News

Community Newsletter Spring 18

The Friends of the Old Girls’ School are totally delighted to have been awarded a grant from the Big Lotteries Fund. There are two elements to the grant – nearly £100K to refurbish the building and then a revenue grant for 3 years to cover staffing to allow us to run the programmes we have proposed to the BLF. This means we will not just be relying on volunteers to run the Community Centre. There will be paid staff to manage the facility and session workers to help provide the programmes.

So what will there be at the Old Girl’s School Community Centre and Tearoom? Well obviously, a tearoom, which will open out onto our lovely garden which was created with the help of the grant from Tesco Bags of Help. We will have 2 activity rooms which can be used for exercise or activity classes. This is also where we plan to site the Community cinema. This space will also be available to rent out for Children’s parties. There will also be an IT media suite with Wi-Fi and computer access for training or just dropping in and networking. There are two individual rooms which can be booked for meetings or for consultations. We have good car parking at the back and obviously we are just a short distance up Kirkgate from the village centre crossroads.
Our current plan is to start work in early 2018, with a view to opening in late spring/early summer 2018.

Sherburn & Villages Community Library
It’s now just over six months since our library changed and became a Community Library. We are delighted that the 70 residents who we recruited to run the library are continuing to enjoy their volunteering as they are absolutely critical to keeping our library open.

So what’s it like to volunteer at the library? It takes a while to get your bearings. In a 9 to 5 job within a few weeks you have built up over one hundred hours of experience. As a volunteer working one morning or afternoon per week, building up that experience takes a bit longer. Most volunteers have commented that they had no idea of the wide range of facilities offered by the library.

One major activity for us has been the Summer Reading Challenge – an annual event designed to introduce young children to the pleasures of reading. It was great to meet so many enthusiastic parents and children and we signed up nearly four hundred children – a great achievement in our first year.

We have run successful events over half term, with crafts for children, themed around Hallowe’en. For Christmas we are running a craft fair with local crafters on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd December from 10am to 12.30pm. We are also having a postbox for children to write a letter to Santa, all replies will be posted on a notice board. Santa himself will be making an appearance in his special grotto from 10am to 12 noon on Saturday 16th December.

It’s still early days but we have got through a potentially tricky initial period and can look forward with a fair bit of optimism. Libraries are changing and evolving and the intention is that Sherburn Library will become a Community Hub offering a wide range of information and becoming the reference point for information about what is happening in our community.

If you have never visited the library or haven’t been for a long time then do please call and say hello. We do much more than just books and with help and support from all our stakeholders we can continue to develop as a vital part of our community.

We are keen to promote local news and events. If you would like to get in touch please contact us by email on sherburncommunitylibrary@gmail.com.

VACANCY FOR A TRUSTEE

The Trust is managed by a board of 8 trustees who are all volunteers committed to achieving the above aims. We have a diverse group of trustees who bring a variety of skills and experience to the role. We have monthly meetings, usually on the last Monday of the month, in Sherburn & Villages Community Library. There will be a requirement to carry out tasks between meetings and respond to e-mails.
We are specifically interested in hearing from people who have a background in finance, marketing or law.
If you would like more information or would like to apply, please contact
Paul Doherty
Chair of Trustees
Contact paul.doherty@sherburninelmet-pc.gov.uk
Tel 01977 684666

Closing date 5pm Tuesday 12th December 2017

Sherburn & Villages Community Library
Our big activity is the Summer Reading Challenge where we are encouraging children to read. The theme for this year is Animal Agents. Please bring in your children and sign up for the challenge. It’s fun!
Do come into the library and see our facilities for yourself. Enjoy a cup of fresh bean coffee and browse the newspapers. If you need help with your computer, tablet or phone or don’t know how to print the boarding card for your holiday, come and see one of our IT buddies who will be pleased to assist you.
The volunteers are enjoying their work at the Library. If you would like to join them, we are always interested in new applicants. If we get enough, we can consider extending the opening hours. Please get in contact on sherburncommunitylibrary@gmail.com
The Old Girls’ School
Plans are progressing for the refurbishment of the Old Girls’ School. We are currently obtaining quotations for the refurbishment works. Once we have these we will be able to complete our Big Lottery Fund application for the funds.
You will all be able to see the progress we are making on the community garden which was funded by the Tesco Bags for Life grant. Contractors are currently on site and we will have the garden open for the Craft and Food Fair, so please come and visit us and we can show you our progress to date. We would also be interested in visits from any potential users of the facility as it is a community building, so your input is vital. You can see from our new logo that we are going to call the place the Old Girls’ School Community Centre and Tearooms.
The opening of the nursery at the back of the school will be in early September. This building is for Kirkgate Child Care. To find out more, come to one of the open days in August.
Please don’t forget to help us fund the community cinema by choosing the Old Girls’ School as you’re your charity for the 1% community grant available from the Co-op. We only have until 9th October to raise sufficient money. The pot is currently sitting at £567.

