Fishburn Parish Council have introduced “The Happy To Chat Bench” on Fishburn Village Green. It is located opposite the barber’s shop near to the crossroads. Feel free to sit there and chat. If you need help or to talk to someone, there are numbers listed to help you.
Vivienne Trask-Hall, who grew up in
Sedgefield and attended Sedgefield
Hardwick Primary School and
Sedgefield Community College, spoke
at the House of Commons recently.
Now head of product and innovation
at Thrive Approach, a leading provider
of social and emotional learning (SEL)
training and resources, Viv works to
improve the well-being, mental health
and behaviour of children and young
people.
At the House of Commons event, Viv
shared her expertise on how SEL can
benefit children, equipping them with
skills to manage emotions, build
relationships, and navigate
challenges. The event aimed to
address the growing mental health
crisis among young people and its
impact on education. Viv believes that
prioritising SEL in the curriculum can
be a low-cost solution with significant
benefits.
The Thrive Approach emphasises the
importance of creating a supportive
and nurturing environment where
children feel safe, valued, and
understood. It focuses on building
strong relationships, developing
social and emotional skills, and
understanding child development.
Viv, a passionate advocate for
children's well-being, is also a proud
foster carer and leads a team of
foster families. Her dedication
extends beyond her professional
work, championing social and
emotional learning so that every child
and young person can reach their full
potential, creating a generation of
young people who not only succeed
but truly thrive.
The end of the autumn term
is always an exciting one at
Sedgefield Community College, with a
number of annual events taking place
that are among the highlights of each
school year. First of all, it was
wonderful to have more children than
ever before performing in our
Christmas Carol Concert and to see a
similarly bumper audience of parents
and carers joining us to enjoy a whole
host of wonderful performances.
For
the first time, it was a particular
pleasure to have a number of primary
students from Sedgefield Primary and
Sedgefield Hardwick taking part in the
event and showcasing their
considerable musical talents!
The final day of the autumn term saw
a whole host of activities taking place
as we focused on ensuring our
children had a brilliant final day in
school before the start of the
Christmas holiday. Among the
activities taking place were a whole
school game of bingo and an amazing
‘silent’ disco that was supported by
Durham University, who provided the
school with the state-of-the-art
headphones required.
Our ‘Rewards Assemblies’ remain the
centrepiece of the day and it was
wonderful to see students and staff
joining in the celebrations together…
joined by Santa of course! During the
assemblies, students also had the
opportunity to win fantastic prizes by
spinning the ‘Sedgefield Wheel of
Wonder’ and we’re delighted that one
of our students did win the star prize
of a brand-new Xbox gaming console
thanks to their lucky spin!
Year 6 pupils at Sedgefield Hardwick Primary Academy are spearheading
an inspiring initiative as part of their Community Impact Offer to support
the creation of a library at the Bright Star Christian School in Ghana.
In 2023, over 50 pieces of technology,
ranging from laptops to tablets were
gathered together and sent to improve
the technology available for the pupils
at the school in order to improve the
computer skills and computer science
knowledge of the pupils.
Last year,
boxes of PE equipment and clothing
were donated by parents and children
at Sedgefield Hardwick as well as
generous donations from Sedgefield
Community College and Durham
County Cricket Club to further
enhance the enjoyment the children at
Bright Star have of sport.
This year, children at Sedgefield Hardwick are aiming to provide students in
Ghana with access to valuable educational resources and foster a love of
reading that will benefit them for years to come and they need your
help!
Partnering with Silksworth Independent Methodist Church in Sunderland,
which provides financial aid to the Bright Star School, the pupils are collecting
book donations to fill the shelves of the new library. “The support that
Sedgefield Hardwick has given the school over the last few years has been
invaluable. I know the staff and pupils at the school are incredibly grateful for
all of the technology and equipment they have been sent in previous years and
are very eager to work with the school to develop their library for the benefit of
their pupils for years to come,” stated Peter Machin, a member of Silksworth
Independent Methodist Church.
Books can be dropped off at Sedgefield Hardwick Primary Academy, located on
Hawthorn Road (TS21 3DA), throughout February. The donations will be
collected and shipped to Ghana to support the Bright Star Christian School’s
new library. Any children’s books, from nursery to secondary school age, are
warmly welcomed.
Learning Together for life' is our school motto at Sedgefield Primary. We
endorse traditional values of pupils reaching their full academic potential
in a family feel environment, which promotes sharing and caring for others.
