Pace Egg 2009 l Ripponden Riverbank Clean Up l Elmet Trust Partnership

Community News

Home to School Transport Consultation
Calderdale Council are consulting students, parents and teachers about changes to their Home to School Transport Policy. Policy changes in 2008 meant that a number of families no longer qualified for free home to school transport assistance to their nearest school - where there is a nearer school outside the Calderdale boundary. They are now "considering whether to use their discretion in order to provide transport assistance for those families who are attending their nearest Calderdale secondary school who meet the distance criteria set out in the home to school transport policy even though there is a nearer out of authority school."

Please use the questionnaire available from the Council's website to make your views and comments known to the Access Team. All comments must be received by 17 March 2010.

The policy can be viewed here.

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Pace Egg Auditions
The auditions for the 2010 Pace Egg Players will take place on Thursday 28 January at 3.00pm, in The Ted Hughes Theatre. The Pace Egg is a once in a life time opportunity and is a highly prestigious event in the Calder Valley with thousands turning out to watch every year on Good Friday. All auditionees will be required to perform part of the Pace Egg script which can be obtained from the theatre via Mrs Leicester or from Billy Painter and Clara Collett (the script is also available on Frog).Any questions please do not hesitate in coming to speak to any of us. Good Luck!

See below for the report and photos from last year's performances.

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Anti-bullying week
As part of Anti-bullying week in November, Year 7 students took part in a poetry competition. The winner was Amina Rafiq...but special mentions also go to the following students who won prizes: Imogen Bristow, Issy Wharton, Alice Paine, Joy Rooney, Ronan Lane, Shiraz Khan, Mariam Shahid, Dhaniyal Khan, Martha Salter, and Iqraa Tahseen.

Amina pictured with her winning poem. (Link to poem)

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Pace Egg 2009

A fantastic day was had by all once again...thanks to everyone who came and watched...we raised £600 for the Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team. For Johnny McQuade, Isaac Rose, Joachim Goddard and Dylan Wilby it was their last performance; they will be sorely missed but we are on the look out for new talent, so if you're interested in performing in this great tradition next year - get in touch! Special mention for Rowan Carter who stepped in at Heptonstall for the Heptonstall Pace Eggers and learnt his lines two hours prior to the performance! To watch back . . . look on YouTube - full videos on there!

Thanks to:
Mrs. Jackson and Ms. Armitage - Pilots for the day. Robert Holme KBE - Designing and producing our props. Mr. Bennett - Saving the day as Doctor in St George's Square. Mr. Ball - Financial benefactor and allowing us to play around with swords despite the many dangers! Shirley Bibby - Making our new costumes. Mike Barrett - Photography

Thank you for your support if you were at the performances and we hope to see you all again next year!

For those of you who missed this fantastic event...do not worry! It is being performed all over again on Saturday 25th April, The Piece Hall, Halifax at 1.00!!! Get down there and show your support!

(Report and access to images provided by Billy Painter)

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Pace Egg Preview (Poster l Performance times)
By Billy Painter

It’s that time of year again when the Calder Valley tradition of the Pace Egg play lives on and entertains hundreds of people throughout the Calder Valley. The students of Calder High School, will once again dust off their Pace Egging hats on Good Friday, 10 April,  to perform all day long throughout the Calder Valley.

The Midgley Pace Egg play is an old tradition within Calder High School, and has been performed by the school for many years now. The Pace Egg is based on the oldest play in the world, The Mummers Play.

The story is based around Saint George's triumphs and the whole play boasts his great champion status. Throughout the performance three challengers try to defeat Saint George (Bold Slasher, Black Prince of Paradine and Hector), who is a very cocky and mighty character. The play consists of eight characters, which this year was again made available to all ages, due to the school’s excessive range of performing talent. As always, it is an all boys cast due to the ancient traditions of the play.

The auditions took place in front of a panel of experienced Pace Eggers who had the necessary knowledge to identify the sort of raw talent the Pace Egg needed. For the auditionee to get the nod from the audition panel they had to recite the part of Saint George as well as an unscripted performance of their own choosing. The auditionee also had to show their passion and interest in the Pace Egg itself and explain why they would like to be part of it. The lucky six successful auditionees will experience performing the oldest play in the world, performing to a wide variety of people throughout the Calder Valley and will get to make the performance their own by working outside of the usual performance boundaries.

This year’s cast will be: Billy Painter, The Fool; Johnny McQuade, Bold Slasher; Joachim Goddard, The Doctor; Dario Coates, King of Egypt; Sam Harris, Black Prince of Paradine; Dylan Wilby, Hector; Thomas Deadman, Tosspot and finally Pace Egg evergreen Isaac Rose takes the lead role of Saint George. Crowds will also be spoilt with the musical brilliance of Clara Collett and Jess Woodhead, who will be the buglers once again.

For those of you reading this article, having not seen the Pace-Egg before, I really do urge you to get to your local area this Easter, and support this magnificent tradition. Once again the play promises to be a fantastic and memorable occasion, so don’t stay away; come experience Good Friday the Calder Valley way!

The Pace Eggers will be donating all funds made on the day to The Calder Valley Search and Rescue Team.

Pace Egg Performances: running order for Good Friday, 10 April:

Photos from last year's performances:

Singing song: Sam Harris, Johnny McQuade, Isaac Rose and Wesley Downs	The Black Prince (Sam Harris) vs St George (Wesley Downs)
Singing song: Isaac Rose with the accordion	St George (Wesley Downs) carries Bold Slasher (Johnny McQuade) in a dance routine as well as a fight
Photographs taken by Mike Barrett

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Ripponden Riverbank Clean Up Report

On Wednesday 29 October, five students from Calder VI took part in a voluntary riverbank clean-up in Ripponden. The students braved the cold and waded into the River Ryburn (wearing extra, extra large waders, which proved to be slightly too big!) pulling out nine bags of rubbish from the river, and carrying out a litter pick in the surrounding area.

£105 worth of plants were provided by Calder Future, a partnership between the local community and agencies which have responsibility for waterways in the Calder Valley, which were planted along the riverbank to improve the area.

Report by Julia Hill and Ashleigh Bielinski-Bradbury

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Calder High School/Elmet Trust Partnership

Pictured are Stephen Ball, Headteacher, and Rodney Watson, a trustee of the Elmet Trust, at the partnership agreement signing ceremony.

Calder High School has entered into an exciting partnership with The Elmet Trust, an organisation which promotes the life and work of Ted Hughes in his birthplace, Mytholmroyd. The Elmet Trust has provided funds for a feature wall in the soon-to-be refurbished foyer of the new Ted Hughes theatre. Calder High School will provide performance space in the theatre for a number of events and performances in The Ted Hughes Festival in October, which will celebrate Ted Hughes around the tenth anniversary of his death. Visit The Elmet Trust website for more details.

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