Current Newsletter

19^th December 2025

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a wonderful term it has been! The Christmas term is always so special, and this year it has been filled with countless highlights that truly showcase the spirit of our school.

Our Term 2 Highlights

Kestrel Class have impressed us all with their fantastic writing skills, successfully crafting persuasive letters to keep Golden Time on our termly timetable—what an achievement! Well done, Kestrels!

Across the school, we’ve celebrated sporting successes, shared endless achievements during our Friday Celebration Services at church, and witnessed love, joy, and determination every single day.

This final week has been magical. The children have kicked off the festive season beautifully with the Infants Nativity and our KS2 Carol Concert. These performances are a true reflection of our school vision: to work at it with all our hearts. At Great Wishford, we do hard things, overcome challenges, and truly flourish together.

I am incredibly proud of every single child and all that they have accomplished this term. Thank you to our dedicated staff and supportive families for making this possible.

A Huge Thank You for Improving Attendance
I want to say a huge thank you to all our parents for the incredible effort you’ve put into improving attendance this term. Your hard work in building strong, consistent routines is making a lasting difference for your children and setting them up for success in life. We’re thrilled to see persistent absences decrease by nearly 4%—a fantastic achievement!

Persistent absence refers to children who miss 10% or more of school sessions—that’s roughly one day every two weeks. Reducing this means more learning, more progress, and more opportunities for every child to thrive. Thank you for working with us to make this happen!

We all know attendance percentages can fall quickly but take time to recover, so every single session matters. Even small improvements require real teamwork and determination, and we couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you for your commitment, and I look forward to continuing this progress together in Term 3.

Wishing you all a joyful and restful Christmas break. I look forward to an equally busy and high-achieving Term 3!

Warm regards,
 

Hannah Shillito

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me

Malachi 3:1

Dear Friends,

I hope all is well. It has been an amazing end to this term. In between all the wonderful learning that has been going on, the gaze of the staff and pupils has shifted towards Christmas and story of the stable. Our final Open the Bible for this term explored the story of Mary and Jospeh travelling to Bethlehem to be registered in the City of David and there Mary was delivered of her baby. Emmanuel – God is with us! Oh, how the shepherds and angels celebrated.

This new born baby had been long foretold. There had been messengers telling, warning, encouraging the people and their nation that their lives would be transformed in the coming of the child, the saviour, the Messiah. Malachi, Isaiah and then John Baptist amongst many others prepared the way for the people of God. Your lives will be changed. You will be saved. The people had rather hoped that this Saviour was going to be a big tough guy to take on the Romans and liberate them from their control. Was Jesus really what they had expected? Well, no, but that is another story in the lead up to Easter.

The Old Testament prophets shouted out: be alert to God! Watch out! Look at your lives you unfaithful lot! You have erred from the straight paths of God and must change your ways. In the Gospel of the New Testament the promised Saviour did indeed come to change everything, to challenge the earthly Powers and to create a new Kingdom.

So, as we end Advent, have we been watching out, getting prepared and sorted for the coming of baby? I hope so. The school certainly has and it celebrated with a wonderful Nativity play and a joyous carol service in St Giles’ Church. We are close now to Bethlehem so we just need to be ready for Christmas Day.

At the end of this very busy term, may I wish you, the staff, pupils and governors a very happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. Have a great family time.

Holy Jesus,
by being born one of us,
and lying humbly in a manger,
you show how much God loves the world.
Let the light of your love always shine in our hearts,
be with us each and every day
and may your glory surround and keep us safe.
Amen.

Blessings and all best wishes

Jonathan

Rector

Wylye and Till Valley Benefice.