The National Marine Aquarium is launching an impressive series of home learning sessions for children all across the UK from tomorrow.
With schools having been forced to close their doors due to England’s third national lockdown amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, children up and down the country have once again reverted to home learning programmes, leaving parents often searching for new and innovative ways to keep the little ones occupied and educated at the same time.
This is why the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth is keen “to make sure we are doing our bit to support the thousands of students and teachers that connect with our charity each year” through providing live-streamed sessions.
According to the aquarium, research has shown that encounters with marine environments (physical or virtual) have a powerful effect on our emotional state and general wellbeing, and with the country in lockdown, there’s never been a more important time to ensure everyone has access to “a weekly dose of ocean”.
The National Marine Aquarium’s Home Learning Sessions are completely free, and will be streamed live to homes across the UK through YouTube every Friday starting tomorrow, until 26th February.
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They are the perfect way to “round your week off with a bang, or help you wind down for the weekend”.
Well, first up is the weekly ‘Deep Science’ lessons – aimed at KS2 Primary School-aged children – which will see aquarium teachers meet some of the centre’s amazing animals, as well as stopping in at the AquaLab to explore the science behind the animated ocean exploration TV series The Deep – which is on CBBC every weekday at 12pm during lockdown.
Every Friday at 1pm – 1:20pm, you can expect to learn some fascinating facts and watch real-time experiments, as well as being provided with some curriculum-linked ideas to follow up with at home.
Tomorrow’s session is intriguingly titled ‘Underwater Volcanoes’, with other sessions set to include:
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22nd January – Creature Classification
29th January – Nautical Navigation
5th February – Ocean Mysteries
12th February – Megafauna
19th February – Life Cycles
26th February – Looking After The Ocean
Looking for something for the little ones instead? Fancy meeting a real mermaid?
The ‘Mermaid Tales’ sessions – geared towards Early Years-aged children – let you do just that, as the National Marine Aquarium’s resident mermaid Marina will read a short story to everybody tuned in, and the sessions will be live-streamed every Friday at 1:30pm – 1:45pm, it’s the perfect timing before an afternoon nap, or as a gentle, relaxing start to the afternoon.
National Marine Aquarium
Each of the Home Learning Sessions will also help children to feel part of the start of the global UN ‘Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development’, and will assist with home learning, whilst also providing a chance for children and their parents and teachers to gain some of the wellbeing benefits that have been proven to come from watching aquatic life.
Speaking on the launch of the Home Learning Sessions, Nicola Bridge – Head of Conservation Education and Communications at the National Marine Aquarium – said: “Despite the continued COVID-related restrictions we are all under, our suite of accessible online resources will help those home schooling get access to valuable resources and interactive activities.
“The UK is a national and global leader in marine science, and we feel ocean related teaching should therefore be an essential part of the core curriculum offering and want to help facilitate that.
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“We also want to support parents and teachers in this difficult time for everyone.
“The ocean provides half of the oxygen we breathe, drives the weather and climate and is a valuable food source for much of the world, and to look after it for future generations, we need to create an ocean literate generation – that is to say, a generation that understands the ways in which we are all inextricably connected to it, just as it is to us.”
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You can find more about the Home Learning Sessions via the National Marine Aquarium website here, and access the sessions every Friday on YouTube here.
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The best cheese tasting party in the North is BACK at a new Manchester venue
Danny Jones
That’s right, one of the biggest and best cheese tasting nights in the entire land is returning to Greater Manchester at a brand new city centre venue.
Not to be over-the-top, but this isn’t just another experience sampling possibly the greatest foodstuff on Earth, it’s a fully-fledged cheese-lovers’ party.
Some of you may have come across Homage2Fromage before, but for anyone unaware of the Yorkshire-born event, it started out as a monthly cheese tasting club and went on to expand across the dairy-adoring North at large.
Relaunching here in Manchester for 2026, all you lactose-intolerant people better watch, because Home2Fromage is coming back with a vengeance and heading to the Northern Quarter. Here’s how it went down the last time we visited one in Leeds:
Leeds, Sheffield, Harrogate, Manchester and who knows where else next.
