The Family Directory

Isle of Wight Family Directory

Polly

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Isle Be Active August winners announced

The winners of the Isle Be Active August Challenge have been announced.

Bobby Scudder, age four; Max Doorly, age five; Blake Doorly, age eight; Millie Green, age six and Levi Moore, age eight; took part in the August Challenge, which saw a combined 244 journeys reported by those entering the competition.
Prizes awarded included cycle jerseys, cycle computer, cycle gloves, and hi-viz bands.

Island youngsters are now being invited to sign up to the September Isle Be Active junior cycle challenge.

The challenge has been organised by the council’s Sports Unit and has been running from August through to October, with prize draws each month for taking part.

Children and young people taking part can record the number of miles or time spent cycling each day or week using a specially produced chart, complete with gold stickers. Once the chart has been filled in, take a picture of it showing your miles or time spent on the bike and email it to sports.unit@iow.gov.uk by the 5th of the following month, to be in with the chance to win a prize.

Alec Broome, council Sports Unit officer, said: “We launched our junior cycle challenge tin August and had a brilliant response and now, as we face the new school term, what better reason do you need to get on your bike and cycle with your children to school, as those trips all count towards the challenge.

“The key aim of the challenge is to get out on your bikes and enjoy yourself. We’ll announce the August winners soon, so make sure you and your children get involved now, to be with a chance of being our September winners.”

To register for the junior cycling challenge and receive a cycle chart and gold stickers, simply contact the following with your name, address and how many packs you need via:
– email sports.unit@iow.gov.uk  
– phone (01983) 823818
– contact the Sports Unit facebook page at: @iwsportsunit

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Major maths improvement for Island primary schools

Island primary schoolchildren taking part in a special targeted initiative have achieved a massive 15 per cent improvement in their Key Stage Two maths performance, provisional figures show.

About half of the Island’s primary schools were involved in the project over a four-term period – and now it is planned the scheme will be rolled out to the remaining primary schools.

The Isle of Wight Council, in partnership with Hampshire County Council, devised the project in 2017 and won funding of £155,000 from the Department for Education (DfE).

The project focused on devising and reviewing teaching strategies, supported by external experts, to help pupils boost their understanding of maths. It started in summer 2018 and was monitored by the council and the DfE.

Cabinet member for education, skills and children’s services, Councillor Paul Brading, said: “This is a magnificent achievement and credit should go to all the children involved, their teachers and those who masterminded this project.”

The provisional 15 per cent improvement in maths goes towards the children’s overall ‘age related expectations’ (ARE) grading for reading, writing and maths.

The maths improvement has meant an uplift of nine per cent in the proportion of pupils achieving ARE in the schools involved in the project.

Councillor Brading said: “Even though initially this project has been trialled in half the primary schools, such has its success been, that it has boosted the ARE figure for maths across all our primary schools by eight per cent, and the combined figure for reading, writing and maths by five per cent.

“These improvements are testament to the drive and tenacity of leaders in these schools, the commitment of the teachers and the engagement of the pupils.

“These figures for maths bring us broadly in line with the national average, and it is vital now to secure these improvements for future years.

“We are currently looking to expand the work to all our primary schools and draw upon the expertise from those schools which have already taken part.”

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Isle of Wight Literary Festival 2019.

Island poet and performer, Sandy Kealty, will be appearing at the Isle of Wight Literary Festival 2019, performing poems from her first published collection of poetry called ‘The Mermaid is Unimpressed’ published by local publisher, Beachy Books.

Sandy will be reading along with other Island poets in the ‘Island Voices’ slot between 2-3pm on Thursday 10th October 2019. Tickets are only £5 and they’ll be a chance to buy signed copies of ‘The Mermaid is Unimpressed’.

With a cover illustrated by Island designer Shaun Cuff, aka The Constant Doodler, ‘The Mermaid is Unimpressed’ contains 29 poems, many inspired by the Isle of Wight, where Sandy has lived for the past 17 years. “I found the place an inspiration,” says Sandy. “I’ve been fortunate to have the time to concentrate on writing poems. This book is not just a collection of verse, it is the story of my progress through a fairly long life. The Mermaid poem herself came out of the realisation that we’re all using far too much stuff and destroying the planet, but others are tales of my past.”

Sandy’s Isle of Wight Festival performance is the highlight of her summer-long poetry tour that has seen her read at open-mics at Waterstone’s Fresh Ink Poetry night and IOW Poetry Stanza at Bar 74 in Ryde, as well as entertaining the crowds at Ventnor Fringe’s Book Bus and the Freshwater Book Fair.

Sandy’s muse is often piqued during forays into the Island landscape, as she explains: “I go up on to St Boniface Down to look at the goats and then I look down on to that amazing coastline. It’s got absolutely everything in this funny little diamond! One of my poems is about Nordic Walking, when I took up with my sticks. The footpaths on the Isle of Wight are an absolute joy. My first lesson was along the sand at Ryde. Oh, my stars! There is nothing more cheerful and exhilarating than being out with Nordic Poles on the sand at Ryde at low tide.”

‘The Mermaid is Unimpressed’ retails at £6.99 and is on sale at Waterstones and IW Traders in Newport, Babushka Books in Shanklin and Medina Books in Cowes. The book is also available online via Amazon and other retailers. Visit www.beachybooks.com for more information.

To book tickets to see Sandy Kealty and other Island poets visit the Isle of Wight Literary Festival 2019 website: https://isleofwightliteraryfestival.com/event/island-voices/ or email: boxoffice@isleofwightliteraryfestival.com

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Get your skate on!

A new leaflet promoting active travel top tips for young people has been launched by the popular John Cattle’s Skate Club, thanks to grant funding from the council.

The leaflet features advice and information that has been put together by young people at the popular skate club run by John Cattle.

Cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, Councillor Ian Ward, said: “This is a great initiative by a much-loved Island club and it is brilliant how the young people have shown us a thing or two about choosing active travel.

“I really hope this encourages other youngsters to spread the active travel message with their friends, family and local community. We’re proud to support John Cattle’s Skate Club with this initiative.”

John Cattle, founder of the Skate Club, said: “The number of children, young people (and not so young!) who are taking up skateboarding on the island is growing. It really is fantastic to see. We want everyone to have a good time when they skate and part of that is making sure they skate safe.

“These leaflets are a handy guide and a little reminder of the best way to use your board when getting around. It’s been great to be supported once again by Isle of Wight Council, and we look forward to more collaboration. We’d love to put the island on the map as a place that really embraces skateboarding as a sport and a way of a life”.

Skate Club is run by veteran professional skateboarder John Cattle and his team. John has been skateboarding since an early age, and officially started the skateboard company, Wight Trash in early 2004.

Lessons take place every week at West Wight Sports Centre in Freshwater, and at St. Marks Church Hall in Wootton, as well as at other venues, after school clubs, and events across the Isle of Wight.

More information on the skate club can be found at their Facebook page at: @SkateClubIsleofWight 

The leaflets were produced through the Isle of Wight Council’s Isle be Active initiative, which forms part of a wider programme of sustainable transport interventions being delivered by the Isle of Wight Council up to 2020, after securing £1.35 million funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) Access Fund for Sustainable Travel.

For further information on current projects, please visit: http://www.iwight.com/SustainableTravel