An ambitious, Pounds 800,000 multi-media project to boost basic skills among primary children in London’s Docklands and help with training opportunities for their parents is to be launched by the London Docklands Development Corporation in the summer.
The three-year project, which should involve 2,800 Year 3 pupils in 17 primary schools and one special school in the boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Southwark and Newham, is being co-ordinated by the National Literacy Association, with the LDDC as the main funder.
A bank of 10 computers will be placed in each school, fitted with sophisticated software designed specifically to accelerate the acquisition of literacy and numeracy, and which is particularly suited to a multi-ethnic community.
The LDDC says each child will work for 20-minute sessions, using sophisticated, self-contained multi-media programs, including interactive video and text, which assesses their work and sets them tasks, all of which will be accessible to the teacher.
It is planned that some 2,500 parents will have the chance to use palmtop computers at home, and attend the schools for twilight training sessions.
DIANEHOFKINS