Posting up in a relatively recent addition to NQ‘s bar and restaurant scene, The Faraday – a pub on Lever St that replaces the old Seven Sins back in October – it looks set to be an ideal venue for the regular evening series.
Homage2Fromage will be making its Manc return this month, and better still, they’re holding a cheeky little giveaway to sweeten the pot.
As in the deal, we mean – not the inevitable bowls full of olives, chutney, oil and various other dips…
To welcome this celebration of all things cheese coming back to Manchester city centre, they’re giving away a bunch of free tickets: 20 pairs in total.
Worth over £50 a piece for each twin set of tickets, you’d be a fool not to at least throw your hat in the ring for this one.
As you can see, the competition closes this Thursday, 19 February, ahead of the full relaunch party next week (Wed, 25 Feb), and all you have to do to enter is fill out this super quick survey.
It really is as simple as that; a few quick words are all that stand between you and a potential mountain of cheese and more.
You can find all you need to know about the event right HERE, and in case you haven’t popped into The Faraday just yet, see more down below.
It’s still somewhat early days, but we can see ourselves spending a fair bit of time in this up-and-coming Manchester watering hole, especially when there’s cheese nights involved.
Featured Images — The Manc Group/Publicity pictures (supplied)
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Mancs start crowdfunder for Mani mural in honour of late, great, local music legend
Danny Jones
A group of Manchester artists, audiophiles and residents have started a fundraiser to create a new mural in memory of the late, great local music legend, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield.
Following The Stone Roses and Primal Scream bass player’s passing last year, the city and Greater Manchester as a whole have been finding ways to honour the Manc musician ever since.
Be it lining his funeral cortege from his home in Heaton Moor, Stockport, or peers like The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess penning heartfelt tributes, anyone and everyone has found their own way of paying their respects in the months since.
Taking the sustained sentiment even further, local art collective GRIT Studios is now planning to erect a massive mural in his memory.
We’re doing a massive mural for Manchester’s most loved son – Mani. All profits to @maggiesmanc a charity that was close to his heart.
Writing on the fundraising page’s description, GRIT say: “Inspired by Ian Brown’s eulogy to Mani at Manchester Cathedral, a major community crowdfunder is being launched to create a large-scale mural honouring the beloved bassist of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream and to raise funds for Maggie’s Manchester.
“The mural, which will be created in Failsworth, where young Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield grew up, has been initiated by the team at GRIT Studios following an overwhelming outpouring of love from fans across Greater Manchester and beyond.
“Mani’s brother, Greg Mounfield, is supporting this campaign and has facilitated a prominent, large wall space for the mural and chosen the design.
They go on to to explan that the piece “will be painted by the renowned artist Pic.One.Art, whose recent portrait of Noel and Liam Gallagher outside the iconic Sifters Records in Burnage became an instant landmark and received widespread attention.”
Speaking of Brown’s now viral speech, it still remains one of the most touching bits of public observance and shared mourning this city has ever seen – with a healthy little dose of Northern levity, of course.
@the.manc Yesterday, Manchester laid one of the city's greatest music legends, Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield, to rest at Manchester Cathedral. 🍋 Fellow band member and life-long friend Ian Brown read out a speech as hundreds gathered outside the cathedral to pay their respects to The Stone Roses and Primal Scream bassist. Mani will be missed by many, and we send love to all his family and friends. ❤️ #manchester#mani#ianbrown#thestoneroses#stoneroses♬ original sound – The Manc
“Since Mani passed away in November, countless fans have expressed a desire to see a tribute in the place that shaped him in North Manchester”, they continue.
“GRIT Studios, the not-for-profit art studios organisation, has stepped forward to organise a community-led, crowdfunded project that celebrates Mani’s life, music and spirit.
“It will not only fund the creation of the mural, but all profits will go to Maggie’s Manchester, which was close to Mani and his wife Imelda’s hearts during her cancer treatment and for whom they fundraised.
With a target of £10,000 set and more than £6k already raised in just a matter of days, it looks to be a matter of when, not if, we’ll see Mani immortalised in paint, on brick and with typical Manc grit over in the borough of Oldham.
For anyone who wishes to contribute to the fast-growing Mani mural crowdfunder, you can do so HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
14th January 2021 
