Parent Pages information for families

David Cameron today faced a furious backlash from teachers after he criticised staff for refusing to play their part in running school sports. They hit back after the Prime Minister defended the Government’s decision to scrap the compulsory teaching of two hours of sport a week in state schools, saying some teachers ‘don’t want to [...]

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This is the incredible moment a boy’s life is saved in a world’s first procedure that saw a deadly blood clot hoovered from his heart. Albert Tansey has become the only child in the world to have the procedure, where a mini-vacuum is used to clear out the blocked artery and restore blood flow. It [...]

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A teenage rugby player who collapsed during a game fell victim to ‘sudden adult death syndrome’, an inquest heard. Luke Chapman, aged just 15, died of natural causes, Birmingham Coroner’s Court ruled yesterday. Assistant deputy coroner Elaine Ormond-Walsh said she would write to the Department of Health calling for a national screening programme for the [...]

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Infants are prone to sickness due to under-developed immune systems – but scientists say it may be possible to activate crucial cells to help them fight off diseases from an earlier age. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System suggest the natural ability to fight infection is there early on – but key cell [...]

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A teenager beaten by her parents for having a black boyfriend has moved in with him declaring: ‘I love him’. Jane Champion was attacked by her parents David and Frances Champion after they returned home and found her in a ‘state of undress’ with Alfonce Ncube. On Monday, Mr Champion was sentenced to 12 months [...]

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As black market demand for rhino horn soars, baby rhinos like this little four-month-old male calf are lucky to be alive. But this lucky fellow is the first resident of one of the world’s rhino orphanages, and is now on the receiving end of some serious love and affection from a team of dedicated rhino [...]

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The Olympic Isle on opening night was “full of noises, / Sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not”. The lion of the industrial revolution could lie down with the lamb. But beneath the fantasy a sewer ran, diverted but untamed: the spectre of doping. And not just doping, because this is the [...]

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Kent County Council and Dover District Council have been criticised by local government ombudsman Anne Seex for their “inexcusable” handling of the teenager’s case. She said the failures of the two local authorities could have “tipped him into a spiral of drug use and crime” and caused him physical and mental ill-health. The investigation found [...]

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It’s been assumed up to now that parrots are only capable of learning, er, parrot fashion. But it seems these birds are far smarter than we thought, after succeeding at a test that puzzled monkeys and defeated dogs. The parrots were able to logically work through the test set by a research team at The [...]

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An Argentine man stolen from his parents during military rule when he was just a month old has been reunited with his biological family. The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which aims to find children taken during the 1976-1983 dictatorship, said he was the 106th they had recovered. Pablo Javier Gaona Miranda, 34, was [...]

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English judges cannot intervene in the case of a baby boy facing his early life as a ‘shuttlecock’ between the UK and Portugal, the Court of Appeal has ruled. An arrangement was agreed for the child, identified in court only as ‘Baby L’, to be conveyed back and forth every two months so that his [...]

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Each year £46 billion is spent on gambling machines in the UK. Up to 500,000 Britons admit to having a gambling problem and this week Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman admitted that Labour’s decision to relax the gambling laws when they were in in power was a mistake. Phyllis Sofocleous is one woman who has [...]

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Samsung is sending a team to investigate conditions at a supplier’s factory in China, following a report from a labor-rights watchdog that accused the factory of employing underage workers. Samsung’s inspectors will be dispatched to Huizhou, China on Thursday to address the claims, which were made by China Labor Watch. CLW’s report alleged that HEG [...]

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David Cameron today faced a furious backlash from teachers after he criticised staff for refusing to play their part in running school sports. The Prime Minister warned there would have to be a “big cultural change” in schools if Britain was to build a successful sporting legacy in the wake of the London Olympics. His [...]

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The father and stepmother of a 9-year-old runaway boy are being investigated by police after he said they made him live in a tiny box in their home. The boy had run away from the home where he lived with the couple in Galveston, Texas, but he was found hours later by officers. They then [...]

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A couple has been pulled before a judge after they refused to let their eight-year-old daughter undergo chemotherapy for a brain tumour, opting for alternative treatment instead. Sarah Parisian, from Minnetonka, Minnesota, had 90 per cent of the cancerous tumour removed last December and underwent a cycle of chemotherapy – but endured painful suffering, her [...]

