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Anlaby Primary School badgeWhat a pleasure to read “pupils are a credit to the school” – Anlaby Primary School of course, where else?!! The behaviour, attendance and participation in school activities are above average and that is a credit to parents, carers and teachers, as well as the good governance and leadership of head teacher Alan Cornwall.


Our skills-based, thematic curriculum is giving our children some fantastic learning experiences.
Alan Cornwall – Head Teacher, Anlaby Primary School.

Here are some of Ofsted’s findings:

  • From their typically average starting points, pupils achieve well to reach standards that are above average, and in writing well above average, by the time they leave at the end of Year 6.
  • Good and sometimes outstanding teaching means that the majority of pupils of all abilities and groups make at least good and, in some cases currently, outstanding progress.
  • Pupils’ skills in writing are significantly above national expectations and this is due to the innovative teaching they often receive in this area.
  • Behaviour is good and makes a significant contribution to pupils’ learning and personal development. Pupils say they feel very safe in school and they welcome their challenges through the school’s higher expectations.
  • Pupils show their whole-hearted support for the school through their above average attendance and support for school activities.
  • The senior leadership team and the governing body have led the school well through a period of change. Staff are very supportive of the new ways of working and all are contributing well to improving teaching and pupils’ achievement.

Read the full report here.

My three children, now adults of course, attended the school and have led successful professional careers, so I wish the same of current students of Anlaby Primary School.

My son Bryn was a fellow student at the school with Alan Cornwall!

Riding the back of a tiger - live life to the full

Riding the back of a tiger – live life to the full

“Ageism” is stereotyping and discriminating against individuals on the basis of age. This term was first used by Robert Butler in 1969 to describe discrimination against senior members of society.

Robert Butler defined ageism as prejudicial attitudes, discriminatory practices and policies that perpetuate stereotypes. Today, ageism usually refers to discriminatory practices towards older people.

Rhetoric regarding intergenerational competition can be motivated by politics. A new definition of ageism was introduced in 2009. This definition positioned the elderly as a foundation for higher reliability. Lead researcher Isla Rippon, from University College London states that one in three older adults report age discrimination. If you feel you have been discriminated against, read this guide to UK law. A further study in 2012 showed that three quarters of people in the U.K. believed there were not enough opportunities for older and younger people to mix and work together. A shame, for they have much to learn from each other.

Michael Freedman, an outspoken advocate said against age discrimination in the art world:

“Mature students come to art late in life. Whatever happened to lifelong learning and the notion of a flexible work force?”

The elderly who are still physically and mentally fit have a lot to offer society and the local community. There is profit and advantage by sharing in their skills and experience. Yet society still tends to define the older population passed sixty-five as “over the hill”. This attitude needs to change so that seniors become a catalyst for growth rather than a burden to the state – on-the-job training of the young by seniors for instance.

Ageism is stereotyping and contradicts common sense and evidence. For example, age-based stereotypes can lead to very different conclusions when observing older and younger people say, with a back complaint or limp. The younger person’s condition is considered temporary – probably following an accident, whereas the elder person’s is considered chronic. This may in some cases be true, but elderly can recover quickly too, whereas young people can be permanently disabled.

So to all you ageism rebels out there, carry this ancient Indian proverb with you wherever you go:

“Life is like a wild tiger. You can either lie down and let it put its paw on your head, or sit on its back and ride it”.

Happy New Year!

Happy New YearDarwin’s theory of natural selection, loosely stated, says that organisms are more likely to succeed if they adapt. Adapting one’s situation to a suitable environment is certainly a good way to advance in life. That’s why I arrived in East Yorkshire from Boreham Wood some time ago with late husband Bill, when he moved to a new job with Smith and Nephew. That’s why I travelled 300 miles to Newmarket with husband Douglas to spend Christmas with daughters Karen and her family and Kim. That’s why Kim travelled a similar distance from Devon. My son Bryn and family stayed in France, where I travel from time to time to catch up with the French side of things.

Christmas meals were cooked in style by both daughters with games and refreshments to follow.  A simple family life as it should be.  It was delightful, refreshing and the weather was perfect.  What more can you ask for in this life?

I wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year!

Artist's impression of new public library

Artist’s impression of new public library

Congratulations to East Riding Council.  Soon Anlaby will become the “Jewel in the County” as the massive refurbishment of the Haltemprice Leisure Centre completes in autumn 2014.

To have a spanking new – refurbished – leisure centre is a major development for all to enjoy. Couple that with a state-of-the-art public library is a dream come true, particularly when you consider the library closures in other parts of the U.K.

However, there could be a “fly in the ointment” for some Anlaby residents, when the current Anlaby library closes.

Younger and older people have found the current facility friendly and handy due to its proximity.  “I just walk around the corner and I’m there”, reported one regular library-goer. To journey a wee bit further and have to cross Springfield Way from the village is a bit daunting for the young, and also tiring for seniors.

What will happen to the current site that was bequeathed to the council of the day during the 1930’s?

It is a fairly small site with a prefabricated building. Some of the suggestions have been to retain the building for social use and benefit local residents. Perhaps the prefabricated building has come to the end of its natural life – just as the prefabs did in a neighbouring city!

The collapse of the badger culling trial in Gloucestershire represents a humiliation for the government’s policy on reducing bovine TB. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Badger’s paying the price of Britain’s milk factory system.
Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

At last this Governments’ Environment Agency has listened to the vast majority of people throughout the South West. Its hugely unpopular cull of Britain’s best known animal – Brock the Badger – has been called off.

We nature lovers must thank Brian May and his consistent bombardment of the Environment Minister’s Agency with facts that were being ignored until NOW.

Many farmers disagreed to the cull and they must be applauded too. They claim that some breeds of fine cattle are bred without their natural immunity that used to protect them. It’s up to farmers to keep their herds clean and free from infection, rather than this mass slaughter just because some farmers cannot cope with the extra effort. Cattle these days are just a pawn in a milk factory system that governs the price of milk!

So to those farmers that support the cull, clean up your farms – don’t provoke the slaughter of wildlife that has the same right to life as your factory bred dairy cows.

British Hedgehog Preservation Society Bonfire Night Campaign

British Hedgehog Preservation Society Bonfire Night Campaign

I consider some of my garden guests to be “aliens” – but not the hedgehog that devours slugs, beetles and other invertebrates that damage and eat our hard-earned gardening produce.

So please check your bonfire site closely for hedgehog activity. Unlike Guy Fawkes, he has no experience of explosives and no sense of history for 1605!

Let’s safeguard all hedgehogs that might think they have a nice safe haven for the winter. Spare a thought for that small animal that rolls itself into a ball at the first sign of danger and will not notice he is nesting inside his own funeral pyre!

More information about preserving our British hedgehogs here.

MPs enjoying a quiet game of scrabble as public debate rages

Modern democracy at work – two continental public officials enjoying a quiet game of scrabble as public debate rages

I read with interest the article “Let’s get people engaged in the political system by modernising the way we operate”, Hull Daily Mail October 11th. It related the proposal to broadcast committee meetings live and on-demand over the Internet. The idea is to address worries of a generation who are massively disengaged from the political system.

The Internet is certainly a very powerful broadcast medium – and Twitter an agent of democracy in some parts of the oppressed world. As a fairly new member to Twitter, I have begun to collect an interesting personal account of what’s going on with the rest of the world at first hand. It’s an exciting experience communicating with vast numbers of “Twitterers”. So the idea of working in real-time like this, it has to be said, is very tempting. We could follow public debate while shopping at Sainsbury’s.

And telephone companies can now pump video to Smartphones, tablets and PCs with surprising quality – at a price.

And that is the problem with this proposal; it comes at a cost to taxpayers both directly and indirectly at a time when many purses are empty. Smartphones, tablets, PCs and high-speed Internet connections are still out of reach for many household budgets, so the digital divide will enter the world of council business as it will benefit the digital community and exclude those not fortunate enough to have the means to equip themselves. Even today, close to 20% of the population has no Internet connection – that’s significant considering we have a coalition government.

