Sutton Bonington
CHURCH SLOWLY GETTING BACK TO NORMAL. Sutton Bonington St Michael’s Church is beginning to get back to something like normal following the coronavirus pandemic situation, and new Government regulations allows the church to be open for stipulated times.
Visitors will be welcome for private prayer and reflection each day between 10am and 5pm but it is still not possible to hold a service there.
Although of course currently the building is current closed for services due to the pandemic, work has been undertaken to consolidate the chancel wall of St Michael’s.
It is hoped this will put an end to the falls of mortar have from time to time been experienced over the years and Churchwarden Mrs Beth Clarke says they are very grateful for a contribution from the Village Show towards the cost of the work.
SCHOOL PHASED RE-OPENING. From Tuesday June 9 Sutton Bonington Primary School began the phased reopening of the premises for children in Reception and Year 1.
From that date they opened for children in Reception and the last week they welcomed back children in Year 1.
Headteacher Lee Shilton says the children are being looked after in bubbles with pairs of staff in the school. The key worker group has risen slightly and remain a priority group.
The Prime Minister’s announcement on June 8 stated that the government’s plans to ensure that all children across the primary age range were abandoned and this was no longer a requirement.
The head teacher says they remain open to the children of critical workers and vulnerable children, and have asked parents that they only take up this if they have exhausted all possibilities for their children to stay at home.
“The school has worked hard to open and for now children in Year R and Year 1 can attend school. The safety of the children, staff and all members of the community is of paramount importance and increases to pupil numbers will be done in line with a rigorous risk assessment set out.
“We miss the children deeply and school certainly isn’t the same without them. Our aim is get all children in school as soon as possible but we are governed by government advice in all we do.
“The staff are working diligently to provide childcare for the children who have critical workers as parents and also for children who are considered vulnerable. Together with this, the staff are uploading weekly home learning activities on the school website. These are now live on the ‘For parents’ tab following the half-term break.
“You are all doing an incredible job as parents in this unprecedented time and the staff are impressed with the work you and your children are doing.”
Advice for parents is still available at The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health website.
PARENTS THANKED. Sutton Bonington Primary School headmaster Lee Shilton has given thanks and praise to parents of his pupils for their efforts during the coronavirus pandemic situation.
In a message to the parents as the school – himself, staff and govenor - were working towards the partial re-opening for its younger students, he said their support had been vital in the build up to getting somewhere back to near normal.
The school in general has been closed since March – as all other schools in the UK --to all but children of key workers following the problems of the pandemic affecting the whole country, during which over 40,000 people have died.
In a message to parents Mr Shilton has given a ‘thank you’ to everyone for their continued hard work with all aspects of managing these difficult times with their families and loved ones.
The head says the children’s work and experiences continue to be excellent and the staff continue to enjoy seeing what the children are up to at home, by looking in on the various public channels open to them, including the school Twitter account and emails to the school or to himself.
WOULD WELCOME MORE FINANCIAL SUPPORT. The two parish churches in Sutton Bonington would welcome more financial support from anyone in the village keen and able to offer help.
Leaders of the two churches have been reviewing the finances at St Michael’s and St Anne’s and say their income from planned giving has been decreasing over the last few years, because of people dying and moving away. At one period income decreased by 10%.
The two medieval churches are recognised as being are part of the village heritage and there may be people who want to support their maintenance even if they are not interested in attending services. If you are interested in donating regularly, even if it is a small amount, please contact Barbara Ball, telephone :- 01509 672567 or email:- ballanita400@gmail. com.
The village has the two medieval churches, a result of the merging of the two original villages Sutton and Bonington. St. Michael’s Church was the Bonington’s church and St Anne’s Church was Sutton’s church, located down St Anne’s Lane. St Michael’s is the larger -- and much taller -- of the two buildings.
The two ancient ecclesiastical parishes of Sutton and Bonington were united for civil purposes in 1829 and combined in 1923 into one ecclesiastical parish, with one rector appointed from 1950. St. Michael’s
Rectory, situated on the other side of the Midland Main Line, is now used by the University of Nottingham, who have thir large campus just north of the village, to house postgraduate students. Related to the situation of the two original parishes, Sutton and Bonington are separate manors, named after their churches — St. Anne and St. Michael respectively. Regular services continue to be held in both churches. Currently there is no priest in office for the churches. But when there is the priest is in charge of the neighbouring parish of Normanton on Soar, with its Grade I Church of St. James.
OPEN GARDENS EVENT. Confusion in Sutton Bonington over this year’s Open Gardens event to raise money for Cancer charities remains but what is known is that the usual special weekend is not taking place this month as was originally planned.
The annual event draws scores and scores of people to the village and raises much-needed funds for cancer research.
The 2020 walkabout would have been the 38th year of this very popular and enjoyable event and was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday this last weekend.
The organisers had asked residents to consider opening their gardens, being of all sizes and styles ranging from the formal to the highly informal such as wildlifefriendly areas to be open during the weekend of the garden walkabout.
Both regular garden openers and first-time participants would have been welcomed but now because of the coronavirus pandemic that isn’t happening.
Although nothing official has been made known, it is understood there has been some thoughts of holding the event later in the year when the pandemic is over, or introducing a new style by using photographs and mini films of gardens on a web site or on facebook, with a request that viewers make a donation to Cancer UK
LOOK BACK SUTTON BONINGTON. The NSPCC Schools Service visited Sutton Bonington Primary School twice in January 2016 to deliver an assembly and workshops to Classes 5 and 6,.
The idea of the presentation was to provide the youngsters concerned with key messages about keeping safe. Headmaster Mr Mark Brumwell said the visits, can be very beneficial for these messages to be reinforced at home.
“The NSPCC has developed a guide for parents of all children aged 5-11, called the Underwear Rule, to help you have simple conversations about keeping safe from abuse,” said the headmaster and this could be found on https://www.nspcc.org.uk/ preventing-abuse/keepingchildren
Mr Brumwell said it is also possible to visit www.nspcc. org.uk/parents, or phone the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000, for other advice on keeping your child safe.