The local charity CLASH, Community Leicester Arthritis Self Help, will provide a new and free computer confidence course for all local people and anyone who suffers from arthritis. The course will be held at the brand new £4.8m Palmer-Tomkinson Centre located at Longslade Community College from 3.30pm to 4.30pm and began on Thursday 12th January.

It will run every Thursday during term time and has been designed to help those with little knowledge of computers and the Internet. Students from the college will be supporting new learners on the Go-on Get Online course. The sixth formers are volunteering their time and are hoping to pass on their knowledge of the digital world.

Director of Post 16, Mrs Melody Mitchell said: “We are always keen to involve our students within the community. CLASH has always used our facilities and it is great that they still continue to do so. After recently opening our new community and sixth form center we now have the facilities to aid this course. The new computer suite with over 30 machines will provide the very best and up-to date equipment.”

CLASH is a local branch of Arthritis Care. It works towards providing information about, and access to the best possible service and support for people with arthritis. Other weekly activities for the group involve hydrotherapy, yoga and gym sessions making their common goal to live with arthritis and not to be ruled by it!

There are around 400,000 people with rheumatoid arthritis in the UK and over 20,000 new cases each year. It’s estimated that about 8 million people in the UK have osteoarthritis. About 15,000 children and adolescents in the UK will suffer from juvenile forms of arthritis.

For more information about CLASH or to benefit from the activities and support they offer please call 07594 584 402 or 07954 614 466. Additionally more information can be found online at www.clashgroup.org.uk

Year one classes where shepherds and the main characters where performed by years five and six children. Our pictures show examples of the foundation classes and the whole school in the hall just before the performance began. The play was performed for parents, grandparents, staff and carers on Tuesday and Wednesday and all would have been treated to a fabulous event. Well done to all involved.

The pupils visited the Town Square foodstore on the High Street in Syston to see first hand how the colleagues within the store recycle everything, ensuring that nothing is sent from the store to landfill sites. They were provided with a quiz sheet to test their understanding of the process, they were also invited to enter a ‘design a poster’ competition based on the Zero to Landfill programme and given a goodbag to take home.

Hannah Frost aged nine, took part in the poster competition and her entry was selected as the winner. She was presented with her prize by store manager, David Lucas.

David said: “I’m delighted to be able to share our success with the pupils and I hope that they found their visit both informative and fun. I enjoyed judging the ‘Design a Poster’ competition and appreciate the time and effort all the pupils put into their posters. It’s been great fun working with the school and I plan to keep in touch to see how I might be able to offer further support in the future.”

Back in June, Midlands Co-operative Society was proud to announce that all of its 172 foodstores no longer send any food waste or packaging to landfill,

an industry first.

In April 2010, a cost effective, landfill-free, total waste solution was trialled in six Midlands Co-operative stores using an industrial Anaerobic Digestion plant in Northamptonshire. The trial grew to 30 stores in October and 60 in November 2010 soon followed by the entire food retail estate in June 2011, resulting in a full zero waste to landfill solution being delivered in all food stores without increasing waste collection costs to the business.

The Plant, operated by BiogenGreenfinch uses food waste to produce methane gas and in turn renewable electricity for the national grid. The process also produces a valuable biofertiliser for farmland. The anaerobic digestion plant produces enough renewable electricity to power over 3,000 homes continually for a year.

Warning Zone, an interactive ‘learning for life’ centre in Leicester for 10 and 11 year olds, depends on volunteers to provide a crucial role in ensuring that our visitors experience Warning Zone to its full potential.

After re-opening their doors at their new home at Frog Island last September, Warning Zone is always looking for volunteers to supervise and communicate effectively and confidently with small groups of children.

Education by Experience, the centre is made up of eight lifelike interactive sets based around issues such as personal safety, fire safety in the home, the dangers of railways and water and how peer pressure could result in offending and anti-social behaviour. The whole idea is to put youngsters under pressure to make decisions and then demonstrate the possible consequences. Teachers say that a visit to Warning Zone helps prepare children for their transition to secondary school and increased independence.

All volunteers act as guides for the visiting school parties. A member of the permanent staff manages each visit and teaching staff from the children’s school are on the premises throughout the visit.

