Day: August 13, 2019

Here comes Karen!

Karen Penny, a 53-year-old mum from South Wales, is currently walking around the ENTIRE coast of the UK and Ireland. The journey will be about 20,000 miles, and will take her an estimated three years to complete!

Karen is raising money for Alzheimer’s Research UK – the UK’s leading dementia research charity – after losing both of her in-laws to different forms of dementia. Her fundraising target is £100,000 and she is already nearly 40% of the way there.

Karen – who may be the first woman to do this journey non-stop (i.e. without going home or breaking her journey) – has been making incredible progress since she set off from South Wales in January.

In the first seven months of her challenge she has already walked the complete circumference of the island of Ireland, and the entire Welsh coastal path, recently passing the 3,000 mile milestone.

Karen – who has appeared on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio Two, BBC Wales and national radio shows in Ireland, as well as receiving national newspaper coverage in England and Ireland – is an enthusiastic and engaging person who has amazing tales to tell about her journey so far.

She has been bowled over by the kindness of people that she has met along the way – with offers of cups of tea, meals, company as she walks and places to stay overnight.

Despite having a tent in her rucksack that she carries with her as she walks, she has found that much of the time kind supporters have offered her accommodation instead – everything from a bird hide to a castle! She has been met and praised by the Mayors of Dublin and Liverpool.

She is currently in the north west of England, and is expected to reach Scotland next week – 18th August, all being well.

She thinks that the Scottish leg of her journey could take her up to a year to complete, as she plans to walk the circumference of “at least” 20 Scottish islands as well as the mainland coast while she is here!

Karen’s fundraising page is https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/thepennyrollson and her Facebook page (where she has 2,800+ supporters cheering her on) ishttps://www.facebook.com/groups/1790360527648427/

Make time to learn

The University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Open Learning’s Short Courses partnered with Edinburgh’s Royston Wardieburn Community Centre to offer a daytime archaeology course for the local community.

The ‘Making Connections’ course, taught by Archaeology Teaching Fellow Kristian L.R.

The University of Edinburgh

Short courses

You don’t have to study for a degree to learn with us. We have a huge range of options that allow you to study at a time and pace that suits you.

With our short courses, you can learn during the day, in the evening, at weekends or at a Summer School. Courses range from Jewellery Making and Elementary Norwegian to those where you can earn credit towards a qualification. You may also be eligible for support ranging from a Personal Tutor to academic and sometimes financial support. If your company or organisation would benefit from a team-building or training course, the Business School can tailor a bespoke course to meet your needs.

Centre for Open Learning

The Centre for Open Learning offers short courses in subjects from Archaeology, Art and Design and Creative Writing through to History, Psychology and Politics. No prior knowledge of the subject is usually required.

If you can’t commit to a weekly slot over five or 10 weeks, then you can try a Saturday taster session, a weekend course or one of our Summer Schools. We may also be able to provide financial assistance such as discounts for alumni or help with fees for those on certain kinds of benefit.

Find a short course to suit you

Learn a language

Courses are available in more than 20 languages from Arabic to Welsh, British Sign Language, Japanese and Swahili. If you just want to brush up on your French or Italian for a holiday, or take a serious interest in Chinese Advanced, we’ve got just the course for you.

Choose a language

Studying for Credit

Credit Plus courses are short courses with study and essay-writing skills built in. They are designed for students who want to study for credit at university level for the first time, or in a subject they haven’t studied before. This type of course includes subjects such as Film Studies, How Art Works and Introducing Scottish Social History.

These credits count towards a Certificate of Higher Education, a national qualification recognised by employers and other universities. Everyone who takes this route has support from a Personal Tutor who helps you with academic guidance and support.

Study for credit

Part-time Access Programme

This part-time programme is primarily for adult students who are returning to learning after a break from study.  It has been carefully designed to prepare students with few or no prior qualifications to study for a degree in Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences.

If you are accepted onto the course, you will be a fully matriculated student at the University with access to all the facilities available to other students, including extensive academic and pastoral support.

