Revealed: how our children are doing
A startling new report has revealed what it is like for children growing up in Scarborough today.
The report reveals:
Over a thi rd of te enage internet users aren’t supervised online – with a quarter admitting they chat with strangers
Nearly a quarter of primary schoolchildren say they had recently been bullied in class
Almost one in ten teenagers admitted to having chocolate or sweets for breakfast.
Children as young as six years
admit they know where drugs can be bought - with more teenagers than ever carrying weapons on the street for protection.
“The responsibilty for most of this lies with the parents,” said Scarborough Councillor Jonathan Dodds.
“There needs to clearly be more emphasis on education for both parents and children alike - do they not get educated about these matters in schools?
“The drugs and weapons statistics are very worrying.”
More than 800 pupils, aged between six and 15, were surveyed in school for the report which is designed to summarise children’s learning and well-being in the town.
The report, entitled “Growing up in Scarborough”, paints a detailed picture of everything from the health to the emotional well- being of the children questioned.
The report is the fifth to be carried out by by North Yorkshire Children’s Trust since 2006, and compares Scarborough’s youth with others from around the region.
Compared t o t he re s t of North Yorkshire, Scarborough’s youngsters are portrayed as not getting enough goodness, with one in 10 of the town’s 10 and 11-year-old’s not drinking any water the day before they were interviewed.
They are also twice as likely to not be getting the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day than other children in North Yorkshire.
Primary children are also less likely to play football, ride a bike or go to an after school club in Scarborough.
Under half of Scarborough’s teenagers do five or more hours of exercise a week.
In a separate recent report, Scarborough was found to have one of the worst obesity problems in the country - with residents labelled “fat, lazy and very unhealthy”.
The latest report went before Scarborough Council’s Health and Wellbeing Committee yesterday afternoon.
UKIP’s Cllr Dodds sits on that committee, and he admitted the findings about our children’s health were “concerning”.
He added: “Surely that responsibility (to feed them properly) falls to the parents.
“Most kids can only eat what their parents provide.”
But in terms of their health, there were positives in the report.
Figures show that Scarborough’s teenagers are drinking less alcohol than they were when the previous report, which was carried out in 2012.
The number o f pr i mary school pupils who touch alcohol has also plummeted from 2102.
More than half of primary pupils back then admitted to drinking alcohol. That figure has now plummeted, with just under one in five admitting to touching booze.
The report also reveals that two thirds of young children worry daily, with six and seven-yearolds most likely to stress about family and friends.
A third of primary pupils worry about exams, while Scarborough pupils are 50 per cent more likely to be scared to go to school because of bullying than other children in North Yorkshire.
A recent Scarborough News investigation found there was a bullying “epidemic” in the town’s schools.
It revealed that despite 1,424 suspensions, not one pupil in the borough had been expelled in four years for bullying. The report also reveals: One in ten eat sweets for breakfast
24 per cent admit they were recently bullied 802 pupils quizzed Twice as likely not to get their five-a-day
68 per cent of children as young as six have TVs in their room.
North Yo rk s hi re County Council admitted it had to do more, after parents spoke of their desperation with schools who they accused of “turning a blind eye” to the problem.
And this report revealed that almost half of Scarborough’s young pupils had been teased or made fun of within a month of being surveyed, with a quarter of those abused with homophobic slurs.
The report, which is carried out every two years, has been compiled by interviews held in 2014, but has only just been published.
Compared to North Yorkshire, it found Scarborough primary school pupils are far more likely to have a TV in their bedroom, have free school meals and not live with both parents.
Teenagers here are more likely to have tried “e-cigs”, and be raised in a smokey environment, but are also more likely to have part-time jobs.
The report, commissioned b y No rt h Yo rk s h i r e Co u n - ty Council, reads: “Teachers were briefed on how to collect the most reliable data and then pupils anonymously collected the questionnaire. Completed questionnaires were then returned for processing. Some of the schools conducted the survey online.”