By Abu Syddek

It’s big, beautiful, fully refurbished, glittering and shining, but most importantly the residents of Smethwick should have something to be happy and proud of.

With £23m spent from the Building Schools for the Future project the build has been completed and the wait is finally over. Over 1000 pupils attending Holly Lodge love its new facilities and head teacher Ahson Mohammed is proud to have come this far since becoming head of the School.

The old Holly Lodge was cold during the winter season. Chairs and tables were dirty making learning a misery. Classrooms were small and due to a lack of space the room would feel as if it was almost cramped. Broken windows and with drip draping water from broken pipes and drains. Well all that has been turned over to something better for the long-term hopefully. I don’t need to list them but everything is sparkling brand new! It smells fresh and with new rules being enforced Holly Lodge is up and running even better.

[The brand new canteen along with the science departments added to it]

Before the build began only north and south building existed as named by the geography teacher – Mr J. Taylor. However there are four blocks now and are known by block A,B,C, & D. The front parts of both the south and north building have been preserved to keep the history with us.

Holly Lodge pupils are extremely happy and grateful for this huge makeover being completed, as we’ve had the privilegeto have our school to go under a new build! As well as a new building for pupils also the logo has had a clean shave as well. The old Holly Lodge logo which looked fuzzy and out dated has been turned in to something which is sharp, bold and simple.

For more information on the School please visit their website: http://www.holly-lodge.org/

A new School… A new chapter… A new beginning!

There is a big demand for the Muslims of Smethwick as the population is growing rapidly each day, and this result in a lack of space in the Mosques for worship. By the Grace of Allah (Muslim name for God) he has enabled the Mosque to expand and the new doors of the Masjid were opened in 2011.

The Jami Masjid Smethwick isn’t only a Mosque, but also has a Centre to help the people of the Community who struggle with things which need doing. There are facilities available for both men and women who need advice or guidance. A youth club is run every Tuesday’s for the local youngsters to come and socialize whilst playing pool, Table Tennis, Carem Board. Computers are also accessible.

The Mosque itself was very small and had a minimum amount of space for the use of the Muslims for the daily five prayers. However, with the new building there is plenty of space, and we hope there will be more activities taking place in the near future.

The building was a factory before, and after being purchased it has been transformed dramatically from a noisy environment, to a place where Muslims can come and meditate to their lord.

A lot of effort has gone in to securing this unit, and also to raise the sufficient amount of money needed. There were about six weekends or even more, where a group of 8-10 people would go on a long journey to different towns to collect money. The rest was collected locally and we thank everyone who donated and may Allah appreciate your donations.

[The pictures above show the work under-way and after completion]

For more details on the Mosque then please visit the website using the following link: http://www.jms.org.uk/

For more information on the Bangladeshi Islamic Centre the please visit the website using the following link: http://www.bicentre.org.uk/

Join ALL our Facebook groups and keep up to date with events and other activities in which you can get involved, using the following links:

BIC Centre: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1569823059

Mosque: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1669696705

Building new Masjid: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/In-the-footstep-of-Ibrahim-as-Road-to-building-a-house-of-Allah/102871766468607

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our volunteers for their hard work throughout the year. It is volunteers like you who make our jobs a pleasure and keep our project successful.

2011 was a difficult but an exciting year for all of us. Our hope for 2012 is that the goodwill and respect that we all enjoy at Christmas will last all year round.
Just to let you know we will be closed from Friday 23rd December at 5pm. We will be open again from Thursday 5th January 2012.

We look forward to working with you in the coming year and hope our partnership continues for many years to come. May all the joy and the blessings of this Christmas Season be with all of our readers and throughout the New Year.
We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sultan Ahmed & Mark Lamsdale

What’s On in Sandwell, produced by Sandwell Council’s Corporate Communications Unit covers December, January and February and includes information on arts and sports events, as well as activities in Libraries, Museums, Parks, Sandwell Valley Visitor Centres, The Public and Community Centres. Full access information for people with disabilities is included.

IT’S CHRISTMAAAAAAAAAAAS! But is the notion of “Santa Claus” a good thing?

As I sit here on the eve of the fifth day of the forecast “heavy snow” staring out of my patterned windows at the same rain that has actually fallen from the clouds above, a chill runs down my spine. Not the chill of winter in a house with bad insulation or the chill of a brother pouring water down the back of my body, soaking my favourite shirt. No, this chill is through the moral dilemma that the same childhood fiction I grew up believing in may not be all he seems.

