April 2010

 "All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt"

(Lucy Von Pelt - in 'Peanuts' - by Charles M Schultz)

As I'm sure you are all aware (although arguably Lucy has a good point about love and chocolate existing symbiotically), Easter isn't all about chocolate!  It's the story of Jesus' last days in Jerusalem before his death.  Before I start this slightly condensed April blog (as we have lost two weeks taking a well earned break....and another one trying to get all of our poor teachers stuck in the volcanic ash saga home from their extended holidays), here is my very brief 'Idiot's Guide to Easter'...

Idiot's Guide to Easter

In Western Christianity, Easter marks the end of Lent, a period of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday (what a poignant word under the present circumstances) lasting for forty days.  The Easter story includes Maundy Thursday (the Last Supper leading to the Eucharist), Good Friday (the day on which Jesus was crucified and derived from 'God's Friday') Holy Saturday (the day Jesus Christ's body lay in the tomb) and Easter Day (the resurrection...Alleluia!)  

Easter is the oldest and most important Christian Festival, the celebration of the death and coming to life again of Jesus Christ.   Therefore for Christians Easter Sunday with its message of new life is the high point of the Christian year and a day to rejoice. 

Generally the name 'Easter' has been derived from Pesach, the Hebrew name of Passover festival.  However, in England and Germany, Easter was named after 'Eastre', an Anglo-Saxon goddess 'Ēostre'. The symbols for this goddess were the hare and the egg.  From ancient times, the egg has been regarded as a symbol of rebirth and the custom of giving eggs at Easter appears to date right back to Roman times. 

Sadly our Easter Bunny was not originally an Easter symbol.  Eggs, like rabbits and hares, are fertility symbols of extreme antiquity.  Since birds lay eggs and rabbits and hares give birth to large litters in the early spring, these became symbols of the rising fertility of the earth at the Vernal Equinox - sadly not the result of an unexpected arrival in the early hours from an enormous chocolate bearing bunny!

Now for those who are familiar with these blogs, I often try to find something funny or bizarre that is related to my monthly theme.   And even though I say so myself - this one is an absolute classic! 

Now did you know that in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, there is a tradition of spanking or whipping women on Easter Monday?  In the morning, men spank women with a special handmade whip called a pomlázka (in Czech) or korbáč (in Slovak).  And in eastern Moravia and Slovakia, they even throw cold water on them!

However, I was slightly reassured when I read that this spanking is not painful or intended to cause suffering. A legend says that women should be spanked in order to keep their health and beauty during whole next year; which is an awful lot cheaper than a pot of face cream with hundreds of beauty boosting additives these days. An additional purpose of this spank-fest can be for men to exhibit their attraction to women.  Traditionally, the spanked woman gives a coloured egg and sometimes a small amount of money to the man as a sign of her thanks (is it me or is this getting weirder?)  But in some liberated regions the women can get revenge in the afternoon or the following day when they can pour a bucket of cold water on any man (I like this bit of the story).

A similar tradition existed in Poland (where it is called Dyngus Day), but it's treated little more than an all-day water fight.

So swiftly moving onto to some absolutely wonderful partnership news that I wouldn't wish to pour cold water upon.  I am thrilled to announce that Red Barn Primary School have now been granted Extended Services Capital Funding 2010/11 to reclaim and refurbish their Community Room.  Red Barn Pre-school will be relocated into a purpose-built lodge in the school grounds and the reclaimed community lounge project will include an accessible, covered reception area and dedicated entrance. 

I hope you will all share my delight that we will be able to offer a venue/community space for the local community to the west of Portchester and outreach for Keepsake Children's Centre.  Congratulations Red Barn Primary!

Can I also remind partners that the building work at X-Perience Young Persons' Centre in Trinity Street is now complete and there are some new sessions starting for young people starting at the end of April.  We are planning an Open Evening on Wednesday 21st April 2010 for parents, young people and practitioners to view the new facilities and equipment on offer.  Please feel free to drop in and visit the centre anytime between 7pm and 9pm to share our refreshments lovingly prepared by Chris (who is not only a trained Youth Worker, but also a qualified chef). 

From Tuesday 27th April 2010 onwards the centre shall be offering the following sessions from young people:

Sessions will be planned in response to young people's needs - but will include: chill and chat, art and crafts, cookery skills, IT projects and informal education/current issues affecting local teenagers.

Every Monday after-school, there will be a Trained Youth Worker available at the Centre from 4pm - 6pm offering confidential Health and Well-being Advice and Support.   Please click on the link below to download a poster to advertise/promote this service to young people.

