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"There are a lot of young people who have nowhere to go," he said. Terry was elected by members of Bridgend youth council, which is

made up of 14 to 25-year-olds from different backgrounds.

"During my time as youth mayor I want to focus on this problem mainly because I have had problems with it myself."

"I'm living in supported housing now but before that I was a 'sofa surfer' - sleeping in friends' houses."

"There is a big problem in the area."

"Lots of young people are sleeping in friends' houses and the problem is worse for boys."

He said that boys were not seen as a priority for housing and that many were often forced to sleep rough because they had no where to go.

"It is quite annoying because there are a lot of properties which are boarded up and yet there are people sleepingИrough," said Terry, who moved to Bridgend from his home city Birmingham.

mer to discuss the problem and find ways of helping tackle the issue. Terry, currently unemployed and a keen rapper in his spare time,

took up the voluntary post of youthАmayor for Bridgend after spending time as a member of the youth council.

He said that he plans to meet withДhousing officials later in the sum-

Bridgend Council saidбthat it was working closely with Terry and the rest of the youth council on the issue of homelessness in the area.

It said that it recognisedиthe need for a 24-hour helpline and for more housing to be made available.

"The councilСis already working with the youth mayor to identify the requirements for the 24/7 helpline," said a spokesman.

"There has been a follow-up meeting with the youth mayor and other members of the youth council to move forward on this helpline.

"Further discussions offer the opportunity to listen to the needs of young people," he added.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/3918001.stm

41. Do you know some examples when schoolgirls become moms? Does it often happen in Russia? In other countries? Read the text about Cyfle school and match the words with their definitions:

42. Read the text once again and complete the sentences:

1.Cyfle is a …

2.When they hear about a pregnant pupil they …

3.Their aim is …

4.At Cyfle they teach …

5.On Mondays …

6.A pupil can leave the class if …

School for pregnant pupils

tinue their education. Here, Teresa Foster Evans, the teacher in charge, ex-

There's a school is Wrexham allowing pregnantИschoolgirls to con-

PRU. We can teach up to approximately a dozen young moms each year and we also have an on site crèche so the girls can bring their babies with them. We will also offer other forms of support to the girl's family and sometimes the baby's father if he wants us to.

plains more: “Cyfle is a small school, Дknown as a 'pupil referral unit' or

family to discuss what willбhappen to her education. In Wrexham, school-

Girls are referred to Cyfle, usually by their schools or sometimes

girl moms are fortunate in that there is a special provision for them where they can get a high quality of education. Our aim is to support the pupil in as many ways as we can. This includes talking to her school to ensure that she can continue going to school safely until she is at least 28 weeks pregnant. If the baby's father is also at school and wants to attend antenatal or baby clinics we will also negotiate with the school to allow him to participate as fully as possible in his baby's care.

Once we have talked to both the parents and the school the girl continues in school until she is between 28 and about 34 weeks pregnant. At this point she transfers to Cyfle for teaching.

The girls are brought in by taxi each morning for 9:30 am and attend normal lessons for 4 hours, four days a week (Tuesdays to Fridays). We teach a core curriculum of GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) English, Maths, Science, Child Development and Business and

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Communication Systems (ICT). We also cover GCSE Short Course RE (Real Estate) and PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education). If a pupil comes to us and she has already started other GCSEs which she wishes to continue then we will do our best to teach these subjects too. We try our best to match in our lessons to cover the same work as the pupils were doing at school.

We have excellent contacts with the maternity service. One of their midwives is a regular visitor to the unit and we call her in if we encounter any problems during the day. We expect all pregnant pupils to attend the Mums2B Clinic on Monday afternoons for their antenatal care and parenting classes. This is why there are no lessons at the unit on Mondays.

