ARTS WEEK at John Hampden Primary school, Thame – Monday, February 6th to Friday 10th: CONTRIBUTED:
THIS year?s Arts Week at John Hampden School saw us in full art-training for the 2012 London Olympics, complete with a huge John Hampden School Olympic Mascot and our own Olympic torch.
The children have been hard at work designing a school mascot in the style of the Olympic mascots, Manderville and Wenlock. The winning mascot, by Bridget Harrington, year 4, has been made on an olympic scale to dominate the school hall and inspire our children to Olympic frats in art in 2012!
The Olympic Arts Week included the whole school community, from local artists, parents, grandparents, teachers, teaching assistants and governors, with over 70 volunteers who worked with the children from the nursery right through to year six.
Yet again it has enabled every child to shine through artistic activities ranging from an Olympic size Temple of Zeus to a collagraphic Olympic printed banner!
The ?Great Self Portrait Mystery? saw an exhibition of John Hampden School?s staff?s self portraits, and those of the children. These will be submitted to Face Britain, a nationwide project that sees the whole country producing self portraits that will be screened at the 2012 London Olympics. There has also been an in-school competition to see who could identify which self portrait belonged to which member of staff for an arty prize. A real challenge for all!
The whole week culminated in a Fairtrade Arts Cafe, where everyone involved was invited to come and enjoy the results of our school arts project! What an Olympic week we have had, we have definitely gone for gold!
Sat 18th Snakemoor A work party is planned for Saturday (9.30 for 10am), provided the ground is not covered in snow! Robyn Thorogood writes: ?We will start with a short training session on use of tools (as requested by the lottery). The Vale Volunteers will give the benefit of their knowledge/experience.
Sat 18th Line Dance. The Pondarosa Line Dance group has its next social dance evening on Saturday (8-11pm) at Haddenham Village Hall. Entry is
THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses after graffiti was sprayed onto paths and walls in Chinnor, near Thame.
Between 5am and 6am yesterday (15/2), graffiti was sprayed on the road and walls of houses in Oakley Road. Graffiti symbols of a man and a woman were drawn by the offenders.
The offenders also targeted St Andrews Church in Church Lane which had a question mark symbol drawn on the wall.
Anyone with any information should contact PC Mick Goodenough of Thame police station via the 24-hour Thames Valley Police Enquiry Line on 101.
If you don’t want to speak directly to the police you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at crimestoppers-uk.org. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.
MORE ACADEMIES, more free schools and more autonomy for all schools are among the changes announced by Oxfordshire county Council.
In a statement, OCC have stated: “Oxfordshire County Council?s Cabinet has agreed that the council should formally adopt a position to support changes proposed by national Government to improve educational standards across the UK and to work on ways of helping schools manage the change.
“The cabinet has endorsed the Government?s national drive to develop the Academy programme nationally and bring fresh focus on the ways in which underperforming schools are supported to improve; as well as encouraging good and outstanding schools to achieve academy status.
“The Government has said it wishes to see increased autonomy from local education authorities for all schools – with Academies being supplemented by a network of free schools and greater accountability for underperforming schools alongside the Academies programme.”
DO you want to know how to save money, save resources and save emissions on your farm? Why not book on to a practical one day conference for farmers and farm advisors including farmer led workshops and a hands on carbon accounting exercise for your own farm?
This is an all day event being held on Monday, February 27, at Hill Farm, East Hendred, Wantage. The ticket price is
FOLLOWING discussions over alternative development to a supermarket on the Cattlemarket site in Thame, Thame Town Council has now given the go ahead for the funds to be spent on a business plan for a community facility on the site.
The council will now engage a consultant to look at the need for such a facility and its financial viability.
Cmag, the Cattle Market Action Group, has been lobbying for many years to make sure that what they see as the last, large space near the town centre suitable for a large, community facility, is used for that purpose.
The promise to take the matter of a business plan to the town council was made by the Mayor, David Bretherton at a recent meeting between Cmag, the town council and Tibbalds, the consultants currently helping to formulate the Thame Town Plan.
THE winner of a fabulous raffle prize at last year’s Thame Festival Festival finally got to hold her ‘Dream Dinner Party’ in one of the stylish new houses on David Wilson Homes? Windmill Place development in the town.
Thame caterers, What?s Cooking, provided the fabulous food for the dinner party of eight, donated by David Wilson Homes, for the lucky winner, Tricia Newbury and her family from Stokenchurch.
