Sheila Hancock announced as the new patron of DigiSmart
The actor and author Sheila Hancock has been announced as the new patron of DigiSmart. She joins the programme in its aim to stop disadvantaged children leaving primary school without the literacy skills they need.
Sheila’s appointment was introduced at Waterstones Piccadilly on September 24. A video clip of this event, plus feedback from children involved in DigiSmart, is available here.DigiSmart’s classes target struggling 10 year-olds from low income backgrounds who are most at risk of failing. The scheme purposefully reaches the children at a critical turning point in Year 5, when they are still able to catch up.
Dr. Maggie Holgate, DigiSmart’s Strategic Director, said: “We’re thrilled to have Sheila Hancock as the Patron of DigiSmart. She can relate to children with her natural feel for stories. And she is passionate about the value of achievement.”
DigiSmart is a charitable project that uses a combination of books and technology to achieve its goals, a strategy that has proved to have a high success rate. Findings have shown that all DigiSmart pupils make progress and more than 80% improve their reading skills by at least two National Curriculum sub-levels.
Sheila said: “I strongly believe in the power of the word and the imagination. No child should leave primary school without good literacy skills. DigiSmart is addressing this in a rigorous and fun way, fusing traditional learning with children’s love of computers. I’ve seen how engaged children are with my own eyes and am very excited to be involved.”
The system was developed by LIFT for Learning, a not-for-profit organisation. It was launched in 2002 as a small action research pilot aimed at tackling the persistent divide in national literacy levels by exploiting the link between computers and books.
The PHF Education and Learning programme currently supports LIFT for Learning with a grant of £237,465 over three years awarded in 2011/12. Grants from PHF and other funders have meant that DigiSmart can be offered to children and schools free of charge.
Having doubled in influence since last year, DigiSmart now provides support to over 5000 children in 500 partner primary schools. The system will continue to be scaled up significantly in order to reach many more children and achieve impact on a national scale.
