Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity is excited to announce its bear-illiant new event this summer in association with The Big Sleuth – Fun Family 5.

Taking place on Saturday 29 July at Boldmere Gate, Sutton Park, Fun Family 5 is the charity’s first-ever 5k sponsored walk, being held from 9.30am to 4pm.

Featuring loads of grrr-eat activities, from bear-themed face painting, to circus skills workshops, bouncy castles and much more, attendees are encouraged to get sponsored to stroll through Sutton’s beautiful parkland, before enjoying the event’s dedicated Activity Zone.

An exclusive Big Sleuth bear, whose identity is currently being kept under wraps, will also be unveiled on the day in celebration of The Big Sleuth public art trail – which will see 100 giant bear sculptures on display around the city from Monday 10 July.

The colourful character, which is unlike any other bear on the trail, will then join its furry friends on the 10-week trail across Birmingham, with satellite trails also taking place in Solihull, Sandwell, Resorts World and the home of Fun Family 5 – Sutton Coldfield.

Annie Eytle, Acting Events and Regional Fundraising Manager at Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “We’re thrilled to be bringing the magic of The Big Sleuth to life with our brand-new event and hope families will join us to see our top-secret bear for the very first time, whilst enjoying a fun-filled day of fundraising!”

She added: “Every year, our hospital treats over 90,000 children and young people from across the country. We’d love as many people as possible to sign up to Fun Family 5 and encourage their friends, family and colleagues to sponsor them too in support of our sick kids, ensuring we can continue to be the world-class hospital that everyone knows and loves.”

Big Birmingham Bikes (BBB), a pioneering Birmingham City Council scheme to get residents onto two wheels, has jointly won the 2017 Ashden Award for Clean Air in Towns and Cities.

BBB offers free bicycles to Birmingham residents living in deprived areas. Recipients also receive basic training in cycle maintenance and BBB provide lessons for those who lack confidence in cycling or have never ridden a bike before. The scheme is part of Birmingham City Council’s Birmingham Cycle Revolution (BCR), which aims to make cycling an everyday way to travel around the city, which in turn brings significant health and environmental benefits.

The Ashden Awards are given to pioneers in sustainable energy and are a globally recognised measure of excellence. Along with 12 other organisations, BBB will receive its Award on Thursday June 15 at a prestigious ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Former Vice-President of the US Al Gore is the keynote speaker and Channel 4 presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy will host the Awards.

BBB shares its Award with Nottingham City Council, which is funding greener transport through a workplace parking levy.

According to the Ashden judges: “This inspirational project is not only getting people out of their cars and onto their bikes but is also improving the health, wellbeing and mobility of an often hard-to-reach demographic. There is huge potential to replicate the scheme and other cities should take note as its simple pragmatism could really help to reframe the national environmental debate.”

BBB is targeting people in some of the most deprived areas of Birmingham and is linking up with community groups, including homeless and mental health charities, to ensure that the bikes reach those who will benefit from them most. Bike recipients are from a broad range of cultural groups including some for whom bike riding is uncommon, particularly for women from black and ethnic minority backgrounds.

Thanks to BBB’s work, 11 new recreational cycling groups have sprung up. BBB is also leading practice rides along popular commuter routes to encourage people to use the bikes as a means of transport as well as for enjoyment. This can be a big help for those looking for work as it can enable them to access training and job opportunities when no other transport options are available. Additionally, fully segregated all-weather cycle lanes are being installed on both the A38 between the city centre and Selly Oak and the A34 between the city centre and Perry Barr as part of the next phase of the Birmingham Cycle Revolution to encourage more people to cycle in safety and confidence along two of the city’s most important commuter routes.

Parents and carers of young children with autism are being encouraged to find out more about a national programme designed to improve their understanding of the condition.

Tettenhall Wood School's Outreach Service for the Autism Spectrum is holding information events about EarlyBird Plus, a National Autistic Society support programme for parents and carers of children with an autism spectrum condition aged between four and eight.

The course focuses on understanding autism, offers advice and guidance on strategies, supports in building confidence to encourage interaction and communication and provides ideas on analysing and managing behaviour.

Two information sessions are being held at the Regis Road school open to parents and carers as well as professionals working with children with autism who are interested in taking part in EarlyBird Plus. They are being held on Wednesday 28 June from 10am-11am and Thursday 29 June from 4pm-5pm. To book places, please call 01902 556519 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Tettenhall Wood School is Wolverhampton's designated special school for children with autism, and staff have developed specialist knowledge and skills in order to meet a complex range of needs.

Its Outreach Service offers support to mainstream and specialist schools across Wolverhampton which work with pupils that have a diagnosis of autism, helping them to overcoming barriers to learning and in doing so, build capacity for future success.

The Outreach Service also helps parents of children with an autism diagnosis by holding monthly support groups and regular parent workshops on a range of relevant topics.

Nashwhite, Leamington Spa transformed their dreams into reality by winning the greatly sought after 2017 Afro Look Award during the prestigious L’Oréal Colour Trophy Grand Final.

On Monday 5th June, 2017 the salon’s creative 6-month journey came to a dramatic finale at Battersea Evolution, London.  Over 1000 of the hairdressing industries most acclaimed and famous figures filled the dazzling venue with immense applause as Nashwhite, Leamington Spa rushed to the stage to collect their iconic award – The L'Oréal Colour Trophy. TV & Radio Presenter Nick Grimshaw and Charlotte Mensah handed the team their award during a moment they will never forget.