Sherburn & Villages Community Library

Another month under our belts as volunteers and we are still learning!

Our new coffee machine has been installed and we have received positive feedback on the improvement in quality. We have also increased the range of drinks with decaffeinated coffee and herbal teas now on offer. We have changed the biscuits and reduced the price to 50p per packet. Don’t forget for regular users there are loyalty cards for the coffee – buy 6 get your 7th free.

We are going to install a new noticeboard at the entrance to the Library to provide residents with information on news and events around Sherburn and the neighbouring villages. We want this to be updated at least daily and help to make the library a hub for local news.

Anne-Marie Oldroyd, the new Community Development Manager from the Parish Council, will be taking up her new role on 12th June and will be mainly based at the library.

A reminder that we have a newly decorated room upstairs which is available to hire out for meetings at a cost of £15 per session. A session is either a morning or an afternoon. Please book via the library.

Did you know you can now buy gifts in the library? We have a range of gift items for adults and children. The hand crafted items have been made locally. If you would like to support local crafters and the community library, please have a look in our display case.

Upcoming events in the Library

Wednesday 14th June – Discovering your Family History. This is a starter session to describe how you can start researching your own family history. The talk will be given by Pam Trace who has been running regular sessions on Family History at Sherburn Library for four years. Tickets £5

Saturday 17th June – Children’s Craft Event. Come and make Venetian masks. All materials supplied. Suitable for 7 years and upwards. Tickets £3.50 each or 2 for £5.

Digital Neighbours training 9th & 16th June

From July we will again have the Summer Reading Challenge for our younger readers. Volunteers are visiting the local schools to tell the children all about it. Registration starts on 15th July. The theme this year is animal agents.

The Old Girls’ School
The asbestos has been removed and we are now starting work on the toilets and flat roof.

Thanks to everyone who supported us at the Easter Parade and the Gala. We have raised a total of over £5,000 locally.

Work on the Nursery is also well underway. This will be opening in September as Kirkgate Childcare, offering places to children aged 2 to 5. For more information please contact Dawn Stevenson, Nursery Manager on 07922038597 or kirkgatechildcare@outlook.com.

The publicity about the Community Cinema had generated a huge amount of interest on social media. Please remember to register on line at the Co-op for this to be your preferred charity for the next 6 months, so we can maximise the 1% donation to local causes.

We need help from the community to make this fantastic old building into a community centre to meet the growing needs of our villages. If you are a local trades person who can offer to help with the refurbishment or you are willing to help with decorating or general volunteering, please get in touch with Allyson Chambers allysonchambers@aol.com or Tel 01977 681670

Sherburn & Villages Community Library

Our volunteers now have a month’s experience of running the community library under their belts and everyone is gaining confidence and enjoying interacting with the customers. Thanks to everyone for their hard work and to the customers for their understanding whilst we learn the ropes.

During May we should receive our new coffee machine. It is a bean to cup machine, so the quality will be much higher and there should be a lovely aroma of coffee pervading the library. Tea will be provided via enveloped tea bags, so again will be of higher quality. For regular users there are loyalty cards – buy 6 get your 7th free.

We are holding a number of events in the coming months:-

Saturday May 27th – come and find all about 3D printing. From 10.30 to 11.30am. Tickets £3 to include refreshments. Limited numbers so please book a place at the Library

Saturday 17th June – Children’s Craft Event. Come and make Venetian masks. All materials supplied. Tickets £3.50 each or 2 for £5.

During June we will be holding our first Digital Neighbours training – helping people onto their first steps of accessing computers and the internet. We are holding 3 initial sessions on Friday 2nd June, 9th June and 16th June, from 10.30am to 11.30am in the Library. Chris Halloran is running the sessions supported by some of the other IT Buddies. Sessions are free and numbers are limited to 6 per session. Book places via the Library. The topics are:-

1. An introduction to different types of equipment—laptops, tablets, e-readers
2. Getting starting on searching the internet
3. How to print documents

From July we will again have the Summer Reading Challenge for our younger readers – more details in the next newsletter.

We now have a room upstairs which is available to hire out for meetings at a cost of £15 per session. A session is either morning or afternoon. Please book via the library.
The Old Girls’ School

The lease for the Old School became effective from 1st April, so at last we now have our hands on the building. The first work has started on the building with the removal of asbestos. The next steps will be to start on the flat roof over the toilet block and to refurbish the toilets.

British Gypsum has very kindly agreed to supply insulation and plasterboard free of charge. We are also applying for a grant to help with the cost of the building work, which we will hear about in June.

