This week's UK news: 5 October 2015
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5 October 2015


Rugby tournament upset

There are a lot of depressed rugby fans in England this week - but happy fans in the rest of the UK.

That is because England, which is hosting the Rugby World Cup, will now not be going into the knockout stage of the tournament, even though it still has another game to play before then. The team has won one game and lost two.

However, Wales, Scotland and Ireland might all go through to the next stage. 

That does not mean that they will get support from the England rugby fans, as there is a lot of rivalry between the different nations in the UK.

 

Peppa Pig goes big

Ever heard of Peppa Pig? This is a UK children's cartoon about a pig family, started by three men who met at university in the 1980s. Peppa Pig is now watched by children in 180 countries and has two theme parks all about her, in the UK and Italy.

Now Peppa is making lots of money for the men who created her. 70 per cent of their company has been bought, for GBP140m. They will make an extra 52 episode of Peppa Pig, and the plan is to make GBP 2bn a year on selling things with Peppa on them.

 

Scottish primary school gets children fit

St Ninians Primary school in Stirling, Scotland, was in the news last week. This is because that for the last three years, all of its pupils, aged 3-11, run or walk a mile every day. The school has a path around the playground and the children need to do six laps around it.

None of the children are overweight, and schools all over the UK are asking St Nininans how they organise the run. Researchers at the local university are now interested, too, and are studying whether the children really are happier, starting lessons more quickly, and not overweight, as school staff believe.

The St Ninians children start doing the daily mile when they join the nursery at 3, and go out every day, unless there is ice or very heavy rain. The school's headteacher says the children come back "bright-eyed and rosy cheeked - the way children used to look."

 

Readers helped to shape James Bond

A book of letters written by the man who wrote the James Bond stories, Ian Fleming is being published. 

It shows that Fleming apologised for "stealing" the name of a well-known birdwatcher for his spy, and suggested the bird expert could use Fleming's name if he discovered a "horrible" species of bird. He also changed the gun used by Bond after an expert told him "it was a lady's gun, and not a really nice lady at that."

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