August/September 2008

Brightwell School

From the Chair of Governors
I am sure that many of you will be aware that, sadly, we will sadly be losing Roger Grant our Headteacher at the end of this term/school year. Roger has been at Brightwell School for the last 6 years and is moving on to take the head teacher role at Trinity Primary School in Henley with which we wish him every success. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the governing body to thank Roger for all his hard work, commitment and total support of the school. Through his leadership the school has made significant progress and in recent years had very successful Ofsted and Church inspections. Recent pupil results have confirmed that the school is on the cusp of being outstanding in terms of achievement and standards - a clear reflection of Roger and all the teachers’ hard work.

I am delighted to announce that we have been able to appoint a full time acting Headteacher, who will start at the beginning of next term. Angela Harbut is a highly experienced and fully qualified teacher. Angela is currently Deputy Headteacher at Holy Trinity CE Aided Primary School in Sunningdale, Berkshire. She has been at Holy Trinity since 1990 and has experience as acting as Headteacher during various times at this school. Angela also brings 18 years experience of Sunday school teaching at Maidenhead Baptist Church including 12 years as joint leader of the primary department (3 to 7 year olds). Angela’s initial appointment will be for the first two terms at which point we will be able to assess the progress of the head teacher recruitment.

Simon Numphud

Yes, after six good years as the Headteacher of your local primary school, I am off to pastures new. Change of leadership is always an unsettling time for those closely connected to a school but we are in good shape here and I know Brightwell will continue to improve. The Head of a small school, with a teaching commitment, has to be prepared to muck in and be a Jack of all trades. And in this sense a small primary school is both challenging and rewarding. It is a privileged and powerful role to lead curriculum and staff development in any school but there have been occasions when I have had to get down on both knees and brandish the loo brush in the cause of cleanliness and education! Brightwell is a lovely school full of great people. They are a delight to be amongst and to work with - the children, parents, governors and staff. However, there are several people and bodies whom I owe a particular debt of gratitude and it would be remiss of me to leave without recognising their contribution to my time here.

I have been extremely lucky always to have been fully supported by a knowledgeable and hard working governing body led, in turn, by Ann Cooper, Annabel Rodda, Sally Dugan and the current Chair, Simon Numphud - thank you. The teaching and support staff have stood by me through thick and thin and held fast to our vision of continuous improvement. A special mention for Sue Mackinnon (Senior Teacher), Pip Shinner (Early Years Leader), Mo Roberts (Senior Teaching Assistant), Jan Stevens (School Bursar), Carol Higgs (Senior Lunchtime Supervisor), Debbie McLaughlin (Cook) and Val Copus (Cleaner in Charge)- thank you all.

I also thank the Friends of the School (FOBS), a group of people, often quite small in relation to the size of the parent body, committed to providing the best for the school through selfless duty and fund raising. There are several people I could list here so I hope you know who you are- many thanks on behalf of the children and staff. And much of what has been achieved latterly results from a close working relationship with and expert guidance from Peter Callow, our School Improvement Partner- thank you. The school owes much of its caring and nurturing ethos from its close ties with St Agatha’s Church and I would like to extend my appreciation to all those who have helped in this regard during my tenure.

And last, but by no means least, a massive thanks to Mr Ron Wood, for the amazing contribution this delightful man continues to make to education in general and to our school in particular.

I am sure there are some people I have omitted to thank and if you are one of these, please accept my sincere apology as I in turn would welcome your forgiveness. Good luck for the future.

Roger Grant

Parish Plan

It is over four years since we completed the Parish Plan. Since then the Parish Council, various village groups and organisations have been working hard to deliver the action plan. Many actions have been completed and some are still being worked on. The Village Shop is one where there is a still a strong dedicated commitment to make it happen.

In May this year Brightwell-cum-Sotwell was chosen by SERCC (South East Rural Community Council) as one of four case studies evaluating the impacts and benefits of Community Led Plans across the South East (these can be viewed by visiting www.sercc.org.uk). The published documents were presented at the Oxfordshire Community Led Planning Conference and the ACRE Rural Life Conference at Keele University in June. The Chief Executive of ACRE works with Defra and the Commission for Rural Communities and is also a member of advisory groups to government offices.

