A leading Nottinghamshire construction company and a local charity have joined forces to educate future generations about the issue of homelessness.
Nottinghamshire-based Robert Woodhead Ltd and Framework have worked together to produce a specialist education resource for primary school pupils – designed to help teachers approach the potentially difficult subject in an informative and appropriate fashion. This is not the first time the Nottinghamshire construction company has teamed up to help Framework, in July a team from Robert Woodhead completed a 27 mile trek in under 12 hours to support their work.
Framework, which helps around 9,000 people every year right across the East Midlands, has been visiting schools for the last couple of years to help on an ad-hoc basis with a range of homelessness projects.
Using sponsorship from the company, it has now developed a comprehensive learning resource, fronted by a glossy ten page guide which directs users to a wide range of activity and lesson resources on the Framework website.
The schools’ pack, written by former schoolteacher Sally Smith, uses Framework mascot Roofus* to provide a range of fun and informative lessons and activities. All are to designed to help children to understand the impact of homelessness, to know that it is preventable, and to recognise their power to help others. By linking directly to the national curriculum, they are also easy to slot in with schools’ already busy learning schedules.
Andrea Carver, Framework’s Partnerships Development Officer, explained: “We know from experience that schools are keen to explore important and difficult social issues. The challenge for organisations like Framework is to help them to do so in a way that is appropriate to their audience as well as informative. I believe that with this pack we will be able to achieve both of these things and I am hugely grateful to Robert Woodhead Ltd for helping us to make this pack a reality.”
Glenn Slater, Business Development Director at Robert Woodhead Ltd, added: “Framework is a very special charity. Our association with Framework goes back more than ten years as a building partner, but it was an invitation to an AGM that made us realise how important their work is. We are delighted to sponsor the education resource pack and we hope that the resources will really help children to understand the issues around homelessness and challenge any pre conceived ideas of homelessness, in a fun, practical and memorable way”
Anyone interested in learning more about this new resource should visit www.frameworkha/education
Pictured: Front row L/R Year 2 pupils at John T Rice School Adam Taylor, Benjamin Armishaw, Mackenzie Armstrong & Keira Ryley
Back row L/R: Head Teacher, Zoe Anderson, Sally Smith, Resource Writer, Fay Paterson, Robert Woodhead Business Development Manager, Andrea Carver, Partnerships Manager Framework Housing, Mathew Hall, Sales and Marketing Co-ordinator Robert Woodhead Limited.