John Kyrle High school was a very lively place, recently, as pupils took part in a variety of activities to celebrate the European Day of languages. Staff dressed up in an effort to raise the profile of languages while younger pupils were able to try a taster session in Mandarin Chinese taught by John Kyrle High School Adult Centre's Chinese teacher, Yu Ziming. In addition, pupils were encouraged to learn a song in the target language and sample a selection of European foods.

Year 11 GCSE students watched a DVD on the value of languages in the world of work and produced posters to be displayed in the Language Laboratory, which was in the afternoon session. Year 7 pupils provided an entertaining afternoon of song and dance. Although new to the school, each tutor group was given just over a week to learn a song in French which they had to perform in an Eisteddfod competition on Friday afternoon.

The pupils also dressed up in European colours. The noise and excitement reached fever pitch as the votes were counted and the winning tutor group announced.

Languages Specialism Manager, Tracey Tumelty said, 'It was a pleasure to watch our new pupls excel in confidence and enthusiasm as they all performed so well. It was a truly memorable occasion for pupils and staff alike'.

Herefordshire Council is urging county residents not to be spooked by recycling and give their well carved pumpkins a new lease of 'life' this Halloween.

Almost every one of the pumpkins sold each year in Herefordshire is used to create spooky jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween celebrations. Scarier than all those lanterns, however, is the fact that once 31st October is over, most of the pumpkins are thrown in the bin and sent to landfill.

Laura Preece, Herefordshire Council's recycling officer, is asking people to think twice before putting their pumpkins in with their household rubbish. She suggests that residents use the inside to make a delicious soup and asks that the carved lanterns be put in a home compost bin, along with other vegetable peelings etc. where it will be recycled into a valuable resource for the garden.

'If residents haven't got room for a compost bin, they should consider having a kitchen waste disposer instead,' said Laura. Herefordshire Council working in partnership with Worcestershire County Council offers an £80 cash back offer on kitchen sink waste disposers as part of the Sink Your Waste scheme.

To find out more or to make a claim, log onto the website at http://www.sinkyourwaste.com/ or call 01905 766883.

Eight Guides and Senior Section from the 2nd Ross Guides were lucky enough to get hold of tickets for this year's Big Gig, which is an annual pop concert held by Girl Guiding UK. Tickets for the gig are harder to come by than a parking space in Ross town centre, so we were really lucky to get them this year.

We travelled with the WRVS in their minibus with driver Roger at the wheel and arrived at the NEC Arena in Birmingham in plenty of time to buy illuminated bunny ears, wands, Big Gig teddies and badges before going in for the performance. Over 11,000 Guides, Senior Section and Guiders packed the Arena for two performances, which included the Sugar Babes, The Script, The Saturdays, Leon Jackson, The Avenue, DJ Ironic, The Alphabeats, Hoosiers and Scouting for Girls.

As the lights went down, the Arena was lit by several thousand pairs of illuminated bunny ears which one artist said was like playing to a crowd of Martians!! Many units had put together their own outfits and 2nd Ross Guides had their own T-shirts printed by JB Sports in Broad Street.

The Autumn nights are drawing in and what better way to spend a Sunday evening at this time of year than joining in the weekly White Lion quiz? Teams of up to six people are welcome to come along and pit their general knowledge skills against each other, whilst enjoying a drink in the welcoming bar.

Landlady Jacqui will, as always, be reading the questions and keeping the quizzers under control. (Well you don't want to have too much fun, do you?:))

Entrance to the quiz is £2 per person and half of the proceeds will go to the winning team. The other half will go to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Why not come along and join in the fun. We will be very pleased to see you. (You never know, for a small consideration (for Macmillan, of course) Dave might even operate table service for you!)

The quiz begins at 8pm. See you there? ?

A visitor to this office on Monday evening saw the background photo I have on the main 'Wyenot News' computer and liked it. 'Will you be making that one available for download this week?' He asked. I have to admit that, on our wide screen, it does look pretty impressive as a background - almost as if you are actually approaching the moon.

