Area 6 : News & Views

NEWS ARCHIVE - Jan to Apr 2002

APRIL 2002

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30th April 2002: GENERAL EVENTS: A direct-line telephone number has been added for Events bookings for the Rhys Daniels Trust whose forthcoming activities include the Santa Clara European Golf event (June), the Bristol Summer Ball in July, the Pauline Quirke Ryder Cup Experience in August, and the Butterfly Ball at the London Hilton in October. For details of these and other events please see the General Events page.

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30th April 2002: SCHOOLS INTERCHANGE: Our thanks to Linda Duffy, the main Web Editor for Dorset LEA, for forwarding updated link page details for the Dorset Schools Information System - see our Schools England A-M page, for Dorset]. As commented on the Schools Interchange listing here, the Dorset Schools Information site is stunningly well-organised with details ranging from hours of opening, age range and number of pupils, to street maps and aerial photos of schools, as well as website addresses, e-mail addresses and Ofsted reports. Includes links to schools for children with special needs.

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30th April 2002: VIRUSES: Over the last couple of weeks the mailboxes here have been increasingly swamped by copies of the "Klez" virus/worm. We are operating without the "preview pane" [to disable this in Outlook Express, use View-Layout and uncheck the preview-pane box) but virus-carrying e-mails are now at such a high level that we're unable to leave Outlook Express open on an ongoing basis, and have to check out the mail on the ISP portal first. Anything up to 98% of our incoming mail is virus-carrying and the e-mails often appear to originate from non-genuine sources (eg from someone in a virus-carrying computer's address book).

We would recommend to all our visitors that no attachments are opened (even if the mail appears to come from someone you know, or the subject line looks familiar) without checking with the sender first. Disabling the preview pane will prevent the attachment from trying to open automatically. We've taken the route now of deleting all mail with attachments around the 124kb level and above (Klez is usually around the 124 mark, though other current virus-carriers vary) and obviously removing all deleted mail from the Deleted Items folder also.

Check out Sophos - or Norton - for removal instructions for Klez, or see the table above re other viruses still in circulation. We'd recommend checking your anti-virus software is up to date, to minimise risk, as apparently Klez can be complex to remove once it gains hold.

14th April 2002: TRAFFIC BUILDING GUIDE: In response to numerous requests over the years, Penny has finally written a comprehensive summary of the techniques developed at Project HappyChild for building website traffic, as well as detailing free/shareware software used to streamline the maintenance of the whole site, along the way. Much of what's written is fairly unconventional - and all of it very low-tech! - but regardless the traffic-building tips are considerably more "proven" than most of what you will find on the Internet today. The Traffic Building Guide has been added to Area 10, "Build Your Own Website".

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14th April 2002: HUMANITARIAN AID TRANSPORT SERVICES: An updated page including new contact information has just gone on line for H.A.T.S, who offer excellent rates for transporting everything from a few boxes to massive containerloads, wherever help is needed in the world. Contact them for a free quotation - click here.

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8th April 2002: NEWS ARCHIVES: We've finally archived all the virus-related info on the News pages, to reduce the overall length of the current page. All News Archive pages [see table near top of this page] now carry links to other dates in the sequence along with archived Newsletters, and to the writings of Kathryn Watts, who wrote the "Roving Reporter" pages for Project HappyChild during her time at University.

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8th April 2002: ACCELERATED LEARNING: Michael Tipper's feature article for April, the "Brain Gym", is now on line, following on from his March article about teaching nine to ten-year-olds in the pilot programme for the Education Action Zone in Greenwich.

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1^st April 2002: HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Our thoughts are with Queen Elizabeth II and her family at this sad time. Click here for the Royal Family website giving details of Funeral and Mourning arrangements, on-line condolence book, etc.

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1^st April 2002: Project HappyChild News for April 2002 is now on line.

MARCH 2002

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28th March 2002: ACCELERATED LEARNING: Michael Tipper's feature article for March, Accelerated Learning for Years 5 and 6 (9 and 10 year olds) is now on line, a thought-provoking write-up of his experiences with teaching this age group, piloting a programme for the Education Action Zone in Greenwich. A fascinating read.

