Welcome to December - that purse-string twanging time of year.  As I have 27p in small change, a broken earring and a safety pin left in my purse I have decided to establish myself as Fareham's Frugal Fairy.  So it is rather convenient that I was brought up in a family that could be regarded as slightly 'eccentric' when it came to money saving ideas.  I was about 15 years old when I discovered the delights of our local charity shop.  What pure gems could be found amongst the tat; genuine 1960s winkle-picker shoes, strings of pearls, tartan leggings, cameo brooches, fishermen's sweaters and Coco Chanel style suits that smelt of old things (...and occasionally dead things in the case of the 'real' fox fur stole with the ears and eyes still attached!) 

My grandparents lived through the "Make do and mend" war years so even the smallest pieces of string and Smartie tops were recycled into colourful garden bird scarers; and to this day I still have my grandmother's vintage collection of suspenders, bra hooks and buttons.  It makes me smile to think of her painstakingly cutting off and saving anything that may be of use before discarding an item of clothing.  Strangely enough, I have never yet found a use for my great-grandmother's Victorian suspenders!  Of course my mother was brought up in this austere post-war environment, so perhaps her upbringing might be to blame for that habit of spitting on her hanky to wash my face or tucking my vest into my pants to stop me catching my 'death of cold' (sometimes in the middle of the street, church or the public library...so death by public humiliation was obviously quite acceptable!)  She also used to recite a little rhyme when I was a child that went: "Find a penny, pick it up and all the day you'll have good luck".  But oddly enough my mother may have been sign posting me to a mini-gold mine with her lucky pennies.  I've read a story recently about a couple who spent the past 12 years picking up every coin they've spotted on the ground.  Over the years they have amassed an amazing... wait for it... £360,000!!!  Blimey, that would buy a house in Park Lane (in Fareham of course; not London!)

Which made me wonder just how far people will go to save money - would you for instance rub pine needles under your arms instead of buying deodorant or weave a blanket out of your own dog's fur?

Now as a bill-paying home owner I'm keen on saving money.  For instance I avoid overfilling the kettle, I roam around my home switching off lights, turning down radiators and switching off electrical appliances at night instead of leaving them on standby.  I reckon that lot alone must save me at least, say about £7.50 a year!  So before launching into this month's extended services stuff, I thought I would share my Christmas Cracker Top 40 List of money saving ideas.  I can't claim responsibility to thinking up all these ideas; they are simply the most ingenious and funny ones I could find on this crazy thing called the Internet.  I hope they make you smile during these oppressive financial times?

Christmas Cracker List - Top 40

This year we are certainly all feeling the pinch and many parents may be worried about just not being able to afford to spend as much on Christmas presents. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's 13th Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion Report, disturbingly shows that the number of children living in poverty in working families has risen slightly to 2.1 million, now accounting for 58 per cent of the total.  Unicef UK executive director David Bull said:"One of the most disturbing aspects of changed economic times is that full-time employment no longer guarantees a life lived above the poverty line."  So I am happy to share the news about a heart-warming survey.  It reveals that this year children don't mind if they have less presents to open on Christmas Day.  Swap-it.co polled over a thousand children and 9 out of ten said they were happy to go without their usual pile of presents this year and were expecting less than usual.  Christian Lindstrom, Chief Executive said: 'Our research shows that children crave parents to spend time with them at Christmas instead of splashing the cash unnecessarily". 

If you read last month's blog you will be aware that I was kindly asked to give a presentation at the "Celebrate the Generations" event in Winchester at the end of last month.  Finally, at the very last minute (due to a 10pm, night before the event, change in background music) I managed to produce a rather lively slideshow to showcase Cams Community Club. On behalf of the Cams and Portchester Partnership, may I say a big thank you to Karen Ferris, Alex Burns and all of the Extended Services staff at Hampshire County Council who helped to organise and contribute to the event. It was an excellent day for networking, I accepted many compliments on behalf of Cams Hill School and even thought the snow forced us home half an hour early, it was very well attended and received.  Please find my slideshow below; sadly minus the thoroughly modern background music (Jay-Z's 'clean version' of "Forever Young") on the converted PDF file version.  Please feel free to hum along as you click through.

