DESIGNS by four children from Gainford Primary School appeared on the Bishop of Durham’s annual Christmas card.
The Rt Revd Paul Butler visited Gainford just before then end of last term to attend collective worship and to reward the children for their artistic creativity.
Bishop Paul has been asking church schools to design his annual Christmas card since his investiture ten years ago and chose Gainford this year “because of all the work they have been doing around growing faith and I thought they would come up with some good designs, which they did.”
Ten-year-old Oliver earned the top prize for his painting of the bright guiding star above a stable which was chosen for the front of Bishop Paul’s card.
Pictures by Ivy, 9, Jacob, 8, and seven-year-old Toby are featured on the reverse side of the card.
Bishop Paul told children: “We send about 800 cards and I sign every single one of them.
“They go to all the vicars and their curates, they go to all the licensed lay-ministers, and they also go to the members of parliament and leaders of business and leaders of councils.”
Headteachers of Church of England schools in the diocese also receive a card, he added.
The school presented the bishop with an embroidered copy of his favourite Bible verse which was created by school office manager Jenny Linsley.
Earlier in the year the bishop presented Gainford Primary School with the Growing Faith Foundation’s partnership award which recognises the close relationship between the school, families and the church in promoting faith in the community.
Gainford was the first school in the country to receive the award.
![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)
