After many months of waiting for a District Grant to support a project at Haxby Road Primary Academy, we are at last able to witness our success! On Friday 12th and Tuesday 16th July we were able to visit the school and see for ourselves the fruits of the Youth Services Team inputs. Inputs, plural, they were – not just one project, but several…….
Corridor Artwork:
In the summer of 2024, York Rotary made a sizeable donation to enable artist Jess Beniston to work with the pupils and staff at the school to brighten up the corridors with paintings of York’s famous landmarks and streets. The Victorian school building is the work of Walter Henry Brierley, the York architect known as "the "Lutyens of the North".
Each classroom is named after a famous York street. The relevant paintings are displayed in the vicinity and brighten up and remind the pupils of their special home city.
Gillygate Classroom / Haxby Rd School / Walls / Foss / Minster / Clifford’s Tower
District Grant-aided Performance Equipment:
One of the schools’ strengths is performance. After visiting an assembly and seeing the limited and ageing lighting and sound equipment available to support assemblies, gatherings and productions, Mary Lumley suggested that the Youth Services Team go all out to buy some up-to-date equipment. So, a 2023-4 District Foundation Grant was sought to match what we could provide and thus derive much more benefit.
After unavoidable delays, we finally had the go-ahead in Spring 2024 and the Ebor Trust procurement system took over the purchase, so that the correct equipment could be found at the right price. It arrived just in time for the Year 6 musical in July 2024 and leading lady Millie can be seen here ready for rehearsal. As well as 8 headsets, the project provided modern lighting and amplifiers, all connected to the computerised control system. There will still be a lot to learn, but the end-of-year production was enhanced by the state-of-the-art equipment. Headteacher Laura Robinson spoke of our donation at the performance and Deputy Head, Year 6 Teacher and Producer Josh Hind spoke for everyone when he thanked us personally. Year 6 pupils were thrilled to be using the new systems, just ahead of their leaving for secondary school.
Art Competition Prizes:
Whilst on the premises, we also took the opportunity to present the prizes from an Art competition run earlier in the year. President Paul Harvey had been donated a very large art box and the Youth Services Team decided to run a competition within Haxby Road Academy. Jess Beniston oversaw the competition and explained it at a whole-school assembly; all entrants would produce a poster called “Peace” and what it meant to them. The quantity and quality of the entries was impressive, so we decided to allocate the ‘big’ prize for Key Stage 2 pupils and to provide a second art box for the Key Stage 1 winner. We added two smaller packs of art materials for the runners-up in each category. It was a great pleasure to present 3 thrilled winners with their prizes on 12th July.
Winners were : Key Stage 2 Winner Evelyn (Year 5 Micklegate)
Runner-up Karalee (Year 5 Micklegate)
and Key Stage 1 Winner William (Year 3 Gillygate)
Runner-up (in absentia) Olive (Year 2 Whipmawhopmagate)
The photograph says it all…..!!
We look forward to further links with Haxby Road Community Primary Academy.
Eileen Davis
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