Table of contents for 483 in The Week Junior

Leaders of several countries have been holding different meetings to discuss the next stages of a ceasefire (pause in fighting) in Gaza. Gaza is a strip of land that borders Israel and Egypt. What is the situation in Gaza? Gaza has been at the centre of conflict between Israel and Hamas since 7 October 2023. On that date, Hamas, which governs Gaza and is classified as a terrorist group by many countries, attacked Israel. The Israeli government reports that Hamas killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages (people held until certain demands are met) on that day. Israel then launched air attacks and sent soldiers into Gaza. Hamas reports that more than 48,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then. On 15 January 2025, Israel and Hamas agreed…

On 7 March, the country pop band, Remember Monday, was named as the UK’s Eurovision entry for 2025. The Eurovision Song Contest will take place in May in Switzerland. The band is made up of Charlotte Steele, Lauren Byrne and Holly-Anne Hull, and previously appeared on the BBC show, The Voice. Steele, Byrne and Hull are best friends who met at sixth form, in Hampshire, England. They will be the first girl band to represent the UK at Eurovision since 1999.…

What’s your favourite poem? For some people it’s a short, funny limerick. For others it might be a famous love sonnet written by William Shakespeare. Some poems describe the beauty of nature, such as I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud, by William Wordsworth; others spark questions about identity or family, such as Presents From My Aunts in Pakistan, by Moniza Alvi or Digging, by Seamus Heaney. There are epic poems that tell of heroes and monsters, such as the Old English epic Beowulf, which is 3,182 lines long. On the other hand, there are Japanese haiku poems, which have just three lines. When it comes to poetry, there is something for everybody. Some people say reading a poem is better than tucking into a normal story. What do you think?…

Found across the UK, these moths are so-called because the adults are active at this time of year. March moths like gardens, parks and open woodland. The males have triangular grey-brown forewings that fold over each other when they are resting and are patterned with jagged lines. During March and April, male March moths fly at night and are attracted to lights. Lots of moths fly towards lights, and it’s thought this is because they work out which way is up by seeking the brightest light. That would have been the Moon and stars before artificial light was invented. Female March moths have no wings, only a barrel-shaped body with a hairy tuft on the end of it. They can be found crawling on tree trunks at night.…

Given that you can’t even grab hold of it, the idea of harvesting fog might seem far-fetched. However, it’s already happening in parts of the world, and researchers have now suggested that harvesting fog on a larger scale could be an effective way of supplying water to places that really need it. Fog, which is just a cloud that has formed close to the Earth’s surface, is made up of tiny water droplets (see panel). It is harvested by hanging wire mesh (netting) between poles. When the fog passes through the mesh, droplets form. The water trickles down to a collection pipe and into storage tanks. To find out more about the potential of fog harvesting, researchers carried out a study in Alto Hospicio, a city in the Atacama Desert,…

On 8 March, an exciting new netball tournament took place at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield, England. Called the Netball Super Cup, the top eight teams in the UK competed and London Pulse celebrated winning the trophy. Manchester Thunder, London Mavericks, Leeds Rhinos, Cardiff Dragons, Loughborough Lightning, Birmingham Panthers and Nottingham Forest Netball were also in action. They played in two groups of four, with teams playing the three others in their group and the top two in each group qualifying for the semi-finals. Netball games usually last for 60 minutes, made up of four 15-minute quarters. However, in the Super Cup the matches were 14 minutes, with two seven-minute halves, so the action was fast and fun to watch. Leeds Rhinos played Nottingham Forest Netball in the semi-finals, winning…

A brand new skateboarding-themed play lands at the Polka Theatre in London this month. Written by award-winning playwright Asif Khan, Sisters 360 tells the story of stepsisters Fatima and Salima, who live in Bradford, England, and are passionate about skateboarding. Inspired by Olympic medal-winning skateboarder Sky Brown, the sisters have practised every trick in the book, launched a YouTube channel and feel confident they will win a gold medal at an upcoming competition. However, Fatima and Salima’s plans are turned upside down when they overhear their parents whispering about living apart – possibly even moving to different cities – and the girls realise they must hatch a plan in order to achieve their dreams. Sisters 360 draws from the story of three young Muslim sisters from Hull, England (see panel…

by Claire Hatcher-Smith. Illustrated by Lester McGoogan (Farshore) Mizzy dreams of becoming a brilliant detective and she isn’t going to let anything stand in the way of achieving her dream: not her reputation for telling tall tales, not her embarrassing fears of escalators and buttons, and certainly not her Down syndrome. She’s excited to be spending the summer with her cousins but is disappointed to find them no longer interested in playing detectives. Lonely and bored, Mizzy goes rummaging around in a locked wardrobe and discovers her Great Aunt Jane’s old diaries. She soon realises that her aunt died in suspicious circumstances – and that someone in the family appears to have been involved. Using a school project as cover, Mizzy grabs her chance to put her detective skills to…

Poet Kate Wakeling is the author of A Dinosaur at the Bus Stop – Poems to Have Fun With! which won the Poetry prize at The Week Junior Book Awards in 2024. In the run-up to World Poetry Day on 21 March, Wakeling tells The Week Junior, “Poems are like a factory for adventure and imagination.” Here, she shares some fantastic tips on how to create your own brilliant poems. Let your imagination run wild “To start a poem, the freer you feel, the better. That’s when ideas can really run wild,” says the author. Wakeling starts by making lots of messy notes, jotting down words and phrases that she likes the sound of and firing up her imagination. She tells us that you can write a poem about anything…

Crossword Read the clues carefully and write the answers into the grid. Across 1 Jam pastry (4) 3 Winnie-the-Pooh’s pink friend (6) 8 Graceful antelope (7) 9 Cardboard container (3) 10 Healthy dessert (5,5) 13 Expensive car brand (5-5) 17 Fizzy-drinks tin (3) 18 Small home (7) 19 Band of colour (6) 20 Simple earring (4) Down 1 Ancient Roman gown (4) 2 Shaving blade (5) 4 Water in a solid state (3) 5 Information tag (5) 6 Man’s jacket (6) 7 Braided hair (6) 11 Trousers that end at the knee (6) 12 Building materials (6) 14 Large cruise ship (5) 15 Sailors’ map (5) 16 Top schoolteacher (4) 18 Container for drinks (3) Spot the difference These two pictures appear to be the same, but take a closer…

Name: Antek “After reading about the Give A Duck Foundation, a charity that supports children fighting cancer, in The Week Junior, I felt something spark inside me. I love ducks, and I love helping others, so I knew I had to take action. The perfect opportunity came when my Scout leader challenged us to set a personal goal. I decided to organise a fundraiser and run 10km around my local park. Support came from my family, friends, neighbours, schoolmates and Scout group, and together we raised over £1,000 in just two weeks. On the day of the run, I was super excited but also a little nervous. Towards the end, my toes were hurting so much, but crossing that finish line felt amazing because I knew my efforts would bring…

Teacher’s name: Miss Shackleton School: Scapegoat Hill Junior and Infant School, Scapegoat Hill, West Yorkshire “Miss Shackleton is absolutely amazing, and she does such a good job. She teaches all of Class 3 (Year 4, 5 and 6) so brilliantly. She is kind, helpful and overall lovely, and I don’t know what the school would do without her. Thank you so much, Miss Shackleton.” Star 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…

For the second year in a row, people living in Gaza marked Ramadan in a war zone. Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar and is a holy time for Muslims. Many Muslims mark it by fasting – which means they do not eat or drink between sunrise and sunset. In Rafah, a city in Gaza, Muslims gathered among the rubble for iftar (the evening meal that Muslims eat to break their fast each day). They ate at long lines of tables that stretched over several hundred metres. Lights had been hung up and music played through loudspeakers.…

