Article For Folkestone Herald and Kentish Express

16 June 2005

Last Friday I went to the opening of the new playing field for Mundella Primary School in Folkestone. This is the result of a very imaginative proposal which has turned what was previously, to all intents and purposes, a piece of waste land into a playing field which will be of great benefit to the school and, I hope, to the wider community.

It is a particularly heartening development given that one normally hears more about school playing fields being sold than new ones being opened. Anything that makes it easier for team games to be played at school is greatly to be welcomed. Physical education is an essential part of education and hasn’t always had the attention and priority it deserves.

So, congratulations to Mundella’s Headteacher, Rosemary Hannibal, and her team for their vision in taking this proposal forward. Thanks too to Kent County Council and the Big Lottery Fund for their financial help.

The next step, I hope, will be to make the playing fields available for community use. The need for facilities like this in the part of Folkestone where it is situated is acute and it would be a great shame if the playing field were not to be used at weekends and in the school holidays. I know that the school is keen that the field should be used in this way and hope that the necessary arrangements can be made soon.

From Mundella, I went to look at the new buildings at Stowting School. The physical environment could hardly be more different. But of course many of the dwellings are the same.

I discussed behavioural problems with Astrid Richardson, Stowting’s Headteacher. She says that children arrive at school these days less able to do things for themselves. She puts this down to the fact that parents often find it easier – and quicker – to do things for children than to teach them how to do it themselves.

We all know that time is at a premium. There is so much to do and too little time to do it in. Is this one of the factors that decides parents to take short cuts with their children? It is a provocative and very interesting thought.

I am not sure that this is something that politicians can do a great deal about. But it does raise questions we should all think about.