ROTARIANS have donated a specially made trophy for the Swindon Phoenix Rotary Club Dragon Boat Race which takes place in June. Dianne Fisher, wife of projects team leader John Fisher, hand-cast and painted the China dragon trophy which is mounted
BROADGREEN Breakfast Club is changing its name to coincide with its 20th anniversary. The club will now be known as Big Breakfast +, to emphasise the additional services provided for the homeless and those in need across the town. The chairman
FORMER Town defender Joe Devera has agreed to join Portsmouth on a two-year deal. Devera was one of five players released by the Robins last week after making 66 appearances during his two seasons at the County Ground, and the Advertiser understands
A BOOK written by a first-time author will be hitting the shelves next week. Paul Grundy, 36, has fulfilled a lifetime ambition and published his first book, Epidemic. “I’m looking forward to finally having it published and everyone getting
TRIPLE jump Olympian Vernon Samuels paid a visit to Churchfields Academy last week to inspire and mentor students. The visit was part of the Sky Sports’ Living For Sport programme. Vernon, who beat triple jumper Jonathan Edwards in the 1988
Many parents believe that the recipe for success in life lies in doing well at school and earning a horde of good exam results. And while it is, of course, true that academic attainment gives children a better chance of a successful career and
Plans for a new primary school in the east of Trowbridge are gathering pace as Wiltshire Council looks to find a business to manage the new facility. The academy is being built in response to extensive new housing in the area and the council believes
Many children don't like going to school – but that’s very different from having a school phobia. New research suggests that one in five UK children suffer from school phobia, where they're anxious and fearful about attending school and refuse
A stray dog has been seen wandering around Ipswich Street last night and most of yesterday. It is light brown in colour and is believed to be either a greyhound or a lurcher. The dog was first spotted at 5pm yetserday and was still there today
St Laurence Secondary School is a specialist arts college with a sixth form, which serves the town of Bradford on Avon and its surrounding area. It has 1,359 students and takes pupils from Atworth, Monkton Farleigh, Winsley, Limpley Stoke, South
Twenty-four pupils from Royal Wootton Bassett Academy received a grade D in the summer rather than the C they would have got if the boundary had stayed the same. Last month, however, the High Court rejected the bid from school leaders, teachers
Pupils at The Ridgeway School have come out top of the class with more pupils achieving at least five A* to C grades than anywhere else in the town. Results released by the Department for Education today show that 74 per cent of students at the
It's a parent’s lot to feel guilty – but for one group of mums and dads, that guilt is felt even more deeply. They are the parents of children with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties, whose children are sometimes wrongly viewed as
Millions of school days are missed every term as children play truant, and the number of parents prosecuted for allowing their kids to skip school has reached a record high. But is punishing the parents for children’s absenteeism the best way to
NURSES at the Ridgeway Hospital in Wroughton were treated to afternoon tea to celebrate International Nurses Day. The annual event is held to mark the contributions made by nurses to society. As well as a tea of scones with jam and cream, each
Clarendon Academy in Trowbridge is continuing to strive for excellence after it came out of special measures and received a ‘good with outstanding leadership’ Ofsted report in the first 50 weeks of headteacher Mark Stenton’s tenure. In October
The primary school, in Tadpole Lane, has been awarded an overall grade of ‘good’ in its latest Ofsted inspection, which is a grade higher than the ‘satisfactory’ they were given in 2010. The report said the school had made significant improvements
POLICE and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson has backed a scheme in which youngsters take an active role in their community and liaise regularly with police officers. Mr Macpherson met the 12 Drove Primary School junior wardens last Wednesday
WILTSHIRE Police have defended using a convoy of patrol cars to escort a mobility scooter being ridden by a police community support officer (PCSO). The buggy was being driven to a police station in Salisbury following the arrest of a man on suspicion
A MAN accused of trying to get into a house while armed with a knife will not face trial after he admitted affray. Tyron Whyte had been charged with aggravated burglary in relation to the incident on February 3. The 24-year-old, of County Road,
POLICE and fire crews were called to the M4 near junction 16 yesterday at 8.30am following reports that a car had landed upside down beside the carriageway. Despite initial concerns that people were trapped, there were no injuries.
