Improving the environmental footprint of historic buildings is not straightforward, as many Blewbury residents will be well aware! So, we’re delighted that St Michael’s Church Blewbury has received a Silver Award from A Rocha UK’s Eco Church scheme.

The scheme looks at many areas – how the building and lands are managed, and the impact the church’s activities have on the community and the environment through worship, teaching and encouraging sustainable lifestyle choices. Our picture shows Penny Brassell (with Rev John Clarke behind) proudly holding up the certificate.

Also, on toilet news: following a generous donation from a member of our congregation, we have twinned the Benefice Centre toilet with one in Malawi. This helps fund ‘a project in a community that helps families to build their own basic toilet, access clean water and learn about hygiene – a vital combination that saves lives.’ https://toilettwinning.org

Penny Brassell

Parish Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer for Blewbury Parish Council

Blewbury Parish Council is looking for a clerk and RFO. This part-time position will take between 65 and 75 hours per calendar month, working from home apart from monthly council meetings on the second Wednesday of each month, the annual parish meeting and finance (& other) committee meetings. These are all generally held in the evening.

The clerk provides administrative and clerical support, as well as managing the council’s finances. Local government experience would be an advantage but is not essential – training and personal development is actively encouraged.

We’re looking for a proactive self-starter who can demonstrate a calm, organised approach to work, and show attention to detail. You should have good communication skills, and we’d expect you to be  used to working in Word and Excel. The council uses Scribe to process financial information – prior experience of this not essential.

Salary will be at the appropriate point on the scale LC2 SPC18–28 – between £15.84 and £19.66/hour – depending on experience. There is an allowance of £26/month for working from home, plus pension contributions.

Please contact the clerk at blewburypc@gmail.com for a full job description and application form. The deadline for applications is 31^st January 2025.

My warmest wishes for the new year. It was wonderful to join in local social and festive occasions such as the switching on of Christmas lights.

Before parliament ended, I was able to address ministers about important matters. These included: how local communities can benefit from clean energy schemes, the need for improvements in services provided by coroners following the sudden deaths of those with epilepsy, and the need to address electoral reform. Some responses were more helpful than others!

I was able to speak in debates about the problems faced by those with disabilities, shared concerns raised by poor estate management, and championed the BBC (which I am sure many of us watched and listened to over Christmas).

The Transport Select committee meet to hold the Department of Transport to account. Two key areas discussed have been rail services and infrastructure, and the backlog of driving tests, which so many constituents have aired concerns about.

Flooding remains a significant concern. I chaired a meeting with Thames Water and the local councils to facilitate working together. I will continue to provide updates about this vital piece of work as we need to see real improvements.

My team provides support for all our constituents. Please contact me if I can help, or if you would like me to attend a local event or meet with a local organisation. My parliamentary email address is olly.glover.mp@parliament.uk

If you use social media, you can follow me for more regular updates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OllyGloverLD/ and Bluesky – as I have moved away from X/Twitter: @ollyglover.bsky.social

I look forward to meeting as many as of you as possible in 2025.

Olly

The Blewbury Bulletin is grateful for the fantastic response to our November appeal for a new editor; we had a good number of great candidates.

As a result, we are  pleased to announce that Neville Hargreaves (left) will be taking over the hot seat from early 2025. Neville and his wife Sarah have  lived in Blewbury since 2015 and are part of the team running the Blewbury Garden Market. He works in the renewable fuels industry, on a project to make jet fuel from household waste; he will be going part-time in January which should allow him to spend more time walking – and to edit the Bulletin.

At the same time, Brian Mills (right) will be taking over as online content manager and webmaster. Brian has also lived here since 2015 and works part-time as an IT programme manager.

Blewbury School is delighted with the outcomes from its recent Ofsted inspection, which gave the School an overall grade of ‘Good’ with its Early Years provision being graded as ‘Outstanding’.

The now published Ofsted report recognises the School’s ‘high ambitions’ and how children work hard, behave well and achieve well. It states that leaders ‘have high aspirations for pupils. They share the same inclusive vision and keep pupils at the heart of decision-making’. Inspectors also praised the School’s focus on reading, and how it ‘provides well for pupils’ wider development’ with a range of experiences such as pupil leadership opportunities, trips and clubs.

The ‘Outstanding’ Early Years provision is highlighted, with the report stating that ‘children get off to an excellent start. The early years curriculum prepares children well for the next stage of their education. Children cooperate extremely well with each other and happily share resources with friends.’

