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January
2004
Where
be that to then...?
"Where is Widecombe-in-the-Moor, is it in Devon?"
People still ask this question. Then Widecombe Fair is mentioned.
"Ah! Uncle Tom Cobley and All!" (Widecombe is immortalised
in the old folk song that so many of us sang when we were at school.)
"Fancy living there!" is the next comment, "it's
in the middle of nowhere!"
No longer can that be said, though. Thanks to Widecombe County Primary
School we are now the 'Centre of the Universe'! The school has recently
been voted as having the Best Small School Website in Britain
by The National Small School's Forum.
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| Mufti
Day: Children and staff dressed in 60's clothes, to raise
money for the Dartmoor Rescue Group. |
Things
have moved on from slates, blackboards and chalk. A bit different
from my day when
'cut and paste' referred to scissors, glue and sticky paper, 'windows'
were for looking through and letting in the light, and the 'web'
was the result of a whole days work by a spider!
Technology marches on!
Nick Banwell, headteacher at Widecombe Primary - along with the
staff, governors and pupils - is celebrating his first year in charge,
with a glowing report,
which reflects the whole attitude of the school.
Widecombe's been specially noted for its website and all that's
associated with this latest technology, set up by one of the teachers,
updated regularly by the school administrator and constantly used
by the pupils.
The Friends of the School, The Widecombe Educational Foundation
and other local organisations all support the school - both physically
and financially - and the children produce their own magazine which
is sold within the area. They have a democratically elected school
committee and the profits from the magazine are all ploughed back
into the funds.
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| Maypole
Dancing: The children's display at Widecombe Fair in September
2003. |
This
school is the young, beating heart of an established community -
evident to so many of the visitors to last year's Widecombe Fair
and emphasised by its contribution to the fair by an amazing display
of arts and crafts and superb demonstrations of music and maypole
dancing.
The variety of activities that it gets involved in - like visits
by artists, musicians, and storytellers, trips to events and character
building residential courses, involving the community in their Christmas
Dinner, Christmas plays in front of full houses, supporting local
charities and those less fortunate than themselves, and the 'mufti
day' to raise funds for The Dartmoor Rescue Group - all bodes well
for this progressive school.
What a difference from the lessons on offer when I was still knee-high
to a grasshopper. Is this reminiscing a sign of old age, or a mispent
childhood?
Can you remember when reading, riting and rithmetic all began with
'R'?
So that shows YOUR age as well!
See you next time.
Yer old mate, Tony
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