We are all busy people, leading busy lives, and like to get where we need to be as quickly as possible, especially at peak times of the day.

However, in the middle of all that we sometimes lose sight of what is important – and that is driving safely, especially around schools.

Fed up with the numbers of motorists speeding past their school, the children at Addingham Primary School, together with Ilkley Road Safety Committee, used a mobile speed camera to find out just how many drivers were breaking the law.

The results may shock you – over the course of a single day the children logged 150 motorists driving in excess of the speed limit.

This is not just a case of someone risking incurring a spot-fine or penalty points. This is sheer recklessness that could, heaven forbid, cost the life of a child. Children do not have the same road sense as adults and are easily distracted, meaning we have to take more care when driving past schools, not less.

Hopefully this mini-survey will be warning enough to those who regularly drive past schools at rush hour. But if not, they should be warned that the full weight of the law will be used against them to ensure they keep within the speed limit.

Inspiring award for our young people

There is a lot of negativity about young people these days, and the prevailing thinking is that when they are not causing trouble they are under-achieving and spending more time glued to their phones or video games than they are contributing to society.

That is of course, nonsense, and Laurence Patterson is a prime example of why. Laurence is the latest recipient of the Jamie Payne-Ross Award from St Mary’s School in Menston, given every year in honour of another inspirational young person who died in a tragic accident 20 years ago.

It is given to a Year 8 boy for outstanding achievement in sport and Laurence, as a talented rugby and football player and keen runner, certainly fits the bill. As does the person who presented this year’s award – Callum Hall, a former pupil who is overcoming adversity after developing a shocking infection, thought to originate from a sea urchin sting, which has left him paralysed.

The entire roster of Jamie Payne-Ross Award recipients should stand as an inspiration to other young people and as examples to the rest of us that young people can be and very often are exemplary members of society.

There is a huge amount of good in our young people, and awards such as this one send the right message that we recognise this and that our preconceptions about youngsters are very often based on prejudice, misinformation and a few rotten apples.