 Check your waste collection weeks online
Our waste collections are changing from Monday 12 August, so we've launched an online checker to help you get ready.
Your collection day isn't changing, but we'll be collecting rubbish from your new black wheeled bin every two weeks and our recycling collections are also going fortnightly.
Our new tool will help you remember what to put out each week – and don’t forget that food waste collections are staying weekly, so make good use of them.
You should also have received a calendar in the post with a year's worth of collection weeks and information on how to put your waste out correctly.
Make sure you read this, as your waste won't be collected if it's put out wrongly - but don't worry, there are only a few simple rules to follow.
We’ll be looking at how to put your waste our correctly in more detail next week.
Get ready for a greener future
We're wrapping up our wheeled rubbish bin deliveries now, so please let us know if you haven’t had one and haven’t already reported this.
There's still time to get green recycling bags if you think you'll need them, though four should be enough for most households, or a free food waste bin and caddy.
 New minister meets fostering team and carers
We hosted a visit to our fostering service from Janet Daby MP, the new Minister for Children and Families, on Wednesday (31 July).
Mrs Daby visited the headquarters of the new regional fostering recruitment hub before heading to meet Wokingham Borough foster carers Sue and Les.
Sue and Les are "hub home" carers for our Mockingbird programme, run by The Fostering Network, which brings together a group of foster families to form a support network for each other, with hub home carers at the centre.
During her visit, Mrs Daby heard about how the programme has helped to provide continuity and stability for our young people.
Sue and Les are proactive and approachable and the foster families who are part of the "hub" socialise regularly - meaning Sue and Les are fun, familiar adults to the young people and staying with them is exciting.
This creates a natural break for our carers, who give everything to fostering, and means they don’t miss out on important events.
Could you foster?
We're always looking for more foster carers and anyone interested can visit Local Authority Fostering South East for more information.
 New SEND facilities set to open this September
Two new special educational needs and disability (SEND) facilities are now getting their finishing touches and will be welcoming children in September.
Eight pupils are due to start at a new resource base at Loddon Primary School and six will start at a new SEND unit at Radstock Primary School, both in Earley.
The 14 children, who all live in the borough, have been taking part in activities to get them ready for this exciting transition over the past term.
Over the next three years, 42 additional spaces will be created with phased entry for children with social and communication difficulties.
This will offer bespoke teaching and environments as well as opportunities for integration into mainstream classrooms, meaning children will benefit from being members of the school community.
Children using a resource base spend about half their time in the main school and the rest getting specialist support at the resource base.
Meanwhile, the SEND unit is for children with a higher level of need. They spend around 70 per cent of time getting specialist support and the rest in the school.
This bridges the gap between children who require less intensive support and those who attend a specialist school.
 Meet one of our Beat the Street winners!
In Tuesday's Residents' Round-up, we told you about the success of this year's Beat the Street walking and cycling game.
We've spoken to Harsh, the winner of the individual child category, who had a blast playing with his mum Bharti. The pair walked 1,209 miles and won 34,860 points.
Bharti tells us: "It was an incredible experience, and enjoying activities like running, cycling and walking has significantly improved our health and work-life balance.
"We've found that we prefer going out to collect points rather than staying at home with gadgets. Throughout this period, I've managed to do a lot more exercise and never imagined that we could do this without a specific goal in mind.
"We started just by collecting points, but we soon realized that we needed to take this on as a challenge. This led us to start competing on the leaderboard with others, and made us more determined to earn even more points.”
Beat the Street was run by Intelligent Health and our My Journey Wokingham team, with funding from us and the Government.
 Still plenty of chances to get active
Our My Journey Wokingham team do loads throughout the year to help you travel in a healthier way - both for you and the environment.
Don't miss their Summer Bike Bonanza at the FBC Centre in Finchampstead on Thursday 15 August, and have a look at some of the other events they're running.
They're also supporting Love to Ride's Cycle September campaign, which gives you the chance to win prizes for riding more.
What you might have missed
We publish newsletters on lots of different topics - and you can view the full list and subscribe to them on our website.
Here's what we've published in the past week:
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