Last post... One in 3 children have never written a letter

A THIRD of children have never known the joy of sending or receiving a letter, a survey has found.

Almost seven in ten haven’t even written to the Tooth Fairy. While many mostly speak to their friends online, 84 per cent said they would be excited to get post through the letterbox.

Just one in five children had sent or received a letter in the last three months, while only 39 per cent had written to a family member. Dinah Johnson, founder of The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society, said: ‘I think it would be really sad for anyone, young or old, to never have received or written a letter. Nothing replaces getting a letter that’s solely for you where one other person has taken time to think about you exclusively.’

The figures come from The Diana Award and Nationwide, who have launched The Positive Postbox – a programme to deliver positivity to school children.

Schools have been invited to sign up to the scheme, which sees youngsters writing a letter or drawing a picture that will then be posted to another child at a partner school across the country.