My Way!

Friday, 22 January 2010

Category - Campaign news

The First News team were joined by Henry Winkler, the Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, and the Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown to launch the First News My Way! campaign. read all about it here..

The First News team were joined by Henry Winkler, the Children’s Secretary Ed Balls, and the Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown to launch the First News My Way! campaign. My Way! aims to raise awareness of the fact that one in five children have learning challenges. We want to dispel the myth that these children are less intelligent and show that every child can succeed. And we’d like you to become part of it.

Even though it was snowing heavily all over the UK, nearly 100 people made it to the reception – teachers, children, and many others involved in education.   

Sarah Brown said: ‘Gordon and I have always been passionate that every single child should have the chance to reach their true potential, so it’s really important that we break down any barriers that some children may face when learning.  Listening to children, supporting them and creating the right environment for them to do well is at the heart of this campaign and I’m very pleased to host the launch event for an initiative that will really touch people’s lives and make a difference.’

For some people school is easy but, for others, it is more difficult.  In each class of 30 children there are probably six children who have some sort of learning challenge. There are lots of different kinds of learning challenges : dyslexia, autism, dyspraxia are just a few of them.  It can make it very hard for that child to read or spell, or to express their thoughts and communicate with others.  

 
Having a learning challenge means your brain works in a different way, that’s all, and does not mean that you won’t be successful in whatever you choose to do. And that’s what the My Way! campaign is all about – helping you, your friends, your teachers, and those around you – understand that there are lots of different ways to learn and how to help every child find and recognise the talent they have within them.
 
Henry is the campaign Ambassador.  You may know him as an actor, and author of the Hank Zipzer series of books about a boy growing up with dyslexia, based on Henry’s own childhood experiences.  You may even have met Henry on one of the First News reading tours that we have done over the past two years.  He and First News Editor Nicky Cox will be doing another reading tour in June but if you do not get the chance to meet them in person we will be covering My Way! every week in First News.  Soon there’ll be a special site within the First News website where we will put stories, ideas, links all about My Way!
 
Henry says: ‘Every child has greatness inside them.  We need to help them to dig it out and give it to the world. I cannot wait to see who they become.’
 
First News will be running the My Way! campaign with the help of a number of other people: Pritt are the people who make glue sticks and they work closely with schools to develop new ideas such as coloured Pritt sticks which you can see more easily when you put it on paper - creative play is often a fantastic way for children with learning challenges to start to be able to express their ideas clearly.  The Department for Children, Schools and Families are also working closely with us and Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said ‘ This is a great campaign, focused on raising awareness of the different ways children learn and giving all children the self esteem to achieve their potential.’   Walker books publish Henry’s Hank Zipzer series and will be working with First News on this year’s reading tour, and The Teaching Awards are the organisation that recognise great teaching and schools around the country.
 
So through My Way! we hope that all children will hear the message that, no matter how they learn, it makes no difference to how great they are.  Indeed Henry says he became who he is today BECAUSE of his learning challenges!