SWINDON Council is out to reassure residents fearful of large-scale development at Redlands Airfield, by amending the proposed planning blueprint for the borough ahead of its submission to the Government. In a bid to close the Wanbor-ough airfield
FOR decades he was a well-known figure and fearless goalkeeper on the Swindon six and seven-a-side evening soccer scene. On Sunday father-of-two Dougie Walker, 64, lost a brave battle with cancer after twice beating off the disease. The retired
COMMUNITIES secretary Eric Pickles has welcomed news that more than a quarter of the Government’s target 120,000 troubled families are already on the way to being turned around. The Secretary of State for Local Government said the figures showed
Reading with children can be a positive experience for both parents and kids – yet it seems to be a job that many dads delegate to mums. New research from the National Literacy Trust has found that far fewer dads than mums encourage their children
TAKING our seats for the opening night performance of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice was like walking into a proper entertainments club for years gone by. There was a compere warming the audience up, along with a couple of very brief acts, and
THE first of the evening talks on day seven of the Swindon Festival of Literature was by comedian, author and director Tony Hawks. During a highly entertaining hour, he described the difficult process of turning his books into films. However
THE Eddy Shah rape trial at the Old Bailey has been re-started after a new jury was sworn in. A previous jury was discharged on Friday, four days into the case. Shah, 69, of Chippenham, who founded the now-defunct Today newspaper, denies six counts
A GROUP of seven men have been sentenced for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs in Swindon. Fatos Hamzaraj, Guglielmo Rossi, Paul Boulton, Paul Bunney, Jack Jones, Michael Crossley and Christopher Hemming all appeared at Bristol Crown Court yesterday
NARNIA fans flocked to the Arts Centre yesterday to attend Oxford don Alister McGrath’s talk about acclaimed author C.S. Lewis. Unlike the many other biographies of Lewis, McGrath’s C.S. Lewis: A Life is organised not by the chronological order
SALLY and STUART HARRISON take a trip to Newbury races... and pick up on the tension behind the scenes Sitting at home on the edge of the sofa, shouting and cheering as Auroras Encore, the winner of this year’s Grand National crossed the winning
Michelle Tompkins revisits an old haunt to find out (finally) what all the fuss is about EAT AT: The Bear Hotel, 14 Market Place, Wantage, Oxfordshire, OX12 8AB Tel: 01235 766366 www.thebearwantage.co.uk Open: Breakfast: Mon-Fri:7am
This week it’s the turn of John Brown, head chef at the Prince of Wales at Shrivenham. Call 01793 782268 When did you first take an interest in cooking, and when did you decide you wanted to become a chef? Because my mum was a very good
Children as young as four showed they were cyber savvy as Sutton Benger primary school marked the 10th anniversary of Safer Internet Day. Responsible use of online technology is becoming ever more important for the younger generations as almost
Work will soon be starting on a £2m building at Swindon College now that planning permission has been granted. A construction centre is being built on a 1,000 sq m site in the college’s North Star campus, which is scheduled to be ready for the
CCTV footage has been released by Wiltshire Police in a bid to track down the women involved in a spate of distraction thefts. There have been five reported incidents of distraction thefts in Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett on Thursday, May 9
CIRCUS Wonderland is heading for Swindon. Billed as the UK’s newest and most magical circus, it will be at the Oasis Leisure Centre from Wednesday to Sunday next week, May 15 to 19. Circus Wonderland’s directors are Kriss Freear and Paul Carpenter
AN ORGANISED crime gang is facing lengthy jail sentences for its part in a drugs conspiracy with an estimated street value of £6m. Fatos Hamzaraj, Guglielmo Rossi, Paul Boulton, Paul Bunney, Jack Jones, Michael Crossley and Christopher Hemming
THE owner of one of the town’s best-known Chinese restaurants has been ordered to pay more than £30,000 after pleading guilty to 11 food hygiene offences. Connie Yap, who has run Connie’s in Old Town for more than 30 years, changed her plea to
ANDREW Thomas McMahon, 29, of 2 Royal Tank Regiment, Aliwal Barracks, Tidworth, has been charged with common assault on a 23-year-old woman at The Victoria pub, in Old Town, on April 11. He is due to appear at Swindon Magistrates Court on May 29
