Letter from the editor: What fun would you want to share with your younger self?

It is easy to stereotype that it is only oldies who don’t have the necessary devices for web access but that is merely a myth. The digital divide is alive and well in Sheffield in 2020. Lockdown has highlighted many problems in how our society functions but this is one that isn’t often discussed. The reason it has become more of an issue now is that the main method of education for all our children has suddenly moved online. So guess what we’ve come up with to bridge the gap. Newspapers! The Star to be more precise. From Thursday, we will be working with Learn Sheffield to produce a weekly education supplement in your Star to keep children in the loop and pushing on with learning while they can’t be in schools.

We are working with a range of volunteers and partners to make sure it gets through the letterboxes and into the hands of those young people who need it most. It will also be used in classrooms for the thousands of children of keyworkers who still have to go into school.

The content will be compiled by teachers from schools across the city and there will be challenges for all ages. It is for the young but also the young at heart – we just might all learn something. What I need from you, dear readers, is your usual wonderful words for Thursday’s letters pages but with this young audience in mind. This is a unique opportunity to share fun, to send messages to the younger members of your own family and to say all those kind things that lift us up in these difficult times. I’m not really after tips on coping with life or things you wish you’d known – who among us would have paid attention to that as a teenager? What I’m hoping for is letters from teachers encouraging their classes to keep learning, from grandparents to keep smiling and other youngsters to keep being yourself. This is a new idea which will grow over the coming weeks. I hope we can reach out between the generations to build bridges and come together as one city. I will also be handing over this hotseat to a different guest editor every Thursday so you may spot a new slant on the news.