New Reflective Items

With misty damp mornings becoming the norm, why not check out our latest flashing reflector and reflective tag, great ways to ensure that your children are seen on the way to school.

The reflective tag comes in four fluorescent colours and affixes to your bag or baggage enabling you to easily locate your items. Whilst the flashing light reflector has a choice of permanent, fast or flashing settings. As it is reflective it will show up in car headlights even when not switched on. Even looks good in a disco!!

For more new products why not go to our website Brightkidz.co.uk.

International Walk to School Day

Did you know that tomorrow is International Walk to School Day where the intention is to get everyone across the world to Walk to School on this one day. Who knows you may enjoy it so much that you then want to carry on indefinitely.

The whole walk to school month is a great way of highlighting the benefits of getting youngsters walking to school. Its a great social time for the children, catching up with their friends on the way to school and it has also been shown to increase concentration through the extra exercise. From an ecological perspective it is a step to reducing the carbon footprint.

So come on, pull on a high viz waistcoat and join this great international day!

Re-use rather than recycling is greenest IT strategy - 10/08/2010 - Computer Weekly

Re-use rather than recycling is greenest IT strategy - 10/08/2010 - Computer Weekly

Interested to see this report. Another good reason for delaying purchasing a new pc.

Social Enterprise Mark

BrightKidz received the social enterprise mark at a ceremony in Leicester.

Lance Holland, Director of BrightKidz said

“We’re really pleased to be awarded the Social Enterprise Mark because it shows BrightKidz isn’t just about selling ‘high vis’ products – it recognises all the work we do to promote safe, active, sustainable travel to school”.

The organisations were presented with certificates by Lucy Findlay of the Social Enterprise Mark Company at the SEEM organised event which looked at the future role of social enterprise in delivering public services. The government’s vision for the ‘Big Society’ places social enterprise at the heart of the reform of public services

• The Social Enterprise Mark is supported by the Office of the Civil Society, the National Lottery through the BIG Lottery Fund and Capacity Builders. Visit www.socialenterprisemark.org.ukto find out more

To cycle or not to cycle!

Much has been made in the press this week regarding a couple who could face being reported to social services for allowing their children to cycle to school. The family who live in South London, currently allow their two children aged 5 and 8 to cycle less than a mile to school, but they have been referred to the school's headmaster who believes that the children should be accompanied both ways.

This item has definitely split public opinion as on one hand you have the debate that there is insufficient activity for children and that we need to get them out and about on their bikes and then the other side declaring that the parents are being irresponsible. I suppose it all comes down to personal choice and making sure that the children are safe. I wonder if they have heard of high viz!!

Great New Book to enjoy the School Run

Have you ever thought how you can encourage your children to walk or cycle to school, then this excellent new book written by Ann Kenrick is the answer. "Let me Out! How to enjoy the school run " was published in 2009 and has plenty of practical advice on how to set up your own scheme, where funding can be secured and lots of other helpful tips.

For more information check out our website Brightkidz.co.uk

Fun new teaching aids

We have now received some great new teaching aids to get the message of safety on the roads across to the children in a fun and interactive way.

Why not take a look at the large puppet of a Lollipop man which is a great teaching resource or a fun soft toy. This puppet can be used in conjunction with the Teaching mitt of "People who help us". All these new products are located on our website Brightkidz.co.uk.

National Childhood Obesity Week 5-11 July

Next week sees the start of National Childhood Obesity Week which is being launched by the National Obesity forum and MEND (a social enterprise dedicated to reducing global overweight and obesity levels), which is calling for a strategy to tackle childhood obesity and launching a charter to bring all organisations working in this area.

With such super weather this is the ideal opportunity to get out and about with the children and the week is aimed at encouraging more children and families to get active together by showing them how much fun physical activity can be. Why not check out MEND's website www.mendcentral.org to see what events are in your area.

Greener Together

Following on from Kate's post why not join in yourself? We are looking for more people to take part in this initiative. All you have to do to get started is register, fill in a baseline survey to say what you are already doing and what else you could do (make a few pledges) and start being greener.

Full details of the project are at http://www.greenertogether.coop/

If you are interested, either contact BrightKidz with any questions, or register directly at http://www.greenertogether.coop/user/register .

When you register, please make sure to select "BrightKidz" as the participating organisation.

Its Poncho Time

Its festival time once more and whilst we are all praying for the good weather to continue its always better to be safe than sorry so why not have one of our super new Ponchos. We have either the Eco Poncho suitable for both adults and children which is made from clear biodegradable plastic. Or to ensure that you don't lose your child at one of these events, there is the child's high viz option which will definitely make you child stand out.

Greener Together

I am feeling very virtuous this morning as I have just completed a questionnaire by Greener Together an initiative run jointly by co-operatives UK, Confederation of Co-operative Housing CCH and the Plunkett foundation.

The aim of the scheme is to help people to live in a more sustainable way. Its very simple you register and then complete a short questionnaire and make various pledges to live in a greener way. I have pledged to make sure that I am recycling as much as possible and remembering to switch lights off and unplug electrical equipment whenever I can. So go ahead and see what you can do for the environment by joining the Greener together initiative now!

Work out those measurements!

Ever sat in a maths lesson and either forgotten to bring your calculator or ruler, well those days are over. Why not take a look at our super new dual powered calculator / ruler so you only have to locate one item in that busy school morning dash. The calculator works with both batteries and solar power when there is sufficient light. In a stylish silver colour it will make a great addition to any school bag.

Wake up time !!

Add some fun to your early starts with a new flexible friend. This is no ordinary digital alarm clock; it's shaped like a walking man and you can change his poses by bending his arms and legs. The clip on his 'back' means you can even attach notes or reminders to see when you wake up. He can also grasp a pen.

Walk to School Week

You still have a chance to get those last minute prizes for all the excellent schemes that have taken place over this week. We have some great prizes for instance why not look at the promotional pencils which can have your own logo printed on them. So why not take a look at our website Brightkidz.co.uk and give us a call.