April 30, 2019 / Ben / 0 Comments
Key stage one stats are due to be completed in June and many parents worry about what they need to do in order to help their child prepare for it. Your child should not have to worry about these early assessments but preparing them and talking to them about it can help to give them more confidence when the tests are placed in front of them. You can print off copies of old test papers from the government website that you can go through with your child so they can see what types of questions they may have to answer.
The most important thing is to teach your child to read the questions properly. In the maths SATs paper for example, the questions can change quickly from addition to subtraction to divide etc. If they assume that all the questions are addition they may lose out on marks for questions they knew the answer to.
If your child is really concerned about the SATs, speak to their teacher who will be able to talk to the child or give you advice on what you can do to help. SATs in key stage one are often more a reflection on the teacher than the pupil as it shows how well they have been taught.
March 11, 2019 / Ben / 0 Comments
With hoarding becoming a bit of an issue in the UK, we may all need to take a step back and look at our shopping habits. Retailers are very good as enticing us in with sales and discounts and we can often find we leave a shop having spent and bought far more than we intended too.
This can be
a dangerous game and if you are not carefully your shopping habit can quickly
spiral out of control. Not only can you get your self in financial difficulties
but you may also find that you simply run out of room to store all your new
purchases.
It is
important to have a good clear out once in a while and either chuck or donate
some of your belongings to stay on top of your home. Before going shopping, try
to make a list of what it is you actually need to buy. Having a look round your
home first will allow you to truly see what is needed and importantly what is
not needed. Make sure that you stick as close to your list as possible so as
not to overspend and bring home items you don’t really need.
February 28, 2019 / Ben / 0 Comments
So many
directors and choosing to recreate popular books as films. Recent examples
include films such as The Hobbit, Goosebumps and The Gruffalo. If these films
are done well, they seem to be hugely popular but many films seem to not follow
the books accurately causing upset amongst avid fans.
Sometimes film-makers need to add or remove material from the book in order to make the film the correct length or even split the book into a series of films. If you struggle to finish a book and often get bored halfway through then watching a film can be a great way of getting to discover the whole story. Also some people like to watch a film after reading a book as it literally brings their favourite characters to life and can give them a greater understanding of the book.
It really is
an individual choice, and some will chose to never see a film based on their
favourite book in fear that it will spoilt it for them. Sometimes the
characters may be portrayed differently to how they remember them and this can
sometimes cause upset.
You can
expect to see more and more of these types of films being released over the
next decade.
January 28, 2019 / Ben / 0 Comments
It can be very frustrating when you find a product online and then click through to buy it to be showed a different price. This often happens because the search engines index product at a certain price and have not yet picked up that this price has been put on sale or increased on the sellers website.
Another situation which often happens is that at some of the lager retail selling websites such as Amazon, advertise a price but then moments later the price has changed. It is estimated that on average prices change on amazon every ten minutes. If you have not checked out before the price change then you may be looking at paying a higher price (or lower) than you originally saw. Retails also can sell the same product at a different price to different people. You may notice that when you are logged in to your account the price reduces.
All of the above can be done legally but it is worth double checking the total price it is saying you will be charged at the final checkout stage. If you can prove you bought an item at a set price but were charged a different one then you should complain to the company and ask them to refund you the difference.
November 22, 2018 / Ben / 0 Comments
It seems year after year more and more sales are hitting the stores earlier than before. January used to always be when most of the best savings could be had but with more people turning to online shopping and starting to buy for Christmas earlier on in the year, the retail industry has had to adapt. In November you an often find many of the retailers slashing prices in the run-up to Christmas. This may be through buy one get one free offer, money off vouchers or percentage savings. Black Friday is said to be the busiest day of the year for Christmas shopping and on this day you will often see cut prices on many products. The following Monday is known as Cyber Monday and this is when the best deals online should happen. So when is the right time to buy? The truth is no one knows exactly. If you want to ensure that you get the product you are after then you may want to shop as easily as you can in November but if saving money is more important, then holding out until closer to the festive period may grab you a bargain.