Author: Rhys Gregory

Bangor University is to contribute towards increasing the number of teachers available to teach Religious Education and improve the teaching materials available to both teachers and students. [aoa id=”1″] Religious Education has been facing a crisis in recent years, with teachers feeling increasingly underqualified to teach an ever-changing syllabus at GCSE and A level, while recruitment of new graduates as subject teachers is failing to keep up with demand. A new three-year project at the University’s School of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences will collate and develop new teaching materials for use by both teachers and students and encourage more…

Ahead of National Stress Awareness Day, new research has highlighted the benefits of recalling positive childhood memories in order to relieve stress and promote a more positive outlook. [aoa id=”1″] The study questioned 2,000 British adults and revealed the impact of recalling childhood memories, with one in ten (10 percent) admitting they helped to cheer them up when they’re feeling down, one in seven (14 percent) claim it helps them relax when they’re stressed and one in five (20 percent) feel more optimistic and energised when thinking back to past happier times. As well as the positive impact on stressful…

The demand for proton beam therapy for cancer patients has increased significantly this year as a result of the availability of the treatment in the UK. [aoa id=”1″] Proton Partners International reported today that 25 patients have been or are in the process of being treated with high energy proton beam therapy through its Rutherford Cancer Centre network. The therapy has been used to treat a variety of cancers including breast, head & neck, prostate and hip. Simon Hardacre, the first patient to be treated with high energy proton beam therapy in the UK, was treated at the Rutherford Cancer…

A cutting-edge new leisure centre that will give a major boost to health, fitness and wellbeing opportunities for many thousands of people in Llanelli and beyond is planned to open in 2021. [aoa id=”1″] Located in the £200 million Wellness and Life Science Village at Delta Lakes, the leisure centre will combine with other attractions and facilities in an iconic Wellness Hub building forming part of the overall development. Carmarthenshire County Council is leading on the Village project in partnership with Swansea University and Sterling Health. The leisure centre at the Wellness Hub is proposed to include: [/aoa] An aquatic…

Brexit will help blow a £5 million black hole in the pension pot of North Wales Police over the next two years – and could mean 133 fewer officers or a massive increase in council tax. [aoa id=”1″] North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones warned there was even worse to come because of proposed changes to the police pension scheme which would see a 10 per cent hike in employer contributions. The £1.9 million shortfall next year would rise to nearly £5.3 million a year in subsequent years, putting an even greater strain on the thin blue line.…

A social care champion has been given a lifetime achievement award for his “remarkable and outstanding contribution” over three decades. [aoa id=”1″] Mario Kreft MBE, the chair of Care Forum Wales and the owner of the Pendine Park care organisation, was honoured at the prestigious Wales Care Awards at City Hall in Cardiff. The former Older People’s Commissioner for Wales, Sarah Rochira, was also presented with a lifetime achievement award at the glittering ceremony, dubbed the social care Oscars. Ms Rochira was appointed in 2012 and was hailed as a fearless and determined advocate for older people’s rights, Mr Kreft…

The manager of a top festival will celebrate a landmark birthday by singing for the first time since her school days at a special fundraising concert in her honour. [aoa id=”1″] Caroline Thomas, from Glan Conwy, who works for the North Wales International Music Festival in St Asaph, was a member of an award-winning choir when she was a pupil at the former Howell’s School in Denbigh back in the 1990s. Now the festival’s artistic director Ann Atkinson is putting together a choir made up of Caroline’s school friends to perform with her at the concert at St Asaph Cathedral…

A Gwynedd musician-in-residence defied doctor’s orders to run a half marathon to raise money for a charity she cares passionately about. [aoa id=”1″] Nia Davies Williams, 46, who works at Pendine Park’s Bryn Seiont Newydd Care Home in Caernarfon, tackled the Cardiff Half Marathon despite having badly bruised ribs. Nia, a leading authority on the use of music in the care of people with dementia,raised £200 for Music in Hospitals and Care in Wales. Last year her work at Bryn Seiont Newydd was rewarded with the Sir Bryn Terfel Foundation Wales Care Award for Promoting the Arts in Social Care.…

1step2be, a new free-of-charge portal which is changing the way of donating to charities by allowing individuals to have full control over where the money goes for their clothes, without spending a penny. 1step2be turns unwanted textiles into money and donates the money to a cause of their choice. Not only that, a courier comes to the donors, weighs the textiles and tells them instantly how much their unwanted clothes will make for their chosen cause. Around 75% of households admitted to throwing away unwanted textiles rather than recycling, and as a result, the UK sends 300,000 tonnes of clothing…

With just a few days to go before Remembrance, The Intellectual Property Office (IPO), whose main office is located in Newport, South Wales, is urging members of the British public to be extra vigilant when buying poppy merchandise for Remembrance this year. Their donations are intended to support Armed Forces community men, women, veterans and their families. Instead they could end up benefitting fraudsters if their poppy merchandise turns out to be fake. The Royal British Legion has registered its rights for the poppy goods to prevent such counterfeiting. The IPO and The Royal British Legion have teamed up with…