The BBC has just announced its new education strategy, which will focus on improving social mobility across the UK, and that they will be working closely with us to achieve this goal.
A key priority for the new strategy is a focus on the literacy of pre-school children, to counter the fact that the most disadvantaged five-year-olds can be 19 months behind their more affluent peers in vocabulary development on school entry.
Working with us, the BBC is aiming to raise the communication and literacy skills of a million under-fives to make sure they have the best start to their education. According to our research, one in five children starting school in England does not meet the minimum language skill requirements set by the Department of Education.
Our Director, Jonathan Douglas, said: “The National Literacy Trust is thrilled that it will be working in partnership with the BBC to close this gap. The BBC has the unique ability to engage the people who can make the biggest difference to early language development - parents and families. More early communication with babies and young children will develop the early language and literacy skills which are the foundations of educational attainment, employability and wellbeing.”
James Purnell, Director, BBC Radio and Education, said: “Education has always been part of the BBC’s DNA and we want to renew our commitment to it in this new charter period. We want to work with partners to have a positive impact on people’s lives, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
Cerys Griffiths, Executive Producer at BBC Learning, will be speaking about the new education strategy at our Talk To Your Baby conference on 19 March.