Category: More News

LEWKNOR Primary School, near Watlington has been celebrating its success in the primary school SATS league table.

The recently published table shows that out of 247 Oxfordshire primary schools, Lewknor (along with only 23 other schools) was found to have 100% of its pupils scoring level 4 plus—putting the school in the top 10%.

Spokesperson for the school, Samantha Stonehouse, said: “Head teacher Mrs Deborah Cole has been in post at Lewknor School since September 2014. Under her ambitious and focussed leadership, the school has made great strides in its efforts to improve academic performance across all age groups.”

Mrs Cole herself said: “Staff and pupils have worked exceptionally hard to achieve these results and I am delighted that the school has made such an improvement. I am incredibly proud of all that the school has achieved—it is a wonderful school community with a real ‘family feel’ and is consistently well supported by parents and the Village.

“I’m pleased that our recent efforts are reflected in the league table and I’m now looking forward to a time when the published results can better illustrate the progress made by individual children from the time they start in reception. Ofsted has said there should be a greater focus on this trajectory which is something I welcome. At Lewknor we have a strong focus on ensuring our children don’t just make expected progress and as a result, most of our children this year have gone on to make exceptional progress.’’

CHINNOR Neighbourhood Plan (NP) Steering Group is urging residents of Chinnor, Henton, Wainhill, Emmington and Chinnor Hill to come to a consultation event about the Draft Chinnor Neighbourhood Plan, to share their views, ask questions and have their say. The event will be taking place at Chinnor Village Centre, Chiltern Room, High Street, Chinnor on Saturday, February 6, 10am to 2pm.

The draft Plan will be based on the data collected at previous consultations and from the two surveys delivered to Chinnor residents earlier in December,  the Housing Needs Survey and the Neighbourhood Plan Vision and Objectives Survey.

SODC have commissioned traffic studies to look at the impact of the proposed new housing sites around Chinnor, as well as landscape studies. The results of these studies will be available at the event for residents to review and when combined with the recent surveys and Chinnor residents’ views from previous consultations, will create a sustainable Plan for the future of Chinnor to 2031. The consultation event will enable Chinnor’s residents to review these findings and provide feedback which will be very useful to improve the content of the final Neighbourhood Plan.

The event will be followed by a formal consultation period with residents, between February 11 and March 24, 2016. Details of how this will take place will be available at the event and will then be published on the CNP website and Facebook page.

Chinnor Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group can be contacted via:

Email: Chinnorneighbourplan@outlook.com
Website: www.chinnorneighbourplan.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinnorNeighbourhoodPlan

A man from Thame is due to appear before Oxford Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, January 12, following an incident in Thame, in which a police officer was assaulted.

On December 3, 2015, Oliver Cheney, aged 20, of Churchill Crescent, Thame, was arrested following an incident at around 5.50pm, in which several cars were damaged in Thame town centre and the off-duty Police Constable, who had gone to help local PCSOs, was assaulted by Cheney.

The following day, December 4, Cheney was charged on one count of the use of threatening/abusive/insulting words or behaviour, and one count of assaulting a constable in the execution of his/her duty.

A mother and baby were taken to hospital earlier today, following a two-vehicle collision on the B4012 Thame Park Road, close to the entrance of Park Grange Farm.

The incident, in which one car over-turned, took place at about 1pm, causing the road to be partially block for around and hour and a half. Two ambulances attended the scene to find three patients needing attention, the 25 year-old mother and her baby, with a minor injury, and a teenage girl with a minor head injury that was treated at the scene. A fourth person was uninjured.

ONE of Thame’s longest running pre-schools, First Steps Pre-school, celebrated its 30th anniversary at Christmas.

Father Christmas and the parents joined in the celebrations at the party, held on December16. The current owners, Sheena Beard and Tracey Daubney, have been in charge for the best part of 20 years and hope to continue for many more.

Sheena explained: “During that time, the group must have had at least 1000 children through the doors. We meet at the Guide Head Quarters in Southern Road, Thame, Monday – Friday mornings 9.15-12.15 during term time, and also run three lunch club sessions.

Sheena added: “We have seen many groups come and go and we are proud to have been educating children for so long.”

To contact the group for further information, ring 01844 261335.

A leaving party for the departing manager of the Thame Oxfam Bookshop, was held at The Swan Hotel in Thame just before Christmas, with almost 80 volunteers and special guests.

Dick Jennens, who has managed the shop for 15 years, was visibly moved by the many presents he was given, including a book of comments and memories, filled in by most of those who have worked with Dick over the years.

Afterwards, Dick said: “My lasting memory of Thame Oxfam bookshop over the fifteen years is simply, people’s overwhelming generosity. Whether it is the 20 thousand people who willing gave us lots and lots of books, often, knowingly – valuable ones and then gift aided the donation, or the hundreds of volunteers who gave there time, worked hard [despite the tea breaks!] put up with the grumpy manager – but give enormous effort, or the donors who gave lots of cash in times of emergency. So a big thank you to them all.

THE NHS 111 non-emergency telephone service in the Thames Valley area reports experiencing an extremely high volume of calls over the last 24 hours with up to 1,000 calls an hour at peak times.

Members of the public needing urgent health advice are asked not to abandon their call but to continue trying the service or to check availability of other services such as pharmacies and GP out of hours (details of which can be found on http://www.nhs.uk/service-search).

Peak times for NHS 111 are mid-morning and early evening and callers may find they get through to the service more quickly if they try at other times if they are seeking advice and reassurance for a health condition.

A flood alert has this evening been issued by The Environment Agency, for the River Thame, which has continued to rise at Thame Bridge and Dorchester and is expected to continue to rise overnight.

Flood water may flow out into some low lying areas, warns the agency, but no property flooding is expected.  The weather forecast is for further rain over the next few days. LINK HERE

A ‘Flood Alert’ means that flooding is possible and so, ‘be prepared’.

To see a map covering the area of this warning, and for more information, visit: https://flood-warning-information.service

THAME market is in line for a Market of the Year Award, and there are only 10 days left for voting in this National competition!

The market has been nominated for the prestigious Small Market of the Year Award (a market with less than 50 stalls). Chris Hurdman, who is Secretary of the Thame Market Traders Cooperative, said: ” There is no doubt in my mind that Thame Market is the Best Small Outdoor Market in the country. With innovations such as the Community Day and the Community and Producers stalls, I think we have a great chance of winning.

“The support we receive from the community every week proves to us that Thame Market is loved and valued by the community it serves. Having traded on all of Oxfordshires and many other markets over the last 30 years, I am always humbled and proud of the support of the local community in and around Thame for THIER market.’’

Thame Market has been an industry leader for many years being the first trader operated market in the country with innovations such as the yearly Community Day, free stalls for community groups and its very own producers stall. This year Thame Market Traders Cooperative, in partnership with Bucks recycling, reached its goal of recycling an impressive 98% of all waste generated on the market.

Simply go to www.nabma.com/britainsfavouritemarket/ and vote for Thame Market.

Previously on Thame.Net