St Peter’s Tiddlers

Our final half term was busy and fun. It ended with a church service led by Rev'd Wendy where the children performed their favourite songs to parents and carers. We also had a party the last hour of which was dedicated to the 18 children leaving us for their respective primary schools. The children received books and personalised filled pencil cases to remind them of their time at Tiddlers. All staff would like to wish these special children a happy and successful start to school. We have loved every minute with them.

Many children stay on and will be joined by new friends in September. We look forward to this.

It has been an amazing year beginning in November 2009 with the ‘outstanding’ Ofsted Inspection and ending with the news of a £48,000 grant for the St Peter’s Project. Over the next 12 months the area around St Peter’s will be transformed. We look forward to helping create spaces in the outdoor area which will benefit the children's learning.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank all local shops, businesses and services that support pre-school. We really do get out and about on our Wednesday Welly walks. Special thanks to the police, fire service, the dentist, the beautiful guide dogs and Avonvale vets.

We have been busy fund-raising. The children took part in the Barnardos toddle dressed as pirates and the grown-ups had lots of fun at the Smarties fashion show. Thank you for the incredible support from parents and villagers!!

Finally, Government Nursery Education Funding (NEF) changes from September 2010. Children aged 3 and over are now entitled to 5 free 3 hour sessions per week. Tiddlers pre-school is based in the Church rooms from 9.15-12.15 term time weekdays. There is an optional lunch club until 1.00 for €2.50.

Pre-school resumes on 7 September: if you are interested in a place for your child please call in after 10am any morning.

Chedham’s Yard
Project Update

Artefacts
The Friends have nearly completed cleaning and cataloguing all the artefacts that were rescued from the store. They have now started searching the yard for any artefacts that may have been left there so that they can be cleaned and catalogued as well. At the same time the mammoth task of photographing every item is well under way. The website is also being developed further (www.chedhamsyard.org.uk) and a database of all the artefacts is growing steadily.

Plans for restoring the site
Design work for the plans and specification for the restoration of the buildings is complete and ready to go out to tender and the contract for the new visitors’ building is ready to be let. Incidentally, if you have visited the National Memorial Arboretum, you may have seen the splendid building that houses the exhibition on the Second World War in the Far East. This was erected by the same company as we plan to use.

Part of the tender documentation includes a Construction Management Plan which gives details of how deliveries and access to the site will be managed. Affected residents have been consulted on this and anyone is welcome to visit the Parish Council office to read a copy for themselves.

Lottery funding
Thanks to winning BBC Restoration Village in 2006, the Chedham’s Yard project is moving forward with over £1 million in funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and BBC Restoration. The Parish Council, as owner of the site, is overseeing the project but Wellesbourne ratepayers are not being asked to foot the bills. The project is proving to be very complex and the approval of HLF and Restoration has to be obtained at every stage. The Parish Council sends a claim each month to HLF and Restoration to cover the invoices that have been received, and the bills are paid as soon as the money is received.

Looking Out

No doubt you were shocked and saddened to hear the news of the deaths of Stephania and Samantha Wolf in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, at the beginning of August. Stephania supported her disabled daughter Sam and it is believed that she died suddenly, leaving Sam unable to look after herself, leading to her death from starvation. They had previously refused offers of formal support and were described as being very private by their neighbours.

We wonder if there are people in Wellesbourne living in a similar situation. If Stephania and Sam had been your neighbours, do you think that you would have noticed anything amiss? When we had the prolonged period of cold weather earlier in the year, we were prompted to think about people living near us who might be unable to get out, but have we maintained that same level of care and concern into the summer months?

Could you take a minute to think about the people in your street and consider whether you are aware of anyone who might have difficulty in summoning help in an emergency? Perhaps you could be extra observant for any signs that something is wrong and think in advance about how you might respond if you had concerns. This might be by speaking to another neighbour who is involved or may have a key, contacting the police or Social Services, or perhaps in another way that you had agreed with the person in advance. None of this is intended to imply criticism of Stephania and Sam’s neighbours but simply to provoke thought about those around us in our own neighbourhood.

We know that many people in Wellesbourne and Walton do look out for their neighbours and this is one of the aspects of life here that many people value. Let us pray that nothing of this nature happens in our community, but let us also be active in ensuring that we have done all we can to prevent it.