The Village of Wark

By the time you get to read this Wark School will be locking its doors for the Christmas holidays after a very busy week. There will have been something special on every day this week with all of it culminating in the Carol Service in St Michael’s Church at 2.15 p.m. on Friday afternoon. The children won’t be back in until Wednesday 4 January 2012 as Tuesday the 3rd is ateacher training day.

Mike Tickell’s talk to the Local History Group last Monday was a real gem and there is so much history to the Border ballads that I’m sure he could have filled double the time without any difficulty and without boring anyone. Listeners found out that Border Ballads are place specific and always tell a story. The audience were encouraged to have a go at singing ‘The Twa Corbies’, a tragic tale about an unnamed knight, dead behind a wall. All in all a fascinating evening.

The most recent school newsletter mentioned the establishment of a number of ‘zones’ in the school grounds to as part of a project to develop outdoor learning in school. The first of these zones aims to improve the biodiversity of the school grounds and encourage independent investigation skills. They were meant to create a ‘minibeast habitat’ and a ‘wild meadow’ area last Thursday, on December 9th. I wonder whether they managed to do it on that day with the weather being so wet and horrid.

With this weekend bringing the fourth Advent Sunday there will be Carol Services in both the Methodist United Reformed Church (MURC) and St Michael’s Church. The Service in the MURC church starts at 11 a.m. while the carol service at the other end of the village starts at 6 p.m. You know you’d be very welcome at either or even both churches!