We are going to be letting the old classroom behind the main building and this will be opening in September as Kirkgate Childcare, offering places to children aged 2 to 5. For more information please contact Dawn Stevenson, Nursery Manager on 07922038597 or kirkgatechildcare@outlook.com.

The publicity about the Community Cinema had generated a huge amount of interest on social media. Please remember to register on line at the Co-op for this to be your preferred charity for the next 6 months, so we can maximise the 1% donation to local causes.

We need help from the community to make this fantastic old building into a community centre to meet the growing needs of our villages. If you are a local trades person who can offer to help with the refurbishment or you are willing to help with decorating or general volunteering, please get in touch with Allyson Chambers allysonchambers@aol.com or Tel 01977 681670

NEWSLETTER
April 2017
The Library
With Easter here we have two weeks as a Community Library under our belt. It’s been an interesting, often hectic, period as we put the theory of the training courses into practice.

It’s fair to say there have been lots of minor issues, but nothing major has gone wrong. We have begun work on creating crib sheets for all the key tasks (e.g. signing up a new borrower). None of us are working full-time at the Library, most of us are volunteering for one session per week and it will take a while for us to get up to speed, so having a quick reference for the key tasks will be useful.

The Steering Group had a meeting with the Team Leaders on the 11th April. Our Library Supervisor, Julie Lakin and our Outreach Librarian, Alison Tutill joined us and they both commented on the enthusiasm and commitment of the volunteers.

At that meeting we set up three Working Groups:-

Events – to manage and coordinate events within the Library.
Community Hub – we aim to make the Library a centre for community news and events and the natural choice for residents who want information about community facilities and council services.
Communications – developing a Public Relations strategy and a strategy for how we communicate with local residents. This will involve traditional media (parish newsletters etc) and also social media.
The IT Buddies are also meeting on a regular basis, with their first meeting being held on April 5th.

At the moment we have a limited number of names down for each group, but input is welcome from everyone and if you feel you could contribute to one of them then please email sherburncommunitylibrary@gmail.com.

There is also scope for other working groups, so any suggestions would be very welcome.

Lanyards, badges and name cards have now been supplied to most, but not all, volunteers. If one hasn’t reached you then please email sherburncommunitylibrary@gmail.com and we will sort something out.

Similarly you should now have received sign in details for the online training. We do appreciate the time volunteers have already given up for training, but this will add to your knowledge. The online training about Data Protection is particularly useful because we do see a fair amount of personal data at the library, so you might want to make that part a priority.

Staying on the data protection theme, the Acceptable Use forms are part of our Data Protection policy and we have had signed Acceptable Use forms from most volunteers, but if you haven’t yet signed one please see your Team Leader. You also need to have undergone Fire Safety Induction. If you have not yet done this, please see your Team Leader.

The Old Girls’ School

April 1st was an important date for the Old Girls’ School too, as it was the date that we take on the lease from NYCC. There is a lot of refurbishment to do to get the building open as a Community Centre, but the Friends of the Old School are working hard on their project plan.

We are also delighted that a project at the Old Girls’ School has been selected for the next 6 months for support at the Co-op. 1% of you shopping bill goes to local causes and every 6 months there are 3 projects. From 9th April the Old Girls’ School Community Cinema is one of the projects, so if you are a member, please make it your preferred charity. If you are not a member, it only costs £1 to join.

The Library

It is only weeks now until the Library becomes Sherburn & Villages Community Library. From 1st April it will be run by volunteers. Our aim is to make the change as seamless as possible for our customers and to continue to provide a friendly and helpful environment to enable people to access local services and use the library.

The only change to opening hours is to remove the later opening (between 5 and 6pm) on a Thursday. To confirm our opening hours from 1st April are:-

Monday 9.30am to 5pm
Tuesday 9.30am to 5pm
Wednesday—Closed all day
Thursday 9.30am to 5pm
Friday 9.30am to 1pm
Saturday 9.30am to 12.30 pm

We have a social evening for our volunteers on at the Library at 6.30pm on March 14th – enabling the teams to get to know each other.

We have been successful in securing funding from Stronger Communities for a grant for Digital Neighbours. This will be used to purchase some updated computers and e-readers to enable us to give more support for our IT buddies and to provide some classes to help residents improve their computer skills.

The Old Girls’ School

We are still hoping to take on the lease from 1st April. We are actively seeking quotations and funding for the work which needs to be carried out.

We have received some quotes for the Community Garden funded by the Tesco Bags for Life grant. The designs look very exciting and will transform the outside space.

We have been successful in obtaining a grant of £4,000 from the CEF towards the cost of the catering equipment required for the Community Café.