Parish and Community-led plans can now have a significant influence both locally and nationally, with the national policy on community empowerment and a new statutory “duty to involve” local people.

In Oxfordshire the ORCC (Oxfordshire Rural Community Council) has been the honest broker, helping us all through the action plan process and delivery - particularly with the Rural Affordable Housing, Post Office and Village Shop projects. At District and County Council level, Parish Plan information is being fed into their strategic planning. Much has been learnt from communities like ourselves that carried out their plans some years ago. I personally sit on the Parish Plan Reference Group in Oxfordshire, along with Community Development Workers and Deputy Chief Executive of ORCC, District and County Council officers. I can assure you a lot of proactive and positive work is being carried out in the county.

As a parish we can be proud that by engaging and empowering our own community we can help providers of public services find out about local issues and aspirations, form partnerships, establish priorities and try and find the most effective and efficient way to get positive outcomes.

There is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that we continue to enable people to be a part of the decisions that affect their lives. We must build on what has already been achieved. Well done, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, for what has been accomplished so far.

Celia Collett

W.I. – From slapstick to slopping out

Make up lessons from a pantomime dame hopefully won’t have induced make-over fever in the village but Richard Westcott’s entertaining transformation from man to dame was great fun to watch at our June meeting.

There’s a conscience to much WI activity and our July speaker, Mimi Nunez Trejos from Smart Justice, brought this home to us with her talk on the life of women in prison – and the obstacles to a fresh start they face on release. It was an honest and thought-provoking account which contrasted the enormous cost of imprisonment with the lack of funds for rehabilitation and retraining, and highlighted the practical difficulties of life after release from getting work and housing, to adjusting to life without their children, many of whom are taken into care when their mothers are imprisoned. See www.smartjustice.org for more information.

Catherine Inwood

Allsorts Pre-School

All aboard! As Term 6 drew to a close, the term theme of holidays and special days out was brought to life when our toddlers went to Didcot Railway Centre and created their very own islands of Sodor. Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends sprang from the pages of bedtime stories to thunder down the line with our own little engineers on board. And after an exhausting time poring over “stinky steamies” and “dirty diesels”, a well earned picnic was enjoyed by all in the grounds of the centre.

Meanwhile back home, our engineers transformed themselves into busy little bees. Many thanks go to Viv and Steve, of Brightwell Honey, for bringing their bee display to our budding little gardeners and helping them understand more about the natural world around them.

All the hard work by our staff which goes into planning and organising activities like the ones above has paid off in other areas too. Allsorts has applied for Stage 3 accreditation, (a quality assurance scheme). Current feedback from the PLA assessor indicates we should have very exciting news to share with you after the Summer holidays.

Sadly, with the advent of the Summer break we are saying good bye to Janice and Stephanie. Heartfelt thanks and best wishes go to them for all they have done for Allsorts. As a result, we will be welcoming two new members of staff in the Autumn, Caren and Hayley. I am sure staff, committee and parents alike will offer them full support, as our tiny tots put them through their paces.

And lastly, our energetic Fundraising Committee and all involved in the Nearly New Sale also deserve a massive thank you. The sale went extremely well and helped provide Allsorts with badly needed funds.

Victoria Clyde-Matthews

Parish Church

I am typing this with the rain, yet again, drumming on the roof and wondering if last year’s floods will be repeated in some form – heaven forbid. Also, as I type, Wimbledon has just finished and The Church of England has just agreed, in principle, to the idea of consecrating women as bishops. When I reflect that three out of my four churchwardens are women, I do sometimes wonder what all the fuss is about, and reflect too that in the gospel accounts of the Resurrection it is nearly always the women who are first to see Jesus alive again after his death.