The programme will be run from late summer 2018 and finish in June 2019, and we will announce the process for applying in early 2018. For further information about the Part-time Access Programme, please email the Centre for Open Learning.

Email col@ed.ac.uk

Education for Business

Our triple-accredited Business School delivers bespoke options for Executive Education which are designed to challenge, inspire and transform your thinking and that of your company. A range of courses is available from two-day Masterclasses to accredited MBA level courses and customised programmes tailored to your company’s needs.

Business Education to suit your needs

 

Best Start Foods payment launched

Payment card replaces paper vouchers

Pregnant women and families with babies and children receiving certain benefits are to be offered increased access to healthy foods. The new Best Start Foods payment replaces the UK Government’s Healthy Start paper vouchers with a new payment card, and it’s now open for applications. Continue reading Best Start Foods payment launched

Granton Community Day cancelled due to dates clash

Community event rescheduled for Spring next year

On behalf of Granton Parish Church we are getting in touch with an update on the Community Day planned for Saturday 7th September. 

We have taken the decision to postpone the event until Spring 2020. Two other similar events have been planned by other community groups and rather than run a competing event where we invite different community groups to choose which one to support we chose to push ours back to the Spring.

This will allow the wider community to concentrate its resources and offer a better experience to those attending the other two events. They are a Community BBQ at the Old Kirk and Muirhouse Parish Church and a Community Day at Wardie Bowling Club.

We encourage you to throw your support behind them!

We know that you had not been able to attend on 7th September anyway, and we hope that we can find a date in the spring of next year that will be more suitable. We will be back in touch in a few weeks with a save the date for the Spring.

On behalf of all in the church we thank you for your commitment to making a stronger community here in Granton.

Norman Smith

MPs call for tougher restrictions on phone use in cars

The Government should consider tougher restrictions on driving while using a mobile phone and stricter enforcement of the law to prevent the ‘entirely avoidable’ tragedy of deaths and serious injuries from related crashes on the roads, MPs say.

‘Receiving and sending data equally dangerous’

In Road Safety: driving while using a mobile phone, the Transport Committee says the evidence is clear: using a mobile phone while driving is dangerous, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

MPs call on Government to overhaul current laws on using hand-held mobile devices while driving, to cover use irrespective of whether this involves sending or receiving data.

As evidence shows that using a hands-free device creates the same risks of crashing, the Committee also recommends that Government explores options for extending the ban on hand-held devices to hands-free phones.

In 2017, there were 773 casualties, including 43 deaths and 135 serious injuries, in collisions where a driver using a mobile phone was a contributory factor. The number of people killed or seriously injured has risen steadily since 2011.

Tougher enforcement needed

However, the rate of enforcement has plunged by more than two thirds since 2011. Enforcing the law is essential to ensuring that motorists do not illegally use their mobile phone while driving.  While the Committee welcomes the Government’s review of roads policing and traffic enforcement, the report calls on the Government to work with police to boost enforcement and make better use of technology.

The penalties for using a hand-held mobile phone while driving were increased in 2017 but still do not appear to be commensurate with the risk created and should be reviewed and potentially increased so that it is clear there are serious consequences to being caught, says the Report.

Chair of the Committee, Lilian Greenwood MP, said: “Despite the real risk of catastrophic consequences for themselves, their passengers and other road users, far too many drivers continue to break the law by using hand-held mobile phones.

“If mobile phone use while driving is to become as socially unacceptable as drink driving much more effort needs to go into educating drivers about the risks and consequences of using a phone behind the wheel. Offenders also need to know there is a credible risk of being caught, and that there are serious consequences for being caught.

“There is also a misleading impression that hands-free use is safe. The reality is that any use of a phone distracts from a driver’s ability to pay full attention and the Government should consider extending the ban to reflect this.

“Each death and serious injury which results from a driver using a mobile phone is a tragedy that is entirely avoidable. We need tougher restrictions, better enforcement and more education to make our roads safer for all.”