Teacher’s pride

10:35am Wednesday 23rd July 2008

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AN “INSPIRATIONAL” teacher who helped her pupils transform part of their school into an avian enterprise has been nominated for an award.

Pupils at St Barnabas CE Primary School, in the Leeman Road area of York, are keeping three chickens, Dolly, Sally and Harley, as part of an educational project introduced by Vikki Pendry, healthy schools coordinator, to teach the children about sustainable communities.

The three brown pullet hens are ensconced in a state-of-the-art hutch called an Eglu, and are helping the children learn how to look after animals. The eggs they produce will be sold to the local community, and the profits will then be used to buy eggs for developing communities in Africa through a charity called Send A Cow.

The enterprise involves all the children at the school, who take it in turns to care for the chickens and collect the eggs.

Mrs Pendry spent more than a year organising the project in hope that the scheme would help bring the community together, give the children a sense of responsibility as well as raising money for a worthwhile cause.

Mum Judith Walker whose two sons, Samuel, five, and Thomas, eight, attend St Barnabas CE Primary School, has nominated Mrs Pendry under the Teacher Of The Year category of The Press’s Community Pride Awards 2008, an awards scheme run in conjunction with City of York Council.

Judith said: “Mrs Pendry has been so enthusiastic in her efforts to have chickens at the school. The project has been in the pipeline for some time and she has investigated every bit of information about having chickens at school. She has passed on to the parents and children all the relevant information about caring for chickens.

“She also ran a healthy eating week at the school to encourage the children the merits of eating better. These projects are an example of how enthusiastic Mrs Pendry is about everything she does to help the school and the children. Mrs Pendry is inspirational and really deserves to win this award.”

The deadline for nominees for The Press’s Community Pride Awards ended today.

A panel of judges are now whittling down the hundreds of nominations ahead of a glittering ceremony to be held at York Racecourse in October.

Our judges will select three finalists in each category, and winners will be announced on the night.