Training is in stages starting with an induction, followed by sessions learning the lesson plans and how they are delivered within each scenario. After shadowing experienced guides you will be ready to go solo but the guidance and support continues.

For more information please contact Alan Godber, Centre co-ordinator on 0116 262 9739 or email from their website www.warningzone.org.uk

On Wednesday 21st December, Years three and four opened the doors to their museum of Celtic and Roman history. Parents, relatives, staff and children enjoyed a range of activities and interactive exhibits including displays of all the work completed this term, ICT presentations, real life artefacts from a museum, making mosaics and dressing up as celt, roman or legionary. The children were curators and worked very hard all day, even running a cafe and a visitors’ book!

As one guest wrote: ‘A fantastic exhibition and all the children are so knowledgeable – very impressive!’.

Then on Wednesday 14th December and Thursday 15th December the Key Stage one children performed their play entitled ‘Christmas Recipe’ which was enjoyed by all the parents, grandparents and carers who attended. The picture above supplied by the school shows Liam Bourke and Katie Summerfield from year two who played the cook and the assistant.

The following week saw the Foundation stage children perform their Nativity which, due to high demand, had to be performed over two sessions on Tuesday 20th December and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who attended. Some members of the school choir performed at the library on Tuesday 20th December from 11.00am, as shown in the separate article entitled Festive Charity Coffee Morning.

The School then held their Carol Services first on the evening of Tuesday 20th December in St Peter and St Paul’s Church and then in school on the morning of Thursday 22nd December.

For the third year running Wreake Valley College held its annual Wreake’s Got Talent competition on Thursday 15th December.

It has been going from strength to strength and this year we have staged two shows in contrast to one show last year.

This has lead to us raising over £450 for our designated charity ‘Rainbows’.

The shows have been a massive hit with both the students and the staff of the college. Acts included solo singers, groups, west end celebrities and stand up comedians. It was a wonderful example of the talent within our community.

The top 3 were:
First Leonie Petch and Millie Chamberlain,Year 9.
Second Grace Longland, Year 8 and
Third Tamsin Pegg, Year 7.

Syston Library with St Peter and St Paul’s School got together to provide seasonal cheer and raise money for charity with carols, coffees and mince pies on Tuesday 20th December. The young voices from St Peter and St Paul’s School sang a range of carols for members of the public visiting the library and shared copies of the words so that everyone could join in. However, the children sounded so beautiful that people sang quietly in order to hear them. The charity that benefited from the event is Age UK Leicester Shire and Rutland. The event also provided an opportunity for people to meet, catch up on local news, and relax as the holidays approached.

If you would like more information contact Syston Library on 0116 305 3500.

To find out more about this and other library events visit www.leics.gov.uk/libraries

The aim of this initiative is to raise awareness of safety and levels of noise while pupils walk to and from school and David Wilson’s donation ensured that the children were visible on their walk to school.

Philip Lacey, Sales Director at David Wilson East Midlands, comments “We are pleased to be able to support Merton Primary School during National Walk to School Month and by providing these bright kit bags, we hope to help keep the children safe on their walk to and from school. “It’s a great cause which not only helps to be more environmentally friendly by discouraging parents from driving the pupils to and from school, but it also promotes good practise for road safety which is important for everyone, no matter how old you are.”

National Walk to School Month aims to reduce the number of cars on the road and the amount of noise in the area, whilst offering great health benefits for both children and parents alike. To find out more, please visit the website at www.walktoschool.org.uk

David Wilson chose to donate the high viz equipment to Merton Primary School as it is close to it’s Chestnuts development off Barkby Road. This popular development currently offers a modern selection of three and four bedroom homes priced from £219,995.

To find out more please visit the sales office during the opening hours of 11.00am to 6.00pm daily. Alternatively call the sales hotline on 0844 811 5544 or log onto the website at www.dwh.co.uk David Wilson East Midlands was given a five star rating in this year’s HBF Customer Satisfaction Survey, in which consumers are asked if they are satisfied with the quality of their new home and whether they would recommend their builder to a friend.

For added peace of mind, buyers can also benefit from David Wilson’s new five year guarantee on fixtures and fittings in their new home at the time of purchase. Items covered at no extra cost to the buyer will include appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators, kitchen units, wardrobes, the central heating system, fires, doors, windows, drainage, the hot and cold plumbing system and even the driveway.