"We are overwhelmed to have won the L'Oréal Colour Trophy Afro Look Award! This is such a massive achievement for the two of us at such an early stage in our career's and an absolute honour. This has been one of our main focuses since February, investing so much time into developing and creating our winning look, learning along the way and expanding our skills. We're looking forward to advancing further in this field and can't wait to get started! Huge thanks to L'Oréal Professionnel, the judges, and the Team at Nashwhite.”

Over 1000 photographic entries were received for the L’Oréal Colour Trophy and just 400 salon teams make it through to the final events.  Back in May a powerhouse team of seven renowned salons went head to head inside the L’Oréal International Academy, London during an intense live final that exploded creative talent in every direction.

Each team created their look on a model of African/Caribbean descent that encapsulated their knowledge of Autumn/Winter 2017/18 catwalk trends infused beautiful make-up and fashion led styling with technically excellent colour and precision cutting skills. The highly respected judging panel was made up from Junior Green of Junior Green Salon, Michelle Sultan of Hype Coiffure, Charlotte Mensah of Hair Lounge, Craig Chapman and Kim Johnson.

Nashwhite will now embark on an amazing year of promotional, creative and business building activity including a 3 day European trip to shoot their winning look with a professional photographic team, interviews and profiles in the trade press and countless other opportunities.

Politics, elections, Donald Trump, and Pokémon GO are just some of the events, people, and subjects that influence British children’s creativity and use of language, says a report published today by Oxford University Press (OUP).

Following OUP's analysis of the 131,798 fabulously inventive, funny and politically astute short stories for the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans’ Breakfast Show’s 500 Words competition, a wealth of fascinating insights into the lives of British children and their imaginative use of English have emerged.

The Children’s Word of the Year is Trump, picked because of its significant increase in use (a total rise of 839 per cent on 2016) by entrants writing in this year’s competition and the sophisticated way in which children used it to convey humour and satire, and evoke powerful descriptive imagery.  Every year children show a keen interest in contemporary affairs and world events from sinkholes and the London Olympics to the Ebola crisis, refugees and Tim Peake’s spacewalk. This year, Donald Trump took office as President of the United States in the same week that 500 Words launched.

Trump is mentioned in a wide variety of contexts, from the US elections and politics, to tales of space, aliens, and superheroes, giving expression to children’s creativity, playfulness, and humour. Children also use the noun to invent new character names including Boggle Trump and Snozzle Trump.

Children have been playing with blends, suffixes and prefixes to create new words improvised around Trump. In fact there are more than 100 instances of words such as Trumplestilskin, Trumpyness, Trumpido, Trumpeon and Trumpwinningtastic. Girl 10 in the Sticky Journey writes: “OH NO! I have spoken too soon… the train's track has broken because a mean Trumpdiddlydumper blew a bit out of the track… Our Marshmallow Goblin-Trolls get to work immediately.” We even have stories featuring characters such as Donald Trout, Hillary Kitten, and Obama Llama.

Vocabulary associated with the US presidency was far more prevalent in 2017 than in 2016, including president, America, wall, Hillary Clinton, White House, Trump Towers, Obama, Mexico and Putin. Displaying an ear for Trump’s particular use of words and catch phrases, one entry stood out for its ability to brilliantly capture the rhythm of his speech. In Donald J Trump Goes to the Moon, a 12-year old girl wrote: “10... 9...8 ‘my hair is so amazing’...7. ‘And real’. 6... 5 ‘I am going to make the moon great again!’. 3... 2...1 blast off!!”

The Aldermore SME Future Attitudes report reveals today that two thirds (69%) of West Midland based small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – representing 285,000* firms in the West Midlands with under 250 employees – say they have a diverse workforce, with almost half (45%) stating that improving diversity in the workplace is a focus over the next 12 months.

The report, which surveyed over a thousand senior business decision-makers across the UK, found that there are a number of reasons why they would describe their organisation as diverse. These include having an employee base with a wide age range (44%), being open to making adjustments for disabled employees to ensure they are not placed at a disadvantage (41%), having an ethnically diverse employee base (39%) and having a positive female to male ratio across the company (39%). Over a third (35%) of SMEs in the West Midlands also have female employees at a senior level and over a quarter (29%) employ diversity initiatives to ensure a positive work environment free from discrimination

Moreover, over a quarter (27%) of SMEs in the West Midlands admit to being much more likely to do business with a supplier, partner or provider that is well known for its inclusive employment strategies.

Despite this positive picture, a fifth (21%) of small and medium sized businesses in the West Midlands say they have no intention of becoming more diverse over the next year and an additional fifth (21%) said that increasing diversity is a low priority. This could be because their workforce is too small to be considered diverse (49%), but, at the same time, some SME leaders in the West Midlands also confessed that they tended not to attract a diverse range of potential employees (10%).

Carl D’Ammassa, Group Managing Director, Business Finance at Aldermore, said: “According to the last census**, the West Midlands is the second most diverse region in the UK so it is to be expected that the vast majority of small and medium-sized business owners in the region describe their workforce as diverse. However you define diversity, be it by age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability, promoting a diverse workforce should be a key consideration within any business, since employees from a range of backgrounds can offer different experiences to help drive the success of progressive businesses. “