Future looks brighter

Kate Cowling (back right) education worker with Northumberland County Council and teacher Kathleen Ramsay with children from Ponteland First School.

THE future is bright for hundreds of county residents of all ages thanks to an ambitious solar energy scheme.

And Ponteland First School’s drive to save even more electricity has been rewarded with a national accolade.

A total of 120 schools and community buildings have been fitted with between eight and 40 solar PV panels and it is estimated that each school will save approximately £590 a year on power.

The Northumberland County Council project is accompanied by education work as an officer from the authority runs assemblies and class sessions to explain to pupils how solar power works and how they can reduce their energy usage.

Ponteland First School has taken part in the scheme and it recently won a Gold Medal Award on EDF Energy’s ‘The Pod’ website for its efforts during Switch Off Fortnight.

Kate Cowling, the county council’s education worker for solar PV and sustainability, said: “I visited the school to talk about its new solar panels and suggested some energy saving ideas.

“Its Eco Council’s first action was to complete an audit of lights left on in school over lunchtime. Members also decided to write to parents explaining what the school was doing to save energy and parents and children were invited to send in their ideas on sun templates, which were then put up on display in the school hall.

At the end of the fortnight, the Eco Council completed another audit of lights and found that 95 more lights were being switched off in school.”

Other buildings benefiting from the panels include more than 500 residential properties managed by Homes for Northumberland, Northumberland Fire and Rescue stations, libraries, community centres and county council offices.

The project has been delivered on behalf of the council by GB Renewable Energy and the authority will maintain the systems on all the properties for at least the next 25 years.

Coun Roger Styring, deputy leader of the county council, said: “Combating the effects of climate change and rebalancing the economy of the county are key priorities for Northumberland.

“This project is helping to contribute to both those aims, while also helping to reduce fuel poverty for residents and make buildings more environmentally friendly and efficient.”

Source: Morpeth Herald

SPONSORSHIP SOWS A SEED FOR BUDDING GARDENERS

A SPONSORSHIP deal for Ponteland First School is set to blossom, after £200 worth of flowers and vegetables have been donated to its gardening club, helping it to clinch a school garden award.

The donation from Cowell’s Garden Centre in Woolsington was made up of flowering bedding plants and a variety of vegetables including beans, peas, rhubarb and potatoes. 

The flora were planted within the school grounds on Thornhill Road, by its own gardening club made up of eight and nine-year-old students and teacher Mr Vincent, who have scooped a silver award in the Northumberland School in Bloom Award for the second year running. 

The school gardening club was established in a bid to create a fun and interesting way for the pupils to learn about food and where it comes from, whilst also promoting the school’s healthy eating scheme.

Cowell’s Garden Centre manager Martin Cowell said: “We’re delighted to have helped our local school’s gardening club win another award.

“We hope that the donation continues to further sow the seed of students’ interest in gardening and horticulture.  The club promotes good values like how important fresh vegetables are and demonstrates where food comes from and how to grow it. 

“The club is an invaluable extracurricular activity for the students and for the future of our industry. I hope the flowers and vegetables we have provided will encourage them into a lifetime of interest.”

Ponteland First School year four teacher Mr Vincent said: “The generous donation from Cowell’s Garden Centre not only helped us achieve silver in the School in Bloom awards, but also provided our gardening club with vital resources to help us teach food and cultivation principles. 

“The vegetables that are grown in the garden will be used in our school dinners, and marked on the menu that they are Ponteland First School produce – we usually see a great uptake on these dishes, which is a great way to promote healthy eating.”

Photo caption: Gardening club students plant the donated flowers by Cowells Garden Centre, (L-R) Leon, Mr Vincent, Thomas, Jack, Kathryn, Laura, Grace. 

Flower Power Solution to Problem Pavement Parkers

FLOWER power could help solve the issue of problem parkers near two Ponteland schools.

