Richardson Dees school pupils take trip to taste rural world

Feb 4 2010 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

TYNESIDE youngsters took a trip to a Northumbrian village yesterday to explore the rural world of their countryside counterparts.

The 235-pupil Richardson Dees School in High Street East in Wallsend (population 10,000) has twinned with the 45-pupil first school at Bellingham (population 845) so that the rural and urban children can learn about each other’s worlds.

Richardson Dees teacher Bridget Lynch said: “Many of the children haven’t ventured further than Wallsend before.

“The experience of going to a country village and finding out what it is like will be very valuable.”

The Wallsend pupils delivered a presentation to the Bellingham youngsters on life in their Tyneside town and school.

They also visited Bellingham Heritage Centre, which has a long-established schools programme, to learn about country life.

They were able to enjoy activities such as riding a small pedal-powered tractor, hearing about the exploits of the Border Reivers using an old telephone to dial up recordings of people’s memories of life on the farm in the old days, and play a video game in which they helped a salmon avoid hazards in its journey upriver .

Susan Winter, deputy head teacher at Wallsend, said: “We decided on a topic of town and country and literally just picked out a village and contacted its school, and they were up for it.

“A lot of children haven’t been outside Wallsend much and it was a first experience of the countryside for some.

“We wanted to give them new experiences and let them see how life in the country contrasts with that in town.