Young Tribune

HELPSTON PLAYOUSE HAS EXCITING NEWS!

The Playhouse has some excotomg news! We are extending our provision to two-year-olds from Easter.

Wow, what a start to the new year we have had at the Playhouse! At the Playhouse we are extremely passionate about promoting the children’s literacy development and this term we are excited to be working in close partnership with the National Literacy Trust. Lisa, our local Literacy Trust Ambassador has kindly provided us with some amazing literacy bags for the children which are supported by the Hungry Little Minds Campaign. These literacy bags have provided us access to a great range of story books and activities that the children have thoroughly enjoyed exploring at pre school as well as those who are currently accessing their early years learning from home. This has provided a great opportunity to develop and build upon our parent partnership too. We joined the Hungry Little Minds Family digital Day via zoom, where the children listened to a story read by the fantastic children’s author Nick Sharratt! He read the ‘Whales on the Bus’ to us which the children and adults thoroughly enjoyed as well as singing nursery rhymes with him!

The children who attend the OOSC have enjoyed a wildlife themed few weeks where they created their own bird feeders, salt dough hedgehogs, delicious hedgehog bread and so much more. The children amazed us with how much they knew about hibernation and how the winter weather can have an impact on the animals and environment around us. Once the snow arrived the children and staff had great fun making snow men, igloos and we even tried to make our own snow. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Please contact us to arrange a COVID secure visit or a chat with a member of our team.

1ST GLINTON BROWNIES KEEPING BUSY

Being that bit older, the pressures of home-schooling have been more challenging but during this time, the Brownies bags of badges (which will be presented to them as soon as face-to-face meetings can resume again) have been expanding.

Birthday badges, anniversary badges, "I was a Brownie during Lockdown" badges and in some cases interest badges have been added.

Quietly and unassumingly, Gabriella has worked hard to complete her Jobs and Mindfulness interest badges and was the first to perform her puppet show to earn the I've Got Strings Challenge badge. This badge is still active and know a number of other Brownies are 'almost there' and I look forward to popping their badges in their bags too. I am delighted to report that 2021 has started on a high. We have Brownies who have each completed Theme Awards (this means they have achieved 1 Interest Badge + 1 Skills Builder Badge + 180 minutes of other Unit Meeting Activities in each one). Congratulations to Chloe and Tess who can now proudly wear their Theme Award Badges on their sashes with pride. A special mention is to be given to Chloe too as she becomes the first Brownie in the unit to gain the Bronze Award. A particularly impressive achievement in light of recent events.

Looking forward, we hope that face-to-face meetings will be able to start again before too long, we will be at Glinton Village Hall when they do, which will allow more Brownies to work towards these awards. We welcome Rainbows Keira, Sophie, Holly, Erica, Roxie, Chloe, Harriet, Penelope and Emilia - who should have transitioned through 2020 to start their Brownie adventure. Keep smiling Brownies; hopefully it won't be much longer now. We can't wait!

Congratulations to Northborough Guide Leader Jane Knott who received her 50 YEAR Service Award and Helpston Brownie Leader Christine Browne who received her 20 YEAR Service Award at Girlguiding Cambridgeshire West recent Virtual Awards Ceremony. Well done to both ladies what a fantastic achievement, you have encouraged, supported and enriched the lives of so many young people.

Please don’t assume someone else will do it we need your help now. Not all roles require a regular weekly commitment. Girlguiding is for you if you would you like to: • Meet new friends? • Take a refreshing break from your everyday routine? • Share a skill or talent? • Make a difference to the lives of young people? • Spend time laughing, playing and being inspired by the incredible young girls in this area?

Morag Sweeney Glinton District Commissioner

morag.sweeney@yahoo.com

GIRLGUIDING GLINTON DISTRICT

Due to current rules we are unable to meet with our members face to face. Many unit are using Zoom or Facebook to engage with their young people. Whilst this is not ideal it is giving the opportunity to undertake various activities and earn badges. We can’t wait until we can get back to normal meetings and enjoy all the activities we love.

