I find myself very disillusioned at the way our young children are treated at school nowadays. I have a nephew of an age where he is thankfully still a child, young and innocent. He obviously still believes in all the good things about Christmas including that there is a Father Christmas.

This week his teacher heard him talking about Santa and promptly explained to him that this is only a story: there is no such thing as a Father Christmas. I am sure that this teacher is young and modern in his/her ways but what a way to absolutely ruin a young child's aspirations and affect what little bit of proper childhood they have nowadays.

To some people this might sound trivial but the repercussions were not nice to say the least. This particular child's Christmas has been ruined. He went home to his mother and cried his eyes out. He confronted her with: "I now know there is no such thing as a Father Christmas, you lied to me."

Why do we have to do these things to our children? Let them enjoy what little childhood they have left in an age when they grow up far too quickly. Teachers in the main do a very good job but they should not interfere in this way and should be trained to know when to teach and when to shut up.

In this young child's eyes, his mother, whom he looked up to and believed, is now a liar, and all for the sake of a teacher who did not think of the consequences of what was probably an off-the-cuff remark.

In any case we all know that there is a Santa...I have seen him and even been to his house in Lapland!