by Dee | May 20, 2016 | Featured, GloWellness, Travel
Los Angeles is an obvious choice for those of you who want some genuine star quality treatment in the land where glamour and celebrity comes with the territory. As our roving reporter is there now she is feeding back some fabulous LA locations.
Heading off to Hollywood has an excitement of its own as the California weather really picks you up and you feel that anything is possible. The vibe is positive as are the people, and why look beneath the surface, because an Escape is what it is and you don’t need more than that for a vacation in the sun and with so much at your fingertips.
You can get some very good inclusive deals with a great new discovery http://www.business-flights.co.uk. A helpful and friendly rep called Ashley cut us a great deal, and we were off Premium Economy on BA with a fab four star hotel situated in Beverly Hills called The Angeleno. http://www.hotelangeleno.com But this is just one of the packages that are on offer for a visit to LA. 
If you want beaches they are here in abundance, one we would suggest is Santa Monica where you have access to the fabulous sea front and if you get restless you can head off to 3rd Street which is just stone’s throw away, with a long line of retail outlets from the exclusive designer outlets to high street brands.
If you are a shopaholic, near Rodeo in Beverly Hills is Wilshire Boulevard – there are three stores side by side which have a little of everything with designer brands in abundance with Barney’s Saks 5th Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
Head off to Robertson where there are some nice exclusive boutiques, start at the corner of Robertson and Beverly – you will see Tommy Hilfiger, and walk from there. You will see everything from Chanel to chic. Then stop at lunch at the Ivy, no relation to our London restaurant, but great for lunch on a sunny day.
If you want to check out the shopping malls, The Grove has Nordstrom, H crew, Vince, Toyshop, Zara. Also a fantastic farmers market with stalls for you to browse the local produce. Also mini shops with cuisine from Malaysia to good old American burgers. 
The Beverly Center indoor mall has Bloomingdales and Macys at either end, with some great outlets in between. Check their website for details of outlets and where they are located. http://www.beverlycenter.com/ 
Make sure you experience the famous sea salt body scrub by one of the accomplished professionals, there are spas across the City- try the Korean Spas, Beverly hot springs, which are the only natural hot springs in the city. This will reboot your system ready to hit the many fabulous hot spots of Beverly Hills. 
We will also be giving you the lowdown on star spotting in LA and the best places to hang out in the next week on Glotime.tv. Check back with us here soon.
by Dee | May 17, 2016 | Featured, Glo Arts & Entertainment, GloWellness
Centuries ago when the Ancient Greeks performed in Amphitheaters and hundreds of years ago when William Shakespeare was inspired to write plays and sonnets which have all survived the test of time.
What makes a piece of work or creation so timeless and inspiring, and how is it that certain human beings have been gifted with such talent, that will inspire and influence so many for so long.
As someone brought up in a creative environment, I have asked that question so many times. It is true that great artists and writers have given up their lives to continue their work, and certainly have to make tough life choices around family and dedication.
My own parents who devised, wrote and created so many kids TV shows over the decades were a focused couple whose work had to come first, and second and everything else third. I am not saying that I have any regrets or recriminations, because as an adult I have benefited strongly from their influence in the creative industries, and even if I have personally chosen slightly different priorities, like family from time to time, I have still been given the choice to pursue whatever is available to me and that means to follow my creative path as well as my emotional one. 
My mother Sylvia Anderson always taught me that creativity should become before the pursuit of money and was very unusual even then, as the hedonistic lifestyle and attitudes had already kicked in.
Another very wise friend who has had a strong influence on my life, Andy White who is the leading mosaic artist internationally, has adopted that life path completely, and even though he was an affluent psychologist, when going through a touch time emotionally, discovered that he had an incredible talent for telling stories through creating images with discarded tiles and china. www.andywhitemosaics.co.uk. He feels that we avoid our creative path because every time we write a piece of prose, or paint a picture or write a song, we are reinvented, which is a hard pill to swallow. 
Back to Sylvia and Gerry, my parents who spent hours creating the inspirational stories that became the template for so many iconic episodes of their series over the years. I have to say that in a recent conversation with my mother before her recent sad passing, she did say that she was extremely grateful that she had the opportunity of having her creative ideas recognised, as the men the Company, and we are talking Century 21, were only interested in making movies and not writing them. The rest is history.
But not everyone has the opportunity to discover their talents, let alone make them as internationally applauded, but the latter is the least important, because if you make time for yourself and follow your heart, you will find the benefits are returned to you over and over again. It may be that you have the urge to paint, but don’t believe you can, or write a book, but have no evidence of a writing talent. How will you know if you don’t try.