Headteacher, Jo Reeder, said: ‘We are extremely pleased with the outcome of the inspection. The first sentence of the report ‘pupils are proud of their inclusive and caring school’ absolutely reflects our ethos. I am incredibly proud of the staff team for their hard work and dedication; and am grateful to governors, parents, carers and wider community for supporting the School on its improvement journey. I am delighted with the way pupils articulated and showed our values to the inspectors, who particularly commented to us on how respectful and tolerant they were of each other’s views and differences.’ 

The successful inspection outcome marks an important milestone for our School which joined multi-academy trust Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust (ODST) in January 2020 following a previous inspection that was not so positive. The School has since undergone a transformation with new leadership and support from ODST.

Anne Dellar, ODST Chief Executive said: ‘Ofsted inspections are rigorous and to be graded ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ for Early Years education is a remarkable achievement. Children really are getting the best possible start at Blewbury. I’m extremely proud of the School leaders, staff and children, who make it such a happy and inclusive environment in which to learn. Blewbury strives for excellence and ODST will continue to support the school through this next exciting chapter.’

The School governors, led by Ann Parham, have also congratulated the School for this huge commendation for its work.

In the photo: Headteacher Jo Reeder (left) & Chair of Governors Ann Parham with four jubilant House Captains

Over the last 30 years many Blewbury School pupils and teachers have come and gone. Meanwhile, Margaret Pritchard has remained at the heart of providing their school dinners.

It is little known that Margaret herself had been a pupil at Blewbury School and hated school dinners at the time, especially the liver! She has however gone on to make an outstanding contribution to the School, serving under five headteachers and preparing and serving an estimated 750,000 meals to around 3,500 pupils. (Yes, that’s three quarters of a million!)

Margaret’s role extends well beyond the preparation of food. She provides positive impact in the daily lives of the children helping with their social development and has a keen set of additional eyes for their welfare. She knows every child by name, their dietary requirements and preferences. Every day, each child arriving at the servery is greeted with a warm smile and treated according to their individual needs.

Margaret has during that time seen much change. She remembers when the kitchen was where the Year 6 Banksy classroom is today and how the current kitchen was the PE store. She loves watching the children develop and grow up through the School and is always sad to see the year 6 cohort leave. Cooking and serving Christmas dinner is one of Margaret’s favourite times of the school year which is always a little bit of a challenge with so many children taking part.

Margaret herself is a high achiever when it comes to passing tests. Food hygiene standards in the school kitchen are one of her top priorities which is demonstrated by successive top scores from environmental health food hygiene inspections.

Thanks to the village of Blewbury for making me so welcome. My neighbours have cut back trees and the community speedwatch team downloaded my data.

I am pleased to say that traffic speeds have dropped since I was switched on. Along Bessels Way the number of vehicles speeding has dropped from 34 percent to 21 percent. On London Road a drop from 16 percent to 8 percent has been measured.

Thank you for your support. Enjoy your summer and drive safely.

SID.

Last month the Parish Council gathered to celebrate David Hollick, who has retired as Blewbury’s Lengthman after ten years of service.

David was an exceptional Lengthman who quietly got on with the job of maintaining the village footpaths and green spaces, looking after the cemetery, cutting hedges and chopping felled trees, emptying bins, maintaining all the PC’s machinery and so, so much more. We are very grateful to him. We’re delighted that Iain Wood has taken over the reins as the new Lengthman; he has had an excellent start in the job.

Pictured (l-r): Evi Holroyd (Clubhouse and Village Hall Bookings Administrator), Lydia Inglis, Anne Millman, Liz Cooper (Clerk), Dermot Mathias, David Hollick, Iain Wood, Sheila Austin, Jane Gibson, Julia Saunders, Andrew Calder, Mark Shayler.

Jayne Newman, our wonderful cleaner, has been recognised recently for her 35 years of service.

The trustees presented her with flowers and a bottle of bubbly to celebrate (see picture, left to right: Andrew Forman, Jill Allen, Jayne Newman, Dermot Mathias, Kate Mitchell).

In other news, we have been working on the outside spaces, and have been spring cleaning! Go to www.blewbury.co.uk/venues/village-hall to book the hall for your next event. We look forward to welcoming the BVS and their visitors to the Beer Festival on the 18th May.

There was a great turnout from the village to spectate the charity match between the Blueberry and the Red Lion on April 6th.

It was a very close affair with both sides looking like they could take the win but big congratulations to the Blueberry for the win and taking the trophy.

It was amazing to see so many people from the village turning up to watch the event and support the teams. Thanks to all your wonderful donations we’ve raised an incredible £1285 for our chosen charities. A special thanks to Bob Brooks for volunteering to officiate the match and all the people involved in organising the teams and helping out on the day, it was a real team effort.

Will we see The Blueberry retain the trophy next year or will The Red Lion be able claim it for themselves? I guess we will have to find out next year.

Ben Silverthorne