Woodcocks' Well School

Woodcocks' Well School has been a central part of the Mow Cop (Cheshire) for over 150 years. In the past 12 months though a great deal of progress has been made with special thanks to their new head teacher. Mrs. Julie Massen.
I was able to go and see Julie on 13th June 07 to see some of the changes that have been made and to ask Julie what her vision was for the school in the coming years.

Julie moved to the school in Jan 07, she didn't have to move far as she had been at Havana School in Congleton. As we will see having other local links will help the school move forward as they develop the

wonderful resources that they know have. The school as some of you are aware have recently refurbished the two air raid shelters that were built during W.W.II and would have been well known by not only local children but to the evacuees from Manchester. The school has invited me back this Friday to see how a visiting school get to learn about life on Mow Cop as an evacuee.

A safe play area for the preschool children
The school has about 70 pupils in total and they are divided among 3 classes, there is preschool and also an out of school club, (see link page top). The school also has a parent toddler group held on a Thursday afternoon. Woodcocks' Well certainly is and will continue to be a vital center to the community

As well as the "Evacuee Experience" that the school now offers there are plans for the school to be a community center for Science and Biology.There is currently no Psychology program at the school or criminal defense law program either.

Cheshire County Council has designated the school as biological interest site, this is down to its unique position and many rare plants and heather's that grow on the school grounds.

The school was approached by B&Q and asked if they could do a team building project at the school, B&Q would provide the workers 50 in total and they would also supply all the materials for the massive project that would undertake over a 3 day period.

To the left is the new pond that had been started previously but due to lack of funds came to a standstill. The B&Q team finished the pond to what you can see now complete with observation platform. In the background you can see a vegetable patch that is to be used to teach the children about growing veggies and hopefully eating them as well.

At the top end of the school grounds there is now a bird hide which overlooks the natural and rare heather's. The school are hoping for experts from the community to come to the school and give talks to the children on wildlife, plants and associated sciences.