As a result of the latest lockdown, we and Child Poverty Action Group have written an open letter to Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson, calling on the Government to take a child and family-centred approach to home education during this lockdown.

That’s why we are urging the Government and MPs to support our call to:

1. Prioritise cash payments to families as a replacement for free school meals.
2. Take urgent action to ensure all children have the learning tools they need to take part in the curriculum.
3. Provide families with greater financial support to cover the increased costs they are facing as a result of the pandemic, including costs related to home learning.

We know that schools are working tirelessly to support pupils and their families, but we now need the Government to play its part and hope the government uses these guiding principles to help make decisions about home education.

Read the letter

Digital Exclusion during the Pandemic Briefing

We’ve been bowled over by the support we’ve had for our Hope for Christmas appeal this year.

The latest donation comes from Durham Sixth Form Centre which has raised more than £1,800 – well over double its initial £750 target.

Generous teachers at the Centre in the heart of Durham City usually buy gifts for each other but this year, they decided to give to our Hope for Christmas appeal in lieu of presents.

L-r: Ellen Beveridge, Headteacher; Steven Robinson, Assistant Headteacher; Lee Bone, Senior Assistant Headteacher & Jo Lain, Deputy Headteacher

The decision to support us came as a result of being involved with our ‘Voices’ project – a region-wide consultation with children and young people focused on understanding the challenges they’re experiencing as a result of Covid-19.

Covid-19 consultation

The research aims to provide schools, local authorities and services with information on how children have been affected by the pandemic and gain an understanding of what is currently important to young people to inform their planning and adaptations post Covid-19.

As well as staff supporting our appeal, students, ex-students, governors and families also unexpectedly donated and added their Christmas jumper day proceeds to the pot.

Headteacher at Durham Sixth Form Centre, Ellen Beveridge, said:

“We all recognise what a difficult year it has been for everyone and in so many different ways. It has been even more important this year to not only look after ourselves but to also look after and look out for each other.”

“It has been a pleasure to work with Children North East and a privilege to support families in our region.  We wish everyone our best wishes for 2021”.

Catriona Taylor, Head of Fundraising and Communications at Children North East, said:

“The team at Durham Sixth Form Centre have raised an incredible amount for our Hope for Christmas campaign, helping support children throughout Christmas and in the months to come.”

“Our fundraising events and activities have been hugely hindered this year due to the impact of Covid-19, so support like Durham Sixth Form Centre’s festive fundraising has been truly heart-warming. This is allowing us to support to babies, children, young people and their families in the region where and when it is needed most.”

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Helen McArdle CBE has made a donation to our Hope for Christmas Appeal so that we can send parcels to the children, young people and families we work with.

Helen and her husband Michael wanted to help after what has been a tough year for so many.

Mrs McArdle said:

“Christmas should be a special time of year for every child but as we know, the heart-breaking reality is that this isn’t the case for so many families, particularly after the devastating effects of COVID-19.”

“I love to spread joy during the festive season, so when I heard about your ‘Hope for Christmas’ campaign I was compelled to get involved and help families in the North East to have a happier Christmas and some hope for the future.”

The business woman is a long-time supporter of Children North East and earlier in the year made a £50,000 donation to our urgent Covid-19 appeal.

Children North East interim Chief Executive, Leigh Elliott, said the charity was very grateful to Mrs McArdle. “Child poverty rates in the North East of England are the worst in the country outside London and this is predicted to worsen in the wake of this dreadful pandemic. This is a great example of local philanthropy at work and, on behalf of our beneficiaries, I’d like to express our heartfelt gratitude for this generous Christmas gift.”

Mrs McArdle is best known for her work in the North East’s care industry having founded Helen McArdle Care and a chain of nurseries.

In 2017 she was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the North East Business Executive of the Year Awards, and in 2015 was awarded a CBE for services to the care home industry and the local community.

If you’d like to support Hope for Christmas and help babies, children and young people in the North East, there are more details here.

Children North East are national founders and leaders of the Poverty Proofing initiative, and over the past nine years we have worked with schools and organisations to identify and overcome the barriers that children and young people from families with less financial resources face.

The team running this nationally recognised programme have over the past year been expanding this important work in to cultural organisations, and we’re delighted to share Children North East are currently working in partnership with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead to Poverty Proof their organisation.

