Train Community Project

30th January 2023Lee Wilkinson

The Dales School has been featured on George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces. The show followed the conversion of our class 144 Pacer Train.

 

It took an incredible effort from school staff, particularly our amazing site manager Tom McKinnon, working through the summer holidays to get the train ready for George’s visit.

 

We were amazed when the community came together to help support the project, with the intention of helping children gain reading skills. Reading skills are so vital and are linked to developing skills to help children out of poverty.

The school received funding from the Laurel Trust and Hargreaves Foundation as well as contributions from Arnold Clark, Barbour, The Port of Blyth, RW Mann Trust and Northern Rail as well as Blyth Council contributing to the haulage cost to deliver the train to school. The project even caught the attention of Henkal, based in Hertfordshire, who donated weatherproofing products. Noel Forte and his team were regular visitors to The Dales School and carried out work on our pacer train, even a faulty compressor couldn’t stop them in their tracks.

Barry Lewis from Henkal

 

The amazing conversion of the train even comes with its own track donated by Network Rail.

Network Rail volunteers building the track.

 

It’s own train station, donated and built by the local branch of TEXO, with a lot of support from the amazing Alan Conway.

Alan Conway designing the station.

 

Wickes volunteers.

 

A ticket office built by local Blyth-based charity Blyth Man Shed and donated by Mercia as part of the Wickes Community Programme.

Blyth Man Shed.

 

The train is fitted with a fully working driving simulator to help encourage early career aspirations and to help children with sensory needs to experience the sounds and sights of the railway.  The software was kindly donated by Dovetail Games and the simulator was built by our STEM lead John Jennings.

 

Thank you to Morgan Sindall and Rachel Bateman from NCC and the police cadets for volunteering work that made it possible to move forward with the project. Thanks also to Network rail volunteers lead by Dawn Sweeting who volunteered over the summer holidays.

We can all agree the work paid off and we are very proud of our train. Next stop, funding for our STEM carriage. This will be a place to support pupils with early career aspirations linked with local businesses and also to practically learn railway safety in a joint initiative with Network Rail.

 

Building and cooking

23rd January 2023Lee Wilkinson
In outdoor learning we practiced being architects and built our own houses. We looked at how to build teepees like Native Americans and also what shapes and angles we use when building houses. We all had a great time looking at traditional English breakfasts and cooked sausages and beans and made toast on the fire pit.
Here are some of our designs.

Train Christmas Blog

16th December 2022Lee Wilkinson

Northern Rail

Thank you to Northern Rail who is working with The Dales School to help the children experience train travel. The children are developing some fantastic life skills using the Northern Rail trains. We have enjoyed trips to Morpeth and Newcastle by train.

Northern rail invited The Dales School to a special Polar Express train ride on the new Northumberland Line. The children were able to meet Father Christmas on the train and also received books and chocolate from Father Christmas and his elves. Thank you so much to Marie Addison and Paul Henry for the continued support.

 

Northumberland Line Hoardings

We are very proud of the children who took part in the Northumberland line Hoardings day at Ashington Station. It was a very cold day and the children were very professional talking to the press and getting their photo taken for newspapers. We even met the leader of Northumberland County Council Mr Glen Sanderson.

The Children took part in working with a photographer called Lindsey Duncanson as part of the Northumberland line project. We are looking forward to travelling by train as the new stations will include Bedlington and Ashington, based very close to our two schools and Blyth and Ashington. The children asked some fantastic questions to Morgan Sindall who is the company building the new stations.

Some of the children have left us to go on to new schools who are displayed on the hoardings, but it was nice to look back at the fantastic time we had choosing the photographs for Lyndsey. The photographs were from a collection of old steam trains working on the Northumberland line when it was last used in the 1960s, taken by Ken Groundwater and Malcolm Dunnett. (Mr Groundwaters Dad)

This is the links to the newspapers.

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/people/northumberland-line-new-hoardings-installed-at-ashington-station-feature-children-from-the-dales-school-3955353

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/people/cuncil-leader-says-new-northumberland-line-will-end-traffic-jam-misery-for-thousands-3955470

Here are a few photos from the day.

Queen Elizabeth II

9th September 2022Lee Wilkinson
The Dales School is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Her Majesty the Queen.
The children at Ashdale were so excited yesterday having received a letter and card from Balmoral Castle in response to letters they sent celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Along with the rest of the nation we offer our deepest condolences to the Royal Family at this time. The Queen will be forever remembered for her devotion to this country.

Acorns Project

13th July 2022Lee Wilkinson

The Acorns Project offer a range of services to support families affected by domestic abuse in North Tyneside and Northumberland.

They have events for families over the summer and are hoping to put on family beach days potentially at Blyth and have organised two surf days at Blyth beach for children on the waiting list.  Details can be found at www.acornsproject.org.uk and you can view their full leaflet here.