Parent Pages new website

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

Barratt and Hitachi Capital partnership gives parents affordable loan option to support families getting on the housing ladder.

By Mark King

Britain’s biggest housebuilder, Barratt Developments, is offering loans to parents looking to help their children raise the deposit needed to buy a new home. Parents will be able to apply for an unsecured personal loan of up to £50,000 following a tie-up between Barratt and Hitachi Capital (UK), the UK financial services arm of the Japanese firm. Barratt says the unique partnership means that for the first time parents can borrow the money their children need to enter the housing market. Last June, Bovis Homes teamed up with Barclays’ mortgage arm Woolwich to offer a fixed-rate mortgage to people who already had 10% deposits buying a Bovis home.….Continue Reading

Source: GUARDIAN >> Read full article and comment

A remote diocese in Australia is leading the way by allowing regular periods of silent meditation in the classroom.

By Shirley Lancaster

If you want your children to feel more relaxed and less stressed, give them silence, not iPods. This unthinkable idea came to mind after listening to Ernie Christie and Dr Cathy Day, two educationists from Queensland, Australia. They were addressing an audience at Regent’s College, London, on the benefits of allowing children to experience regular periods of silent meditation in the classroom.

A pilot study in 2005, involving teaching meditation to five- to 17-year-olds, had shown that children are not only capable of meditation, they actually enjoy it. The benefits to children’s wellbeing were so obvious to teachers that it persuaded Cathy Day, director of Townsville Catholic Education Office, to spend precious funds implementing the first Christian meditation programme for all schools in the diocese.….Continue Reading

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A grieving mother is putting her energy into raising funds to build mini skate parks after her son died in a road traffic collision.

9 January 2011 Last updated at 09:54 GMT

Hazel Frost from Bangor, Gwynedd, said it was giving her a ‘focus’ after losing 18-year-old son Darren on Boxing Day 2009.Skateboarding was his ‘passion’, and he would have ‘loved’ facilities in the city, she added.Her fund raising has included a sub-zero dip in the sea.”Raising funds for this is a focus to keep me going,” said Mrs Frost, who works at the psychology department at Bangor University.….Continue Reading

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Snow forces Mothercare to issue profit warning.

By James Hall, Retail Editor

Shares in the maternity and babywear retailer fell by 5.5pc after it said that like-for-like sales dropped by 5.8pc in the UK over its third quarter. The poor UK performance meant that total group sales rose just 0.4pc despite sales at its international division rising by 9.6pc.

Ben Gordon, chief executive, said pre-tax profits would be “below current market expectations”. Analysts cut their full-year pre-tax profit forecasts from around £38m to around £33m.….Continue Reading

Source: INDEPENDENT >> Read full article and comment

Retailer Mothercare today warned it will miss profit hopes after the big freeze prevented shoppers reaching its out-of-town stores.

Thursday, 6 January 2011

The chain, which has 377 UK stores, said toy sales were particularly affected as December’s Arctic blast wiped an estimated 4% off its UK sales figure for the final quarter of 2010.UK like-for-like sales excluding VAT were down 5.8% in the 12 weeks to January 1, which led the retailer to warn that profits for the year to April were likely to be less than the City’s expectations of £41 million.Mothercare said UK sales in the final quarter of 2010 had got off to a strong start but were “impacted significantly” by the snow in December.….Continue Reading



Source: TELEGRAPH

Middle-class families will be more than £3,000 a year worse off this year, with the rising cost of living pushing many to the brink of bankruptcy, research by The Daily Telegraph has found.

By Rosie Murray-West and James Kirkup

A combination of higher prices, lower benefits and pay freezes will leave many struggling to cope in a tough economic climate, experts have warned.Telegraph figures show that a family of four, living in Ashford, Kent, with a single earner on £50,000 will be £3,252 worse off this year than they were in 2010.Major costs include a £488 rise in rail fares, an increase in energy bills of £161 over the year, and food bills rising by £230. Predicted rises in interest rates add a further £562 to the family’s average £150,000 variable rate mortgage.….Continue Reading

Source: BBC NEWS

The government has given details of a university scholarship scheme for children of British servicemen and women from England, Scotland and Wales killed on active duty.

