Bid for your very own unique SpongeBob statue designed by a celebrity!

Date of event:  21 January 2010

Event end date:  04 February 2010

A host of celebrities have donated their creativity to ChildLine by re-designing 1ft high statues of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, which will be auctioned off to the highest bidder in aid of ChildLine.

Leigh Francis, well known for his portrayal of Michael Jackson in his hit TV series Bo’ Selecta, has created SpongeBob ThrillerPants to pay homage to the star. He said:

‘It was a proper privilege to be asked to design a SpongeBob. I love Mr SquarePants. To see him in the guise of the late great King of Pop is brilliant!

It’s great to be able to help something as serious as ChildLine by doing something as fun as this’.

Get bidding!

You can now bid on your favourite SpongeBob here, between Thursday 21 January and Thursday 4 February. 

To place your bid contact Hannah Davies or call 0207 825 2703 . 

To find out more: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/getinvolved/events/spongebobfancypants_wde70394.html

Tags: ChildLine, NSPCC, SpongeBob

An average of sixty sex offences against children were recorded every day by police in England and Wales last year the NSPCC reveals today.

The statistics which were obtained under a Freedom of Information request from all 43 forces in England and Wales, show under-18s were victims of sex crimes, including rape, gross indecency and incest, on 21,618 occasions during 2008-091.

One in seven of the children (3035) were younger than ten and 1,000 were five and under. In more than three out of four cases the offences were committed against 10 to 17-year-olds (17,091)2.

The statistics show girls were six times more likely than boys to be the victims of a sex crime. And the number of incidents where the offender knew the victim was four times higher than those involving strangers.3

The Home Office gathers data from police forces for its annual crime report, which shows there was a total of 51,4884 for all sexual offences in 2008-09, including both adults and children and only splits the figure to show those over or under 13.
Combining these statistics blurs the picture and even though detailed age breakdowns of victims are collected by police they are not passed to the Home Office.
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This is the second year5 the NSPCC has collected this data and is again calling on the UK Government to publish these details and to clearly link them with the number of convictions and other penalties resulting from the recorded offences. This information could then feed into a national sex abuse prevention strategy as well as helping the development of local services to treat child victims.

NSPCC director of strategy and development Phillip Noyes said: “These figures show just how many children are still being sexually abused every day. It’s a shocking picture – even more so because these are only offences reported to the police. We believe the true extent of the problem is far worse.

“Some of these children are so young they can’t tell anyone what is happening. So it’s vital that adults look out for them and call the NSPCC helpline or contact police and social services if they are concerned.

“Even when they are older some children don’t speak out about the sexual abuse they have suffered because they’re scared they won’t be believed. But help is always available for them through ChildLine.” (0800 1111)

Media office on 020 7825 2533. Out of hours mobile 07976 206 625.

Notes to editors:

1.     The NSPCC asked each police force in England and Wales via a Freedom of Information request. All forces responded. The questions were: 1. How many children (under18) were victims of sex offences committed in your police force area during the year April 2008 – March 2009. 2. Can you supply a gender and exact age breakdown for these victims? 3. What is the relationship of the alleged offender to the victim, if known?

2.     Not all police forces gave a specific age or gender breakdown. Some only gave age ranges.

3.     Nearly two-thirds of the forces (26) provided details about offender relationships.

4.     Source: Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Crime in England and Wales 08/09.

The total number of recorded offences for 2007-08 was 20,758 but one force did not provide any statistics.

Tags: Child Abuse, child protection, Child Safety, ChildLine, nsppc

On 18 November around 150 children from primary and secondary schools in Kirklees, West Yorkshire attended an anti-bullying conference at Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield. The focus of the day was cyber-bullying.

The conference was the idea of young people who take part in the Kirklees Young People’s Forum. They designed the logo for the event and some of the workshops.

The children attended a variety of workshops presented by ChildLine, West Yorkshire Police, Barnardo’s Missing Project and the NSPCC Shield Project and were engaged in a range of activities including drama, making badges and an anti-bullying pledge, creating a collage and a graffitti wall.

The NSPCC Shield Project, which works with children and young people who display sexually harmful behaviour, ran workshops to address bullying by text with the primary school age children and sexting for the secondary school age children.

Workshops were also presented by children from a local primary school and two secondary school students.

What the children had to say about the event

“I liked it a lot. I found it very helpful. Bullying is not a very nice thing.”

“I feel I have learned some important things and I have learned confidence and good manners.”

