News from Etonbury Academy News from ACORN Page 8,9

News from Etonbury Academy

We are delighted to start the year with some brilliant news from our Junior School who have achieved the Primary Science Quality Mark. This prestigious award recognises the excellence in our Science teaching and learning. Congratulations to our Primary Science Lead, Mr Gary Gotham, for his work to embed such excellent practice in our school. We have also received excellent feedback following a visit from the School Improvement Advisor, highlighting the many strengths of our school, as well as areas for us to continue to develop.

Our Year 5s have had a tremendous first term at Etonbury, and our Year 7s are enjoying the secondary facilities having moved up from the Junior School in September. The Year 11s had a Sixth Form Taster week, where they heard from the Secondary KS5 teachers about the different subjects to help them with their decision making for Year 12. This was followed by our Sixth Form Information Evening for parents and carers to find out more about the exciting plans we have been working on. The Sixth Form is the final development for the school and the plans are well underway. The students have had significant input into the shaping of this new facility and we are really excited to be delivering this much needed Sixth Form opening in September 2023.

Mr Evason and Mrs Young were delighted to attend the Roecroft Lower School Open Evening. It was good to see some familiar faces of parents whose children currently attend Etonbury, as well as many new members of the community. Another partnership that is really important to the school is with The NEED Project who support so many of our local families with food parcels. Before Christmas, we supported their campaign for donations of Christmas selection boxes and Christmas puddings and collected over 900 donated from Etonbury staff, students and their families!

Our Debate Club did a brilliant job reaching the Semi-finals in the International Debate Competition, with one Etonbury group volunteering to change sides at the last minute after a ‘no-show’ from another school. They did an amazing job having had no time to prepare their arguments, and to reach the semi-finals was so commendable.

Dawn Hollyoaks, our local Stotfold hero from the Great British Bake Off, came in for a tour of the school. Dawn will be returning again this year to share more of her own stories of attending Etonbury as a child, and pass on her baking expertise to our children.

Mrs Brahmachari-Limb has been running auditions for our whole school production - The Culture Festival. It is another great Etonbury community event for every year group in our school to get involved. Prospective parents continue to contact us for personal tours around the school. We encourage anyone to visit during the day, to see us in action. Please call us on 01462 730391 to arrange, we would be delighted to welcome you.

Window and door repairs and installations

* Misted/broken units * Handles * Mechanisms * Door barrels Supply and fit windows and doors Soffits and fascias

Jonny Garside 79 Regent Street, Stotfold 01462 732248 or 07951 473505

News from ACORN

Laying in Hedges

Winter is traditionally when trees are coppiced, pollarded and the hedges maintained. The work can be done in the warmer months but birds would be nesting and you can’t see the wood for the leaves. Also there are myriads of other jobs to be done by the forester in the summer. Coppicing was done to provide material for stakes, basket making and making hurdles. The term coppicing, mainly hazel and willow, is to cut back the upright growth to within six inches of the ground. It also opens up the woodland floor and allows the dormant flora to sprout up with the sunlight. The stakes were sometime put to good use in making hurdles and the smaller wood used to weave in and out between the posts. Often a log was laid on the ground with some holes bored in at *fingertip to elbow distance [*body measurements were used a lot in times past] to put the stakes in, then every hurdle was the same length. Although hurdles are usually associated with willow, hazel was used or anything the maker could lay their hands on that was long and flexible. Willow are more delicate and hazel bulkier and stronger. The full time hurdle maker would have osier (willow) beds to grow the willows in and small whips were woven into baskets. Nothing was wasted.

Coppicing is practiced in grazing areas. The trees are cut above head height or rather cattle jaws reach to stop them eating the leaves. Cattle are rather fond of willow, might be the salicylic acid, and are happier to munch on them as on grass. Willows are more commonly pollarded and some good examples can be found along the River Hiz at the Glebe Meadows in Arlesey. Pollarding not only gives material for making things it also prolongs the life of the trees. Willows start to fall apart after twenty odd years. The ones at the Glebe Meadows are around a hundred years old and that is why you will see them being pollarded from time to time, but sadly we think two have finally come to the end of their life span.

Hedging (and ditching) took place in the winter sometimes by just giving it a trim. In times past a Dunse slasher was used. ACORN does have one but is rarely used and the hedges are cut with petrol hedge cutters. After around ten to fifteen years the hedge will need more intensive maintenance and this is when hedge laying comes into its own. There are many styles of hedge laying around the country but locally rough or bullock style is used. The hedges at the Old Moat were done this way with the tip laying towards the railway line. The purpose of laying a hedge is to thicken up the base so cattle can’t escape as bushes get taller so the bottom parts get thinner. Some parts of that original section have since been re-laid.

Arlesey Conservation For Nature

All the above tasks are not predominant male activities, some of the ACORN ladies were heavily involved with hedge laying in the past. At one time three of them were working on a twist and roll heathering which makes a tighter finish. Heathering refers to the weaving between the top of the posts to hold everything in place until the growth starts to intermingle and bind the hedge. The ladies were using hazel which is a bit tough so two of them were working the lengths of heathering to weave while the third inserted the next length in the bundle. A new length is put in at every stake [fingers to elbow distance again]. Believe me it was a picture to watch and they wouldn’t let the men have a go to give them a break. This was on the hedge at Warden Road Ickwell that ACORN laid for Northill Parish Council to help raise funds for the purchase of the Glebe Meadows. Some Samuel Whitbread girls attended the hedging master class so age or sex is not a barrier either. The group also laid a hedge for the Wildlife Trust BCN at Warden Tunnel.

So how do you lay a hedge? First the growth needs thinning; this is done on the side which is going to be facing the ground when the stem is pushed over. This allows the other side shoots to be facing upwards when this is done. They help to bind the hedge together and give it a bit of mass. To bend over the stem, you cut a pleach using a billhook, [see illustration 1] a bit like a wide ‘V’ to thin the stem enough to flex it over without breaking the bit of bark that is left. This part is underneath once it is layed. Then place a stake in to hold the branch in place [illustration 2] and when you have several pieces laid over and staked you then weave the heathering [illustration 3] in place to hold it all together.

The traditional hedgelayer only ever used a billhook to do all the work even using the side of it to knock the stakes in however in the picture a Shillelagh is being used which is very beneficial if you are a bit short. Unfortunately saws including chainsaws have taken over, to speed things up.

Chainsaw leave a rough feathery cut to the plant cells whereas the bill hook leaves a clean cut. Leaving a clean cut, the cambium forms a callus and some of the cells organise into growing points as seen in illustration 4. The callus also helps keep water and disease out.

Next time you are at the Old Moat Nature reserve take a closer look at the hedge along the railway boundary and you will see hedgelaying that has taken place over the previous years.

Unfortunately the chance to see ACORN volunteers doing some hedgelaying at the reserves now is gone and will not happen again for a few more years but the annual hedge trim goes on.