Rosedale blooms!

Built in 1873 by the Rosedale and Ferrybridge Iron Company, it was used as a temporary hospital to treat those injured in mining accidents. The school has undergone modifications since then but the staircases remain wide enough to accommodate stretchers.

The building remains an important facility in the village. Upstairs can be found The Community Room - a place where local residents can access ICT facilities, including the internet, careers advice and lifelong learning. Run in conjunction with the Open University, this is a particularly valuable service, considering Rosedale's islolated ruaral location.

The room also serves as a key learning facility for pupils. In the new year, it is hoped that some of the older students can help complete a 'virtual villages challenge', creating an interactive website based on the village.

The school hosted a youth night last month in conjunction with the Rosedale and Hartoft Parish Plan consultation.

Over 30 youngsters between the ages of ten and 16, made up of current year six and former pupils, met with community workers to discuss how facilities for young people in the village could be improved. It is hoped a youth club will be set up in the new year.

A writing workshop for members of the community, run by part-time music teacher Pat Almond, used to be hosted by the school.

However, Pat, a member of a writing group in East Ayton, now holds these workshops for pupils. This is to help the school raise its "good" standard of writing to match its "high" standard of reading, as outlined in its very healthy recent OFSTED report.

Another way in which the school supports the community is in a pilot scheme with the county catering services. The school sources much of its meat and vegetables locally, whenever possible using organic produce.

"We are now enjoying the new menu and still hardly ever send a morsel of waste food back to the kitchen. Everyone clears their plate!", said headteacher Nicola Johnson.

School chef Maggie Baraclough added: "The children really notice the difference."

The school also publishes a local monthly magazine, Uphill Downdale, containing news and views from Rosedale, Thorgill and Hartoft.

Just as the school supports the community, so the relationship is reciprocated.

In conjunction with a sponsorship deal from Barclays Bank, locals helped the school raise £12,000 in just 16 weeks for new toilets, cloakrooms and stairs, a new office and kitchen, and a new heating system in 1999/2000.

During the refurbishments, an old exercise book from way back was found down the back of a fireplace. Before the new one was put in, the school placed a bottle, with a picture of current pupils inside, behind it for discovery in the future.

Bring and buy sales - such as the recent Christmas one, for which pupils prepared daffodil and tulip pots, painted coloured glass candle holders, pomanders and decorations for sale - are always well supported.

The school raised £287 from one held earlier in the term in aid of its adopted charity, TADDEG. The Tamale Diocesan Development and Education Group is run by two Rosedale residents, Moira Austin and Anne Jenkins, who spend ten months of the year organising educational programmes in the Ghanian town of Bolgatanga.

They run sewing, cooking, carpentry and basic computing courses to help participants make their own living.

Through TADDEG, the school have 'adopted' Martina, a 15-year-old, who was orphaned after her parents died of AIDS. After successfully completing a sewing course, she was given a hand-operated sewing machine. Sadly, she had no home and nowhere to set up business.

But £150 raised by the school has paid for the annual rent on a small two-roomed house for Martina to live and work in. She can earn her own living and look after her three siblings, who she was previously unable to look after.

Mrs Johnson said: "Our bring and buy changed not just one life but four. Unfortunately, there are many more 'Martinas' in Ghana."

The school also bought a bull for Yelwoko Primary School, near Bolgatanga, to help fund as many children as possible through secondary school.

Much of the school's learning has a local angle, with community members often helping out on a practical level.

Rosedale resident Brian Martin visited the school to recount his wartime memories in connection with the school's Second World War history topic. The class have since painted their impressions of night-time air raids, built a mock Anderson shelter and tested a wind-up air raid siren.

Children also did some role-playing, each assuming the name of an evacuee, who attended Rosedale School during the war. The school still has original registers of its pupils dating back to 1875.

The Rev Alastair Ferguson at St Mary's Church, Lastingham, took pupils on a guided tour round the church this term. The children also listened to a short service in the crypt.

A somewhat spontaneous maths and history lesson took place earlier this term when the whole school went out to watch the traditional loading-up of wool sacks from surrounding farms.

This took place in the village because the lorry collecting the wool couldn't access the more remote farms. As well as learning about a key local industry, pupils worked out how much each wool sack was worth.

Mrs Johnson said: "We all wondered how many years this annual collection had been going on...and how many more it would continue, given the price for a fleece these days!"

With only 28 pupils, Rosedale is one of the smallest schools in Ryedale. But, just like when it was first built, it remains an important feature of the village - community by name, community by nature.

Updated: 12:25 Wednesday, December 17, 2003