My Way!

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

Category - Campaign news

First News editor Nicky Cox and author Henry Winkler have been on the road for the fourth annual First News reading tour.

It’s been a busy first week on the First News My Way! tour.

First News has been meeting kids all over the country with Hank Zipzer author, Henry Winkler, known to many people as The Fonz from a TV show called Happy Days.

The idea for My Way! came from children when Henry and I visited schools before.

Henry has a learning challenge called dyslexia which means that he found school tough. Not because he isn’t smart but because his brain works in a different way.

It turns out that one in five children have a learning challenge. That’s six children in every single class. And they’re not alone. They share learning challenges with well known people like Alan Sugar from The Apprentice, Jamie Oliver, lots of pop stars, sports people and politicians. In fact, in all areas of life there are people with learning challenges who are doing brilliant things.

We found that not enough people knew about learning challenges and children with them often try to cover them up. What they really need is everyone’s help and understanding. So, we launched My Way! to bring learning challenges out into the open, to make them normal, and to get people talking about them. Everybody learns in his, or her, own way and that is all there is to it.

Look at the My Way! films at www.firstnews.co.uk/tv to see what children with learning challenges have to say about their lives. So many thanks to THQ’s uDraw for supporting My Way! so that we can continue with the campaign until the end of 2012.

Day 1. Wednesday 15 June

Henry arrived from Boston where he has been making his latest movie, Here Comes The Boom, which will be out next summer and checked into the Park Plaza County Hall hotel in London. That night, Henry and First News attended an awards dinner where My Way! was nominated as Campaign of the Year.

Day 2. Thursday 16 June

The first school on the 2011 tour was Whitgift school in Croydon, Surrey, attended by kids from other local schools too including Howard Primary.

In the afternoon we went to Valence School in Westerham, Kent, and met fantastic children who had the loudest laughs we’d ever heard. We had such a good time.

Day 3. Friday 17 June

An early start for Henry’s appearance on ITV’s Daybreak show before travelling to the New Wimbledon Theatre to talk to 1,500 children. The event, organised by Wimbledon Bookfest, was attended by the Permanent Secretary of State for Education, Sir David Bell. First News readers with learning challenges have been advising the Government on their plans for helping children who need special help at school. Nicky helped to judge the Song Academy competition for budding young songwriters before we headed off to Channel 5 for Henry’s appearance on OK TV to talk about the My Way! campaign. Later, we met up with Sir David Bell again for an amazing supper at Gilgamesh restaurant in Camden.

Day 4. Saturday 18 June

Henry was the top guest on Graham Norton’s Radio 2 show this morning where lots of fans of his books, TV show and movies were waiting outside the studio. In the afternoon we headed to Waterstones in Bromley to meet people and for Henry to sign his Hank Zipzer books. The evening was rounded off with a trip on the London Eye with lots of kids.

Day 5. Sunday 19 June

Another early start for Henry’s appearance on BBC2’s Something For The Weekend. Henry found out he was a fan of The Script, who were also guests on the show. And he found out he could make coffee and blueberry cake! All this while telling the nation all about the My Way! campaign.

Thanks to Park Plaza County Hall (especially Simon and Gary) and to Toyota for getting us round the country so efficiently in one of their Hybrid cars.