So, here you are, Mel, and anybody else who would like to use it. I have only had time to make two sizes available and from what you tell me about your computer Mel, I think you need to go for the 1440x900 version, which should fit wide screen. Click the appropriate link, the right click the downloaded picture and 'set as background'.

For the astrophotographers out there, I took the photo on 11th October 2008 using a CCD astronomical imager at the prime focus of an Celestron, Schmidt Cassigrain type, 8 inch mirror, 2000mm focal length, f10 telescope.

The telescope is pictured below but at the time the photo was taken, rather than the astronomical CCD imager, a Nikon D100 SLR was attached at the prime focus. I will just mention here that I do not keep it, or any other equipment in the van.

[1440x900] ...................................... [1024x760]

With fuel prices rising at an unprecedented rate and forecast to rise even further, Councillor Phil Cutter, Herefordshire Council's Energy Champion and the council's team of energy efficiency experts will be on hand to give advice and help at Ross Library on Friday, 24th October, between 10am and 3pm.

The event is being organized as part of National Energy Saving Week and is designed to help people in the town better understand how they can save money on their fuel bills. Councillor Cutter said, 'Ross West is one of the areas we are targeting this year with our Special Energy Efficiency Scheme (SEES) and, also being a ward member for the town, I wanted to get out and meet as many people as possible who could be helped by our grants.

All householders in the market town are eligible for a £500 grant which can be spent on a variety of measures aimed at reducing their fuel bills. In my role as Energy Champion, I am keen to get out and about and help the people most in need, so I would urge anyone who is struggling to pay their fuel bills to come to Ross Library where we will be able to offer advice and possible cash support.'

Energy saving measures covered under the SEES scheme are: Loft insulation, Cavity wall insulation, Draught proofing, Thermostatic radiator valves, Room thermostats, Programmers, Hot water cylinder thermostats, Tank jackets.

In 2005, figures showed 8,540 (10.7 per cent) of homes were in fuel poverty in Herefordshire. A household is considered to be fuel poor when it needs to spend 10 per cent or more of its income on fuel to heat the home to an adequate temperature.

The SEES scheme will also be available to clients who live in Kington and the western part of Aylestone ward and is also open to clients living throughout Herefordshire who heat their homes with: Electric storage heaters, Electric central heating, Solid fuel central heating, LPG central heating, Room heaters with no central heating

Help is also available to Herefordshire residents who pay for their fuel use with prepayment meters and residents throughout Herefordshire claiming state benefits.

Since the Affordable Warmth Strategy launch, SEES has provided grant assistance for insulation to more than 600 households and 50 grants for replacement boilers and central heating systems.

Thank you to regular reader, John Faulkner for sending in these two beautiful beginning of autumn photos which he took in 'Puzzle Wood' near Coleford at the weekend.

Weather permitting, the coming weeks are likely to be great for taking autumn photos locally and I received an email this week from somebody who is travelling from Nottinghamshire, specially to take photos from Symonds Yat East. If you would like to photograph autumn - the Wye Valley and Forest of Dean are great places to visit.

No, I am not pretending to be young again, telling Tina that I'm working and then going out to Charlie's Bar on Saturday nights! I went there 'mid-computer' rather than 'mid-life' crisis last Saturday evening to take photos for advertising purposes (the ad page will be appearing soon) but when I arrived inside, people thought I was photographing for the news and acted accordingly.

I can't show all of the photos but here are a few. Sorry, I didn't take names as I was not expecting to be running this on the weekly news - though I do know Christo and Ave as they are friends. Looks like everybody was enjoying their weekend!.

Herefordshire Council's trading standards department is warning county consumers to be careful when purchasing imported cosmetic products. The warning comes after a project carried out by the Central England Trading Standards Authorities Partnership (CEnTSA) found that half of the 24 imported cosmetic products tested failed the Cosmetic Products Safety Regulations 2004.

