Hertfordshire Education Recycle » Blog

Not got time to list your Educational items !!

mainadmin — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:30:36 +0000

Haven’t got the time to list your Educational items – Then we can do it on your behalf

Drop off or Local Collection

Have you got old - School Uniform – Revision Guides – Sports Equipment – Educational Toys - School Shoes – Trainers & Anything to do with education really !!

Email us using the Contact form below

Thanks for your Help

Can my 16 to 19 year old get financial help in School or College ?

mainadmin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:53:39 +0000

So my daughter passed her GCSE’s and she is about to embark on her A levels ! But the cost of the text books, new clothes and field trips are quite high – so is there any help ?

What can 16 – 19 year olds get help with ?

“Schools, colleges and training providers have funds to help you if you’re studying or starting a full-time course from September 2011 and think you might struggle with the costs for your studies. For advice speak to student support services or your tutor.

To Read the Rest of my Blog Click Here

Teeny Tiny Yoga

mainadmin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:35:21 +0000

Finchley East Barnet Totteridge

Why Baby Yoga?

The demands of a newborn can be one of the biggest challenges of a postpartum yoga practice. However, it is not necessary to take on a full 60-90 minute practice to benefit from yoga. Even 10 or 20 minutes a day can make a big difference, and a practice can be divided into manageable segments and fit in to an accessible routine, 10 minutes here and there.

Baby yoga classes have been developed to make yoga practice easier to fit into your life with your newborn child. Classes involve yoga for babies, yoga for mums/carers and yoga that can be practised together. It is not necessary to have any previous yoga experience to join a class. Classes are very different from a traditional yoga class with no babies involved. Rhyme, singing, movement, stretching, humour and relaxation all form part of a baby yoga class.

Benefits

Physical

· In one session, the baby is given as much physical activity as he/she would receive if they were handled and carried all day. This activity will help the baby sleep more deeply.

· The baby’ will become more ‘settled’.

· Baby yoga provides a daily routine of activity through which the parent/carer can engage constructively with his/her baby from birth.

Physiological / developmental

All the baby’s bodily systems are stimulated, including the digestive and nervous systems.

Psychological

· Baby yoga helps the parent and baby to get to know each other, enhancing communication between them.

· Yoga can help to heal birth trauma.

· Enjoyment of the positive stress of yoga will increase the baby’s ability to cope with future challenges.

· Through the high quality attention the baby receives from it’s’ parent/carer, the baby learns to interact with others and play actively.

· The relaxation that forms a part of yoga helps parents cope with the stresses of early parenting.

The inspiration for the approach to Birthlight Baby Yoga originated from the Peruvian Amazon native people. Some traditional techniques used with infants in India have also been incorporated and adapted into the sequences we practice. Years of experience and research underlie the integrated set of exercises on the baby yoga course developed by the Birthlight Trust. Baby yoga is suitable for babies from 6 weeks to mobile.

Visit Teeny Tiny Yoga – http://www.teenytinyyoga.com/

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Oaklands sign up this saturday 10th September 2011

mainadmin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:18:44 +0000

Enrol – this saturday 10th September

At Oaklands College St Albans

Smallford Campus – 10am -2pm

Free bus service

Bursary scheme available for students from low income families

Half price travel card

Visit www.oaklands.ac.uk

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HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMMUNITY SMARTER

mainadmin — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 10:15:54 +0000

This is the latest news report from the Education pages of the BBC News and it is not a pretty editorial; “Many pupils living in poverty come to school hungry, tired and in worn-out clothes, a survey by the ATL teachers’ union has suggested.

More than three-quarters of 627 primary, secondary and college teachers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who responded to the survey believed they taught pupils living in poverty. About 40% said the problem had increased since the recession. More than 85% of the teachers who responded to the survey said they believed that poverty had a negative impact on the well-being of pupils they taught.”http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13081777#

Since setting up Education Recycle we have found many children in Hertfordshire who are living in poverty, and whose family cannot afford the uniforms and equipment needed for school. This is why we have set up our community site to give a platform for members of our local community to exchange, give and take educational items – all for free. We believe strongly that the best way out of the poverty trap is through education, but how can children change the cycle of poverty if they do not have the needed items for school? We have heard many heartbreaking stories on our journey of setting up our site of children being bullied for wearing the wrong school uniform or ill fitting uniform. Children being punished for wearing the wrong uniform or not having the correct books and children not being able to join in with school activities, for example P.E because they do not have the equipment. I had a Mum in tears at my front door the other day because she could not afford the very expensive school uniform – we found her the uniform and she was given it for free.

A bit of my own story; I was on benefits and had no way out of the poverty trap but I decided to change my future to show my daughter that it could be done. I embarked on a law degree atHertfordshire University. It has been a struggle – the books every year come to about £300 a year, the travel, the laptop, the paper, the printing costs, the trips…the list is endless. I have had to do my degree without a lot of the equipment needed, but I am in my 4^th year and I will finish and I will get a good job. Education will get my family and I out of poverty, but it is hard studying without heating because we have run out on the meter! Imagine then how hard it is for a child…

No parent wants to have to say “No” to their child to going on a school trip or “No” again to them wanting to go swimming but believe me when it comes to a choice of eating, heating and roof over their heads that comes first. Do you really believe that parents with very low incomes want their child to be in a school uniform which they know is far too small…NO, but they often have no choice. I believe that if these children were given the chance to do these activities, school trips and had the items to have hobbies and their school work, it would give them the confidence in themselves to not want to be jobless , to go on benefits or to go on to crime in adulthood – all they need is a bit of belief in them.

If as a community we stopped thinking it wasn’t our problem and that it was the parents fault then we maybe could start moving forward. I think that it is important to look after all of the children in our community and this way give all children the chance to do well as adults. No child starts life with the dream of being on the benefit system, they have bigger and better dreams than that.

