Viewing all items in Resource Category: Editorial

Exercise chases the blues away If you exercise for even a mere 20 minutes a day, you will cut your risk of developing depression. King’s College London has found that meeting the recommended weekly guideline of 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, such as cycling or brisk walking, can have a huge impact on the...

Burning calories as you garden The average British gardener burns 51,428 calories a year in their garden, and mowing the lawn is one of the highest ways of using energy – about 600 calories a month. Mowing the grass takes 5.7 calories per metre.  Weeding takes 4.5 calories, as does potting plants.  Digging burns 5...

Why so much stress in our schools? School closes this month. And maybe that’s not a moment too soon for many children and their teachers, who are suffering increasing levels of stress and anxiety in school. For children as young as four are showing signs of mental health problems, with increasing anxiety, panic attacks and...

Beware addictive games How will your children be spending their time this summer?  Hopefully not in playing too many highly addictive video games such as Fortnight. Fortnight pits 100 players against each other and is free to play on mobile phones and consoles. Since its launch last July, it has been downloaded more than 40...

In praise of Emily Bronte Novelist Emily Brontë, author of Wuthering Heights, was born 200 years ago, on 30th July, 1818, in a small country town in Yorkshire, moving shortly afterwards with her family to nearby Haworth, where she remained until her death at the age of 30. Her mother and two oldest sisters died...

70 years of the National Health Service The National Health Service began operating 70 years ago, on 5th July 1948, when Sylvia Beckingham, 13, was admitted to hospital in Manchester to be treated for a liver condition. It was the climax of a hugely ambitious plan by Labour Health Secretary Aneurin Bevan to bring good...

Stop! Hedgehog! Hedgehog ‘warning signs’ are going up on our roads, at animal casualty black spots. The aim is to stop the drastic decline of their population –  around 100,000 of them are killed on our roads every year, and it is feared that this level of mortality is unsustainable. The People’s Trust for Endangered...

50 years on from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Britain, the USA, the Soviet Union and 58 other nations signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 50 years ago, on 1st July 1968. It came into effect in March 1970, and some 190 nations have now signed. India and Pakistan have never signed the treaty but have admitted...

No more spoonfuls of sugar to help the medicine go down The NHS may bring in a complete ban on sugary drinks in hospitals, after more than a third of its trusts have failed to sign up to a voluntary scheme to cut sales. It seems that so far 80 out of 232 trusts have...

Is there poverty in our local school? Are there children in our local school who are living in poverty? There could well be. At least, teachers right across the country report that they are now having to wash children’s clothes and lend parents money, as they report increasing poverty among their pupils. A joint survey...

Prenez garde! Voila le French mosquito! If you are going to France this summer, be sure to use repellent sprays. Aggressive tiger mosquitoes that can carry viruses such as Zika, dengue and chikungunya have already spread through half of France. Tiger mosquitoes (originally from Asia) can be identified by their distinctive black-and-white striped body and...

Diary of a Momentous Year: July 1918 – WHEN FRIENDS COME TO HELP It is called ‘World War 1’ and certainly no previous conflict had spread its ugly fingers so widely. Of course, we tend to think of the Western Front. Our default image of the War is of men in trenches, of mud and...