Across Derbyshire hundreds of Girlguiding units have raised thousands of pounds for charity as part of their commitment to social action.

Members raised £22,596 through a range of fundraising activity, which could help fund 807 Macmillan nursing hours, helping people living with cancer and their families receive essential medical, practical and emotional support.

Girlguiding Midlands launched their 12-month charity partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support in January 2017 with a programme of activities to volunteer, raise funds and awareness for the charity.

Annette Heartfield, County Commissioner for Derbyshire, said:-

“We’re so proud of our members who used the partnership to raise a large amount of money but had lots of fun whilst doing it.”

Through their ‘Macmillan Challenge’ –  a programme of fundraising activities including Mile for Macmillan and Dress Up and Dance and World’s Biggest Coffee Morning – Girlguiding Midlands have collectively raised more than £113,800 – enough to help run a Macmillan Information and Support Centre for a whole year.  The activities were chosen to easily fit in with Girlguiding Midlands programme of events and to encourage the engagement and participation of the 72,000 members across the region.

Abi Salter, Chief Commissioner for Girlguiding Midlands, said:-

“I am absolutely delighted with the outcome of the Macmillan Challenge. Thousands of girls and leaders have taken part across the Midlands and the amount raised is fantastic. Girlguiding offers a wide range of opportunities to our members and this challenge has enabled our girls to help other people as well as having a lot of fun along the way. I would like to thank everyone who has made the Challenge such a huge success.”

Social action and helping others is a core part of the guiding programme and working in partnership with Macmillan has encouraged Girlguiding Midlands members to get actively involved.

Gini Smith, Partnership Manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, said:-

“We would like to say an enormous thank you to each and every member of Girlguiding Midlands who has supported our partnership.  You have run, walked, danced and baked in true Girlguiding style.  Together they have raised a massive £112,000, exceeding all expectations.  It’s been a fantastic partnership and we were delighted to see so many events taking place across the region. We can’t thank you enough. ”

By participating in The Macmillan Challenge, members of Girlguiding Midlands have made a real positive difference to those living with cancer through three strands of social action – fundraising, awareness and volunteering – with bespoke Girlguiding badges available for each.

Claire Singlehurst, Director of Relationship Fundraising at Macmillan, said:-

“We are overwhelmed by the success of this partnership with Girlguiding Midlands. We have seen such a great commitment to the ‘Macmillan Challenge’ and hope that members of Girlguiding Midlands enjoyed being part of “Team Macmillan” over the last year. Thank you to everyone who took part. As the leading cancer support charity in the UK we were also able to support members of Girlguiding Midlands to talk about cancer and inspire them to make healthy choices in the future leaving a lasting legacy for years to come.”

Sowing Colour, a vivid installation of more than 200 porcelain pots by Natasha Daintry will be unveiled in the Dome Room at Chatsworth when the new season opens on 24 March 2018.

Sowing Colour is a specially commissioned site-specific ceramic installation for the Devonshire Collection and a bold addition to the current Duke and Duchess’s growing collection of contemporary art and design.

Natasha Daintry has long been admired by them both – a ceramicist of international acclaim known particularly for her experiments with glazes, using a high-white porcelain as the luminous ground on which to explore colour.

Situated in the Dome Room, the piece comprises 237 coloured pots burgeoning down in a coloured explosion from tiny to monumental, embodying the dramatic and dynamic progression of Fibonacci’s mathematical sequence that underlies natural growth. Texture, reflection, scale, multiplicity, colour, movement, muscularity and delicacy will all play a part.

The Duke of Devonshire has been collecting the works of Natasha Daintry for a number of years including ‘Stalking Purple’; ‘Skin Deep’ and ‘Halo’.

The Duke said:-

“The first work of Natasha’s I acquired was Stalking Purple 2011. It remains one of my favourite ceramic suites and I am still thrilled by the purity of the glazes she uses.

“Soon after this acquisition I visited her in her studio with our then curator of
ceramics, Hannah Obee. From that visit and after long discussions, initially with Hannah then with Natasha as well, we came to what is now Sowing Colour.

