Best baa
none
Aspiring
young
farmers
present the
prize-
winning
sheep at
the yearly
agricultural
show in
Masham,
North
Yorkshire.
In the
autumn the
town holds
a sheep
fair,
marking
the time
when up to
70,000 of
the animals
were sold
each year
in the
market
square.CHARLOTTE GRAHAM/MERCURY PRESSNews
Children too
busy with their
iPads to have an
imaginary friend
By Berny Torre
SCREENS could be killing off the im-
aginary friend, according to nursery
bosses, as a new survey found the ma-
jority of staff believe the childhood tra-
dition is in danger of dying out.
Fewer children are now thought to
claim invisible companions as their own,
which has prompted concerns that im-
aginations are being adversely affected.
A study of 1,000 nursery workers in-
dicates that almost three out of four
nursery owners, managers and staff
think fewer children have imaginary
friends than five years ago.
Almost two thirds of those surveyed
suggested screens are making children
less creative.
Dr Suzanne Bouffard, a child devel-
opment specialist and researcher at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
told The Daily Telegraph: “There is cer-
tainly reason for concern about high
levels of screen time leading to less op-
portunities for pretend play.
“If you’re always engaged with a de-
vice, there’s no opportunity for your
mind to wander and spend time with
your own ideas.
“The main thing is that parents and
carers should make sure children have
lots of time for unstructured, creative
play. But they don’t need to be con-
cerned if their child doesn’t have an
imaginary friend.”
It was “very difficult” to assess the
prevalence of imaginary friends, but: “I
can say that a loss of imaginary or crea-
tive play is troubling. That kind of play is
not only fun and low-pressure, but al-
lows children to develop in all kinds of
important ways that structured activi-
ties and screens don’t,” she added.
David Wright, owner of Paint Pots
Nursery group in Southampton, said:
“Less children have imaginary friends
now than previously. I think that chil-
dren are not allowed to be ‘bored’ any
more. When children have free time to
themselves, they find something crea-
tive to do with their mind, such as
forming an imaginary friend.
“Quite often these days, children ex-
pect to be entertained in some way, so
that they’re receiving content either
from a tablet or a TV, and I think that
diminishes their ability to then use
their own imagination to create imagi-
nary friends, to develop language and
stories and that kind of thing.”
Dr Paige Davis, a psychology lecturer
at York St John University, said chil-
dren who make up imaginary friends are
typically aged between five and seven,
and often do so to help them deal with a
situation, or when they are building
certain life skills, like talking to others.BBC orchestra hires Stormzy conductor
u A British conductor who has worked
with acts including Stormzy and the
Arctic Monkeys has been appointed to
a new role with the BBC Symphony
Orchestra in a bid to “challenge
stereotypes” around classical music.
Jules Buckley has been appointed
creative artist in association for the
next three years, with the BBC hoping
to “bring together two worlds” of
music.
Buckley is known for incorporating
pop music into his projects and counts
Basement Jaxx and Dizzee Rascal
among his past collaborators.
In a 2015 partnership with BBC
Radio 1Xtra, Buckley and his
Metropole Orkest worked alongside
grime artists to create a celebration of
urban music. He also scored a number
one album in 2016 with Classic House
alongside Pete Tong and the Heritage
Orchestra.Woman bites police officer after arrest
u Six police officers and staff have
been injured while dealing with an
aggressive woman who had been
arrested.
A female detention officer suffered
a hairline fracture to her arm when
she was bitten during an incident at a
police station in Swindon.
Officers were called to Groves Street
in the Wiltshire town at about 10.40pm
after reports of a brick being thrown
through a window.
A 42-year-old woman arrested on
suspicion of criminal damage later
“bit, scratched and pushed” police
staff while in custody. The officer whowas bitten was treated in hospital and
is now recovering. The other staff
suffered mainly minor injuries.
A Wiltshire Police spokesman said:
“She became abusive and aggressive.
She bit, scratched and pushed those
who were trying to deal with her.”
Insp Carly Nesbitt, from the
Community Policing Team in
Swindon, said: “It is unacceptable that
our officers were subjected to this
nasty assault while doing their job.
“This level of violence is sadly
becoming more commonplace and
we now see our teams abused and
assaulted on a daily basis.”Cashpoints close at rate of 10 every day
u Ten free-to-use cashpoints are
disappearing across the country every
day – meaning towns could soon
become cashless communities.
Figures reveal more than 5,000 cash
machines have been lost from towns
and villages in the past 18 months.
Which?, the consumer group,
analysed data from Link, the UK’s main
cash machine network, and discovered
323 ATMs were closing every month.
Residents of Battle, the historic East
Sussex town, are suffering without
a 24-hour cashpoint, and have to
travel six miles to Hastings to get
their money. Paul Redstone, who iscampaigning to keep cash machines,
told The Mail on Sunday: “Elderly
residents are particularly affected, as
well as those who don’t drive. And you
won’t believe how many times we’re
asked by tourists, ‘Where’s the nearest
ATM?’
“They cannot believe that we don’t
have one in the high street. It has
definitely impacted businesses, local
shops, residents and restaurants.”
Huw Merriman, the Battle MP, is
calling for a new law which asks banks
to install 24-hour cashpoints on every
high street, to support more than
5,000 people.Jules Buckley who
has worked with
Stormzy and Arctic
Monkeys hopes to
‘challenge
stereotypes’12 ***^ Monday 26 August 2019 The Daily Telegraph
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