
New SEND centre in Tidworth for children under five to open
The centres are designed to build children's confidence and support development.Councillor Jon Hubbard, cabinet member for education and skills at Wiltshire Council, said: "These centres play a vital role in giving children with SEND the best possible start in life. By working closely with families and early years providers, we can ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive."
Lee Friend, from Dingley's Promise, said the charity is excited about the new centre."We look forward to using our vast experience of early years SEND intervention and support to help children in the early years with special educational needs and disabilities to thrive, to connect with the community and offer broader support to families and local early years settings and schools," he added.The four centres already operating in Wiltshire include the John McNeill Centre in Salisbury, Stepping Stones in Trowbridge, Springboard in Chippenham and Devizes and District Opportunity Centre.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Schools accused of allowing pupils to take up GCSEs in their native languages, such as Chinese and Russian, to boost grades
More pupils are taking GCSEs in unusual languages such as Chinese and Russian amid claims native speakers are using them to boost their grades. Government data for this year shows 42,945 pupils took GCSEs in niche languages – up 70 per cent from 25,225 just four years ago. This is roughly 10,000 more than those that take German, and it is a third of the number who take French. Experts said it was likely pupils from migrant backgrounds were taking qualifications in their mother tongue to get an 'easy' GCSE under their belt. Farcically, these GCSEs also count towards the Government's Ebacc, a performance measure aimed at getting pupils to do rigorous subjects. And there have also been concerns the trend could put off non-native speakers, who are learning the language from scratch. The entry data for 'other modern languages' covers any language aside from the mainstream subjects of French, German and Spanish. Included are Arabic, Italian, Japanese, modern Hebrew, modern Greek, Bengali, Polish, Turkish, Urdu and Panjabi. Iain Mansfield, head of education at the Policy Exchange think tank, said: 'Encouraging native speakers to take these foreign language GCSEs en masse has long been used by some schools to artificially boost their rankings. 'While there is nothing wrong with an individual pupil choosing to take a GCSE in their heritage language, the soaring numbers show it's time for Government to clamp down on this loophole – and ensure schools can't claim credit for entering pupils into language GCSEs at which they are already proficient.' Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said: 'Many of these GCSEs are mainly taken by native speakers because they can do extremely well and meet the obligations on schools to promote language learning. 'The problem is that there are important foreign languages which other pupils could very usefully learn like Chinese and Russian, but they are nowhere near as good as native speakers, and most I'm afraid tend to get put off.' The number taking 'other foreign languages' has increased every year since 2021, with a 1 per cent increase since 2024. Almost a quarter – 24 per cent – of those taking these languages do so a year early, suggesting they may already know all the course content. Last year, 72 per cent of entries to this category got at least a grade 7 – equivalent to the old A – compared to 22 per cent across all GCSE subjects, making it the highest-scoring. One school, Leeds City Academy, actively encourages pupils to take GCSEs in what it calls 'heritage languages' – defined as 'the first language spoken by the student or a language in which they are proficient'. It offers tuition of just two hours a week after school to help them pass the qualifications, which are run by EdExcel. The school's website says: 'As heritage language students already have a sound knowledge of the language, you will be expected to sit the higher tier exams.' The trend is a concern for native English speakers who take GCSEs in these languages learning from scratch. Some private schools now offer languages such as Chinese, with a view that it could be a useful language to have in the future global job market. Previous research from Ofqual on native speakers taking A-level languages found they perform on average better than non-native speakers. A Department for Education spokesman said: 'Learning a language empowers young people to engage with the world, think critically and understand new perspectives, and we want all children to have this opportunity regardless of their background or postcode. 'High and rising standards are at the heart of the government's mission to break down barriers to opportunity which is why we are committed to increasing the number of pupils studying languages at GCSE, including languages that are commonly spoken in modern day Britain. 'Decisions about which languages to offer at GCSE are taken by exam boards and are partly decided on by the level of demand from schools, and people speaking the language in the UK. Many post-16 and adult learners will take language GCSEs, particularly in lesser taught languages.'


BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
New flood defence scheme unveiled in Derringham area of Hull
An £8.3m scheme has been completed which has created a network of ponds to protect homes and businesses in an area of Hull prone to project in Derringham mimics natural drainage by using the ponds, known as aquagreens, to store water in times of heavy for the work began in the aftermath of the devastating 2007 floods in Hull in which 10,000 properties were damaged and further flooding in Charles Quinn, the portfolio holder for the environment at Hull City Council, said: "These [aquagreens] not only enhance biodiversity and community green spaces but they protect some very at-risk properties from flooding." "Hull is the second most 'at risk' area to flooding in the country after London. In 2007 Derringham was one of the worst-hit areas," he Brown is general manager of the Living with Water project - a partnership between Yorkshire Water, Hull City Council, East Riding Council, the Environment Agency and the University of said £23m had been spent on flood resilience work across Hull and the East Riding in the past five years - and more work was planned."We've already seen some fantastic defence schemes built in the city and we've secured at least £26m for the next five years," she said. Rachel Glossop, Hull City Council's flood risk manager, said aquagreens stored excess water until it could slowly drain away once the sewer network had capacity."It's a scheme that's benefiting people in terms of reducing flood risk, but it's also benefiting ecology and wildlife by providing some much needed green spaces within an urban environment," she Hull is seen as especially vulnerable to surface water flooding. The floods of 2007 occurred after the city suffered the equivalent of a month's worth of rainfall in just 24 hours. The aquagreens in Derringham are designed to capture water directed down nearby alleyways, or 'ten foots' as they are known locally, and away from homes and schemes in Hull have incorporated permeable road surfaces and extra tree and bush planting to help slow the flow of water into the sewerage network. The projects are fitted with sensors and these are being monitored by scientists from The University of Stuart McLelland said the data they received would help to design future flood defences."We've got a number of probes monitoring water as it flows into the aquagreens and we're using that to see how they perform," he said."Hull is at risk from a number of different types of flooding and we need to better understand how these risks impact society."


Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
Grade I listed manor house destroyed in fire
A Grade I listed manor house, one of the oldest buildings in Liverpool, has been destroyed in a huge fire. Firefighters attended the blaze at the abandoned Woolton Hall, in Woolton, just after 8pm on Tuesday night. Nearby residents were told to keep their doors and windows closed amid the blaze. A Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: 'Crews arrived to find a three storey, stone-built building fully involved in fire around 40 by 30 metres in size.' The crews were able to put out the main body of the fire just before 2am on Wednesday morning. As of 11.30am on Wednesday, two fire engines remained at the scene to monitor the situation. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service is investigating the circumstances surrounding the blaze, and Merseyside Police is aware of the incident. There have been no reported injuries. Woolton Hall had previously been used as a hotel, an army hospital, a convent and a school, but had fallen into disrepair in recent years. The privately owned hall, built in 1704, and was the target of a suspected arson attack in 2019. Local campaigners had been calling for it to be saved for a number of years. In 2021, the building was added to Historic England's Heritage at Risk register as a Category A site.