Once a pupil has had her baby she is given two weeks' maternity

When she returns to the unit the new mom brings her baby with her. We have an on site, free crèche. There is no expectation that the girl will

immediately dump her baby in the crèche and be prevented from seeing it

breast feeds she can leave the classАto do so at any point in the day, as she can if she has any worriesиor just is plain missing the baby. Our aim is to

again till lunch time. In fact, it is quite usual for the pupil to bring the baby

into the classroom for a few hours or even days until she is completely

for their babies as possible бwhilst giving them the freedom of a few hours a day to learn in the same way as any other teenager in Britain.”

happy to leave it in the care of our highly qualified crèche staff. If she

encourage bonding and for the girls to learn to take as much responsibility С

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northeast/sites/youth_culture/pages/mum 6.shtml

43. Work in pairs. Ask and answer the questions and try to make a common decision concerning this problem.

1.Is early pregnancy really a problem?

2.Why do you think so?

3.Are there any schools for school-girl mothers in Russia?

4.Are they necessary in your opinion?

5.What is done in your country to solve this problem?

6.What could you do if you had authority?

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44. Scan the text “Facing the Problems of Youth” for about 10 minutes and try to answer the questions:

1. What is the story about?

2. Who is the author?

3. When was it published?

4. What is the main idea of each paragraph? Underline it. 5. Do you agree with the author?

45. Read Eleanor Roosevelt’s thoughts and write down the key phrases from the text in the appropriate order:

1) interchange of ideas; 2) tremendous energy;3) willing to talk;

it is a question of the educationбof parents, because so many parents, I find,

have lost their hold on their children. One reason for this is that they insist on laying down the law without allowing a free intellectual interchange of ideas between themselves and the younger generation. I believe that as we grow older we gain some wisdom, but I do not believe that we can take it for granted that our wisdom will be accepted by the younger generation. We have to be prepared to put our thinking across to them. We cannot simply expect them to say, "Our older people have had experience and they have proved to themselves certain things, therefore they are right." That is- n't the way the best kind of young people think. They want to experience for themselves. I find they are perfectly willing to talk to older people, but they don't want to talk to older people who are shocked by their ideas, nor do they want to talk to older people who are not realistic.

2. We might just as well accept things which are facts as facts and not try to imagine that the world is different, more like what we idealized in

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the past. I have a letter just the other day from a mother who told me that she had brought up several daughters, and that they never did certain things which are very common today among young people. She was sure that if we never countenanced or spoke of certain things in our homes our children would never do those things. Well, it just so happens that I have a number of boys and they happen to know the mother's girls. I have, therefore, seen a good deal of them, and they did every single thing that their mother told me they never did. I think it would have been far better if she had established a type of genuine relationship with her children which would have allowed them to be honest with her. Then she would have had an opportunity to put across her own ideas with some kind of hope that they would at least be considered.

3.But if the relationship is such that youth has no desire to talk to older people, then, I think, it is entirely impossibleИto help the youth of today – and they need help badly. I think they are very glad to have it, too, when it is given in a spirit of helpfulness, not selfД-righteousness. We don't need to idealize things that are past; they look glamorous, but perhaps they were not so glamorous when we really lived through them.

4.My own feeling would beАthat the most important education is the education which will enable us, both in our homes and in our schools, to understand the real problemsбthat our children have to meet today. It is easy enough to impart book knowledge, but it is not so easy to build up the relationship between youthиand older people which is essential to the working out of their problems – very difficult problems on which young people need our leadershipСand our understanding.

5.We cannot pass over the fact that the world is a hard world for youth and that so far we have not really given their problems as much attention as we should. We smile – I smiled myself the other day when one young boy said that he hoped to go in and clean up politics. Politics need to be cleaned up, of course. Everything that is human needs that particular kind of enthusiasm. But we older people know that we don't always succeed as easily as these young ones think they can. Yet I doubt if we should smile. I think that we should welcome their help, and find places where this tremendous energy that is in youth – If it cannot be used immediately in making a living – may at least be used where it is so greatly needed today.

6.I should like to leave with you this one idea which I have been thinking about a great deal of late: the necessity for us as parents, as teachers, as older people, to put our minds on the problems of youth, to face re-

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