School’s out for summer in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with kids in England and Wales soon to follow suit.

Alas, this means many working parents have six long weeks to fill with fun activities, day trips, perhaps the odd break away (if you’re lucky) and, most likely, a few expensive summer camps to bulk out the rest.

But how much is summer holiday childcare totting up at these days? A pretty wince-inducing sum, by the looks of it.

Children’s charity Coram’s 21st annual Holiday Childcare Survey revealed holiday childcare costs have risen by 5% over the past year in Britain.

This means many working parents now face a bill of up to £1,145 per child for six weeks of holiday childcare. That’s £191 per week.

To put that into perspective, compared to how much people are earning, Forbes reported the median monthly pay for UK workers in May this year was £2,626.

In comparison, when the Holiday Childcare Survey first began in 2005, the average cost was £76 per week – or £456 per child for the six-week break. So, the cost has more than doubled in just over 20 years.

Wales has seen the biggest rise, with summer holiday childcare costs increasing by 10% over the past year.

The price of childcare can also vary between regions, with a 16% increase in costs in London and a 12% increase in the North East.

For disabled children, this figure can soar even more.

One parent of twin boys revealed how holiday childcare would cost £50 a day for their son Otis, and more than triple that (£178 per day) for their son Frankie, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair full-time.

UK school children take about 65 working days off each year, while most full-time workers get about 28 days annual leave.

If parents don’t have the luxury of local grandparents or family members to fall back on, this means they need to rely on paid childcare during the holidays.

Some working families may be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare, which can help pay for summer holiday childcare. For every £8 you pay into your Tax-Free Childcare account, the government automatically adds an extra £2 towards approved childcare costs. You could receive up to £2,000 per child each year, or £4,000 per disabled child.

Every local authority in England also delivers the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme, which provides free holiday club places, meals and activities to children from low-income families. However, provision varies considerably.

According to UK government guidance, local authorities should endeavour to offer all eligible children the equivalent of at least four hours a day, four days a week, in free holiday childcare.

But Coram’s survey found most councils do not know whether they have enough holiday childcare available.

Again, children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) were impacted most – Coram’s report found the lowest sufficiency level in England is for children with SEND, with only 9% of councils in England able to say they have enough holiday childcare for at least three-quarters of young people with SEND in their area.

In Wales, just 5% of local authorities report sufficient holiday childcare for children with additional learning needs (ALN).

This echoes research from the national disability charity Sense, which found more than 60,000 disabled children are living in areas of England with no summer holiday club options available to them.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted to every local authority in England found that, among the 114 local authorities that responded, 6% of disabled children across the country can access holiday clubs.

Coram wants to see reinforcement of the statutory duty to secure sufficient holiday childcare across Britain, as well as improved access for children with SEND.

Coram’s report found childminders offer parents the best chance of securing a full day of childcare during the holidays, with 79% of childminders open from 8am until6pm, compared to only 57% of holiday clubs.

But the report highlighted the cost of holiday clubs, at £191 per week, was still cheaper than the cost of childminders, which averaged £251 per week.

Lydia Hodges, Head of Coram Family and Childcare, said: “Holiday childcare is essential for parents to take and stay in work but, for too many families, the six-week break brings a sharp increase in childcare costs.”

Acknowledging the government’s commitment to keep children away from social media, she added: “If we want children away from social media, off their phones, they need something positive to do.

“The problem is not going to go away. Most parents need to work during the school holidays at some point, and not all will have support from other family members.

“If we are to ease the annual summer stress for families, there must be an acknowledgement that childcare is a year-round requirement,” she added.

In response to the report’s findings, a Department for Education spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “The school holidays can be a tricky time for many parents – a balancing act between work, family life and finding childcare that is affordable and accessible.

“To help families cut costs this summer we are investing over £600 million in our Holiday Activities and Food programme so children from disadvantaged backgrounds can enjoy healthy meals and take part in activities including everything from archery to coding and sports to creative arts.