Teenage Health and Well-Being Drop-in

Also located at X-Perience Young Persons' Centre (locator map above) is The Moving On Project.  For those of you who are not familiar with this service, The Moving On Project offer a free, confidential, short-term counselling, information and support service for young people aged from 11 - 25 years old.  This counselling service can be accessed at X-Perience Young Persons' Centre, at some of our local secondary schools (including Portchester Community School), and at Odyssey Young Persons' Centre. 

For more information, or to signpost a young person to this fantastic service then please call 01329 822 331, or visit the Hampshire DAAT Directory: Moving On Project page for more information.

While I am on the subject of young people, please take the opportunity to visit my News Page as I have popped a couple of flyers on the page advertising two Positive Parenting Programmes specifically for parents of teenagers that are starting in May.  I think most of you agree that we all need a little bit of help on occasions with parenting, and the Triple P course aims to give parents a toolkit to cope with behavioural issues (and establishing boundaries) with their pubescent child. 

Also the Hampshire Connexions website and youth pages on Hantsweb have now been redirected to a brand new web site called: YouthTube.  Young people across Hampshire can find access all of the information about their local Connexions services and/or Youth Team and get support information and advice about health, education, money and what's going on in their area in one accessible place.  Please click the picture below to go directly to the YouthTube site:

Another web site that may be of interest to Young People (other than the obvious networking sites) is the Fareham Snap DC site.  The next SNAP Dance Night takes place Friday 23rd April 2010 at 7 - 11pm with a St George's Day Theme (tickets available from Ferneham Hall). The initial SNAP (Say No and Phone) campaign was set up nationally in October 1995 and has now been running successfully in Fareham since January 1999.  The first event was supported by Fareham Borough Council’s Crime and Community Safety Panel and aimed to provide a safe environment for young people between the ages of 11 and 16 to have a good time away from the dangers of alcohol and drugs.  But it is a little known fact that all profit made from SNAP nights is ploughed straight back into funding local activities for young people, so please feel free to promote these dance nights at your school and community setting.

For young people aged between 18 - 25 there is a chance of grabbing a freebie festival ticket this year.  The Summer of Give Campaign is offers the chance to get a free ticket to some of the UK’s biggest festivals in return for just 4 hours of young people's time.  What a fantastic deal (and how I wish I was 20 years younger!).  There is a huge advertising drive on Radio 1 this week to get young people volunteering to give something back and make a positive contribution to their community ; with Radio 1 DJ 'Westwood' taking part in various youth volunteering projects (including sniffing the armpits of clothes in a charity shop with Alexandra Burke!)

Please feel free to signpost young people to the v-inspired web site, or for a more local involvement please visit the Portchester Community Centre web site to get involved in youth volunteering projects on the doorstep.

May I also say congratulations to our Portchester Community Centre Young Volunteers who help support weekly activities at Westland's Youth Club.  During the Easter holidays our young volunteers from  Portchester Community School and Cams Hill Secondary School (all aged between 13 and 16 years old) gave up their afternoon in the spring sunshine to attend their Young Worker's and First Aid Training.  The feedback from this training event was very positive, and we very much appreciate the involvement and hard work from all of our young people. 

That brings me to another reminder for the partnership.  Westland's Youth Club at Portchester Community Centre will resume again on  Friday 23rd April after the Easter break.  So please spread the word to 9-13 year olds living in and around Portchester that we are open again Friday evenings from 6pm for the usual games, quizzes, pool, computers, Wii Rock Band (or karaoke) and for one week only...decorating T-shirts.

Finally this month I would like to share a very useful site with a couple of my schools who are presently looking at either starting, or developing their breakfast club further.  Firstly you may be interested to visit the Blue Peter Mission Nutrition web site as there are some fantastic links and ideas on starting your club. 

Blue Peter Mission Nutrition - How to Set Up a Breakfast Club

Also Continyou produces an excellent set of resources to support schools or community organisations to set up their Breakfast Club including: job profiles, consultation documents, activity sheets, charging checklists, staff ratio guidelines, sample menus, finding funds and lots of ideas for different types of club (both Primary and Secondary).  Please click below and follow the links to download the documents you are interested in:

Starting a Breakfast Club

I look forward to seeing as many of you at the CAPP Meeting on Thursday 29th April, 9.00am at Harrison Primary School.  When we meet again for this spring meeting, please feel free to bring your ideas or proposals for projects to this meeting.  So I shall leave you until the May Blog with some life lessons from Snoopy:

"I think I've discovered the secret of life:

you just hang around until you get used to it"

Sally Brown

Susie Higgs