30 December 2010 Last updated at 18:52 GMT

In England, funding of £8,200 per year will be available from 2011 for further education or university courses.The value of the scholarships will be reviewed when tuition fees in England rise to up to £9,000 a year from 2012.Scholarship amounts are yet to be released for Scotland and Wales.Plans were first announced in October for the scheme, which is open to the children of servicemen and women killed on active duty since 1990….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

The average family is £6 a week worse off compared with a year ago because wage increases have failed to keep track with the rising cost of living, according to research.

By Myra Butterworth, Personal Finance Correspondent

It is the eleventh month of decline in household spending power. The cost of basic goods and services were 3.5 per cent higher in November than a year earlier.

The study, by the think tank Centre for Economics and Business Research on behalf of Asda, indicates that the average family had £174 per week to spend last month, down from £180 at the same time last year.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

It’s back. After two decades in the wilderness, the Scouts are planning to resurrect Bob-a-Job week as a way of creating a new generation of entrepreneurial young people.

By Kamal Ahmed 6:35AM GMT 26 Dec 2010

Following hard on the heels of the launch of the first Entrepreneurs Badge earlier this year, Scout Job Week will bring together Scouts and business leaders in a project which will go far further than simply washing a few cars. The original Bob-a-Job week was abandoned in the 1990s after nearly 50 years, following concerns over “health and safety”. Thousands of young people would earn money gardening, cleaning and helping people with shopping. ”We want to relaunch Bob-a-Job week in a new form,” said Richard Harpin, chief executive of the emergency insurance company, Homeserve, and a Scouting ambassador who is leading the drive to bring back the scheme.….Continue Reading

Source: BBC NEWS

For many children, Christmas would not be the same without sitting down and writing a letter to Santa Claus.

By Kabir Chibber Technology of business reporter, BBC News

In the US, those letters are posted in the curved blue post-boxes that can be found on most street corners throughout the country.

They make their way to a sorting plant, where they are scanned by sorting machines that recognise handwriting.

Once the machines read the words ‘Santa Claus’ or ‘North Pole’, it puts the letter to one side. All those letters are sent to a mail sorting facility in Alaska. None are thrown away. “The men and women in Alaska work with Santa at the North Pole to make sure those letters get answered,” says Jim Martin.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

How £100 of savings can add up to just pennies in interest.

By SYLVIA MORRIS
Last updated at 10:52 PM on 21st December 2010

Miserly banks and building ­societies are paying children as little as 0.01 per cent interest, which adds up to a princely 1p interest a year on every £100 of savings. The meanest include some of the biggest names on the High Street, including Barclays, Britannia, Santander and C&G. Parents should avoid these High Street Scrooges when looking for a home for their children’s Christmas money.….Continue Reading

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Work and pensions select committee says cancellation of Labour youth jobs scheme will hit hard.

By Polly Curtis, Whitehall correspondent

The government is today accused of abandoning young people to joblessness by cancelling Labour’s job creation scheme nearly three months before the coalition’s Work Programme is introduced – and at the height of an expected wave of redundancies.

The Commons work and pensions select committee has identified a gap in support for the young after the Future Jobs Fund is abolished in March next year and its replacement phased in from June.….Continue Reading

Source: GUARDIAN

A reader’s son wants to go on an expensive school trip. Are they worth the seemingly inflated cost?

By Jim Griffin Friday 17 December 2010

Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

Men are notoriously bad at choosing Christmas gifts and now Mothers are taking matters into their own hands with 60 per cent buying their own presents to put under the tree.

By Myra Butterworth, Personal Finance Correspondent

Latest research suggests one in three mums are buying their own present because they know exactly what they want and want to avoid disappointment, while a further one in four say they only trust their own taste.

An unlucky 16 per cent have to buy their own presents or they will be left empty handed, according to the statistics by supermarket group Morrisons.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

Eighteen young talents bound for London Fashion Week glory as the line-up of the 2011 NewGen sponsorship is announced.

