Schools in England will be required to keep uniform costs down from next autumn by taking steps such as removing unnecessary branded items. Statutory guidance published by the Department for Education on Friday will instruct schools to ensure their uniform is affordable. Schools will be expected to have taken steps to follow the guidance before parents buy uniform for the academic year starting in September 2022.The school uniform bill, which makes guidance given to schools about the cost of uniform policies legally binding, was passed in April this year. It was first introduced by Labour MP Mike Amesbury and it received cross-party support. Under the guidance, schools will have to make sure second-hand uniforms are available. They will also be advised to keep branded uniform items to a minimum and encouraged to allow more high-street options, such as supermarket own-brand uniform. Mark Russell (see photo) chief executive of The Children’s Society, said: “For too many years the cost of school uniform has been a heavy financial burden on many families, causing money worries and even debt, so these new guidelines to make sure school uniforms are affordable are extremely welcome.” “Until now, too many parents have had to fork out for expensive branded items rather than cheaper alternatives, while having to cut back on essentials like food or heating. “So, we hope schools are able to start working with the guidance, which should ultimately make it much easier for families to kit out their children for school without breaking the bank.”Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: “School uniform provides a sense of identity and community for children and young people, and should be a real source of pride. But it must never be a burden for parents or a barrier to pupils accessing education. “This new binding guidance will help to make uniforms far more affordable for families by driving costs down as we work hard to level up the country.” The guidance will require schools to use competitive and transparent contracts with suppliers, and to publish their uniform policy on their website.
The Revd Claire Lording from Pershore Benefice has praised the opportunities offered by LLF and encouraged others to get involved and to share with fellow parishioners the wealth and breadth of material covered by LLF LLF is a suite of resources exploring questions of human identity, sexuality, relationships, and marriage, launched on 9 November 2020.The resources – which include a five-session video course for local groups – are designed to facilitate open, honest, and gracious learning and discussion among churchgoers across the country.The four churches that make up the Pershore Benefice are described as “middle of the road” by Revd Claire Lording. She said the churches were keen to get involved with LLF to “think more deeply about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.”The course was run for the benefit of the ministry team and then offered via Zoom to parishioners.Of the 14 people who took part in the course over the spring, Revd Claire Lording noticed an “increase in people’s ability to respect people who held a different opinion.“I was also really moved by how touched people were by the video stories. “Hearing real life people talking about their real-life relationships and experiences with a church made a difference to how people thought about what they believed.”She added: “It was an incredibly worthwhile process. “People felt liberated to be able to talk about these issues, realising that they had never talked about them with other people before, let alone to church people. “Participants spoke of it being a valuable exercise and educational. “They also felt strongly that everyone in church should take part in the course, especially as our congregations are becoming more diverse and because we wanted to be the best version of a welcoming church that we could be."
Thirty years after Terry Waite was released from nearly five years of captivity in Beirut, he said he survived by "keeping hope alive".The Archbishop of Canterbury's envoy went to Lebanon in 1987 to negotiate the release of several captured Britons - but was taken hostage himself.Held in "grim" conditions, his Islamic fundamentalist captors freed him on 18 November, 1991, after 1,763 days.He told the BBC: "I don't know how I did it really. But I did."Waite, now 82, who lives in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, was working on behalf of Robert Runcie to try to secure the release of several British prisoners, including journalist John McCarthy, when he was captured by Hezbollah.For much of the time he was kept in solitary confinement, chained to a radiator, beaten and subjected to mock executions.But he said "by keeping my mind alive and by keeping hope alive" he got through, and wrote many stories in his head, including his first book which he then committed to paper after being released."The conditions were pretty grim," he said."I was chained to the wall for 23 hours and 50 minutes a day, I slept on the floor, I didn't have any books or papers, I was in a room where shutters were put in front of the window so no natural light came in and of course there was no companionship so it was a fairly austere existence - a little bit worse than lockdown."But I recognised that I still had life and, although it was very limited, I was still able to live as fully as possible."In that situation, you have to learn to live one day at a time."He recalled that in his dark cell, there was a chink of light used to come through the shutter in the window."Gradually that light illuminated that room and I used to say to myself, "don't give up, remember light is stronger than darkness" and somehow I was able to maintain hope in that situation."He added that he never questioned his faith."I used to say in the face of my captors, you have the power to break my body, the power to bend my mind but my soul is not yours to possess," he said."What I meant by that was you're never going to take me completely because my soul lies in the hands of God - and that very simple belief was enough to enable me to maintain hope."Terry said he can "hardly believe" it has been three decades since his release and while it had "gone in a flash", it took time for him to readjust.He said since his arrival back in the UK at RAF Lyneham, "plenty of creative things have emerged" from his experience."I was determined to make one last speech and then I got away," he said."It took me a while, I was very lucky I was elected to a fellowship in Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was able there to have time away, time to get myself together, but it did take time.""I'd always had sympathy for people who have been on the margins of life, the homeless, the prisoner, the captive, but during captivity that sympathy was changed to empathy, and that was one of the gifts I got from that experience," he said.He works with the homeless and founded Hostage International, an independent charity which works all over the world and advises returning hostages."Our advice is that when you come out, yes, certainly make a statement, but then get away and give yourself time," he said."Some people don't realise that it really does take time to readjust to life after you've been through a significant period of difficulty in your life."I'm very glad that this has been one of the positive outcomes of my incarceration."
This Sunday (November 21st) we are delighted to welcome the Junior Choristers of the Guildford Cathedral Choir to lead a service of choral Evensong at 4pm at St Mary and All Saints' Church, Dunsfold.There are few more beautiful moments in an ancient church like ours than a cathedral choir guiding us through a service. Sunday afternoon's service should be truly memorable and we hope you can join us.We will be able to savour the exquisite voices of the choir. They will be accompanied by Canon Gilly Myers who will officiate at the service.The organist will be Cathedral organ scholar Michael Stephens-Jones.
