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Mini pitch is goal, but first school needs £20k
A SCHOOL is bidding to raise £20,000 in a matter of months to get a brand new3G surface built.
Marden Primary School is one of
Festival set to rock with art
competition PRIMARY pupils are being chal- lenged to enter their best ‘RockArt’ submissions for the annual art competition at the Vicar’s Picnic music festival. The Yalding festival received
more than 300 entries in last year’s competition and the eventual win- ner was Rosa (pictured) from Senacre Wood School in Maid- stone. This year, youngsters from
across the South East are being asked to submit an A4 drawing or painting on the theme of RockArt, including such things as musical instruments, entertainment, DJs, parties and rock’n’roll. It’s an appropriate theme, too, as
headlining this year’s festival on July 20 and 21 will be Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Starsailor and Cast. Winners, chosen by the Vicar’s
Picnic team and local illustrator and artist David Bray, will be se- lected from each school and their pictureswill be displayed at a spe- cial gallery during the festival, while three overall winners will have their artwork showcased in the festival programme and receive a freeweekend family ticket. The Vicar’s Picnic, now in its
sixth year, is a home-grown family affair. As well as top bands, it will feature a kids’ zone, therapy zone, food court, and comedy and dance tents. Festival founder and co-organ-
iser Dave King said: “We are fiercely proud of bringing the best growing event to Kent, organised by the people of Kent.” The festival is entirely run by vol-
unteers and is this year supporting two local charities – Dandelion Time and the Kenward Trust. Tickets which are available at
www.vicarspicnic.co.uk, are sell- ing well, with 4,000 people ex- pected to pack The Lees in Yalding for the festivalweekend.
22 Maidstone Weald April 2018
seven in England that has been chosen to get a new mini pitch as part of an initiative with the Foot- ball Association and Football Fed- eration. It is hoped that the pitch, which
will measure 22m by 13m, will be in place for the start of the next school year. But to get it there, the school has
to raise themoney by themiddle of May. Project leader and teacher Sam
Clark-Keen said: “It will be mas- sive for the school and the village to get this pitch. “It will be an all-year round fa-
cility and, of course, itwon’t just be for football, it’ll be for other sports too – and we can also use it for be- fore and after-school clubs. “And it’ll be great for the village
too. The village is getting bigger and the hockey pitch thatwas here is having houses built on it, so it will be a facility that benefits every- one.” The nature of the scheme –which
came to the school’s attention fol- lowing some engagement with the Premier League’s Primary Stars initiative – means though that the money needs to be raised in a short space of time. Fundraising only kicked off in
February and although it has al- ready passed the £5,000 barrier, more needs to be done. “We’ve been appealing to local
businesses, and already have the likes of Gallaghers on board”, Mr Clark-Keen added. “We’ve already had one fundraising event and there aremore to come. “I’ve also applied for a couple of
grants, so we have our fingers in a lot of pies, butwe still need help. “To get this pitch will be ab-
solutelymassive for us, it will be a first-class facility for our pupils and over time the health benefits of it will be huge.” To donate to the school’s fund,
visit
www.neighbourly.com/Mar- denPrimary.
YOUNGSTERS from Sutton Valence are celebrating after being named Kent’s greenest school.
School is tops for being the greenest of green Sutton Valence Primary School
was awarded the prize for Best Na- ture Conservation School in Maid-
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stone andwas also named theOver- all Nature Champions for Kent and Medway at the recent Green School Awards. Three youngsters fromthe school,
Lexie and Morgan Taylor and Matthew Bullock, attended the awards ceremony at the Kent County Cricket Ground in Canter- bury. Morgan received the award on be-
half of the school and said: “I’mec- static to be honest with you. “I did not expect us to get so far,
as we've only been doing this a few years. “We've learned a lot but our ulti-
mate goal is to be 100% eco friendly.”
Pictured left: pupils and Forest School teacher Tara Bell celebrate their award win.
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Teacher Sam Clark-Keen with Marden pupils, who are all hop- ing that funding can be raised to build a 3Gmini pitch at their school
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