Meriden Mag Winter 2007
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Meriden Mag Winter 2007 MERIDEN C. OF E. SCHOOL DEDICATION PTA OF CHRISTMAS FAYRE MACMILLAN SATURDAY 1 ST DECEMBER TREE OF 1.00PM – 3.00PM THOUGHT FRIDAY 30 TH Gift Stalls galore, raffles, tombolas and NOVEMBER loads of great games Come and meet Santa and 4.00PM ON have your picture taken THE GREEN with him Come and join the Entrance 50p children from Meriden school Pre school children free singing carols around the tree CAROL SINGING ON THE GREEN SATURDAY 22 ND Dedicate a light to a friend or loved one; DECEMBER forms are available from Meriden Tea - 4.00PM Rooms, Spar Shop, Blitz (Millisons Wood) Lloyds Chemist, Corley Canine Pool and EVERYONE WELCOME Mills Newsagents (Balsall Common) ROTARY CLUB OF MERIDEN CHRISTMAS S LEIGH COLLECTION Once again Santa and his sleigh will be flying through the village. Santa and his collectors will be out in the following areas. Proceeds will be split between the County Air Ambulance, Local and Rotary International Charities Monday 10 ththth December Tuesday 11 ththth December Wednesday 12 ththth December 6.30pm Millisons Wood 6.30pm Meriden Tile Hill Starting at Albert Rd, Starting at Leys Lane, Bonneville Close, Alspath Road, Thursday 13 ththth December James Dawson Drive Fairfield Rise, Fillongley 8.00pm Meriden – Main Rd, The Croft, Glovers Close, Maxstoke Lane, Friday 14 ththth December Strawberry Fields. Highfield. Hampton in Arden STRAWBERRY BANK HOTEL & RESTAURANT MAIN ROAD MERIDEN COVENTRY CV7 7NF Telephone 01676 522 117 Fax 01676 523804 Email [email protected] www.strawberrybank.co.uk Open: Tuesday – Friday 12 noon – last orders 1.45pm Monday – Saturday evening 6.30pm last orders 10.00pm Sunday lunch 12 noon – last orders 1.45 pm 2 course lunch Tuesday – Friday £7.95 (starter & main course) excludes December 3-course evening TDH menu Monday – Friday £15.95 Saturday evening £16.95 excludes December 3 course Sunday lunch £15.95 Also A La Carte menu available except Sunday lunch We have 2 function rooms available for parties from 20 up to 200 Please feel free to call in and view We also offer excellent conference and wedding facilities Christmas brochures available Now booking for Christmas party theme nights in December Please contact reception for information or booking or visit our web site Congratulations to Eileen and Bill Powell on the births of their third and fourth great grand-children. Niamh was born on June 20th a sister to Caelan and their cousin Harry arrived on 14th August, a brother for Elliott. Eileen and Bill have nine grandchildren and welcome the new additions to their family. Lavender Hall Lane Berkswell 01676 530 299 / 07949 119 436 Painting and decorating Cafe open to the public from 8.00am – 2.00pm daily Contractors 7 days a week Coving Specialists Serving hot and cold food Specialising in an all day breakfast General for £3.90! BuBuBuildingBu ilding Repairs 5 fishing lakes in glorious Tel: 01922 631750 countryside Now selling a complete range of baits Mob: 07831 600829 Mob: 07785 333636 Gates open at 7.00am close at dusk Hello to everyone from all at Meriden School. School is gearing up, planning events for the children for the end of the year. Some of the children will be on the Green for Carols around the Tree on 30 th November. I’m sure many of you will come along too. We look forward to seeing you all at our PTA Christmas Fair on Saturday 1 st December. We hope to welcome our village friends to a special Carol Service on Thursday December 20 th at 10am, to join in singing some favourite Carols and enjoy a cup of tea afterwards. We will be having all the usual events that make up a Primary School Christmas- the whole school visit to the Pantomime, our Christmas school post, children’s Christmas lunch and parties. Our Junior Choir will take part in a big concert at Birmingham Town Hall on 3 rd Dec as part of a massed choir- not to be missed! Charity We will be supporting the Rotary Club Shoe Box Appeal – filling them with small presents to make a disadvantaged child’s Christmas a happier one. On Children in Need day (16 th November) the children are invited to ‘Do Something Different’ by dressing up as a grown-up and making a contribution to the charity. We have decided our major charity of the year will be Acorns Children’s Hospice, and during the spring Charity Week will be a chance to raise money for them. “Inspire” Workshops We are happy to continue to welcome parents in to work with their children in our special “Inspire” Workshops – every class takes it in turn to host one. It is a fantastic chance to spend time