“This comes alongside discounted attractions and meals out so families can enjoy days out and almost £13 million this year to help local councils offer more childcare places, including during the holidays.”

They added the forthcoming Childcare Review “will go even further to create a system that is easier and fairer for every family, all year round”.

Considering how well Oppenheimer performed among critics, at the box office and, eventually, during awards season, the stakes were high for Christopher Nolan’s follow-up, The Odyssey.

An adaptation of Homer’s Ancient Greek epic, much has already been made of the film’s star-studded cast, massive scale and the gruelling shoot that its actors and crew were put through to bring the story to life.

Fortunately, if reviews are anything to go by, it was all worth it.

Critics have almost unanimously given The Odyssey a glowing reception, with words like “monumental”, “spectacular” and, of course, “epic” being thrown around already.

Meanwhile some are hailing it not just as the best film of the year, but of Nolan’s whole career (indeed, it currently boasts his highest score on the reviews site Rotten Tomatoes).

Here’s a taste of what critics have said so far…

“A worthy new translation of an ancient text, and yet another monumental piece of work from one of our boldest filmmakers.”

“[A] breathtaking epic of men, monsters and moral metamorphosis […] This is a film with thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair. There are some broad-brush moments in the dialogue, yes, but even these are applied with a muscular flourish.”

“Christopher Nolan’s massive, fearless adaptation is his best film to date […] It deserves to be the film that defines him.”

“The film is a masterpiece in every way […] there is a palpable yearning for primal storytelling and a need for art that can inform and instruct as well as entertain. Nolan has done it. This is the artwork.”

“Make no bones about it: The Odyssey is a remarkable film, and quite a monumental achievement […] It feels like there will be a ‘before The Odyssey’ and ‘after The Odyssey’ line drawn in cinema now.”

“Nolan and his collaborators have constructed a strange, fearsome and trailblazing machine of a movie – by some distance, the best of the year so far.”

“When the floor of the BFI IMAX quakes and the sound thunders up through the seats and into people’s bodies, it’s no false omen. It’s a pant-shaking signal that for the next three, humdinging hours you’re in for a colossal piece of cinema.”

“There are delights in every aspect of The Odyssey, from production design to costumes […] that sort of all-around excellence is a staple in Nolan’s filmography, be it in The Dark Knight, Interstellar or Oppenheimer. The Odyssey is truly special even among those, though, making a 3,000-year-old story feel fresh and original again.”

“There’s so much to feel here at a sensory level that the film gets away with its slightly aloof, soul-skirting chill; we leave it feeling that we’ve been to hell and back, and exhilaratingly so.”

“Extraordinarily staged and brimming with profundity, The Odyssey is a thunderous, anti-war screed on the persistent damage of patriarchal arrogance.”

“‘Epic’ does not begin to describe how massive the whole enterprise becomes. And when the time arrives to take it all out on those real Mediterranean waters, the wind could never be higher at the movie’s back.”

“There were moments when the transitions felt too abrupt, and the modern dialogue clunked heavily in places. There are some weird bits, too, not least the way Nolan dresses Agamemnon like a Bronze Age Batman – an in-joke, surely – and the fact that Odysseus sails not in a Greek galley, but a Viking longboat. But as journeys go, The Odyssey is spectacular.”

“Once you endure its opening stretch – an expositional barrage with the pace of an obnoxious cop show – The Odyssey ascends as a monument to movie craft with shuddering ships, rough-hewn landscapes and practical monsters who snatch and grab men at random from above like giant skill cranes.”

“Those seeking the impressive colours that Ancient Greece was known for may be put out by this muted palette, but it’s hard to think of a contemporary filmmaker who mounts a spectacle with as much finesse as Nolan.”

“A meditative action movie both immense and intimate, albeit one whose flow is impeded by the inherently episodic nature of the nonlinear source material and some questionable casting choices […] It’s ironic, given the foundational influence of the text on modern Western storytelling, that there has never been an indisputably great screen version of Homer’s Odyssey, though Nolan, who also penned the adaptation, gets closer than some.”