TRIBUTES are still pouring in for popular Jack Savage who died in a road accident at the weekend. The 20-year-old, of Wan-borough, died in a crash at 3.57am on Saturday involving a Ford Fiesta, in which Jack was a passenger, and an articulated
AN EXCLUSIVE fitness class with Beverley Callard has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict. The Adver ran a competition for readers to take part in the session, which was due to take place today at the mikebussPT fitness centre, but a clash
A MAN killed after a botched drug deal was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, a jury heard today. As the trial of murder accused Zacharious Clayton, 19, Kendel Joseph, 19, Christopher Simmonds, 28, and an 18-year-old who cannot be named
APPROXIMATELY £3,000 worth of tools were stolen from three lock-ups in The Street, Latton, between May 8 and 9. It is thought thieves used bolt cutters to break through padlocks and stole a number of tools including a chainsaw, circular saw, drills
WE’VE all been banned from leaving more than four bags of garden waste a fortnight out for collection. It seems the council is anxious to avoid a repetition of last year’s problems, when ideal growing conditions caused a huge backlog. While
GOATACRE captain Brad Dawson admitted his side were “completely hammered” by Taunton Deane in a Premier Two clash they will quickly want to forget. Dawson’s team lost their last six wickets for eight runs to end up falling 100 runs short of Taunton
RONNIE Fernandes clubbed 93 off 64 balls as Swindon Civil Service heaped more early-season disappointment on Division One new boys Wootton Bassett in the Surridge Sport Wiltshire County League on Saturday. Fernandes’ powerful knock included eight
LECHLADE will have to wait another week to get their first win of the 2013 WEPL Glos/Wilts Division season under their belt, as their game at Stroud was lost to the weather. The visitors won the toss and invited Stroud to bat in difficult conditions
TIMING isn’t always the easiest attribute for batsmen to come by in the early weeks of the season, but Purton got it spot on in their run chase against Spye Park in Wiltshire Division One on Saturday. Chasing 125 on a typically fast track under
TWO wins from their first two WEPL Wiltshire Division fixtures might have taken some of the pre-season pressure off title favourites Swindon, but batsman Jon Sore has stressed that the County Ground side aren’t about to take their eye off the ball
CASTROL boss Jake Henley was quick to plaster Craig Hogg with praise after the striker’s four goals gave his side the 4-1 win over Westbrook which clinched the Division Two title. The three points wrapped up the division for Castrol with two games
EDWARD Kennett couldn’t take advantage of his superb start to the meeting as his British title bid ended at the semi-final stage last night. The Swindon Robins rider won his opening three rides at Wolverhampton to set him well on course for a place
WHERE to start? Where to start? Where to start? Last week my missus was looking at me in a funny way, with the kind of smile that makes me think she’s done something totally daft. “You’ve got a grey hair,” she told me, practically giddy. I’
ON MARCH 1, Kevin MacDonald walked into a no-win situation at Swindon Town. Had the Scot guided Town to promotion from League One – via the play-offs or through automatic promotion - he would have been told he had simply finished off the work previously
REPRESENTATIVES of six different clubs took on seven local sailors at a solo open meeting hosted by Bowmoor Sailing Club over the weekend. Ross Harvey from Bowmoor vied with Guy Lonsdale from South Cerney SC for the lead early in the first race
SWINDON’S Richard Voaden and Fairford’s Dave Roberts were in action as the Honda V-Tech challenge series moved on to Snetterton over the weekend. Qualifying saw Voaden start his powerful car from second place on the grid, while and Roberts began
ALAN McCormack is being chased by four Championship clubs as he mulls over whether to remain at Swindon Town. The Advertiser understands the midfielder, whose contract at the County Ground expires next month, is the subject of interest from Huddersfield
CROFT Juniors Under 10s represented the North Wilts League in the Sussex Challenge Cup over the bank holiday weekend and finished as runners-up. The tournament was based on seven-a-side mini soccer rules and played over two days, with eight other