The thing that stops most people is the fear of ridicule, a friend of mine who shall remain un-named had never sung a song in her life but had the desire to form a band. I persuaded a very close friend who is also a brilliant singer-songwriter to work with her to get the band together, thinking that she would do a couple of rehearsals which would satisfy her yearning and that would be it. Instead of which she is now running a successful band ten years later, with two local residencies, and has adapted her voice to suite a genre of music which does not require a wide vocal range.
We would love to hear from any of you out there who are thinking about doing something ‘outside the box’ creatively – perhaps we can help inspire you and help you on your journey. Remember, the only limitations are those you put on yourself – take it from one who knows.
by Glotime | May 11, 2016 | Featured, General, GloWellness
Summer Born Babies, what’s the right age to send your child to school?
When the school year begins in September, each classroom will have some children who are almost five, and others who have only just turned four. At this age, that is a massive difference in development and ability. Many people think summer-born babies should be allowed to delay starting school because of this difference. But would that make any difference at all? Within a year or two, those children with birthdays fall during the summer months have caught up with their peers; so is there any benefit in allowing them to start school later?
Schools Minister Nick Gibb has announced that he will amend the school admissions code so that no child will be forced to start school when they have just turned four. This will apply to children born between April 1st and August 31st, and will mean that they can start their reception year in the September following their fifth birthday – and that they can then stay with this class throughout their school careers.
At present parents are legally able to keep their child out of school until they reach the age of five, at which point schools and local authorities decide which class it is appropriate for the child to enter. Under Mr Gibb’s announced changes, this will no longer apply, and parents will make their own decisions as to which school year their child should join.
Evidence has shown that the current curriculum for reception year is developmentally inappropriate for four year olds. Some of its demands do not match up with the capabilities of an average four year old; for example speech therapists have stated that many four year olds are unable to pronounce the full range of speech sounds, but the reception year curriculum requires that children demonstrate they recognise letters of the alphabet by saying them. Immediately those four year olds who are not yet able to pronounce those sounds are seen as falling behind when in actual fact, they are developmentally incapable of doing what the curriculum demands of them.
Similarly, occupational therapists have said that four year olds do not have the full range of physical skills necessary to begin writing, yet the curriculum demands that they should be able to “write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others.”
There is a worry that summer born children who start school when they’ve only just turned four are at an immediate disadvantage and may be wrongly diagnosed with special educational needs when really the only problem is that they are being asked to do something they’re not yet developmentally able to. Even if they are not diagnosed with SEN, any child who finds themselves regularly unable to keep up with their peers in the classroom will suffer a knock in both enthusiasm and confidence.
The idea of allowing summer born children the right to start school a year later sounds like it might help to solve problems, especially around testing where summer born children often do not perform as well as their older peers.
However, since this change is at parents’ discretion and not universal it does raise some issues of its own. Not all parents will take up their right to delay their child’s start date at school; perhaps they will not have heard about the change, or are unable to delay their child’s start at school due to childcare or work issues. Now we risk having a reception year whose children range in age from those who have just turned four, to those who are five and a half and didn’t start school last year because they were able to delay their start. That is an even broader range of ages and abilities for their teacher to cover. Teachers will potentially have to deliver the curriculum to children as much as seventeen months apart in age.
There has been an argument that those parents who will delay their child’s start at school are most likely to be parents with enough income to afford the extra childcare; whereas poorer parents who cannot afford another year of childcare will end up sending their just-turned-four-year-olds to school as usual. This will result in those children being the youngest in the class, not doing so well; thus widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
Allowing a summer born child to start school later moves them from being the youngest in the class to the oldest. That’s all well and good for that particular child, but someone still has to be the youngest and since this is a choice for parents rather than a universal change, the youngest children in the year will still be the summer born children.
There is also the issue of the children themselves. Children in nurseries and preschools will have seen their friends leave in September for Big School, and many are eager to follow in their footsteps. Whether they’re developed enough for the curriculum or not, the children want to join their friends in a new school and may not enjoy another year of childcare. And where will they be cared for? Will nurseries suddenly be required to cater for children until they reach five and a half? This is something that could result in overcrowding and a restriction in nursery places. If nurseries are not to take on these children for an extra year, are they to be pulled out of their nurseries and sent to a childminder? How will that affect them?
There are many unanswered questions regarding the issue of whether summer born babies should start school later. Whilst there is clear evidence that the current curriculum favours those children born in autumn and winter, changing the rules to allow a school year to comprise children aged up to seventeen months apart does not seem to resolve that issue. It will be interesting to see how well this change is received by schools and teachers, and whether it makes the difference many are hoping for.
For help and advice on making the right school choice please visit
Isbi Schools – helping parents choose the right school
