Circus celebration (From Basingstoke Gazette)
When news happens, text BAZ and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
Great Binfields Primary School celebrates 10 years
1:10pm Sunday 16th October 2011 in Education By Emily Roberts
From left: Great Binfields Primary School pupils Amy Lee-Sui, 10, Hannah Maxwell, 10, Rosie Walton, 10, and Maisie Howard, nine, celebrate the school's anniversary with headteacher Simon Cushing Buy this photo »
STAFF and pupils have been celebrating a milestone birthday for a Chineham school.
Ten years ago, there were just 64 pupils and three classes at Great Binfields Primary School.
Now, after being open a decade, the school is thriving with 195 children and seven classes.
Staff and pupils at the school, in Binfields Farm Lane, celebrated the milestone anniversary by taking part in a circus workshop.
Simon Cushing, who has been headteacher since the school opened in 2001, said: “I have a history of doing circus skills so we decided to have a celebratory day with a circus theme.”
Children learned to juggle, walk on stilts, spin plates and even balance on a tight-rope, before performing the skills in a show.
Mr Cushing said various other activities are planned for throughout the year to celebrate the school’s 10-year anniversary, including a balloon release.
The school is also planning to publish a book including memories and photographs from the past 10 years at Great Binfields, to sell as a commemorative item.
There are still eight members of the original team who started at the school in 2001.
Mr Cushing said: “In a sense that’s quite an achievement. We were meant to open the school with 30 pupils but there ended up being 64. We had a full Year R class and the rest were spread out across various year groups.
“We have more classes now and have expanded from three to seven. We have changed the school grounds but everyone who visits says it still looks like it’s new. It’s a nice building.”
Ten years ago, Mr Cushing told The Gazette that opening a new school was a “massive challenge and responsibility”.
Speaking now, he said: “Despite the challenges, we still had a responsibility to deliver the curriculum. I wanted it to be a happy school.
“What I said I would do 10 years ago has worked and I’ve achieved it. Everything I said has happened. Working with kids is great fun and unique, and it’s a good feeling.
“Now it’s been 10 years, there are former pupils who have just finished university. I have just heard from an ex-pupil who wants to be a teacher and I get a good feeling about that.”
He added: “I have been in Basingstoke a long time and I have a relationship with the town and the community within it.
“Sometimes, we might have an impact on a person’s life and make them better for it, and it’s all about having a school that’s fun and having that impact. All I would hope for is that people still have good memories of school.”