BY HILARY ALEXANDER | 14 DECEMBER 2010

Eighteen of Britain’s most exciting young talents have been selected for NewGen sponsorship at next London Fashion Week in February. Three of London’s most directional young female designers, Holly Fulton, Louise Gray, Mary Katrantzou, together with the cyber-bodycon wizard, David Koma, and Michael van der Ham, who breathes new life into vintage fabrics, will each be given funds to stage their own catwalk shows.….Continue Reading

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Pictures by Eric Carle, Nick Park and Raymond Briggs are also on display for first time.

By Maev Kennedy

Original drawings from the creators of some of the best loved children’s books of all time, including Quentin Blake and Eric Carle, have gone on public display for the first time before an auction at Sotheby’s on Thursday to raise funds for a permanent £6.5m museum of illustration in London.

The pictures have estimates of up to £5,000, so children are unlikely to find them in their Christmas stockings. That is just as well in the case of some of the more adult offerings, such as Gerald Scarfe’s savage image of Tony Blair signing his memoirs in a blizzard of drops of blood.….Continue Reading

Parentpages has been offered £150.00 of Homebase vouchers to spend as you wish in any Homebase store.

We are giving away the vouchers in three stages to three winners.

Friday 17th December 2010 – £50.00
Friday 24th December 2010 – £50.00
Friday 31st December 2010 – £50.00

To enter, Tweet the competition, or add a link to this page to your Facebook, Blogs, MySpace or any other (respectable) social networking account.

You can enter as many times as you like, and each RT, or posting on a Social Networking site will be considered as one entry. Just send me an email to wendy@parentpages.co.uk each time you post or RT the link, between now and December 22nd at 12.00 midday.

You will be able to spend your vouchers on anything you like in store and these are real McCoy vouchers, not conditional on minimum spend or anything.

The official Homebase website has thousands of products available to buy online. Choose from kitchens, bathrooms , decorating, furniture, homewares, lighting , flooring, tiling, heating, cooling, building and decorating materials, hardware, tools, gardening, outdoor living, and home electrical.

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

Giving cash to a youngster as a Christmas gift? Rather than letting them spend it, get them into the savings habit.

By Rupert Jones

Times may be tough, but many of Britain’s over-50s are determined not to let this affect their grandchildren’s Christmas this year. Over a third plan to spend at least £50 on each one, according to a new survey of more than 13,000 over-50s carried out for Saga Insurance.

Many of these lucky youngsters will receive a cheque, or some crisp notes tucked inside a card. They might find it hard to resist the siren call of the HMV sale, but – if you haven’t done so already – perhaps now is the time to get your child into the savings habit.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

So who will be better off under the new scheme – and who will pay more?

2:24PM GMT 10 Dec 2010

Sixth formers – and their parents – were no doubt watching Thursday’s House of Commons vote on university tuition fees with keen interest.

As expected, MPs voted to raise the cap on tuition fees from £3,290 to £9,000 a year. As a result, anyone with children aged 17 or less faces the likelihood of bigger bills to get them through university. Although some institutions may not charge the full £9,000, it looks a racing certainty that the top universities will charge the maximum fee.

So students starting a three-year degree in September 2012 – when the new charging structure will be introduced – could be facing tuition fees alone of £27,000, before any accommodation or living expenses are taken into account.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

Parents with children aged 17 or younger face paying significantly more towards their university costs, if they don’t want to see them graduating with mortgage-sized debts after three years.

Emma Simon

With many universities charging the maximum tuition fees of £9,000 a year, students can expect to graduate with at least £27,000 of debt. This is likely to be significantly raised if they also borrow money to pay for accommodation fees and living expenses.

Parents may struggle to build sufficient savings to cover all these costs in full, particularly if their children are already at secondary school. But there are steps they can take that should enable them to make a significant contribution.….Continue Reading

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Four out of five financially active children use their parents’ cards and accounts, increasing the risk of online fraud.

