News & information

Children’s Laureate to remain for further year

Cressida Cowell’s time as Children’s Laureate will continue for an additional 12 months due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The best-selling author of the How to Train Your Dragon series took the role in July 2019 and had been due to step down next year. However, organisers at BookTrust said the “exceptional circumstances” created by the pandemic meant Cressida will serve a three-year term, staying until June 2022.

The role of Children’s Laureate is awarded once every two years to a leading children’s author or illustrator to honour outstanding achievement in their field and to acknowledge their importance in creating the readers of tomorrow.

Cressida plans to continue with her ambitious campaign to make the magic of books and reading available to everyone by making a library in every school in the UK a compulsory legal requirement. More info: www.childrenslaureate.org.uk

Lockdown improved relationships

You may disagree, but a study suggests that lockdown strengthened many parent’s relationships with their children. Research by the University of Essex found that around a quarter of parents reported that their relationship with their children had improved during the government’s stay-at-home policy. Less than 5% said it got worse.

The results are based on research for the Understanding Society Covid-19 survey, a nationally representative study that collected data from 5,500 parents.

Many parents who said they had closer relationships with their children had helped out with home schooling. Nearly 40% of parents who reduced their work hours to look after their children said their relationships had improved.

However, fewer lone mothers reported an improvement in their relationships, and slightly more said they had become worse.

More info: www.understandingsociety.ac.uk

Perform returns with covid-safe confidence building fun

Families talks to Perform’s Principal, Lucy Quick.

We’ve always put children at the heart of everything we do and we’re thrilled to be back in real life with classes filled with laughter, fun and confidenceboosting activities.

We’ve put enormous effort into adapting our class content to ensure that we follow the latest government health guidelines whilst making sure the children can still sing, dance, act and have the best fun of the week.

To help children get back to enjoying the things they love most, our autumn term is packed with games and activities which build confidence, boost concentration, develop communication and help coordination. We have left no stone unturned when it comes to health and safety but the children will be having so much fun that they will barely notice a difference. Whilst there won’t be hand-holding games this term, there will be lots of eye contact, funky moves, fantastic diction and learning about how to be a great friend.

Perform runs drama classes for 4-7s and 7-12s as well as Perform At Home, our popular online classes. Book a FREE no-obligation class in Ascot, Iver, Maidenhead, Marlow and Windsor, email: enquiries@perform.org.uk or call 020 7255 9120. www.perform.org.uk/try.

Local Perform classes

South Ascot Church Hall, Ascot SL5 9DP 4-7s Fridays 4pm; 7-12s Fridays 5pm.

St Peter’s Centre, 1 Thorney Lane North, Iver SL0 9JU 4-7s Tuesdays 4pm; 7-12s Tuesdays 5pm.

Boyne Hill Infant School, Rutland Road, Maidenhead SL6 4HZ 4-7s Saturdays 9.30am; 7-12s Saturdays 11.15am

Magnet Leisure Centre, Holmanleaze, Maidenhead SL6 8AW 4-7s Fridays 4pm; 7-12s Fridays 5pm

All Saints Church Hall, The Causeway, Marlow SL7 2AA 4-7s Mondays 4pm; 7-12s Mondays 5pm.

Kings Court First School, Ashbrook Road, Old Windsor SL4 2NE 7-12s Mondays 5pm.

Clewer Youth Centre, Clewer Parish Hall, Windsor SL4 5EW 4-7s Mondays 4pm & Fridays 4pm; 7-12s Fridays 5pm.

www.perform.org.uk/try

Children’s coding club, Code Ninja launch in Langley

Code Ninjas is launching in Langley, Berkshire for budding techies of the future. Children from the ages of 7-14 can look forward to visiting the new Code Ninjas studio to learn how to code in a fun, safe, and social learning environment where gaming is celebrated and STEM is cool.

“Everything about Code Ninjas is built around fun, which keeps kids engaged. Our team of Senseis support a program which provides the results that parents are looking for, as their children gain coding and problem-solving skills they’ll need for the jobs of the future,” said Sital Nakarja, one of the owners at Code Ninjas in Langley. www.codeninjas.co.uk/langley-brk-uk

Advertise your business in our next issue, call 01628 788058. Strawberry Grove café open again and continue with their great online offerings

Prior to lockdown, Strawberry Grove was a vibrant, growing, café business, with cafes in Maidenhead, Lane End and Marlow. When lockdown forced closure, keen to adapt to the needs of their customers, the business owners started the successful online shop initiative.

This way customers could still enjoy the food they knew and loved alongside ordering their weekly essentials. Starting off as just food boxes the shop soon grew to cater for all occasions. You can now even order a full afternoon tea to arrive at your doorstep! Now the cafés are open for business once more, the owners have decided they aren’t ready to say goodbye to the online shop and will continue to run it in support of their customers. The online shop operations are now being run by Bev and the team at the Maidenhead café.

For more information visit www.strawberrygrove.co.uk

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