There are a number of reasons for the questioning of Jolly Old Santa. First and foremost, commercialisation. Historically, Santa Claus always dressed in green, but Coca Cola followed White Rock Beverage’s take on the traditional outfit, donning the guy in a red and white outfit, fitting of company branding.

From here, Santa became a symbol of commercialism. His very existence now causes families to buy children extra presents, paying more and more into the same system that caused the banking crisis and then in turn, the recession. But if you intend to “deprive” your child from the idea of Santa Claus, suddenly you become the bad guy, Mr. And Mrs. Scrooge. All the other kids in school have the latest toy or gadget, all the other kids believe in this myth. Jealousy starts early and every kid wants to be king of the playground. So you get sucked in until you find yourself with no money left in the bank, which brings me on to my second point.

Should the existence of Santa be real, then he is an immoral being. The children in rich families get the expensive presents while the children from poorer families get the less expensive presents from all-loving, all-giving St. Nick. Questions arise in the playground as the obvious gap between the working class and the upper class is already being introduced, hiding under the disguise of a jolly old man who wants to give everyone something for nothing. This isn’t the only immorality this man would convey though. It is written deep in the books on parenting skills to use the creation of Santa Claus to bribe their children into being good.

I was asked a few days ago, not if I believed, but if I was okay with the idea of a heaven and a hell, and in thinking through it, I wouldn’t be. This is because I don’t like the idea that someone can determine morality. The same applies to Santa Claus. Who is Santa to have the determining vote on what makes someone good or bad? Is a homeless child who steals food to keep himself alive a bad person in Santa’s book? Furthermore, this would be open to the morals of parents to deceive and indoctrinate their children at will. I’m not saying instilling morals is a bad thing, I’m just not comfortable with the idea of it being construed as black-and-white good-or-bad when reality simply doesn’t work like that.

Then there is the massive question of deceit. Jacqueline Wooley, a professor of Psychology at the University of Texas once said;

“The adults they count on to provide reliable information about the world introduce them to Santa. Then his existence is affirmed by friends, books, TV and movies. It is also validated by hard evidence: the half-eaten cookies and empty milk glasses by the tree on Christmas morning. In other words, children do a great job of scientifically evaluating Santa. And adults do a great job of duping them.”

More worryingly than that, if people can be so easily fooled into believing in something non-existent such as Santa or the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny, then how hard can it be for a government to do the same? I don’t want to draw in specific conspiracies or anything, but just have a think. A lot of what you take in from mainstream media could be purely propaganda. It happens in China, it happens when voting comes around in the USA. Who is to say it has never happened, is not happening or never will happen here?

That’s my two cents on the matter. This isn’t a definitive argument and the idea of Santa Claus probably brings great joy to a lot of people, but like a lot of things, the ethics and meanings have to be brought in to question.

Whether you agree or do not is just fine,
These are just simply thoughts of mine,
I still hope that you’re happy so I say and I write,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

My day at the Sandwell Council House benefitted me in so many different ways. I worked within three main departments within the Communications department, these were: marketing, cuttings and press department. The marketing department taught me about the sort of things Sandwell produces in order to help the public. For example, a phone book of all useful numbers within Sandwell was produced. I was also shown all the thought that went into the Sandwell logo from font to size of the text.

The amount of interest from the press was explored within cuttings where I learnt how to name and mark all articles Sandwell council featured in within different newspapers. Here I would scan the articles onto the computer and mark whether they were positive or negative press.

The department that interested me the most was the press department where I met a freelance journalist, Ken. I was told about how journalism works and how to make it in the world of Media. I was then given an article that I could shorten and make it sound interesting.

Another event I took part on this day was the Memorial service held by the Mayor of Sandwell. This was a beautiful event of which I took pictures for the Councils Facebook page and other press.

This experience has benefitted me as it has highlighted what it is like within the media department and what I need to do in the future to get there. I would like to thank everyone that helped and guided me, especially Voice21 for making this happen.

By Nikita Gaur

Youth Takeover Day – Sandwell Council Communications Department

For Youth take over day, a couple of journalists at Voice 21 and I did some work experience at a press office in Oldbury. We were moved around to 3 different sections of the press office; Cut outs, Press Releases and Marketing.

I was at Cut outs first, this job consisted of me getting news paper articles and scanning and entering details of the article through a system that the press office uses to track any important news stories that people may look back on for any reasons in the future.  I did this from 10am till around 1.15pm.

We all then went out to lunch, once we got back I moved onto Press Releases. I got introduced to the person in charge of the Press Release section and he spoke through and taught me different things they do there.