We need to recruit some additional Leaders to ensure we can keep on helping our enthusiastic young people. We must have enough Leaders to support returning to face to face meetings and to continue offering adventures, activities and skill building to them. Girlguiding Glinton District has units that meet in Glinton, Helpston and Northborough with members joining us from other local villages. We have vacancies across all of our sections – Rainbows 5 – 6, Brownies 7 – 10, Guides 10 – 14. Could that person we need be YOU, we are always looking for new members to join our enthusiastic and friendly team? Has this break in life as we previously knew it allowed you the time to think about giving something back and volunteering with local young people? Working with young people and other adult volunteers helps to develop existing and learn new skills like event planning, time management, leadership and budgeting all extending you as a person and making your CV stand out from the crowd. Why not think about it, see what we can offer you, no experience is necessary as full training and support is available. If you would like more information or want to register your interest please message me and I will be delighted to welcome you into our Guiding family.

PEAKIRK VILLAGE HALL

Every Tues 4.30 to 5.15pm. Cost: £6. First class half price £3. Core conditioning and stretch.

Starts 16 March

NORTHBOROUGH VILLAGE HALL

Every Wed 5.30 to 6.30pm. Starts Cost: £6. First class half price £3. 17 March Weight loss, tone and conditioning in a safe, fun environment. To book or for more information, email info@nwfi t.co.uk Like my page for class updates /@nwfi t23 DETAILS OF ONLINE CLASSES at www.nwfi t.co.uk

PEAKIRK PARISH COUNCIL

For all Peakrik news, minutes and agendas visit:

www.peakirkvillage.co.uk

Chair: Henry Clark 253203 cllr.h.clark@eclipso.eu Vice-Chair: Sally-Ann Jackson 253483 sajackson186@gmail.com Emma Crowson 252200 peakirk.cllrcrowson@gmail.com David Fovargue 254227 peakirk.cllrfovargue@gmail.com Greg Prior Contact via the clerk Anne Tuley 254114 peakirk.cllrtuley@gmail.com Clerk: Angela Hankins 253397 clerk@peakirk-pc.gov.uk

MUSTARD SEED PROJECT IT'S FINISHED!

I can’t tell you how exciting this moment is. The first section of the building was completed in 2014 and now (excluding the fence) the building is complete. A big thank you to all of you who have donated towards this project. You should all feel very proud of what your donation has achieved for this community.

It costs £15,000 a year to feed our children, £6 per child, per month and so far we have raised just £9,500 this year so we have a way to go. Should you wish to make a donation towards this please go to our website

www.mustardseed.co.uk

There has been some delay completing the fence whilst we decided what would be best. We do not own much land in front of the school, two metres to be precise. A wall would have been the safest but would have blocked out the light. We have finally decided upon railings and I shall send you photographs as soon as they are completed. For the first time all of our children are together and it should feel like a real community but of course they are all isolating in their bubbles. And wearing masks. There is currently no Covid in this area but very wisely they plan to keep it that way and even three year olds must wear a mask.

Of course, it is impossible to teach young children with additional needs without being close to them but mostly teachers of the older children can manage to do this. What a strange world we live in. So, this project is complete apart from some additional furniture. We had most of what was needed but now that we have larger rooms we can fit in more. The staffroom has been made bigger and the clinic is now smaller. The result of my misunderstanding of the use of the staffroom in Kenya. Not a place to relax but a place to work. Of course, the teachers have a lot to do. Children have been away from school for 10 months and the government has decided that they will be able to catch up in just one term. The mean score of B- for their KCPE that has been achieved in the previous two years seems very unlikely this year. We can’t wait to get out to Kenya. Seeing photographs is not the same as the real thing. I feel as though my baby has grown up. We have 300 poor children in 11 classes of 25-30. We have excellent teachers producing outstanding results. We shall always need to support the project, providing additional training, salaries for teachers and the feeding programme. In fact, this latter is our most pressing need at present as the trust that had been paying for this has now closed.

Write Away

Snails

Some great photos of some local snails!

HAVE STAYED CALM AND CARRIED ON

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a year since an article appeared in Village Tribune on behalf of the Rainbows. They do enjoy being able to share their efforts with family and friends, near and far; something that is very important to everyone right now.

