Easington - Down Your Way

Easington C of E Primary School Year 5 and 6 children had two wonderful experiences recently linked with the production of Billy Elliot at the Sunderland Empire. The children visited the Empire Theatre to have a tour and to work with Hollie, who leads on Cultural Learning at the theatre. Then the director and a member of the production team visited the school to work with the children. They enjoyed drama activities and had a go at the tap dance in the finale of the show. East Durham Creates funded the opportunities for the children.

Hawthorn Parish Council March and April monthly meetings have been held in the church due to the refurbishment of the community centre. The May meeting returned to the newly refurbished community centre but members thank the church for allowing them to use such a beautiful building for the last couple of meetings.

A performance in London of the Billy Elliott stage show was followed by a contest victory for Easington Colliery Brass Band, which also took first prize at the Wansbeck Entertainment Contest held in Newbiggin-Sports and Community Centre. Under the baton of MD Chris Bentham, members delighted the audience as well as adjudicators, Alan Hope and Jim Thompson with their varied programme. Opening with ‘Walking with Heroes’ followed by ‘Autumn Leaves’, which earned solo trombonist Steve Jones the deserved Best Soloist prize. The classic march, Praise, was followed by Tom Brevik’s trombone quartet arrangement of It’s Alright With Me, which also included a stunning trumpet solo by principal cornet Danny Robson. The programme concluded with Peter Graham’s Shine as the Light. The adjudicators commented on how close the overall competition was, but in the end it was Easington that beat nearest rivals Fishburn. Band manager Peter Lawson said: “This is a fantastic achievement. We’ve been working hard over the last couple of years and that is now starting to pay off. I’m absolutely delighted for Chris Bentham, the players and particularly Steve Jones, who is a superb trombone player and fully deserved his prize.”

Seventeen Easington C of E Primary School Year 3 and 4 children took part in an amazing residential experience at Carlton on Cleveland. Activities involved orienteering, high ropes courses and weaselling (climbing in between rocks). Thank you to Mr Appleby, Mrs Scarr, Mrs Wray and Mrs Appleby.

The Easington Community Garden was recently awarded some funding from Durham County Council to plant perennial in the Dennis Donnini Memorial Garden. The other week more than 200 plants were planted by volunteers. Unfortunately, someone has been along and stolen some of them. More have been purchased to be planted shortly. One of the aims of the group is to “Make Easington a better and more colourful place to live”.

Easington Colliery Primary School would like to thank SAFC Ladies and Steve Harper for meeting the school football teams one afternoon, and answering questions from the whole school.

Persimmon Homes is consulting with local people on a proposal to develop 80 dwellings on the land to the west of Fennel Grove, Easington. Consultation with communities is an important part of the planning process. Getting people involved in the process should lead to a development that is more representative and sensitive to local issues, the site with access taken from Fennel Grove is range of two, three and four-bed properties with a central area of public open space.