We are working with BALTIC to identify and remove any barriers for visitors, and to ensure that household income does not impact on people’s ability to visit and get involved with the activities that BALTIC runs. Overall, our aim is to help BALTIC ensure that they are accessible to citizens from all socioeconomic backgrounds.

As part of this process we are keen to hear what people think of BALTIC, and we would appreciate it if you could complete the brief survey below to share your thoughts.

Complete the survey

If you know anyone who might also be interested in completing the survey, please feel free to share it with them, as we’d love this to get as many responses as possible.

Georgina Burt, School Research and Delivery Practitioner at Children North East, said:

At a time when many families are facing difficult financial circumstances access to arts, culture and leisure is really important. As an organisation BALTIC are really interested in finding out what people think and what they could do differently and we’re excited to be embarking on the next phase of our Poverty Proofing work. We will be working with BALTIC to make sure that there aren’t any barriers for individuals and families to visit and get involved in the activities that BALTIC runs.

Christmas came early for these primary school children in Bishop Auckland.

Youngsters at St Wilfrid’s RCVA Primary School have just received our ‘Scrappy Dooz’ activity packs – in time for the Christmas holidays.

These latest deliveries around South West Durham have been made possible thanks to the help of Bishop Auckland College students and staff from The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, who have joined forces with Children North East to get the resources out to schools in the area before the end of term.

Children North East’s ‘Scrappy Dooz’ scheme, which began during the first national lockdown, has so far seen more than 3,000 children around the region receive resources including pens, books, stickers and games.

More than 50 students, aged 16 to 18, spent three days last week filling the packs with fun activities donated to our charity and, together with The Bowes Museum, they began distributing them to eight local primary schools yesterday (December 14).

Valuable resource

Luke Bramhall, our School Research and Delivery Service Manager, said the ‘Scrappy Dooz’ packs have been really valuable for the region’s families during the pandemic.

“Following the first national lockdown, we very quickly identified that thousands of children across the North East were at home with limited resources, limited games and limited books, with a new expectation on parents that they were going to have the facilities to deliver some form of home schooling activities,” he said.

“After an initial call-out to businesses, Children North East received a torrent of additional donations from businesses, individuals and funders, including Culture Bridge North East; County Durham Community Foundation and Tyne and Wear and Northumberland Community Foundation.

“Families have told us that the packs have been invaluable during what has been, and continues to be, an extraordinarily difficult time for so many.”

Childcare Lecturer at Bishop Auckland College, Stacy Stoker, said: “This is a wonderful initiative which more than 50 students from our early years, health and social care, hair and beauty, and catering departments have supported as part of their Enhancing Social Action project for the National Citizenship Service.

“They also planned their own fundraising activity as part of the three day volunteering project. The college is delighted to be working with Children North East and The Bowes Museum to help so many young people across County Durham at this difficult time.”

Julia Dunn, The Bowes Museum’s education and learning coordinator, added: “We’re really pleased to be able to work with Children North East and Bishop Auckland College to be able to deliver 600 of these packs to children throughout the area for them to enjoy with their families.

“Creative activity is well known to help with emotional wellbeing and we have done previous projects like this with schools.”

Photograph by Barry Pells shows left to right: Julia Dunn (The Bowes Museum), Cathryn Gathercole (Children North East), Stacy Stoker (Bishop Auckland College) and Jo-Anne Steel (Bishop Auckland College student).  Front row: Teacher, Barbara Lee with children, Luke Maddison, Phoebe Littley and Noah Robinson.

Our Fabulous and Brilliant (FAB) group have been working with the theatre company, Twisting Ducks, to produce a fantastic film all about being cast away on a desert island.

And they’ve just watched the premiere of their production, ‘Weird Twister’, thanks to the wonders of Zoom.

Youth workers, Teresa Bromilow and Rebecca George, joined in the drama alongside young people from the FAB group as you can see in the video at the end of this story.

They worked with actor and drama teacher, Mat Hobbins, on the digital project, developed thanks to funding from the Doyly Carte Charitable Trust.

Mat said it had been a fantastic experience.

“It was great working with the young people. I found them to be incredibly confident, amazingly creative and a joy to work with”

Haydon, one of the young people who took part from the FAB group, said: “I’ve never done acting before and I would definitely consider drama again.”

“The thing I loved most was getting to use my imagination and making up awesome stories. It’s helped me with my confidence. I’ve never had the confidence to sing in front of people before. FAB group has built my confidence.”