“There’s little in The Odyssey that breathes. It churns so dutifully toward its predictable conclusions […] that you begin to wonder if it wouldn’t be a better use of your time to just stay home and read The Odyssey.

“We want and need more movie artistry – and more dedication to the craft, which Nolan, no matter what you think of him, surely espouses. But a movie still needs to add up to something you actually want to watch, not just a testament to a filmmaker’s solemn dedication to the hallowed tradition of filmmaking.”

The Odyssey is in cinemas from Friday 17 July.

If there was anything good to come from England’s World Cup defeat on Wednesday night, it was the gift of a new meme.

During the football match against Argentina, Mick Jagger was among the celebrity guests spotted showing their support for the Three Lions at Atlanta Stadium.

He was even seen ahead of the game getting into the spirit by mouthing along to a rendition of Sweet Caroline, which has become England’s unofficial anthem in the last few years.

However, by the time it became apparent that football was, in fact, not coming home for England, the Rolling Stones frontman’s demeanour had changed somewhat.

Towards the end of the game, footage was shown of Mick looking crestfallen and shaking his head in despair at the result.

Naturally, social media users quickly grabbed the clip of this reaction for their own use…

Of course, the veteran rocker isn’t the only A-lister to have had a viral moment during this year’s World Cup.

Throughout the tournament, Sir David Beckham has been attending England’s games with his wife Victoria and (most of) their children.

Last week, Victoria inadvertently sparked her own viral moment thanks to her stoic reaction while the rest of her family celebrated England’s victory – to the point that even the former England striker himself felt compelled to say something.

“She was celebrating inside I promise,” Sir David wrote under one Instagram post about Victoria’s muted response. “Her reactions were slightly slower than mine.”

Many spotted that during Wednesday’s match, the former Spice Girls star had been decidedly more animated when England’s Anthony Gordon scored for the team.

While England, sadly, will not be making it through to Sunday night’s World Cup final, they do have one match left, against France, to determine which of them will be awarded third place in the tournament.

World Cup viewers couldn’t help but notice that Victoria Beckham seemed a lot more engrossed during Wednesday’s England match than she had at previous games.

Throughout the tournament, Victoria and her husband, football legend Sir David Beckham, have been pictured watching England’s games with (most of) their children.

However, last week, the former Spice Girls star inadvertently caused a viral moment when she was seen looking typically stoic, while the rest of the Beckham family celebrated England’s victory against Norway.

It even reached a point where Sir David himself felt compelled to say something, joking on Instagram: “She was celebrating inside I promise. Her reactions were slightly slower than mine.”

As a result, it definitely didn’t go unnoticed when Victoria was seen jumping to her feet and joining in with Sir David and their son, Romeo, when Anthony Gordon scored for England during Wednesday’s match against Argentina.

Of course, while England got off to a strong start, things didn’t end up going in their favour – and by the end of the match, Mick Jagger’s crestfallen reaction pretty much summed up the mood of the nation.

Back in 2019, Victoria claimed that “not smiling publicly” was a type of “armour” that she was prone to hiding behind, which she elaborated on even more in her self-titled Netflix documentary last year.

“I’ve looked miserable for all these years because when we stand on the red carpet, [David] has always gone on the left,” she explained to viewers.

She added: “Now I didn’t realise that when I smile – which I do! – I smile from the left, because if I smile from the right, I look unwell. So, consequently I’m smiling on the inside – but no one ever sees it. So, that’s why I look so moody.”

While England’s squad is now out of the World Cup, they do have one more game left, going head-to-head with France later this week to determine who has finished in third place.

Lower back pain affects about 80% of us at one point or another, according to the NHS.

Thankfully, fewer than 1% of those cases require urgent medical attention. But the pain can still affect your quality of life, and might mean you’re less tempted to exercise.

That can be a shame, as the NHS explained, “keeping as active as possible can help you to recover and do the things that are important to you”.