Not being able to have face-toface meetings has not stopped the Rainbows' enthusiasm and productivity. Following on from the Easter Eggstravaganza Challenge badge last year, the Rainbows have continued to work towards and earn a variety of badges. Five Rainbows even achieved their Gold Awards; a huge well done to Keira, Sophie, Holly, Roxie and Chloe on a spectacular achievement. We had seven new Rainbows join us just before the lockdowns last year and at one point the group number reached twenty-one as we were reluctant to transition anyone to Brownies until they had had a chance to say a proper goodbye and have a Pot of Gold celebration.

This all took place, when between the two lockdowns, we managed to squeeze in three face-to-face meetings. It was so wonderful to see the Rainbows smiling faces, some of the older ones have grown so tall and the new ones - who had waited patiently for almost 9 months - were so keen to get started. Using hoola-hoops for social distancing, we played games and made poppies for our Remembrance Wreath in our first session before they were sadly stopped again. Despite restrictions being back in place, we were very proud that we were able to hold a socially distanced wreath laying near a Remembrance Sunday display at the end of Vixen's garden. The Rainbows took home a plethora of badges and a goodie bag with craft activities to complete over the next three weeks before they returned to make reindeer cakes and melted snowman biscuits. As we were not allowed to sing at the meetings, we also learned how to sing 'Happy Birthday' in BSL and 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' in Makaton. It was also time to say "goodbye and good luck" to the Rainbows (Keira, Sophie, Holly, Chloe, Roxie, Erica, Harriet, Emilia and Penelope) transitioning to Brownies.

So here we are, a year later with meetings still being run creatively on-line. This is not holding back our Rainbows who continue to work towards their coveted badges. A special well done has to go to Edie who has become the first Rainbow to achieve a Theme Award. She has completed all 3 components of the Express Myself Theme Award and will wear this proudly on her t-shirt.

THE BEAST FROM THE EAST AND OTHER STORIIES

As I write this we are in the grip of a mini beast from the east - thank goodness it wasn’t this cold when Santa visited Etton in early December. With thanks to all involved and for the generous donations. The Parish Council has agreed to give £100 from the collection towards the church roof fund, leaving £107.15 for village projects. We now have £188.15 (£107.15 plus £81 from last year) that can be used within the village. If you have any suggestions as to what you would like the money spent on, please let me know.

It was fantastic to see so many villagers turn out on Christmas Eve for our short service on the green. I think I counted 45 socially distanced participants and Rev Mark-Aaron did a great job. Since then, it has been necessary to temporarily close the church building from 4th January due to Covid concerns. Services are broadcast on Facebook and are available on U-Tube. However, last Sunday we held our first service via zoom which seemed to go well. If you would like details about any of the activities, please contact me.

You may be aware that Tarmac have applied for planning permission to import many tonnes of inert materials from the Werrington railway tunnelling works to facilitate the restoration of the land north of the village back to agricultural land. This will involve the movement of lorries from Werrington, up the A15 then into Tarmac land through their normal access roads. The work could take up to a year. Comments on the application needed to be in by 14th January and a decision is still pending.

On a positive note, our first Jacob sheep lamb was born safely at Etton High Meadow today- Spring is on the way! Also, the snowdrops are beautiful in the churchyard-despite the snow!

Finally, it’s Census year! Sunday 21 March is data collection day. It is a ‘digital first’ census and it is hoped you will respond online using computers, phones or tablets. However, help and support will be available from the census team should you not be able to complete the survey online.

Snowdrops bursting into life In the last Tribune I wrote about the results of the nature recovery survey. Since then, representatives from the Parish Council and the Langdyke trust have met and a draft 10-year plan is in the process of being completed. The proposed strategic objectives of the plan are to enhance the variety and abundance of wildlife in the Parish as follows:

Anne Curwen 01733 253357 acurwen@hotmail.com

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• Ensuring nature-positive restoration of all mineral workings • Enhancing public access to the countryside and opportunities to learn about and appreciate the natural and built heritage of the countryside • Enhancing the wildlife potential of the village itself • Creating north-south wildlife corridors within the parish, linking the wetlands of the northern part of the parish with the woodlands/grasslands of the south and through them to Castor Hanglands • Planting new oak trees across the landscape • Creating new and restoring existing ponds

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