By Jill Insley

Children are spending £64m a year online without their parents’s knowledge, and are exposing adults to a risk of card fraud, according to a new study.

Two-thirds of children are financially active online, spending £448m a year, and four out of five are using their parents’ bank cards, online accounts and PayPal accounts. But research for credit card protection company CPP indicates that one in seven purchases made by British children aged 7 to 16 are done behind their parents’ backs.….Continue Reading

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To the cultural Left, university is an extension of secondary school – and is therefore seen as a “right”, argues Timothy Stanley.

By Timothy Stanley

Don’t be fooled into thinking that the debate about higher education funding is only about money. It isn’t. It’s also about culture.

To save universities from bankruptcy, we have two options. We could increase direct government investment. But that would mean either hiking taxes and crippling the economy, or redirecting funds away from cancer wards and towards classic departments. Alternatively, we could ask richer students and those who will benefit financially from their education to pay more towards it. This is the option that the coalition has chosen and, happily, it is the fairer. Up-front fees are gone, no one pays anything before they earn £21,000 – and poorer kids get maintenance grants.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

Ousted teacher exposes the tyranny of liberalism that has betrayed a generation of children.

By KATHARINE BIRBALSINGH
Last updated at 8:53 AM on 6th December 2010

I am the teacher who spoke at the Conservative Party Conference and then found herself out of a job. Some might argue that had I criticised the education system at a National Union of ­Teachers conference, I would have been cheered on by the delegates.

Had I blamed our broken education system on lack of funds, institutional racism or the challenge of private education, I would have been the darling of the Left and all would have been well. It was the fact that I sided with the Right that has turned me into a mortal enemy.

But we are all in pursuit of the same utopia, aren’t we? We want every child to have the best possible education, to feel safe and happy, to reach for the top, and for schools to provide environments where this is possible.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

A third of parents suspect their children of making secret phone calls as almost half say their phone bills are larger than they expected, new research reveals.

By Myra Butterworth, Personal Finance Correspondent

The study blamed the popularity of television reality shows such as X Factor, for increasing the temptation for secret dialing among children who make secret calls to keep their favourite contestants in the competitions.

More than a quarter of votes for contestants on X Factor are cast within the first five minutes of lines opening and 28 per cent are made on Sunday between 8pm and lines closing, according to the figures from Post Office Homephone.….Continue Reading

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How much you pay for childcare depends on the type of care, hours and area.

By Lucy Parker

The cost of childcare varies enormously compared to type, hours and the area in which you live. And there’s a reason why very few people have a nanny: they are phenomenally expensive.

Expect to pay her £38,636 a year across London, according to Tami Galbraith, managing consultant at Tinies Childcare in well-heeled Parsons Green, south-west London.

As an employer, you will also have to pay employer’s National Insurance – at 12.8% after the initial £110 of gross salary, meaning a London employer would have to pay an additional £4,213; sick pay at £79.15 a week; and maternity pay at 90% of her salary for six weeks, followed by statutory maternity pay at £124.88 for a further 33 weeks, though as a small employer you can usually reclaim most of the SMP costs.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

The level of public unhappiness about Kraft’s takeover of Cadbury was brought home to Neil Chapman, Kraft’s chocolate manufacturing director in the UK, when he told a room full of people who he worked for – and was boo’ed at.

By Amy Wilson

As a man who makes chocolate for a living, Mr Chapman expected envy or requests for freebies, rather than being regarded as public enemy number one.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the controversial takeover he insists Kraft will “keep investing in the plant and the people” at Bournville.

The US company, which before the £11.6bn takeover of Cadbury was best known in the UK for making Philadelphia and cheese slices, has set up its chocolate research and development centre for the world at the historic Cadbury site.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

Up to £400 million a year is being overpaid in tax credits because parents fail to tell HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) about changes to their childcare costs, the Government said today.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 4:42 PM on 1st December 2010

Around 345,000 tax credits paid in 2008/09, the equivalent of 4.5 per cent of the total, contained errors relating to childcare, leading to a potential loss of £380million.

