Pace Egg 2010 Preview l Home to School Transport policy l Anti-bullying week

Community News

5 September
Take part in the multi-terrain 10k race held in celebration of the life of former Calder High student, Alice Redmond. This year's race is on Sunday 5 September starting at 10:30am in Brearley Field. The race finishes at Calder High School. All proceeds are donated to Epilepsy Action. (Entry form)

More information is also available on the website.

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Vote of thanks from the Midgley Pace Eggers

Another year, another Good Friday and another fantastic Pace Egg Play. I’d like to take this opportunity to say some heartfelt thank you’s to all who helped make this day a huge success once again.

First of all, a huge well done and thank you to the cast themselves for entertaining the Calder Valley throughout the day; it takes a certain type of person who'll step up and perform like that 'on the street', to such an expectant crowd, keeping them enthralled, yet sticking to this most traditional of scripts. Firstly, a hearty thanks to Mr. Stephen Ball and Mrs. Jill Leicester for their continuing support during the rehearsal and preparation process. I’d also like to thank all the guest doctors who were unwillingly dragged from the crowd to participate in our Easter shenanigans, they really added to the humour of the performance and we appreciate their spontaneous drama skills. To Linda Helliwell we owe a huge thank you, without her we would just be a group of oddly dressed thespians standing on a Mytholmroyd pavement. Thanks to her we had a minibus to drive us round on our haphazard tour. A thank-you must go out to Robert Holme KBE for his help with prop management and vocal coaching. Sol Cotton and Fran Robinson were both at hand with their cameras on the day, and because of that many pictures and videos are available for us as a cast to look back on as well as the general public too. Throughout Good Friday, we were accompanied and mothered by one Mrs. Ruth Roebuck. Her kindly, compassionate attitude meant she could cope with the Pace Egg rabble and help us through the day, a massive thank you to you, Mrs. Roebuck. Leading up to the day, we had exposure through many local and national media affiliations; without them our audience numbers wouldn’t be half as big. Finally, the biggest thank you of all goes to all who turned out to watch us make traditional fools of ourselves once again. See you next year!

This year we raised a total of £575; this will be split between two local charities; Overgate Hospice and the Great Generation Project. For more Pace Egg information and photos of the day visit www.painterschronicle.co.uk.

Sam Harris

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Pace Egg 2010 Preview (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, 2nd 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.

The cast for 2010 has changed dramatically from last year, with no less than 5 new faces making their Pace Egg debuts. Isaac Rose, Johnny McQuade, Joachim Goddard and Dylan Wilby have all moved on to future endeavours , with Billy Painter also making an unexpected late exit due to work commitments.

Entering the Pace Egg fray are some rather younger players than in previous years, with Jacob Jones and Jack Deighton (both 14) taking the roles of Kind of Egypt and The Doctor respectively. Also making their first Pace Egg appearances are Joe Cotton and Rowan Carter, the latter of which has had plenty of preparation having stepped into the Heptonstall Pace Egg performance last year, they will take the parts of Hector and Black Prince of Paradine. The final addition to the cast of 2010 is Kieran Bell. Having initially missed the audition process due to illness, Kieran was thrown a lifeline just over two weeks ago when it was announced that there was a final part to fill due to Painter becoming unavailable for the day, Kieran gladly accepted and will be The Fool this year.

This year’s cast will be: Kieran Bell, The Fool; Sam Harris, Bold Slasher; Jack Deighton, The Doctor; Jacob Jones, King of Egypt; Rowan Carter, Black Prince of Paradine; Joe Cotton, Hector; Thomas Deadman, Tosspot and finally Dario Coates takes the lead role of Saint George in what will be his farewell year. 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 and experience a real slice of Calder Valley life!

The Pace Eggers will be donating all funds made on the day to Overgate Hospice.

Pace Egg Performances: running order for Good Friday, 2 April:

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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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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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