Welcome to the September edition of the Tandridge Independent!
My team and I are back after our summer break, feeling refreshed and ready to bring you all the local news, your favourite columnists and much more. I hope you have all had a lovely summer – and that none of you got caught up in the long queues of people trying to get abroad!
If you read my July letter then you’ll already know about the saga I’ve been having with transport, after my car broke down. I'm still vehicle-less, so have been alternating between using my husband’s car and numerous hire cars. And, to this end, I need to say a big thank you to Enterprise Rent-a-Car, in Caterham on the Hill, who helped me immeasurably with the latter!
Back to school
Depending on when you read this, our local schools will either be preparing for the first day of the autumn school term, or will have already opened their doors. Either way, it feels strange to be talking about autumn after all this hot weather, but that’s where we are now. We’ll soon be surrounded by bare trees and misty mornings, and planning Halloween parties…
Talking of schools, I recently revisited my old one, Oxted School, to meet the year 11 students celebrating their outstanding GCSE results. Stepping back into that familiar hall, where I sat through many assemblies, events and exams, after 30ish years away certainly left me in a nostalgic swirl. It's great to see how well Tandridge students have done this year, despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic – a huge well done to all of you!
Features this month
We’re looking at Ukraine again: it’s now over six months since the Russian invasion and, since then, many Ukrainian families have settled into a new life in Tandridge. Their future is far from settled, however, so we ask: what happens now?
Abi Foster set up her company Elent in 2021, offering finance education workshops to women and students. She has written an article for us about the importance of understanding how money works.
We’re also celebrating just a few of the amazing children in our district. Brothers Joseph and Joshua Longley, from Oakhyrst Grange School are taking on three triathlons to raise money for the British Red Cross, and Francesca, Isla and Hollie from St Francis Catholic School recently won a poetry prize after a perfect performance at the Southbank Centre.
We’ve got a competition to win an amazing Thalgos facial, courtesy of The Village Beauty Spa, plus you can find out how my first experience of gliding went. All this, and our regular columnists, too!
We love hearing from our readers: if you’ve got a story, idea or opinion that we should include in a future edition, please get in touch: newsdesk@tandridgeindependent.com.
See you next month!
Louise.