And I am not so convinced local government is the place to conduct business in this way. Agreed it would be fun to see councillors sitting feverishly thumbing away on their tablets and Smartphones instead of straightforward noisy debate. And even more amusing to see others grandstanding to the populus to further their own personal causes and careers.

This technology proposal does not even come close to addressing ‘massive public disengagement’ with public business; that’s because it is largely caused by hypocrisy, scandals and personal ambition rather than serving the people. The only impact this proposal will have on the people is to raise their taxes.

For me, the only tablet I will need for following Council business will be for my head!

Wandsworth Youth cleaning up an East Belfast car park

What is it with people that just spout rubbish while listening to the sound of their own voice? As a rule, I just listen politely.

And what is it with people that drop rubbish on the street? Should I apply the same rule? Be polite and say nothing? Surely it should be possible to say: “Would you mind picking that up?

When walking behind some youths the other day, I was tempted to reprimand them for deliberately dropping food wrappers. I didn’t because I feared they might take offence. Instead, I picked it up and put it in a bin. Coward! How times have changed. There was a time when elders were respected.

Is there a difference between the passiveness in the face of someone talking rubbish and someone dropping rubbish?

We need to motivate our youth to invest in their future, by caring for the environment today, like these teenagers in East Belfast. Caring for the environment is not just the domain of ecologists and politicians – it is the domain of every citizen, however young or old.

Not all monkeys like Smartphones

Not all monkeys like Smartphones

Blast!

I hope that’s not swearing! It used to be, but these days probably is no longer… I suppose.

Otherwise, what do you say when you’re tweeting away on your laptop to your heart’s content, then struggle with one of those new-fangled Smartphone gadgets offered to you as a gift?

Struggling to make my brand new Smartphone behave, I took it with me on my last trip to see my son in France. He installed Twitter, set it up over WiFi so that I wouldn’t incur prohibitive roaming fees and gave me an induction course on Android ‘gesture control’. He whistled through setup menus effortlessly as though it was an extension of his hand.

And wow, what fun I had watching my followers grow by the hour as I tweeted with them around the world from the comfort of the sofa.

Then I returned home.

The birdsong continued to twitter merrily on the laptop – competing with those in the natural world – but my dear little Smartphone stopped tweeting altogether. Of course I needed to connect it to my own WiFi. My son showed me how to do that – in France.

But back home, things were not so simple. Where is that WiFi menu again? Swipe down? But I don’t see the same thing as I did in France!

My son spent 30 minutes on the phone from France trying to guide me through the menus, but the damn thing just wouldn’t behave. The screen kept fading in and out, the menus didn’t respond properly and I really got myself in a ‘tiz-woz’. I was never able to get to the screen to enter the security key to connect to WiFi. In the end we gave up.

Did someone say they these gadgets were easy to use? Perhaps it is me. Perhaps my karma is creating a real-time distortion field around the Smartphone.

My son says it’s down to the display. Android devices use ‘resistive’ touch screens – great if you have long finger nails because they work with pressure. I don’t, so Apple’s ‘capacitive’ displays are apparently much easier to use. They work by the electric current in the finger tip and are more accurate.

Can I suggest that Carphone Warehouse salesmen get some extra training then and inspect fingertips before making their recommendations?

You can’t mess with Mother Nature.

Butterflu sucking nectar from a Buddleai blossom

A Peacock butterfly sipping on Buddleia nectar

I have a love-hate relationship with my garden Buddleia bushes – now grown trees – even after last winter’s pruning. Buddleia was first brought to the U.K. in the 1890’s from China and has spread like wildfire across the globe. In Chile the “dead heads” are sold as tea! It’s very attractive if kept in check.

Just as I was searching for my long-handled clippers, I noticed a flurry of butterflies – unusually scarce this year due to wet weather affecting flowers, tree blossoms and shrubs. The reward for showing restraint in my pruning has been Red Admirals, Peacocks, Tortoiseshells and Large Whites. Now I know why it’s also known as the ‘butterfly bush’. Fingers crossed to see if the Six-spot Burnet moth “checks in”.

So show restraint when you’re feeling overwhelmed by your Buddleia – a festival of butterflies is just around the corner.