James Collins is an Operations Manager for a national M&E Contractor and a school governor in Wistow, Yorkshire. James became a school governor using the free governor recruitment service provided by educational charity Governors for Schools . Here he talks about why he decided to get involved, and how his experience as a Building Services Engineer is making a difference to children in his community. Giving back through skilled volunteering As an Operations Manager, the nature of my job is all about the assessment of costs, risks, projecting and forecasting – a lot of which is what governors are there to do. I’d never stopped and thought about how a school is run before I became a governor, and I think that’s the case for a lot of people. Running a school is so much more than teaching children in a classroom. It’s about absolutely everything to do with the school – which is why schools need the support from people in a variety of fields. After staffing co

Anastasia  Mylona on BBC Breakfast 26 July 2018. This is proving to be a long, hot summer. Wales and Northern Ireland have experienced their warmest June on record, July saw temperatures reach a record level for 2018 of 35.3 degrees in Faversham, Kent, and the Met Office is forecasting a return of heatwave conditions for early August. Prolonged high temperatures, with warm nights, can have adverse effects on the health of some people, particularly older people, young children and those with long-term health conditions. As high temperatures become more prevalent, the average number of heat-related deaths in the UK could potentially more than treble to 7,000 a year by the mid-century, unless the government promotes action to help make our buildings, cities and infrastructure more comfortable and resilient. On 26 July, as the temperature was soaring to its record level  in Faversham, the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) coincidentally published the report of an inquiry it