Tag: #AshVale

Posted on

Happy New Year from Butterflies Preschool

Hello and Happy New Year!

Butterflies Pre-school has re opened.  We are open Monday – Friday, with longer days running on Monday’s and Wednesday’s. We are Ofsted registered and accept all funding.

When the UK Government announced another Lockdown, though Pre-schools and Nurseries were to remain open, it left us initially feeling a little confused.  However, it didn’t take us too long to carry out our own Risk Assessments, put a few extra measures in place and open safely after the Christmas holidays.

We opened Butterflies as a brand new Pre-school back in November 2019, then in March 2020 at 5 months old, we sadly closed our doors as everyone went into lockdown across the world.

In June we re opened and followed strict guidelines from Early Years and the Government, as well as our own extra measures to support infection control.  Many children returned and thankfully we kept Covid 19 free for the entire time that we were open, with just one of our families contracting the virus over Christmas.

Throughout 2020, despite the Pandemic and closure, we managed to successfully grow our team and attending children and we hope this can continue.  We run independently from the Community Hall side of St Mary’s Church and  follow the Early Years Curriculum. With an outstanding Early Years team, all highly qualified with many years of experience, they continually demonstrate commitment and dedication to providing the best and safest environment we can for our children.  

It is a blessing to see how resilient and happy our Butterflies children are as they enjoy playing and learning through play in their Pre-school.

With the new highly contagious variant of the virus spreading around, our infection control safety measures have been updated and implemented, safety continues to be one of our top priorities.  We understand it is a worrying time for many and are happy to share all the practices we have in place, should you be interested in learning more about our Pre-school.  We currently have just a few spaces left on a few days, if you are interested we would love to hear from you. For further information, please feel free to contact Natalie Andrews on 07881807337 or by email Butterfliespreschool19@gmail.com

We wish everyone in our community to remain safe and pray that all our lives can resume some normality in the not too distant future, after this challenging time.

Best wishes to all

Natalie Andrews – Owner of Butterflies Pre-school
Rebecca Hitchman – Senior Manager
Daniella Jaconelli- Manager
Kat Corbyn – Deputy Manager
Indi Dhami – Deputy Manager

Posted on

Useful Numbers – Help is at hand!

Here are some of the useful numbers you may need if you need support in Ash Vale. If you think we are missing a number please let us know.

Local Churches:

St Mary’s, Ash Vale – 07863 311165 (Parish Administrator’s Mobile)

The Chapel, Ash Vale –  07730 609446 (Project Manager’s Mobile)

St Peter’s, Ash – 01252 331161

Holy Angels, Ash – 01252 321422

St Paul’s, Tongham – 01252 782790

Continue reading “Useful Numbers – Help is at hand!”
Posted on

The Covid that stole Christmas?

A letter from Revd. Neil Lambert                                   

Have you noticed? Whenever you turn on the television or radio lately,  without a doubt you will hear someone talking about ‘Christmas is cancelled’, ‘Covid stole Christmas’, ‘Christmas is on hold’ or even coming up with 101 ways to ‘save Christmas’. The media is fixated on the issue. However, it seems to me that the real damage being done to “Christmas” in 2020 is to that commercial ideal of Christmas ‘with all the trimmings’. The culture of excess, over consumption, endless novelty and waste is being challenged this year. Faced with financial uncertainty many of us are reflecting on what the ‘real’ meaning of Christmas is, and  it is about Christmas that is really important.

Well, the good news is that the real Christmas doesn’t need saving – in fact, its here to save us! The birth of our saviour Jesus Christ is a gift from God and cannot be taken away. Every Sunday throughout the year at St Mary’s we remember that God came to be among his people, in order to save us. He came in the form of a man – Jesus Christ – to show us the way. God has not abandoned his people. That baby in the manger, the same saviour who died on a cross for us and was raised from the dead, is more than capable of visiting us in a pandemic. No virus, no government regulations, no gates, shields, doors or barriers can come between us and Him.

The truth is, that the first Christmas was far from jolly. It came at one of the worst times in history for God’s people. They were occupied by a foreign force, suffering under corrupt government and looking for a saviour to bring justice and peace. The amazing thing is that God appeared, as a baby, and the first people to hear about it from the angel host were not the kings and leaders of the day, but instead a bunch of poor shepherds our in the fields watching their flock. God sent an angel choir to some of the poorest, humblest people in the community, and told them the good news before anyone else. Speaking of humble, the other central figures in the story of Jesus’s birth were similarly low in the social pecking order. Mary the mother of Jesus was a young girl, not yet married when the angel appeared to her to tell her she had been chosen to bear God’s son. Her response to the news though is pure joy, and the Magnificat, her joyful song, is one of the most beautiful passages in the whole of scripture.

Luke 1:46-56 Mary’s Song   (New International Version)

And Mary said:“ My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49  for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;  he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever,  just as he promised our ancestors.”

Paintings by Sandro Botticelli “Mystical Christmas” and “Madonna Magnificat”

Two paintings that I love by Botticelli. The first shows the angels singing and dancing around the baby Jesus and his mum Mary. I particularly like the angels on the roof dressed in white red and green symbolising Grace, Truth and Justice in juxtaposition with the two devils hiding under the rocks at the bottom.  In the next painting called “Madonna Magnificat” we picture Mary writing her song of praise helped by the angels in attendance while baby Jesus sits on her lap holding a pomegranate a symbol of eternal life. Notice how beautifully Botticelli paints the hands that move along the bottom of this masterpiece.

