Reepham Primary School pupils donated 143 kilograms of food and Reepham High School collected 158 kilograms. Together, this amount will feed 43 people for three days.

This harvest season local churches and schools have donated 2.4 tonnes of food and toiletries.

As part of the Trussell Trust network of foodbanks, Mid Norfolk Foodbank provides three-day nutritionally balanced emergency food parcels to local people referred to the charity in short-term crisis.

Last year, from April 2022 to April 2023, the foodbank fed 4,878 people, including 2,031 children, according to the foodbank’s operations manager, Suzanne Bushby.

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Left to right: Lorraine, Elaine and Scott Harmer with Melanie and Arthur Hawes. Photo: John Tym

Some years ago, Reepham & District Rotary Club agreed to help develop a Japanese garden at the school to mark a long-standing link with Sakado Azuma Kindergarten in Sakado, Japan, and as a site for instruction and relaxation.

The project was delayed by Covid restrictions but the garden was finally completed in May with the construction of a tea house (pictured above) in the style much seen in Japan.

The tea house was designed by Rotarian Ian Malton and the construction was led by Cliff Harmer, who had been the driving force behind many Rotary building activities but died at the end of 2022 and did not see the completion of his final project.

On 16 October, Cliff’s wife Elaine Harmer and family unveiled a plaque on the tea house which recorded his contribution to the work.

The family was welcomed by Reepham Rotary president Arthur Hawes, who recalled Cliff’s leadership on many local community projects.

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Residents posting on Facebook commented on the dangers now posed by inconsiderate parking, with one criticising “lazy” parents who live in Reepham and brought their car to do the school run, parking on the children’s play area on Sun Barn Road.

“I have witnessed cars driving up from the bottom to the top [of the play area] even when children are playing there,” he said. “They have damaged the area, making it unsafe to play on, causing trip hazards where their wheels have dug into the grass.”

Another local resident, Simon, Nelson, who has been in touch with the town and county councils, the police and the local MP about the safety issue, said: “The town council has been most helpful but their hands are tied to an extent.

“All that can be done currently is to report any awful parking/near misses to the school as we are collecting as much evidence of irresponsible driving/parking to highlight the issues.

“I’m still working on getting all relevant parties to meet and witness the schooltime ‘carnage’.”

Meanwhile, Reepham Town Council is lobbying Norfolk Highways to reinstate the crossing patrol person outside the primary school and/or install a zebra crossing.

Town council clerk Kirsty Cotgrove confirmed that she had received more than a dozen complaints in recent weeks concerning road safety outside the school.

The traffic issue is likely to get worse with the relocation of the nursery school to the primary school as well as the recent planning approval for 141 residential homes on nearby Broomhill Lane, which is expected to increase traffic on School Road in the longer term.

Stuart Beadle, district councillor for Reepham, said an improved crossing outside the primary school was part of the planning application for the housing development.

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The trail featured 16 stops including Haunted Houses, where the children played spooky games before collecting their treats, which saw witches, ghosts, vampires and pumpkins all over town.

Event organiser Funforce thanked everyone for taking part and in particular the supporters for donating funds to assist the evening, including Reepham Life, Co-op, Dial House, King’s Arms, Happy House Chinese Restaurant, Dollie’s Bakery Hoveton, Spar Reepham, Parsons & Co Estate Agents, Reepham Home Hardware, Scrapbox and Motts Pharmacy, who helped make this year the best-supported event to date.

A total of £350 was raised and donated to Reepham Primary School for a memorial garden in memory of Chloë Prigmore, a much-loved teaching assistant, who died earlier this year following a short diagnosis of a rare form of lung cancer.

“Thanks also to our fantastic hosts at the Haunted Houses,” said Graham Andrew of Funforce. “Your efforts were really appreciated, and the children loved playing the games. The children received bundles of treats for their endeavours and there has been some amazing feedback.”

Next year’s event will take place on Sunday 30 October 2022. This will be a new trail and if anyone would like to volunteer to be a Haunted House, please contact Graham Andrew on 07802 439654 or email.

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The wildlife garden at Reepham Primary School.

Ten parents have now signed up to be strapped on top of the wing of a vintage 1940s biplane on Thursday 16 September at Skymax Wing Walkers in Upminster, Essex; a further six parents are running the London Marathon on Sunday 3 October.

