LAST Sunday children from Portesham school together with Jane Cherry and Rosy Lloyd from the charity Positive Steps updated the congregation at St Peter’s Portesham on their fundraising activities at the Nguluwe school in Malawi.

Last year the school council raised over £1200 to build a community centre - a brick building primarily for the purpose of a school as previously the children had been taught under a fig tree.

By July the first foundation stones were laid and by October the school was very nearly complete with the roof due to go on shortly. December saw the building almost finished with the children already using it.

The collection, in aid of the school, raised £180 which the Benefice have kindly increased to £250.

Portesham school are continuing to support Nguluwe school and their fundraising activities begin this year with a jumble sale on Saturday, 3 March at 11 am at the school. Please come and support them if you can. If you have any jumble donations please bring them to school on Friday, 2 March.

BRIDE Valley Ladies Choir, featuring Janet Lane on violin and Sue Smith on piano, will be holding a coffee morning with music this coming Saturday, 11 February at Portesham village hall from 10 am to 12 noon. There will also be a raffle, cake stall and bric-a-brac.

Proceeds to be shared between the choir’s chosen charity, Julia’s House and choir funds.

AS promised, I have more details of the next couple of Artsreach events at Portesham village hall. On Saturday, 25 February at 8pm The Heartstring Quartet will be performing on guitar, harp and fiddle combined with superb vocals promising a great evening of Irish music.

Tickets, costing £12 for adults, £8 for under 18’s and £32 for families, will be available at Tuesday village cafes on the7th, 14th and 21st February, or from Gill Brignell on 01305 871925 or at gillbrignell@aol.co.uk.

The following Sunday, 4 March will see Kokoro, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra new music Ensemble and other musicians from across West Dorset perform at a concert in the village hall as part of their “Chalk Legends” trailblazing event for the Olympic and Paralympic games.

Tickets will be £5 for adults and £2.50 for under 18’s and available from Gill as above and at village cafes on 14th, 21st and 28th February. The concert starts at 7.30pm.

FOLLOWING the success of last year’s Lent safari lunches, the churches in the Benefice, together with the Methodists, have decided to join together again for sessions at different churches throughout Lent.

The sessions will take place on five consecutive Mondays at 12 noon beginning at Weymouth Bay Methodist church on Monday, 27 February, followed the next week by St Peter’s at Langton Herring, St Peter’s Portesham, Methodist church Portesham and finally at St Nicholas’ Abbotsbury on Monday, 26 March.

Soup and bread rolls will be served and sessions will be finished by 2.30pm.

PORTESHAM village hall will be the venue for several interesting talks in February.

On Monday, 13 February Chris Wade will be talking about “Ghosts” to Abbotsbury and Portesham RBL Women’s section beginning at 7.30pm.

Tuesday, 21 February at 2.30pm sees Rob Curtis entertain the Abbotsbury and Portesham Diamond Club with his talk on “Inn Signs and Dorset Pub Stories”, and on Tuesday, 28 February, Kate Broomfield will address the Chesil Bank Garden Club with her talk on “Herbs”.