Ronald Allison: Taking their leave in style (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Ronald Allison: Taking their leave in style

10:32am Thursday 26th July 2007 in

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A WEEK past this very day did I take myself with Mrs Allison to the St Bede Church of England Primary School in Winchester, for the annual service held for those young students passing from the primary stage of their learning to be enrolled this coming September-tide at the secondary academies eagerly awaiting their arrival.

OK - that's enough poor-man's Pepys! There was though, very much the feel of a diary about the occasion.

In fact it only became a service in the traditional sense towards the end, with prayers, the presentation of Bibles and a blessing from Father Michael Starr.

Before that the Year Six children shared their memories of life at St Bede's since those far-off days in reception when some clearly enduring friendships were first formed.

The audience of parents and Year Five pupils were entertained to an hour of words and music, which following performances a week or so earlier of Roald Dahl's take on Snow White, revealed a range of talents which so easily could have remained untapped. Readings of prose and poetry, music from ragtime to rap, instrumental solos, some revealing confessions, tap-dancing, the school song - all were testimony to a thriving, well balanced school doing its best to encourage the children to do the same.

What I most appreciated was that the pupils had not only been well administered and well taught, but that they had been encouraged to take themselves well beyond the confines of the classroom.

They were challenged not just at their desks, but in the after-school clubs and on the sports ground.

They had inter-house competitions and were taken on various visits as well as into the comparative wild for residential weeks in the New Forest and in Devon.

What a relief to learn at first-hand that there are schools - and I am sure that St Bede is far from being alone in the county - with teachers prepared to give up their own time and to let the children, within the current rules and regulations imposed from Westminster (or is it Brussels?), test themselves physically as well as academically.

Health and safety is of course a priority - it surely would be in any case - but St Bede demonstrates that there is no need to hide behind the regulations and do little or nothing by way of extra-curricular activities.

It is all a matter of getting the balance right. So, our county's secondary schools - be prepared. Your new Year Sevens have high expectations.

They seem to me to enjoy being challenged and taking on something new and adventurous. What they need, and what I trust they have all been given, are the firm foundations on which to build full, well-rounded young lives.

* In last week's First Person' by Khalid Aziz, an error in editing wrongly suggested that there are "60,000 servicemen left disabled in the south of England". We would like to apologise for any confusion caused.