Cams Community Club  (6.5MB PDF)

On the very same day I was in Winchester, Emma Watts (Fareham Borough Council), Sally Warmington (CCC Coordinator) and two of our delightful Cams Community Club Members attended an evening awards ceremony at Portsmouth Guildhall on behalf of Cams Community Club.  I am very pleased to announce that Cams Hill scooped the prize for BEST SCHOOL for their contribution to the local community.  As a partnership we have a reason to be incredibly proud because Northern Junior school were also proud winners that evening for their amazing school gardens.  Well done to both schools for your achievements.  Please click on the picture below to read the story that appeared in the Portsmouth Evening News:

Over the past three years that I have been in post I have come to realise that it isn't always necessary to inject lots of money into a project.  It seems to be a combination of finding out what people want, utilising individual skills, good organisation and promotion of the project, heaps and heaps of enthusiasm (absolutely essential) and a real commitment to make a difference - that seems to be the contributing factor to success.   

But a little bit of funding to kick-start a project can be very useful.  Many of you will know that it has been one of our CAPP area priorities to break down intergenerational barriers that exist between age groups; particularly with our ageing population. Therefore schools and organisations working with children and young people in our area may be interested in a small amount of funding being made available in 2011 from the Older People's Well-being Team at Hampshire County Council.  A maximum £300 grant is available to organisations wishing to establish an intergenerational project in 2011.  Please click here for the Application Form and return your form to Karen Ferris by Friday 28th January.  If you need any project ideas, or help with filling in the form then please get in contact and I'll be happy to assist. 

I also have full access to search Grant Finder and Grants 4 Schools if you need any help finding additional funding in 2011 - so rummaging in bins will not be necessary!

As we are drawing to a close for Extended Services in its present form and moving towards Local Children's Partnerships arrangements, Extended Services Coordinators across the county are preparing to leave behind their legacy.  At the beginning of 2011 an Extended Services Booklet will be produced at county of how to set up and run successful extended school projects; with contributions from all the coordinator across Hampshire.  I am sure this will be incredibly useful tool for the emerging partnerships.  Now my main difficulty has been to select only one project to showcase as we have achieved so many amazing things over the past few years.  I'm almost chuffed that I have to say thank you for making this such a difficult job.

The Fareham's Local Learning Partnership (a partnership of learning providers including Community Schools, Colleges, Training Providers etc.) are also compiling a Local Learning Provider Booklet early in 2011 of all the post-16 learning opportunities that takes place in our area.  If you wish to contribute to this booklet with approximately 100 words and a photograph of your provision then please see the FLLP invitation letter below for more details.  Please be quick though as the deadline date for submission is the 8th January 2011!

Fareham Local Learning Partnership (FLLP) Invitation Letter

A very exciting new project for the beginning of the year is our new community American Football Team run by our fabulous neighbourhood police team.  The aim of the project is to engage up to 50 young people in the sport to teach teamwork, leadership skills, self-discipline, respect whilst having fun.  Many thanks to Portchester Community School for offering space for the Portchester Pirates to train in the winter months and we look forward to hearing more from PCSO Bob Shailer about the new club.   If you have any young people who may be interested in learning American Football, or would like to run a taster session after school in the New Year then get in touch with Bob on 07901 102487.   Please could you display the advertising poster below and spread the word:

american football

American Football Team - Recruiting Poster

Time is racing on, so this is a very quick reminder about our Twitter and Facebook pages for extended services in Fareham.  I can share web pages, events, money-off vouchers, places to visit, what's on at local venues, support agencies helpline numbers and much, much more.  It is completely FREE and easy for me to signpost local services via these networking sites.  If you would like the HTML code to embed a link into your own web site then please get in touch, alternatively please just pop a couple of lines onto the school newsletter directing families to:

http://twitter.com/Farehamfamilies and Fareham Extended School Community Facebook Page

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To finish my cold December Blog - I have a severe weather warning for our partners

...we are expecting two feet of snow tonight