Up until the 1981 act gave parents some choice over where they sent their children to school, a child was basically sent where there was a space at the nearest school.
With greater choice, however, comes greater responsibility. What should your child be learning at any given point in their career as a primary school pupil?
Exactly how should the admissions process work? Is it working properly in your area?
Is your child getting the education that it needs and that it deserves?
Who are you school's governors? Are they doing what they should be doing?
Are the buildings suitable?
What on earth is KS1 2 or whatever?
All of the above questions and many more are answered in clear, concise terms by educational expert Kim Thomas. And Kim is the kind of expert it is best to take notice of. Not only does she have a PhD in the sociology of education she is a parent of a child in a primary school and served as a parent governor at the school.
The book also contains a list of further reading material and a list of very valuable web resources. If you have a child who is going to go to primary school or who is already attending a primary school, then you will find this book of inestimable value.
You can also visit Kim's website at www.kimthomas.com.
It is published by Need 2 Know Books at £9.99, ISBN 978-1-86144-088-4.
Book review blog site, with some entertainment material from time-to-time.
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Monday, 31 October 2011
Star Wars™ Millennium Falcon laid bare in new Haynes Manual
Following the skyrocketing success of Haynes’ USS Enterprise Manual last year, the iconic Star Wars™ ship finally gets the Haynes treatment.
Using brand-new, full-colour artwork, cutaways and exploded diagrams together with plenty of photographs, the Haynes Star Wars: Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual provides the most thorough technical description available of the starship that helped to change the course of history.
The book is written by Ryder Windham, a hugely respected authority on Star Wars, having more than 50 books on the subject, and highly regarded by both Lucasfilm and Star Wars fans.
It includes full, technical descriptions of how the Millennium Falcon was illegally altered by its smuggler owner-operators to deliver increased shield power and speed, and carry military-grade weapons.
In true Haynes how-to style, the reader is taken through how to fly the Falcon as well as the technology behind hyperspace travel, special manoeuvres, combat techniques and using the hyperdrive. The controls in the iconic cockpit, which juts out on one side of the starship, are rendered in beautiful colour artwork to describe in detail the Millennium Falcon’s operating systems.
Weapons systems are outlined offering intelligence that would have proved invaluable to the Imperial Navy. The crew quarters are revealed in detail, complete with recess bunks, medical kits, and even Chewbacca’s hologame table.
Double-page character profiles for each crewmember offer reminders of the men – and Wookiee – at the helm, along with shots from the original trilogy of Star Wars films.
As if this wasn’t detail enough, the Manual begins with a history of other spacecraft from the Corellian Engineering Corporation that brought us the Millennium Falcon, along with a rundown of the many configurations and options offered by the manufacturer.
The Haynes Star Wars: Millennium Falcon Owner’s Workshop Manual is destined to become essential reading for all Star Wars fans.
FACTFILE:
Ryder Windham is the author of over 50 Star Wars books and is highly regarded by Lucasfilm and Star Wars fans. Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas are the acknowledged experts when it comes to illustrating the Millennium Falcon.
Sales Information:
The Millennium Falcon Owners’ Workshop Manual is available from all good bookshops and direct from Haynes at www.haynes.co.uk or call 01963 442030, priced £14.99
Sunday, 30 October 2011
Be That Writer: Poetry
Be That Writer: Poetry: Poetry, if it is anything, must come from the heart. It can rhyme, or be blank verse. Long, in multiple verses, or with only one verse or ...
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
A Prayer for the Wild at Heart
A Prayer for the Wild at Heart is an absolutely delightful book that will make an ideal present for the person who loves cats.
It is a collection of photographs of cats and kitties. Some cute, some who although looking as if they are a street cat who would not mind going for a few rounds in the ring of life look as if they, too, would enjoy the odd tickle behind the ear, before perhaps biffing you one for your gross impertinence!
The page facing the cat photographs are filled with an extract from the works of a poet or an author (Wordsworth, Wilde, Kipling, Hesse, Calvino, Hood, etc) politicians (Carter, Jefferson, etc) and Philosophers and thinkers like Ruskin, Howard, Locke,Verne, Lao Tzu) and humorists (Twain, Billings, Chaplin, etc) .
