Coram’s education charities launch free resources to support children’s wellbeing, literacy and learning at home

Coram’s education charities, Coram Life Education, Coram Beanstalk and Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, have developed a programme of free online resources for teachers and parents to use during the lockdown, helping to boost children’s emotional wellbeing as well as their academic learning at this time. 

 

Coram Life Education, the UK’s leading provider of children’s Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education, has launched SCARF at Home, a programme of activities for primary school teachers to share with parents, helping children to learn the valuable life skills needed to help them be happy, healthy and safe.  

 

The activities, developed by teachers, are part of the charity’s online SCARF programme, promoting the values of Safety, Caring, Achievement, Resilience and Friendship. Over 45,000 teachers across the UK are now SCARF subscribers, and they have told the charity that what they most need during this time is engaging, fun and memorable activities to share with parents.  

 

SCARF at Home focuses on the ways children can keep themselves healthy and safe, including staying safe online, and the skills needed to help them look after their bodies. Older children learn about assertiveness, recognising the influence of friends and how to think critically about the decisions they make and managing risks safely. 

 

The activities are designed for different age groups and include body bingo, bedtime routines, online safety activities, games and films and bullying discussion points. The resources also include the return of ‘Harold’s Daily Diary’, launched during the first national lockdown in March 2020, encouraging children to read about and send their ideas to Coram Life Education’s healthy-living giraffe mascot Harold, as he describes his experiences of staying safe and happy at home. 

 

Feedback from teachers who have tried the SCARF at Home resources has been positive, with one commenting: “When I received the SCARF alert I had to email you to say a big thank you! Really looking forward to the return of Harold’s diary in addition to all the lessons and resources.” 

 

Harriet Gill, Managing Director of Coram Life Education said: “Schools, children and parents have experienced so much disruption and uncertainty. With schools’ restricted opening, offering easy-to-access, free resources from reputable sources is invaluable, particularly as SCARF at Home focuses on children staying safe and well, both on and offline”. 

 

The SCARF at Home activities are suitable for children aged 3-11. To find out more and to access the toolkit, school teachers can visit coramlifeeducation.org.uk/scarf/scarf-at-home. ‘Harold’s Daily Diary’ is freely available to all at coramlifeeducation.org.uk/harolds-daily-diary. 

 

In addition to the SCARF at Home programme, Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation has launched resources for Key Stages 2, 3 and 4, which can be taught directly or explored independently, focusing on the language and history of Shakespeare.  Teachers can access these at shakespeareschools.org/resources-for-schools.  

 

National reading charity Coram Beanstalk is providing regularly updated tips and fun book-based activities to help children with their reading at home, including tips for ‘Growing A Love of Reading’, Story Dice illustrated by popular illustrator Nick Sharratt, video story readings and monthly #BeanstalkBrilliantBooks, all available at beanstalkcharity.org.uk. The website also features a ‘Stay Home And Read Every Day’ poster which families can display in their windows to ‘SHARE’ the books they are enjoying together as a family over the lockdown period.