Resurrection and renewal are things we could all do with by the spadeload in each of our lives. Last weekend I was re-visiting Henfield (where I served my title) for the blessing of their newly re-ordered church. The lightness of the new stone floor picked out, and reflected afresh, the colour in the stone of the ancient arches and pillars – the inside felt truly resurrected and pointed to new possibilities for the church and its people. The Bishop of Horsham reminded us that no-one possesses the church apart from God but that the church was there for all.

What’s that got to do with Wimbledon – well I suppose Centre Court is another arena (like church?!) where the highs and lows of life can be played out. I always think the men’s singles is a bit of an individualistic and highly charged affair but at least it draws others into the players’ own moments of triumph and challenge. The victor this year, Raphael Nadal, is a driven individual on court but seems to be polite and self-possessed too – what a powerful combination.

I pray for a little less ‘drivenness’ in our own society and for a little more consideration of those around us. Working for that is no mean task in a product and media savvy world, but prayer, actually, is not a bad place to start. From September you can come and join us for prayer in church on the 1st Wednesday of the month before Coffee or on the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 8pm. Where does the strength come from to run the race? It comes from within…or as this African schoolgirl put it – ‘O thou great Chief, light a candle in my heart, that I may see what is therein, and sweep the rubbish from thy dwelling-place.’God bless,

Jeremy Goulston

Anniversary Cricket Match

On Sunday 1 June over 200 Brightwell-Cum-Sotwell and Moreton villagers turned out to support their teams at an Anniversary Cricket Match played at the Brightwell Recreation Ground in celebration of the first match each club played 150 years ago.

Following an early start The final preparations in the marquee were completed and the barbecue fired up by 12 noon. Robert and Heather Emmett ran the Barbecue and Mike Hedges supervised the Bar supported by parents of BCSCC Junior Members from 12noon right through to the close at 8pm . We were pleased to have Brightwell Cricket Club Anniversary Ale-specially brewed for the occasion by Andrew Torrance of Appleford Brewery, and brewed in our village. Afternoon tea and cakes were served in the marquee organised by Catherine Inwood from the WI and there was also a golf competition, a raffle and a best dressed competition.

Two exhibition matches were played during the afternoon by the Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Junior Cricket Section. The level of enthusiasm and standard of play was excellent demonstrating the hard work that Jerry Walters, BCSCC Junior Section Manager, has put in What a wonderful sight it was when the 14 Moreton Players dressed in period costume led by their president and umpire in tail coat and a very tall top hat entered the ground by the southern entrance having used the footpath to walk from Moreton - as would have happened in 1858. The toss was conducted by Brightwell Cricket Club president and umpire, Jim Sanger, and Moreton president and umpire, Trevor Denning, using an 1858 Sovereign. Brightwell won and chose to bat. This was followed by a prayer from the “Brightwell Parson”, Clive Collett.

It was agreed between the captains Simon Glendinning of Brightwell and Kaz Styles of Moreton that 14 players aside would play with players retiring having scored 25 runs to ensure everybody got a bat and in addition everybody should also bowl. Brightwell found the condition very tricky, however after a concerted effort by the openers Brightwell finished with 166 runs on the board for the loss of 9 wickets in the 2 hours of the first innings. Moreton scored 112 runs all out in 1hour 50 minutes.

The Game was played in a great spirit and there was much amusement at the antics of players and spectators from both sides. We are looking forward to the return match at Moreton On Sunday 7 September 2008, and it is hoped Brightwell Cum Sotwell Villagers’ will come along to support their team.

Tony Windsor

Brightwell Free Church

For many years I have been an official observer at the London Convention and the Ospar (Oslo-Paris) Convention, which seek to protect the seas and oceans from pollution. At the heart of their legislation is “The Precautionary Approach” which says, in simplified language, that if you cannot prove that your proposed action will not cause harm you should not do it. As any scientist will tell you it is impossible to prove that something will never cause harm so in practice decisions are based on a risk assessment. Here comes the problem; perception of risk is not the same for everybody and is not the same as a carefully evaluated mathematical probability.

