LATEST NEWS ITEMS
FROM THE APRIL/MAY ISSUE OF VILLAGE VOICE
Chairman's Message
Getting ready for Field Day
Wyre in Bloom
News from
Church News
Stepping Stones — Forton Preschool
Shireshead and Forton Cricket
Club
Forton Bowling Club
The Parish Council meeting on the
10th March provided the councillors with a pre-meeting problem! The main door
into the Pavilion was boarded up due to the need for repairs. The only other
door is facing the
The meeting was scheduled to start fifteen minutes earlier than usual so that the police could hold a P.A.C.T. (Police and Communities Together)meeting . We were there — but the police were not, so we started the Council meeting on time by welcoming Fiona Riley as a new Council member.
A keen gardener, Fiona has taken on the task of organising Wyre in Bloom on behalf of the village and has made considerable strides in approaching residents and businesses with a view to entering the competition. Should anyone wish to enter, Cllr Riley can be contacted on 792245. We do hope she enjoys her new role.
We did discuss in detail the progress on the renovation/sale/replacement of the Village Hall. It is clear from the legal advice we have taken that, in order to move forward, both the Village Hall and Playing Field Committees must, as per their individual constitutions, be up to full strength. To achieve this they urgently need new members to swell their numbers. Should anyone like to help they would be made welcome.
Whilst on the subject of volunteers the Parish Council is still one member short of a full complement. If anyone is interested please contact either our Clerk Julie McLoughlin on 792805 or me on 791013 for a chat.
The Annual Parish meeting is on the 28th of April and will be held this year in the Playing Field Pavilion,starting at 7pm.Everyone is invited to attend.
Travelling down the A6 to Garstang, I thought what a delight the masses of daffodils are along the roadside; hopefully the display will not be totally ruined by this windy weather!
Enjoy Spring — it is here — the hedgerows are greening up!
Rosemary Worrall
With this year’s Forton Field Day fast approaching, you will soon see some good folk of this village wandering from house to house with collecting tins and books of raffle tickets. Let’s give them a really good "work out" and make those tins really heavy to carry!
Field Day relies heavily on the continued generosity of the village to enable the staging of this fantastic community event. Please buy some raffle tickets (fantastic prizes) or give a small donation. Every little helps. The door to door collections start on March 31st and run for 2 weeks until April 13th.
The committee would like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended the AGM in November and the last meeting on Thursday January 31st in the Playing Field Pavilion. Planning for the next Field Day, to be held on the last Saturday in June (June 26th) has started in earnest.
New committee members are always made very welcome and the more new ideas the better. Please come along to join this friendly bunch. Committee meetings are kept short and to the point!
# as an individual garden,
# as a neighbourhood,
# as a commercial enterprise,
# as part of Young Wyre in Bloom, and of course
# as part of the village as a whole.
Fiona Riley 01524 792245
At last - the flooding has receded in the Dell and out have come the daffodils!
This next half term we have lots of events lined up for the children. During March we had taster sessions for Years 5 and 6 in Table Tennis and Guitar Lessons for the Juniors.The Infants have started and are enjoying their after school Gymnastics Club.
Our Student Council has started a new project this term, selling dried fruit at morning break; this is proving to be successful and popular with the children.
All Year 4 children will be involved in a Food Hygiene Awareness Course. This course was developed as a result of a request from schools that wanted their children to be involved in the break time service, and to be allowed to serve salads, vegetables and fruit to their peers at lunch times. Involving the children helps the children and their peers by encouraging healthy eating habits. They take on a responsible role and it develops personal and social skills.
Church News
Ecumenical service. On Sunday. April 6th, at 9.15am, the members of the Forton
Methodist and United Reformed Churches will join in the Family Service at St
James'. The Preacher will be the Rev. David Greenwood of the URC and the Rev.
Paul Critchley of
Christian Aid Week takes place
May 11-17th. The theme this year is Empowering People. There will be a House-to-House
Collection through most of the Parish of Forton and into Bay Horse. Please give
generously to this worthwhile charity. Christian Aid says “From the Christian
Aid envelope through the door to fresh water for a Bangladeshi village, we're
empowering people with your support.” This is just one way in which people's
lives are enriched. Christian Aid Week will end with the special Christian Aid
service, which is open to all, on Sunday, May 18th, at 6.30pm at
"'HOPE '08' is a really remarkable
vision. I thank God for the inspiration that has driven it,” said the Archbishop
of Canterbury, the Rt Revd Rowan Williams. The aim of Hope '08 is that churches
all over the
Church history. On Friday April 18th at 7.30pm at the United Reformed Church,
church historian James Houghton will give a talk and slide show entitled "Churches
& Chapels in
Forton URC Open Forum - progress! Just to update our village friends on what has happened since our very well-attended Open Forum meeting held in the Autumn at the United Reformed Church. We consulted the Listed Buildings Advisory Committee of the United Reformed Church, to find out how far we would be allowed to alter and maximise the space of our church in keeping with the building's listed status. An architect's detailed plans were then drawn up, which will form the basis of further consultation and discussion. If the plan is acceptable, we shall then of course have to consider how we might fund the project. So there has been some good progress over the past few months, but there is still a lot to do and to think about. We will of course keep you informed.
