Table of contents for 382 in The Week Junior

On 2 April, the prime minister (PM) of Finland, Sanna Marin, came third in the nation’s general election. She will be replaced as PM by Petteri Orpo, who is head of the National Coalition Party. What happened? Orpo’s party came first, winning 48 out of the 200 seats in parliament; the Finns Party came second with 46 seats. Then came Marin with 43 seats. The new leader needs to form a coalition (they must join up with other parties) to have enough seats to govern. Orpo called it a “major victory” for his party, which has more traditional and conservative views than Marin’s Social Democratic Party. Congratulating Orpo on his win, Marin said, “Democracy has spoken”. Who is Sanna Marin? Marin, aged 37, was Finland’s youngest leader when she became…

France Electronic scooter ban for under 14s People will now have to be at least 14 to ride an electric scooter on roads in France; until now you had to be 12. Some people think e-scooters are dangerous, including the mayor of Paris who wants to ban them. The government wants to make them safer and has set a €135 (£119) fine (money paid as punishment) for carrying a passenger. Gibraltar Unique language is dying out Experts worry that a language in Gibraltar is dying out. The language of Llanito developed from a combination of English and Spanish words. Now, however, both English and Spanish languages are taught in schools, so young people don’t use Llanito much. Local man Mark Sánchez told El País newspaper, “Llanito defines who we are.”…

Having spent the winter in Africa – nobody knows exactly where – house martins return to the British Isles in April and stay until October. They are on the UK Red List of threatened species but can still be seen in towns, villages and near farmland. The birds are about 13 centimetres long, with a glossy black above, white below, and a white bottom with a short, black, forked tail. They build mud nests under ledges, on cliffs and under the eaves of houses. It takes house martins about 10 days and 1,000 mouthfuls of mud to construct their home. If you see an abandoned old nest, leave it alone because sometimes nesting pairs will return to the same one to save the time and effort of building afresh.…

US presidential visit The US president, Joe Biden, will visit Northern Ireland and Ireland to celebrate the anniversary. Biden is proud of his family’s Irish roots, and the US Secret Service has given him the codename “Celtic”, the name of the ancient peoples of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Art for peace Ulster University has announced a year-long art programme to commemorate the peace deal. It opens with a show by artist Amanda Dunsmore, made up of 14 enormous and silent video portraits of the leaders who helped bring about the Good Friday Agreement. Lyra’s literary legacy Lyra McKee was a journalist from Belfast who died aged 29, after she was shot during a riot in Northern Ireland in 2019. Ulster University is running a workshop for Year 13 students that…

Between now and the end of May, your school has the chance to join in with a sports event that will not only get everyone running around, but will raise money for charity. The Soccer Aid Schools Challenge is easy to organise on a playground or school field. All the money collected goes to UNICEF, a charity that helps children and young people around the world, including in Ukraine and those affected by recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. Open to all primary and secondary schools in the UK, Soccer Aid Schools Challenge asks teachers and pupils to set up an obstacle course. The challenge is to then complete the route while bouncing, hopping, kicking or sprinting with a football. All sorts of PE objects can be used on the…

Have you ever seen Morris dancers with bells tied to their legs, waving hankies and sticks in the air? Maybe you’ve been to a festival where people parade through the streets playing music and wearing colourful costumes. These are customs that take place all over the country and can be hundreds of years old. They may look funny and strange to visitors but these “folk” costumes, music and traditions often tell local stories that have been passed down for generations, making people feel part of a community. Making Mischief: Folk Costume in Britain is the first exhibition of folk traditions and costumes in the UK. It includes more than 40 costumes, including outfits worn by Morris dancing children, uniforms for team sports like “Haxey Hood”, deer antler headpieces and carnival…

All About Theatre by National Theatre (Walker Books) Discover how plays like War Horse are made, from the idea to the actual production. This fascinating book includes interviews with famous actors and directors, and contributions from experts across all aspects of stage-craft, including making props, building sets and designing the lighting. Write Your Own Scripts by Andrew Prentice and Matthew Oldham. Illustrated by Hannah Peck (Usborne) Want to try your hand at writing your own show? This book will help you every step of the way, such as creating characters, setting the scene and writing realistic conversations. You’ll also find lots of useful links to help you learn more about scriptwriting online. Curtain Up! Behind the Scenes at the Royal Opera House by the Royal Opera House. Illustrated by Lauren…

Name: Nicholas Fury of the Vikings by Dominic Sandbrook “Exhilarating, historic, captivating. History comes alive in this true story of the Viking conquests.” YOUR TURN Email your book review to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk. If your review is printed in the magazine you’ll receive a Roving Reporter badge. Tell us what you liked about the book and why you’d recommend it to others, and don’t forget to include your name and address.* *If you are the competition winner, we will only use the details you provide to contact you and arrange delivery of your competition prize. Further details about how we manage the data you provide can be found at www.futureplc.com/privacy-policy…

