Dance teacher has the world’s largest collection of Sylvanian Families

Dance teacher has the world’s largest collection of Sylvanian Families – spending £250k on his haul

2018-09-07 16:59 Last Updated At：17:00

Jacc Batch even had to move house to accommodate his beloved toys.

A successful businessman has been awarded a Guinness World Records title for his staggering £250,000 collection of Sylvanian Families toys.

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Dance school owner Jacc Batch, 32, who has amassed 9,000 items and spends £300 a week on everything from Sylvanian toy figures to magazines, even had move to a bigger house, as he needed two rooms to store his floor-to-ceiling haul.

Admitting that he spent a staggering £15,000 on his most treasured item, a carousel, Jacc, of Kettering, Northants., who began collecting at seven, said: “I love toys, especially from the 1980s.”

He added: “I choose to spend my money on them because I can afford it. I don’t go without. I own my own business, drive a nice car, have a lovely home.

“Other people go on expensive holidays and I choose to buy Sylvanian Families.”

First created in 1985, Sylvanian Families originated in Japan and came to the UK in 1987.

Grouped into families, including rabbits, foxes, squirrels and owls, Jacc collects every character and accessory belonging to the woodland creatures, which live in the world of Sylvania.

Delighted to have made it into the new 2019 Guinness World Records book, out today, Jacc won the record for the largest collection on the planet based on his 3,489 unique items.

Duplicates – which many of his items from America, Japan and Europe are, although they may have slightly different packaging – are not counted.

Jacc, who is single, has bought the majority of his collection over the last 15 years, which – valued at £250,000 – is worth more than the £214,745 average price of a UK house.

He first saw his most expensive find, the £15,000 carousel which he bought last month, in a catalogue as a young boy.

Told it was never put into production, but the prototype was in a ex-toy designer’s loft just a few miles away, he could not resist buying it.

“It’s the most money I have ever spent on anything in my whole life,” he smiled.

“But I would rather spend my money on Sylvanian Families than going out drinking all the time.

“Luckily, I work really hard and have a successful business, so I was in a position to buy the item I had always wanted.”

As a child, Jacc used his pocket money to buy his very first item, Brother Hedgehog, at a toyshop in Kettering, when he was seven – triggering his lifelong passion for all things Sylvanian.

“People started buying me them for birthdays and Christmas and I realised I couldn’t just have one,” he said.

“I absolutely loved playing with them as a child. It was like an escape back then and collecting them now, as an adult, it still is. I just love the total happiness of their world.”

Keeping the toys, which come with different sets – from cottages, treehouses, and hospitals, to caravans and a luxury hotel – in a chest in his bedroom as a child, when Jacc left for university and moved to Spain for a year, his collection moved into his 63-year-old mum Sue Batch’s loft.

Then, after meeting his former partner Craig Fellows, 39, and deciding to move in together, Jacc insisted his collection had its own room.

And earlier this year, when the pair, who remain best friends and run the dance studio business together, separated and Jacc moved out, he found a new home with more space for his growing-collection.

“Now I rent a four-bedroom home and two of those rooms are for the Sylvanian Families,” he said.

“The rooms are packed floor to ceiling and I don’t let anyone go in there, because it is so precious to me. I don’t play with any of the toys either, they stay in their boxes.”

Buying most of his items on eBay now, Jacc says he will never stop collecting.

“It’s very doubtful this will ever end,” he said. “I plan to be an old man surrounded by Sylvanian Families in my care home, telling the nurse to pop to the post office to get my parcels.”

His toys have even earned him fans around the world, who have seen them through his social media and acknowledged his astonishing achievement.

“It’s amazing to be recognised as having the biggest collection in the world,” he added. I’ve even been stopped in the street by people who recognise me from my massive collection.”

US judge temporarily halts Trump plan to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for teacher training

2025-03-12 08:04 Last Updated At：08:10

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration's plan to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for teacher training, finding that cuts are already affecting training programs aimed at addressing a nationwide teacher shortage.

U.S. District Judge Myong Joun sided with the eight states that had requested a temporary restraining order. The states argued the cuts were likely driven by efforts from President Donald Trump's administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Trump, a Republican, has said he wants to dismantle the Education Department, and his administration has already started overhauling much of its work, including cutting dozens of contracts it dismissed as “woke” and wasteful.

The plaintiffs argued the federal Education Department abruptly ended two programs — the Teacher Quality Partnership and Supporting Effective Educator Development — without notice in February. They said the two programs provided upwards of $600 million in grants for teacher preparation programs, often in subject areas, such as math, science and special education. They said data has shown the programs had led to increased teacher retention rates and ensured that educators remain in the profession beyond five years.

Joun, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat, found that the cancelations violated administrative law by failing to give a clear explanation and that the states are at risk of lasting harm because they're already having to cancel teacher training programs and lay people off.

“The record shows that if I were to deny the TRO, dozens of programs upon which public schools, public universities, students, teachers, and faculty rely will be gutted,” he wrote, using the acronym for temporary restraining order.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell called the order “a victory for our students, teachers and school districts, restoring funds to programs designed to address the ongoing teacher shortage in the Commonwealth, including those serving vulnerable students with special needs.”

On Monday, Laura Faer, arguing on behalf of the plaintiffs for California, told Joun that a temporary restraining order was urgently needed because the freeze on grants was already leading to staff being laid off and program being halted.

“The situation is dire right now,” she told the court. “As we speak, our programs across the state are facing the possibility of closure, termination.”

California is joined by Massachusetts, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, New York and Wisconsin.

Adelaide Pagano, representing Massachusetts, argued the Education Department lacked the authority to cancel the grants and its move was not in accordance with the law. The form letters to grantees, she said, failed to provide a clear and reasonable explanation for the cancellations and wrongly changed the criteria in the middle of the grant process, something they could consider for future funding but not money already allocated.

Michael Fitzgerald, representing the government, insisted the Education Department was well within its authority to cancel the grants over the programs suspected of violating federal anti-discrimination laws and no longer aligning with the department's priorities. He also argued there was no need for immediate relief, since grantees could recoup their frozen funds if they prevail in their lawsuit.

Late Tuesday, the Trump administration appealed the order to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed.