CITIZENSHIP IN EDUCATION

LOCAL MP for Enfield North appeared in the House of Parliament today to talk to the about issues in the national curriculum within the education system.

 

Joan Ryan asked the Minister for the Department of Children, Schools and Families: “Are you willing to include issues relating to crime in young people including anti social behaviour, knife crime and binge drinking within classrooms?”

 

The spate of gun and knife crime in London has now put immense pressure on schools to provide adequate teaching of the dangers before youths are drawn in to anti social behaviour in society. Mr Knight says: “The revised curriculum for Citizenship in secondary schools provides opportunities to explore the issue of crime, antisocial behaviour and carrying weapons through an examination of the concepts of democracy and justice, understanding that justice is fundamental to a democratic society and exploring the role of law in maintaining order and resolving conflict.”

 

The new framework for Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) which has replaced Citizenship hopes to provide students with the opportunity to be taught how to make safer choices when being pressured with threats to their personal safety in a non criminal way.

 

“PHSE is non-statutory” says Mr Knight: “The implantation of this subject in to every Secondary school in the country is not possible, the decision as to whether the subject is brought in to a schools curriculum is giving to individual Secondary school.”

 The decision to raise the issue of Citizenship within schools comes after the government announces plans to make children swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen; the plans were put forward by former attorney general Lord Goldsmith to help increase Britishness within our society.

TEENS PREFER BLOGS TO BOOKS

I read in the Daily Mail today a side bar story on page 33 and to be honest it caught my eye and I fell in love with it. At the start of my People and Politics course our lecturer told us to create a blog and then update it frequently, well my opinion on this was that it was a great idea.

 

The story was that teenagers prefer blogging to the classic reading list of books to help further their intellectual minds. The poll found that 11-14 year olds pore over celebrity riddles magazines such as Heat and Bliss which base their population on the lifestyle format. The survey was carried out by the National Year of Reading by the social networking site Piczo; this website contains many blogs man made websites by teenagers.

 

1,340 youngsters who took part in the poll and admitted they had been told off by an adult who taught they were not reading ‘proper’ literature… but I put this question to you; what can be called proper literature nowadays? In the generation we are in now New Media Technologies, online Journalism

 

There are however some books that the survey should teenagers liked including Happy Potter and The Diary of Anne Frank, the least liked books read by teenagers are anything to do with homework or books with more then 100 pages… but I guess university students and teenagers have something in common, they hate to read pages and pages of black and white words printed on paper. I am very thankful that blogs give a teenager the opportunity to voice their opinions, fears, worries and loves to anyone who is willing to log on and read what they have written. It is the best and only way that helps those students further their speech and intelligence and no other person other then their peers give better criticism.

 

The Director of the National Tear of Reading insisted: “We should all appreciate that many young people are reading creatively, parents need to accept that their children prefer to read online resources rather then read through a book.” I think he is correct and if any of what has been shown then there is one simple statement…. Isn’t reading still reading, no matter what material it is?

MAN IN COURT OVER MURDERED TEENAGER

A 45 year old Enfield born man is appearing in front of Enfield Magistrates Court today for the murder of Michael Alexander Jones in Edmonton, North London.

Tony Paul was arrested for the murder of Michael, 18, who was found dead at his home last Thursday; he was studying Geography as Queen Mary University in London.

A post-mortem revealed he died from stab wound to the chest and severe head injuries.

Detectives are searching for a blue BMW 3 series (218 saloon SE) with the registration number N118 FLA, which they believe the suspect was driving. They are also appealing to the public to trace the personal possessions that were stolen from the scene of the crime; these include a gold chain, a ring with the victim’s initials and a pair of glasses.

Michael’s parents appeared on television appealing to witness to help find any more information as to why their son was killed.

GIRL FOUND HUNG IN ‘FREAKISH’ ACCIDENT

A four-year-old child has been found hung in her bedroom by a hair band after a freakish accident yesterday.

 

Phil Brown tried to resuscitate his daughter after he found her lifeless body hung with a hair band which was tied to a hammock at the family home in Kent on New Years Day, her father said: “I took her down and tried to get her back, had tied the hair band to the hammock, used to store stuffed toys, while she was playing in her room.”

 The couple called 999 and young Paige was taken to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford where she was pronounced dead. Ashford Coroner’s court recorded a verdict of accidental death, the coroner said: “It was an entirely unpredicted, freakish accident”.  Reliving the dreadful night his daughter died Mr Brown explained to the court that his daughter was upset when she went downstairs to him and said she could not untie the hair band, which was in a tight knot.  

