January 2004
Where be that to then...?
"Where is Widecombe-in-the-Moor, is it in Devon?"

People still ask this question. Then Widecombe Fair is mentioned. "Ah! Uncle Tom Cobley and All!" (Widecombe is immortalised in the old folk song that so many of us sang when we were at school.)

"Fancy living there!" is the next comment, "it's in the middle of nowhere!"

No longer can that be said, though. Thanks to Widecombe County Primary School we are now the 'Centre of the Universe'! The school has recently been voted as having the Best Small School Website in Britain by The National Small School's Forum.

Mufti Day: Children and staff dressed in 60's clothes, to raise money for the Dartmoor Rescue Group.

Things have moved on from slates, blackboards and chalk. A bit different from my day when
'cut and paste' referred to scissors, glue and sticky paper, 'windows' were for looking through and letting in the light, and the 'web' was the result of a whole days work by a spider!

Technology marches on!
Nick Banwell, headteacher at Widecombe Primary - along with the staff, governors and pupils - is celebrating his first year in charge, with a glowing Ofsted report, which reflects the whole attitude of the school.

Widecombe's been specially noted for its website and all that's associated with this latest technology, set up by one of the teachers, updated regularly by the school administrator and constantly used by the pupils.

The Friends of the School, The Widecombe Educational Foundation and other local organisations all support the school - both physically and financially - and the children produce their own magazine which is sold within the area. They have a democratically elected school committee and the profits from the magazine are all ploughed back into the funds.

Maypole Dancing: The children's display at Widecombe Fair in September 2003.

This school is the young, beating heart of an established community - evident to so many of the visitors to last year's Widecombe Fair and emphasised by its contribution to the fair by an amazing display of arts and crafts and superb demonstrations of music and maypole dancing.

The variety of activities that it gets involved in - like visits by artists, musicians, and storytellers, trips to events and character building residential courses, involving the community in their Christmas Dinner, Christmas plays in front of full houses, supporting local charities and those less fortunate than themselves, and the 'mufti day' to raise funds for The Dartmoor Rescue Group - all bodes well for this progressive school.

What a difference from the lessons on offer when I was still knee-high to a grasshopper. Is this reminiscing a sign of old age, or a mispent childhood?

Can you remember when reading, riting and rithmetic all began with 'R'?

So that shows YOUR age as well!

See you next time.

Yer old mate, Tony

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