Brighten your home at Easter with this colourful mobile. The simple oval shape can be used to make eggs and chicks – or try adding ears for an Easter bunny. What you need • Three dry twigs trimmed to a length of 30 centimetres • A ruler • Thin string • Scissors • A pencil • Card • Coloured paper, patterned paper, magazine pages • Glue stick • Sticky tape 1 Arrange the three sticks in a triangle with the ends overlapping. Tie the sticks together at each corner firmly with 50cm lengths of string. Leave the long ends of the string because you will need them to hang up your mobile. 2 Draw an egg shape, about 10cm long and 8cm wide, onto card and cut it out. This…

The countdown to Easter is on – and to get you in the mood we have cunningly concealed a dozen (that’s 12) delicious Easter eggs within this magazine. Unfortunately, they’re not real Easter eggs, they are little ones printed in among the design of the pages. Each one is decorated with a letter, and your mission is to find them all, write down the letters and rearrange them to find a seasonal word or phrase. We’ve had lots of fun hiding the eggs and checking them, so we feel fit and ready to find the REAL thing this Easter weekend. The cheese eggs on page 5 have divided opinion in the office, but the Easter mobile on page 25 is fun whatever flavour egg you like. Will you be taking…

We’d love to see your snaps. Send them to us at hello@theweekjunior.co.uk Don’t forget to tell us why you took them. “I’m wearing my Easter bonnet while reading about the sniffly climbers leaving germs on Everest.”Harry “On International Women’s Day, Scouts, Cubs and Beavers celebrated inspirational women. Gill Clay, whose grandfather, Robert Baden-Powell, founded the Scout movement, also joined in.”Seren “While on a wintry walk, I discovered a very long hula hoop in my crisp packet.”Ella…

We love hearing from you! It’s easy – just write a comment when you vote in our online Big Debate poll, or even record a voice note for The Week Junior Show. Last week we asked you if the UK should get rid of royalty… “The royal family get money for nothing, and we are a democracy. I think that they should earn their money like everyone else.” “Yes! Why should we have to pay taxes so they can live in palaces?!” “It makes our country special and brings money into the country from visitors.” Tell us what you think of this week’s issue and we’ll print some of the best comments here.…

Scientists have filmed a fish swimming at what they believe to be the lowest depth ever recorded. The jelly-like Pseudoliparis, a type of snailfish, was spotted at 8,336 metres under water in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, off the coast of Japan in the Pacific Ocean. Scientist Alan Jamieson, who led the research team, said the snailfish could be very close to the maximum depth any fish could survive. The snailfish was filmed by a camera attached to weights. Although this fish wasn’t caught and fully identified, scientists were able to trap and identify other snailfish swimming at around at 8,022 metres. The previous deepest fish to be filmed was at 8,178 metres in the Mariana Trench, also in the Pacific Ocean. This discovery beats that record by 158 metres. Most species…

School trips and family holidays were badly disrupted after coaches, cars and lorries at the Port of Dover, in south-east England, were stuck in long queues that started on 31 March. What’s been happening? The Port of Dover in Kent, England, is the UK’s busiest passenger port, where people catch ferries to the French ports of Calais and Dunkirk. On 31 March, officials at Dover declared a “critical incident” because lots of passengers were stuck in traffic jams as they got near the ferry port. Some people had to wait for 14 hours. Lots of coaches were carrying pupils on school trips. Many coaches had to wait in areas without toilet facilities or shops to buy food and water. Although extra ferries were organised, delays continued for several days. Some…

A site in Gran Canaria, Spain, could become the first intensive octopus farm in the world. Octopuses are usually caught in the wild with fishing rods and traps. The company behind the plans, Nueva Pescanova, says that farming octopuses will mean fewer are caught in the wild. Others say that farming them is cruel and unnecessary. Millions of octopuses are eaten all over the world every year. In 2020, a documentary called My Octopus Teacher followed a filmmaker as he got to know an octopus, and showed how intelligent the species is. Many scientists say this shows that octopuses shouldn’t be farmed. Professor Peter Tse told the BBC that octopuses are as clever as cats. So what do you think? Should humans be allowed to farm octopuses? Yes – it’s…

Astronauts could be able to find drinking water inside tiny glass beads that are scattered across the surface of the Moon, according to researchers. The glass beads were found by scientists from the UK’s Open University while they were studying samples taken by China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft during a mission in 2020. The beads are known as spherules and they are less than one millimetre wide. Water is made up of two elements – hydrogen and oxygen. The beads are created when meteoroids (small lumps of rock or iron that orbit the Sun) collide with the Moon. The crash causes small droplets of hot, melting rock to rain down. When they mix with Moon dust they become beads that contain oxygen. When solar wind (a stream of particles released by the…