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David Cameron today faced a furious backlash from teachers after he criticised staff for refusing to play their part in running school sports. They hit back after the Prime Minister defended the Government’s decision to scrap the compulsory teaching of two hours of sport a week in state schools, saying some teachers ‘don’t want to [...]

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When might it be in the best interests of a Jewish 10-year-old to be baptised as a Christian? That was the question Judge Platt had to decide at Romford county court in Essex earlier this year. His judgment, released for publication at the end of last week, makes fascinating reading. It involves a couple who [...]

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A daily fee of up to €3 (£2.36) will be introduced when the new term begins next month. The charge — which reflects “the relative cost for the use of the dining room and the supervision that entails” — has been condemned as “barbaric” by parents. Traditionally, Spanish children have eaten hot meals in the [...]

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Russian prosecutors have brought child abuse charges against members of a reclusive Muslim sect accused of keeping some of their children in underground cells for more than 10 years. Russia’s Vesti television reported that prosecutors in Kazan, the capital of the predominantly Muslim central province of Tatarstan, have also charged Faizrakhman Satarov, the sect’s 83-year-old [...]

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The last thing Kay Delaney remembers is tucking her six-year-old son and two-year-old daughter into bed for the night. Two decades on, those children have grown up and graduated  from university – but Miss Delaney cannot recall any of it. After falling at work and hitting her head, more than 20 years have been erased [...]

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With Team GB celebrating their most successful Olympics for 100 years, a debate is growing about how best to build on the legacy and inspire the next generation into sport. The message from David Cameron was clear – there needs to be “a big cultural change” towards sport in schools with a return to the [...]

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Will schools in Ghana provide inclusive education by 2015? The Ghanaian government has promised that all schools will offer an inclusive education for all children by 2015. Currently, inclusive education is not available within mainstream schools in Ghana and children with profound physical disabilities do not receive an education. Inclusion by 2015 looks unlikely to [...]

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State officials in Louisiana have ordered a school to change a policy that forces students who are “suspected” of being pregnant to take a pregnancy test, and for banning them from class if the results are confirmed. Civil liberties campaigners highlighted the policy at the Delhi Charter School, saying it was discriminatory and unconstitutional. Commentators [...]

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Some 15,000 teenagers who were expected to apply to higher education courses this summer are “missing” from official statistics, it was claimed. Join our live webchat on University Clearing, admissions and finance – from 2.00pm this afternoon The Independent Commission on Fees – set up to track the effects of the new funding regime – [...]

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Tegan Doidge, 19, spent all but £150 of the money before building contractor John Doidge realised it was missing and called in the police. She was living rough in Ottery St Mary and Exeter, Devon, and was found with cannabis when she was tracked down and arrested, Exeter Crown Court was told. Doidge, of no [...]

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A third of grandparents are looking after their grandchildren more than three times a week during the summer holidays, a survey for Saga Motor Insurance suggests. More than half of the grandparents (57%), according to the poll by Populus, plan to look after their grandchildren over the holidays as do 63% of those who work, [...]

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A schoolboy who battled to pull in a fish that tipped the scales at almost twice his own weight hopes his catch has earned him a new record. Conor Smith, aged 12, who weighs 74kg, took half an hour to reel in the  85kg big eye tuna, which was as tall as him, during a [...]

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One of the blessings of the Olympics is that it is consciously – deliberately – a politics-free zone. Yet even as Britain prepares to squeeze every last drop of enjoyment from the final days of London 2012, the drone of party-political sniping is proving a nagging distraction, with the Left continuing to blame the Tories [...]

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Accident of birth doesn’t make people brothers, Maya Angelou once observed: brotherhood is a condition people have to work at. Alistair and Jonny Brownlee aren’t the only British Olympian siblings – there are silver medallists Peter and Richard Chambers in the rowing, and Kate and Lucy Macgregor, up for a medal in the sailing. What [...]

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Fearne Cotton has announced she is pregnant with her first child. The radio and TV presenter has taken to Twitter to announce the ‘happy news’ that she’s due to give birth to boyfriend Jesse Wood’s child later this year. She wrote on Twitter: ‘Jesse and I have some news!!!!!’ Fearne, 30, then posted a link [...]