The results of the tests are that:
Five items failed to display a list of ingredients found in them.
Eight items did not list all the ingredients found in them, therefore consumers would be prevented from making an informed decision about the product and would be at risk if they had a sensitivity or allergy.
Seven of the cosmetic products did not declare a shelf life, and some cosmetics deteriorate with age.
Eight of the items did not identify the importer or manufacturer, so it would be difficult to trace them in the event of a safety issue or product recall.
Six items did not have a batch number or code. This would prevent retailers doing stock rotation or identifying when stock is out of date, so increasing wastage and losing them profit. In the event of a product recall all the stock may need to be destroyed, as any fault with a particular batch run could not be identified.
Five samples had inaccurate claims.
Two products were found to be unsafe. One of which was a nail varnish that contained benzyl butyl phthalate. This is a substance known to be toxic for reproduction and may cause harm to the developing foetus and may impair fertility. The other product, a skin lightening body lotion, contained Hydroquinone which is a category 3 mutagen, a category 3 carcinogen and a potential skin sensitizer.

The objective of the project was to ensure the safety of cosmetic products found in the cheaper end of the market and items sampled included children's toy makeup, free cosmetic gifts attached to children's comics, skin lightening creams, face soaps, hair gel, glitter powder, lipsticks, body lotions, lip-gloss, nail polish and removers, skin whiteners, deodorant products containing some form of sun protection and men's face creams. All were purchased from the cheaper retail outlets and market stalls. Many were cheap foreign imports.

Twelve authorities took part in the project, including Herefordshire Council. Each authority purchased two items, which were examined by Worcestershire Scientific Services. A spokesperson from CEnTSA said, 'The information about the cosmetic product was not always present, and when it was, it was hard to read, incomplete or worse, false or inaccurate. Buying cheap imported cosmetics carries a risk; they can be untraceable, uncontrolled, out of date, and incapable of doing what the product claims or even be unsafe.

Some of those tested have ingredients which can cause injuries, ranging from sensitivity, burns, blisters, scarring or even damage an unborn human foetus or cancer. Some that claimed to offer some form of protection as a sunscreen did not protect from harmful UVA radiation.'

Trading Standards are currently pursuing enforcement action. For example, 508 bottles of nail varnish have been seized from one market trader who had been supplied by wholesalers in the Midlands area. Additionally importers are being visited and educated regarding the supply of cheap foreign imports, and their responsibilities to consumers, including their product liability implications.

Mike Pigrem, Herefordshire Council's regulatory services manager, said, 'Research has shown that the average consumer uses around 10 cosmetics or personal care products each day. On any given day a consumer might rub, spray, pour or dab some combination of sunscreen, shampoo, body lotion, deodorant, perfume, toothpaste, hair gel or moisturizer onto their bodies. Consumers assume that every cosmetic product is safe to buy and use or it would not be able to be supplied into the UK. They are exposed to every means of advertising to promote what a cosmetic can do for them. They think every cosmetic they buy does what it says, and that they are continuously improved and tested so that they only use the best and safest ingredients in cosmetic products.

The research carried out, however, shows this is not always the case and we are now advising smaller retailers to ensure they only buy from reputable wholesalers and importers and to check the dates and origin of the products. We would always advise consumers to buy from reputable outlets and to make sure they have sufficient information about the product to be able to use it safely.'

The absolute deadline for Wyenot News stories and other items is 12:00, midday on Tuesday, for inclusion in the following day's edition.

PLEASE NOTE HOWEVER: This is an absolute deadline and not the time I am asking for articles to be sent in. Mondays and Tuesdays here at 'Wyenot News' are Hell with by far, the most events I cover occurring at the weekend. The photography that the public sees happening is only one tiny part of the whole picture (please excuse the pun) of running this weekly news publication and the bits of prep that people do not see, are actually the most time consuming part of getting the story out.

If at all possible, please send your story in as early as you can, rather than wait until the very last minute, so that I can have at least a fighting chance of getting to bed before 3:00 am every Tuesday and Wednesday morning after what has lately become two 18 hour working days on the trot.

Thank you very much for your understanding and help.

Alan

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