“It doesn’t matter what race you are, what colour you are or where you’re from – we are all equal. It’s important to share the message about cyber-bullying – it shouldn’t happen to anyone.”

The children will be taking the messages back to their schools – each school will be making its own pledges and repeating some of the other activities.

For more info on NSPCC http://www.charities-direct.co.uk/charities/nspcc.htm

Tags: Barnardo's Missing Project, Bullying, Child Abuse, child protection, ChildLine, Cyber Bullying, NSPCC, NSPCC Shield Project, West Yorkshire Police

The Daily Mail begins a three-week Christmas campaign today to raise awareness of and money for the NSPCC. In the first of a series of stories and case studies, Esther Rantzen movingly describes a night answering the phone at ChildLine. Read the article on the Daily Mail website.

Articles will run in the Female section of the paper and online each Thursday until Christmas Eve. Keep your eye on the Mail over the next three weeks, and spread the word to your family, friends and contacts.

For More Info on the NSPCC http://www.charities-direct.co.uk/charities/nspcc.htm

Tags: campaign, Child Abuse, child protection, ChildLine, Daily Mail, Esther Rantzen, Mail campaign, NSPCC

Last month Yamaha Music Schools announced they would support ChildLine through 90 of their schools across the UK. Schools in Birmingham and Derby have wasted no time, already raising £1,000 each from their recent Christmas concerts.

Each music school will encourage pupils to raise funds from concerts, challenges and events, with Yamaha also promoting a first lesson free campaign for new students for a suggested donation of £2 to ChildLine. Musician supporters and ambassadors backing the scheme include chart-topping Paolo Nutini, Joe Bonamassa and The Enemy’s Tom Clarke.

They are joined by Jazz-ace Jamie Cullum, Jools Holland, Paul Carrack and drummers Troy Miller, who plays with Amy Winehouse, Skunk Anansie’s Mark Richardson and Andrew Small who plays with Massive Attack and Kylie Minogue.

Head of Yamaha Music Schools Nigel Burrows said: “This is a fantastic campaign combining free music making opportunities with a substantial fundraising effort for ChildLine. We have been inspired by the level of support we have received from our artist friends who will ensure that we get maximum awareness and impact, leading to more lessons and cash for ChildLine. “Our aim is to raise about £60,000 and then ensure that the programme takes place annually.”

for more info http://www.charities-direct.co.uk/charities/nspcc.htm

Tags: Amy Winehouse, Andrew Small, ChildLine, Jamie Cullum, Jools Holland, Kylie Minogue, Mark Richardson, Massive Attack, Music Schools, NSPCC, Paul Carrack, Schools, Skunk Anansie, Troy Miller, Yamaha, Yamaha Music, Yamaha Music Schools

The total amount raised for the Child’s Voice Appeal has now surpassed £20m! As well as this huge achievement, there has been a lot going on with the appeal in the lead up to Christmas.

ChildLine Ball

The “I’m a Celebrity…” ChildLine Ball raised £265,000 for the appeal in October. Comedy star Christopher Biggins hosted the evening alongside other “I’m a Celebrity” stars who attended included ChildLine founder Esther Rantzen, ex-King Joe Swash, Carly Zucker, and David Van Day.

ChildLine online service

The ChildLine online service has now gone live, culminating years of hard work.

For a chance to get your children involved, visit www.childline.org.uk and take a look for yourself at the creative tools and games that children and young people can now use to express themselves.

Jaguar Prize Competition

Jaguar have launched a prize competition with the chance to win the very first new Jaguar XJ to roll off the production line – worth £62,000! Entry to the competition costs £125. While direct employees and trustees of the NSPCC and Jaguar are excluded from entering, please encourage your contacts, friends and family to take part. The competition runs until 25 November and the winner will be announced to the press on 1 December. Find out more about the competition on the NSPCC website.

Dream Auction 2

Dream auction 2 is an online auction during Decemebr of unique and inspirational items, which aims to raise £250,000 for the Child’s Voice Appeal. A huge variety of biddable items have been offered, from a fashion make over with Trinny and Susannah to the holiday of a lifetime in the Caribbean.

