DESPITE easier access to advice, including sex education in our schools, a worrying number of teenage girls are still becoming single mothers.
Figures show that in 2006, 190 girls conceived, compared to 147 back in 2000.
That suggests more enlightenment and the availability of contraception is not halting the trend.
And it's not for lack of work by the Primary Care Trust, which runs
a series of Health and Young People's Advice Centres, and the city's contraception and sexual health service, whose advisors work closely with teenage girls.
It's proof of the complexity of the problem, but there's little doubt that many of these girls have little grasp of the reality of becoming a young mother – possibly while still at school or at a point in their lives where their future hangs in the balance.
Any girl viewing young motherhood through rose-tinted spectacles would do well to read Jade Meadows' story today.
She got pregnant at 16, and although she obviously dotes on her baby son, she is having to juggle being a good mother with continuing her further education.
At least Jade is sensible and realises that she needs qualifications to make a better life for herself and her son. But it isn't easy.
Recycling could lead to careerFULL marks to Arthur Mellows Village College teacher Philip Ibbs for encouraging pupils to build bikes out of scrap.
Some of the youngsters may become tomorrow's engineers as a result.
The full article contains 252 words and appears in Peterborough ET newspaper.
