YP Letters: How would today's children cope with war?

Do exams put children under too much stress?

I HAVE to smile when I read the correspondence and articles about children suffering stress over their GCSE examinations (Jayne Dowle, The Yorkshire Post, February 12).

I was a child during Second World War living in London. While the ‘Doodlebugs’ were raining havoc and death on a regular basis, we found our way to school between air raid warnings; sat our School Certificate examinations with no mention of stress, counselling or extra help.

We were also coping with rationing, for example 4ozs of sweets a month; wearing hand- me-down clothes; death of friends killed in the latest raid. I wonder how today’s children would cope in that situation.

From: Mrs S Senior, Bradford Road, Liversedge, Wakefield.

I WAS horrified to read your report in which there was praise for a scheme giving trainee teachers classroom expereince.Doing a short placement after taking a degree is no preparation for teaching. I was at teacher training college (a two year course), and we were in schools from week two.

If you failed final school practice, you didn’t qualify – no matter how good your exams were.