Paul Moran, Sales Director for David Wilson Homes Southern commented: ?David Wilson Homes was proud to be a sponsor at the fourth annual Thame Food Festival last year. We launched our involvement with the festival at Windmill Place, so were delighted that Tricia was able to enjoy an exclusive three course meal at the development over the weekend. The luxury meal was cooked by local caterers What?s Cooking and was a real treat for our winner.?
Tricia Newbury added: ?I need to thank David Wilson Homes for donating the fantastic prize and What?s Cooking for catering for us. I have never won such a great raffle prize and probably never will again. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, the food was wonderful and the show home provided the perfect setting for the meal.?
Paul Moran added: “The show home accommodated the lucky guests with ease and demonstrated the fantastic spaces for living and entertaining within the house.”
For anyone interested themselves in seeing the range of properties available on the Windmill Road development, there is currently a range of three and four bedroom properties available at Windmill Place, with prices starting at
AS the promised snow begins to dust Thame (5pm), there’s lots of good advice from South Oxfordshire District Council about how to prepare for severe weather and how to cope when it comes.
HERE is the latest Thame neighbourhood update from Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Chris Hollis, PCSO Richard Howard and PCSO Diane Jackson. The Local Priority for Thame as identified by the community and the police is currently:
? Anti-social behaviour (ASB). This is focused on the town centre car parks and behaviour in the town?s park areas.
We have conducted many high visibility patrols in an effort to deter ASB in our car parks. This seems to have been effective as the number of complaints has dropped. We have also deterred young people from congregating in the local recreation grounds (Southern Road & Elms Park) through high visibility patrols. We will continue with our high visibility patrols in
local priority hot spots in an effort to curtail the ASB problems.
Planned Activity
We have participated in the following operations during January:
Maginot – this operation continues to run, tackling travelling criminals entering and leaving our area. Due to an increase in thefts from vehicles in the Thame area and surrounding villages, we have been deploying the Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) device
at dedicated times and providing a highly visible police presence aimed at deterring and preventing offences taking place, offering reassurance and assisting in the capture and prosecution of offenders.
ANPR is a powerful tool that can help prevent crime by identifying flagged vehicles.
Benefits of ANPR
? ANPR identifies suspect vehicles that may not normally attract police attention.
? Unlicensed or uninsured vehicles are likely to be seized on the spot by ANPR equipped officers.
? It can be used to gather intelligence on known criminals and for running pro-active operations using dedicated Roads Policing intercept teams.
ANPR cameras are not safety cameras – they are not used by Thames Valley Police to catch speeding or otherwise law abiding motorists. ANPR cameras are not used to
generate money for the Government or other agencies.
Magpie – this operation involves checking parked vehicles in local car parks for valuables left on display.
Mangrove – this was set up as a result of fuel thefts from heavy goods vehicles in our local area. This operation involves us carrying out static patrols in key areas at key times in marked vehicles.
Thame Neighbourhood Team Newsletter
February 2012 Moonlight – this operation will be running continuously and is working to protect the night time economy of Thame Town centre by preventing and detecting ASB/violent assaults and managing licensed premises. PCSOs are working with police officers to conduct high visibility patrols in the town centre and liaising with the pubs and carrying out licence checks.
Partnership Activity
We continue to work with our partners such as Soha Housing, Sovereign Housing, Highways etc. ensuring that we liaise on a regular basis. We also have close regular contact with schools in the Thame area to maintain the good rapport we have built up.
Out and about
PCSO Chris Hollis and PCSO Diane Jackson were alerted to a fear for welfare this month. They liaised with the concerned party and obtained a key to the premise where they unfortunately found an elderly gentleman deceased. They immediately made police officers aware, secured the area and comforted family members.
Offenders brought to justice
This month 13 offenders have been brought to justice in the Thame area:
? Six for shoplifting
? Three for assault without injury
? One for criminal damage to a vehicle
? Three for public order offences
Crime Mapping
The Home Office national crime mapping website gives the public access to street-level crime information as well as information on their Neighbourhood Policing Teams, Neighbourhood Priorities and Events – details of Have Your Say and other neighbourhood activities. Log on to www.police.uk, type in your local postcode or neighbourhood name and then click on ?Find out more?.
Community Messaging
This free service provides information to subscribers about crime and police activity in their area via phone or email. It also includes information on what we and our partner services are doing to bring offenders to justice or combat anti-social behaviour, and information on opportunities for local residents to raise concerns with their local policing teams.
More information can be obtained via our website, and you can sign up here too: http://www.tvpcommunitymessaging.org/rmwebportal/startup.aspx
Have Your Say online
You can now send non-emergency messages to us using the online form that is available on the Thames Valley Police website. A number of people have already sent their concerns using this method. For you to do that please follow the link: