Churchtown School
Day 4 - July 22nd - A Wednesday
Today in the morning, we went to Churchtown School in Darley Dale. Mags Robinson, a friend of the family, is a teacher there. The village school has four classrooms but some or probably most have two grades per classroom.
Now for some comments from Martha:
Jennifer, Heather, and I have always hoped to visit a school in England. I remembered that Mags was a teacher and therefore asked if we cold visit her school. The day was looked forward to with great anticipation. I hoped the students would enjoy our visit too.
We arrived around 9:00 a.m., the start of the school day. There were lots of moms dropping off children - as they don't have bus delivery at this school.
We were greeted at the door and taken to Mag's classroom. It was a small room, decorated on all walls with student's projects such as string shapes, sewing projects and WW II poems. There were 22 students - a small class by England's standards.
The children were a bit shy at first, but warmed up after we'd been there awhile. My favorite new word was jotter - their notebook for "jotting down" anything. After a 15 minute break outdoors- which by the way, the headmaster brought tea to the teachers on duty, and to me. We went indoors and I went to another classroom of 35 children! I listened to a very good report by 2 students on ants. Their teacher was very friendly and I enjoyed my time with them. When I had to leave they asked me to come back tomorrow- then "3 cheers for Mrs. Nicholson!". What an honor!!!
The teachers at this school, a 4 classroom school, do an excellent job. Their displayed work showed creativity and I was impressed with the children's writing - both their ability and their penmanship. It was a wonderful visit and I'm glad we went. Jennifer and Heather agreed with me that it had been a great morning!
In the afternoon, we hired bicycles at Bakewell station. We rode from Bakewell Station to Great Longstone Station along the Monsal Trial, a dismantled railway line. There were many colorful wild flowers. At Great Longstone, we climbed the stairs and came onto Station Road. A short ride into Great Longstone where we enjoy looking at their well dressing.
Well Dressing in Great Longstone
Next we rode our bicycles to Little Longstone to see their well dressing. A tour bus of Germans and some people from Manchester were there. Martha made friends with the folks from Manchester of course. Then on again to Monsal Head for some ice cream and iced lollies. Riding on the narrow lanes was a harrowing experience with buses, lorries, and cars to compete with. We rode back to Longstone and visited my dad's grave at the churchyard. Then along to road to Windy Ridge, my grandparent's old house, down Longreave Lane to the railway line.
Then it was back to Bakewell Station. After bicycle riding, we visited the Country Bookshop at the old Hassop Station. Then back to Little Longstone for photos of the well dressing and pictures in the telephone kiosk.
Telephone Kiosk in Little Longstone
This evening we had lamb and mint sauce at Noreen's. After dinner, Martha and I took a loop walk by Lady Manners and Yeld Road. We had to be very careful because of all the snails out. To end the day, we watched a good video of Princess Diana.