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Hambledon Easter Events

Please take a look at the Easter page on godalmingminster.org for everything happening at St Peter’s Hambledon, and across Godalming Minster over Easter. As well as observing Easter with reverence, there’s several more inclusive and social ways for everyone to get involved.

Highlights at Hambledon include An Hour at the cross at from 12-1pm on Good Friday, before the trekkers arrive from Busbridge for tea and hot cross buns at the end of the Hot Cross Bun Adventure. If you want to join them, please meet at Godalming Minster Brighton Road at 2.30pm.

Messy Easter on Sat 30th is a real treat for younger ones. Meet at the Village Hall at 10am for a walk up to Hambledon Common where there’ll be games and an egg hunt on the sandpit.

Then come along to church at 10am on Easter Day to celebrate Jesus is Risen!

There’s no morning service on 7th April, but do please join us for the Spring Choral Evensong at 6pm (with thanks in advance to the very accomplished pop-up choir!).

The Hot Cross Bun Adventure – a 5km walk from Busbridge to Hambledon, or vice versa!
Messy Easter games on Hambledon Common

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Hambledon Nursery School is “Outstanding”…Again

Hambledon Nursery School has entered 2020 in a mood of celebration after receiving an “Outstanding” grading following its latest Ofsted inspection.

Kate Walford, the head teacher, said that she, her staff and parents were all delighted with the news. The school, at Rock Hill, was judged Outstanding in all four categories; quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management.

She said: “I feel so very proud of the team of fantastic individuals with whom I have the pleasure of working with. This outcome is only achieved with the collective hard work, drive, passion and commitment of all staff members.” Kate, front row in green jacket, is pictured below with her staff.

The report is extremely complimentary about all areas of school life. It can be found here:

https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50138477

Ofsted – the Office for Standards in Education – is a non-ministerial body that carries out official inspections and regulation of schools and other places of learning. After visiting a school, usually with very little notice, it then issues it with a grade: 1. Inadequate, 2. Requires Improving, 3. Good and 4. Outstanding.

The nursery school was last inspected in 2014, when it was also given an “Outstanding” rating.

In summary, the latest report, carried out in December, said:

* The head teacher and her extremely enthusiastic staff succeed in achieving their strong ethos, which they describe as providing a highly stimulating environment ‘where skills to last a lifetime are taught and lifelong memories are made.’

* Children demonstrate exceptionally high levels of confidence and security in the setting.

* Children have immense fun as they learn. They behave impeccably.

* Staff demonstrate exemplary teaching skills through which they provide children with wonderful opportunities to use critical thinking skills and to extend their thoughts

* Staff have an extensive understanding of each child, their interests, abilities, cultures and backgrounds. They ensure every child has the best possible opportunities to meet their full potential.

Kate added: “The level of support from the parents was overwhelming. Their positive feedback and testimonials, shared with the inspector on the day of the inspection, was mentioned as being especially unique to the nursery when she delivered her feedback.

“We are very lucky to work with such inspiring young people and their families and we will continue to strive to provide the very best possible early years’ environment that we can as we look to the future and continue with the very important task each day at the nursery…. of having plenty of fun!

  • The school was originally the village state primary school. When it closed in the 1980s residents were determined to see it remain at the heart of the community as a place of learning.  A campaign led to the acquisition of the Victorian school house complete with playground and its reopening as a nursery school run as a business by a charitable trust. It caters for children aged 2 to 5 and retains its strong links with the village, the church and the parish council.
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Christmas Celebrated, And New Year Greetings

Hambledon’s festive celebrations concluded with community carol singing outside the village shop on Christmas Eve which an estimated 200 people attended. It just gets bigger every year!

Following on from the equally-successful carols in the Merry Harriers and the Christmas Dance at the Village Hall (see earlier news item), it was then left to St Peter Church to bring home the Christmas message with midnight communion on Christmas Eve and a Family Service on Christmas Day.

Now all that remains is New Year’s Eve. There will no doubt be many private parties around the village and the Merry Harriers has live music and a buffet, beginning at 9pm and going on until 1am. Midnight will be celebrated with complimentary bubbly.

Finally, from all of us at the Hambledon Village Web Team, we wish you the very best for 2020.

We leave you with some photographs taken by David Edmiston of the Village Shop carols and our thanks to all those who organised and participated in a wonderful Christmas community gathering.

 

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Training offered in Hambledon for use of life-saving defibrillators

Training in the use of defibrillators (AEDs) is being offered to residents following the installation of one inside the former telephone kiosk at the Hydestile Crossroads.

This takes the number of defibrillators in the village area to five; outside the village shop, on the exterior wall of the Merry Harriers, at St Peter’s Church, at Hambledon Football Club’s ground at Badger Park, and now at Hydestile.

