The six were all member of a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC)
Five animal rights activists have been jailed for intimidating staff at firms linked to a Cambridgeshire animal testing laboratory.
Nicole Vosper, Sarah Whitehead, Thomas Harris, Nicola Tapping and Jason Mullan were jailed for between 15 months and six years.
They admitted targeting staff from the supply firms of Huntingdon Life Sciences, Winchester Crown Court heard.
Alfie Fitzpatrick, 21, received a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
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He also admitted taking part and was ordered to complete 100 hours of community work.
Harris and Tapping are from Gosport in Hampshire while Jason Mullen is from London and Fitzpatrick from Solihull, West Midlands.
Vosper is from Newquay in Cornwall and and Whitehead is from Littlehampton, West Sussex.
The six were all members of a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).
The court heard how the group waged an international campaign of intimidation against a host of companies to try to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
Homes of staff from the supply firms were targeted with abusive telephone calls while criminal damage and threats of violence were also used to force companies to cut links with HLS.
Realistic hoax bombs were posted to the homes of staff and to offices.
Some company directors had leaflets distributed near their homes falsely telling neighbours they were convicted paedophiles and others had used tampons sent through the post saying the blood was HIV positive.
Whitehead, 53, of Thorncroft Road, was jailed for six years and made the subject of a 10-year anti-social behaviour order when released.
Vosper, 22, was jailed for three-and-a-half years and given a five-year anti-social behaviour order.
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David Cameron will say he wants to help new companies break into existing markets
David Cameron will try to move the political debate away from spending cuts to economic growth in his first speech to the CBI as prime minister.
Mr Cameron will tell delegates at the CBI annual conference that he wants to back the big businesses of the future.
The prime minister is also expected to announce a £200m scheme to strengthen ties between universities and industry.
But Labour leader Ed Miliband will claim ministers lack a credible plan for growth when he addresses the forum.
In his first speech to the conference since becoming leader, Mr Miliband will say the government is in danger of repeating the mistakes that led to the recession.
The government has long argued that while 490,000 public sector positions are forecast to close, new jobs will be created by the private sector.
Mr Cameron will tell the CBI conference in London that he knows where economic growth and new jobs will come from.
He will say he wants to help new companies break into existing markets, and will pledge funding for a network of centres to make research more commercial.
Mr Cameron is expected to say: “Over the course of this Parliament – and the next – I believe we can transform our fortunes.
“This is an incredible opportunity for Britain, for new start-ups to flourish, for innovations to drive growth and create jobs.
“To build that new dynamism in our economy, to create the growth, jobs and opportunities Britain needs, we’ve got to back the big businesses of tomorrow, not just the big businesses of today.”
Mr Miliband is expected to tell the CBI that Mr Cameron has failed to learn lessons from the financial crisis and has no plan for growth.
He is set to say to delegates: “As much as I am worried about the job cuts and pace of retrenchment in the government’s deficit reduction plan, I am equally worried about its failure to provide any sort of wider economic policy.
“Without profound change in the way we manage our economy, we are at risk of – at best – sleepwalking back to an economy riddled with the same risks as we saw before the recession hit.”
The CBI itself will argue that levels of taxation and regulation have eroded the UK’s international position.
The political debate at the conference will centre on growth in large part because preliminary GDP figures from the Office for National Statistics for the third quarter of 2010 are due on Tuesday.
Some economists expect them to show slower growth than figures for the previous quarter.
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Alternative calendars often give pupils longer holidays outside the summer
As many schoolchildren begin half-term, does one academy’s move to a five-term year indicate the calendar could soon be shaken up for good?
Ah, the joys of half-term… hours playing football, hanging around with mates, trips to bowling alleys and cinemas.
But children at the newly-opened East Manchester Academy are not just midway through autumn term this week. With the school trialling a five-term calendar, they have finished their first full term.
The break mirrors the usual half-term, so they will notice little difference from children at most schools in England and Wales.
But next year, when others get a measly five-day February half-term, the academy’s pupils will work a week longer before enjoying a fortnight’s rest – then another two weeks in May.
The catch? A shorter summer break – at just four weeks.
Headteacher Guy Hutchence says that while parents have rose-tinted memories of long summers, children often simply get bored.
Revamping the school calendar is often mooted but few schools have taken the leap.
One which did was Greensward College in Hockley, Essex.
Busting a holiday myth
The long summer holiday is commonly referred to as a throwback to Victorian demands for children to help with the harvest but that’s not remotely true. Summer holidays didn’t match harvest time because a lot of crops were harvested in September.
