Day 65 of (un?) Lockdown

Day 65 and, settling down, no new updates from Essex or Colchester councils so far. Instead, we have some local news and some national news for local application.

Local boys & their 3D printer.
Parenting Courses.
Metal Detector?
COVID-19 honours, and
Something else.

Local boys & their 3D printer

Rylie & Sam Doubleday made the Gazette yesterday with an article on their homemade COVID-Key. Designed to help you avoid surface contacts, these keys can be used to pull or push levers or buttons such as door handles, toilets, doorbells or chip & pin pads.

They are selling them for £3 each with £1 from each sale going to the Tom Bowdidge Foundation. To order one, message the foundation on Facebook via the Tom Bowdidge Youth Cancer Foundation or send a text to 07771646654. They come in a range of colours – red, yellow, grey, orange and blue and easily fit on your key ring.

You can read the Gazette article here.

Parenting Courses

Being organised by Jo Jeffery, St Mary’s Families Worker, these upcoming courses will be held using Zoom. Jo has 21 years of experience working with children and their parents/carers both in primary and secondary schools as a teacher and youth/children’s worker.

Jo has also created a course to support children in the transition from year 6 to year 7.

To book a place, please email Janine: [email protected]. Please state the course, date and time you wish to register for.

Parenting Children

Running weekly from Tuesday 2nd June for 5 weeks between 11 am – 12: 15 pm OR 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm the issues to be addressed are:

Building strong foundations,
Meeting our children’s needs,
Setting boundaries,
Teaching healthy relationships, and
Our long term aims.

Parenting Teenagers

Similarly running for 5 weeks from 3rd June between 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm this course addresses:

Keeping the end in mind,
Meeting our teenagers’ needs,
Setting boundaries,
Developing emotional health, and
Helping them make good choices.

Metal Detector?

If you enjoy using a metal detector the government has now issued guidance for their use now lockdown is loosening. The following is a brief extract and a link to the full guidance if you feel it applies to you:

If you choose to leave your home to search for archaeological finds, including metal-detectorists, field-walkers and people searching the Thames foreshore (mudlarking), you must follow this advice.

This guidance is designed to help individuals search safely while also continuing to be alert to the safety of others. It provides steps to ensure you are able to:

Safely social distance while searching for archaeological finds.
Fulfil your legal obligations under the Treasure Act 1996.
Ensure your discoveries can be recorded and contribute to archaeological knowledge.
Ensure the protection and preservation of archaeology.

This guidance has been written with advice from the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme on how to report your finds and to protect in situ archaeology. You can read the full guidance here.

COVID-19 honours

Do you know of anybody deserving of recognition for their contribution during the COVID-19 pandemic; if so you need to read this? Their contribution could include:

frontline work supporting the most vulnerable members of society and those who have caught COVID-19.
providing critical care to COVID-19 patients.
developing innovations to support the vulnerable and those with COVID-19.
going to extraordinary lengths to keep critical services going.
volunteering in the community or for service organisations in support of those affected by COVID-19.

If so, the Government are looking for nominations from within the UK for a national honour for their contribution to the response to the coronavirus crisis. Download this form to apply. You should try to include:

the nominee’s name
any contact details
their role
a summary of the impact the person has made

Send your completed nomination form to: [email protected].

Day 65 of (un?) Lockdown – the 3D Printing edition