STEPPING INTO SPRING Four European brown bears have woken up at Whipsnade Zoo, in England, after three months of hibernation (when animals become inactive during cold periods to save energy). The four female bears are called Cinderella, Mana, Minion and Naya. A WINNING SAMBA SCHOOL On 5 March, the Beija-Flor samba school was crowned the winner at Rio de Janeiro’s carnival competition in Brazil. Samba is a style of Brazilian dancing. Around 100,000 people gathered to watch 12 samba schools battle it out for the title but in the end, Beija-Flor won. It is its 15th victory in the competition. MUSICAL PERFORMERS On 6 March, the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards took place in Birmingham, England. Paraorchestra, a group of performers made up of disabled and non-disabled musicians, were among the…

On 10 March, a container ship called the Solong struck an oil tanker, the US Stena Immaculate, in the North Sea, off the coast of Yorkshire, England. Thirty-six people were rescued but as The Week Junior went to the printer, one was still missing. The Stena Immaculate was carrying a tank of jet fuel, which split open in the crash and caused a serious fire. Scientists and conservationists are worried that the spilled fuel could harm wildlife, including birds and seals.…

Recently, The Week Junior collaborated with SuperKind, an organisation that helps young people “make a difference to the world around them”. We launched a campaign called Fundraising for a Better World. Readers were encouraged to set up a fundraising page on the SuperKind website and raise money for a cause close to their hearts. The campaign’s top fundraiser was 12-year-old Lyra Forster. So far, Lyra has raised £1,710 for Cats Protection, a charity that rehomes unwanted cats. She told The Week Junior that she chose this organisation because she loves cats. Her family has two cats, called Paws and Stripes, and Lyra loves them because they’re “really affectionate and nice to stroke”. Lyra raised money with a 23-mile walk across the Isle of Wight in England with her dad. The…

The world’s largest iceberg has got stuck on the sea floor around 55 miles from South Georgia, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean. The iceberg, called A23a, has been drifting north from Antarctica towards the island since 2020. Researchers worried that it would hit South Georgia, which is home to lots of wildlife, but this may no longer be a risk now the iceberg has come to a halt. A23a, which weighs nearly one trillion tonnes, first formed in 1986. It was once about 3,900 square kilometres but it has been shrinking over time. Even so, it is still twice the size of Greater London. It broke off from the Filchner Ice Shelf, which is a large area of ice floating in the Weddell Sea off the coast of…

On 14 March, it’s World Sleep Day, an event organised by the World Sleep Society to raise awareness about sleep health. Did you know that humans spend around one third of their lives sleeping? It’s an important part of our daily routines but scientists still don’t fully understand how it works. Why is sleep important? You might think sleep is a bit boring but bodies need it to stay healthy. It restores energy levels and helps people to manage their emotions in a more balanced way. It also boosts the immune system, which is the body’s defence against illness. The brain needs sleep so it can process all the information it has received during the day and form memories. A lack of sleep might mean people struggle to remember important…

Mobile phone company HMD has worked with parents to create the Fusion X1, a smartphone for children. The phone has special features designed to keep children safe. Parents can remotely (from a distance) control what apps their child can use and which numbers can contact the phone. What’s especially interesting about the phone it that it will have software called SafeToNet that will automatically detect and block harmful content before it reaches the user. Enjoy these stories? Find more in this month’s The Week Junior Science+Nature magazine sciencenature.theweekjunior.co.uk…

India men’s cricket team India beat New Zealand by four wickets to win the Champions Trophy final. It is the third time they have won the competition. Liverpool women Liverpool won 1-0 at Arsenal to reach the Women’s FA Cup semi-finals. Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea are also in the competition. Oaklands Wolves and Sheffield Sharks Oaklands Wolves won the Super League Basketball Women’s Cup final and Sheffield Sharks won the men’s competition. Jeremiah Azu The sprinter won gold in the men’s 60 metre race at the European Athletics Indoor Championships. Team GB won seven medals in total.…

