Dinton Pastures is hosting a Family Fun Weekend on Saturday June 25 and Sunday June 26. The day runs between 10.30am and 4.30pm.
The Centre is fully affiliated with the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) and the Adventures Activities Licensing Authority, offering water sports activities for all ages and abilities with accredited trainers. It caters for individuals and groups (social and corporate) and offers one-off visits as well as membership for those wanting to use it on a regular basis.
Wokingham Library have gathered together a collection of books that have had the distinction of being banned around the world for a whole variety of reasons.
British public libraries do not censor material on moral, political, religious, racial or gender grounds and access to information is not restricted on any grounds apart from that of the law, however this is not the case everywhere in the world.
‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll was banned in the province of Huan in China for portraying animals acting on the same level as humans.
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Eric Remarque was banned in Nazi Germany for portraying German military forces in a poor light.
‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ by J.K. Rowling was banned and burned in some schools in the USA for allegedly promoting witchcraft.
‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ by George Orwell was banned in the USSR until the 1980s for its allegorical depiction for the rise and fall of socialism and Stalin’s totalitarian regime.
Roald Dahl’s ‘Revolting Rhymes’, which parodies classic children’s fairy tales and replaces the traditional “happy every after” endings with something a lot more gruesome regularly appears on the American Library Association’s list of banned and challenged books.
Major changes coming to Wokingham Borough, with approximately 13,000 homes to be developed in 4 major development areas, known as Strategic Development Locations (SDLs.) These will take place around Arborfield, Shinfield, Spencers Wood and Three Mile Cross (known as the South of the M4 SDL), North of Wokingham Town and South of Wokingham Town. Major development is also taking place in Woodley.
These developments include new schools, play grounds, parks, nature reserves, shops, businesses, and community facilities as well as the necessary roads and other transport links. We are determined to work with residents, representatives, developers, landowners and other stakeholders to make sure we create great places to live, work and visit.
To find out about your local Community Forum email: [email protected] or call Partnership Development Officer David Allen on 0118 974 6066.
Wokingham Town Council Arts and Culture Committee have announced three lectures on Arts and Culture.
Thursday May 16th 2013
St Crispin’s School and the Millett Murals
Speaker: Robin Cops
St. Crispin’s School in Wokingham is a successful mixed comprehensive and for the past 40 years three remarkable murals have lain unseen and masked by layers of utilitarian paint. Astonishingly, as part of a school development programme in the 1970’s, the murals and all the original spectacular ‘50s decorations in the school were painted out. But now two murals have been professionally recovered and restored to their full glory and they bear an impressive testament to an intriguing story which combines art, aspirations and social history. Only recently has the importance and merit of these unique hidden art works been recognised.
Come and find out what is the significance of these murals, the increasing appreciation of the artist Fred Millett and why St. Crispin’s was the most important and most visited post-war secondary school in the country in a fully illustrated talk by Robin Cops, a former Governor at the school and local resident.
Thursday June 20th 2013
Diaghilev and his Ballet Russes – when art danced with music
Speaker: Christine Holley
An intriguing romp through a golden age of creativity – 1909-1929 Paris – a city already a mecca for radical artists when genius impresario Serge Diaghilev and the Russian Ballet arrived in 1909.
Sexily skimpy costumes, scandalous content and bold, vibrant colours defined their daring ballets and Picasso, Matisse, Miro, plus many other modernising artists lined up to design sets and costumes. Diaghilev courted the avant-garde; he also led the way, shaping the course of Modernism in the visual arts – a legacy still with us today.
Christine Holley is a practising visual artist/arts communicator and 2009 mature Fine Art graduate from UCA Farnham. She exhibits regionally and in London. Her Fine Art dissertation on Diaghilev, The Ballets Russes and their impact on Modernism in the visual arts is held at the National Art Library at London’s V&A plus other major establishments. www.holley-projects.co.uk
Thursday July 18th 2013
A Musical Diversion on the Life and Times of Jane Austen
Speaker: Austentation
The evening will chronicle the life, literature and musical accomplishments of Jane Austen, from her early days in Chawton, Hampshire, to her brief sojourn at the Abbey School in Reading, through to her prolific literary period in the gracious town of Bath. All this will be interspersed with music from her time, including one of her own compositions and her own musical favourites
Austentation, the costumed Regency music ensemble, have performed at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton in the Prince Regent’s opulent music room, at both the Jane Austen Centre and the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath and at Jane Austen’s cottage at Chawton, amongst other venues. Most recently, they have performed at the prestigious Keats House Festival in Hampstead Heath. And we should not forget their brief but enthusiastically received performance outside Anthony Blay during last year’s Wokingham Living Advent Calendar!
www.austentation.org
They all start at 7:30pm and last around an hour.