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Babies born naturally may have higher IQs than those delivered by caesarean section, new research claims. According to scientists, when women give birth naturally there are higher levels of a special protein in babies’ brains that helps boost intelligence levels as they develop. Scientists at Yale University in the US say the increased levels of [...]

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Every parent has been there. The baby in your arms is crying and miserable and you just wish they could tell you exactly what is wrong. But what if they have actually been trying to tell you all along — but you just haven’t known how to listen? An extraordinary new book claims that every [...]

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Hammer thrower Sophie Hitchon reached the Olympic final yesterday – and then credited her years of ballet training for helping her deal with the 80,000 crowd cheering her on. Roared on by home supporters during the first round of competition, the 21 year-old, who dreamed of becoming a professional dancer and took ballet lessons for [...]

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It’s a condition we usually associate with the young. But the elderly suffer from ADHD too – it’s not just children, experts claim. They have discovered that the hyperactivity disorder is almost as common amongst the over-60s as in the young. The findings by Dutch researchers seem to cast doubt on the popular belief that [...]

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A 12-year-old girl, who has been fighting cancer for five years, has turned her harrowing story into an inspiration for thousands of young girls who tune into the teen’s weekly make-up tutorials. Over 100,000 people subscribe to Talia Joy Castellano’s YouTube page to watch her bubbly and expert makeup tutorials, where she uses makeup as [...]

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Identical twins may share exactly the same DNA but is it still possible to tell them apart or identify something special about one from the other? That’s the question acclaimed photographer Martin Schoeller poses in his forthcoming book ‘Identical: Portraits of Twins and Multiples’. Images of twins photographed in exactly the same position and lighting [...]

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Thousands of middle-class pupils have been priced out of studying at top universities, according to an independent commission. The most prestigious universities have seen a sharper drop in applications than less selective institutions following the controversial tripling of tuition fees. Demand for places at the leading universities, which charge the highest fees, has fallen most [...]

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Britain’s obesity epidemic has left schoolchildren requiring 42in trousers and 54in blazers. Retailers say they are even supplying primary school pupils with 40in jumpers – a size normally worn by grown men. Health campaigners described the news as ‘very, very worrying’. Uniform shops say demand for extra-large sizes has risen dramatically, with manufacturers providing bigger [...]

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At one time, taking the children on holiday meant digging out the bucket and spade from the garage and splashing out on ice creams. But today’s elderly parents are now forking out to take their adult offspring away on sunshine breaks, where treats might include a bottle of wine and a pizza. The cost of [...]

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When my daughter, Thea, first played the piano in a school concert, she scanned the ranks of proud parents seated in the audience to ensure her dad and I were there. Thea, who was eight at the time, will never make a concert pianist — the fact that she is deaf will always impede her [...]

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The saying of the week in our household has become: ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.’ It’s now such a Candy mantra that Gracie-in-the-middle, aged eight, says it whenever she makes her bed, voluntarily brushes her hair, or offers to help lay the table for tea. It’s because I’ve been trying to instil some Olympic ambition [...]

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A ten-year-old boy has been charged with aggravated assault after he attacked his Vietnamese neighbour with sticks, stones and a skipping rope after months of tormenting her. Minh Tran, 51, was found cowering in the backyard of her home in Juniata Park, Philadelphia. According to Tran’s landlords, the boy, who cannot be named for legal [...]

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We have been waiting with bated breath for the first picture of Kourtney Kardashian’s daughter Penelope. And now Kourtney has delighted her millions of fans worldwide by introducing her gorgeous little girl on the front of Us Weekly magazine. In the accompanying interview, Kourtney, who is also mother to two-year-old son Mason with boyfriend Scott [...]

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Oscar De Allende, an official at the local environment ministry responsible for wildlife, was suspended over his “controversial statements on pigeon consumption,” Cordoba Governor Jose Manuel de la Sota said in a statement. Earlier this week Mr De Allende proposed that Paicor, a government program for distributing food and clothing to poor students, serve pigeon [...]

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The partner of Tia Sharp’s grandmother has returned home after being questioned by police as a witness in the disappearance of the missing schoolgirl . Tia, who has never run away before, seemingly vanished without a trace on Friday afternoon after telling relatives she was going to the Whitgift Centre in Croydon. She is thought [...]

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