To me it is simple; if we start looking after each other we can achieve so much more as a community.

We run the site as a family from my husband, the children to the grandparents – there is in all 11 of us in the family running the site, picking up uniforms from local schools, e mailing and doing fun runs! We make nothing from doing this and my new husband and I spent our wedding gift money to build the site but we are not in this to make money -we wanted to prove that “community” still exists and prove that our theory was correct that by working together as a community change was possible…only time will tell!

All I know is that we care about the children down our street and I would not want one of them to not be able to reach for their dreams because of lack of money. All children deserve a chance and as adults we should all work to make it possible for each and every one of them to reach their full potential.

Please support us and sign up to our site and start advertising your no longer needed school items – www.hertfordshire.educationrecycle.net

We would like to say thank you to Cllr Lynne Sparks and the Howe Dell Family Centre for supporting us and donating school items to us from the start.

Emily Jones

Communicating with teenagers

mainadmin — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:53:51 +0000

Communicating with teenagers – By Guest Blogger Indu Khurana (Ms)

Communicating with teenagers

Teenagers are the beings that inhabit adolescence, and “adolescence” is the time gap or stage of development that each of us goes through in the transition point between childhood and adulthood.

It is a time of rapid and successive change: Physically as well as emotionally our systems seem to develop a mind of their own and to a degree become out of (our) control. It is often a time of conflict – with friends, parents, relatives, even ourselves. In many ways it is a time of not knowing, changing expectations, difficult feelings, not feeling understood by others, secrets, testing the boundaries, a desire for autonomy, an unreadiness for taking responsibility, and so many other contradictory things. It is a state of limbo, where we are neither one nor the other.

Perhaps the best analogy is that of the caterpillar and the butterfly: Many adolescents like caterpillars, start to withdraw from those around them, becoming focused on a very narrow world of friends, music and perhaps a narrow personal selection of other things. Feelings that are running rife during this time may include low confidence, shame, anger, sadness, euphoria. It is a time of new experiences, new feelings, and new perspectives. This can sound exciting from the outside, and knowing that it is not happening to you, helps. But from the inside, it is a frightening position to be in, as the world you know and are familiar with, is being turned upside down.

For some of us it can be a time when the archetype of Dionysus is invoked, where the young person starts to lead a hedonistic, daimonic and ecstatic lifestyle that focuses on the intensity of the experiences rather than any clarity or structure of meaning. This is the alchemical stage of Solutio where the adolescent goes through a type of disintegration, before taking on the next shape of adulthood. Certainly there is an element of Mortificatio at the latter stages that aligns to the rebirth that takes place as the youth emerges from the cocoon into the adult butterfly insect. The fact that many adolescents find this time to be a dark place also fits within this stage of alchemy. For others, this can be a time of Seperatio, where the teenager genuinely feel cut off from the world, and perhaps themselves. They do not have a sense of connection or belonging – it can be a time of intense alienation.

Keeping the channels of communication open (from your end), even though your teenager is being unreasonable, outrageous, moody, changeable, is key. It is important to separate out the person from the behaviour, so that you genuinely feel able to say “I love you but I don’t like that behaviour”. Sometimes it can feel like a replay of the tape from when your child was a toddler: That is because it is! Developmentally, we all go through very similar issues or behaviours in our teenage years as we did during the toddler years, and your teenager is doing the same. Those familiar issues of boundaries, testing out, defiance, impulsivity, grandiosity (thinking they know it all – you don’t understand),acting out, learning a new set of emotions, poor listening skills, a new level of consciousness and then having to learn how to express that in a way that is appropriate to your societal culture are rife at this stage of development.

There are many feelings that are difficult to understand for both those on the inside as well as others. For those on the outside, i.e. those trying to relate with the teenager, these factors would in my opinion be worth bearing in mind:-

Trust - prove yourself worthy of it

Responsibility - walking the fine line of giving some but not too much

Boundaries - learning which need to be held steadfastly.

Listen - to what they have to say

Ask - if they want your input

Remember - your own adolescence (be empathic)

Accept - the person developing in front of you

Be prepared - to be hated and needed at the same time

Remember, different things work for different people and in different situations. This means you generally have to try various things before you find the one that works for your family. But most importantly, talk to themnot at them.

Indu Khurana (Ms)

BACP accredited / UKCP registered

+44 7957 248273

www.sunai.co.uk

Guest Blog from” Actually Mummy”

mainadmin — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:55:35 +0000

This week we have a Guest Blogger from Actually Mummy…Top ten list of low-cost activities

Check the blog it’s Great !! Click Here

Student in need for a job URGENT‏

z_jadavji — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 22:58:57 +0000

Student in need for a job URGENT‏

Businesses that give any Educational Items for Free to their community…. We can add a link to your website here for free! – Show the Community you Care about Hertfordshire !! Click Here For More Information Check out the Latest Competitons: Win! 2 x VIP Tickets to Campus West Cinema/Theatre and 2 x VIP Tickets for Roller City. Click Here Win! A Holiday for a Family of Four in Beautiful Cornwall. Click Here Win! 2 x 1 Day Passes for Gosling Park Spa & Gym. Click Here Need Help? Check out the new FAQ page.

The diary of the virtual baby weekend Staring Teddy

educationrecycle1 — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:59:20 +0000

Read my blog and watch the real life filming of my 16 year old Daughter looking after her Virtual Baby

http://educationrecycle.net/blog/the-diary-of-the-virtual-baby-weekend/

Win Roller City Tickets Just added to our Free Competition Page

emily1jones1 — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 10:27:25 +0000

For Free Entry Click on link http://hertfordshire.educationrecycle.net/competition/