HMRC is calling on families that receive tax credits to notify it within one month if the amount they spend on childcare falls.

It warned that deliberately failing to pass on the information when renewing a claim could constitute fraud and lead to them being prosecuted.….Continue Reading

Source: INDEPENDENT

In Zimbabwe nearly a thousand adults are newly infected with HIV each week. A similar number die of AIDS.

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

Helping the next generation to be free of HIV is crucial to stopping the spread of the virus. The UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) funds the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation to reduce transmission from pregnant mothers to their babies, so children can be born HIV free and go on to lead healthy lives.….Continue Reading

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Shoppers splash out more than £3,000 a second – much of it on Christmas presents – in UK’s busiest online shopping day.

By Mark King

Butterscotch the animatronic pony was flying off the e-shelves at retailer John Lewis yesterday, thought to be the UK’s busiest online shopping day of the year and dubbed Cyber Monday by industry experts.

The life-sized Shetland pony, which stands more than 3ft tall and will set parents back a cool £199 (batteries not included), joined kids’ VTech cameras and the John Lewis wooden play-kitchen as the retailer’s most popular products yesterday.

Visa Europe said around 3.8m purchases worth £265m would be made in the UK yesterday using Visa cards, with 2,600 transactions worth £184,000 taking place every minute, or just over £3,000 a second.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

Britain’s most feckless father is having another four children – and is apparently ‘engaged’ for the third time in three months.

By ROB COOPER
Last updated at 2:58 PM on 28th November 2010

Unemployed father-of-10 Keith Macdonald – who pays just £5 a week to support his offspring – will cost taxpayers more than £2 million by the time all his youngsters reach 18.

He has got two new girlfriends pregnant, is having another baby with an ex and a fourth woman who was already known to be having his child has discovered that she is having twins. But it remains unclear whether the latest pregnancies will make Keith, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, a father-of-14 or of 19.The 25-year-old has admitted he has eight youngsters – and he now has another six on the way.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

This week’s experts are ANDREW ELSON, a chartered financial planner with Honister Partners in Boston Spa West Yorkshire;

By EDITED BY STEPHEN WOMACK
Last updated at 10:07 PM on 27th November 2010

HELEN KANOLIK of HelenK Financial Advice in Wimborne, Dorset; and MATT COWARD, partner with accountant Price Bailey in the City of London, If you have a personal finance query, write to: Ask the Experts, Room 445, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS. Please do not send original documents. Sorry, no personal replies.

D.R.writes: I have been paying into a Child Trust Fund for my grandson since his birth in May last year. Now that the Government has abandoned this scheme, it does not seem sensible to add to it. Can we transfer the money to a better home? A.E.replies: Children born after the end of next month will not be eligible for the CTF, but existing accounts will continue to benefit from tax-free investment growth.….Continue Reading

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Cutting child benefit for higher-rate taxpayers risk being impractical and unfair, MPs warn today.

James Kirkup

The Conservative-majority Treasury Select Committee today warns ministers about potential pitfalls in their plan to cut the benefit, one of the Coalition’s most controversial cuts to date.

In a report published today, the MPs warned ministers the cut risks unfairly penalising couples where one partner works and other stays at home to care for their children.

“We consider there are some risks involved in the new system,” the report said.….Continue Reading

Source: BBC NEWS

A think tank has urged the government to ensure that schools spend its £2.5bn pupil premium on the most disadvantaged children.

23 November 2010 Last updated at 01:02 GMT

The Institute of Public Policy Research says the policy is expected to increase the budgets of schools in England by £2,410 for each disadvantaged pupil.

But the IPPR is concerned that the funds will not reach the pupils they are intended for.

The government said data would be published on poorer pupils’ progress.

It has not given details of how the premium will be allocated, although one suggestion is that it would go to pupils eligible for free school meals.….Continue Reading

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

Britain is one of the world’s largest consumers of puffed, flaked and sugared breakfast cereals. How did that happen when many were said to contain less nutrition than the boxes they come in? Felicity Lawrence investigates.