Outdoor learning has been part of the primary school’s vision for a long time, but this is the first year it has been able to get it off the ground, running weekly sessions with a specialised teacher.

The wildlife garden has now been transformed into an outdoor area where children can make their own discoveries, playing and working in nature and learning how to care for it.

The plan for the next academic year is to offer outdoor learning to all classes across the school.

To do this successfully an outdoor classroom is needed and there will also be additional equipment to buy to help resource the lessons.

The Friends of Reepham Primary School are now aiming to raise funds to help meet these requirements.

The ten parents are covering the cost of the wing walk themselves so all money raised will go towards the campaign.

“We are all very excited to be part of this group as it feels great to be doing something for such a brilliant cause,” said the school’s outdoor learning teacher Kate King. “We have set ourselves a target to raise £20,000 to build an outdoor learning hub.

“This is the first year that Reepham Primary School has had outdoor learning taught by a specialist teacher to the lower school come rain or shine.

“It has been a brilliant first year, but to move forward and continue to provide effective sessions we need a base. The children need somewhere to get ready, to dry out waterproofs and to store resources.

“The idea to build an outdoor learning hub grew out of necessity and as a tangible way to support the school and promote the well-being of the children.

“We are all aware of the benefits of being outside as it keeps us active and healthy. The idea is even more relevant now as we continue to navigate the pandemic.

“I could not be happier that we are choosing to put our children’s well-being first. After such a challenging year in education, they need it more than anyone.”

The main sponsor of the outdoor learning hub is the Reepham-based holiday letting agency The Original Cottage Company. Local construction and timber frame specialists King & Company have also donated generously.

An Original Cottages spokesperson said: “We’re proud to be supporting Reepham Primary School in getting its outdoor learning facilities. We’ve had many an employee either join us from the school or have children who go to the school.”

To follow the progress of the fundraising campaign and donate, click HERE, or for help with fundraising, contact Friends of Reepham Primary School by email.

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The artwork entitled The Three Churches.

The Central England Co-op in Station Road, which opened in November, welcomed children from Reepham Primary School on their last day of term to see their public artwork displayed on the store.

The design, entitled “The Three Churches”, was created by pupils as part of a local history project.

Teacher Karen Phelps said: “Years 3 and 4 have been studying the history of Reepham this term.

“We started looking at the Anglo-Saxon settlement, based around the churches; there are three on the same site, two of which stand today and the third is a ruin in the grounds.

“This is quite rare and special and comes from the fact that the churchyard was the point where three different parishes met.

“A tale of three sisters with their three farms was told to illustrate this; it is now the town sign.

“This term we have walked around Reepham looking at the buildings and how they have changed both in use and architecture and we spent a long time looking at the church.

“So, when Central England Co-op asked for artwork for their new store this seemed the obvious choice, especially as we have close ties with the vicar, who usually does a weekly assembly, and we use the church for history and religious education, and also a carol concert each year.

“Mr Warne leads art in our school, and he drove the project, which was done by mainly Year 4 with help from Year 3.

“The children really enjoyed producing the artwork and are delighted to have it on the new Central England Co-op store in Reepham so they can see it every time they go past.”

Store manager Brad Tuckfield said building links with the community has been vitally important and having a permanent feature created by the local school as part of the store made him particularly proud.

He said: “We have had such a wonderful welcome from the community in Reepham since we opened the store and are so proud to be a part of the town.

“I am delighted to be able to display the fantastic piece of artwork created by children at Reepham Primary School on a landmark which has such resonance in the town, and it gives all the team a boost to see the artwork every time they come to work.”

The food store is open from 7 am to 10 pm, Monday to Sunday.

See our earlier stories:

• Co-op opens new store, creating 19 new jobs
• New Co-op food store set to open

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The School Council led the whole school with information about the 100-year celebration of the end of the First World War and a song that had been written by some of the older students about the soldiers lost from Reepham.

All pupils made their own poppies from plastic bottles, which they carried into the assembly and put in specially created display boxes at the front of the hall.

The poppies were then taken to St Mary’s in Reepham, where they were put on display for the Sunday Remembrance Service.

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The day, which involved 180 children from all the primary classes from Year 1 to Year 6, was organised by Dr George Forster of Reepham-based Boost Education through Reepham & District Rotary Club, assisted by John Pickering and Manesty Forster.

