A primary school in Nantwich celebrated its 21st birthday with a special party attended by Crewe and Nantwich MP Dr Kieran Mullan.
Pear Tree Primary School in Stapeley first opened its doors in September 2003.
The opening was delayed by a year due to the presence of Greater Crested Newts, which inspired the school’s logo!
Greater Crested Newts have grazing rights and are protected by Natural England.
So the first headteacher of Pear Tree, Mary Hennessy Jones, had to secure a Newt mitigation licence and ensure new ponds were created with routes for the newts before the school on Pear Tree Field could be built.
The school celebrated its anniversary on Friday with a party where all the children sang a selection of songs from the last two decades curated by Helen Minshall of Minshall Music who has been working with the school since 2016 and now visits once a term to support the music curriculum.
The assembly was watched by parents, grandparents, school governors and Dr Kieran Mullan MP who later took part in a Q&A session with some of the Year 6 children.
Current headteacher Ruth Hadfield said: “I have been teaching at the school for 16 years and was recently appointed headteacher so I am greatly invested in Pear Tree.
“It is a wonderful school in a fabulous community and I feel privileged to have been here almost as long as it has been open.
“We have enjoyed the week reminiscing about some of our favourite memories – a couple of our staff have been here since the school first opened so had lots of stories to tell.
“A couple of recent standout moments for us all were when The One Show came to film our former headteacher Boo Edleston who was nominated for ‘One Big Thank You’ for all her care and dedication during lockdown and when we were rated Good by Ofsted again last year which is testament to all the hard work of our amazing staff.”
When the school first opened it did not have chairs for the first week or grass on the field for a year.
Pear Tree now has an extended main hall, a Forest School area and a revamped playground and EYFS outdoor space.
Mrs Hadfield added: “One of Pear Tree’s greatest legacies is the creation of our River Families which was the idea of some of our first pupils and sees learning and sports take place with siblings and friends across all the year groups on regular occasions throughout the year.
“I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all our pupils past and present, their families, our staff and governors for helping to make Pear Tree such a happy place – we have a saying ‘once a pear, always a pear’.
“I would also like to thank Chatwins for helping to support our celebrations and we look forward to seeing what the next 21 years brings for us all!”
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