Letters, March 1, 2019

Last July, The Gazette exposed the illegal driving activities of some young drivers in your ‘Fast and furious’ article, but was anyone actually convicted by the police?

What action was taken against the untaxed vehicles and what happened to the driver who, idiotically, let a child take the wheel of an untaxed car and perform a ‘burnout’?

Has anyone actually faced any charge whatsoever over the incident highlighted by your journalist? And if not, why not?

The streets of Blackpool seem more riddled than ever with the boy/girl racer virus; impatiently revving their engines at traffic lights, weaving along the road like Poundland Lewis Hamiltons,

carelessly tearing through our side streets at break-neck speed, they make our town a more dangerous, noisier and more intimidating place.

Squires Gate Lane residents will know all this too well but you see and hear them all over the town.

The thing is, one of the few things these antisocial imbeciles do understand is that the police are under resourced so they can just carry on driving and acting like idiots, gleeful in the knowledge that the police don’t have the manpower to deal with them.

And as that continues to happen, the problems will only increase.

Name and address supplied

momo

Steps to protect your child online

The so-called ‘Momo challenge’ has been making headlines and causing concern for parents. According to news reports, Momo is a creepy doll-like figure (pictured) which is said to appear in social media, videos and games online.

This is what parents need to know, and what you can do to protect your child:

. Set age-appropriate boundaries. Children of any age should be very cautious about adding anyone they don’t know to their networks.

. Have open conversations about online safety, and let your child know they can come to you if they see anything that upsets or worries them.

. Report any Momo-related content to the platform (eg. YouTube, Instagram).

. Teach your child what it means to be assertive and explore saying no to doing things they don’t want to do - whether face to face or online.

Get help: our website www.kidscape.org.uk has advice for families about online safety.

Momo may be frightening to children, in particular younger children. Memes like the Momo challenge draw their power from fear, so make sure your children see that you’re not scared of Momo, and it’s a problem you can solve together.

Lauren Seager-Smith

CEO, Kidscape

education

Extra help needed for poorer white pupils

Teachers work hard, it is argued there is a rise in creeping class sizes.

Having fewer pupils in class allows teachers to get to know pupils at a more personal level.

In July 2018, Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman said “motivation at schools in London was considerably higher thanks to a higher number of immigrants”she went on “as far as white working class communities they may lack the aspiration and drive seen in many migrant communities”.

An article in January 2019 verifies the Ofsted Chief Inspector’s statement. A state school in a depressed area of London was offered 41 places at Oxbridge and Cambridge universities.

Almost all came from ethnic minority backgrounds.

No offence to these pupils as they worked hard.

Evidence of the Children’s Commission office has shown bright poor children are overtaken by their less gifted peers at age six.

Nordic communities invest more in early years education. By the time pupils enter secondary education the attainment gap is harder to eliminate.

I recently read ‘Universities where less than five per cent of places go to poor white children’. Experts for many years have warned white working class communities, especially those in coastal areas and rural areas, are left behind by the success of the big cities.

If more white working class boys could be encouraged to stay on in higher education it would keep some of them out of the Criminal Justice System. The question was: ‘Do we need more new ideas in education’?

Name and address

supplied