Upsetting TV images of the war in Ukraine inspired Harrogate Grammar School sixth form student Sarah Castillo to go busking to raise money for the British Red Cross.
The 18-year-old is a regular busker in Harrogate and performs with her microphone and speaker at a spot outside Holland & Barrett on Cambridge Street.
Sarah raised an impressive £285 in a couple of hours last Saturday and is well on her way to raising her target of £500. All of the money will be donated to the Red Cross Ukraine humanitarian appeal.
She said:
“I just felt really upset watching the TV and seeing all the people suffer, they are not supposed to be experiencing things like this, especially the children, I felt like i had do something”.
Sarah likes to sing songs by Adele, The Beatles and Billie Eilish and will be back singing in Harrogate town centre from around 11am this Saturday.
Read more:
- Harrogate school fundraiser raises over £500 for Ukraine
- Ukraine crisis: Guide to how you can help locally
Businesses surveyed on Harrogate Christmas market preferences
Businesses are being surveyed on what kind of Christmas market they would like to see in Harrogate this year.
The organisers of Harrogate Christmas Market, which attracted almost 200 stallholders to Montpellier Hill annually until 2019, is conducting the survey.
Brian Dunsby, co-organiser and founder of Harrogate Christmas Market Ltd, handed out questionnaires at Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce‘s monthly meeting this week.
He told the meeting his company was “in discussions with Harrogate Borough Council about bringing back the Christmas market in 2022″.
As part of this, it has been asked to find out what businesses think.
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Speaking to the Stray Ferret after the meeting, Mr Dunsby said:
“The council said ‘find out what the business community thinks’. So that’s what we intend to do.
“The council have said they only want one market. We were thinking two or three would be better. So we are asking businesses what they think and will then look at the results and talk to the council.”
Andy Pidgen, operations manager at Marketplace Europe, at the start of last year’s fayre.
The questionnaire gives businesses four options to select from. Options A, B and C are for Harrogate Christmas Fayre, Harrogate Christmas Market and the artisan market in Valley Garden.
The fourth option is for all three “in a planned programme of Christmas events through November and December”.
All change last year
Harrogate Christmas Market Ltd was in advanced planning stages when the council declined to accept its event management plan.
It had 170 traders and 53 coaches booked to attend the annual event on Montpellier Hill in November when their plans were scuppered in July.
Harrogate Christmas Market was held on Montpellier Hill until 2019.
Instead, the council staged an alternative 10-day Harrogate Christmas Fayre in the town centre in partnership with Market Place, a specialist market company from Greater Manchester. It included about 40 stalls, a free road train, a carousel, helter skelter and ferris wheel.
There was also a two-day artisan market in Valley Gardens, organised by the company Little Bird Made.
Beckwithshaw primary school rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted
Beckwithshaw Community Primary School has been rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.
The 75-pupil village school on Church Row had been consistently rated ‘good’ by inspectors since 2002 but its latest Ofsted report means the school has now been placed in special measures.
Inspectors found pupils enjoy coming to school, show good levels of concentration and listen to instructions.
They praised the school for its phonics programme and said pupils read with confidence and understanding.
But the report, which was published on Friday, criticised the learning curriculum at the school as “not fit for purpose” and “poorly planned”.
It said this has led to pupils not doing well in a range of subjects.
‘Leadership vacuum’
An interim executive headteacher and interim head of school took up their posts at Beckwithshaw in October 2021.
But the report said a “leadership vacuum” over a period of time has had a negative impact on the quality of teaching at the school. It said staff have suffered from excessive workloads and low morale.
It said that new subject leaders are aware of the “deep-rooted problems” with the school’s curriculum.
However, they “lack the training they need” to make the required changes to raise standards.
Here is how the inspectors came to the overall ‘inadequate’ rating:
- The quality of education: Inadequate
- Behaviour and attitudes: Good
- Personal development: Requires improvement
- Leadership and management: Inadequate
- Early years provision: Requires improvement
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Special measures
The inspection took place over two days in December last year when inspectors observed lessons, spoke to pupils informally and had meetings with school leaders.
The report said the inspection took into account the covid pandemic and how it impacted the school.
Beckwithshaw has now been placed into special measures to drive up standards.
Special measures schools are given details on how they must improve and are regularly monitored to check that they are on track. Another inspection will take place within 12 months.
The report says:
“In accordance with section 44(1) of the Education Act 2005, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector is of the opinion that this school requires special measures because it is failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement in the school.”
The school was rated ‘good’ at its last full inspection in 2012. A short inspection took place in 2016 that said the school “continues to be good”.
Beckwithshaw is currently part of a federation of three schools, along with Kettlesing Felliscliffe Community Primary School and Ripley Endowed C of E Primary School.
The school’s response
Robert Ling, chair of the interim executive board at Beckwithshaw Community Primary School, said:
Harrogate still a ‘top priority’ for bus improvements despite funding warning“There are clear areas identified by Ofsted where Beckwithshaw Primary School can be improved and we do have a strong team around the school driving improvements at pace including the interim executive board.
“Inspectors acknowledged that the school has strengths: that pupil’s behaviour and attitude is good; that they happily play together; that they behave well in lessons and understand the importance of tolerance and respect and that children are well safeguarded.
“The phonics programme is planned well; it enables staff to support pupils to develop their phonic knowledge and skills effectively. Pupils learn how to match letters to sounds and blend them in words. The books given to pupils to practise their reading are well matched to their phonics knowledge. They read them with confidence and understanding.
“Pupils’ with an education, health and care plan are supported more effectively because they receive individual one-to-one assistance.
“We are now taking swift action to secure good leadership and improve curriculum planning across all areas of school life.
“We are proud of our pupils at Beckwithshaw and inspectors praised their good behaviour and willingness to learn. They deserve the highest standards of teaching and learning and good quality leadership and we are taking firm steps to put these in place.”
Harrogate will remain a top priority for bus service improvements, a council official has said despite warnings the region could be left with little or no funding from the government’s Bus Back Better scheme.
Michael Leah, assistant director for transport and environment at North Yorkshire County Council, told an executive meeting today it was “unlikely” the authority would receive all of the £116million it bid and there was a possibility it could get no funding at all.
This comes after the government wrote to councils in January highlighting how its £3billion budget to “transform” bus services had more than halved to £1.4billion.
Mr Leah told today’s meeting:
“The overall availability of funding has reduced and therefore expectation has dampened across the county.
“If we are to get a number, it will unlikely be £116million.”
Mr Leah explained that any funding received would be prioritised to areas where the county council believes it is needed the most, including Harrogate which has the worst traffic congestion in North Yorkshire.
Ripon and Masham also ‘high on list’ for support
He said the on-demand bus service, YorBus, which allows app users to book and track journeys in Ripon and Masham, would also be high on the list for financial support. He added:
“If we were to not get any funding, there are still parts of our enhanced partnerships scheme which we could see through, such as better bus timetable information and more coordinated work with operators.
“It’s not just about the money.”
The county council unveiled its Bus Service Improvement Plan in October with proposals for more bus lanes, cash support for existing and new services and a simpler ticketing system.
Crucially, the aim is for services to cover the whole of North Yorkshire – something which has been described as an “enormous challenge” for England’s largest county.
It is hoped these targets will be also met through so-called enhanced partnerships where the county council will agree to infrastructure improvements in return for better services from bus companies.
Electric buses
Separately, the county council has also bid for £8million of government cash to make all of Harrogate Bus Company’s fleet electric.
If successful, the company’s parent firm Transdev would contribute £11.5million towards the costs of buying 39 zero-emission buses.
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The different plans are all part of the overall aim to solve Harrogate’s congestion woes by encouraging people out of their cars and onto public transport.
But the scale of the challenge can be seen in figures which show just 6% of short commuting trips within Harrogate before the pandemic were on a bus – and that this was decreasing year-on-year.
And while Harrogate is the most populated area in North Yorkshire and is being seen as a priority for investment, the county council has been urged not to forget other parts of the county, particularly rural communities.
Councillor Don Mackenzie, executive member for access at the county council, responded to say improvements to rural bus services have formed the “backbone” of the Bus Service Improvement Plan:
Three teens on Harrogate Theatre roof plead guilty to causing £800 damage“There are huge challenges in providing affordable transport to a county as large as our own.
“But without question, one of the priorities we have is to improve bus services in rural areas, whether by traditional or more modern means as has been the case with YorBus.”
Three teenagers have pleaded guilty to causing £800 worth of damage after climbing on to the roof of Harrogate Theatre.
Police arrested the youths on January 25 after being called to reports of young people on the roof at the 122-year-old theatre on Cheltenham Parade.
