The daily play is, you guessed it, a free daily email with an activity for parents to do with their early years aged children, using bits and bobs from around the house to create exciting, play-based learning opportunities. We’ve celebrated some pretty special days along the way, including Purple Day with our big purple hunt, and even Eiffel Tower Day (who knew!).
The response to the #dailyplay has been humbling. We’ve seen over 1,700 teachers and parents join us after just a couple of weeks, and I’ve received so many lovely emails, messages and photos saying thank you and letting us know how useful they are. We’ve even gone global, being endorsed by the New York State Education Department which was a really pleasant surprise!
However, it’s important to remember that the homes who need this support the most may have little or no access to the internet or a suitable device. They may have language barriers that inhibits access, be without basic learning resources at home or simply not know the support is there for them to use. So, our next challenge is to work out a way to adapt our model in order to get boxes directly out to family homes who need them the most; not only equipping homes with essential, reusable learning materials, but also providing a range of simple and modelled play-based activities that families can explore and enjoy together.
The Boromi story
By the age of five, 85 per cent of a child’s brain is already developed; learning more and faster than at any other time in their life. And it is these foundations that lay the building blocks for their future. However, one-in-two children growing up within lower income homes across the UK are starting school without many of the important foundations they need to thrive and reach their potential. Last year alone, equating to 48,359 pupils. The gap between disadvantaged children and their better-off peers starts to grow from as young as two and gets increasingly more and more challenging to close.
Being a parent is one of the most difficult jobs there is, but we know that before the age of five, what a parent does at home with their child has a greater impact upon their development all the way to age 18, than any other factor such as family income, school environment or quality of teaching. Simply put, getting it right in the early years is critical, especially for those growing up within the most challenging circumstances. And the way to give children the best possible start, is to empower parents to actively and positively engage in their child’s learning at home.
Beginning life within the classroom, Boromi grew directly from my own first-hand experience of working with families across a diverse range of primary schools, from rural Scotland to inner city London. Through identifying common barriers and challenges faced by parents – such as knowing what to do, how to do it, feeling confident and being aware of the importance of their role in their child’s learning – I was able to create take-home resources for parents to borrow and take home. This was the very beginning of Boromi… And we’ve come a long way since then
Fast forward a couple of years and our multi-award-winning play libraries are available to families for free through our incredible network of partner schools and nurseries around the UK and we’ve already been enjoyed by more than 1,500 families across over 40 schools and nurseries.