Lockdown Literacy Games Bundles for Children

Lockdown has disproportionately affected disadvantaged families in our communities, where children have missed large amounts of their education. One particular concern, recently highlighted by the EEF, was the drop in literacy and reading amongst some primary school children. 

So, in February 2021 we gave away 30 literacy gaming bundles to families, through local schools in Hartlepool. People's Meeples is a community organisation that is run by the owners and customers of Gamers@Hart, a board game cafe. Before the lockdown we ran regular 'autism friendly' evenings and worked closely with our local special school, which put us in a great position to offer these bundles through schools.

These have gone done really well but we've only scratched the surface and we'd love to do more!

These bundles have games, resources, and an invite to a Zoom meeting for families to learn how to play! The games were chosen because they all contribute to one of the underlying skills for reading, including: attention, fast recall of words, and developing vocabulary.

We believe a mix of working with schools and providing 'how to play' evenings means these games will be well used and appreciated. 

The four games are provided at cost, with a small amount for the cost of the box and professionally printed resources, makes each one £35 to produce. Volunteers package and deliver the boxes, and run the online events. We'd love to give them to schools in blocks of 10 (which also makes the online 'learn to play' evening easier to organise too). So we're fundraising for £350+ transaction fees.

More information about the scheme is here.

A huge thank you for anything you can donate!