By Felicity Lawrence

It was one of those things that crept up on us and we still can’t quite believe it happened. Looking back, we’d been in denial for some time. Then a friend who hadn’t seen the family for a while came round and blurted out the bald truth. ‘God, Dodi’s got rather fat. In fact, you know, I think that might count as obese.’

Once said, it had to be admitted. If you looked at Dodi from behind when he was sitting down, you could see a substantial spare tyre around his thirteen-year-old middle. It bulged out from his hips and flopped down like a muffin rising up and out over its baking case. He had become quite lazy too, preferring to lounge in front of the fire rather than play in the garden as he used to. His excess weight was slowing him down.

He had been hooked on a particular brand of instant meal for ages.

Guaranteed real tuna, the packaging said. Enriched with omega-3 and -6 fats! The small print told another story. What was inside was largely byproducts from other industrial processing: rendered poultry meal mixed with fillers of corn gluten meal, ground rice, soya oil and dried beet pulp.….Continue Reading

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With job prospects scarce, some enterprising graduates are tapping into the help and financial support of their parents to buy business franchises

by Rebecca Smithers

While most fellow graduates are fretting over job advertisements and application forms, and coming to terms with the brutal reality of months – if not years – of unemployment, Emma Luxton spends her days leaping around playing “musical bumps and statues” with toddlers in church halls and in front of nursery classes.

Just months after graduating with a degree in drama from the University of Exeter in June this year, the 22-year-old is running her own business, and clearly loving every minute of it. Luxton, who had a bit-part in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and has also worked with makeover guru Gok Wan, has taken up a franchise with Pyjama Drama, providing drama and play classes for two- to seven-year-olds.

“I am very happy and this feels absolutely the right job for me,” she explains. “I decided, some time ago, that acting was not for me and teaching was what I wanted to do.”….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

Mothercare has warned investors they are underestimating the potential of its overseas business after profits grew 22pc during the first half of the year.

By Jamie Dunkley

Ben Gordon, chief executive of the baby goods retailer, said the company had a “ huge international opportunity” in areas such as India, China and Russia, having raised its target for overseas store openings from 100 to 150 this year. It plans another 150 in 2011-12. His comments came as Mothercare swung to a profit of £12.2m during the 28 weeks ending October 9, with a strong performance overseas offsetting a weak UK market, helping the company beat analysts’ forecasts of £9m-£12m. After stripping out one-off costs including £9.3m in currency hedging, pre-tax profits were £300,000, reversing a £7.1m loss in 2009.….Continue Reading

Source: BBC NEWS

Prime Minister David Cameron has warned councils against cutting funds for help for children who care for parents or siblings, in a BBC interview.

16 November 2010 Last updated at 17:14 GMT

A BBC survey suggests there are four times as many young carers in the UK than previously officially recognised.

Members of a group of child carers who interviewed Mr Cameron said the clubs and centres they relied on were facing cuts as councils rein in spending.

Mr Cameron said such services save money in the long run. He also said the government was committing £400m over four years to help to enable carers to take breaks.

In the survey, published on Tuesday, one in 12 of the 4,029 schoolchildren asked by the BBC said they had caring responsibilities – such as dressing, washing or bathing family members.….Continue Reading

Source: TELEGRAPH

In 1990 the horror of Romania’s orphanages was revealed to the world. So why, after millions of EU funds have been poured into the country to eradicate such institutions, do thousands of vulnerable youngsters remain incarcerated? Angela Levin reports.

By Angela Levin

It is not often that you get a glimpse of hell but a version of it exists down an unmade road in Bistrita, northern Romania. There stands a place that would be unfit for animals, let alone humans, but it is the only home known to 35 inmates, ranging in age from a few weeks to early adulthood. All have some degree of physical or mental disability. The building has a small room where 10 so-called “babies” – including a pallid five-year-old and a malnourished and blind seven-year-old – sleep and spend every waking hour. It was lunchtime when we visited and the empty-eyed children were either being given a bottle or fed mashed potato in watery milk by elderly female carers.