Complaints about cars parking along Thornhill Road and on pavements when taking pupils to and from Richard Coates Middle School and Ponteland First School intensified when the first school moved from North Road to a site next to the middle school in 2007.

Since then they have worked closely with Northumberland County Council and Ponteland North member Richard Dodd to try to get parents to stop further away from their premises in order to relieve congestion and improve safety.

Coun Dodd has spent £20,000 from his small schemes allowance on yellow lines, new parking bays for elderly residents in the neighbouring bungalows and a new zebra crossing.

And the education side of the campaign has had some success as the majority of parents are going elsewhere.

But Coun Dodd says there are about 20 people still causing problems, which also includes irresponsible driving, and he recently met the schools, highways chiefs and concerned parents to discuss what else can be done.

“I would like an extension of the yellow lines and another idea is to put some planters on the pavement and fill them with flowers,” he said.

“As well as stopping the irresponsible drivers from parking on the pavement, they will also make the area look nicer.

“The schools and Cowell’s Garden Centre have shown an interest in maintaining the flowers so if the price is right with the officers we can move forward on this.

“It is very frustrating that these drivers, who I believe do not live around here, continue to abuse our village with their inconsiderate parking and bad driving, such as making dangerous u-turns and using the bus lane.

“They refuse to listen to our advice and I think they would drive right to the classroom if they could.”

Police have warned that anyone seen by officers parking illegally in Thornhill Road will receive a fixed penalty notice.

In a joint statement, Headteacher of Ponteland First School Lynn Blain and Headteacher of Richard Coates Middle School Paul Rusby said: “We work closely together on many matters and we have worked collaboratively to improve traffic issues around our school site with Coun Dodd, Northumberland County Council, local businesses, Northumbria Police, local residents and parents.

“We are very grateful to the majority of parents who now park away from Thornhill Road, which is helping ensure pupil safety as they access our school site.

“We continue to encourage all parents to park with consideration for local residents and the safety of our school communities.”
Source: Morpeth Herald

ROTARY "FOCUS ON THE CROCUS"

Pupils in the Gardening Club at Ponteland County First School planting 250 purple crocus bulbs with Master-in-Charge Philip Vincent.  Also pictured are Raymond Tipping, President of Ponteland Rotary Club and Bob Crosby, Senior Vice-President. This is part of a nationwide Rotary Project to publicise steps being taken to eradicate Polio in the Third World. There are five and a half million purple crocus bulbs being planted nationwide during October with a headline publicity event in Trafalgar Square. This should produce a show of purple throughout the UK in February 2011 when Rotary's 'Thanks for Life' Campaign will reach its peak. The 'Ruby Giant' crocus represents the coloured dye dabbed on children's little finger to indicate they have been immunised against Polio.

Some 4000 bulbs will be planted by Rotary in Ponteland at schools, in Ponteland Park and on Rotary Way.

You'll pay the price, rogue drivers warned

PEOPLE who fall foul of new measures to tackle congestion in a Ponteland street have been warned they will pay the penalty.

And a local councillor is hoping the police will back up their words with action to reduce the problems in Thornhill Road at the start and end of the school day.

Richard Coates Middle School and Ponteland First School are next to each other on the street.

Complaints about cars parking along the road and on pavements when taking pupils to and from school — which parents, local residents and councillors say reduces an already narrow road and puts children's safety at risk — have intensified since the first school moved there in 2007.

So in a bid to tackle the issue following discussions between the schools, Northumberland County Council and Northumbria Police, new double and single yellow lines were introduced at the start of the year.

Team Traffic Manager for Northumberland County Council Alan Bawn said the parking plate signs for the single yellow lines, prohibiting parking in key areas between 8.30am to 9.30am and 3pm to 4pm, Monday to Friday, have now been installed.

And Neighbourhood Inspector for East Tynedale Kevin Oates said: "Fixed Penalty Notices will be issued to drivers who park illegally in Thornhill Road.

