Save the Children: How can WE change the story #educationmatters

[pullquote]Too many children in THIS country don’t get the start they need at school because they are living below the poverty line. Help Change the Story.[/pullquote]

Today Save the Children launched a new awareness campaign to highlight the plight of children in this country living below the poverty line; Change the Story #educationmatters.

Just because a child comes from a deprived background shouldn’t mean that they don’t get the same start in life as anyone else. However, Save the Children’s recent report, Too Young to Fail, highlighted that:

“A fifth of 7-year-olds from poor families are already behind in their reading.”

Reading is such an important part of our skillset, and to already have dropped behind their peers at seven is not helping these children reach their full potential.

I know I am biased…

…I am a fully fledged, tweed skirt wielding, shhh monster from planet book, otherwise known as a qualified Librarian – and yes, I have a masters *sound of people fainting.*

Every child, no matter where they are from, how much money they have, or who is looking after them, should have the chance to learn to read, and get to love the printed word.

We have read to our children, from a very young age…in fact, even before they could actually hold a book – this touch and feel snail book was a favourite of my daughters at three months old, as you can see from the rather delightful grin on her rather delightful face…

The book did end up in the mouth more often than not, BUT she learnt to watch us while we read…it wasn’t long before she was trying to turn the pages herself:

Now, you can’t get her to stop reading, she wanted to be a computer engineer when she grows up, she is already reading the instruction booklets, as you can see…

Unfortunately, as well as loving reading, she has, quite clearly, got her mother’s talent for categorising things *librarian genes*

Not everyone wants to be a Librarian like me, but all kids deserve the right start in life, and being able to read properly helps give children a leg up on the road to success.

How can Save the Children help change the story

That’s why Save the Children have launched Born to Read. This is a programme where volunteers go to schools to read to children. By 2017, the charity intend to reach 23,000 disadvantaged children. This target is in addition to those set out within the FAST (Families and Schools Together) where Save the Children is helping schools and parents work together to improve children’s educational development.

Today, Save the Children launches its campaign to help change the story for all these young children. Part of this campaign involves trying to get the government to prioritise young children from disadvantaged backgrounds in those vital first few years of school.

What can YOU do to help?

Join the campaign, volunteer in schools, give Save the Children support, and even a little bit of money to reach out to these children so that they get the proper start in life, and aren’t set up to fail so early on that they cannot get the start in life they need so they can reach for the stars; and all that happens is that the cycle of poverty continues all over again…

1. Tweet about the change the story and #EducationMatters campaign; it launches TODAY, so let people know and get the government to listen. KiddyCharts even have some suggested tweets for you here..

Go on – Join the Change Makers NOW – you could be helping the children that need support the most yourself.

You never know, that time you give could make all the difference to a child’s life…..

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!

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