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27th March 2002: FOCUS: We've made a new addition to the FOCUS page today - an amazing project called "Global Peace Containers". Every year, thousands of steel shipping containers come to the end of their working life, and can be difficult to dispose of. Professor Richard Martin and Soren Ludwig realised that they would provide inexpensive building blocks for construction, and founded Global Peace Containers, a non-profit organization which has perfected a system to convert old containers into schools, emergency housing, clinics and community buildings.

Containers are designed to withstand incredible stresses in shipping and therefore are resistant to such forces as hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes. They are also watertight, and can be transported by ship, train or truck, meaning that they can be set up quickly for immediate shelter following natural or manmade disasters. Click here for more details of this visionary project.

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24th March 2002: GENERAL EVENTS: Comprehensive details have now been added to the General Events page, for the Valderrama/Santa Clara European Golf Tournament (which includes an exclusive screening of the England Argentina match) in Marbella, Spain; the Epping Family Fun Run; the Bristol Summer Ball; the Pauline Quirke Ryder Cup Experience (at the DeVere Belfry); the Butterfly Ball to be held at the Grand Ballroom of the London Hilton on Park Lane; and the Brentwood Banquet. All these events benefit the Rhys Daniels Trust; details of these and many other events being held during 2002 in aid of a wide number of children's charities are available on the General Events and Sponsored Events pages.

24th March 2002: GENERAL EVENTS: The largest pre-school activity of the year, the "Big Toddle" in aid of Barnardo's, has now also been added to the General Events Calendar. Registering allows you to receive a free "event pack" - and playgroups, pre-schools and crèches get to keep 25% of whatever they raise, for their own fundraising. See the General Events page for more details.

16th March 2002: FRENCH WORKSHEETS: Our thanks go to Rita who has now completed the massive task of checking the French verb pages, which have now been linked in from the main Index page. Both mirror sites have now been updated, including the one at Freeway.

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14th March 2002: FRENCH WORKSHEETS: We're delighted to say that *all* the remaining French verb tense pages (264 of them!) have finally been set in html. At present these are in the process of being checked and double-checked, but we hope to be able to make the links from the Index page live within the next few days, and update the mirror site at Freeway at the same time.

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9th March 2002: REFERRAL COMMISSION: Project HappyChild's ISP, Force9/PlusNet, which hosts the site here, has made a scheme available where any paying customers who refer friends and colleagues, receive "referral commission" *every* month for as long as the referred account stays [if enough people are referred, the hosting and on-line costs can effectively become FREE]. We've put a new page on line giving some details - PlusNet are offering some amazing prices on ADSL and their other types of account give far more "freebies" than anything comparable we've found. Click here for more details.

If enough people switch to PlusNet quoting the Project HappyChild reference, this would effectively keep this website on line forever - and everyone who signs up can also follow the same process to cover their own hosting and on-line costs.

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1^st March 2002: Project HappyChild News for March 2002 is now on line.

FEBRUARY 2002

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27th February 2002: ACCELERATED LEARNING: Michael Tipper's February article is now on line - a little later than usual but a note was received from Michael which said: "please accept my apologies for the delay in getting this article online - unfortunately writing for the site this month was one of the casualties of juggling an ever increasing workload and presentation schedule. Still, better late than never." We just appreciate the fact that Michael *does* continue to write (free) for the Project HappyChild site - there are maybe not that many high-flyers who would give so much of their time and energy to help others. This month's article is called "Reading Faster - But What About Comprehension?".

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19th February 2002: SCHOOLS INTERCHANGE: Our thanks to Nicola Wright at Hull City Council Internet Unit for forwarding details of changed page addresses including schools' website listings, for Kingston-upon-Hull. These have now been added to the England A-M page.

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18th February 2002: Four more events for 2002 have been added to the General Events calendar - the I CAN Jubilee Ball in June, the Cathcart Spring Proms (celebrating the Queen's Golden Jubilee), also in June, a Ceilidh in March and the I CAN Chelsea Ball - for 13-17-year-olds - in July.

Take a look at the General Events calendar for these and many other fundraising events this year - also the Sponsored Events calendar which details a huge range of events taking place all over the world.

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17th February 2002: The Appeal page for POD - entertainment for children in hospital - has now been updated. Every month, POD organises 103 shows in children's wards at 97 hospitals and hospices throughout the UK.

