East Leake
Mike Elliott 0115 937 6506 elliottnews@btconnect.com
HISTORY SOCIETY. The Christmas meeting of East Leake and District Local History Society, held as usual in the parish church schoolroom, saw a display of curiosities for members to study from their own archive.
It was not a too serious evening during which three members were showing some odd photos, old films and other bits and pieces.
And of course, during the meeting everyone had mulled wine and mince pies.
FAIR. The annual Charities Christmas Fair held in East Leake Parish Church was as usual very well attended.
A total of £1,396.70 was raised on the stalls. There was also a Poppy tin for funds for the Royal British Legion. The stall holders really enjoyed the event and wish to thank everyone for their generosity to the various charities by doing some Christmas shopping from the wide selection of cards and other goods on the stalls.
FESTIVE SONG. Year 10 students studying BTEC Music at East Leake Academy have been working hard to produce a Christmas song. This has been entered into the Chris Evans Breakfast Show’s ’12 Schools of Christmas’ competition.
Working with Foundation pupils from Lantern Lane Primary School, students composed and recorded the festive song in an attempt to win a Christmas visit from Sky Cinema for the Academy.
Says the Academy Principal Blake Francis: “We are very proud of our students’ creation, and we wish them the best of luck in the competition!”
SERVICES. East Leake St Mary’s parish church worshippers have not been short of services to attend for the Christmas period, with three taking place this past weekend.
The Rev Mary Essex lead a service of Holy Communion on Sunday morning at 9.am 15 followed by a similar service at 10.30am led by the Rev Michael Allen. Late afternoon the Rev Tim Parker took a carol service, with those attending being offered mulled wine afterwards.
The Rev Tim, as he is so popularly known, was taking three of the four Christmas Eve Day services. A Crib Service, Family Carol Service and a Traditional Carol service while the Rev Mary Essex lead a Midnight Communion service.
The Christmas Day service of Holy Communion 10am was being be led by the Curate, The Rev Michael Allen.
FIRST TIME. First-time churchgoers were encouraged to attend services in the United Benefice of East Leake during the Christmas period. In the parish magazine, The Rev Tim said that Christmas is ‘one of the easiest times to someone to come along to church for the first time.’
He promised no-one would feel out of place as there would be lots of visitors to the churches during the holiday period and --almost-everyone loves a good carol sing.’
DRAMA. Rehearsals are in full swing for the next drama production by students at East Leake Academy at the end of January.
The next school show is on January 30 and 31 when the students will be presenting Aladdin, including all the well-known characters and sings from this family classic. The production will include all the well-known characters and songs from this family classic.
Tickets are £2 at the door and the show is suitable for the whole family.
BATS. East Leake’s Friends of Meadow Park have taken steps to try to identify the bats that have been seen in in the Park
The group say they have borrowed a bat detector and have identified some of the bats that are in the Park, and can confirm they have soprano pipistrelles, daubenton and whiskered bats there, with them mostly being by the railway embankment.
ENTERPRISE. Students at East Leake Academy have been busy in recent weeks in producing stock for selling through their D’Cor group, part of the Young Enterprise organisation.
One of the products was a was a decorated wine bottle which they sold at various events, including the Craft Fair held in the village hall on Lights Switch on Day.
Customers who purchase one of the bottles were told in a message from the group that they really appreciated the support they were given in making a purchase.
Group managing director, student Max Benson, said: “The project would not be possible without the backing of the community, and luckily they had that.”
Max continued: “Over the past two months we, as a group, have worked tremendously hard in order to create a product that both we can be proud of, but also to please you and our customers.”
The message also gave thanks to East Leake Traders Association for giving them to sell their products in the village and specially to thank those who had bought one of the goods.
Max ended his message: “Have a happy Christmas, may all things be merry, and we wish you a great start to 2020.”
Previously the Academy student company, then Recycled Time, did extremely well in a national business competition, after being awarded the Young Enterprise East Midlands ‘Company of the Year’ accolade at an awards presentation held at Nottingham Trent University.
The team’s success comes after being crowned the Nottinghamshire Young Enterprise winners early last year.
WILLERSLEY CASTLE. Members of East Leake St Mary’s Parish Church are again to take part in a weekend visit to Willersley Castle, a Christian-run hotel in Cromford, Derbyshire.
Those involved will be going to the popular venue from Friday January 31 to Sunday February 2. The weekend is a mix of relaxing holidaying, making and renewing friendships and worshiping together as a church family, with the hotel offering excellent catering, a pool and with lots to do in the surrounding area.
MATHS CHALLENGE. Sixth form students from East Leake Academy are waiting to find out if they are in the final of a national maths challenge after coming third in the regional final.
Four Year 12 students from East Leake – Isaac Baguley, Kerys Stevenson, Jack Osborn and Tom Peterson-Watts – performed excellently throughout the three rounds of the regional final of the UKMT Senior Maths Challenge at Nottingham University.
The first round was the group round when the students had to answer ten questions in 40 minutes. The team scored 48 out of 50 with only two incorrect answers.
The second round was the cross number round. Jack and Isaac had the across clues and Tom and Kerys had the down clues. Each pair was not allowed to communicate with the other making this challenge much more difficult. The team scored 58 out of 66 for this round and were put into first place.
The final challenge was the shuttle when the students had four questions split between their pairs and only eight minutes to answer all four. The first answer was needed to answer the second question and so on. The team scored full marks on the first two rounds but lost six marks on the second and third.
It was announced that East Leake Academy was placed third and they are now waiting to hear from the UKMT if they will be attending the final in London in in February next year
School staff say the team deserve ‘a hue well done’ for their preparation, hard work and achievement.
CAKES. Ladies from the Methodist Church in East Leake made and sold Christmas cakes at a cake sale.
Organisers said the sale items “went like hot cakes” and the sale raised £148 for church funds.
MEADOW PARK. Friends of Meadow Park at East Leake staged their final working party morning in the run up to Christmas, with tasks including pruning, digging, pulling weeds/rank weeds, litter picking, and general jobs decided on the day.
The volunteers are thanked for their interest and help, all going towards helping the park keep its neat and tidy appearance as best it can in the current winter weather conditions.
WI. East Leake WI welcomed Bob and Del Neill to their December meeting and who took along with them a box of 20 items from their extensive collection of interesting “Bits and Bobs” - some dating back to the 1900’s.
Members enjoyed a light-hearted competition in teams trying to identify items widely used day to day in past times. Members had reasonable success, some remembering items used by their grandparents - although there was some quite hilarious guesswork! Our most successful team named 16 items out of 20.
Recent activities have included a lunch at Quorn Country Hotel, Gin tasting courtesy of RBurleigh’s, a walk in Rushcliffe Country Park, a stall at East Leake Craft Fayre and our members’ Christmas Lunch at Beaumanor Hall, Woodhouse Eaves.
During this month members have enjoying a country walk followed by refreshments and the WI Carol Service at Normanton Church where two of their members will be giving festive readings as part of this afternoon of traditional carols and readings in the company of WI members from our Soar Valley group of WIs, followed by refreshments in the village hall.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 14th January at 7.30 pm in the village hall on Main Street where we shall be welcoming Anne Halsey speaking about “Rails and Rockies”
New to the village or been here a while? - why not come along as a visitor and enjoy a pleasant evening, join in and find out more about us, we offer a warm welcome to a range of events and activities with fun and friendship.