“For me this has been an immensely interesting and enjoyable experience and I am confident that the commission will very quickly become a favourite with visitors to
Chatsworth.”

Inspiration for Sowing Colour came from the garden and landscape of Chatsworth, and the house’s relationship to the word ‘culture’, in the sense of human culture, as well as the cultivation of earth and plants.  Natasha was struck by the vigour of swirling plant roots in the vegetable garden and envisaged a work pulsing with energy using colour and dramatic shifts in scale.  The Fibonacci sequence gave her a dynamic structure to express movement through fired static pots.

Starting at the top of the installation, a mass of tiny coloured pots grow near to 1m in height at the base of the piece embodying the vigorous progression of Fibonacci’s mathematical sequence. This sequence of growth (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 13) is expressed in both the dimensions of the pots as well as the height of the space they inhabit in each layer.

Natasha has employed one hundred and fifty glazes to create a riot of finely balanced coloured pots, which cascade down eight layers to radiate colour.

Natasha said of the commission: ‘This project is my most ambitious to date and has taken almost two years to complete, involving many technical challenges of working in porcelain on this scale and collaboration with technicians and engineers.  It has been a joy to make and is wonderful to see it finally installed.’

This is the current Duke and Duchess’s third ceramic installation following on from Edmund de Waal’s Sounding Line (2006) and Jacob van der Beugel’s North Sketch Sequence (2014).

European visitors – especially from Germany – will be the main target of a £1 million investment to bring more staying tourists to the Peak District, Derbyshire and the East of England.

Official tourist board Marketing Peak District & Derbyshire has welcomed confirmation that it is to share in a substantial pot of money from the Government-backed Discover England Fund – creating the new 300 miles long East of England Touring Route between London and Northumberland.

“This is great news,” said Jo Dilley, Managing Director, Marketing Peak District & Derbyshire. “Our marketing and PR strategy is geared towards encouraging staying visitors from both the UK and overseas to visit the Peak District and Derbyshire and bring more money into both the local and regional economy.

“We’re now looking forward to working with our colleagues in the East Midlands and further afield to create itineraries and bookable products for both individuals and groups that will give tourists an authentic and enjoyable taste of England, discovering both well-known attractions and hidden gems wherever they travel.”

New itineraries will be developed to bring together attractions, accommodation, activities and places to eat to create a route that is culturally rich and quintessentially English. Germany has been chosen as the target market because touring is a familiar and well-loved holiday choice and the country has good travel connections with Eastern England.

The emphasis will be on helping businesses operate in the international market and make them bookable by both independent travellers and tour operators and travel agents who are influential with German consumers.

The East of England Touring Route project is being led by destination management and marketing organisation NewcastleGateshead initiative (NGI), working with other destinations organisations and local councils along the route, including colleagues at Visit Lincoln and Visit Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands.

Sarah Stewart, Chief Executive of NGI, said: “We are delighted to secure this funding and to be working closely with partners on this exciting project. The touring route will bring economic benefits to the region, and is a great opportunity for businesses to attract international visitors.

“We know that Eastern England has so much to offer and we look forward to creating a route that showcases our history and countryside, our market towns and cities, and shines a light on a wonderful part of the country.”

The East of England Touring Route is one of a number of successful projects to receive funding from the UK Government’s £40 million Discover England Fund. The Fund is administered by VisitEngland and aims to ensure that England stays competitive in the rapidly growing global tourism industry, by offering world-class English tourism products to the right customers at the right time. The Fund is a central government funded programme, supported by match funding by partners in the public and private sectors.

Four ticket and travel initiatives for Spireite fans have been agreed by the Chesterfield board to reward fans for their support.

Firstly, for the final three home games of the season (against Newport County, Mansfield Town and Wycombe Wanderers), there will be a ‘three for two’ offer. Anyone who purchases tickets for all three games will only pay for two.

The deadline for taking advantage of this offer is 12noon on the day of the Newport game (Monday, April 2). The cheapest ticket will be free. Please note that, unfortunately, the offer will not be available online.

There will also be a ‘Kids for a Quid’ offer for the Newport match. Any child under the age of 16, who is accompanied by an adult, will be eligible to gain admission for just £1.