Pupils in all classes have set out their goals for 2025 to be the best they can be.
This year, pupils are keen to make good use of our new outdoor classroom and
our woodlands area.
Many of our pupils say that Golden Time is their favourite
part of the week. Pupils get to enjoy the outdoors with our wide age range and
support one another. We provide care and engaging learning for pupils aged 3-
11 years in an enriched environment.
Pupils meet and learn regularly in
family groups and explore a diverse
range of citizenship issues.
We also
use this time to celebrate our
successes. These successes vary
from celebrating high order mental
calculation skills in Mathematics,
excelling in English or demonstrating
outstanding kindness to others. A
weekly celebration assembly ensures
these skills are recognised by all with
whole school involvement.
Pupils gain individual family group
points, which contribute towards a
shared cumulative total for the
winning weekly family group. Pupils
of our school are proud to be part of
this whole school effective team work
approach.
Durham County Council
is asking people to make sure vapes
and batteries are not put in rubbish or
recycling bins, following four fires last
year.
The incidents, including one in
Sedgefield, takes the total number
since 2019/20 to 12. In addition, three
fires have broken out in waste at the
council’s waste transfer station since
the beginning of April, due to
inappropriate items being discarded in
the waste.
Cllr Mark Wilkes, the authority’s
Cabinet member for neighbourhoods
and climate change, said: “A number
of fires have started in our bin lorries
because of people putting vapes and
batteries in their rubbish or recycling
bins.
Where they do this and the vapes and
batteries inadvertently end up in the
bin lorry, they can get crushed. This
can cause batteries, including those
inside the vapes, to overheat and, in
some cases, leak lithium which is
highly flammable.
Please, dispose of vapes and batteries
correctly and safely to help keep our
firefighters, partner agency workers
and communities safe.”
It was lovely to be able to ring the
bells at St Edmund’s for Christmas
and on New Year’s Eve for the first
time in five years. The bells could be
heard for all the Christmas services
and for the traditional “ringing in the
New Year” at midnight, and our two
“newbies” also managed to ring on at
least one occasion. This despite one
of the stays breaking during a practice
night just a couple of weeks before
Christmas.
The stay is a crucial short
wooden post attached to the
headstock of each bell that prevents it
from swinging round and round
continuously rather than back and
forth as it should, and once broken,
renders the bell unsafe to ring. Enter
the three K’s; Kevin, Kevin and Ken,
who are becoming increasingly
invaluable to our team. They are not
ringers, but are very good at minor
repairs, and we are indebted to them
for their help, thank you so much.
I have been asked a few times why there was just one bell ringing for a while
before the others joined in. It is tradition for the “old year” to be rung out before
the “new year” is rung in. So the heaviest bell (known as the tenor) will ring the
same number of times as the current year, this last one being 24, and the rest of
the bells will start to ring before its 25th blow on the stroke of midnight to mark
the new year 2025. Sounds relatively easy but it’s quite difficult to get the timing
exactly right. I think this year was the closest we’ve been. It’s considered quite
an honour for the person given the task of ringing the old year out on the tenor
and this time Jenette carried it out perfectly.
We’d like to wish all our listeners a happy new year and thank all those who
have put comments on social media since we started ringing again at the end of
2023.
Sedgefield Funeralcare are supporting
a registered charity, Remembering
Rebecca, with the collection of bottle
bags which are needed for their many fundraising events across the year.
If
you have any spare, unwanted bottle bags, to kindly bring them into
Sedgefield Funeralcare and we will forward them onto the charity which raises
awareness of Lissencephaly and offers financial assistance to children with
Lissencephaly and other neurological conditions.
TSDUSG kicks off 2025 with their first
coffee morning of the year on Friday
31 January in the Parish Hall. Come
along and get out of the cold for a
warm brew and a homemade piece of
cake or sausage roll from 10am.
Our coffee mornings are held on the
last Friday of every month and due to
strong continued support, the group
has a healthy bank balance with which
to support community projects in the
surrounding area, not just Sedgefield.
If you are a group or organisation
looking for additional funds to support
an event, occasion or club and would
like to apply for a donation from
SDUSG, please get in touch by
completing a few questions on the
Google Form at this web
address: forms.gle/
dgL1uBuWfsETa4YXA or by scanning
the QR code above.
Alternatively, you can get in touch via
Facebook, or come and chat to us at a
coffee morning about how we can
support you