There are about 250 hospitals in the UK which admit children, and there is still a long waiting list of hospitals asking to be added to POD's list. Each new hospital added means that funds must be found for the future - each show only costs about Ł50 [including the entertainer's fee] but that cost must be found for every hospital on the list, every month. Help through donations and fundraising is always appreciated.

Birmingham Children's Hospital summed up the effects of a POD show: "As usual, oncology patients had a great time and were able to forget their drips whilst having fits of giggles. On our trauma ward, it was a case of making sure the children didn't roll off their traction beds because they were laughing so much" ... take a look at the appeal page to see the huge list of hospitals where POD is already making a difference.

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15th February 2002: Significant progress has been made (at last!) with the completion of the layouts for all major themed areas at Sol's Guide to Harry Potter. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 keywords are in place, along with links where appropriate to new areas for The Ministry of Magic, Wands, Gringotts and Quidditch. The visual quality of pages right across the Guide has been enhanced, and comprehensive navigation tables are now in place so that all areas of the Guide are easily accessible.

As per the pagebuilding schedule detailed in the February Newsletter, the priority for the next three months has to be the completion of the Pokémon and French worksheets areas of the site, but it's hoped to fit in further pagebuilding of the Harry Potter guide whenever time allows during that period.

However, the next few days from here will have to be given to site updates and additions (which have stacked up at an unbelievable rate over the last two weeks!) - we trust it will be possible to return to the new pagebuilding about a week from now, 22nd February or thereabouts.

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12th February 2002: Pagebuilding progress - keywords (and about 50% of site interlinks) are now on line for Book 1, Chapter 3 at Sol's Guide to Harry Potter. A week probably sounds an inordinate amount of time for a single page! - but all chapter pages are at some stage of composition now, this is a process which will become swifter as more areas of the site become interlinked, and we'll add further keyword summaries as soon as each chapter page reaches an upload-able stage.

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5th February 2002: Pagebuilding progress - a further 15 pages of Characters have been added to Sol's Guide to Harry Potter, with interlinks as appropriate to Slytherin House and Hogwarts Staff.

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1^st February 2002: Project HappyChild News for February 2002 is now on line.

JANUARY 2002

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31st January 2002: More events have now been added to the General Events calendar - a Sponsored Sleep Out, a spring fashion show introduced by Diana Moran (The Green Goddess) and a Golf Day at Clandon Regis - see General Events - yet more events notifications are now arriving from other charities and we'll add these to the page as soon as possible.

Another eight Characters have been added to Sol's Guide to Harry Potter, with interlinks as appropriate to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Houses, and Hogwarts Staff. We'd hoped to add the Slytherin characters as well this month, but time available simply hasn't allowed for this - we're hoping to slot these in during early February, before the main work starts on completing the free French worksheets and Andy's guide to Pokémon.

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24th January 2002: EVENTS!

The last couple of weeks has been entirely taken up in pagebuilding the new General Events and Sponsored Events Calendars for 2002.

The General Events calendar includes a great many events from Champagne Reception to Charity Balls, and the charity première of the new Disney Peter Pan film, "Return to Neverland" [click here for General Events], whilst the Sponsored Events calendar for 2002 (a *very* long page!) details a breathtaking range of events taking place across the world, which you can take part in to raise funds for disadvantaged children. If you were thinking of doing something extraordinary this year, there are endless possibilities .... click here to see the huge variety of events available.

Our thanks to the many charities in the Project HappyChild Directory who have forwarded 2002 Events for these calendars. There are still a number of events to be added, but we hope to have these completed over the next day or two.

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10th January 2002: Pagebuilding progress - a further 20 pages of Characters have been added to Sol's Guide to Harry Potter, with interlinks as appropriate to Gryffindor House.

Today is a major landmark for us! - over 2000 pages on line, finally. Still about 1000 to go, to complete Sol's Guide, the Pokémon area and the French and English resources, but with a following wind, everything should now be in place by the summer.

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8th January 2002: The remaining pagebuilding for the supplementary resources has now begun: three further areas have been added to Sol's Guide to Harry Potter - Notable Witches & Wizards, Diagon Alley, and Magical Books & Authors, with a further 20 character pages now on line.

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1^st January 2002: Happy New Year!

Project HappyChild News for January 2002 is now on line, as is Michael Tipper's latest Feature Article, "Some Questions on Learning from our Visitors".