CHILDREN from Cockfield Primary are celebrating a truly international Christmas after corresponding with 22 other schools around Europe.
The school was one of only ten in the North East to take part in an exchange programme which saw them share traditional baubles, information and photographs with counterparts all over Europe. As a result, class three now has a Christmas tree with decorations from Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Slovakia.
Teacher Charlotte Racher said: “We learned how different countries celebrate Christmas and how Covid has affected them. The class was interested in what food they like to eat at Christmas. We made our own baubles. We based our baubles on Cockfield so some did Raby Castle, a lot did a rainbow for the NHS because that was important to them and some did traditional baubles. We sent a Powerpoint to the other schools so they could see how we celebrate Christmas.”
She added said there was a real buzz in school when the post was delivered each day.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
