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Why should children attend school every day?

Did you know that getting your children to school on time is a good habit and benefits your child for a lifetime.

Imagine that if you were late attending school by just 5 minutes every day, that that is the equivalent of over 3 days lost in the school year – that’s a lot of learning time for your child.

By being late by just 10 minutes every day for a year adds up to 31 hours – that’s over six full days of learning lost to your child!

Here are some more figures regarding how not being punctual can affect school attendance:

15 minutes late per day = over 9 days lost per school year;
20 minutes late per day = over 12 days lost per school year;
30 minutes late per day = over 13 days lost per school year;

100% attendance means zero days of learning being missed, which means that your child has a better chance of success.

Figures from local Council’s in the UK suggest that an unauthorised absences, such as holidays during school terms can also have a major impact on your child’s development and learning.

2 weeks of learning missed reduces your child’s attendance to under 95%;
4 weeks of learning missed reduces your child’s attendance to under 90%;
5 1/2 weeks of learning missed, takes your child’s attendance to under 86%;
7 1/2 weeks of learning missed, takes you child’s attendance to under 80%;

A very poor attendance record will and does have a significant impact on learning, not to mention you, as a parent, being at risk of receiving a penalty notice.

When you consider the average school year is just 190 days long, it really isn’t a lot of time to commit to ensuring your child has every chance of future success through learning during the school year. They will also learn important social and communication skills during this time.

Of course we all know that sickness can be a problem and it may be necessary for your child to be absent from school and that is acceptable.

What is the tallest church bell tower in Holland?

The Dom Tower in Utrecht is the highest and oldest church tower in Holland.

It was built between 1321 and 1342, it took so long to build due to a lack of money.

Dom Tower reaches a height of 112 meters and inside the Tower are fourteen bells that weigh between 880 and 18,000 pounds.

Utrecht - Dom Toren — Image Source: holland.com

Halfway up the Dom Tower there are fourteen bells. Six were founded by Geert van Wou in 1505 and can still be heard today.

Some of the larger bells are named after saints and religious figures.

The Dom Tower was originally designed as a steeple which was attached to St Martin’s cathedral.

After what is believed to be a tornado in 1674 ripped through the city of Utrecht, the nave of the church was knocked down and remained that way for some time as the people of Utrecht did not have the money to rebuild the cathedral.

The Dom Tower was largely unharmed by the storm still remains free standing today and a beautiful paved area between the cathedral and tower exists which is known as Dom Square.

The Dom Tower is open to the public and if you are willing to climb the 465 spiral stairway to the roof, you will be provided with excellent views of Utrecht and it’s surrounding area, on a clear day you can see Amsterdam.

In the Netherlands, the tower is called the “Dom Toren”.

What does “Calling the Mare” mean?

In Medieval England, September was always known as the Harvest month, and as the many farmers would gather in the last of their crops, trying to prove that they had reaped the best crops they would try and beat their neighbouring farmers to complete the work first.

chestnut mare and foal — Image source: thehorse.com

There was a fun ceremony known as “Calling the Mare” and this involved quickly gathering the last sheaf of the harvest and shaping it into a mare shape, then delivering it to the neighbouring farmers land, shouting “Mare, Mare”.

This was supposed to signify that wild horses would come and eat their harvest if they didn’t gather it in quickly.

Once the receiving farmer had finished gathering his crop, he would pass it onto the next farmer who had not finished until it reached the last farmer.

This last farmer would then have to keep the “Mare” on display for a year to show that he was the slowest farmer.

Similarly, corn dolls were also weaved into shapes and placed in the corn fields as farmers believed that these corn dolls were the spirit of the corn goddess.

It was believed that if you did not place a corn doll in your fields the corn goddess would die and so would your crops.

So now you know what the term “Calling the Mare” means and that it comes from an old farming tradition.

What is the Severn Bore?

The Severn bore is a large surge wave which is seen in the estuary of the River Severn and is considered as one of Britain’s truly natural phenomena.

It is a tidal range and is the second highest in the world, which on occasions can reach up to approximately 5 feet in height.

This is all due to the shape of the Severn estuary, which means that the water funnels into an ever decreasing narrow channel.

The estuary narrows from being 5 miles wide in Avonmouth to just 1 mile wide in nearby Lydney and by the time the estuary reaches the Gloucestershire village of Minsterworth on the north bank of the River Severn, it is less 100 yards wide!

The depth of the river changes quickly and when the incoming tide travels up the estuary, it is routed into an ever decreasing channel.

Consequently the surge wave or a “Severn Bore” as it is known, is created and large waves going upstream are caused.

There are about 60 bores that occur throughout the world and the Severn Bore is one of the largest in the world.

Around eight occur in the UK but bores are also knwon to happen on the Rivers Seine and Gironde in France and on the Amazon in Brazil.

The biggest bore in the world is on the Hang-chou-fe in China. When Spring tides occur the wave can reach up to heights of over 25 ft (7.5 metres) reaching speeds of between 13-15 knots, which lasting for up to 14 miles!

Image Credit: The Telegraph

Who was Prometheus?

In Greek mythology, the Titan Prometheus was known as a cunning trickster. He was alleged to have given the human race the gift of fire from Mount Olympus and was duly punished by the God Zeus for his actions.

This punishment meant that an eagle ate the liver of the Prometheus as he was chained to a rock.

Prometheus sculpture in Louvre museum — Prometheus depicted in a sculpture by Nicolas-Sébastien Adam (1762)

In some Greek mythological stories, it has been said that Prometheus made the first man from clay, and was given the task with Epimetheus, to endow man with gifts so that they might survive and prosper.

It is thought that Prometheus’ father was Iapetus and his mother Clymene, one of the Oceanids.

He had 3 brothers named Epimetheus (meaning afterthought or Hindsight), Menoetius and Atlas.

One of Prometheus’ sons was named Deucalion, and he is referred to as the ancient Noah, as he too survived a great flood when he sailed in a great chest for nine days and nights.

It is said the Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha, became the founders of the human race.

The tale of these founders were rumoured to be the inspiration behind director Ridley Scott’s 2012 science fiction film called ‘Prometheus’, which explores its own ideas and mythology about the evolution of the human race.

The film won several academy awards, including a BAFTA award for its Special Visual Effects, depicting its version of Prometheus’ story.

Image credit: Wikimedia

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