After seeing how upset Paige was he and Ms Ford went upstairs but could not untie the hair band, they decided to give up and try again later after lunch; unfortunately after they went back downstairs the horrific accident occurred. .

 The inquest heard that the post-mortem examination performed by Consultant pathologist Dr Charles Lawson showed Paige died of compression of the neck due to suspension; he believes she stood on the stool to reach the hair band and slipped off. Coroner Rachel Redman said: “I cannot see that there was anything that you could have done to have prevented what happened to Paige.”

Diana’s inquest is costing £7m!

The coroner’s court hearing in to the death of Diana Princess of Wales and Dodi Al Fayed has reached a staggering £7m, latest figures have shown.

 

The huge figure is set to increase even more as the bill for lawyers representing the police and MI6 have not yet been shown to the public. Furthermore the original investigation into the August 1997 Paris crash lead by the Metropolitan Police cost £4m

 

Diana, her companion Dodi Al Fayed and driver Henri Paul died after a car crash in a Paris tunnel on August 31, 1997. Coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker has dismissed the jury until March 31, when they will return to hear his summary of evidence.

THE FLYING SPAGETTI MONSTER – new religion!

I was out last weekend at a friends when i saw a red book lyin gon his floor when i picked it up i started to laugh at the name “ The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster”, at this point in time i thought it was a joke book one of them books created as a non-fiction piece of writing. However when i come to read parts in the book i gathered it wasnt, when mmy mate came back we had a lengthy discussion which turned in to a healthy debate over what the book was really meant for. I stood on the bench with the God created earth/Big bang theory and he was adiment that this was a generally good enough theory of how the world was created. It began to intrigue me alot over the next few days when i got home and done some research on this new religion and some some very interesting things about it. Its up to you how you view it as religion takes different people but i will say this, i did laugh and i do continue to at the very thought of this theory; yet there are people in this world who do not have the same opinion as i do.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster (also known as the Spaghedeity) is the a parody religion called The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster founded in 2005 by Bobby Henderson, 25.  

Bobby Henderson a physics graduate from Oregon State University protested the Kansas State Board of Educations decision to only teach intelligent design as an alternative theory to biological evolution in our world. He sent a letter to the education board where he said that he believes in a supernatural being called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which resembles spaghetti and meatballs. He also said that schools should not only teach one belief about how the world was created and for the ‘Pastafarian’ theory of creation to be taught in science classrooms.

Since this event occurred the media exposure of the FSM become incredible and through this the religion become highly popular with many people throughout the world, especially in America. Henderson described himself as a concerned citizen when he sent the open letter regarding the FSM to the Kansas Board of Education. The letter was sent before the evolution hearings as an arguments against the teaching on intelligent designs in the biology classes within the state, he stated that both his theory of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and intelligent design had equal validity where human evolution was concerned.

Those who believe in the ‘Pastafarian’ theory follow a set of beliefs as the main one is that there is an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster, which created the entire universe “after drinking heavily”. Another is that all evidence for evolution was planted by the Flying Spaghetti Monster, in an effort to test Pastafarians’ faith a form of the Omphalos hypothesis. (god created everything). The most outrageous belief is the Pastafarian belief of heaven stresses that it contains beer volcanoes and a stripper factory, hell is similar except that the beer is stale, and the strippers have VD. Now this to me seems a little eccentric but to other people who follow this they follow these beliefs because they believe that heaven contains all of these things for them in the afterlife. If you think about this theory logically it is not so ‘out there’ when you uncover more about the religion, Muslims suicide bombers believe in death they will get 72 virgins and that is what they truly believe. Some Christians believe that when they die they will float up to heaven and be welcomed by gold holy gates at the front of heaven, and people do not say they are crazy because so many people believe it that it has become part of the religion itself. They do however take something similar from the Christian belief system, the religious text of the Pastafarian religion is called the Loose Canon. In place of the Ten Commandments, it contains the Eight ‘I’d Really Rather You Didn’ts’. 

As the Flying Spaghetti Monster theory spread it come up against a lot of criticism and laughter from on-line bloggers and newspapers. In August 2005, BiongBiong,net announced they would pay $250,000 to any person who would show empirical evidence that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, this was later raised to $1,000,000 after the challenge made by a reader.  In November 2007, three talks were delivered at the American Academy of Religion’s in San Diego. Academics said that the program may get many laughs but it was a serious debate on the essence of religion, it explored questions such as, “Is an anti-religion like Flying Spaghetti Monster actually a religion? Or “Does religion require a genuine theological belief or simply a set of rituals and a community joining together as a way of signaling their cultural alliances to others?”

‘The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monste’ris their equivalent of the Bible. It shows and talks of biblical figures with characters such as Captain Mosey, a pirate and the FSM equivalent of Moses. The Gospel contains the Eight “I’d Really Rather You Didn’t.” It also provides information on how to convert people to the religion of the FSM and explains many of the religion’s beliefs.

BECKHAM SET TO GET HIS 100th CAP

David Beckham will finally gain his 100^th cap after being recalled to playing in England’s friendly against France.

The ex England skipper and LA Galaxy star has been named in the provisional by coach Fabio Capello, he said: “ I have had good reports on him from the assistant coach Franco Baldini, and also from his club. I always said that when David was fit he could be in the squad”.

 

Arsenal’s aspiring young footballer Theo Walcott, 19, has also been called up to play in the game his first since he played in the 2006 World Cup Finals, he is said to be thrilled after just celebrating his birthday last Sunday. The game which will be played in Paris on 26^thMarch will be missing Manchester United’s Michael Carrick and Tottenham’s winger Aaron Lennon who has also been left out of the Under-21’s squad.

 

The provisional squad will be reduced to a group of 23 players by Capello and his assistant coach Baldini on Saturday 21^st March. The England coach will be hoping for no injuries on Sunday during two premiership games where 13 players from the final squad will be playing when Manchester United host to Liverpool and Arsenal take on Chelsea at Stanford Bridge.

 The provisional squad: 

Goalkeepers: James (Portsmouth), Carson (Aston Villa), Kirkland (Wigan)

Defenders: Bridge (Chelsea), A Cole (Chelsea), Johnson (Portsmouth), Terry (Chelsea), Brown (Man Utd), Lescott (Everton), Ferdinand (Man Utd), Wheater (Middlesbrough), Woodgate (Tottenham), Upson (West Ham)

Midfielders:Barry (Aston Villa), Young (Aston Villa), Bentley (Blackburn), J Cole (Chelsea), Lampard (Chelsea), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea), Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), Gerrard (Liverpool), Hargreaves (Man Utd), Downing (Middlesbrough), Jenas (Tottenham)

Forwards:Walcott (Arsenal), Agbonlahor (Aston Villa), Crouch (Liverpool), Rooney (Man Utd), Owen (Newcastle), Defoe (Portsmouth).

NEWS INTERNATIONAL GROWS ONCE MORE

As journalist we are all to know that the press has been based in Wapping for years and years and its growing phenomenon has caught the eyes of millions people round the world, especially those living in London. Well times have changed and Murdoch’s news empire is moving miles across London to its new home in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. Yep you heard it right, his new press palace situated on the A10 between Enfield and Waltham Cross is finished has been completed.

The futuristic complex which seems to have popped right out of a sci-fi film cost News International a portion of £650m and spans the size of 23 football pitches, it is equipped with 12 new printing press which can produce over 86,000 newspapers each; that is more then 1,000,000 an hour! This is more then 75% more then the previous Wapping plant was capable of with holding. The plant is just one of 3 new places that NI have created within the UK, the other two smaller ones based in Knowsley near Liverpool and the Eurocentral near Glasgow in Scotland.

The new Broxbourne site will revolutionise the look and design of NI’s famous papers including The Sun, News of the World, the Times and the Sunday Times; expanding their editorial pages and colour advertising. The Sunday Times will benefit the most with its business section pushing back deadline till Saturday afternoon; also most of the supplements are currently printed on Wednesday and Saturday but now will all be done on one day. I have seen this site being built; I have seen it grow from the ground up… literally; and what a magnificent building it is. I see it everyday when I am back home in Enfield as I drive round going from place to place shopping and going out, it will be a remarkable day when the plant fully opens at the end of April. It has been reported that it is the largest printing press in the world! It is the £350m crown jewel that the NI’s own. I also drove past and wanted to have a job there, perfect location near to home, great experience with News International’s new printing plant … who would say no to work there? I certainly wouldn’t I would jump at the chance it means I could walk to work from my home.

 

This plant will make it possible for full results from Premiership and Champions League football matches across the country for the first time, this was a problem in some publications because of the early edition deadlines; but not anymore.

Clive Milner, the managing director of NI says: “Our investment in Broxbourne is a step change in manufacturing and that step change is delivered by next generation technology, one of the things we will see as you go around this plant is a lack of people.” The plant only uses 450 staff to maintain the flow of newspapers each day.  The Broxboune site will also produce newspapers for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times when Telegraph Media Groups exits its contract with the West Ferry plant in East London. When all 12 printing presses at Broxbourne are operational the plant will print 1.5m copies of the Sun, 550,000 of the Times and 600,000 of the Daily Telegraph each night. How amazing does that sound? (in my opinion its really amazing!)

9 YEAR OLD SHANNON – FOUND ALIVE!!!!

As I’m sure we all know 9 year old Shannon Matthews from West Yorkshire has been found in the draw of a divan bed a mile from her home in a flat in Batley Carr; 23 days after she went missing! Millions of people across the country feared that she like so many in that situation would never be found alive again, however surprisingly she was found when someone from the public phoned The Missing Persons hot-line to say that they knew where the missing child was.  Hours after this telephone call police raided the flat of Michael Donovan 39, in Lidgate Gardens.

Michael Donovan who had changed his name from Paul Drake is the uncle to Shannon’s step father and it has come about that Donovan had been stalking Shannon for many months. She is said to be in safe and caring hands with child services until the police think its safe she is returned to her family home.

However many questions are raised when issues and situations like this occur. One might be how a extended family member was allowed to do this to a young child, another could be the effect and mental trauma it has had of parents of missing Madeline Mccan in Praia da Luz on May 3rd 2007. British police have been working 24/7 to try and locate the now found Shannon Matthews, they searched over 3,000 properties and interviewed more than 6,000 peoples in there 23 day battle. Many questions surround the police in Portugal and their lack of enthusiasm to help and find Madeline but without success.

Could it be that if she had gone missing in England she could of been found alive or even her body found at last? That is the opinion of many including myself that she would of been found by British police if she went missing in her home country.

Michael Donovan has been arrested tonight for kidnap and false imprisonment of Shannon Matthews, he will be appearing in front of Dewsbury Magistrates Court on Tuesday 18th March 2008.

What has my mind puzzling is the reports that have surfaced since Shannon ran away, these reports have been that she wanted to run away initially because she wanted to live with her father could this be why she was kidnapped? Its really tough to say when you look at cases like this and it comes only down to peoples opinion and gossip mongering, but why would a extended family member kidnap Shannon? Why did the family not see this man stalking her? The most puzzling question of all is this…. with all the spats of killings, missing children and the nutters that we have living in our society undetected today; why would any mother of a 9 year old child let her walk to and from school which is a mile away? Its just like the question put to the Mccann family… “why leave your daughter by herself?” Its not for me to judge im just a journalist but is this responsible parenting?

If you think about the situation more ‘outside the box’ Fathers for Justice have more ammunition to use in the fight to see their children, Shannon who was not seeing her biological father was considering running away from home to see him because she wasnt allowed by normal means! Is this what mothers, fathers and the government want… children going missing because they are not abe to see their real parents because of laws or family arguements causing a rift. ??

I PLEDGE ALLENGIANCE TO THE FLAG

New government plans are being looked upon which it makes British Children swear an oath to the Queen to help boost their sense of Britishness within the UK, which will take place in special citizen ceremonies. The new proposal was made by former attorney general Lord Goldsmith at the request of the Prime Minister Gordan Brown.

Is this something we should have in Britain? Will this new oath cause more havoc with other ethnic minorities within the UK that feel pushed aside or threatened by the new Britishness that the PM wants to give British children. I am concerned that this could cause a string of violent attacks or even worse… possible suicide bomb attempts by those fanatics who think that them killing innocent British citizens is the right thing to do, because their religion tells them to do it. The fanatics could possible find the British oath of allegiance as being ways in which the British citizens are fighting back…. so is this the right thing to do in the eyes of Britain?

In my opinion i think its the RIGHT THING TO DO! British citizens are so corrupted and over taken by so many other religions that are in force that they begin to lose sight of who they are, where they come from, their background and how they got to where they are now. A perfect example would be that it is wrong for lovers of England to fly the flag outside their homes, on windows, on cars or wear the football shirts because it could be seen as racist against other people who don’t believe in England! This is ridiculous because how are those who love Britain supposed to support their own country when the people running the country wont allow them to.

I think that making children pledge an oath to the Queen and country is good as it gives them a sense of pride and a sense of belonging, it could possibly lower the number of children from different religions who are corrupted in to becoming suicide bombers. It could quite possible bring British people together in the way civil religions do like national holidays or the death of a prominent figures within the country like Princess Diana. To be honest i think that if people want to take an oath to the Queen (non students) then they should be able to do it, if it makes them feel more connected to the country they love then why not?

It could also be a very good way of linking the British Armed Forces with the public in the country too. There is a lot of angry towards the army because they are told to do things for Queen and country, but those back in their home country despise them because they do it, but as they have sworn an oath to the Queen they have to do what their commanding officer tells them to do, whether or not they like it or not. So i think the oath would be a great benefit to not only children but for everyone! If i had the choice i would take the oath of allegiance and stand side by side with those who love their country and would do anything to help it be the best it can be; side by side with those soldiers who fight for the pride of the country and for the love they have back on home soil.

SEVERE WEATHER CAUSES CAR CRASH

A WOMAN and her two young sons narrowly avoided serious injuries in a car accident this afternoon as severe weather conditions uprooted a tree which crashed in front of the car she was driving.

The Black Peugeot 206 was over both lanes on Romsey road by Westdowns Student Village as the lucky driver swerved on to the opposite side of the road to miss the falling tree which pulled down the cable line as it crashed to the ground.

The lady shaking ans screaming as she worried about checking on her two sons in the back seat, near by site stewards and security officers from the University of Winchester rushed to aid the woman and called an ambulance to as fears grow for the safety of the passengers. There was no serious injuries as people lead her in to the near by public house. County Arms manager said: “We will do anything we can for the woman and her children as they try and get over this traumatic experience.

Romsey Road was closed and cars were diverted for several hours as firefighters were called to removed the tree, car and cable lines that were blocking the road. Severe weather is reported to affect Winchester with extreme wind and rain hitting the region at around 6am on Tuesday morning; experts have advised people to not drive and to stay in if they can to avoid anymore injuries.

SHOPPING BEATS GYM IN THE RACE FOR WEIGHT LOSS

SHOPPING BEATS GYM IN RACE FOR WEIGHT LOSS.

Shopping is said to be better at dropping the pound then working hard in the gym. Now that is something that all of us wants to hear isn’t it girls? We can actually say to our better halves that shopping is beneficial to us being healthy and it means we don’t have to slog ourselves in the gym!

 

The study, done by Brighton University of Sussex looked at 1,000 girls to see how their bodies reacted to the feeling of shopping. It says that heart rates increase and blood pressure rises, which all leads to the body being healthy, so no more looking at our selves in the mirror as we see the sweat pour out of us looking at all the physically fit people in the gym and wishing we had bodies like they did.

It means that on average an 11 stone woman could lose 444 calories which is the exactly the same as an hour of intense cycling on the machine! Now which would you rather choose… the cycling machine or the shopping? I think I hear all the girls screaming reading this saying oh the shopping, defiantly the shopping. Even though the shopping will cost a lot more then going to the gym/getting a membership at a gym, it works the exact.

 

I think to be honest this is just another excuse made up by a university to get all the woman happy that shopping helps but they have not got any good hard proof or %’s that help back up their theory. If I had to chose I would do the gym followed by the shopping, that way I could burn off twice as much calories and be happy that I can fit in to the new clothes I have just brought/going to by from shopping.

Introduction to Newsroom – PRINT NEWSDAY!!!!

WOW!!!

I loved the newsday it was really interesting! The pace of being under pressure of a deadline showed me what type of situation I would be under if I was in a professional newsroom preparing for a newspaper to go out. Although we did not have the correct or should i say the best computer facilities, software packages or access to things we really needed, i would say that my group and i did a good job with the materials we had at our disposal with the available time we were given.

1 & 1/2 hours to copy taste, edit, sub edit, prepare and create a newspaper is very difficult we were at no time left thinking what we could do, the time went so fast and if i am honest i would of liked the whole day to produce a hopefully great newspaper. I think what took so much time was the editing of peoples articles they had posted, some were really good and others were not up to scratch and so we had to chop and change things to make it sound better then originals did before we could copy and paste it into the newspaper we had created on Word.

My group consisted of 5 people plus me, however one turned up 3/4 of the way through the newspaper process so we could of done with her help it may or then again may not of helped us to do more on the newspaper. We should of prepared  more before the newsday arrived so we could of used our precious time more efficiently rather then scoping out all the articles, finding which person wrote the ones we like, editing and them putting them in to the newspaper before our deadline. We were originally told we would have 3 hours but were told only just under 2 hours as the other hour was for going through our newspaper and the stories we chose.

I think there is a lot we could of improved on when creating the newspaper, one of which is that my group and i could of met up before the newsday and prepared what stories we were going to use, what type of layout we wanted for the newspaper or what stories we wanted and how much we needed to edit etc as that would of freed up a lot of our time to concentrate more on the producing of the newspaper its self.

My group and i didnt think about adverts only pictures to accompy the stories we chose, adverts only come in to the equation when we saw it on another person newspaper along with other things we did not think about.

However the newsday was brilliant i lvoe the rush the russle and bussle of getting down and getting stuck in to things quickly without thinking for a split second about anything else in the world except that newspaper lol, its made me wnat to be a journalist even more!!! I CANT WAIT!

Bring on the next newsday…. im ready and waiting