Related Websites

The Child’s Voice appeal on the NSPCC website

Tags: Carly Zucker, Charities, Child Safety, Child's Voice Appeal, ChildLine, ChildLine Ball, Christopher Biggins, David Van Day, Dream Auction 2, Jaguar Prize Competition, Jaguar XJ, Joe Swash, NSPCC

Network, eat a great lunch and support ChildLine in Scotland

Date of event: 26 October 2009

Venue: Edinburgh

Time: 12:15

Ticket price: £15

Each lunch club will present a guest speaker who will deliver an inspirational talk based around their business successes. Previous guests include corporate style consultant, Lorraine Wesselby and famous Edinburgh based Scottish artist and weaver, John Brennan.

ChildLine

The lunch club will also welcome a speaker from ChildLine to provide some background on the important work we do with children. There will also be opportunities to win prizes through our monthly prize draw.

Why we need your support

Following the recent opening of the new ChildLine counselling base in Edinburgh, we’re looking for your help to develop support in the local area and raise vital funds for the Child’s Voice Appeal, which aims to increase the ChildLine service across the next three years.

Tickets

Tickets for the lunch club are £15 per head and you can book these by contacting Susanne Baird on mob: : 07815 785 113 / email: md@susannesbeauty.com or Libby Scott on mob: 07860 358 885 / email libbyscott@btinternet.com

Tags: Charities, Child Safety, ChildLine, Edinburgh Lunch Club, John Brennan, Libby Scott, Lorraine Wesselby, NSPCC, Susanne Baird

By: PR Newswire

Oct. 7, 2009 08:13 AM

LONDON, October 7 /PRNewswire/ — The NSPCC and PhotoBox today announce the winners of the PhotoBox / ChildLine 2009 Young Photographer of the Year.

The competition, launched at the beginning of September, was open to all children under the age of 18. After receiving a large number of impressive entries, the judges had the difficult job of whittling it down to the lucky four winners from each category: Under 8’s, 9-12 Years, 13-15 Years and 16-18 Years.

Winners

Under 8’s – Sasha: Aged 6, Autumn walk with me and Daddy, a simple shadow image of a father and child

9-12 Years – Zara, Aged 11, Model Pony Procession, an image of model ponies on the horizon

13-15 Years – Chris, Aged 15, A Time to reflect, a sunrise on a lake

16-18 Years – Sophie, aged 17, Great Wall Love, the Great Wall of China showing the ‘Locks of Love’

Each of the winners will receive their own individual prize, ranging from tickets to the new Disney movie UP to one-to-one photography tuition with world famous landscape photographer Charlie Waite. All entries from this year can be seen at http://youngphotographer.photobox.com/front/welcome

The winner from the 16-18 category, Sophie Matthews, says: "I am extremely excited to be given this opportunity to work with such a well respected photographer as Charlie Waite. I never thought I’d win so I’m just gob smacked and delighted!"

All the shortlisted entries will also be included within a special PhotoBox I ChildLine 2009 Young Photographer of the Year photobook available to buy at http://www.photoboxgallery.com/nspcc-young-photographer from 30th October. A range of NSPCC greeting cards featuring the same images will also be available at http://www.photobox.co.uk from 30th October. Both will help generate money for the NSPCC’s ChildLine service with 10% of selling price from the photo book, and 5% of selling price from the greeting cards, going directly to its Child’s Voice Appeal.

One of the judges, professional photographer Annabel Williams of Contemporary Photographic Training, commented: "We were impressed with the array of images submitted in all the categories, making it hard to choose the winners, but we went for the ones we felt best signified the ‘Childs Eye View’ and really stood out for us."

NSPCC account manager, Gwen Grant commented: "We are delighted with how successful the competition has been and think that the standard of entries has been incredible. Every day, hundreds of calls are made to ChildLine or the NSPCC Helpline for help and many can not get through due to lack of funds. All the funds raised by PhotoBox will go towards our Child’s Voice Appeal which will fund the expansion of our helpline services and bring us closer to our vision of answering every cry for help."

PhotoBox UK, Managing Director, Mark Chapman says: "We’re very pleased with how popular this competition has proved to be with children throughout the UK. It shows that children are really interested in photography from an early age. We hope to raise as much money as possible for the NSPCC through sales of the photobook and greeting cards, and ideally run this competition again next year."

Further Information

Under 8’s:

Winner: Sasha Gunning, aged 6, Autumn walk with me and Daddy

Runners up: Harry Jenkins, aged 8, Found you Mr Conker

Runners up: Harry Jenkins, aged 8, I Made These Gonks

9-12 Years

Winner: Zara Kesterton, Aged 11, Model Pony Procession

Runners up: Robert James Batson, aged 9, Me taking a Picture of ME!

