Playtime for pupils ... with a little help from their friends
●●10 YEARS AGO:
A NEW playground facility opened at Tonacliffe Primary School ,thanks to support from the ‘Friends’ group.
The parents’ and teachers’ organisation raised £4,000 specifically to provide an ‘outdoor classroom’ which would provide an allweather facility for the children.
Headteacher Kevin Quinn said: “In the nice weather it can be used as a classroom for outdoor environmental projects and when it’s wet, the children can use it as a shelter and sit and chat to their friends.”
The structure cost “£4,000 and was provided by fundraising events such as the autumn fair, which bought in £1,500, by the ‘Friends.’
The facility was made by company Prosperity Recycling, which recycles materials such as plastic bottles to make wood-effect plastic.
Mr Quinn added: “The children are delighted by it.” PUPILS at St Mary’s Primary School, Balderstone, started the new year with a new headteacher.
Shelley Birchenough succeeded Julia SandifordMitchell, who left to go to Shawclough Primary School.
She was the deputy head of Radcliffe Hall School in Bury.
Despite living in Saddleworth, she already had ties with Rochdale as the child welfare officer for Rochdale Olympic Gymnastics Club.
Mrs Birchenough joined St Mary’s after a very successful year for the school.
In the 2007 league tables it achieved the second highest value-added score in Rochdale, based on Year 6 SATS results.
Mrs Birchenough said: “I’m loving every minute, the children, parents and staff are fantastic and have made me feel so welcome.
“One of the things I was worried about was not having my own class anymore, but I have more children around me now than I ever had before.” THEN Rochdale MP Paul Rowen was all smiles when he opened a new dental practice in Littleborough.
The Featherstall Road surgery, launched by Dr Khalid Mushtaq, had two dentists and could treat up to 2,000 patients a year.
Mr Rowen said: “I have fought for more NHS dentists since being elected and I am pleased to be able to open this excellent facility in Littleborough. I have known Dr Mushtaq for years and he and his family have put a considerable ●●Tonacliffe primary pupils Jenny Jackson (10), Joesph Fielden (11), Jonathan Horrocks (11) and Katie Dell (10) try out the outdoor classroom amount of time and money into this project.” OFFICIALS of Syke Community Base didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
On the day they were told its future was in grave danger because of the ending of a £60,000 annual grant, a representative of the Lord Lieutenant of Manchester dropped in to assess its suitability for a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
If the inspection was successful, the base would go through to the third round of nominations.
Sheila Acton said she was pleased with the visit. She said: “It went very well. The Lord Lieutenant’s agent, Tony Burns, got a positive reception from our over-50s group. “He was a very nice man.” Officers from both the council’s community safety team and the police put Syke forward for the award. THERE’S never a shortage of topics to talk about at Whitworth Museum - the building is packed with relics and memorabilia, providing a treasure trove of local history.
The museum is the base of Whitworth Historical Society, established in 1973 to promote the history of the Whitworth Valley.
The first meeting of the society was called by the Rev Philip Foster and almost 35 years later it was still going strong, with some of the original members still attending.