Time To - Literacy, numeracy and ICT skills for primary schools in Northern Ireland (UK)
Skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT are fundamental to a
child's learning and development. Unless these skills are
established early on in life a child will find it increasingly
difficult to learn effectively. This can lead to underachievement
later on in school and in the world of employment. Time To connects
young people in Northern Ireland with business volunteers to help
develop these skills. The programme targets the often forgotten
'middle of the road' pupils who neither have special needs nor are
high-flyers and who often do not get the attention they
crave.
Programme Outline
The Time To programme is a mentoring scheme which sends employees
from various companies into local primary schools to help children
with the key skills of literacy, numeracy and ICT. The programme is
divided into three different strands: Time to Read, Time to Count
and Time to Compute.
Mentors are not expected to take the place of a teacher but rather
give one-to-one encouragement to children and encourage them to
relax, interact and talk with an adult while gaining confidence and
developing their skills. Mentors spend one hour per fortnight with
two Key Stage 2 (7-11) pupils outside of the classroom helping them
to develop their skills in one of the three key areas. Another
important element of the scheme is that the children get a regular
visit to their volunteer's place of work. This valuable experience
helps to broaden horizons and in many cases raises the aspirations
of the youngsters.
Impacts
The feedback from the participating schools has been very positive
with teachers finding the volunteering to be a valuable teaching
resource. The regular change of working environment has also proven
to be extremely valuable for the pupils involved.
A key benefit of the Time To project is that pupils are helped to
develop their self-esteem and confidence at the same time as
improving their academic skills.
Furthermore, companies participating in the Time To schemes have
also found that there are many benefits for their employees who
support children in the schools. Participating employees have
developed their confidence, self-esteem and motivation as well as
improving their communication, relationship management, coaching
and counselling skills.
For more information please visit the Business in the Community website for Northern
Ireland.