Letters

In your article Poor white children lack motivation to succeed at school, warns think-tank, (cypnow.co.uk 18 June) on the education select committee's new Underachievement in Education by White Working Class Children report, Ally Paget from Demos said that low attainment is often caused by a lack of "values or character" and that to overcome this, all children should be taught skills such as how to be self-motivated. Teens and Toddlers is a national Neet prevention charity that works with disadvantaged teenagers to develop the very skills Paget mentions.

Our programme focuses on raising attainment through improving self-esteem, and it does this through a unique combination of mentoring - teens mentor vulnerable toddlers in nurseries every week for 18 weeks, learning valuable skills such as responsibility and self-reflection - and classroom sessions with trained facilitators using a structured curriculum. It works in building motivation because the young people bond with their toddlers - who are also disadvantaged - and, despite being disengaged from mainstream education, show up week on week to spend time with them.