Reasons to be proud of council estate roots
I WAS very disappointed to learn from a recent sermon at our church, St Andrew’s, Eastern Green, that Tile Hill North is, according to statistics, one of the five most socially deprived areas in the country. They were launching an appeal for volunteers to help with a summer programme of making a hot meal and having some rest and recouperation with the children that attend. Entertaining them with indoor and outdoor activities before and after lunch. My oh my, how times change. I was brought up in Tile Hill North and in the late 50s and early 60s the wealth of talent in our street alone produced two dentists; one supervisor of midwives; one principle lecturer in nursing (at Coventry University); one medical secretary, one managing director (in the southern hemisphere); one secretary (learning shorthand/ typing); one teacher; one mechanical engineer; one policewoman; one PHD in engineering. So when people are quick to judge those brought up on a council estate, known colloquially as chavs, no money or big houses or super-duper laptops, iPads, iPhones or the like, can make up the security of a loving home with parents that made the time to help with the three Rs, having a hot meal every evening, and often many going home for lunch as well. So take your hats off to the teachers at Lumbrick Wood Primary School, Bush Close, and Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Primary School, Hawthorn Lane, and to all the children who were attentive, keen to learn, and were taught to be upstanding citizens in this multicultural cosmopolitan city we live in. JM Pinks Tile Hill South