You didn’t get state schools until after 1870 and then holidays were whenever school boards thought, with no rhyme nor reason other than to have Christmas, Easter and summer breaks.
Before then, if you were a teacher at a common school, you would be paid by the week and so wouldn’t want even four weeks off.
The long break actually came from that enjoyed by the upper classes – in parliament, law courts, universities and public schools – which eventually filtered down to urban schools.
However, in rural areas, problems in early autumn – with children not attending school to help with the harvest – were common until the 1950s, when agriculture became industrialised.
Seven years ago, as its then chairman of governors, Ian Foster led the move – aimed at cancelling out unpredictability caused by a “floating” Easter.
“At a very critical time of year, it could make exam preparations, planning revision and schemes of work more difficult,” he says.
Now an academy – state-funded but operating outside local authority control – it has fortnight-long holidays in March and at the end of May, regardless of where Easter falls. However, it retains the six-week summer break.
A vocal minority objected to Greensward’s move – but few on educational grounds.
“It was more about the social aspect of parents having kids in multiple schools… and clashes with timeshare weeks,” he says.
Mr Foster now chairs the Academies Enterprise Trust, overseeing seven schools in south-east England.
The government’s drive towards academies and free schools, with independent management, raises the prospect of more varied calendars, he says.
“Schools always had the ability to make these kinds of changes but there’s a natural instinct not to.”
So why do school holidays fall when they do?
It’s commonly speculated that the long summer break is a throwback to the agricultural calendar – when children were needed to help with the harvest, though that seems unlikely (see box, above). What is certain, is that if a time management expert sat down to design a school calendar from scratch, it wouldn’t look like the current one, says Clare Evans.
Ending the academic year at Christmas – when many businesses close for two weeks – would make sense as parents would already have time off, says Ms Evans, author of Time Management for Dummies.
“You could begin the year in January, with shorter terms spread out more evenly throughout the year and not worry about an Easter break. It would help teachers and pupils.”
If schools ran individual calendars, businesses would avoid the periodic problem of employees battling for leave, she adds.
Scotland has long had a distinct calendar. Varying between authorities, it generally starts and finishes earlier but includes a seven-week summer break.
“[A long summer break] forces many from low-income backgrounds to give up their jobs because they can’t find childcare cover”
Anand Shukla Daycare Trust
Meanwhile, most schools in Northern Ireland follow the Republic’s example in giving pupils July and August off, with shorter breaks at other times.
Governors in England and Wales seem more inclined to curtail the summer.
In Leeds, the David Young Community Academy operates a seven-term year – beginning in June, immediately after exams – with a short summer. Last month, several schools in Halifax declared their intention to even out terms and have a four-week summer break.
There are several arguments behind the move to shaking up the school calendar, and cutting the summer break.
Last month, MP Frank Field said the six-week summer break harmed poorer children who lost out because of the lack of formal reading or writing.
Meanwhile, government figures show pupils missed nearly four million school days in England last spring and autumn as parents sought cheaper breaks, with package holiday prices doubling during half-term, according to BBC’s Watchdog.
But would a different term structure simply force holiday up prices at other times?
Would shaking up school holidays stop parents taking children out of school during off-season?
Then there is the problem of finding childcare or holiday activity clubs during pupils’ 13 weeks holiday per year. The Daycare Trust reported in July that the average weekly cost per child was £93.
“[A long summer break] institutionalises women’s working patterns and forces many from low-income backgrounds to give up their jobs because they can’t find childcare cover for such a long period,” says acting chief executive Anand Shukla.
Again, however, changing the school calendar might only shift the problem.
For some a hotch-potch of term times would be a nightmare.
Chris Keates, from teaching union the NASUWT, says shifting from council-recommended dates causes problems for parents.
“[A standard calendar] allows local authorities to appropriately plan services and facilities and means that parents with children at different schools are better able to plan and organise their childcare.”
Others argue that with new pressures like Sats making schooldays more stressful, children need time to relax.
The NUT union’s Christine Blower argues that “not everything is learned at school” and that family time in summer is crucial.
She points out that children in England and Wales have the shortest summers in the European Union – pupils in Italy and Portugal get almost three months – and says surveys suggest no link between longer classroom hours and higher standards.
Cynics may suggest teachers have a vested interest in protecting long summer breaks.
But former headteacher Steve Mynard, who edits a newsletter for primary heads, regards long holidays as in lieu of hours worked outside class.
Even so, he believes alterations to the school year are worth considering.
“Teachers would find it difficult to accept initially [but] I could see benefits in terms of staff wellbeing.”
No matter what the system, it seems school holidays will always cause a headache for someone – except, of course, the children.
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