Children can’t be - and shouldn’t be - kept from knowledge of death and bereavement. The Hospice Pack is a thorough and thoughtful resource for 11-14-year-olds that offers useful information about the hospice movement.

Hospices care for 200,000 people every year in a manner emphasising life and love as much as loss. Two plans for assemblies and six outline lessons develop these ideas further. Pupils are invited to think about the kinds of care - physical, psychological and spiritual - appropriate for the dying and their families. The lessons are of lasting value. To register for The Hospice Pack and backup CD-Rom, call Jennie McDowall at Help the Hospices, 34-44 Britannia St, London WC1X 9LG.Tel: 020 7520 8220www.helpthehospices.org.uk

Risks of the road

About 5,000 young cyclists are killed or injured each year, many of them in attempting to do tricks. Cycle Smart is a magazine for primary age children in which Disney’s Recess Gang promote road safety. There are comic strips, advice from TV presenters, games, jokes, puzzles and quizzes. Among the colourful frolics, serious advice is offered on training in road sense, route planning and basic cycle maintenance. There is room for tricks and stunts, but it is made clear they should be done in sensible places by people wearing the right gear. Cycle Smart is available from your local road safety officer: orTel: 0870 1226 236 ; quote TINF817.

www.disney.co.ukcyclesmart and www.hedgehogs.gov.uk

Dogs need homes too

“Rescue, reunite, rehabilitate and rehome” - the 4 Rs of kindness to canines all feature in a pack for pupils at key stages 1 and 2 produced by Battersea Dogs Home. Two large posters showing the home’s work are filled with vivacious cartoon characters of children and dogs. These are complemented by worksheets featuring happy hounds as writers, artists and citizens. Curricular tasks - devising descriptive poems, designing decorative collars, matching pets to people - help pupils to think about the nature of responsible pet ownership.Tel: 020 7627 9295 Email: c.green@dogshome.org www.dogshome.org

Emergency supplies

It might happen in the PE block or the design room, or even in the boys’

toilets, but eventually you’ll need something to deal with an emergency.

The new Kays Medical catalogue offers a 64-page inventory of timely aids, from Nurofen for children and eyewashes for adults to all kinds of lotions and liniments, bandages and burn dressings, sprays and support bandages, first aid kits and finger-stalls. Most items ordered should be delivered within 24 hours. You might even go on one of Kays health and safety courses and stop the emergency from occurring at all. Tel: 0151 482 2830.www.kaysmedical.co.uk