It is a modestly sized hardback book that is well presented and well finished. The perfect sticking filler.
It costs £6.99 and is published by Bound Originals and SPANA, the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad which, since 1923, has been raising funds to provide free veterinary care, welfare work and training around the world.
The book is edited by Lucy Duckworth and the ISBN is 978-1-906181-08-6.
EDITOR:, If you buy direct from SPANA, you only pay £5.50 and the money raised by the sales go to help SPANA http://spana.org
It is a collection of photographs of cats and kitties. Some cute, some who although looking as if they are a street cat who would not mind going for a few rounds in the ring of life look as if they, too, would enjoy the odd tickle behind the ear, before perhaps biffing you one for your gross impertinence!
The page facing the cat photographs are filled with an extract from the works of a poet or an author (Wordsworth, Wilde, Kipling, Hesse, Calvino, Hood, etc) politicians (Carter, Jefferson, etc) and Philosophers and thinkers like Ruskin, Howard, Locke,Verne, Lao Tzu) and humorists (Twain, Billings, Chaplin, etc) .
It is a modestly sized hardback book that is well presented and well finished. The perfect sticking filler.
It costs £6.99 and is published by Bound Originals and SPANA, the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad which, since 1923, has been raising funds to provide free veterinary care, welfare work and training around the world.
The book is edited by Lucy Duckworth and the ISBN is 978-1-906181-08-6.
EDITOR:, If you buy direct from SPANA, you only pay £5.50 and the money raised by the sales go to help SPANA http://spana.org
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Hip new self-transformational book from life coach Gabrielle Bernstein – she has wowed the US and is the new role model in how to feel good
‘So long, Carrie Bradshaw- there's a new role model for go-getting thirty somethings. Gabrielle Bernstein is doling out inner peace and self-love for the postmodern spiritual set.’ ELLE Magazine
‘This woman will make you smile. Forget what you thought you knew about 'self help'. Life coach Gabrielle Bernstein has wowed the US - and now she's hit the UK to unleash a happy new you... a role model in how to feel good.’ Glamour Magazine
‘Zen bombshell Gabrielle Bernstein has been pegged the Dalai Lama for the Gossip Girl set.’ Huffington Post
How does a New York City publicist and party girl turn into a guru for the next generation? In her new book, SPIRIT JUNKIE: A Radical Road to Discovering Self-Love and Miracles (October 2011), Gabrielle Bernstein shares the story of how she transformed her life, offering her spiritual journey as a guidebook for overcoming fear, changing perceptions, and creating a life you’re psyched to wake up for.
Though still young (now thirty-one) and still rocking her Louboutins, Bernstein has traded self-doubt and addiction for a new kind of high. In 2005 she became a student of A Course in Miracles, and since then she has been guided to translate and teach those spiritual principles to the next generation.
In the US Gabrielle has established herself as a mentor and spiritual big sister to young women nationwide, who these days are more interested in green juice, yoga, and meditation than nightclubs and the latest fashion trends. Her position as a leader in the new spiritual movement has been further cemented via her worldwide lecture circuit, weekly blogs (on GabbyB.TV), life coaching work with thousands, and her online presence as the founder of HerFuture.com, a social networking site dedicated to helping women find mentors.
In this hip self-transformational book, Bernstein shows how to make happiness a way of life and shares the life-changing lessons that she has lived and learned in the hope that other young women will be guided to do the same. SPIRIT JUNKIE shows readers how to tap into their own spirit in their search for happiness. This is not a book on how to get happiness; rather it’s a guide to releasing the blocks to the happiness that already lives inside.
SPIRIT JUNKIE : A Radical Road to Discovering Self-Love and Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein. Published by Hay House, 3rd October 2011, £10.99 pb, also available as an e-book
Download the book jacket image
Download an image of Gabrielle
Link to the Spirit Junkie video trailer
Also by Gabrielle Bernstein:
Medidating: Meditations for Fearless Romance (November). An hour-long guided meditation CD to help you release romantic illusions, overcome fears and insecurities, activate your attracting power and manifest love into your life.
‘This woman will make you smile. Forget what you thought you knew about 'self help'. Life coach Gabrielle Bernstein has wowed the US - and now she's hit the UK to unleash a happy new you... a role model in how to feel good.’ Glamour Magazine
‘Zen bombshell Gabrielle Bernstein has been pegged the Dalai Lama for the Gossip Girl set.’ Huffington Post
How does a New York City publicist and party girl turn into a guru for the next generation? In her new book, SPIRIT JUNKIE: A Radical Road to Discovering Self-Love and Miracles (October 2011), Gabrielle Bernstein shares the story of how she transformed her life, offering her spiritual journey as a guidebook for overcoming fear, changing perceptions, and creating a life you’re psyched to wake up for.
Though still young (now thirty-one) and still rocking her Louboutins, Bernstein has traded self-doubt and addiction for a new kind of high. In 2005 she became a student of A Course in Miracles, and since then she has been guided to translate and teach those spiritual principles to the next generation.
In the US Gabrielle has established herself as a mentor and spiritual big sister to young women nationwide, who these days are more interested in green juice, yoga, and meditation than nightclubs and the latest fashion trends. Her position as a leader in the new spiritual movement has been further cemented via her worldwide lecture circuit, weekly blogs (on GabbyB.TV), life coaching work with thousands, and her online presence as the founder of HerFuture.com, a social networking site dedicated to helping women find mentors.
In this hip self-transformational book, Bernstein shows how to make happiness a way of life and shares the life-changing lessons that she has lived and learned in the hope that other young women will be guided to do the same. SPIRIT JUNKIE shows readers how to tap into their own spirit in their search for happiness. This is not a book on how to get happiness; rather it’s a guide to releasing the blocks to the happiness that already lives inside.
SPIRIT JUNKIE : A Radical Road to Discovering Self-Love and Miracles by Gabrielle Bernstein. Published by Hay House, 3rd October 2011, £10.99 pb, also available as an e-book
Download the book jacket image
Download an image of Gabrielle
Link to the Spirit Junkie video trailer
Also by Gabrielle Bernstein:
Medidating: Meditations for Fearless Romance (November). An hour-long guided meditation CD to help you release romantic illusions, overcome fears and insecurities, activate your attracting power and manifest love into your life.
Friday, 30 September 2011
Book launched for World Mental Health Day
World Mental Health Day sees the launch of 'In Case of Spiritual Emergency' with an international webinar.
Catherine Zeta-Jones has been open about her mental health struggles. So has Stephen Fry and other celebrities. One in four of the population suffer. Yet something is missing; a framework that allows these experiences to be positively transformational. Transpersonal psychology fills the gap. It offers an alternative perspective, an opportunity to reframe mental health conditions as an opportunity for healing and growth. ‘Trans’ meaning ‘beyond’ the personal, transpersonal psychology encompasses the soul dimension. It brings together ancient spiritual wisdom with modern psychology, grounded in scientific research.
“This book is a remarkable achievement. The author charts the terrain of moving from breakdown to breakthrough, exploring how surviving a mental health crisis can lead to a new and authentic way of being and bringing a profound message of hope to all sufferers.”
Dr. Andrew Powell, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Founding Chair, Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group.
Emma, Annabel and Kate have each chosen to see their mental health struggles from the transpersonal perspective. Emma was admitted to hospital repeatedly with recurring psychotic symptoms. Annabel was sectioned on three separate occasions and forcibly injected with high dose anti-psychotic medication against her will. Kate suffered from crippling depression on and off for over 30 years. All three see what they have been through as their personal odyssey towards healing and growth; the psyche’s journey through spiritual emergency to wholeness.
In Case of Spiritual Emergency is a book of extremes; the terror and the bliss, the danger and the opportunity, as the psyche moves through its very own Hero’s Journey. Psycho-spiritual crisis can be triggered by many things: loss of faith or a loved one, intense spiritual practices, even childbirth. Encouraging, supportive, and life-saving, In Case of Spiritual Emergency is vital for relieving the mental and emotional suffering these experiences can bring.
In this guide for mental health professionals, pastoral care specialists, and people going through spiritual crisis or their caregivers, you will find:
• A clear summary of recent psychological research of the past twenty years
• Patterns of spiritual crises through the ages, including St. Teresa of Ávila, Carl Jung, Eckhart Tolle
• The Three Key Phases for Moving Successfully through Spiritual Emergency
• Practical, life-saving guidance for those experiencing spiritual emergency or their carers
Catherine G Lucas is the Founder of the UK Spiritual Crisis Network and an accredited Mindfulness Trainer. She has organised international conferences on spiritual emergency and is a regular speaker on the subject.
Catherine Zeta-Jones has been open about her mental health struggles. So has Stephen Fry and other celebrities. One in four of the population suffer. Yet something is missing; a framework that allows these experiences to be positively transformational. Transpersonal psychology fills the gap. It offers an alternative perspective, an opportunity to reframe mental health conditions as an opportunity for healing and growth. ‘Trans’ meaning ‘beyond’ the personal, transpersonal psychology encompasses the soul dimension. It brings together ancient spiritual wisdom with modern psychology, grounded in scientific research.
“This book is a remarkable achievement. The author charts the terrain of moving from breakdown to breakthrough, exploring how surviving a mental health crisis can lead to a new and authentic way of being and bringing a profound message of hope to all sufferers.”
Dr. Andrew Powell, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Founding Chair, Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group.
Emma, Annabel and Kate have each chosen to see their mental health struggles from the transpersonal perspective. Emma was admitted to hospital repeatedly with recurring psychotic symptoms. Annabel was sectioned on three separate occasions and forcibly injected with high dose anti-psychotic medication against her will. Kate suffered from crippling depression on and off for over 30 years. All three see what they have been through as their personal odyssey towards healing and growth; the psyche’s journey through spiritual emergency to wholeness.
In Case of Spiritual Emergency is a book of extremes; the terror and the bliss, the danger and the opportunity, as the psyche moves through its very own Hero’s Journey. Psycho-spiritual crisis can be triggered by many things: loss of faith or a loved one, intense spiritual practices, even childbirth. Encouraging, supportive, and life-saving, In Case of Spiritual Emergency is vital for relieving the mental and emotional suffering these experiences can bring.
In this guide for mental health professionals, pastoral care specialists, and people going through spiritual crisis or their caregivers, you will find:
• A clear summary of recent psychological research of the past twenty years
• Patterns of spiritual crises through the ages, including St. Teresa of Ávila, Carl Jung, Eckhart Tolle
• The Three Key Phases for Moving Successfully through Spiritual Emergency
• Practical, life-saving guidance for those experiencing spiritual emergency or their carers
Catherine G Lucas is the Founder of the UK Spiritual Crisis Network and an accredited Mindfulness Trainer. She has organised international conferences on spiritual emergency and is a regular speaker on the subject.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Going Green The Essential Guide
Going Green, the Essential Guise is by Cora Lydon and published by Need 2 Know Books at £9.99.
The book contains advice on how to reduce one's carbon footprint, how to save energy at home and where to find eco-friendly products.
The book contains many practical hints of how one can make do and mend, grow your own food, etc., hints that our parents or our grandparents would have known about, it also contains more up-to-date information on how we can live a more sustainable life, both at home and at work.
A great deal of the book is devoted to the alleged problems of global warming, and the alleged dangers of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is, of course, a deadly poison. Just ask any carbon fixing plant. (EDITOR: Yes, that was some gentle sarcasm)
Whilst there are some gems in this book (how to drive in a greener way, how to ensure one's vehicles are maintained for optimal and, therefore, greener performance) there are some things that make it sound like a parody of green living articles of the "how to grow plants in a yoghurt pot" variety churned out in the 1970s and 1980s.
The book recommends using "green" and so-called "eco-friendly" household products. But my wife remarked: "It is all very well recommending these greener products, but if they do not do the job they are designed to do, what is the point of spending extra money on them?"
We used the products of one firm who make washing liquids that contains bentonite, a clay that is notorious for its stickiness. It nearly destroyed our washing machine and our dishwasher by clogging them up. Their range of products, in general, did not work as well as their non-green products, so as twice the amount had to be used, their eco-friendly claims can be called into question.
The book also advocates more and better recycling at work. That's a fair point. But the author calls for this to be achieved by the stick of legislation and so-called green taxes, rather than the carrot of assistance and rewards for good behaviour. For example, the vast majority of councils have NO business recycling facilities at all. This, rather than increased "green" taxes should be addressed, one would have thought.
At least some of what the author promotes is provably nonsense. She repeats the bogus claim that the search engine Blackle saves energy because it uses a black screen, so saves energy. Thirty seconds of research on Google (or Blackle, which uses Google for its searches) disproved this claim. This research even pointing out that it could, with modern monitors, actually use MORE energy than it saves. (EDITOR: One hopes that the other claims in the book have been better researched.)
The book also recommends that we should consider volunteering as a holiday option. Specifically mentioning working with elephants in Thailand. Now, this is where the book and I part company. Let's take a typical example. A mother and father and two children who live in England. The parents both have to work and they can get from work between seven and fourteen days for their one holiday. Would they want them and their children to spend up to 40 hours of their holiday flying in cramped and uncomfortable economy seats, to then work for free?
Or to spend a total of four to six hours of their holiday flying to a beach holiday in Spain so that they can have a refreshing break from work?
This idea reminds me of when the great and the good of the "green elite" all flew -business class, mind! to the super-exclusive resort of Cancun and then released an edict to the rest of us that we should not be allowed to fly to Spain for a week's holiday.
There are some good points in this book, and some potentially useful resources, but some of it does need to be taken with a pinch of salt. If salt is allowed these days.
The book contains advice on how to reduce one's carbon footprint, how to save energy at home and where to find eco-friendly products.
The book contains many practical hints of how one can make do and mend, grow your own food, etc., hints that our parents or our grandparents would have known about, it also contains more up-to-date information on how we can live a more sustainable life, both at home and at work.
A great deal of the book is devoted to the alleged problems of global warming, and the alleged dangers of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is, of course, a deadly poison. Just ask any carbon fixing plant. (EDITOR: Yes, that was some gentle sarcasm)
Whilst there are some gems in this book (how to drive in a greener way, how to ensure one's vehicles are maintained for optimal and, therefore, greener performance) there are some things that make it sound like a parody of green living articles of the "how to grow plants in a yoghurt pot" variety churned out in the 1970s and 1980s.
The book recommends using "green" and so-called "eco-friendly" household products. But my wife remarked: "It is all very well recommending these greener products, but if they do not do the job they are designed to do, what is the point of spending extra money on them?"
We used the products of one firm who make washing liquids that contains bentonite, a clay that is notorious for its stickiness. It nearly destroyed our washing machine and our dishwasher by clogging them up. Their range of products, in general, did not work as well as their non-green products, so as twice the amount had to be used, their eco-friendly claims can be called into question.
The book also advocates more and better recycling at work. That's a fair point. But the author calls for this to be achieved by the stick of legislation and so-called green taxes, rather than the carrot of assistance and rewards for good behaviour. For example, the vast majority of councils have NO business recycling facilities at all. This, rather than increased "green" taxes should be addressed, one would have thought.
At least some of what the author promotes is provably nonsense. She repeats the bogus claim that the search engine Blackle saves energy because it uses a black screen, so saves energy. Thirty seconds of research on Google (or Blackle, which uses Google for its searches) disproved this claim. This research even pointing out that it could, with modern monitors, actually use MORE energy than it saves. (EDITOR: One hopes that the other claims in the book have been better researched.)
The book also recommends that we should consider volunteering as a holiday option. Specifically mentioning working with elephants in Thailand. Now, this is where the book and I part company. Let's take a typical example. A mother and father and two children who live in England. The parents both have to work and they can get from work between seven and fourteen days for their one holiday. Would they want them and their children to spend up to 40 hours of their holiday flying in cramped and uncomfortable economy seats, to then work for free?
Or to spend a total of four to six hours of their holiday flying to a beach holiday in Spain so that they can have a refreshing break from work?
This idea reminds me of when the great and the good of the "green elite" all flew -business class, mind! to the super-exclusive resort of Cancun and then released an edict to the rest of us that we should not be allowed to fly to Spain for a week's holiday.
There are some good points in this book, and some potentially useful resources, but some of it does need to be taken with a pinch of salt. If salt is allowed these days.
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