Avoiding movement for more than a day or two in mild back pain cases might actually worsen your condition, the health service added.

According to a 2019 analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, four activities in particular seemed the most effective at treating “non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP)”.

NSCLBP means doctors can’t find one specific cause for back pain. This applies to the “vast majority of chronic low back pain cases,” the study’s lead author, associate professor Daniel Belavy, said.

This paper analysed 89 studies involving back pain and exercise.

Researchers found that staying active seemed to be more effective than rest for NSCLBP.

Belavy said: “There is a common misconception that if someone is in pain, they should be resting, but our research shows that when the pain has been there for a long time, exercise is an important part of treatment.”

They found four training styles were the “most effective” at treating NSCLBP. These were:

This seemed to be the joint “best” exercise for dealing with the condition.

Speaking to Healthline, Dr Courtney Gilbert, a physical medicine and rehabilitation expert, said: “Pilates teaches you how to articulate your spine and engage your deep core. Research has shown that Pilates can decrease low back pain compared to no exercise and non-specific exercise.”

This can include exercising with a pilates machine (Joseph Pilates, who invented the exercise, called this a Universal Reformer machine: now they’re used in Reformer classes), or doing pilates on a mat.

“There was evidence that Pilates and stabilisation or motor control exercise training were the best of these exercises for reducing pain,” Belavy said.

Stabilisation exercises can include strengthening your core and might involve crunches, bridges, and planks.

Motor control exercise training, meanwhile, typically aims to retrain the muscles near your spine to become more co-ordinated and stronger.

This can include balance training and other moves like hip bridges, sitting knee extensions, and even squats.

You might know this as strength training. It means using weights and resistance training at increasingly high loads to build your muscles up.

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how “tight” hips that you might think need stretching can actually be weak hips that would benefit from strengthening. A similar principle can apply here.

Some strengthening exercises include weighted squats, push-ups, deadlifts, bench presses, and more.

Basically, activities like walking and running.

You might want to build up your pace and distance if you haven’t exercised in a while – “our study provides evidence that active therapies where the patient is guided, actively encouraged to move and exercise in a progressive fashion are the most effective,” Belavy shared.

Interestingly, this paper found that “stretching and McKenzie exercises, which is a treatment approach that uses a classification system to prescribe exercise”, were found to be the “least effective” kinds of exercises.

The NHS advises you should always stop exercising if it makes your back pain worse. Speak to your GP if you’re worried about your back pain and/or aren’t sure about beginning new activity.

Oscar winner Brenda Fricker has died at the age of 88.

The character actor was most well-known to film fans for her work in the 1989 movie My Left Foot, for which she made history as the first Irish woman to ever win an Oscar, picking up the Best Supporting Actress prize at the Academy Awards.

Her other movie credits include So I Married An Axe Murderer and Veronica Guerin, while to a generation of viewers, she’ll be best remembered as the character known as the “Central Park Pigeon Woman” in the festive family comedy Home Alone 2: Lost In New York.

Paying tribute in a statement to BBC News on Friday morning, her agent said: “We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her.

“I was honoured to know, love and work with her and she will always have a place in my heart and in the heart of so many film and TV fans the world over.”

Brenda’s other on-screen work included a recurring role in Casualty as nurse Megan Roach, a role she continued to play until the 2010s.

She also shared the screen with Glenn Close in 2011’s Albert Nobbs, and appeared in the TV adaptation of the Graham Norton novel Holding in the 2020s.

In addition to her acting career, Brenda released her candid memoir She Died Young: A Life In Fragments, last year.

Following the news of Brenda’s death, Ireland’s Tánaiste Simon Harris said he had been “deeply saddened” by the loss, remembering the late actor as “a national treasure”.

“She was a consummate performer who graced our screens and stages with remarkable talent and authenticity. Brenda brought depth and humanity to every role she undertook,” he said.

Harris added: “She truly was among the greatest exports this country has ever produced and an ambassador for Irish talent on the world stage. Quite simply, we will never see the like of her ever again.”