in school together doing a useful activity to help the children’s learning. New Classroom I’m sure you will have seen the building site on the playground – it is very exciting watching the walls for our new classroom rise from the ground. We are looking forward to having Nursery part of the main school building! Once Nursery children are in the school work will begin to make part of our shared building with Beechwood Childcare into the Children’s Centre. Eco-School Award Thanks to the hard work of the children, the School Council and Mr Jennings, we have achieved Eco- School status. This recognises our energy saving and recycling initiatives – well done to all! May I take the opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Yours sincerely Jacky Smith Headteacher Heart of England School 50 th Anniversary Celebrations 250 former students, 43 former teachers, 3 deputy Head teachers and 4 Head teachers were amongst the guests at the glittering anniversary reunion. Visitors travelled from across the country and as far away as France and Australia to take advantage of a guided tour, speeches and cabaret provided by former students. The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the reunion buffet where former school friends and sweethearts met again for the first time in many years and had an opportunity to trade memories and stories spanning the generations. Mr Edgar Richards, the first headmaster, gave a moving account of his time at Heart of England before wishing the school even greater success for the next 50 years. Several letters of thanks were received after the celebrations: “It was lovely to see everyone talking about the school with such pride-clearly well deserved. We had a super time and were made to feel very welcome – our thanks again to everyone involved” “Please give heartiest congratulations to the organising committee and to all who took part. It was a wonderful evening in all respects.” I am in awe of the accomplishments of the Heart of England Business and Enterprise school. The Acorn to Oak emblem could not have been more appropriate.” “It was outstanding in every way and gave such enjoyment to all present. It was a privilege being on the staff close to the beginning of what is now a superb place of learning.” Mr Edgar Richards aged 91 and Miss Mary Schofield ST LAURENCE CHURCH NEWS Rector Rev Michael Dawkins Tel 01676 522 719 The Rectory The Green Meriden CV7 7LN Church Wardens Marian Theobald Tel 01676 523 475 Linda Barnett Tel 01676 523 277 Christmas lingers in our culture – though the message is lost and the belief is gone. We are still rich enough to avoid disaster – though there may be some hesitancy to let go of belief and hope altogether. As long as we are on the charity-giving side we are OK. It will never happen to us. The strident voices of the ‘God deny-ers’ and the ‘religion damn-ers’ crowd out our thinking. Great if they challenge what is currently evil, but they don’t, and they are not dealing with the fundamental problem of evil, they are funking it. They are merely witch hunting, and that is very irrational. But it is irksome to be preached at by a vicar. It is like jun k mail being pushed through the letterbox of a mind, which doesn’t want the clutter. I wonder what stage we are at in our culture. If likened to a gestation period is it to be a long one? Are we at the beginning of it, somewhere in the middle or at the end? Is it morning sickness we are feeling or birth pangs? I suppose most of us are just grumblers and the older we get the better we become at disillusion! But do we even have time to bother? Of course not, people never have, the first Christmas shows that. It was totally disorganised – government arrogance, military bullying, taxes and cruelty, travel and exhaustion, darkness and anxiety, and a baby born into poverty. It was the human condition. Shall I say ‘full stop’, no fantasizing? Yes. But what if it was something from heaven? What if the human soul can receive something from heaven? After a pause … let me remind you that St. Laurence church building is closed for the time being for major roof repairs. The Methodists have very kindly welcomed us to thei r services including the Christmas ones. Do venture out this Christmas time – their church building is very much warmer than ours! Michael Dawkins Angela Southwick nee Jacques 1951-2007 Angie was born in Stratford into a family with one brother and two sisters. Their father died when they were very young leaving their mother with four children under the age of six. This meant a lot of work for her s o the children had to grow up very quickly.