Hear All Sides

HELEN QUICK

WITH regard to the sad case of headmistress Helen Quick, isn't it about time that the practice of publishing the league tables is abolished?

SATS are meant to be a measure of a child's progress through his/her academic life so that the teachers can take appropriate action to help the child to achieve its full potential.

However, by publishing the results in the format that it does, the Government has handed the media another stick with which to beat the hard-pressed teachers.

No wonder they feel undervalued and demoralised.

The league tables make no allowance of the social factors which affect the standards of the children attending a particular school.

Look at any of the league tables and you will see that the top of the lists are always dominated by the schools in the middle-class areas. What sort of message is that sending to the children in the poorer areas, not to mention the dedicated teacher who choose to work in the deprived areas, instead of taking the easy option of moving to a school with a better social mix?

If the Government insists on publishing the tables, they should be based on the level of improvement in each child from its base when it entered the school. Then we would see which schools were really doing their job with the raw material they have been given. - Name and address supplied.

ARTHRITIS

AS children grow up, they often experience aches and pains in their limbs. Although children and young people can develop a childhood form of arthritis, it is rare and only affects about 14,500 youngsters in the UK.

Another more likely reason why children develop aches in the arms and legs is growing pains. No one knows why some children and not others go through this phase; it may be because of accelerated bone growth during childhood. The pains may be brought on by upset or stress or after a minor accident.

But although it can be worrying for children and their parents, the good news is that the pains don't last and children will grow out of it.

The Arthritis Research Campaign has produced a new booklet on Growing Pains, aimed at children aged between five and ten, explaining what it is and how doctors will investigate.

The ARC also as a booklet for young children on childhood arthritis called Tim Has Arthritis. Both booklets are available free of charge. - Beverley Moss, Arthritis Research Campaign, St Marys Gate, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S41 7TD.

THE EURO

THE anti-euro people really can't have it both ways. They continually claim that any referendum will be rigged so the UK will enter the euro whether it's good for the country or not - and that the Government is going to bounce the country into it.

When the Government decides that it's going to cool it and take a long hard look at the benefits, then they get attacked for that too.

The anti-euro campaign wants to rule out the euro whether it's good or bad and without asking the people if it is to their benefit.

And they have the nerve to claim that the pro-euro side is undemocratic. - Robin Ashby, Secretary, North-East in Europe, Newcastle.

KEN CLARKE

IF Ken Clarke becomes leader of the Conservative Party, this will prove beyond doubt that its members have followed in the footsteps of New Labour and put party before country.

The future for the United Kingdom lies outside the European Union. We can trade freely with all of Europe without hindering our economy with excessive regulation and taking away our freedom with interfering directives.

Surely the ideals of Conservatism are of a free market economy, encouraging global free trade, giving more freedom to small businesses and the individual, having a more flexible labour force, and having lower levels of taxation.

But anyone with any sense can realise that the above is not possible whilst we retain our membership of the European Union. The Conservatives have the chance now to show that they care about their principles, and above all, that they care about our country, by electing a strong leader who will propose a policy of withdrawal from the European Union.

This would not be an extreme measure, but one that would give us the biggest boost of self confidence since the Allied victory in 1945. Furthermore, it would give the voters a real choice on how we are governed.

It would expose the deceitful policy of successive governments since the 1960s and would put the Conservative Party back in power, this time with the ability to make our own laws and not ask permission from abroad for everything we wish to do. - Jamie Mash, Northallerton.

CRICKET

ENGLAND'S game of cricket used to be the pleasant sound of leather coming off willow on village greens on Sunday afternoons. How this has changed.

Cricket in this country is now being ruined by pitch invasions and violence by people calling themselves cricket fans but who are no more than thugs. They are sending cricket down the same violent road as football.

In the past, football teams have been banned from Europe because of fan violence so therefore cricket teams should be banned from playing in other countries if their fans disrupt the gentlemen's game.

Let us hope that Home Secretary David Blunkett will introduce harsh penalties to stop the game of cricket being ruined like many other sports have. - TE Crook, Bishop Auckland.