"I would appeal to people who are attending the school to park legally in the area and avoid causing congestion. I appreciate this may involve a short walk from nearby car parking facilities."

There were traffic calming measures along the road already, including a 20mph speed limit and speed cushions. A zebra crossing and other road markings were put in place last year.

But many complaints have been made that indiscriminate parking on Thornhill Road is reducing the highway to single lane traffic and causing visibility problems for pedestrians.

Ponteland North county councillor Richard Dodd, who has been campaigning for new measures for a number of years, said: "I have still seen people parking on the yellow lines since they were put down so I hope the police and traffic wardens will regularly enforce the regulations like they have been doing outside County Hall."

Richard Coates Headteacher Paul Rusby said it has been working with other organisations to make the street as safe as possible for pupils as they go to and leave school and thanked parents for their support on the issue.

"I think the yellow lines will have a positive effect and help to address the congestion problem," he added.

Lynn Blain, Ponteland First School Headteacher, said: "We are committed to making sure access to and from the school is as safe as possible and the recent developments are a step in the right direction.

"It also requires education of the whole school community, including children and parents, about the importance of walking or parking in a village car park then walking the rest of the way whenever possible as well as effective enforcement of parking restrictions by the police." 

Source: Morpeth Herald

Could Pupil Power Ease Ponteland Traffic Troubles?

PUPILS could become traffic wardens for the day in a bid to tackle parking problems on the road outside their schools.

Head Teacher of Richard Coates Middle Paul Rusby said the idea, which he saw being put into practice by another school on television, was among the options being discussed by it and Ponteland First, both at Thornhill Road.

And after concerns that the current traffic calming measures were not effective enough, Northumberland County Council has agreed a re-think and is proposing new ones to try to ease the problems.

Complaints about cars parking along the road and on pavements when taking pupils to and picking them up from school — which parents, local residents and councillors say reduces an already narrow road and puts children's safety at risk when crossing — have intensified since the First School joined the Middle School in 2007.

At a meeting of the Northumberland County Council Area Committee for Castle Morpeth, Mr Rusby said: "When watching the regional news on television, I saw that pupils from Cullercoats Primary School, with the Police alongside them, were wearing luminous jackets and placed reminder notices on cars.

"It appeared that it was effective in getting the message across about the problems caused by parents parking right outside.

"We would have to be very careful to make sure we were not putting any of our young people at risk, but we are being as flexible as possible and will consider all sensible ideas that we see or are suggested."

There are traffic calming measures along the road (20mph limit, speed cushions and chicanes which allow only one vehicle through at a time) to reduce speed, but Committee Chairman Richard Dodd believes there needs to be a change.

The Ponteland North member said: "My daughter goes to Richard Coates School, so I regularly see the problems on Thornhill Road and I think we all agree that we have to do something about the traffic at dropping off and picking up times," he said.

"Measures were put in place to try to deal with that, but they are not working and so we need new ones in place."

Dick Fraser, Head of Policy and Information for Community and Environmental Services, said officers had looked at the site during peak traffic times and decided that the chicanes should be removed.

"If there was only one school in the area they might have been useful but not with two, and unfortunately we have seen people driving faster through them which defeats their purpose," he said.

"We are now proposing to take them out and put in road humps to keep the two-way flow of traffic all the way along the road and we are happy to listen to other ideas to slow traffic down at this stage.

"But this is only part of what is needed, as there are enforcement issues to consider and we are encouraging the schools to educate parents about other parking facilities nearby."

He said there would be be consultation on all major measures proposed, which could also include yellow lines and signs warning cars not to park in the bus turning circle area.
Source: Morpeth Herald

The story of a Village School

The story of a Village school is the history of Ponteland First School produced by local historian Muriel Sobo.

It is full of photographs, anecdotes and stories of its 93 year history from 1914 - 2007.

The Book costs £6 from the First School office or the Parish Office or £7 by post from Muriel Sobo on 01661 871969

Proceeds from the book will go to the school PTA.