YP Letters: Concentrate on teaching, not school uniforms

From: Shaun Kavanagh, Leeds.
School uniform rules are causing confusion amongst some parents.School uniform rules are causing confusion amongst some parents.
School uniform rules are causing confusion amongst some parents.

READING about the school uniform controversy at Leeds West Academy, and the stance taken by its principal Christian Wilcocks, it is clear he is being ridiculous, especially with his feeble attempt to justify his actions.

Surely, it is more important that education comes first and not a uniform? No doubt parents respect the wearing of a uniform but does it really matter whether trousers have a zip or an elasticated waist as opposed to a belt?

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The question is do all the pupils look the same by wearing the same coloured garment? Does he want pupils to be wearing Savile Row clothing or those which they feel comfortable in without a drastic change to their appearance?

Get real, Mr Wilcocks, and concentrate on teaching.

From: John G Davies, Keighley.

A RECENT presentation to the British Educational Research Association conference indicates that schools are reluctant to use mixed ability teaching for a number of reasons, including teachers’ lack of experience of this approach and fear that parents would see it as being “unconventional”. Ofsted’s influence cannot be discounted either.

This is in spite of setting and streaming having a negative impact on most pupils, only benefitting high-attaining children. The website of the Education Endowment Foundation, a government body which promotes evidence-based teaching, says: “On average, it does not appear to be an effective strategy for raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.”

In spite of a plethora of well-established research, we have a government that continues ostrich-like to promote selection, streaming and grammar schools.

Tragedies on two wheels

From: Granville Stockdale, Hardwick Street, Hull.

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I NOTE that following the death of a woman, caused by a cyclist with a fixed-gear bike, that there is to be new legislation regarding cycles. Two questions:

How many people have been killed by cyclists in, say, the last 10 years?

How many cyclists have been killed by road vehicles in the same period?

Dysfunctional without faith

From: Canon Michael Storey, Healey Wood Road, Brighouse.

NEWS bulletins have been setting before us the cross section of people of different origins held in prison.

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Some comments were also made on the huge number of youths in custody. The phrase “dysfunctional families” was used, without giving percentages.

I suspect that the majority of these will be one-parent, a result of the current free-for-all sex life “enjoyed” in this decreasingly Christian land. I base this on the recent survey indicating that 53 per cent of people living in the UK have no religion – hence home-made ethics.

Who polices crime tsars?

From: DS Boyes, Leeds.

WE owe a debt of gratitude to the former Humberside chief constable for highlighting a possibly unforeseen consequence of elected police and crime commissioners.

One of the main selling points of these new posts by then PM David Cameron was that they had powers to sack previously almost unassailable chief constables, yet never any mention of who had power over the commissioners.

How English is crumbling

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

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FATHER Neil McNicholas, Brian Sheridan and other readers might enjoy Matthew Engel’s That’s the Way it Crumbles: the American Conquest of English.

All languages evolve; English probably most of all, because of its “world language” status. Doesn’t “evolve” suggest being adopted by us, rather than having something foisted on us by “ad men” and such?

Even that most iconic English institution, Leeds’s own Marks & Spencer, now offers “Food to go”; do we eat or conjugate first?

More jaw, jaw

From: Ruthven Urquhart, High Hunsley, Cottingham.

COULD someone please advise Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un of Winston Churchill’s wise words “Jaw, jaw, not war, war”? My own often quoted expression is as follows: “If you insist on playing with fire it won’t be long before you get burnt.” Let us hope and pray for a mutually agreed and satisfactory outcome to this fearful Korean crisis.

What a waste

From: Jarvis Browning, York.

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AT one time we used to have someone, who would collect our wasted food into a slop, which was then rendered into pig swill, now defunct because the previous government (MAFF) allowed the process at a lower temperature, which had disastrous consequences, i.e. foot and mouth. Had this not happened (The Yorkshire Post, September 9), might we still be recycling our food waste?

Leaner times

From: Arthur Quarmby, Mill Moor Road, Meltham.

THERE were no fat children during the war when I was at school. Perhaps the odd plump boy – but we never got into the habit of over-eating. Only the adequate ration was available. Has any comparison been made between the lives of those wartime youngsters and their successors? And, if so, were there any lessons to be learned?

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