Just a few of the stories in July'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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Pool campaign gets boost

The Baptist Church hall was packed for ‘a save our Open Air Pool’ meeting hosted by the Chipping Norton Society in late June. Peter Barbour explained the position and the danger of closure by the District Council as an economy measure to save £30,000pa subsidy. He stressed that the pool was not just a Chipping Norton facility but served the whole area – swimmers from 44 surrounding villages had signed a recent petition. An enthusiastic discussion followed where original fund-raising for the pool was highlighted and some anomalies discovered eg season tickets sold at the Leisure Centre were valid for the pool but the pool could not sell season tickets valid at both sites and lost revenue thereby. No system existed to find out how many Leisure Centre ticket holders used the open air pool so usage would be under reported. Nine of those present offered to form a support group for the Pool to meet and plan a campaign of events and lobbying. For more information contact Peter Barbour on 641081 or nevillbarbie@aol.com

Baden Powell would be proud!

Three girls from Chipping Norton School have won the top Girl Guide award – Sarah Chadwick, Jenny Thompson and Katie Wood together with Vicky Hills of Sibford School (pictured l-r on the left) were presented with the Baden Powell Challenge Award on 9 June at The Sun in Hook Norton. Doing the honours was District Commissioner, Jenny Bruton. All four belong to 1st Hook Norton Guides and had spent 18 months completing a range of activities covering: Healthy Lifestyles, Global Awareness, Discovery, Skills & Relationships and Celebrating Diversity. Before completing the Award they had to go away on a Baden Powell Challenge Adventure which involved a challenging and enjoyable weekend away with another 20 Oxfordshire guides. Guide leader Julie Wood told the News, ‘They have all worked extremely hard – it takes a lot of dedication and commitment. They often had to run activities for the rest of the unit and get everything organised themselves. They have all really enjoyed working towards this: it’s the top award you can achieve as a guide. Once the girls are 14, they can join Hook Norton Rangers and start working on their Duke of Edinburgh Awards and learn many new skills and develop their guiding knowledge further.’

Race for Life tribute

As a tribute to our friend and colleague Monica Hunt, who sadly died in April, sixteen members of staff took part in this year’s Race for Life at Heythrop Park. Monica was Clinical Nurse Manager at Chipping Norton until her retirement in June 2000, after 20 years’ service. It was a glorious day and everyone enjoyed the atmosphere of the event, including the ‘warm up’ session! It is anticipated that we will raise between £500 and £1,000 for Cancer Research UK   Sue Hunt

Grubby Geraldine at school

The District Council’s Food Safety Team led by Caroline Wade visited St Mary’s School during National Food Safety Week in June. Their mission was to demonstrate the importance of handwashing to prevent the spread of food poisoning bacteria. ‘Grubby Geraldine’, a rather mucky individual, was eventually persuaded by the children to clean up her act by changing to clean clothes, throwing away her cigarette and dirty dishcloths, washing herself and kitchen equipment and generally adopting good hygiene habits. The pupils were able to examine their own hands underneath ultra-violet light, which showed the bacteria clearly. After a thorough wash and dry a re-examination showed that almost all the microscopic bugs had disappeared. Good handwashing habits, especially before eating or handling food is essential to good health. WODC has also sent a Food Safety newsletter to over a thousand restaurants, cafés, and canteens.

The Big Adventure

"The Big Adventure" turned out to be a big success in every way. A strong script by Louise Page told the story in episodes that each re-involved her audience, as a King journeyed in search of his lost senses. An Arts Week project for Penhurst School and Chipping Norton School, organised and directed by Caroline Sharman, it made demands on all the youngsters which they rose to like true entertainers. The Penhurst students delighted audiences by their level of involvement and the commitment with which they handled it. While those from Chipping Norton School as well as acting, did a first class job in preparing the music, and enjoyed working with the Penhurst pupils, showing this with unpatronising warmth and interaction. Afterwards, all the young people were able to swank about working with real actors in a real show. Brilliant. Derek Elroy (pictured above in rehearsal at Penhurst), an engaging, imposing King was abetted by Marva Alexander, Steven Butler and Louisa Benjamin. Caroline Sharman chose cleverly, finding actors who knew that the way to win in a show of this kind is to play to the strength out front, the sympathetic, community audience. The performance in the new Hall at Penhurst in particular, which included dancing wheelchairs, had the full house roaring with amusement and delight. The show at the Theatre also drew a full house and again it was outstanding. Derek Lyseight-Jones, Acting Head of Penhurst, was full of praise for the project. ‘ Staff and pupils at Penhurst would like to thank all of the professionals and students who worked so hard to make it such a satisfying week, especially Caroline Sharman and Peter Hunt, Head of Creative Studies at CNS,’ he said. Would he do it all again? ‘We have all agreed that this week will be the first of many in the years to come.’

Visit to Magny- en-Vexin

23 May 7.30am sees lots of smiling faces – who cares about the weather, we’re off to France! On our arrival we were welcomed to a civic reception by the Mayor of Magny-en-Vexin. Our French hosts were very impressed that we had taken our Mayor – complete with chain of office – something not done for many a long year. We had lots of time for relaxing on Sunday plus a trip to Monet’s house and garden – the flowers were mostly blues and white in all sizes, the red geraniums gave a lovely background, The evening was rounded off by a lovely meal and speeches by our Mayor, Jo Graves, the President of Magny and me in (attempted) French! All our new members had a marvellous time and hit it off with their French friends which is what twinning is all about. Why don’t you join us? Call me on 642327 to find out more.   Keith Clandfield    SEE MORE PICTURES

International Art Week- St Mary’s Primary School

This was a very different week as we celebrated the culture and art of countries across the world. The children used a range of techniques and materials to create exciting objects. Years 2 & 6 had an insight into African culture when a dance group came to teach a mixture of African, street and jazz dancing. Luke Saunders wrote ‘this was fun – a brilliant experience.’ Year 5 enjoyed working with teachers from the Multi-Cultural Centre and they also explored Indian culture – including making a sari, producing mehendi (henna) hand patterns, and making (and no doubt eating!) Indian food. Finally the parents toured the school and seemed really impressed with the high quality and range of work their children had produced.

England Rugby comes to the Topschool

Both boys and girls were delighted when the England Under 21 World Cup squad gave a coaching session at the School. The squad stayed at Heythrop Park during the World Cup Tournament and joined in with the session arranged by Andy Dawson of the Rugby Club and Matt Sims Head of PE. An enjoyable and memorable afternoon.

 

Year 7 boys
with
Rob Hawkins: Bath, Richard Martin-Redman: Bristol Shoguns,
Jason Hobbs:
Exeter Chiefs,
Matt Stevens : Bath
Jon Pendlebury: Bath

 

 

 

 

Year 8 girls with
Ugo Monye:Harlequins,
Tom Williams: Harlequins, Andy Reay; Harlequins Bradley Davies; Gloucester.

 

 

 

If you would like high-resolution versions of these two rugby pictures (which should be OK for printing) click here:    BOYS (570k)    GIRLS (400k)   But be warned...they are big files and without Broadband will probably take 5 mins to download. But they are worth it!

Parker Knoll site sale ‘complex’

Plans to put a slimmed down Parker Knoll on a profitable footing – with a probable move out of Chipping Norton – are progressing, according to the 18 June ‘business plan update’ from Chief Executive Vincent Cruise. Simplification of the business, by getting out of contract and export business, means a drastic drop in the range of ‘frame types’ from over 400 to 66. On redundancies, 63 hourly paid workers are being released in June and July with the rest of the 120 planned later after production backlogs are dealt with. Redundancies in salaried staff are being notified this month.

On the rumoured site closure and move ‘detailed assessments of two sites (Banbury and Bicester) are being carried out’. Although Mr Cruise states that the existing Chipping Norton site ‘has not been sold to a builder or a supermarket’ it is clear the company aim to get as much money from a sale as possible. To quote Mr Cruise again ‘in order to move site it is essential that we agree planning permission for a change of use for the existing business site to maximise its value…This activity…is proving to be very complex due to the number of parties involved. This includes the County Council, District Council and Town Council. Mayor Graves and Councillor Grantham from Chipping Norton Town Council have met with Nino Allenza in mid-May to present a case for staying in Chipping Norton. Following that meeting management had anticipated receiving proposals from the Councils to back the case presented. It is now clear that no proposal will be forthcoming to meet our requirements’. At the June Town Council meeting Mayor Jo Graves said ‘every effort would be made to make sure that possible use of the site would be for the best benefit of the town.’ Much now will depend on the views of the WO District Planners who will probably need to develop special planning guidance for this ‘windfall’ site which is not in the current Local Plan for development.

The News would welcome any views on what should be done with the Parker Knoll site.

Click on the Town Hall
for more Information

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