Many people buy lottery tickets each week when (so I am told) in fact they are six times more likely to be struck by lightening that they are to win the big one. My nephew did win the big one. He was not struck by lightening six times before it happened but he is now virtually estranged from his family. Many people will not travel by plane yet we are told it is the safest form of travel. At the same time we accept the risk of travelling in our cars daily without thinking about it, yet are aware that it carries a much higher risk. People will choose to drive a couple of yards behind me at high speed. They are putting their lives in my hands without knowing if I am a good or bad driver. If I slam my brakes on there is a high risk that they will pile into the back of me and end up dead or at least seriously injured. We will risk driving close to the car in front but won’t eat beef if there is a million to one chance of getting mad cow disease etc. etc. Our ability to do a proper risk assessment and act accordingly is, to say the least, rather limited. Now to the main point of all this - it is said that there are only two certainties in life, one is that you will pay tax and the other is that you will die. What happens after that? How convinced are you that there is no after life? How convinced are you that there is no God? On what evidence do you base your conclusion? Have you really done a proper risk assessment or are you just going with the popular view of today. Trends are notoriously fickle. Can it be true that in the last few decades we have gained such a terrific understanding of the meaning of life and the universe and everything that at long last we can eliminate the idea that there is a God who rules and ultimately decides our eternal destiny. Make your own decision! Don’t put your eternal destiny in the hands of the driver in front, people you don’t even know. Who knows where they might lead you, or what danger they will put you in? Give yourself space and, of course, drive safely!

Neville Burt

Datchet Green’s Darling Ducks of May

We had our own very special eco-event (in fact, nine of them!) here on Datchet Green earlier this year.

There is no pond or stream on Datchet Green but, perhaps because it is so peaceful here, one cold wet day in mid-March four ducks – three boys and a girl - suddenly moved in and set up a ménage a quatre. Spending all day walking round the Green, or curled up under shrubbery, they slept at nights snuggled together in the middle of the Green.

We put out bowls of water as surrogate ponds, and fed our new neighbours with bread which we floated in the ‘ponds’ so as to make the ducks feel ‘at home’ in scooping it out of the water. Sometimes, the ducks felt so at home they climbed into the ‘ponds’!

Well, as the weather improved and nature being what it is when a young man’s springtime fancy turns to thoughts of love, there ensued a number of monumental male battles for the favours of the young lady duck. The fiercest, full of sound and fury, took place on the lawn just outside my kitchen window, and sometimes I feared for the lives of the vanquished.

However, as is the way of these things, eventually everything sorted itself out – and one Alpha-Duck emerged as having won the hand (so to speak) of the Lady . And peace reigned. One of the other boys was constantly chased off, but always returned. And the other just kind of ‘hung out’ with Mr and Mrs, ingratiating himself as a look-out for food – and when it appeared he would rush off quacking loudly to Mr and Mrs and lead them back to where we had put out bread! We all assumed that he was tolerated by Alpha and Mrs because he performed this useful role, with which he seemed very content, in Duck Society - whereas the other guy must have been a threat to Mr Alpha’s supremacy, and was treated by him accordingly as The Outsider.

Well, this continued for about two months – and then suddenly, one brilliantly sunny, warm spring morning, on 6 May 6, Mr and Mrs Duck appeared on Datchet Green with their nine new ducklings! With Dad trailing along behind, Mum led her babies round the Green to the ‘pond’ in front of my house, and then back across the gardens to other houses – Dad shouting at the other two males if they got too close! (They weren’t worried about us humans at all!)

“Does this mean we are grandmothers?” one of the ladies from the StyleAcre houses here asked me. “Yes,” I replied, “ of course!”

That afternoon Mr and Mrs Duck led the Ducklings along Baker’s Lane and down Bell Lane towards the pond at Sotwell House – and a posse of Datchet Greener-s (including John Brewerton in his wheelchair) went with them to ensure their safe arrival in their new home where, we believe, they are living happily ever after!

We are thinking of renaming ‘Datchet Green’ as ‘Duck Green’ - !

Leandra Briggs