We may not be able to do all the usual things we would normally do this Christmas, but in our households and bubbles we can celebrate God, who is unlimited and all powerful. One of His many gifts to us is our creativity and this year we all have the opportunity to be creative. We can send messages of love and hope to our loved ones in so many ways now using the internet, phones and cards. We can’t gather for a big Christingle service but we can bring joy to one another by singing carols outside, sharing what we have, and ringing bells on our doorsteps at 6pm on Christmas eve as an act of solidarity, love and hope. Even if you haven’t got a bell, shake your keys, ring the doorbell, or make a joyful noise in whatever way you choose. Let’s join with the angel song and celebrate what really matters.

“All Glory be to God on high , and to the earth be peace;

goodwill   henceforth from heav’n to men begin and never cease.”

Wishing you every blessing this Christmas,

Neil

Posted on

Awards, Footprints & Eco Resolutions

We were recently delighted to learn that St. Mary’s church has been confirmed as a Bronze Award winner under the A Rocha Eco Church scheme. This is a Christian charity with a remit to mobilise Christians and Churches to care for the environment. https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/

Looking forward to 2021, there are positive things that could be done to improve our eco-credentials still further, and potentially to earn a Silver Award. Here are a few ideas that we would encourage everyone at Church and the wider community in Ash Vale to consider:

· When Covid restrictions are finally lifted and services in Church resume (yes it will happen one day!), why not try walking, cycling or car sharing to get to Church?

· Consider how you could reduce waste by making small changes to your lifestyle in line with the principles of “reduce”, “re-use” and “recycle”.

· Take the time to check the source of items in your shopping trolley and commit to increase your use of Fairtrade & ethically sourced goods.

· If you are thinking of replacing your car next year, have a look at the new options for cleaner electric or hybrid vehicles.

· Calculate your personal/household carbon footprint using one of the available online tools (e.g. www.carbonfootprint.com).

· Commit to offset your own carbon footprint by making a donation to one of many environmental projects, such as the tree nurseries being set up by Amaha We Uganda (www.amahaweuganda.org).

The national Church has a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.  St.Mary’s carbon footprint has recently been calculated and a baseline has been set or 2018 which was  22.66 tCO2. Of this, 16.94 tCO2 is attributable to gas and electricity usage, based on actual meter readings. The remainder is due to a range of factors including car use by people attending church services, food served in church and use of paper, etc. These contributions are hard to capture precisely but have been estimated using information from St. Mary’s Annual Report. As some improvements were made to the heating system at the end of 2018, and 2019 was a warm year, encouragingly, we have seen an improvement. 2019 has been calculated at 18.02 tCO2, of which 11.46 tCO2 is attributable to gas and electricity use.

I was recently asked how many trees would need to be planted to offset our carbon footprint. Not knowing the answer, I reckoned a quick online search would yield the required information but as is often the case, it proved to be a little more complicated. First, I discovered the amount of CO2 absorbed by a tree depends on multiple factors such as species, climate, rainfall and elevation, and secondly opinions vary on the number of years that should be used in calculations. After reviewing several references I am assuming 8kg/year for a “typical” tree over 20 years, one tree will offset 160kg of CO2, and six trees will offset 1 tonne (tCO2). For St.Mary’s church, this gives a target of 108 trees to offset our 2019 carbon footprint.

Let’s work together on this on our journey towards a Carbon Neutral future.

By Lesley Murphy

Posted on

Snow on Ash Ranges in the 1980s

During the snowy winter of 1981/82 here in Ash/Ash Vale, along with everywhere else in Southern England, we awoke one day to find there had been a huge snowfall overnight and everyone was totally ‘snowed in’!  There was no way in, or out of Ash & Ash Vale, all roads were impassable until the snowploughs reached us with grit etc.  For that day we were all ‘cut-off’!  Those who did try to drive to work, found the roads where impassable & had to return home.  This was a day I shall never forget!

What a wonderful day of fun and laughter the day turned out to be!  Everyone (young or older, with or without children) made for the ranges!  We all took everything we could find to have fun!  We wore our boots, wellies, thick coats, gloves, mittens, and hats to keep our ears warm.  Sledges, toboggans, tin trays, and even ski’s were the ‘order of the day’! .  There were numerous snowball fights (between children & children, plus adults and adults!), several snow-men (or “snow-people” to be politically correct these days!) were built and children just enjoyed rolling in the snow, especially down the butts (but no damage was done, the snow was so thick)!  Everyone mixed in with the fun, regardless of their age. 

A couple of the menfolk built a fire (in a sheltered snow-hole) and managed to get a decent fire going. They then found sticks/branches, planted them in the snow with a line of string attached to make a ‘drying line’ for drying gloves!

As the kiddies (& adults) gloves became soaked through, they would take them to the fire, take them off and they were ‘pegged’ onto the line to dry out!  In exchange they received another ‘dry’ish pair of gloves, any gloves that fitted!

I am certain no child (or adult) went home that day with their own gloves, but no-one cared! It was a day nobody who was involved in will ever forget and will probably not happen again?  The ‘Community Spirit’ was definitely shown on that day.

By Pat Scott