Tickets cost £5 per person per lecture and include refreshments.
Tickets from the Information Centre in the Town Hall.
Open 10am – 2pm Monday to Friday and 10am – 3pm Saturdays.
0118 978 3185
Wokingham Borough Council have announced a CAN (Children with Additional Needs) Family Fun and Information Day on Saturday June 15, from 10am to 3pm, at St Crispin’s Leisure Centre in London Road, Wokingham.
The event is free to all local families who have a child with an additional need.
Children and young people can also have a go on a climbing wall, enjoy multi-sensory shows, and have their face and nails painted. Other treats for their parents and carers include yoga workshops.
The event usually attracts local and national organisations whose representatives talk to parents and carers about the availability for example of support groups, short breaks, play and leisure facilities, and equipment.
Wokingham Borough’s young people can enrich their lives with new skills, experiences and friends this summer, thanks to a project being organised by Wokingham Borough Council’s Youth Service.
An open evening for 16 and 17-year-olds to find out more about the National Citizen Service (NCS) project is being held on May 9 at Woodley Airfield Youth Centre, Hurricane Way, Woodley from 7pm to 9pm.
There will be short presentation and the chance to ask questions about the NCS project, which is due to run from July 22 to August 16 (excluding weekends).
During the first week, young people will stay at an activity centre outside of the borough and try out leisure pursuits such as high ropes, zip wire, quad biking, team building, problem solving, abseiling and street surfing.
Week two sees another four-night stay – this time locally – with activities, trips and workshops. The young people will also begin considering ideas for their own community project.
The final two weeks will see their community project brought to life, with support from the Wokingham Borough youth workers running the NCS scheme. The last day finishes with a graduation ceremony and a party.
The NCS scheme is open to all young people in years 11 and 12. It is subsidised, so the cost for the four weeks is £50 per young person.
For more information people should call Paul Blount on (0118) 908 8052, email: [email protected] or visit: http://www.ncsyes.co.uk/
More than 80 people took part in Wokingham Borough Council’s second annual Boccia* tournament last Friday (April 26) at Loddon Valley Leisure Centre.
The tournament compromised of groups and individuals with a learning or physical disability, long term health condition and those from sheltered housing schemes.
Special guests included Wokingham Borough Mayor Cllr Bob Wyatt and executive member for neighbourhoods Cllr Angus Ross.
Public health professionals at Wokingham Borough Council are advising parents in the Wokingham Borough to check if their children’s MMR vaccinations for measles are up to date.
Their advice follows an outbreak of measles cases in other parts of the country, but local health specialists are keen to stress that there are no reported cases of the disease here in the borough at this time.
As measles is highly infectious, the World Health Organisation recommends that more than 95 per cent of children should be vaccinated with doses of MMR.
Coverage of MMR vaccine by the age of two in England currently stands at 92 per cent; with 94 per cent receiving the first dose, and 88 per cent having the second dose by the age of five.
Coverage in the Wokingham Borough is 95 per cent receiving the first and some 93 per cent having the second by age five.
Experts believe the current rise in measles cases can be attributed to the number of mainly ten to16-year-olds who aren’t protected because they missed out on the vaccination in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when concern around a now-disproved link between autism and the MMR vaccine was widespread.
Wokingham Borough Council is opposing plans for 175 homes in Shinfield Glebe despite a decision in the High Court this month (April).
The borough council refused the Oxford Diocesan Board of Finance permission to build the homes on glebe land north west of Shinfield close to the M4 and this refusal was upheld by a planning inspector and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles in May 2011. The borough council and local residents are opposed to the housing as it would narrow the gap between Shinfield and Reading and it is not in line with the Core Strategy.
However the Oxford Diocese challenged the Secretary of State’s decision in the High Court and a ruling on one technical issue this month now means the Secretary of State may have to reconsider his decision. The High Court decision does not mean the homes will now be built and the borough council remains committed to resisting the proposed development.
The Oxford Diocese challenged the Secretary of State’s ruling on six grounds and five of these were dismissed, however one: that the Secretary of State failed to consider a Ministerial Statement was upheld and on this ground the Secretary of State must either challenge this decision or reconsider the matter, potentially by re-opening the planning appeal process. The borough council urges the Secretary of State to challenge the decision.