Alison Martin, a Busbridge Parish councillor who helped arrange for the AED (automated external defibrillator) to be installed in the traditional red kiosk – which has also undergone renovation in the process – has arranged for a training session to be held in the meeting room at St Peter’s Church, Church Lane, Hambledon, on Saturday September 28th.

The training will be given by an expert from the London-based Barts City Life Saver organisation, a charity that teaches life saving skills and originated from St Bartholomew’s Hospital. The session begins at 11am with basic life saving training, then AED training at 2pm followed by baby and child resuscitation at 3pm. Participants can opt to attend the whole session, or part.

AED’s are used on people suffering from sudden cardiac arrest and, along with Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation, can greatly increase survival rates.

Training will be free to the Hydestile volunteers on the Busbridge Parish Council-sponsored rota, but to all others there will be a nominal cost of £20 per person to cover the costs of the trainer travelling to and from London and a donation to the charity’s work.

Anyone in the village can register to attend. Please contact Alison Martin at email amtillies417@gmail.com or by phone on 01483 893619.

If you would like to know more about the work of the charity please visit www.bartscitylifesaver.org

 

 

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A New View Of An Old School

Hambledon Nursery School has a strong association with residents of the village. Many helped turn the former Church of England state primary school, which closed its doors in 1983, into what it is today.

Their initiative and enterprise led to the purchase of the Victorian school building and playground in the lovely rural setting of Rock Hill. And they were responsible for its transformation into a  nursery school for two to five-year olds, administered by a charitable trust.

Today the school is a popular choice for parents in Hambledon and beyond. Its strong links with the local community remain in place. Trustees are drawn from the village and include representatives from St Peter’s Church and the Parish Council.

So villagers may like to take a look at the school’s new website which can be found at www.hambledonnurseryschool.co.uk This is beautifully and colourfully illustrated with photographs of the school, including an interesting aerial view. You will find photographs of staff and of children, at work and play.

Continue reading →

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Parish Magazine Pays Tribute To Two “Great Lives” in July Edition

The families of Mic Coleman and Pat Williams have expressed their gratitude to the people of Hambledon following the funerals of both, held in the past month.

They were much loved and respected residents and both contributed enormously to life in the village.

Mic’s funeral was held at Guildford Crematorium, followed by a gathering at the Merry Harriers. In a message afterwards, his family said: “We would like to thank all those who attended the service at the crematorium and those who sent condolences and thoughtful messages”

Pat’s funeral was held in Hambledon at St Peter’s Church and her sister Margaret Romney said that the love and friendship in the village had been “overwhelming”.

The lives of both have been celebrated in earlier articles on this website. The July edition of the Parish Magazine carries the tributes paid to both at their funerals. It will be on sale at the village shop from tomorrow (Saturday June 29th).

                                                               

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Tuesley Farm Grant Gives Green-Fingered Benefits To Nursery School

Kate Walford, head teacher of Hambledon Nursery, reports on how a grant from the Hall Hunter Foundation has helped transform the school’s vegetable garden and pond.

The work was carried out by volunteers from the local Hall Hunter-run Tuesley Farm, growers of soft fruit.

“Thanks to a very generous donation from the Hall Hunter Foundation we have been able to revitalise and enhance the outside space at the nursery.

We are thrilled to have been able to gain raised beds in our vegetable garden. A working team visited the nursery over the Easter holiday and set about laying paving slabs and building up the beds out of large wooden sleepers. A huge lorry arrived delivering enormous bags of soil and the team filled the wooden beds ready for use as soon as the nursery returned for the start of the summer term.

The nursery staff and children were so excited to see the results and we have already planted potatoes and pumpkins into the space.

In addition to this project, the team from Tuesley Farm made us a pathway around our two ponds in our environmental garden which will help the children to access the area for pond dipping and bug hunting more easily.

Finally, we received a new wooden picnic bench for our playground from which to serve drinks in the warmer summer months. The nursery now eagerly awaits a delivery of a large collection of wooden blocks that we can use to build enclosures and dens that the Hall Hunter Foundation have so generously purchased for the nursery.

We are so grateful for the work carried out and for the awarded fund that we have been able to use to further improve and enhance our beautiful outside area at the nursery.”

The Hall Hunter Foundation was set up in 2011 and raises funds in support of good causes which are then donated to a range of local charities.

Hambledon Nursery School, a registered charity, is a thriving nursery school for children aged two to five and was formerly the village primary school at Rock Hill, Hambledon Road. When the school closed in the 1980s a village-led initiative secured its Victorian classrooms and playground for the benefit of local families and it reopened as a nursery several years later.