Is your glass of milk half-full or half-empty? This saying is often used to test people’s outlook in a situation; do they focus on the positives (a half-full glass) or the negatives (a half-empty one)? Thinking positively, with a belief that most things will turn out well, is called optimism – and it’s known to boost your wellbeing. The good news is that everybody can learn to think more positively. Why is thinking positively good for you? Research shows that people who are optimistic and think positively tend to experience less stress and cope well when faced with life’s challenges. People who are more pessimistic (expect that the worst will happen) may find it hard to believe that these challenges will pass. Scientists have even found that thinking positively can…

by Angie Thomas (Walker Books) Nic Blake and her dad are Manifestors, with magical powers that they must keep hidden from the Unremarkables all around them. Now that she’s turned 12, she hopes that her dad will teach her how to use the Gift so she can be as powerful as him. Then a trip to a book signing to meet the author of her favourite fantasy books reveals some secrets about her dad’s past. Before long, he is imprisoned for something she doesn’t believe he did. With the help of her friends, can Nic find a magical weapon to save her dad and the Remarkable world? The first book in a series, this wonderful fantasy adventure is told in Nic’s voice as she finds the power in herself. WIN!…

Orienteering involves running, jogging or walking, and using a map and compass to move between places. It’s a great way to have fun outdoors with friends and family. The aim is to move between points, called controls, in a certain order in the quickest time. Events are usually held in parks, fields or forests but they can also happen in towns and cities and even school playgrounds. People can take part either as individuals or as a team. Beginners’ events will have easier controls to find and cover less distance – perhaps a mile or two. For experienced orienteers, the length of the course could be much longer and take in hills and rough ground. Orienteers are given a “control description sheet” to help them find each point. This sheet…

Number fit All of these numbers fit in the grid. Can you work out where they go? We’ve placed one to start you off. 3 numbers 171 185 534 563 625 681 762 948 4 numbers 5461 6297 7285 7754 9381 5 numbers 53782 54516 92207 95380 6 numbers 315549 332784 578333 940061 7 numbers 5120414 5843140 8 numbers 32173726 70118508 70251648 9 numbers 231824342 361465626 541253873 Word search Can you find all of the words listed here? They are hidden horizontally, vertically or diagonally and may read forwards or backwards. BARGE CRUISER CUTTER DHOW DINGHY DREDGER GONDOLA JETFOIL JUNK LONGBOAT PINNACE PUNT SAMPAN SCOW SCULL SKIFF SLOOP STEAMER TRIMARAN TUG Puzzles page and quiz answers Easter egg solution: Easter Sunday…

1 The world’s youngest national leader is from which country? □ a) Cameroon □ b) Burkina Faso □ c) Finland 2 True or false? Morrisons is selling Easter eggs made out of cheese. □ True □ False 3 Which country is planning to ban lab-grown meat? 4 True or false? Octopuses have part of their brain in each of their eight arms. □ True □ False 5 Which football team did Leah Williamson support growing up? □ a) Tottenham □ b) Arsenal □ c) West Ham 6 Which animal species is going to be released into Cairngorms National Park in Scotland? 7 Which author of fantasy books was inspired by the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland? □ a) C.S. Lewis □ b) J.K. Rowling □ c) J.R.R. Tolkien 8 True…

A LONG-DISTANCE MESSAGE A message in a bottle that was thrown into the sea in the Canary Islands in 2019 has been washed ashore nearly 3,000 miles away in Bermuda. The message was written by a sailor and his friends as a tribute to a former shipmate who had recently died. A NEW ARRIVAL For the first time in 40 years, a critically endangered Rupell’s griffon vulture has hatched at ZSL London Zoo. To increase baby Egbert’s survival chances, the egg was placed in an incubator. Now, Egbert is doing well, and information about his birth will be used to help increase the numbers of his species. A STRANGE SPACE CREW A model of the popular CBBC character Shaun the Sheep is back in the UK after going on a…

I’ve always been quite unapologetically myself,” Leah Williamson tells The Week Junior, “but more shy than people realise.” Williamson is the captain of the England women’s football team, the Lionesses, who won the Euro 2022 tournament. However, reaching such heights hasn’t always been easy and she’s had to learn how to believe in herself. Using her own experiences, she has written a book with journalist Suzanne Wrack, called You Have the Power: Find Your Strength and Believe You Can, to motivate and inspire young people. Football has always been a big part of Williamson’s life, ever since she started playing at the age of six. She says, “It’s probably the one thing in my life that I’ve been truly passionate about the whole time.” Her family loved it too, and…

