BBC NEWS | UK | Claims of sex abuse by women grow

BBC NEWS | UK | Claims of sex abuse by women grow

Many stories of child abuse often seem to have a man as the perpetrator. But this report seems to adjust that imbalance.

Singletrack World : Shanaze Reade Urges Kids to Lighten Up

Singletrack World � Shanaze Reade Urges Kids to Lighten Up

Oliver isn't riding his bike to nursery now that the colder, darker mornings are with us. But this is a good idea for any of us cycling or even walking to work or school.

Snoring cure: £3 jab lasts a year - mirror.co.uk

Snoring cure: £3 jab lasts a year - mirror.co.uk

Both Hayley and I suffer with snoring: our own and each other's! So this sounds like very good news.

A biiiiiig "W"

On Friday afternoons, Hayley and I sometimes try to spend time with the kids one-to-one. I think this is valuable to both children, but perhaps especially to Oliver, as it allows him to have some time where he is not hindered in any way by his younger, often adoring, but also less restrained sibling.

So this afternoon I took Oliver to ride on the Manchester wheel.

But before I tell you about that, let me mention that to get there we took a train, which Oliver was looking forward to almost as much as (or perhaps even more than) the wheel, which admittedly he hadn't seen.



In fact, though he enjoyed the ride on the little Sprinter train, he complained that it wasn't really going fast. No longer is simply a train ride an entertainment it seems. My little boy is growing up into a big boy!

Arriving at Piccadilly Station, Oliver declared he was hungry and asked for a sandwich. A tuna mayo baguette with cucumber and lettuce was his selection, to be precise. We had half each and to my surprise he ate every last crumb of his half, despite already having had lunch not long before. A growing boy indeed.



My plan to then catch a tram was thwarted by the fact that no trams are running through Piccadilly at the moment due to maintenance works. So we walked across town, Oliver being periodically carried on my shoulders through what must have seemed like big crowds compared to what he's used to.

And so we finally arrived at our destination: the wheel! I've seen it many times and often thought of it as just a big ferris wheel. In fact it is two-thirds the height of the London Eye. But unlike the Capitol's wheel (which Hayley and I rode on back in 2003) it has much smaller capsules, meaning you can't hide in the middle trying to keep your distance from the drop. And it also takes you up much more quickly, rotating three or four times before your ride is over.

Did I mention yet that I am not great with heights?

I sat rather stiffly on the seat, trying to look out at the horizon and not down at the pavement below, while not conveying the slightest hint of my tension to Oliver.

Oliver on the other hand was totally un-phased by this sudden adjustment in altitude.



He even stood leaning against the doors which were curved so you could see vertically down to the street below.



It has to be said the views were great. And I did enjoy the ride, though at about 13 minutes I was probably just about coping with the height by the time we had to get out. (Who am I kidding! My sigh of relief probably caused gales in the Atlantic this evening.)

And just for the record I took a little video of part of our ride.

Big Kid Circus

Oliver samples the candy floss

A couple of Sundays ago, Oliver and I went to the circus. The Big Kid Circus to be precise. We went with Oliver's friend Jack and his Dad, Manny.

It was not cheap, but there was an online discount voucher which made it much more palatable. And after all, how often do you get to go to a circus these days?

And when I say a circus, it was a real old-style circus with no safety net, but equally with none of the animals that were pretty much de rigeur in my youth.

It was clearly an operation run on a tight budget. The performers all doubled as servers of popcorn, candy floss, etcetera during the interval.

The performances were good, each interspersed with an appearance from either a group of dancing girls or the clown, but the sound quality wasn't great so the humour was sometimes lost a little. Not that it mattered very much. Oliver still enjoyed the spectacle.

His favourite part was when one of the performers who did an act involving a high slung bungee rope appeared dressed as spiderman. At the interval Oliver had the opportunity to have a photo taken with a selection of the performers, but there was only ever going to be one choice.

After the interval came what was arguably the highlight, an act involving a man walking on a rotating figure of eight shaped apparatus high above the ring. It culminated in him walking and running blindfold on it and he even tripped at one point. Was it part of the act? Hard to say. But he was definitely the star turn for myself and Manny, both of us being barely able to watch.

Throw in an escapologist and various other acrobatic turns and all in all it was a good afternoon. But I'm sure all Oliver will remember in the long run is Spiderman.