Sisters 360 was inspired by three skateboarding sisters Layna, Maysa and Amaya from Hull, England. A few years ago, after watching a video of skateboarder Sky Brown doing tricks, the girls decided to try out the sport themselves. Aged just 12, 11 and nine when they started, the sisters posted clips of themselves skateboarding around UK cities and rapping on social media. Layna told the BBC, “I think people get inspired by it because you don’t hear of Muslim girls doing rapping or skateboarding.” Calling themselves the Insistergaters, Layna, Maysa and Amaya featured in The Week Junior in summer 2022. They even gained a fan in their hero Sky Brown, who said of the sisters, “Skateboarding is for everyone. This makes me so happy. Amaya, Maysa and Layna, you girls…

Who is your favourite fictional detective? I love Miss Marple because nobody expects her to be as brilliant as she is. But Velma from Scooby-Doo was my first detective hero. I still dress up as her every Halloween. Do you have anything in common with Mizzy? We both sense stuff about other people but don’t always understand exactly what we’re picking up on. We both feel like we don’t fit in – and we both make a lot of mistakes. What was the best bit about writing this book? It was SO much fun coming up with as many twisty clues and red herrings as possible, then finding places to hide them in the plot. Tell us your favourite writing spot and snack. My desk upstairs at home, looking out…

The National Literacy Trust (NLT) is a charity that encourages and helps children, young people and adults to read. It has just published the results of a study showing that in 2024, more than two in five young people enjoyed listening to audiobooks and podcasts in their free time. Almost all of the children surveyed said that listening to audio sparked their interest in reading books too. The charity’s research also found that more than half of young listeners – to audiobooks or podcasts – found them helpful for relaxing and made them feel better when they were stressed or anxious. Audiobooks can be enjoyed alone or together with friends or family, such as when you’re on a car journey – and the good news is there are lots of…

A funny way to mark a pothole A man who was fed up with the poor condition of a road near his village made a false pair of legs and placed them in a huge puddle in a pothole. A pothole is a hole that’s worn into a road surface. They can be quite deep and cause problems for road users. James Coxall and his family, from Cambridgeshire, England, made the “pothole person” from an old pair of jeans and some shoes and placed it in the puddle. When council workers came to fill the hole, the family took away the legs and they are now in their back garden. Cat given free train travel for life A cat who hopped onto a train and travelled 17 miles from home…

Big Issue’s cover competition This year, Big Issue is hosting a cover competition for children under 13 years old to mark Earth Day. The team want you to create an artwork that highlights the importance of a healthy planet, following the theme Go Wild. You could draw what you think the world will look like in the future, show ideas for ways to save the environment or share an amazing picture of the natural world. The winning design will be chosen by environmentalist TV presenter Chris Packham, and will feature on the cover of Big Issue’s Earth Day special. The deadline for submissions is 28 March. Find out more attinyurl.com/TWJ-BigIssue GET INVOLVED Email your news, views and pictures to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk Please include your full name and address so that we can…

On 9 March, Mark Carney was named prime minister of Canada, replacing Justin Trudeau. Trudeau has been prime minister since 2015, but announced in January that he was stepping down. Members of the Liberal Party, which currently leads the Canadian government, elected Carney to be their new leader. He won 85.9% of the vote in the leadership race. Carney is now the leader of the Liberal Party and Canada’s prime minister, until the next general election. An election must be held by 20 October but it could happen sooner. Carney is not a Member of Parliament in Canada. His background is not as a politician but as an economist (an expert on the way people exchange money and goods) and he was previously the head of the Bank of England…

On 9 March, people around the UK marked the Covid-19 Day of Reflection. This was to remember people who died during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to thank NHS staff and other frontline workers. What is Covid-19? Covid-19 is an infectious disease that started in Wuhan, China in 2019. For many, having Covid-19 feels like a bad cold but for others it can be far more serious. The World Health Organisation, a global organisation responsible for people’s health, declared Covid-19 to be a pandemic on 11 March 2020. A pandemic is an outbreak of a disease that spreads across many countries. On 26 March, the UK entered lockdown. This meant people couldn’t leave their homes unless they really had to. Children couldn’t go to school or meet friends and many adults…

