FREE TAKE ME HOME Hereford & Worcester Issue 47 September/October 2017 familiesonline.co.uk Editor’s Letter Dear readers Autumn is here and its back to school. Where did the Summer holidays go? The change in routine is a big shock after the long summer break - for us parents as well as for the kids !– and this leads to tiredness and the occasional tantrum, particularly among younger children. So you may find our feature in this issue on dealing with tantrums useful. Children move up a class in September and this brings with it the difficulty of working to new and more challenging levels. We report on how you can help improve you children’s performance by working with them at home. And we have a handy guide for those of you worried about the etiquette of Halloween Trick-or-Treating, a key part of the Autumn calendar. I love Autumn, for it brings with it those lovely changes in Everyone Active Set To colour. Enjoy the season! Open In Bromsgrove Diane Clifford. Editor, Families Hereford & Worcester Sports and leisure operator, Everyone Active, is now working in 01684 770566 [email protected] partnership with Bromsgrove District Council to manage its leisure facilities across the district. Together, Bromsgrove In this issue District Council and Everyone Active aim to increase the health 02 News & Views and wellbeing of the local community through physical activity by extending the current leisure provision. 04 Succeed At Secondary Next issue: 06 Ed’s Reading Room November/December Everyone Active are managing Dolphin Centre, and will manage 09 Tantrums Christmas Issue the brand new Bromsgrove Sports and Leisure Centre when it Booking deadline: opens to the public later this year. The new site will include a 10 Halloween six lane 25m pool, a learner pool, a state-of-the-art gym, three 12 Clubs and Classes Friday 13 October studios, spa, sauna and steam room. 14 What’s On For more information on Everyone Active, please visit: www.everyoneactive.com. Families Hereford & Worcester is part of Families Print Ltd, a franchise company. All franchised magazines in the group are independently owned and operated under licence. Families is a registered trademark of LCMB Ltd, Remenham House, Regatta Place, Marlow Road, Bourne End, Bucks SL8 5TD. The contents of Families Hereford & Worcester are fully protected by copyright Brand new Santa service and none of the editorial or photographic matter may be reproduced in any form without prior consent of Families Hereford & Worcester. Every care is taken in the preparation of this magazine, but the franchise company, Families Print Ltd and Lifecycle Marketing cannot be held responsible brings more magic than ever for the claims of advertisers nor for the accuracy of the contents, or any consequence thereof. to the SVR this Christmas Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Tickets for the SVR’s much-anticipated Christmas 2017 services FamiliesHandW @FamiliesHW have now been launched, with an all-new addition adding extra sparkle to this year’s repertoire. www.familiesonline.co.uk The Santa Sleigh Express, from December 19 - 22, promises to give visitors a truly magical, premium experience to make their PART-TIME DISTRIBUTOR WANTED festive season one to remember. (Worcester and Kidderminster Areas) Passengers will board the waiting steam train at Kidderminster We are looking for a responsible person with a cheerful Station for an evening journey to Highley and back, full of festive polite manner to deliver Families Hereford & Worcester to treats and the company of a very special guest. Once seated at distribution points in Worcester. This job would suit a their very own comfy table or cosy private compartment, parent with school age children or an active older person. passengers can enjoy a hot or cold drink and gingerbread treat as their train travels through the starlit Severn Valley. You will need to be available for a few days in the week during school term time once every other month. A car is Back by popular demand, the sell-out Santa Steam Specials essential and a garage or other storage space is helpful. return to kick-start the SVR’s festive schedule running every To find out more call 01684 770566 or email weekend from 2 -24 December [email protected] Tickets for the festive services are now available to book at www.svr.co.uk or by calling 01562 757900. 2 Families Hereford & Worcester Magazine To advertise call: 01684 770566 familiesonline.co.uk News & Views Award Winning Tuition: Explore Learning are offering all readers a free trial of their workshops at their centre in Redditch. To book a free trial call 030 3003 4006 and quote Families Hereford & Worcester magazine. www. mac Scoops Award For Most explorelearning.co.uk Visited Free Attraction Thanks to great support from visitors and a varied programme Kids Having Too Much Salt of theatre, music, film and courses, alongside free events and Official guidelines have advised that children aged between 1 exhibitions, mac retains its position as the most visited free and 3 should have no more than 2g of salt per day. attraction in the West Midlands for 2016, with 1.1 million visits – a 10% increase. According to new research by Kiddyum (of 2,000 parents of children aged 1-4), a staggering 84% of parents are not aware of In addition mac has moved up the national rankings, placed 11th, how much salt their child should be having. a three point improvement on its ranking of 14th in 2015, while also being the only West Midlands attraction within the top 20. Meanwhile, 64% of parents also said that they trust food that’s marketed for children to be low in salt, but unfortunately, that mac’s improved national ranking places the arts venue behind doesn’t seem to be the case. the British Museum (1st), the Science Museum (7th) and the British Library (10th), and ahead of Tate Britain (13th) and the The research therefore highlighted the following shocking Imperial War Museum (14th), illustrating a local community that revelations: A portion of spaghetti hoops with two slices of continues to support and engage with its varied offer for all toast can be 117% of a child’s daily amount of salt! ages and communities. Regionally, mac is joined by several arts organisations, including Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery While out of six prepared savoury meals for children, half of (2nd), New Art Gallery Walsall (6th) and Borough Museum and them contained one third of a child’s daily allowance of salt, Art Gallery, Staffordshire (11th). while one contained 99% of the maximum serving of salt. Register for Wear A Hat Day 2018 and start planning your event! Wear A Hat Day is the UK’s premier brain tumour research fundraising event. It takes place on Thursday 29 March 2018. March is also UK Brain Tumour Awareness Month. Schools and families across the country get involved to help raise funds for research into brain tumors’. Brain tumors kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer… yet just 1% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to this devastating disease. Families are being left devastated by this dreadful disease. Taking part can be as simple as putting on a hat and donating on the day, but most families like to create entertaining fundraising events. Many schools for example have inventive hat competitions, parades and fashion shows and raise hundreds if not thousands of pounds. Register now on www.wearahatday.org and start planning your hattastic fundraising event. Your fundraising pack will be sent out in early 2018. familiesonline.co.uk To advertise call: 01684 770566 or email: [email protected] 3 Education Succeed In Secondary School September brings with it a new class or even a move to a • Their new teacher will have had information about your different school for your child. For some, this is a very child from their previous teacher, however if there is exciting time; at Explore Learning we hear our students something you feel is important that the teacher knows chatting away about moving to ‘big school’ and planning about your child, do ask for a quick chat. trips to buy new uniforms and stationery. For others, you can see they are a little more anxious. It’s important to talk • Moving schools or class can result in your child missing to children about what they are excited about as well as their friends. Ask them questions about new people they what they are concerned about. Let them know that it is have met to encourage them to make new friends. Arrange ok to be worried about change, but it’s also good to take to meet up with their old class mates outside of school so on a new challenges. they can still see them. At Explore Learning, we offer a course tailored to children in • It’s really important to remember that if you don’t get your Year 6 to Year 9 called Succeed in Secondary which is first choice of school, you can find out about your options. specifically designed to help your family with the transition. We Keep an open mind - and try not to show any concerns support children with the skills they need to excel in secondary you have about a school to your child. school including debating, essay writing, delivering presentations, persuasive language, analysing and many more. Students get to • Talk to families who already go there and arrange a visit to grips with these skills though a whole range of topics including the school if you’ve not already been.