BBC NEWS | Health | Curry spice 'kills cancer cells'

BBC NEWS | Health | Curry spice 'kills cancer cells'

So I can eat curries for health reasons. Fantastic!

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Report: Palestinians denied water

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Report: Palestinians denied water

The apparently ever-increasing levels of inhumanity in the middle east are depressing. I can't imagine what it must be like trying to live with so little water. At least with a free press and organisations such as Amnesty International there is still hope for improvement.

BBC NEWS | Health | Steep rise in Down's pregnancies

BBC NEWS | Health | Steep rise in Down's pregnancies

It was back in January 2007 that we had a scan for Lucy to check for the likelihood of Downs Syndrome. My post at that time stirred up a reaction or two (misgiudeded and unjustified too, I might add).

Hearing about this report on the Today programme radio this morning, I was surprised to hear that now apparently every woman is offered the nuchal translucency scan. I thought you just got the blood test and even then were only told the result and offered an amniocentesis if the score indicated a high chance of a downs pregnancy. We certainly had to pay for the nuchal translucency scan ourselves back in 2007.

Apparently the percentage of those who discover they have a downs pregnancy and then decide to abort is unchganged.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Malawi: A mother's race against time

BBC NEWS | Africa | Malawi: A mother's race against time

Several years ago when Hayley was pregnant with Oliver, we saw a fireman's bike in a mini museum in Prague. I'm not sure how much real use it saw, perhaps none at all.

But here is a genuinely life-saving bicycle, used as an ambulance for pregnant women in Malawi.

Sadly my excitement at this story was dampened when I read that there are more Malawian doctors in Manchester than in the whole of Malawi, a symptom of the lucrative wages our government is offering in order to try to maximise improvements in our own National Health Service.

BBC NEWS | Health | 'Younger wife' for marital bliss

BBC NEWS | Health | 'Younger wife' for marital bliss

Hayley is 6 years younger than me, so that's a good start. And if you want proof she is smarter than me, although we met via the same means, I paid to do so and she didn't!

Illuminated

I am lucky to live in a part of the world with many great cultural attractions. Manchester has a wealth of industrial and sporting history. Liverpool has the Beatles and its maritime past. Wigan even has its "pier" (made famous by George Orwell's book).

Then there's Blackpool.

OK, I admit Blackpool has its tower and as a child I loved the place. Even as a teenager I'd make pilgrimages there with friends by train. The fun-fairs, the candy floss, the arcades full of games and of course the Pleasure Beach were all worth the trip. But I'm afraid that as the years passed I lost my desire to visit Blackpool, largely due to its tendency to be full of drunks as the evening set in.

But as with so many aspects of life, having kids has helped me to re-connect with what joy there is to be had. And in this case with what is good about Blackpool. In fact, with what is great about it: its illuminations.

Yes, every year during the early autumn, Blackpool puts on a show of lights that has been going for donkeys years. Yes, even since before I was born. Since 1879 in fact. The lights portray characters and tell stories and have enthralled kids for generations.

So last Saturday Hayley took our two to see them. And they loved it! At one point Lucy, who had been asleep, woke to see one of Blackpool's old fashioned trams fully decorated with lights and just emitted a long awe-filled "Wowwwwwwwww". Oliver loved the stories and characters - everything from Alice in Wonderland to the Teletubbies - but was most delighted when he saw Mickey Mouse standing near the road and Mickey waved to him.

Of course there was lots of other fun, especially the rides on the pier.



But I like to think its the illuminations that will have captured their imaginations and hopefully will be cause for us all to go back next year and for many years to come.

BBC NEWS | UK | Education | More choice on school start age

BBC NEWS | UK | Education | More choice on school start age

Hot on the heels of last week's report saying children should not start school until 6 years old.

The S word

When Oliver was born our lives changed forever. His arrival alone was cataclysmic enough to make every day feel like a journey in its own right, filled with joy, tears and just occasionally some sleep.

The adventure ahead was so huge that every milestone seemed far off. With a year before he would walk and longer still until he'd talk, other yet more far-flung mile-posts barely crossed our minds.

And yet one in particular has loomed ever larger in the intervening years. One that is almost impossible to avoid and anecdotally at least can be the source of great anguish.... albeit mostly for the parents. It's the S word: "school".

When Hayley was still pregnant an old school-friend of mine told me Hayley should make sure the baby was born ("squeeze the little bugger out" I believe was her exact turn of phrase) in August (noting that our bump was due on August 24th) and not let it drift into September, because that would mean our offspring would be at home another year, the clear implication being that they would cost us more money.

How naive I was to imagine this was a logical and perhaps sensible piece of advice. Today, with my son having just missed the cut (birthday on September 8th) and having just watched so many of his friends since birth go off to school for the first time, I am enormously grateful that he has another year with his Mum and his sister before starting school himself.

Don't get me wrong, he likes his nursery and we like him going there, but knowing he will have grown physically, mentally and emotionally for a whole year more gives me more confidence that he will adapt well to school. He is a sensitive soul, generous and kind-hearted. And innocent. As surely all four year olds be. But some are not so innocent and frankly a little more mean. Sure he'll come across that a little at nursery too, but I can't help feeling that being the oldest in his class will be better for him than had he been the youngest.

The thought of Lucy being the youngest in her class (as she will be) does not frighten me quite as much. It still frightens me, but she seems to me much more worldly wise and tough than Oliver was at the same age and that re-assures me somewhat. Even so, despite being 23 months younger than Oliver, she will start school exactly a year after him.

And so today we visited the school that both our children are most likely to attend and met with the headmaster who gave us a guided tour.

We've heard good things about the head and I made so bold as to tell him so, which he took in his stride. His enthusiasm, friends tell us, is behind much of the success of the school. And it does seem to be successful. We've never come across a parent of a pupil there who is unhappy with the school and its Ofsted reports are impressive.

The first thing that strikes you about the school is its size. It's big! It has 450 pupils and large grounds. And when you enter you are greeted by a corridor that stretches into the distance like something from Kafka's "The Trial". But the layout and location of the different classes seems to limit the impact of this hugeness, including two separate playgrounds based on age.

The facilities seem good (though I don't have much to compare with yet), there are large playing fields and the atmosphere is one in which all the kids seemed busy and happy. (The fact it was Friday and they were on Golden Time, enjoying activities of their own choosing, may have helped with this!) Several of the children spoke to the head unprompted about what they were doing and seemed at ease with him. It was generally just a really good atmosphere of busy learning.

While there Oliver kept his eyes peeled for some of his friends and sure enough we found half a dozen of them in one of the reception classes. One of them piped up that Lucy had called his house at 4am the previous morning. Slightly embarrassed, we explained this story to the head and moved swiftly on.

We were told about lots of things that the school does, something of an information overload to be honest, but also managed a few questions ourselves, including about bullying and the approach to religion. The latter was interesting to me as it fell somewhere between my own Church of England school upbringing and an entirely secular approach. Grace is said at meals and the school teaches Christian values but also teaches about other faiths. I like that.

We touched upon the age of the kids starting school. We had all heard about today's review of education in England which suggests kids should start school at 6 years old. The headmaster said that in effect they were already doing that at his school, as the first year is very much play-oriented learning and only in the following year does the focus shift to teaching the national curriculum in a more structured way. Again this felt right to me.

During our walk round the school, both Lucy and Oliver, who were both a bit tired, each managed to bump their head! Oliver wobbled backwards and hit his head on a sharp metal door-frame, while Lucy, apparently with too much to observe around her, walked straight into the corner of a book case with quite a whack! So it wasn't the ideal environment in which to conduct a considered and in-depth discussion of the direction of 21st century education, but it was enough to leave us impressed and quite happy at the thought of our kids beginning their school life the environment we had witnessed.

Now we have two other local schools to see. This school is our "catchment" school, so it is likely our children would end up there anyway, but we want to look at the two other local schools for comparison.

And though the journey through school starts a whole year from now, applications will have to be made this year. And anyway, that year's gonna fly. I just know it.

BBC NEWS | Education | Science and literacy in the sandpit

BBC NEWS | Education | Science and literacy in the sandpit

An interesting article on play-based learning, which is something we discussed on today's visit to one of Oliver's prospective schools for next year.

BBC NEWS | Education | Open-plan school hearing problems

BBC NEWS | Education | Open-plan school hearing problems

This article is of particular interest to me, not only because Oliver has a little hearing difficulty and one of his potential schools (though not the one we visited today) is open-plan, but also because I work in an open-plan office which is so noisy and distracting that I sometimes resort to putting on my iPod to block out the noise.