Researchers have found that the intense heat of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79 caused a man’s brain to turn to glass. Mount Vesuvius is a volcano in Italy. It erupted extremely violently nearly 2,000 years ago and buried the nearby cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae in a thick layer of ash, which was extremely hot. This preserved some human bodies in very good condition, which has helped historians learn more about the eruption and what life was like back then. Among the preserved bodies, historians found a man who had been lying in his bed when the layer of hot ash struck. Inside his skull there were pea-sized chunks of black glass. When this discovery was made in 2020, scientists suspected they were pieces of the man’s…

YOUR PHOTOS YOUR PHOTOS Email photos you have taken to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk. If your photo is printed in the magazine you’ll receive a Roving Reporter badge. Photos could be of buildings, pets, nature or anything you find interesting.…

Neurodiversity Celebration Week (17–23 March) is a chance to think about the different ways the mind works. What happens inside your brain? Have you wondered how you breathe without realising, or how you find your way home from school without thinking? Your amazing brain is in charge of organising your body’s movements and making sense of the world. Brains are made up of neurons (cells that send messages to your body) and have different areas that are in charge of things like movement and language (see panel). No two people’s brains are the same. Author Scott Evans explains in his book, All Brains Are Wonderful, that what goes on inside your head is a big part of who you are. What is neurodiversity? Neurodiversity is the idea that people experience…

Wonderfully Wired Brains by Louise Gooding. Illustrated by Ruth Burrows (DK) This informative and inspiring guide shows that no two brains work in the same way and that these differences should be celebrated. It explores how the brain works, different kinds of neurodiversity and the amazing abilities of neurodivergent brains. A Different Sort of Normal by Abigail Balfe (Puffin Books) In this funny, warm-hearted book, writer and illustrator Abigail Balfe shares her own experiences of growing up neurodivergent. When she was younger, Balfe didn’t know she was autistic. Here, she tells her story. She writes about her feelings of being different and shares important information about autism. All Brains Are Wonderful by Scott Evans. Illustrated by The Boy Fitz Hammond (b small publishing) Teacher Scott Evans has teamed up with…

Name: Cameron The Other Edie Trimmer by Jacqueline Wilson “Magical, mystery, time travel. This book was beautiful and intriguing. I liked the pictures. The historical dolls made me smile.” YOUR TURN Please email your book review to hello@theweekjunior.co.uk. If it is printed in the magazine you will receive a Roving Reporter badge. Describe your chosen book in three words, tell us what you liked about it and why you would recommend it to others. Don’t forget to include your name and address.*…

Holly King-Mand is a writer, presenter and campaigner for literacy (the ability to read and write) who has inspired thousands of children to learn English. She loves creative writing and here she shares her tips for writing a funny comedy sketch. This year marks 40 years of Comic Relief, the charity that organises Red Nose Day (on 21 March). Comic Relief tackles poverty and injustice, and it is dedicated to using comedy as a way to raise money and awareness. The idea of “comedy” – which is entertainment specifically designed to make people laugh – dates back to ancient Greece. Comedy performances became popular in Italy in the 16th century. Today, comedy comes in many forms, including cracker-style jokes, someone on a stage telling funny stories and situation comedies on…

It’s Neurodiversity Celebration Week from 17–23 March and our Wellbeing feature on page 19 this week explores the different ways our brilliant brains work. Our differences can really help each other when we work together. For example, I’ve always enjoyed words and how you can arrange them to tell stories and create moods. Other people on the team have brains that are more visual. Our picture editor, Mandy, is great at seeing how photographs tell a story. I listen to her explain why this picture is better than that one for a particular report, and I feel my brain stretching a bit. For this week’s cover, I loved the iceberg story but couldn’t think of the right headline. I came up with “Stuck fast” and “Run aground”. Finally, Dave the…

“This is my first World Book Day out of school and I still managed to bag first prize for my costume! I made it from paper and cardboard.”Orlando “We had the honour of meeting Baroness Floella Benjamin at the Coming To England play.”Shaan and Roshan “We love your magazine so much we built a fort to read it.”Fionn, Róisín and Nellie (the puppy)…