As with every bank holiday, South Oxfordshire District Council’s waste crews will empty bins on a different days.  For information on revised collection days visit the bank holiday collections on the South Oxfordshire District Council website

People can recycle Easter egg boxes, plastic inserts and foil wrapping – they all go in the green bin. Please put recycling in loose or in clear sacks – the waste team won’t take it away if recycling is not in see-through bags.

In the unlikely case of any leftover chocolate or hot cross buns, people can use them in recipes on the love food hate waste website or put it in the food waste bin where they be recycled to make green electricity and fertiliser.  Residents can also re-use plastic bags to line food caddies.

It’s a YES!

On 15^th March 2018 Dorchester residents had the chance to vote on the Dorchester on Thames Neighbourhood Plan.

The Plan, 5 years in the making, sets the framework of general planning policies in our village. Neighbourhood Plans have to conform with National and Local planning policies, and an independent inspector had examined our plan in detail. He concluded that, with some technical modifications, the Plan was sound, indeed he was complimentary

But the final say rests with the village, hence the referendum.

So in response to the question:

Do you want South Oxfordshire District Council to use the Neighbourhood Plan for Dorchester-on-Thames to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?

The votes were:

Yes 398 (95.9%)

No 17 ( 4.1%)

Turnout 51.2%

That is overwhelming support for the Neighbourhood Plan!

Thank you very much Dorchester!

The Plan now goes to South Oxfordshire District Council to become part of the Local Plan.

The whole plan is available online here:

http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/sites/default/files/01-02-2018%20Referendum%20version%20of%20Dorchester%20NDP.pdf

Please note that a new mobile post office service will be visiting the village once each week with effect from Wednesday 28th March.

It will park outside the Co-Op in Dorchester High Street (and not outside the Village Hall in Queen Street as was previously announced).

Services will be available for one hour commencing at 10.30 a.m.

Above: Mixed age R-KS2 artworks produced in an art workshop at one of the Angel themed school visits. Below are some extracts from an angel themed poetry workshop:

‘Angels, shining like the sun ‘Angel, angel make us happy
They like to help But not in darkness –
They fly around Angels bring light
But they do speak to me.’ To people in darkness’

‘Angels are like butterflies Angels are beautiful
That are swooping in the sky Wonderful, kind
Angels have big wings True hearts
To help them go down Love inside
To us and up high.’ Helpful and loving.’

‘Angels guide us ‘Angels are here to remind us of God
They are a light of hope They sing to Jesus
in darkness They like to praise him
Angels shine brightly’ Angels are happiness’

Angels in the Abbey, Advent and Epiphany

In the autumn term leading up to Christmas the Abbey welcomed images of a range of fantastic artworks with angels in them from the National Gallery and other galleries, which we hung in the Abbey. We also had a number of school visits, all of whom really enjoyed engaging with the Abbey space, the artworks and creatively responding to them. Children were able to write poems and create artworks, as well as recreate scenes from the artworks in a tableau (‘picture freeze’) grand finale in front of fellow classmates! Teachers loved the experience too, as these comments indicate:
‘Thank you for yesterday’s visit. All of the school really enjoyed it and the teachers have lots of information and inspiration for whole class work.’
‘Thank you so much for such a wonderful day!  The children were buzzing all the way back to school – I will be planning some follow on activities for the next couple of lessons.  Thank you for giving us such an inspirational (and aspirational!) start to our new Unit of learning in RE.’

Anglo-Saxon Experience Days

This time of the year, as usual, has proved very popular with schools booking our Anglo-Saxon Experience Days, we have had several bookings. They love the different monthly themed rituals the children can participate in, particularly February, which is Solmonth, or Month of the Cakes – eating the specially made honey oatcakes as part of the Anglo-Saxon gods ritual is always a big hit with the children and their teachers!

Roman Experience Day

For well over a year now we have been running our Roman Experience days, a natural development from our Anglo-Saxon Experience Days. We had another visit this term, but a rather chilly and damp one! This didn’t prevent the students from having a great time, eating the Roman bread, experiencing the Roman smells, making their curse tablets and focusing on the ‘Roman water shrine’! We are also now looking forward to more of our Roman Archaeological Experience Days linked to the local Discovering Dorchester dig in July. This summer will sadly see the last year of the dig here in Dorchester. We are hoping schools will take advantage of this fantastic opportunity and book their visit, as it will be the last time they will be able to do so!

Below: Our version of a ‘Roman water shrine’! Do you recognise it?

LIGHT: A Spiritual Journey, 20th October 2018 – 6th January 2019

Looking forward to the autumn term, we will be hosting a fabulous art, music and science linked exhibition on the theme of LIGHT: A Spiritual Journey. This will include a series of specially created individual ‘theatres of light’, created by the local artist Adrian Brooks, accompanied by commissioned music from a local composer and projected images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Adrian’s artworks will be made of resin and decorated with patterns referencing pilgrimage shrines and medieval art. We will be linking this to the Abbey’s pilgrimage history related to our Anglo-Saxon founding St. Birinus and our replica Birinus Shrine. Schools will have the opportunity to take part in literacy workshops on poetry, as well as a selection of RE, science, history and art workshops and be able to participate in the creation of their own theatre to take back to school to display to their whole school. Make your pilgrimage to Dorchester this autumn to see the exhibition in action!

Below: Adrian Brooks’ scale model of our Cloister Gallery, where his exhibition will be located. This gives you a slight taster of how he imagines the exhibition looking, with a large circular screen with projections from the Hubble Space Telescope seen at a slight distance as you enter the Gallery. His ‘theatres of light’ will be located at different locations in the gallery leading you on your pilgrimage towards the heavenly projections.

Dorchester Abbey Education

Margaret Craig, Education Officer. You can contact me via email on education@dorchester-abbey.org.uk

Or call and speak to me about making a booking or further information on any of our educational visits 01865 343164 (Mondays and Tuesdays.

See our website for more details www.dorchester-abbey.org.uk/schools/