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

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[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…

Save the Children: Change the Story

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:

Save the Children: Change the Story - Turning Pages

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…

Save the Children: Change the Story - Computer Booklet

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

Save the Children: Reading Matters - 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..

  • Join @savechildrenuk and help to change the story for the UK’s poorest children. #EducationMatters > http://bit.ly/1fOoyXa
  • Every child deserves the right to a promising future. Join @savechildrenuk & change the story for UK’s poorest children http://bit.ly/1fOoyXa
  • Let’s get children reading – it’s a path to a brighter future! Join @savechildrenuk http://bit.ly/1fOoyXa
  • All children deserve a fair chance. But for some in the UK, their life chances are set as young as 7. @savechildrenuk http://bit.ly/1fOoyXa
  • Every child should have the chance to fulfil their potentialJoin @savechildrenuk to support UK’s poorest children: http://bit.ly/1fOoyXa.

2. Sign up as a Change Maker to help the charity directly to change the story for the UK’s children. Change makers campaign, fundraise and volunteer in their mission to reach children in their first chapters of life, giving them a better chance of fulfilling their potential. Save the Children are flexible, so you give support in a way that works for you, whether its directly through reading to kids, or helping to fund-raise.

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 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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Promosys Technology

Saturday 17th of November 2018

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himanshu tyagi

Saturday 16th of July 2016

This is my first visit to your article .I am highly impressed to read such a informative post .Very informative post .you are doing a great job .A big thanks for this wonderful article .Keep going :)

Annu Thukral

Monday 25th of April 2016

Very informative article. There is actually the need for the children, whether they belong to any caste or any background or any income group, to learn and gain knowledge so as to become a good human being and lead happy life, spreading peace and happiness in their surroundings. :)

Jordin

Wednesday 20th of April 2016

You know if you are not on Instagram, you should be. I know you can't put text up, but just throw in a few pics and build an audience there. I think you'd find a ton of people who would be super interested in your blog here.

ziaul haque

Monday 28th of March 2016

Hey, I love those photos of you reading along, beautiful! Thanks such a lot for swing your weight behind this campaign, it's very appreciated!

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