This prestigious accolade rewards ‘healthy schools’, which take responsibility for maintaining and promoting the health of all who learn, work, play and live within it. 

The National Quality Award is the highest accreditation a school can achieve through the Welsh Network of Healthy School Schemes, which is run by Public Health Wales on behalf of the Welsh Government.

The Minister said: 

“I am delighted to present Cwm Glâs school with this award. 

“The school has worked really hard to achieve the standards required in promoting the health and wellbeing of all its pupils and staff. 

“Everyone is encouraged and educated about the issues which affect their health, such as diet, physical activity and not smoking. 

“I am very pleased to present Cwm Glâs school with this plaque in recognition of its commitment to the health and wellbeing of its community. Well done!”

Mrs Osborne, Headteacher of Cwm Glâs  Primary School said:

“We have worked extremely hard for many years on this scheme and are proud of our achievement, which would not have been possible without the dedication of Mrs Williams and an excellent team ofstaff, management, parents and pupils at Cwm Glâs  Primary School.”

The National Quality Award is independently assessed after a school has been involved in the scheme for nine years. It is provided to schools that have proven they are putting the health and wellbeing of all members of its community at the heart of everything.

This also involves teaching pupils about how to lead healthy lives and enabling pupils and staff to take control over aspects of the school environment which influence their health.

Cwm Glâs school is the 128th school in Wales to achieve the National Quality Award and the second in Swansea to do so. To date 130 schools in Wales have achieved the award.

Julie Bishop, Director of Health Improvement for Public Health Wales, said:

“This is a fantastic achievement for Cwm Glâs Primary School! To have received our top health award has taken a great deal of hard work and commitment from pupils, staff and parents alike. 

“Everyone at Cwm Glâs deserve this important recognition for their commitment to embedding health and wellbeing in the culture and fabric of the school.”

Culture Minister Matt Hancock has placed a temporary export bar on a 16th century masterpiece by Parmigianino, to provide an opportunity to keep it in the country.

The Virgin and Child with Saint Mary Magdalen and the Infant Saint John the Baptist is at risk of being exported from the UK unless a buyer can be found to match the asking price of £24.5 million.

This exceptional artwork is a rare example of a religious easel painting from the last decade of the artist’s short career. It is one of the finest examples by Parmigianino remaining in private hands and is the only late religious painting by the artist in the United Kingdom.

The extraordinary work has been in the United Kingdom for nearly 250 years and was one of the first Parmigianinos to be bought by a British collector. Acquired from the Barberini Collection in Rome, it has passed through the collections of three of the country’s major collectors of Italian Renaissance painting.

Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock said:

“This incredible painting has been in the UK for almost 250 years and showcases the amazing talent of Parmigianino and his eloquent approach to composition.

“Its highly unusual iconography and rare depth of colour helps us to understand his masterful technique and I very much hope that we keep this wonderful piece in the UK and on display, so that generations can marvel at it in the years to come.”

The decision to defer the export licence follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA), administered by The Arts Council.

The RCEWA made its recommendation on the grounds of the painting’s aesthetic importance and outstanding significance to the study of Parmigianino’s oeuvre and to the sixteenth-century practice of painting on paper laid on panel.

RCEWA member Aidan Weston-Lewis said:

“I can’t think of a more ravishingly beautiful Italian Old Master painting remaining in any private collection in the United Kingdom. It is in pristine condition, has a very distinguished ownership history and, unusually for the period, has the additional fascination of being painted on paper, which opens up new avenues for scholarly research and technical investigation. Its permanent export overseas would be a major loss.”

The decision on the export licence application for the painting will be deferred until 9 June 2017. This may be extended until 9 December 2017 if a serious intention to raise funds to purchase it is made at the recommended price of £24.5 million (plus VAT of £196,000).

Offers from public bodies for less than the recommended price through the private treaty sale arrangements, where appropriate, may also be considered by Matt Hancock. Such purchases frequently offer substantial financial benefit to a public institution wishing to acquire the item. Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the painting should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200.

An image of the painting can be downloaded from our flickr site.

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Organisations or individuals interested in purchasing the painting should contact the RCEWA on 0845 300 6200.

2. Details of the painting are as follows: The Virgin and Child with Saint Mary Magdalen and the Infant Saint John the Baptist Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, called Parmigianino (1503–1540) C.1535–40 Oil on paper, laid on panel, 75.5 x 59.7 cm

3. Details of provenance are available here

4. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by The Arts Council, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria.

5. The Arts Council champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives. It supports a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries – from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. www.artscouncil.org.uk.

Lu Qiong accepts the exclusive interview of CIIC.[Photo/China.org.cn]

The Key Tasks for State Administration of Cultural Heritage in 2017 has recently been released on the official website of State Administration of Cultural Heritage. It elaborates on the 32 steering instructions and specific measures to be exercised for strengthening the protection of cultural relics, promoting popular accessibility to the results of heritage protection and exploring approaches to the protective utilization of cultural relics in six areas for the year 2017. Among them, “enlivening cultural relics” is particularly eye-catching to the present reporter.

