Guernsey Chess International

We had a very nice time in Guernsey it is a really nice place and because Guernsey is so small you can drive to the sea and the beautiful beeches with in minutes.So it was really nice to drive along the coast line before going to play chess.some days we did not want to go in to play chess the weather was so nice and the beeches are really nice so clean great for sandcastles! Peter grandad and granmother came  to watch Peter and me play.I never won anything! I have to get Peter to coach me!

Peter won the Junior prize of 60 pounds in the open section of the event all of Peter opponents where adults.Peter played very strong chess and also increased his FIDE chess rating by 14 points.this system is what all players use to measure how strong a player is http://ratings.fide.com/ you can search Peter rating on this link or any other chess player who has a FIDE rating not all chess players get a FIDE rating has you have to score wins or draws against a FIDE rated player.Peter new rating will be 2178 when it come out on 1st of November.The ratings come out every 3 months'

We made many new friends at Guernsey and caught up with some old chess friends to.The Guernsey chess federation puts in a lot of work over the year to make this event happen.The Guernsey chess players are really nice and  friendly.It is the best chess event of the year.So we want to thank all of the people in Guernsey who make this lovely tournament happen.
I should mention that Peter chess coach Mr Nick Pert Grandmaster won the tournament.Nick is a really fine chess player i dont know how he does it.hats off to you Nick your the champ!

Guernsey Chess International

Peter Playing in the Guernsey chess International starting on Sunday 17th of October you can follow his progress on the Guernsey chess web site  http://www.guernseychessclub.org.gg/festival/festival.aspx  This tournament is a very strong event with a number  of grandmaster in it including Peter coach Nick Pert(GM) Peter hoping to improve his international chess rating at the moment it is 2132 .Peter is the 49 best under 14 in the whole of the world! 2nd best under 14 in  the United Kingdom.We really looking forward to the trip to Guernsey Peter Grandad and Gran mother are also going to come to give support.Some of the chess games can last over 5 hours! You have to do a lot of traveling to improve your international chess rating as not all chess events in England are international rated!.  We hope   to be able to blog  to let you know how Peter is doing while we are out in Guernsey.If you got any questions about this tournament please do send us a comment we will do our best to answer you.We hope to do a blog on why ALL children should learn to play chess.We would also like to help encourage home educated children to learn chess.So if any parent of a home educated child wants advice about chess do please ask!.

New Hamsters/Tortoises

This Sunday we brought 2 new hamsters for Peter to go along with the 4 tortoises we have and the one Guinea pig! We did have 3 other Guinea pigs but they died.We have 2 leapord tortoises which come from South Africa and realy like very warm weather and will grow quite big in time.You need to be able to keep these tortoise indoors for part of the year or when it is cold but yesterday the Leapords where out enjoying the sun.We also have 2 russian tortoises these are easy to keep and are quite hardy!.Peter enjoys looking after his pets and helps to feed and clean out the encloses of all the pets.Leapord Tortoises can create a fair bit of mess! We think it is a good idea for children to have pets but of course not everyone has the room or time to look after Leapord tortoises!  We would recomend hamstesr the ones we have can live in groups ours are russian  hamsters but most hamster live on they own.Hamster are easy to look after need a small cage some bedding sawdust and of course hamster food! Over time you can train them to come to you and take food from your hand.Peter said the hamster where up in the night eating and playing.Here is a picture of the hamsters

Peter not given them a name yet but im sure he soon will!  Here is a picture of Frosty the Guinea pig he is now over 5 years of age which is quite old for a Guinea pig

Peter will put Frosty out this afternoon to enjoy the fine sunshine.Let us know of any pets you all have and hope you enjoy reading our blog!

No answer from Michael Gove M.P over Home education

We sent Mr Gove M.P sectary of state for education an email about home education on 1/9/2010 so far we have had no reply! We also have  asked our own M.P Mr D.Hinds to look into this which he has said he will. We find it very strange that just when we been hearing that maybe new wording or change in the  guidance is on the table  for home education Mr Gove M.P  has not answered last year he was very quick to reply to us and was very helpful  any way see email below.

: 01/09/2010 12:00

To: ministers@education.gsi.gov.uk

Cc: govem@parliament.uk

Subject: Home Education

Dear Mr Gove M.P

Can you confirm that you have no plans to bring in news laws on home education  for this parliament?  Can you also confirm you fully support a parents right to home educate by giving the child a full time suitable education?

We very concerned because Lord Soley has been writing that the house will return again to this subject!

You appeared to have a good understanding of home education you where very helpful to home educators last year  so  we don't want  you getting the wrong advice from people who do not understand home education.

Yours sincerely

Mr Peter Williams Mrs Carol Williams Master Peter A Williams

A Home Educating Family

Had reply from our M.P Mr D Hinds  who has said he follow it up but so far no word from Mr Gove  M.P

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Williams and Peter,

Thank you for your message.  I am sorry you have not yet had any response from Michael Gove but I will follow this up.

You ask for my view, which hasn’t changed since I visited you at your home some time ago:  namely that I believe in a right to home educate subject to certain safeguards.  Although most home educating families don’t need safeguards, some do.

I would not worry about Mr. Gove being led astray by some adviser or other.  He is one of the brightest people in public life today and will certainly make up his own mind, having considered the full breadth of evidence and opinion.

Yours sincerely,

Damian Hinds

Above  picture is of Peter with England Junior chess squad taking in Montenegro when Peter played for England in european junior chess championships.

Why we had to home educate Peter

It all started a long time ago but come to a head in the year 2003,In the months leading up to June 2003 Peter age 7  had won a number of chess tournaments including some adult chess tournaments.So it become very clear that Peter had a special  gift for chess so our idea was that Peter should get off site chess education with a private chess coach for one day a week on a school day.I  asked the head teacher if Peter could do this she agreed to this with out any fuss at all! i was quite amazed any way we did this with Peter taking time off from school with the private chess coach and it was working really well,So i thought lets get it all done right in writing that it is ok for Peter to do this.I asked the head to do this and this is when it all went wrong she started to stall and said she needed time to think about it all and would need to contact Hampshire County Council.Which she did and they wrote us a letter saying you could not have more than ten days off per year.The letter was from Hampshire County Councils barrister a Ms Keri Tayor.I spent a great deal of time at the school with the head trying to get her to allow Peter to have off  site chess education but it was in possible she had become scared of her LA! We where also told that if Peter took time off for chess it would count as missing school and Education Welfare would take action against us. so after a lot of soul searching we decided to home educate Peter and had no idea how you would go about it so on June 23rd 2003 Peter started home education!