I asked Anne Marie, the director of the orphanage, where the seven-year-old slept as the room only had small cots. “In the corner cot,” she pointed with a shrug. “He can’t stretch out but that is all we have.” In her forties, she seemed to run the place with breathtaking complacency and little sign of relating to the children in her care. Most disturbing of all was the unsettling quiet. Babies, whose cries always go unanswered, soon fall silent. As they grow older, they rock back and forth, later they self-harm and become very aggressive.….Continue Reading

Source: DAILYMAIL

Hosting Children in Need will help Cockermouth to shake off the despair of the past year.

By STEPHEN WOMACK
Last updated at 10:43 PM on 13th November 2010

This Friday night, Main Street in Cockermouth will feature on television for more cheerful reasons. The BBC is broadcasting part of its Children in Need fundraising extravaganza from the street, a year to the day after floods up to 8ft deep swept through the town.

Many hope the evening will allow residents of the Cumbrian town to draw a line under the past 12 months and start looking to the future.

Jonty Chippendale, who runs the Toy Shop in Main Street and is chairman of Cockermouth & District Chamber of Trade, says there have been some positive effects from the flooding.

‘The community has come together and the support we get from local people is even stronger,’ he says. ‘We’ve now got huge “brand awareness” of Cockermouth but we’ve got to get it associated with a traditional and vibrant market town, not with a wave of dirty water.’….Continue Reading

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

Many young people are seeking to emigrate rather than face a life of hardship as the republic lurches towards financial collapse.

By David Sharrock in Dublin

Student Niamh Buffini works hard and plays hard. As Ireland’s No 1 taekwondo martial arts practitioner – she is rated 12th in the world – her ambitions include winning Olympic gold for Ireland.

But by the end of this month her future will have been decided by forces not just beyond her control but seemingly those of her government also. Ireland is on the cusp of insolvency. Some economists argue that it already is.

Buffini will soon learn if her fees at the Institute of Technology in Tallaght, south Dublin, have climbed beyond her means. Her father is a self-employed builder, which has recently become a euphemism for “unemployed”.

“My class size will have dropped by 50% by next year,” Buffini said. “Even lecturers took part in the recent student protests over fees because society here is going to be left with very few educated people. My best friends have already left – they’re doing bar work in Spain and Australia.….Continue Reading

Source: BBC NEWS

First Minister Carwyn Jones says schools, skills and hospitals will be priorities in the assembly government’s draft budget next week.

13 November 2010 Last updated at 13:59 GMT

He told Sunday’s BBC’s Politics Show Wales that devolution will show it “makes a difference” in priorities.

He said: “We will obviously be looking to protect those areas we have already identified as priorities.”

In an interview, he said Wednesday’s budget would keep both free prescriptions and hospital parking.

Mr Jones said the said the “difficulty” of Wales’ budget settlement following last month’s Spending Review was known.….Continue Reading

Source: BBC NEWS

The government is looking to centralise the way in which funding for England’s 20,000 state schools is allocated.

13 November 2010 Last updated at 09:48 GMT

Officials said this did not mean local authorities, now responsible for deciding funds, would be sidelined.But the Department for Education is considering a “national funding formula” that could scale back their influence.

A White Paper will propose giving head teachers more freedom to decide priorities, the Financial Times says.Ministers are planning to consult with councils about the level of their involvement in the construction and operation of the formula, and officials stressed the government wanted to work closely with them.….Continue Reading

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

No NS&I passbook or refund has been received despite letters, telephone calls and completed forms.

By Mark King

On 2 June I tried to set up an Investment Account on behalf of my new grandchild. I paid in £20 and the Post Office staff in Redditch, Worcestershire, completed the forms and told me to expect a passbook in a few weeks time. I never received the passbook. On telephoning I received a number of contradictory messages, followed by a missing passbook form to complete. Despite letters, telephone calls and completed forms (the last one with signatures of the parents on it), no passbook or refund has been received. Please help me claim my money back and warn readers as to how difficult it is for grandparents to set up an account for grandchildren with NS&I.….Continue Reading

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

Work and pensions secretary says out-of-work parents of young children will be penalised if they fail to keep in touch with their local jobcentre.