Promoting popularization of Chinese civilization by joint efforts of “Big Vs” via “Internet+”

Back in 2015, official accounts of museums including “Palace Museum,” “Shaanxi History Museum” and “Sichuan Guanghan Sanxingdui Museum” appeared in social media circles one after another. Those official accounts quickly rose to fame. “China Cultural Heritage,” the official microblog account of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, went so far as to win the prize of “2016 Top 10 Influential Topics of Government Affairs Microblogs.”

During the holiday season for primary and secondary school students in the summer of 2016, “China Cultural Heritage” organized a romantic event—Appointment with Museums. The event was enthusiastically disseminated, attracting a readership of nearly 700 million, a figure demonstrating the strong social influence of museums as an important front for the construction of the public cultural service system.

“We are justified in being culturally self-confident, since we have such a broad mass base. Enhancing cultural self-confidence should be rooted in the soil of excellent traditional Chinese culture,” said Lu Qiong, deputy director of the Department of Policies and Laws, State Administration of Heritage. It proved that “Appointment with the Museum” was a successful action.

Probably because of the favorable results of Internet dissemination, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued at the end of 2016, The Three-Year Action Plan for “Internet+ Chinese Civilization,” turning the down-to-earth Internet dissemination into a macroscopic steering opinion.

According to the Action Plan, the Internet will be drawn on to seek alternative approaches for the inheritance, innovation and development of traditional Chinese culture and for exploration and expansion of the unique historical and artistic significances of cultural relics – enabling them to tell their own stories.

In fact, the concept of “enlivening cultural relics” has been put to practice in more fronts including the “Internet+.” Development of creative products is another “tonic” for giving life to cultural relics and bringing them closer to the people.

In the past year, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage selected 92 museums as pilot units for developing a series of eye-catching products. Lu Qiong told reporters that at Dunhuang International Cultural Expo in September 2016, a scarf printed with Dunhuang fresco instantly became popular among visitors, many of whom were full of praise for the elegant item capable of telling its own story.

Making cultural relics tell their own stories by staging exhibitions in Hong Kong and New York

As the relationship between the preservation of cultural relics and the promotion of social and economic development becomes closer, the cultural relics of China are keen to tell their stories not only to the people of the Chinese mainland.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong SAR to China and to support the “Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum” to be held in Hong Kong SAR in late November 2017, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage will hold an exhibition of Silk Road Heritage at the Hong Kong Museum of History, in collaboration with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) of Hong Kong SAR.

Focusing on “Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang’an–Tianshan Corridor,” is a program inscribed in the World Heritage list. Thanks to the joint efforts of China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the exhibition will draw on existing research and exhibitions and will be the first of its kind after the successful inscription of the program. It is expected to offer a sumptuous cultural feast for Hong Kong people.

In addition, to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the normalization of Sino–US relations, 31 heritage collection units from 13 provinces (cities) will display 283 pieces of cultural relics witnessing “the civilization of the Qin and Han dynasties” in 164 sets at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, starting late March, 2017.

It is said that the exhibition will retell the stories of the classic period of Chinese civilization in the Qin and Han dynasties, exploring the formation of “Chinese culture” while focusing on the Silk Road connecting ancient China to the West and the Maritime Silk Road spanning South and Southeast Asia. It is expected to inspire scholars from home and abroad and deepen the knowledge of China by the Western public.

“Heritage work means protection, conservation and inheritance of public valuable resources. It is everyone’s obligation. Common support from all walks of life is needed to make it a success.” Lu Qiong told the reporter.

A 64-year-old man suspected of attempting to set a fire died on Jan. 19, 2017, while in custody at a detention center in Xinning Police Bureau, Hunan Province, the local police confirmed on Feb. 8.

According to the police, the suspect Xu Yunbo, died from a combination of respiratory and adrenal failures, electrolyte disturbance, alcoholic liver cirrhosis and ascetic fluid.

But Xu Hongmei, Xu’s daughter, was skeptical of the official declaration.

“My father could not live a life by himself. He was unable to control himself and spoke ambiguously. But the police insisted that he confessed to attempting to set a fire, ,”Xu said.

Insisting on his father’s innocence, Xu obtained a forensic examination about 20 days after his detention, from which her father was confirmed to have a mental illness. This illness can mislead him indistinguishing between right and wrong.

He was still held in custody after this judicial evaluation.

According to his daughter, Xu was admitted to hospital on Nov. 16, 2016, with 14 broken ribs, almost three months after his detainment. But he was sent back to the detention center only one month after being hospitalized which infuriated Xu’ family, who believed that he had not yet fully recovered.

Xu did not return to hospital until Jan. 18, after he experienced fatal symptoms caused by the complications of his health condition.

The post-mortem exam is underway and the result is expected to be announced in due course.

According to the local police bureau, the posthumous issues of Xu should proceed in line with the regulations on the death of people in police custody, a legal framework mandated by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Civil Affairs.