AS MY role at Almondbury High School and Language College is as a Behaviour Support Worker, I use different strategies to influence my pupils when they are upset and come out of lesson to calm down.

I sometimes do anger management, life coaching and mentoring depending on the situation I am faced with at the time.

But I am always open to new ideas and help from anyone with good advice.

I am a very keen boxing fan and know boxing training and techniques are very good for discipline, so one day after a parent/pupil meeting I started browsing the internet for a good boxing club.

I had heard of Rawthorpe Amateur Boxing Club and read about them in the Examiner on a few occasions but had no contact details until looking at the website.

What I read about Mark Reynolds and what he had to offer was just what I knew would be beneficial to our pupils here at Almondbury High.

I took this information to our headteacher Mrs Janet Tolley, a meeting was arranged just before the summer break and Mark has been attending since September on a weekly basis.

He delivers a lunchtime Boxercise session for boys and girls of all ages, which are very enthusiastic and full of fun. Then in the afternoon he works individually with pupils concentrating on their anger issues and encouraging positive behaviour in and out of school.

His work is excellent and has had an immediate effect on our pupils.

Davis Dyer

Almondbury

Media regulation

THE recent tragedy involving two Australian radio DJ’s making an intrusive hoax call to King Edward V11’s Hospital, and leading to the death by suicide of a much respected nurse, shows how much the media, internationally, needs reining in and regulating properly.

How much nearer the bottom of the cesspit can you sink, than carrying out a ‘hoax’ on a hospital, whose staff are nursing sick patients, famous or not?

I sincerely hope that these two misaligned broadcasters are held partly responsible, although I guess this will not happen for diplomacy reasons, given that it is a bigger issue here, ie closer to home than in Australia.

If this incident is considered to be acceptable media journalism and entertainment in today’s society, then I am glad I was born in a different era with higher ethical standards.

Mr Grumpy

Almondbury

Green dream

I read with great interest the letter written by Andy Macdonald (Letters, December 14) regarding his love of wind turbines.

Andy stated that he knew which he preferred when he gazed at Drax and the wind turbines which are springing up with abandon around South Huddersfield.

Andy you maybe a Green I do not know but I would ask you this question. How many turbines would we need to replace Drax and the like?

Would you vote for half an hour’s worth of electric per day? Would you also want a small community farm sited at the bottom of your garden?

People talk about sharing with the energy generated from turbines. Forget it. This will never happen.

Sorry Andy and our Green leader on the council, Clr Cooper, it’s pie in the sky.

SMD

Huddersfield

Encouraging shoppers

MORE than one correspondent has mentioned the town of Bury as being one from which Kirklees could learn a few handy lessons in how to attract footfall.

Parking is a matter which Bury council has tackled successfully, and makes it easy for visitors to park very close to all its amenities.

There is an abundance of open and covered car parks charging very modest rates, but there is also at least one car park in which you can obtain a ticket for one hour’s free parking.

Modest charges apply for time spent over an hour. Additionally, on some of the side streets in the main shopping areas, metered on-street parking is free for the first 20 minutes, again with modest charges applying if exceeding that time.

Perhaps this approach could serve as a compromise between Kirklees Council, who seem determined to milk potential shoppers of every last penny, and those who have been suggesting the lifting of all parking charges.

Parking spaces have to be paid for somehow, but if visitors are made to feel they are not being fleeced before they get a chance to step inside a store, there is more likelihood that they will stop and shop.

Alan Starr

Golcar

Flower power

I WOULD be one of the first to call out the decisions and actions some Kirklees officers waste our money on, so I think it is only right that I praise them when I think they get it right.

I refer to the work done in our parks and gardens in Kirklees, especially what was the old folk’s park in Honley.

The lads and lasses work hard in all weathers to keep them clean and tidy and put on a floral display second to none.

It fair gives you a lift in the miserable weather when you view the results of their efforts.

P J Budd

Honley

Why drive off?

DURING the horrendous icy conditions which we experienced on December 14, some charming individual drove into the front garden wall of our premises on Halifax Road, Huddersfield.

I can in the circumstances, understand how this may have occurred due to the weather conditions which prevailed, but what I find more difficult to stomach is that the individual simply drove off without a care.

What is it about our present society that people can do this to property which is not theirs and simply walk away and leave others to suffer the consequences? It makes one truly despair!

The vehicle involved must be extensively damaged and we, and the police would welcome any feedback from witnesses to the incident.

Meanwhile, may I wish a very happy Christmas to all the normal, honest and upstanding people of Huddersfield.

J B

Edgerton

Five a day?

I’M trying to eat healthily before the season of gluttony gets into full swing.

Can any Examiner reader advise whether four mince pies and a mini Christmas pudding counts towards my ‘five a day’ portions of fruit?

Richard Hudlleston

West Slaithwaite