Children's Christmas cheer for their community

A school opened its doors to members of the community when it hosted Christmas lunch yesterday – complete with festive entertainment.

St Aidan’s Primary in Ashington, which is a member of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust, invited parishioners to a traditional Christmas dinner at the school, cooked by its in-house catering team and accompanied by a performance from some of its pupils.

Headteacher Michael Moran said: “This is the first year this event has taken place, as we had planned for it to take place last year but it was cancelled at short notice due to a Covid outbreak.

“Events like this are so important to us, because there was a break in relations with our parish during Covid, and we are now only starting to reaffirm those ties.”

Twenty-two people accepted the lunch invitation and were entertained by St Aidan’s Show Club while they enjoyed their meal, which was served by the school’s ‘Mini Vinnies’ volunteers.

Mr Moran continued: “There are 26 children in Show Club, ranging from Year 3 to Year 6. They sang a range of different Christmas carols and songs that they had been learning throughout the year, and they also performed different dance routines. All performers wore Christmassy outfits.”

Songs included ‘O Holy Night’, ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’ and a solo of ‘Stille Nacht’ (‘Silent Night’), while the dancers performed to festive favourites ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, ‘Rocking Around the Christmas Tree’ and ‘All I Want for Christmas’.

Mr Moran added:“The meal was served by our Mini Vinnies, whose role is to make a difference in the local community. This was a fantastic way for them to do this, and they loved the opportunity to help others.

“It is important that the children see our parish community as being part of their school community, and those links are so important to us. It is also nice for the parishioners from our church to see what goes on in our school, for the same reason.”