Cambridgeshire County council update 22nd April 2020
Published: 22 April 2020
Update on distribution of Government business grants
As of Wednesday 22nd April, Peterborough City Council has paid out over 50 per cent (over £17 million to 1,456 Peterborough small businesses and businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors) over the last three weeks, mainly through BACS transfers.
Further payments will continue to be made over the coming days with 90 per cent of these to take place by the end of the month. Businesses who qualify for the grants do not need to do anything, the council will pay the money directly into their accounts through BACS payments.
Peterborough City Council has also awarded 100 per cent business rate relief for 1,255 retail/hospitality/leisure businesses, totaling £36,255,343.42. We also have 31 nurseries eligible for relief of £337,656.
Peterborough businesses can find out more about the grants and other support that is available through the council for businesses in the city online.
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Council’s continue to make home learning rewarding – and fun!
While our schools remain closed for the majority of children, many parents have been turning to online resources to help ensure their children continuing learning and developing at home.
Keen to make sure our local children don’t miss out on any areas of the curriculum, the Education Team at Cambridgeshire County Council have been working hard on creating new activities, plans and puzzles for their popular Home Learning Hub platform.
The resource, which also provides links to other trusted learning materials, aims to offer a ‘one-stop shop’ for parents who may otherwise find themselves jumping between different sites.
The team have created short recommendation videos, highlighting some of their own favourite activities, as well as ‘Study Topics’, where children can study one topic while applying lots of skills from other areas of the curriculum.
A brand new Outdoor Learning page offers lots of activities to help families make the most of their gardens and outdoor spaces as places for informal learning. The Hub is developing regularly, and you can jump on in here.
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Poetry in motion at King’s Hedges Primary
Children at King’s Hedges Primary have been keeping their creative juices flowing by writing poems.
The pupils were tasked with writing a poe
m that expressed how they were feeling about any topic they wanted to choose. Subjects ranged from growing up to the people in their lives and from a specific memory to the current situation.
Year 5 pupil Paige chose to write about her experiences of the current situation in a poem entitled “Express Yourself”.
Paige’s poem reflects a range of emotions most of us can relate to at the moment – such as sadness, anger, confusion, disappointment and loneliness – but most of all it reminds us all to be resilient and, overall, not to be scared.
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Local ‘friendship club’ provides buddy system to vulnerable people
The Glinton Friendship Club has launched a buddy system to provide support to its vulnerable members during the coronavirus outbreak.
Now in its 19th year, the Glinton Friendship Club runs every Monday on a purely voluntary basis and was set up with money from Peterborough City Council and Age Concern, now Age UK Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (AgeUKCAP).
After the first year, the group began raising funds for itself and now has 45 members. It was the first club of its type to be set up in Peterborough and it provides members with a two course hot meal for lunch every week.
Due to government guidance to reduce the spread of coronavirus by limiting social contact, the club is currently not running as usual. Instead, the buddy scheme has been launched so volunteers can call members to check they are okay and provide support by bringing them food shopping and prescriptions.