent Open morning this week. Prospective pupils and their parents enjoyed looking around the school and seeing great work. Morda and Whittington staff had a productive shared staff meeting on Wednesday evening where subject leaders had the opportunity to exchange ideas and work together.

Art club (which meets on a Tuesday after school) have produced a beautiful exhibition of collage art inspired by sacred depictions of the baby Jesus and Mother Mary. The art is displayed in the Steam Room.

As the season of advent begins next week, we are all looking forward to the Christmas celebrations at school. We have already begun learning Christmas carols and working towards our Christmas nativity service which will be held at St Oswald's Church on the 13th of December. This is always a wonderful event and we look forward to welcoming parents to the festive service.

Mrs Helen Chapman
Head of School 

​Message from the Executive Headteacher

This has been an action-packed week in our schools, with many aligned events taking place. As you will read in the contributions of our Heads of School, this week has contained many activities and initiatives linked to national Anti-Bullying Week.

I’m very proud of the ways in which our schools have approached this week. The children in both schools have demonstrated a clear understanding of what bullying is and what they would do if they felt that they, or a friend, were being bullied in school.

Our definition of bullying is:

‘behaviour by an individual or group, usually repeated over time, that intentionally hurts another individual or group either physically or emotionally. This can happen in person or online’.

Children understand what behaviours might indicate bullying and are prepared to use our shared value of courage to stand up to bullies.

Elsewhere in our Federation this week, we have enjoyed ‘Mantle of the Expert’ workshops with the brilliant Luke Abbott and Tim Taylor. These workshops have focused on dramatic contexts for enquiry and the children have absolutely love them.

We also held a Full Governing Body meeting that focused on the financial situations in our schools. I’m very appreciative of the governors that we have, who are relentlessly committed to providing the best educational opportunities to our children.

Have a great weekend.
Mr Carl Rogers
Executive Headteacher 

Message from Head of School 

It has been an extraordinary week of positivity at Morda!

We had ‘Odd Socks Day’ on Monday where both children and staff celebrated their individuality in a sea of uniquely different socks.

On Wednesday, the school embraced the spirit of 'Positive Noticing Day', recognising and commending the many achievements and positive interactions of our pupils. Children went home adorned with labels highlighting the great things they were spotted doing throughout the day.

This week, we were delighted to welcome back internationally acclaimed Mantle of the Expert (MoE) coaches, Tim Taylor and Luke Abbott, who supported our teachers in further developing their MoE teaching skills. All classes experienced captivating, imaginative drama sessions: from the Bluebells class handling a tricky fox situation, to the Daffodils class who were developing a forest settlement, to the Roses Class who helped a story character deal with a difficult bullying issue, to the Shamrocks designing a travel website for the Indian tourist board. The creativity and engagement displayed were truly remarkable.

Friday was a vibrant celebration of Children in Need Day, featuring colourful dressing up and a lively Pudsey Bear treasure hunt that added a touch of joy to our week.

In addition to these festivities, we are thrilled to announce that Morda School achieved fantastic results in the England Rocks times table competition. We proudly stand in the top 13 percent of the 5000 schools that participated, with the Roses class emerging as our top performers! Special certificates were awarded to many children for their excellent participation, and our top three times table champions are Cooper Littleford, Fletcher Dawson and Oscar Lehuwala Bandarage. Congratulations to our winners and everyone who took part!

What an amazing week it has been!

Wishing everyone a delightful weekend

Mrs Helen Chapman
Head of School 

Message from the Executive Headteacher
The Christmas countdown has begun!
We have completed this first week of the festive half-term and, in spite of some pretty miserable weather, there have been lots of wonderful things happening in our schools.

Children have been focused in their learning and have been enjoying the exciting curriculum opportunities that have been provided to them by their teachers.

​ Next week is national Anti-Bullying Week and both of our schools will be taking part. We will look forward to wearing our odd socks on Monday - to show that we are all different and all equal – and to learning about what to do if we think someone is being bullied. Linked to Anti-Bullying Week, both schools will be taking part in ‘Positive Noticing Day’ on Wednesday 15 November. This is in celebration of our relational approach to behaviour management. We will be going ‘pozzy’ crazy and aiming for every child in each school to come home with positive recognition of something that they have done brilliantly in school. It’s going to be a lot of fun! Looking forward to another vibrant week. Have a great weekend. Mr Carl Rogers Executive Headteacher​