The STEMM Ambassadors were: Emma Bird, Jack Jarvis, Nessie Everett, Eve Reading, Isobel Whiting, Izzy Frary, Hayden Wright and Anna den Engelse. They are part of the Youth STEM Awards and have been training as STEMM Ambassadors through an initiative of the Institute of Physics.

Overseen by college student Erin Brady and teachers Sarah Townend, Nick Hull and Kirsty Turner, the STEMM Ambassadors demonstrated five different activities to the pupils: speed of light in a microwave, raw or cooked taste test, bubbles in food, food under the microscope and the ever-popular bash the custard.

Dr Forster said: “It’s a great example of community co-operation, both schools and the Rotary Club using local expertise to enthuse youngsters about these important subjects. Food and science, what more could you ask?”

Quotes from Year 3 and Year 5 primary school children:

• Theo: I enjoyed my science experience because I don’t often learn about food. Every experiment I did, I learned something new.
• Jedd: I never knew how many bubbles there were in bread.
• Freya: I discovered you could eat smoked salmon even though it was raw.
• (A different) Freya: I really enjoyed that the high school students were really enthusiastic about what they were doing. I loved how passionate they were about science.
• Theo: Thanks for giving up your time so we could have fun and lean lots
• Dannii: When I bashed the custard, I never guessed that would happen. It felt like a rock.
• Rohan: I learnt that when you put your finger in the custard gently, the particles separated so your finger went in, but it felt like the custard was grabbing it. When you punched it hard, there was not time for the particles to separate, so it was like a wall.
• Luke: It was interesting to taste the salmon because I’ve never tasted it before.
• Yasmin: The raw potato tasted disgusting. The cooked was delicious.

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Volunteers are needed on a one-off basis to help with general gardening, pond maintenance, tidying of the garden, planting, and construction of feeding stations and bug houses.

A work party will be held on Saturday 14 April from 10.30 am – 3 pm at the primary school on School Road, Reepham. Children are welcome to participate, but must be supervised.

In addition to help on the day, the school is also on the lookout for:

• timber for constructing bird feeding stations;
• pallets, bits of roof tile, drainpipes, etc., for constructing bug houses;
• hanging baskets, plant pots, old bird feeders or unneeded bird food.

For more information or if you are willing to help on the day or provide materials, please contact: Kate Whitehead 07849 154840, email: ourwildthingsnorfolk@gmail.com, or see the new page on Facebook.

Why help?

British wildlife is in decline. Familiar garden birds such as sparrows and song thrushes are “red listed” owing to concerns about their population decline, while hedgehog numbers were recently reported to have fallen by 50% since 2000.

More worrying are reports of children being less connected with nature. Nationally, the picture is pretty bleak, with an RSPB study concluding that four out of five children in the UK are not adequately connected to nature.

“I don’t think that’s as true for any of us in Reepham and the surrounds,” says Kate Whitehead. “We’re lucky to live in a rural bit of a rural county, and our children have opportunities to see barn owls swoop as the night falls, hares box in spring and weasels dart across the road.

“My career in conservation started in the playground, finding old nests in hedgerows, collecting feathers and marvelling over frogspawn.

“Children today have many more distractions: hundreds of TV channels, games to play and places to travel. It’s important to foster that wonderful inquisitiveness that children have in the natural world; if they understand nature, they will value it and take care of it into the future.”

A new afterschool wildlife club for Reepham Primary School students will be running in the summer term to inform and inspire children about the natural world and hopefully encourage future David Attenboroughs and Kate Humbles.

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The Rotarians will be providing “one-on-one” reading sessions for year 1 and 2 pupils to help them develop this key skill faster.

Since it is more than 60 years since most of the Rotary team learned to read, a little retraining has been necessary.

A study of phonics has been essential to make sure members understand the way children are now taught, although some have found this challenging.

Rotary team leader John Pickering said: “We are sure that we can get up to speed and we are delighted to be making a contribution to the development of children in what is an excellent school.”

Reepham Primary School head Catherine Ogle commented: “We are very grateful to the Rotarians. Extra individual reading time is a useful supplement to the work of teachers and family in developing this vital skill.”

The Rotary team will be working with pupils throughout the autumn term and hope to be available for future help as needed.

Richard Cooke

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