As a gesture to season ticket holders, they will be able to secure a free ticket for either the Newport match or Wycombe match.

Also, coach travel to any of the remaining away fixtures (apart from Exeter City) via True Blue Travel has been discounted to just £10 for adults and £5 for Under-16s. No other discounts apply.

Michael Dunford, Chief Executive of Chesterfield FC, said:-

“The board appreciate how expensive it is to follow the team home and away and we want to reward fans for their support. We want as many fans as possible to get behind Jack and the team in the remaining games of the season, be it home or away.”

Schools, colleges and other educational institutions in Chesterfield and across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire are being urged to take advantage of the latest round of D2N2 Careers Local Enterprise grants to put young people on the pathway to work, training or further education.

Applications are open until the end of March for grants of up to £10,000 available to support schemes for 15 to 19 year-olds at risk of becoming not in education, employment or training (NEET).

The scheme is being managed by Nottinghamshire County Council on behalf of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership – the private-sector led partnership promoting economic and jobs growth in its area – with funding available for schemes across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. The grants are funded through the European Social Fund and the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

So far, more than 5,000 young people have benefited from 115 Careers Local Enterprise grant funded projects, supported by grants totalling more than £1.1m.

Amongst the projects to be supported to-date are:

The Lady Manners School in Bakewell is delivering a suite of activities including visits to large employers to examine job roles and progression opportunities, mentoring sessions with business mentors and a series of creative film and media sessions to raise aspirations and motivation. The school is also embedding employability into several curriculum areas.

Stubbin Wood Special Educational Needs School, Shirebrook did a hospitality “takeover” challenge where they delivered all aspects of catering and customer service for a retail and catering outlet. Undertaking a variety of roles, the young people prepared and cooked meals, provided waiting and hospitality services, marketing, visual merchandise, and sales.

Derby City Virtual School are delivering an innovative project called Act 4 Change, giving a work based insight into the creative industries and the world of work through project based activities with creative professionals. Young people will develop a crime prevention film, a theatre performance, a creative writing project and filmed case studies of their own experiences. Participants will gain a range of skills in marketing, project management, stage management, technical & production and producing.

The Woodlands Academy in Nottingham, working closely with local employers, has developed employability and life skills through a residential experience based on the working life.  They have developed team building skills, resilience, organisational skills, and meal preparation, planning and budgeting. This is followed by careers advice and insight, mock interviews with Capital One and preparation for work experience placements.

Manor Academy in Mansfield Woodhouse is using the grant to set up a digital enterprise zone to access careers related media, and an extracurricular club featuring online challenges and events to develop employability skills. Further activities include inspiring visits and involvement in practical projects to raise awareness of career opportunities in Science and Technology. This is followed up with a dedicated careers fair and one to one interventions.

The Elizabethan Academy in Retford is delivering a tailored “Think Big” project which, working with local employers, includes mentoring, visits to local employers, and supported work placements. This is backed up with CV building, interview preparation, and local labour market information, all tailored to the needs of individual pupils to support them to be aspirational in their career aims.

The grants can be used in a variety of ways, including careers guidance for young people establishing closer links with local businesses, improving enterprise and entrepreneurial behaviour and delivering local competitions and events.

To benefit from the funding, applicants must have a careers, enterprise and employability action plan. Grants must be used to deliver new projects, not support existing activity.

A range of options are available for delivery of the schemes, including the use of Nottinghamshire County Council’s pre-approved providers or applicants using their own in-house provision.

Matthew Wheatley, D2N2 Chief Executive, said:-

“To someone who has never entered the world of work, doing so can seem a daunting task. At D2N2, we’re trying to close the divide between school and work through a number of initiatives, including Careers Local.

“This is to ensure that the next generation of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire workforce are as ready for the world of work as they can be; inspired by the numerous and varied opportunities open to them, and equipped with the skills needed and wanted by local businesses.”

Councillor Kay Cutts, Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, said:-

“One of the key building blocks of economic growth is the availability of a skilled, job-ready workforce. So improving skills, employability and awareness about the opportunities available for young people is hugely beneficial both for the young people individually and the wider economy.”

Further information is available from www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/careerslocal