Member Article

Grandparents influence education

Grandparents already inadvertently play a huge role in helping their grandchildren to develop speaking, listening, literacy and numeracy skills, according to research carried out by the Basic Skills Agency. ‘Learning with Grandparents’, a new campaign, shows schools how they can work with grandparents to help young children (aged 5-11) to learn basic, essential skills in an informal, fun way.

In the past two generations the number of children cared for by grandparents has jumped from 33% to 82%. More than a third of the UK’s 13 million grandparents now spend the equivalent of three days a week caring for their grandchildren.

“Grandparents are a great under-used resource for schools”, says campaign manager Jenny Cobley. “We think that all grandparents can make a difference – whether they see their grandchildren every day or only occasionally”.

Dr Salman Al-Azami - the project officer supervising the research adds: “We’ve been looking in detail at what grandparents currently do – and what they could do – with their grandchildren; what children learn from various activities; how grandparents can be supported to carry out these activities and the problems that they face.”

The new campaign, ‘Learning with Grandparents’, will be launched today in England and Wales for Grandparents Week 18-25 September.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .