Medway school criticized for over zealous health and safety rule

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Following an incident in which a girl twisted her ankle, PE teachers are told to restrict ascendency based activity.

Another school has come in for ridicule this week, after the banning of triangular shaped flapjacks at an Essex comprehensive.

PE teachers at Greengables Specialist Sports College in Medway, Kent, were told to tie a piece of PE knicker elastic to a point just 1.5 metres on the climbing rope, suspended from the apparatus, and insist that all students begin to descend again the moment it was reached.

It is understood that the decision was made after a Year 7 girl jumped – voluntarily – from the traditional piece of gymnasium equipment when still at least six inches off the ground. She landed on a large blue crash mat but still managed to turn her ankle.

Medway council said the ban was “not a council decision” but confirmed that a full blown emergency meeting was called, complete with lunch, to discuss the school’s decision and if they should be seen to support it, as it was felt it had been a quiet week and they hadn’t been in the news enough.

School spokesman and part time teacher of Russian, Ivor Readan of Greengables, 32, said: “I can confirm that the said piece of knicker elastic was volunteered by female teaching assistant, 36 year old raven haired strumpet, Miss Ima Goer, in an act of generosity at short notice. At no point was Miss Goer coerced into removing her standard issue navy blue PE knickers and no-one was heard to make any comments at all along the lines of “they’re a bit in the loose side anyway, not that we’re suggesting anything” you understand.”

Reports suggest, however, that Head of P.E, 93 year old Didley Squat-Thrust, was seen to ‘tut’ at the instruction, given by the Pastoral Care team, before mumbling something about “we only had a bloody flat green bit of rubber to land on in my day, but we didn’t go round twisting our ankles all the time, bunch of wusses …”

Witnesses report that Mr. Squat-Thrust was subsequently hushed by Pastoral Care Manager, Mrs  Feeble, 52, who herself was forced to deny that she had consistently misused cotton wool from the first aid box.

Year 10 boys reacted by stringing their school ties together and using them to scale the canteen in protest.

We want to disappear

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I remember seeing a whole bunch of these a long time ago – but not this one!

hovercraftdoggy's avatarhovercraftdoggy

camouflage painting art work disappearing invisible paint man exhibiton context surrounding optical illusioncamouflage painting art work disappearing invisible paint man exhibiton context surrounding optical illusioncamouflage painting art work disappearing invisible paint man exhibiton context surrounding optical illusioncamouflage painting art work disappearing invisible paint man exhibiton context surrounding optical illusioncamouflage painting art work disappearing invisible paint man exhibiton context surrounding optical illusioncamouflage painting art work disappearing invisible paint man exhibiton context surrounding optical illusion

‘The Invisible Man’ artwork by Chinese artist Liu Bolin /

Liu Bolin is an artist from China’s Shandong province. Born in 1973, he currently lives and works in Beijing. Bolin received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Shandong College of Arts in 1995 and his Master of Fine Arts from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 2001. His work has been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.

Known as The Invisible Man, Bolin’s most popular works are from his “Hiding in the City” series; photographic works that began as performance art in 2005. Helped by his assistants, Bolin stands still for hours in a landscape while they paint on him to create a camouflage, blending him into his surroundings. Bolin states: “My intention was not to disappear in the environment but instead to let the environment take possession of me.” (text…

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Visions of a Creek

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Visions of a Creek's avatarVisions of a Creek

Some thoughts on the future development of the Creek – agree or disagree?

As a central component to the historic development of Faversham, the creek remains an important ingredient in its unique character as well as a place of employment, leisure and tourism opportunity. It is an irreplaceable historic asset of great significance.

The area should play an important part in the strategy for the town, whilst preserving and enhancing its historic character. Central to this aim is the retention and encouragement of employment activities, the encouragement of a greater diversity of uses, and for those sites with a frontage to the creek the re-establishment and enhancement of their links and usage of the water channel itself.

House builders and homeowners have found the creekside’s industrial sites an attractive prospect, but these change the character of the area and place pressures – both financial and environmental – on the remaining…

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Confessions of a lazy and easily pleased mum

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It’s something of a rarity that all four of us sit down to dinner together, but the new Box Office offer from Dominos Pizza provided an opportunity we just had to take advantage of.

Teaming up with Lionsgate UK, Dominos can now deliver a film along with your pizza, and they’re adding new titles all the time. Just check out the website and click on the movie button, found alongside the foodie stuff, to add a film of your choice to your order.

Choosing a film wasn’t too taxing but deciding on the pizza combination was a nightmare! The kids didn’t want vegetables, obviously, whereas we wanted onions and mushrooms to temper the overdose of meat; there’s only so much pepperoni I can handle. But with the order sorted, we were able to sit back (well, around – the movie is streamed on your pc or other device) and enjoy Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. I particularly enjoyed George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon (even in those clothes); OH and Number One son enjoyed Julia Roberts and Drew Barrymore, while young’un enjoyed being able to stay up a bit later and watch a 15 certificate. It was either that, or we had to watch the animated adventures of Avengers Assembled – my only criticism really, was that there weren’t enough 12 and 12a certificates to choose from. I may have been too distracted choosing toppings.

It did feel rather decadent, just sourcing dinner via the internet and then not moving until after I’d finished eating – I didn’t even have to answer the door, the kids were so eager for their tea, they raced to it as soon as the pizza delivery guy knocked. In fact, so eager were we, I never got a chance to get the camera out: we all just dived in. Sorry – here’s a random picture of another Dominos pizza I just happened to have – but that’s another story 😉

pizza
So, lots of family Brownie points earned for me, especially with the addition of mini pancakes to the order, since we don’t normally do dessert. I’ll probably live off this, if not the actual pizza, for at least another week.

This is a sponsored post, courtesy of Dominos Pizza.

International Women’s Day

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petrel41's avatarDear Kitty. Some blog

This video from the USA says about itself:

International Women’s Day, March 8, 2003 – 11 days before bombs dropped in Iraq – Kirsten Michel, Amy Goodman, Alice Walker, Medea Benjamin, Susan Griffin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Rachael Bagby, and more Unreasonable Women for the Earth and Code Pink for Peace were arrested for singing on the sidewalk in front of the White House.

By Haidee-Laure Giles in Britain:

The fight for equal rights continues

Thursday 07 March 2013

Women in Britain are teaming up this week with their sisters from some of the world’s poorest countries to step up the battle for equality.

Meetings in London tonight and in Newcastle tomorrow will see women sharing their experiences of struggle around the world to mark International Women’s Day (IWD).

March 8 became an international women’s event after 1977, when the UN general assembly invited member states to proclaim…

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Medway celebrates International Women’s Day

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andrewday82's avatarThe Medway Broadside

Every day throughout the world,International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on 8th March. IWD is a celebration of the achievements, talents and work of women all over the world. Some groups use this as an opportunity to campaign about various issues that affect women, such as violence against women, our working lives, health and our caring responsibilities.

This year the theme of International women’s day is “The gender agenda: gaining momentum”. Over time and distance, the equal rights of women have progressed. We celebrate the achievements of women while remaining vigilant and tenacious for further sustainable change. There is global momentum for championing women’s equality.

In Medway, the celebrations are organised by a small core of volunteers. This year we have arranged for a motivational speech from Sam Hall, founder of 17% the social enterprise championing and encouraging work from female writers and playwrights. We will also have belly…

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Sunny cold days and Zombies

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On quite possibly one of the coldest days in recent history, I chose to spend a Saturday afternoon standing – and walking – around Rochester High Street.

My new found freedom from covering every event across Medway meant I was able to respond to a call out for extras for a music video, by the hugely talented Richard De Soussa Silva. It’s the first tune from his debut EP, Us and Them and is a lovely, mellow song you can’t help but nod along to. Check it out here and see if you can spot me!

I also got involved in a Zombie film, Zombocity, which is still in production. I couldn’t make the first shoot but this is the resulting first trailer …

… and this is Zombocity trailer two – my film debut! Messing around with liquid latex and face paints was great fun and I can’t wait to do it again!

Gallery: Chinese New Year Parade, Chatham

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Another of Medway’s diverse cultural events saw Chatham’s high street packed yesterday afternoon, for an explosion of colour and sound as the Chinese community let us share in celebrating the Year of the Snake.

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You should be dancing!

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So sang the Bee Gees, and who are we to argue?

I seem to have been immersed in dance recently, with a visit to Mid Kent College for a Dance Careers Event, an article in Medway’s finest publication, and a Gothic workout.

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Hosted by Luci Napleton,  from Dance Development of Medway’s Arts Development Team, the Dance Careers Event allowed me to cast my shoes off and take part in a Contemporary half hour workshop, surrounded by students – I thought I held my own – and a Musical Theatre workshop. I managed to not trip myself up, although I was left facing the wrong way on occasion and hitch kicking when I should have been pivoting, but hey, it’s been a while, ok?

The Mayor, Cllr. Vaughan Hewett was on hand with praise and encouragement for the students of Mid Kent College and the Medway Youth Dance Theatre, following their excellent performances, while the awesome Loop Dance Company reprised the Joss Arnott choreographed ‘Current Being’, their commission for last year’s Big Dance 2012. It’s an inspiring company, led by Nina Atkinson, who began it twenty years ago upon realising there were very few chances for aspiring and professional dancers in Medway. Go see them!

Loop Dance Company

Loop Dance Company: (Top) Anna, Nina, Natalie.(Bottom) Claire, Emmy, Marie

The February issue of Wow Magazine is a dance special spectacular, an interview with the Ballet Boyz being  the highlight. And I finally made my debut for Emma Dewhurst’s classy must-read mag, interviewing Craig Bartley of local dance studio, Starquest. You’ll find that on page 14 in the magazine here. On the opposite page, there are a selection of dance classes and groups in our region. For Sarah, who I met at Mid Kent College, here’s a link to Jade Street Dancers – I expect you’ve already found them by now, but just in case!

My other debut, in practise at any rate, was for Wolfshead and Vixen – I’m sure I’ve mentioned them before. The premier Morris side from Rochester have been auditioning for new members and somehow ended up with me. It’s much harder than you think – I was more tired after twenty minutes of Vixens than after an hour at the Dance Careers Event. I’m hoping I’ll have learned enough to be ready for the Sweeps Festival (although, I’m not so sure about dancing at dawn on May Day!) If you fancy trying out for us, there’s a workshop being held at the Beacon Court Tavern, Gillingham, on Sunday, March 3rd, from 1pm.

In national news, Let’s Dance for Comic Relief is back with us again from this Saturday, persuading comedian Tim Vine and others to set aside their modesty and don leotards and leggings. Read all about it here. Time permitting, I’ll cover it on The Rhythm of Life. 

“Exceptional dancers in my experience are also exceptional people. People with an attitude towards life, a kind of quest and an eternal quality. They know who they are and they show this to you willingly.” Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Get yourself out there – again!

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With the rosy glow of positive feedback still floating around my laptop,  I’ve set a date for a second blogging workshop!

Using Blogger.com, the aim of this workshop is to give you an online presence which is simple for you to maintain, particularly if you’re busy or dislike using the internet. My wish is for each participant to leave the session with a fully operational, customised blog. If time permits, we can look at linking with social media, directories and other bloggers too, in order to build your audience.

You will need:

· a wifi enabled laptop (although our venue, coFWD, does have Ethernet cables if needed)

· an email address – you will automatically have a gmail account set up for you as part of your Google profile but it’s good to have an alternative for security.

· a unique password.

· A title for your blog – this is different from the web address and can be changed. The web address cannot be changed though, so I’d recommend using your name for that. E.g jayenolan.blogspot.co.uk is my blog address but the title is ‘A tingle in my fingers’.

Also, have a favourite picture of your own saved that you’re happy to share with the world, a favourite Youtube video you can find easily and a written piece about yourself you can use in your first posts. (You can always delete or amend afterwards).

The workshop will be held at coFWD, the coworking space at 161 Rochester High Street, on Wednesday, February 27th, from 7.15pm – 9.30pm. The cost is just £12.50 and there are four spaces still available. Please visit the Eventbrite page here to secure your booking.

I look forward to seeing you,

Jaye 🙂