After that I got to do my own press release to do which involved me having a piece of entertainment information which I had to edit down so it was suitable and readable for a local paper.  This was my favourite section as I love writing about entertainment.

To finish off I did Marketing which involved me looking at the plans that the council have for West Bromwich at the moment and what they hope to achieve in the future with the new Sandwell College being built and the new Tesco in process of being built.  I gave my opinion on what I think of the new changes to West Bromwich and told the council what I think young people would like to see change in the West Bromwich area.

Overall I had a really fun and educational day which I enjoyed.  I hope they ask me to come back!

By Shanice Abbott

Youth Takeover Day – West Midlands Police

On the 11^th November myself and three other fellow volunteers took part in the Youth takeover day. The day was situated shadowing Sandwell Police force based in the recently opened West Bromwich police station.

The day began at 8.10am with a tour around the West Bromwich Police station with a Police Constable. During this time we had the opportunity to ask any questions. We then had a quick drink and chat before attending a morning meeting with other police officers, lasting around half an hour.

Immediately after this the four volunteers, myself included, were divided into a sector of the Sandwell Police force. I spent the morning based at Smethwick police station looking at Criminal Justice in Sandwell. Upon arriving in Smethwick police station, I was given a detailed tour of the building including the custody area.

I found the day most interesting. It was especially interesting to learn that the tour was not anything scripted, instead it was just an average tour of a day in the life of a police officer. 

By Tom Harris

www.facebook.com/sandwellhomes

Die-hard Disney fans and anyone who would have watched the films as a child will be leaping for joy throughout the year 2012. With the success of the 3D rerelease of The Lion King, reaching the $80 million mark, Disney and Pixar now have plans to re-release four other classic Disney movies.

The re-releases will start with “the tale as old as time” classic ‘Beauty and the Beast’, then to the Great Barrier Reef with ‘Finding Nemo’, ‘Monsters Inc.’ and lastly ‘The Little Mermaid’, but will they be as great as we all remembered? Most definitely!

Click here to view the embedded video.

My only critic for the rereleases will be the 3D aspect. Using the example of The Lion King, I loved the film as a child and it was still as great as I remembered, but there really wasn’t that much difference between 2D and 3D, and you could have easily watched the film without the glasses (even if it was a tad blurry).  You’re basically paying quite a lot for glasses and the extra cost on the ticket for items you don’t actually need to watch the movie with. But then again, isn’t that the same for most 3D films now, that don’t actually have a real 3D aspect?

Compulsory Bursary Fund Awards 
The scheme guarantees bursary payments of £1,200 for 2011/12 to certain groups of students deemed most in need of financial support.

Eligible students:
Young people who are looked after by the Local Authority
Young people who are Care Leavers
Young people who are 16-18 years and receive Income Support for any reason
Disabled young people in receipt of both Employment Support Allowance and Disability Living Allowance

Discretionary Bursary Awards
The scheme also allows for schools/colleges to award discretionary bursaries to students who need financial support to enable them to complete their course. ie travel costs, equipment, meals etc.
Schools and Colleges set their own criteria for these awards and students will need to enquire at their learning establishment to see if they qualify for support.

Young people from across Sandwell took part in a national “takeover day” designed to give them an insight into decision-making and actions taken by the local council and police.

The day, part of a Children’s Commissioner for England scheme, gave young people a chance to experience a work environment and shadow jobs from workers across Sandwell, supported by the Sandwell Youth Service.

A number of young people within the youth service from groups such as the youth cabinet, voice 21 and Smethwick young women’s group spent the day learning key skills from senior officers. They included Chief Superintendent Mark Robinson, Sandwell council’s communication unit and other roles partaking in the project.

Young people had the chance to “take-over” some jobs and being able to learn about people’s roles and services, gaining experience with the press and marketing teams at the communications unit. They also joined Barbara Peacock, executive director for people and Helen Smith, service director for children and families at a Changing Young Lives event and accompanied Chief Supt Mark Robinson to a Remembrance Day event.

Councillor Linda Horton, cabinet member for leisure, said: “This is an imaginative scheme which gives young people a real insight into the workings of the council. They had the opportunity to see how decisions are made and how they are put into effect. We are pleased to be able to help this group of young people, who are involved in various local groups, to shadow senior officers and hope it will encourage young people to take part in the local democratic processes,” she said.

Maggie Atkinson, Children’s Commissioner for England said she was “very excited” about the fifth annual takeover day. She added: “The day provides such a brilliant opportunity for young people to make a difference to their communities, have their voices heard and challenge stereotypes about them that we hear too often.”