Nicholas Watt and Patrick Wintour

Parents with children between the ages of one and five will face sanctions if they fail to prepare for work when their children go to school,Iain Duncan Smith announced today.

In a sign of the scale of the welfare penalties to be imposed by the government, the work and pensions secretary said that out-of-work parents of young children will be penalised if they fail to keep in touch with their local jobcentre.

Speaking in north London this morning before the launch of his welfare white paper in parliament at lunchtime, Duncan Smith said: “People who are looking after children that are over one year old and under five will be expected to be keeping in touch with the jobs market; they will be expected therefore to stay in touch with jobcentres, to come in every now and then to discuss with them what will happen once their child goes to school and how they can make that happen. We expect co-operation on that. But any sanction for failing to co-operate for them is very very low for that.”….Continue Reading

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

French company’s scheme to identify all young children electronically is opposed as an invasion of privacy.

BY Laure Belot
Tuesday 9 November 2010 13.59 GMT

A French company, Lyberta, has just dropped plans to fit children in several nurseries in Paris with electronic tags, after a newspaper revealed the scheme. Trade unions, councils and civil liberties groups were indignant at the invasion of privacy. But the response to the idea in online forums was much more divided: “I have been longing for this ever since my first child was born,” a woman wrote. “My three-year-old daughter walked out of her infant school and the teachers found her in the next street … I would rather put a tag on my child than sign up for a kidnap warning scheme.”….Continue Reading

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As donor nations meet in Madrid, charities renew calls for a Robin Hood tax to pay for teachers and classrooms.

David Smith in Johannesburg
Tuesday 9 November 2010

Lack of support from the west could force many poor countries to shut schools and sack teachers, depriving millions of children of education, a campaign group warns.

Funds in the world’s only international education financing body are nearly exhausted, threatening to reverse significant gains made in recent years, according to the Global Campaign for Education (GCE).

It called for radical action to save schools that are threatened because western donors have been hit by the global financial crisis.….Continue Reading

Source: BBC NEWS

Muslim student leaders say changes to tuition fees in England could breach Islamic rules on finance, which do not permit interest charges.

By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent

The coalition government’s plans to raise tuition fees to up to £9,000 also include higher interest rates for repayments of loans.

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies says this will make loans unusable for many Muslim students.

A government spokesman said these were “not commercial loans”.

As well as raising tuition fees, the proposals for university funding include changes to loan repayments – with some students set to pay more than at present.….Continue Reading

Source: INDEPENDENT >> Read full article and comment

Ministers gave the green light to the most radical shake-up of higher education finance in history yesterday, allowing universities to triple their fees to £9,000 a year.

By Richard Garner and Nigel Morris

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Education secretary says raising attainment is more important than Labour’s plan to extend free school meals

Jeevan Vasagar, education editor
Tuesday 2 November 2010 19.24 GMT

Money saved by scrapping free school meals for half a million primary school children will be used for a scheme under which groups compete for cash to improve England’s worst-performing schools.

Academy sponsors, councils and headteachers with an outstanding track record will be encouraged to bid for funds to turn around struggling schools in a contest that will reward those that offer the most ambitious plans for reform.….Continue Reading

Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment

Education secretary says raising attainment is more important than Labour’s plan to extend free school meals.

Jeevan Vasagar, education editor
Tuesday 2 November 2010 19.24 GMT

Money saved by scrapping free school meals for half a million primary school children will be used for a scheme under which groups compete for cash to improve England’s worst-performing schools.

Academy sponsors, councils and headteachers with an outstanding track record will be encouraged to bid for funds to turn around struggling schools in a contest that will reward those that offer the most ambitious plans for reform.

The cash will come from an endowment fund started with £110m of public money, saved by a coalition decision to scrap an extension of free school meals to all primary schoolchildren living below the poverty line.….Continue Reading