Runners up: Charleigh Lowe, aged 12, Kingfisher Spotting with Granddad

13-15 Years

Winner: Chris Wheeley, aged 15, A Time to Reflect

Runners up: Isaac Leach, aged 13, Simple and Strong….Love

Runners up: Helen Fendley, aged 15, Sunset Balloon

16-18 Years

Winner: Sophie Matthews, aged 17, Great Wall Love

Runners up: Anoushka Brun, aged 16, Inner Reflection

Runners up: Abi LeSanto, aged 16, Shattered

Tags: Annabel Williams, Charities, Charlie Waite, Child Safety, Child's Voice Appeal, ChildLine, Childs Eye View, Contemporary Photographic Training, Gwen Grant, Mark Chapman, NSPCC, PhotoBox, PR Newswire, Young Photographer of the Year

Be part of the biggest maths fundraising event on 4 December 2009

Download your Number Day pack and fundraise for the NSPCC and ChildLine

Congratulations! Your school is one step closer to celebrating NSPCC Number Day 2009 – a great opportunity to get pupils to enjoy maths and raise money for our ChildLine services.

What is Number Day?

Number Day is a fantastic way to make maths meaningful and raise valuable funds for the NSPCC and ChildLine. It’s also a great opportunity to learn about the valuable work of our projects and services including ChildLine, and why we exist.

Number Day 2009 will be on 4 December. Most schools will take place on this date, but we appreciate how busy schools are so you can hold your Number Day whenever suits you in the autumn term.

How can my school take part?

First you will have to register your support. Once you have completed the simple form, you will be given a unique website address which contains all the resources you will need, including:

• Exciting fundraising activity sheets
• Assembly plans to help you launch your school’s Number Day event
• Posters so you can promote your event
• And much more …

Number Day fundraising resources provide everything you need for a stress-free, successful event, and the money your school raises will help make a real difference to children’s lives.

They contain an excellent range of activity sheets to help put the fun into fundraising for your pupils. They are designed for KS1-4 pupils, have clear links to the maths curriculum, and teachers can differentiate the activities according to the needs of their class.

Why we need your support

The sad fact is that 32,000 children in the UK are on child protection registers and are known to be at risk of abuse right now. Help us continue our valuable work and take part in Number Day 2009.

The fundraising element of Number Day contains links to the citizenship and PSHE curriculum. An assembly plan explains all about the NSPCC and its work, and includes the story of how we help children overcome the damaging effects of abuse.

There is information on the sponsorship forms as well, so pupils can see just how their hard work will make a real difference to the lives of vulnerable children.

Download your Number Day pack and fundraise for the NSPCC and ChildLine

Tags: Charities, Child Safety, ChildLine, fundraising, NSPCC, Number Day, PSHE curriculum, sponsorship

• Date of event: 21 October 2009
• Venue: Park Lane Hotel, W1J 7BX
• Time: 7pm – 1am

ChildLine is going down under to the Australian jungle with the I’m a Celebrity ChildLine Ball, sponsored by Bandai UK, Character Group, Hasbro UK and MGA Entertainment.

The evening will include a champagne reception followed by a sumptuous three-course dinner and entertainment. There will be an auction on the night with some amazing prizes on offer.

We will also have stars from the I’m a Celebrity ITV programme and a live bush tucker trial within the Park Lane Hotel. So expect even more glitz and glamour with a twist at this year’s I’m a Celebrity ChildLine Ball.

Auction items

The below items are some of the prizes that are going to be on offer on the night. You cannot vote on these items before the evening, so make sure that you are there on the night with your wish list ready!

Full details of each item will be found in the programme that you will receive on the night. ChildLine would like to thank all the prize donors for their generous donations.

If you have any questions please email Katie Phillips.

Big Brother 2009 chair

Have you always wanted to sit in the Big Brother hot seat? This is your chance to add this year’s chair to your own home. The Big Brother chair is a cubist-inspired multicoloured chair.

Breitling Jet flight of a lifetime

Invite a friend to travel first class to Dijon in France with you and stay for one night in a beautiful 5* Chateau. The following day join the Breitling Jet Team in the rear seat of one of their L39 Albatros fighter jets, piloted by French ex-military display

Tags: auction, Australian jungle, Bandai UK, Big Brother 2009 chair, Breitling, Breitling Jet flight, bush tucker trial, Character Group, Charities, Child Safety, ChildLine, ChildLine Ball, Hasbro UK, Katie Phillips, L39 Albatros, MGA Entertainment