Stepping Stones — Forton Preschool
The children at Stepping Stones love books. We have a cosy reading area with a wide range of books including picture books, interactive books, poetry, multicultural books, non-fiction and books the children have made themselves. This half term we aim to encourage the children's interests in books and develop their literacy skills with our theme all about books. The children have been bringing in some of their books from home to share with their friends and some have shown us their pictures and greetings cards with poems on them. They have made their own interactive books with flaps to lift up, illustrated a poem and the oldest group of preschoolers have composed a poem all about experiencing a power cut! The children will also have the opportunity to follow recipes to make soda bread and fruit cake and will make postcards and number books.
The staff at Stepping Stones aim to continuously evaluate and improve our setting and to keep up to date with current thinking and recommendations in preschool education. In September 2008 the Government is launching its new Early Years Foundation Stage. This is a set of statutory and recommended principles and practices guiding the education and care of children from 0 to 5 years. One of the key elements of the new EYFS is the concept of each child being a 'unique child'. With this in mind we make regular written observations of the children's play noting their interests, skills and areas for development. We can then plan personalised learning objectives for each child. While the children play with their chosen activities their key person is aware of their skills and their personalised learning objectives and can help them to develop and learn as appropriate. The emphasis, as it always has been since the preschool playgroup started thirty years ago, is still learning through play. Another emphasis in the new foundation stage is outdoor play. All preschools are expected to have an outdoor play area which is more than just physical play but also an outdoor classroom. We have managed to secure a grant of £15,000 from Sure Start to create an outdoor play area at Forton Village Hall for the preschool children to use. It is unfortunate that this comes at a time when the Village Hall may be moving, but until it does the preschool children will have the benefit of the new play area and the apparatus can be moved to the new site if and when necessary. The play area should be completed by the end of April 2008.
Fund raising news
We raised nearly £100 by planting and selling baskets of flowers for Mothers' Day. Thank you to everyone who bought one.
Party Night Saturday 3rd May
The next big event is to be a party night in the village hall with live band, disco, bar and hot pot supper on Saturday 3rd May. Tickets will be on sale at preschool, at the school gates or from Rachel Thompson 01524 793672 or Angela Physick 01524 793886. This promises to be a good night. See advert for more details. Be there or be square!
Stepping Stones Forton Preschool provides good quality education and care (Ofsted July 2005) for children age 2 to 5 years. We have an inclusive policy and aim to help all children to achieve their potential. We create a warm welcoming atmosphere in which children are motivated to play and learn. Our staff are mature, experienced and well qualified including qualified teacher and NVQ3 status.
We are open Mondays to Thursdays 9am to 12noon for children age 2 to 5 years and Fridays 9.15am to 12.55pm for children in their final preschool year.
Contact Rachel Thompson for further details: 01524 793672
Shireshead and Forton Cricket Club
Senior Section The first league
matches will be on Saturday 26th April and the opening games will be: 1st team
at home to Sedgwick, 2nd team away to
at home to Silverdale. The home
matches for the 1st & 2nd teams are played
at
New players are always welcome: if you are interested please contact The Secretary, Angela Murphy, on 07989 583771.
There is more information at http://forton.members.beeb.net
Junior Section Practices
will start for the U-11s and U-13s on Monday, April 21st at 7pm and for the
U-16s on Tuesday, April 22nd at 7pm. The season is starting early this year
as more clubs have joined the Junior League and so extra time has to be provided
to fit in all the fixtures. The first junior matches are as follows: U-16s on
Wednesday, April 30th, home to Trimpell; U-13s in the week commencing April
28th, home to Westgate; U-11s in the week commencing May 12th, home to
In April, Mrs Mansfield will send out the new membership packs to all last year's jumior members. The Club is open to boys and girls eager to learn to play cricket from the ages of 9 to 16. Due to the large take-up of the lowest section, anyone younger than 9 will only be considered in special circumstances. Last year that section was closed in the 3rd week because it was oversubscribed. If there is anyone who will not automatically receive a membership pack who would like to join and play, please ring Mrs Mansfield with your name, age and full address on (01524) 791338.
Bedding Plant Sales
Spring is here and Forton Scout
& Guide Group is again offering a selection of professionally grown bedding
plants with free local delivery. There is, as usual, a wide range of plants
available in packs of 4, 6 or 10, depending on the variety, all at only £2.30
a pack.
The popular larger plants especially
for hanging baskets are £5.00 a pack. An order form with more information
is included with this issue of Village Voice. Orders should be returned if possible,
please, by Friday 11th April, and plants will be delivered on Sunday 11th May.
We are most grateful for your support, as funds raised from this sale make a
major contribution towards the cost of running and maintaining the Group's headquarters
in
Beavers are still without an adult leader and have not met since last summer. Please can somebody find the time to help this group aged 5½ to 8 to get more out of life? Scouts gives something to young people which lasts a lifetime; all children deserve this opportunity. Being a leader may be demanding but is both enjoyable and rewarding and could be your opportunity to make a difference. If you are interested please do contact me.
League season starts for Forton Bowling Club
The league season starts this month for the eight Forton bowling teams and will
run until September. On Tuesdays, the Over Wyre Ladies teams play in the afternoon
and the Lancaster league teams at night. On Wednesday afternoons it’s the turn
of the Longridge and District Young (over55s) Vets teams with the Morecambe
league teams playing in the evening. Spectators are made very welcome so why
not drop by, watch what goes on and enjoy a cup of tea with the players.