Citizenship lessons in our local primary and secondary schools have led to an increase in the size of my mailbag in recent months.

I regularly receive bundles of letters from children who have been given the lesson task of writing to their local Member of Parliament about an issue which affects them. Now I am only too well aware of the way in which statistics show Britain is slipping down the world league tables in Maths and English, and truancy is at record levels, having risen by more than a third despite more than a billion pounds of Government funding being spent to combat it. It is widely accepted standards are falling, and there is a growing gap between the richest and the poorest.

However, from the letters I receive from children in our local schools, I can tell great care and attention is taken on the crafting of these missives, especially when they come from primary school children, who set great store by the quality of their handwriting and penmanship. Some words are mis-spelt, which I find more worrying in the letters from teenagers, but the issues raised are always fascinating.

Recent matters young people have brought to my attention include: worries about bullying in schools and the request that CCTV cameras be installed to enable bullies to be spotted “in the act”; complaints about there being no out of school activities for teenagers to take part in; speeding cars outside school gates; the ongoing consultation about traveller and gypsy sites in Brentwood and Ongar; and the suggestion drivers should have to renew their driving licence every five years.

I respond to each letter individually, sometimes directly, sometimes by raising the matter with the appropriate authority on the children’s behalf. I am please to know there are so many young people in my constituency who wish to raise matters with their Member of Parliament in such a thoughtful and relevant way.

I want these children to know that it is important that they have access to the kind of education that is currently only available to the well-off: safe classrooms, specialist teachers, access to the best curriculum and exams, and smaller schools run by teachers who know the children’s names.