NatureScot, an organisation that looks after Scotland’s natural world, has agreed to release Scottish wildcats into the UK’s largest national park. Around 60 wildcats have been bred at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig. They will be released in June into an area of the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. Researchers will monitor the cats through GPS collars, tracking their movements as they roam around their new home. Wildcats already live in the Cairngorms, but researchers say the breed is under threat from extinction because of habitat loss, disease and too much breeding with feral (gone wild) domestic cats. Wildcats look a bit like pet tabby cats but they are about twice the size and have thicker fur. They have longer legs, their…

On 10 April 1998, the Belfast Agreement, more commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement, was signed by politicians. The deal aimed to bring peace to Northern Ireland after many years of conflict. This year marks 25 years since the agreement was reached. Why was there conflict? In 1921, Ireland became an independent country from the UK. However, six counties, known as Northern Ireland, remained part of the UK. In Northern Ireland, Unionists (people who wanted to remain part of the UK) lived alongside Nationalists (those who wanted the island of Ireland to be one single country). The Unionists were mostly Protestant and the Nationalists were mostly Catholic. Protestants and Catholics are both types of Christian. Tension between the two sides grew until, in the 1960s, 30 years of fighting…

It may be only a few weeks since this year’s big Harry Potter game, Hogwarts Legacy, was released but it’s already got some spellbinding competition. Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon tells the story of an apprentice witch (Cereza) whose mum has been imprisoned in the middle of the spooky Avalon forest. Your job is to rescue Cereza’s mum. As for the lost demon in the game’s title, his name is Cheshire. He lives inside Cereza’s cuddly toy cat and has come along to help out – even if he’s sometimes a bit grumpy about it. Past Bayonetta adventures have been mainly for older gamers but Bayonetta Origins is rated 12, and aimed at younger people, with a mix of monster-battling, puzzle-solving and – in between this action –…

What is your greatest achievement? Buying my mum a house. She has always taken care of me and so many others, and I’m glad to be able to take care of her now. What advice would you give your younger self? Keep going. Keep dreaming. And most importantly, keep living. I know things seem hard and it feels like they won’t ever change but they will, and it’s so important that you stick around to see how they turn out. The last time you laughed out loud? When my puppy, Kobe, arrived at doggy daycare and his teachers all shouted his name. He was so happy his bottom wagged. Why did you decide to write this book? I loved fantasy books growing up but I rarely ever saw people like…

How can I get involved? British Orienteering organises the sport in the UK. Ask an adult to help you visit britishorienteering.org.uk where you can search for your nearest club. It also sets up schemes so you can have a go at the sport at school. You could ask a teacher if your school can start a simple event to try it out. What is virtual orienteering? It is finding checkpoints on a course that’s set up through a smartphone or GPS watch. There are no actual checkpoints on the ground and it can be done at any time. If you want to have a go, get a grown-up to download the free MapRun app.…

The 50p worth nearly £250 A rare 50p coin created in 2009 to mark the anniversary of Kew Gardens was sold on the auction site eBay for 483 times its original value. There are only 210,000 of the coins in circulation, and this one – in “excellent condition” – was expected to fetch £160. It started the auction at 99p, and by the end of the first day reached £100. The winner paid £241.65, including express delivery. The 50p features the famous Great Pagoda in Kew Gardens, near London, on the tails side. It’s a good time to check any piggy banks, just in case… Mysterious Minion appearances Scrap-metal sculptures of the Minions (characters in the film Despicable Me) keep popping up around the small Australian town of Warrack. No…

Launch a postcard into space Young people from around the world are being invited to fill in postcards with their thoughts and ideas for the next generation of space travel. The actual postcards will then be placed on rockets and sent to space. All you have to do is cover the cost of sending your card to the US. You’ll even get your postcard returned to you with a stamp to officially certify that it has been to space. Intrigued? Find out more at clubforfuture.org/missions GET INVOLVED Email your news, views and pictures to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk…

Teacher’s name: Mrs Holloway School: Merryhills Primary School, Enfield, Middlesex “Mrs Holloway puts a smile on everyone’s face. When things are hard she finds a way to make them fun to understand. She brings history to life e.g. when telling the story of Guy Fawkes, she led the entire class under the table! We imagined there was the secret tunnel leading to the Houses of Parliament. Her incredible teaching means I still remember lessons many months later.”Sienna If we pick your teacher as Teacher of the Week, we’ll send your school three free issues of The Week Junior. Send your nominations, along with a picture of your teacher and your school’s full name and address, to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk Please include your full name and address so that we can send you…