POETRY COMPETITION – GRIMSDYKE SCHOOL
The Hatch End Association has a close relationship with our local primary school – Grimsdyke – after all the Association was instrumental in persuading the powers that be to build the school in the 1940s! In recent years the HEA has sponsored competitions with the school: a writing competition to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee, a photography competition, an annual shield in memory of Alan Bell and in December 2017, the children took part in a poetry competition. Six year groups entered and the judges – committee members Sheila Reid and Dominique Wilson – picked a winner and a runner-up from each year group. We present below the winning poems. The theme is Friends and Family as the poems were being written at the start of the festive season when family and friends get together.
Year 1
Kavish Sachdeva
Friend
We need a friend to hold to hold our hand
We need a friend who understand
We need a friend when we shy or cry
We need a friend when we fail or try
We need a friend to play catch
We need a friend to play a match
Friend – thats me
Friend – thats you
Friend – thats us
Year 2
Milan Saujani
Friends and Family
Maya helping patiently,
Milan talking happily,
Daddy shopping constantly,
Mummy cooking lovingly.
Shiram working perfectly,
Kaius joking excitedly,
Lilly answering correctly,
Miss Alibey marking joyfully.
Nani reading amazingly
Nana bathing quickly
Bella playing noisily
Friends and family are spectacular!
Year 3
George Greany
Friendship
Friends are nice to each other all ways
Relying on each other to chat and play
It’s the best feeling to have friends
Every day is fun to the end
Never a dull moment running and laughing
Doing cool stuff like disco dancing
Sometimes if I feel sad
Having friends makes me glad
I love having friends to laugh and grin
Playing together is my favourite thing.
Year 4
Rashida Rashad
Family and Friends
We all have a cherished
garden we tend –
it is planted with love of
family and friends.
The memories
and dreams we
treasure and share
are like a beautiful
rose found blooming there.
The comfort and
care on which we depend
is given with love between
family and friend.
The sunshine of laughter
and rain of a tear
only make our love grow
with each passing year.
Year 5
Ishi Mistry
The Contrast of My Family and Friends
Family and friends are like an interesting piece of music;
Sometimes we have high notes together,
And sometimes we have low notes.
Family and friends are like a rich piece of chocolate;
At times the chocolate is bitter,
But then, the bitterness is forgotten and the sensation of sweetness,
Love and unity fulfil your taste buds.
Family and friends are like wonderful scenery;
Sometimes the sunset is relaxing and spellbound,
But occasionally raining with leaden skies.
Family and friends are like a dancer;
They sway to the beat of the evening waltz,
Or gallop around the lively dynamics of the energetic foxtrot.
Most of all, we are a soft gentle marshmallow, in a world of love and unity,
Sitting on top of a flavoursome rocky road sundae!
Year 6
Eve Freeman
Friends and Family
I was so excited,
A trip away with school!
A week of great activities,
It was going to be so cool.
But I started getting butterflies,
I was worried I’d miss my mum,
I was scared I wouldn’t be able to sleep,
And I wouldn’t have fun.
My family gave me lots of love,
but still I was scared to go.
I kept my worries inside my heart,
So my feelings wouldn’t show.
Then my mum said ‘Tell your best friend,
Because she just might feel the same’.
And when I did, I cried a bit,
But now I wasn’t ashamed.
Then I told my other lovely friends
And they said they were nervous too.
So, we said we’d help each other
By sticking together like glue.
The week away was amazing,
More fun than I could’ve hoped
But without my amazing friends by my side
I’m not sure I would’ve coped.
So thank you to them for being there
And Mum for helping me see
That some things you just can’t do by yourself.
You need your friends and family.
Now that the decision has been taken tonight to refer the expansion plans at Grimsdyke school back to the Harrow Council Executive we would like to see the Hatch End Association take a much stronger stance, insisting upon a credible transport plan before any decision to go ahead.
Thanks to Susan Hall and Jean Lammiman for their part & hard work in this decision.
I have read the application forms and attended the meeting in Grimsdyke back in December 2015. In the consultation meeting in December 2015, a councillor unoquivically confirmed that additional yellow lines would be painted outside the debated “new potential entrance”. I think this is probably why such a level of suspicion exists between the residents and the council over this matter. Indeed, I cannot say with 100% certainty that an additional entrance will or will not be opened which is a sad reflection on just how unclear the planning documents are to the general public.
My big worry with the plans is that if the council have recognised that there is significant objection to the proposals and give the impression of not including opening an additional entrance as part of the plans, something rather underhand has the potential to happen…
The School has always had the option over decades of opening the ‘additional’ (fire exit) entrance at any time they wanted. Emergency vehicles have been allowed to use it for years. The main reason it hasn’t been used for other purposes (a general entrance) is that the ground is not fit for use all year round (it is grass). Anyone can look at the relevant documents on the proposals that discuss this to verify. If a pathway is paved as part of this proposal from the current fire exit (additional entrance) to the main school over the school playing fields, it will again be up to the school just to open the door and that will not need any council approval to do this.
This is why what may seem as an unrelated part of the plans now (building a pathway to the fire exit) is actually why there is so much consternation. Once the pathway is built and the residents are placated by there not being an additional entrance being opened, the school will very easily just decide to open the gate and start using it as an entrance and although it will not technically be part of the the current proposal, it is an inevitable byproduct. If not, why build the pathway at all? The consultation meeting back in December 2015 contained a lot of officials who were happy to go on record saying that yellow lines would be painted outside the new ‘entrance’ area. I can only go on what was said to me by officials.
I appreciate all efforts of the Hatch End Association, together with local resident movements but I ask everyone to study the facts as they are, and not be misled by either the council or the school. Politically the council may well not put opening a new entrance on the plans to placate the residents but if they agree to build a pathway to the new exit and thus, make it ready for use as an entrance, the school can take the decision to open it and no one party gets the blame for upsetting local residents opposed to the opening of a new entrance and the yellow lines outside it that will invariably follow. I am encouraged by the support that the Hatch End Association has given this project but am wary that this is not the only project they have the resources to follow and want to put some facts in the open just incase anything falls through the cracks as I believe that there is more to this proposal than meets the eye and it would be a deep pity if it was not fully scrutinised from all potential angles, not just the surface (ever-changing and sometimes contradictory) feedback from the council. We have to ask the right questions about the true reason for paving a route to a new exit and its ramifications on traffic and parking. If events currently play out, there is the potential for uproar amongst local residents. I am yet to meet any local resident in favour of opening a new additional entrance to the school.
It is for this reason that we must have clarity from both the council and school on this matter before it is too late.