Just a few of the stories in December's Chipping Norton News. The full stories and many others PLUS all the regular features are in the current edition.  Price 50p

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Creativity rewarded

Students with learning disabilities in Chipping Norton have been praised for the way they have achieved new qualifications. The group were presented with certificates at a special celebration held at the ACE Centre in Chipping Norton on Friday 7 November. All students had taken part in the new award and accreditation system, working on a Creativity module. The students worked with tutor Lucia Emm. Their creative work was on display. Some of the students have gone on to do another module in Self Advocacy being tutored by Rebecca Nelder. Stephen Williams, Area Head of Chipping Norton Community Education, has a strong commitment to the courses for people with learning disabilities that run from his centres. Sandra Winter, the County Co-ordinator for the Learning Disability Scheme, presented the Certificates and Lisa McIntyre, the Learning Disability Development Worker for West Oxfordshire, also attended.

 

Children in Need

Staff at the Cheltenham & Gloucester brought the Wild West to Topside when they donned cowboy costume to raise a magnificent £728.72 for Children in Need at the end of October. Customer Kathleen Widdows is pictured here buying a ticket for the raffle of prizes generously donated by local businesses. Other fundraising antics were spotted round town and Topschool pupils paid generously to watch some sporting male teachers having their (lower) legs shaved!

 

Chipping Norton Youth Centre

On Thursday 6 November Tom Drinkwater, Chris Mason and Shane Newman attended the Green Apple Environment Award Presentation Ceremony at the House of Commons. They were presented with a National Bronze Award. The Award was made for our environmental project, which we started off in February. The project included a workshop day at The Ace Centre, shooting and editing a video, and putting information onto the Youth Service web-site Spired.com. This is a fantastic achievement and we’re feeling very proud! Well done and thanks to all the young people who contributed. As well as Tom, Chris and Shane (who contributed most to the project) they were: Kyle Aries, Mark Barnes, Katie Crawford, Dan Harris, Lizzie Harris, Ricky Hickling, Fran Horspole, Adam Hunt, Verity Jefferies, and Gary ‘Bazil’ Smith.

Thanks also to Katharine Nathan, who co-ordinated the project, and Laura Riley and Aimee Evans who helped to staff it. We had a great day out in London with Drinky, Mase & Shane taking control of our (limited) budget! They decided to visit the London Aquarium (BIG sharks!) and take a night-time ‘flight’ on the London Eye. We plan a film night coming up on 21 November (Pirates of the Caribbean) and an ice skating trip to London on 5/6 December.

Matt Smith

 

ATC

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Whether or not you attended the Remembrance Day Parade you can justifiably be proud of the young people of Chipping Norton who are now the majority in the parade, not just the Air Cadets but the Army Cadets, Brownies, Scouts and Beavers, mainly due to the declining numbers of servicemen and women. Last year the ATC mustered 21 cadets at the parade this year there were 47, since last month’s News the total has risen to 61 including probationers. Our Warrant Officer Graham Coles took charge of the parade on behalf of the British Legion, his firm vocal command ensured all those in the parade stood to attention. This year for the first time, four cadets along with the CO Steve Taylor and his wife Lesley went to the cemetery and placed poppies on the graves of the servicemen that gave their lives, each being honoured by a salute from the cadets. This is normally carried out by the Town Clerk. Early in the New Year we intend to have a formal social evening for the cadets’ parents and other local supporters. Our Chipping Norton from the Air calendars are selling well and are available from The Bookshop, Cotswold Newsagents, Whistlers, the Guildhall and Chippings in Middle Row priced £6.

Remember, potential recruits, Tues & Thurs 7-9.30pm at the squadron in Burford Road.

 

A trip to Sulgrave Manor

This was part of our Tudor project. It was cold in our Tudor costumes but I was very excited – when we arrived the Manor was smaller than I’d imagined. Jack the Steward welcomed us and took us to the buttery where we put our Tudor lunches. I took bread, cheese and a pork pie. We met Mr Washington the Lord of the Manor and Kate the cook. Then we went to the Great Hall with Jack who showed us the board (table) and trenchers (plates) – circular slab of bread which were eaten after dinner – no washing up. We had a really good time and I LEARNT A LOT ABOUT the Tudors but I would not have liked to have been one, mostly because they were not very clean!

Eleanor Butler

 

Science Week

The theme of Science week is Water and involves a range of science-based activities which have been fun. Scott Dunn reports: We made paddle boats out of polystyrene, lollypop sticks, an elastic band and plastic. Some worked really well and moved fast. Then we looked at making bubbles. On Wednesday we made fireworks – rockets using an old film canister with water and half a paracetamol inside. We took them outside, had to stand well back. BANG!!! They went really high. They were FANTASTIC!! On Thursday we learnt some facts about water and finished off the week seeing what would float or sink. I was really surprised when an apple floated (because it’s got lots of air in it.) This year’s science week was the best!

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