The North Marston Combined C-of-E school
North Marston has an excellent C-of-E Combined School which teaches pupils from rising five to eleven years old. It is at the top of School Hill opposite the church. The Head Teacher is Mrs Catherine Gouldstone.
Healthy Week
In June we had Healthy week. This included South American dance workshops, skipping workshops, sports day, healthy bones and teeth lessons from the science teacher at The Royal Latin School, emotional wellbeing lessons and making healthy lunches.
The School Travel Plan
Two years ago we started work on our School Travel Plan with a number of issues to address, one being the number of cars coming up to the school entrance and blocking a very narrow roadway. Another concern was that parents were waiting on the road to meet the children.
This second issue was addressed very quickly and easily when we invited parents to wait at the end of the playground for their children. This made the end of day routine much safer.
To address the number of cars coming up to the school we had to encourage the children to walk. We implemented the County "Go for Gold" scheme. Each pupil starts with a bronze card which gets filled in each day they walk, bus, cycle, scooter or park away from the school and walk. Once they have completed the 40 stars they are rewarded with a free swim or "soft play" area visit, or bowling. They then start again with a silver card and finally gold. This scheme has proved very successful and the number of cars by the school gates is greatly reduced.
The children in key stage one have started some road safety training and key stage two pupils are beginning cycle training. With the success of the cycle training we now need some new cycle racks, and will apply for a grant for these.
In March 2008 we achieved a level two travel plan which released some funding for the school. We chose to erect a shelter on the playground for parents to use when waiting for their children at the end of the day.
This is an ongoing project, and we are seeking to improve even more. We are very grateful to the parents who have helped on the working party, with road safety training and cycle training.
