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A Palmersville Christmas - (18/12/2008)

You may have been under the impression that Santa Claus’ workshop is at The North pole but ask any of the children from Longbenton Childrens’ Centre and they will tell you that you are mistaken because they visited Santas’ workrooms here at Palmersville Training!

Palmersville Learners have worked with Training staff (Training supervisors, Chris Norris, Gary Phillip and Peter Short , P&D Technician, Joanne Hay and Volunteers Jimmy Armit and Jimmy Anderson) to transform their training area into Santas’ Grotto. The ten stalls, in which learners normally practise their decorating skills, have become ‘Christmas themed rooms’ and include; The Manger room, The Reindeer House, Santa’s Sleigh Shed, Story Room and of course Santa’s Grotto. Even the bathroom and Kitchen have had a Christmas makeover!

Work on the project which began in mid October has provided so many learning opportunities for the Young people; they included three year 13 School Learners and seven learners working towards and NVQ. Gary Philip (Training supervisor) explained that this project had been a fun way for learners to develop their skills such as marking and measuring and applying specialist finishes. He told us; “The learners have been so enthusiastic about this project; they have had a lot of fun at the same time as gaining valuable skills necessary to achieve their NVQ qualification”

On Friday 12 December thirty eight nursery Children and twelve families from Longbenton Childrens’ Centre were invited to meet Santa in his grotto. They visited all of the themed rooms and had time to explore, sing Christmas songs and listen to Christmas stories before meeting Santa and his Elf .An excellent time was had by all the children and Santa ( Chris Norris) and his Elf ( Joanne Hay) had enjoyed the days as much as the children. Joanne explained that; “having worked closely with the learners on this project and seeing how it had brought out their creativity, it was brilliant to meet the children and see how much they enjoyed visiting the Grotto.”

At the end of the day Santa confessed that he was shattered but added “It was all made worthwhile by the smile on the children’s faces! That is what Christmas is all about!”