What you say #127
Women shop workers are being harassed
Much is being said about the safety of women and girls following the murder of Sarah Everard.
The attitude of some men and boys towards women is appalling and ranges from verbal abuse, threats of violence to actual physical assault and rape.
What is not being talked about or addressed is women shop workers being harassed, verbally abused and threatened in their workplace by male customers.
My wife works for Tesco in Amble and like her fellow female colleagues receives abuse on a daily basis. This can range from verbal abuse from men refusing to wear a face covering, under age boys demanding to be sold alcohol or groups of boys, on bicycles, loitering outside the shop waiting for an opportunity to rush in and grab what they can.
The police are rarely called and even if they are it is a non-urgent call to 101. Men and boys are occasionally banned from the shop but as other staff are not aware, they get served anyway.
Complaints from female staff are greeted with, “That’s how it is in retail. You just have to put up with it!”.
This behaviour should stop now!
Amble brands itself as “England’s Kindest Port.” Please ask the women who work in retail in Amble and see if they agree.
Ian McAdam, Hadston
Should women shopworkers have to put up with abuse from male customers?
Teaching and learning
Congratulations to Lily Tibbitts for letting us share her thoughts on modern schooling. (See back page.)
Coming out of lockdown should make us all think outside the box. Facilities matter, but so does learning and teaching.
Historically, the pupil/teacher ratio has come down from up to 100 in a monitorial school, to about 30, and often lower today. Group learning for secondary students has gone on for a long time, usually with several groups of students in a classroom with a teacher, and more recently, with a teaching assistant. Access to a teacher has always been limited.
The refurbishment of school buildings could well lead to change. Timetabling is VERY difficult at any time. And all that is apart from the social interactions that students want and need.
Group learning is fine when everybody has something to say that is relevant to the present subject. It works less well when the speakers are unprepared or ill-disciplined.
Coming out of lockdown can lead to valuable change. By the way, work in school won’t prevent students from home study. You never know what you can achieve unless you give it your best shot! Good luck to all our young people.
Harry McQuillen, Amble
Thank you for your support
My family and I thank everybody who sent flowers, cards and letters of condolence on the recent death of my husband, John Matthews. We include the staff at the R.V.I., Freeman and Cramlington hospitals and the palliative care department at Wansbeck.
Special thanks go to the district nurses (second to none) and Dr. Willey at the Amble Health Centre, for all their support. The carers who came daily really did care for John and he appreciated what they did for him.
Thank you very much.
Josephine Matthews, Amble