The three males, who are aged 14, 15 and 17 and can’t be named for legal reasons, were sentenced at Harrogate Magistrates Court on Friday. They all live in Harrogate.
They all admitted damaging scaffolding to the value of £300 and causing £500 damage to a Ford transit van belonging to nearby Scandinavian cafe Baltzersen’s.
The 15-year-old was referred to North Yorkshire youth offender panel for 12 months and ordered to pay £200 compensation.
The 17-year-old was referred to North Yorkshire youth offender panel for six months and ordered to pay £200 compensation.
Read more:
He also breached a 12-month conditional discharge order received in October for driving without insurance or due care and attention. No action was taken on this breach.
The 14-year-old received a six-month conditional discharge order and ordered to pay £200.
Harrogate firefighters and police attended the 4am incident on January 25.
The theatre is undergoing a £1 million refurbishment that is due to be completed this month. Scaffolding remains in place.
Police identify man who performed public sex act in HarrogateNorth Yorkshire Police says it has identified a man who performed a sex act in Starbeck.
The police issued an appeal yesterday to identify the man, who was captured on CCTV.
The incident happened on Saturday, January 29.
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Harrogate mum shares daughter’s brain tumour battle
A Harrogate mum has shared how her daughter overcame a brain tumour after being diagnosed aged two.
Marnie Downie-Keally, now seven, was diagnosed with a type of brain tumour called low-grade pilocytic astrocytoma in March 2017.
She underwent surgery to decompress cysts that were causing a build-up of pressure in her head, and also to do a biopsy.
In late 2018 after an MRI scan, Marnie began a course of chemotherapy that lasted 18 months.
Marnie having fun
March is Brain Tumour Awareness Month, which raises money for research to find a cure for brain tumours.
Sally Downie said:
“There had always been something that wasn’t quite right and we had been back and forth to the GP with various things from swollen gums to strange jerky movements, but it always got put down to a virus.
“Marnie had never been a great sleeper, waking every couple of hours and then towards diagnosis, she was waking saying her head hurt and being sick. Finally a CT scan was done and that was when we found out she had a brain tumour.”
Enjoying life
Marnie is now doing well after finishing her treatment in June 2020. She is back at school and enjoys playing sports including football, gymnastics, paddle boarding and swimming.
Ms Downie said:
“Marnie’s last six-monthly MRI scan in January showed all is stable, and the doctor was very pleased with her progress. If all is well at her next scan in July, Marnie will move to yearly scans.
“She’s really happy that, now that her portacath is out, if she gets a temperature she doesn’t have to go to hospital to be checked. She’s doing really well, and is really enjoying being at school. She’s doing lots of activities, including football, gymnastics, paddle boarding and swimming.”
Marnie enjoys paddle boarding.
Read more:
Vital support
Marnie and her family have been supported by Candlelights, a Leeds-based charity that works with child cancer patients and their families across Yorkshire.
Candlelighters supported Marnie and her family right from their stay at the hospital, providing them with practical support and entertainment on the wards, wellbeing therapies, trips out and a holiday, as well as financial support.
Ms Downie added:
“There are far too many things to list that Candlelighters have done for us since Marnie’s diagnosis and unless you are being supported by them I don’t think you can ever fully appreciate what they do.
“The support provided by Candlelighters has been amazing for our wellbeing. There’s always a friendly face offering a cup of tea and a chat as well as endless entertainment and support for the children.”
To donate to Candlelighters visit this page.
Harrogate school offers ‘sound baths’ to boost wellbeingPupils at Harrogate independent prep school Belmont Grosvenor took part in their first-ever sound bath experience as part of the school’s wellbeing programme.
Sound meditation practitioner Sudeshna Sarkar visited the school in Birstwith to run a series of sound workshops during Children’s Mental Health Week.
The older children explored the science behind sound and to learn how sounds can have a healing effect on body and mind.
A sound bath is a meditative experience where you lie down and are ‘bathed’ in different sounds.
All pupils had a go at playing the gongs, Himalayan bowls, chimes, crystal bowls and other instruments before experiencing a brief sound bath.
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Ms Sarkar, who is a mum to two BGS pupils, said she was overwhelmed by the positive response to the workshop from pupils.
She said:
Harrogate’s Cloud Nine appoints new marketing manager“Participation in a sound bath requires no prior experience and is an excellent tool for children and adults alike to alleviate the symptoms of anxiety, stress, depression, poor sleep and a range of conditions affecting the nervous system.”
Harrogate-based hair and beauty brand Cloud Nine has appointed a new brand and marketing manager.
Laura Proctor has taken up the role, which comes as part of an expansion of the workforce at the company.
Cloud Nine recently appointed a new HR business partner, Beth Daley.
Speaking on her new role, Ms Proctor said:
“Cloud Nine is a brand I am extremely passionate about and I’m thrilled to be joining the team – this is an exciting opportunity, and I can’t wait to support the brand on its growth journey.”
Harrogate agencies post record quarter
Paul Snape (centre) with (L to R) Caroline Joynson, Susan Reid, Sarah Hone, Richard Lee and Helen Brady.
Media and profile agencies Appeal and GBM posted a record quarter with £175,000 in sales – an increase of 54%.
The Harrogate-based companies, which are sister organisations, have also appointed two new senior consultants to deliver a raft of new projects for a range of firms, from regional software and technology businesses to professional services organisation.
Paul Snape, founder, said:“In 2020, we launched new services, leveraging our media coverage to generate inbound sales leads online for growing SMEs, and that has helped us expand the US work as more and more firms strive to get a foothold in the North American market.”
Ripon’s newest business is another First for Rebecca
Rebecca Crallan will open the doors to The GreenHouse – Ripon’s newest business – at 10am tomorrow..
Ms Crallan, who earned a Double First in biology at Cambridge University, before obtaining her PhD at York, is leaving the world of academia and research work behind her for a brand-new career in retail.
Rebecca Crallan with her environmentally-friendly Miniml refillables range of cleaning products
Latterly based in London, where she worked for four years at Cancer Research UK, she has returned to her native Ripon, to put her scientific know-how into creating the eco and environmentally-friendly indie business.
The Stray Ferret visited 11, North Street yesterday for a sneak peek of the products on offer, and to hear why Ms Crallan decided to launch her venture in the city where she was born and bred.
She said:
“I came up with the idea while working at home during the covid lockdown.
“We’re all aware of reports on how we are damaging our planet, polluting the earth, oceans and air with plastics and gases and causing climate change.
“But those reports all call for action: If we act now we can change the outcome.”
Blankets made from redundant yarns, reduce the amount of material going as waste to landfill
She added:
“My mission is to make it easier for people to choose the greener option. From household chores to home styling and everyday needs to luxury treats.”
The products on sale have been carefully selected and locally sourced to minimise the impact on the environment.
Items on sale have been chosen with eco and environmental considerations top of mind
In addition to a refillables range of eco-friendly cleaning products, Yorkshire-made blankets created from recycled or redundant yarns are on offer.
There are also home and garden goods, locally-produced artisan-made wrapping papers and cards. .
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In setting up the business, Ms Crallan was able to call on the retail expertise of her partner Patricio Maglio.
His day job is at ASDA head office in Leeds and on some nights he is on ceremonial duty, setting the watch on Ripon Market Square, as one of the city’s four hornblowers.
Opening hours for the GreenHouse are between 10am and 4pm from Wednesday to Saturday. .
The shop also sells takeaway coffee, served in biodegradable cups.
Police issue CCTV pics of 6 people after Harrogate assault
*Update* – North Yorkshire Police has now identified the six individuals in the CCTV pictures and they are assisting officers with their investigation.
Police have issued CCTV images of six people – three men and three women, they would like to speak to following an assault in Harrogate.
The incident took place in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, February 13 at an unnamed bar on Cheltenham Parade.
A North Yorkshire Police press release tonight said:
“The incident involved a large group of people who were involved in an altercation, which resulted in a number of people in the bar being assaulted and receiving injuries.
“Despite enquiries with neighbouring police forces, the identity of the people captured in the CCTV images remains outstanding.
“Therefore, detectives from Harrogate criminal investigation department are asking members of the public to get in touch if they recognise the people in the images, as they believe they hold important information which will help the investigation.”
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Police urged anyone who recognises the people in the images, or who has any information regarding the incident, to contact them by calling 101, selecting option 2 and asking to speak to Detective Constable 604 Naomi Harris.
You can also email naomi.harris@northyorkshire.police.uk.
If you wish to remain anonymous, you can pass information to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Quote reference number 12220025651 when passing on information.