Suzanne Shaw

Suzanne Shaw

Online vote for UK’s childhood ditties to support children’s communication skills

Dancing on Ice star Suzanne Shaw and BT’s Openreach division today launched a nationwide search for the nation’s favourite nursery rhymes in support of children’s communication charity I CAN.

For every vote for a favourite childhood rhyme logged on www.rhymestars.co.uk , I CAN will receive £1 from Openreach, BT’s local network business. By nominating their favourite nursery rhyme, members of the public will unlock a £50,000 target donation to the charity by Openreach - an easy way to contribute free of charge towards I CAN’s work to improve children’s speech, language and communication development across the UK.

An additional ‘sing and share’ featured on the website offers children and adults alike the opportunity to showcase their talents through recording their favourite nursery rhymes online, releasing a further £2 per song from Openreach for the first 2500 songs recorded.

“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” has already earned a top vote from Celebrity Mum of the Year, Suzanne, who posed as her favourite rhyme for the launch of the campaign. She said: “Some of my most memorable moments as a child involved singing. I guess I never outgrew it, and now my son loves singing nursery rhymes too. In addition to the obvious fun factor, reciting nursery rhymes can make a significant difference to children’s communication skills and overall confidence.” She continued: “I loved transforming into a twinkling star for the day to launch Rhyme Stars – it was almost as much fun as skating.”

Karen Witts, managing director, Operations, Openreach, said: “The Rhyme Stars campaign is a wonderful way for the public to support the work of Openreach and I CAN in helping children develop better communications skills, without costing a penny. Every day, Openreach works to underpin the millions of phone calls and internet connections made in the UK – no one is more aware than us of the critical nature of being able to communicate effectively. That is why we continue to support the valuable work of I CAN to ensure that all children have the best possible chance of communicating effectively with the world around them from a young age.”

Virginia Beardshaw, Chief Executive of I CAN said: “Communication is the foundation life skill, the bedrock on which children learn, achieve and make friends. Singing nursery rhymes is a fantastic way of developing children’s speech and language skills because they have repetition, structure and actions. With the support of the public and Openreach, we can help children start their journeys towards a lifetime of skilful communication!”

Whilst remaining an important part of BT, Openreach has its own headquarters, distinct identity and around 30,000 staff. The business is the second largest within BT Group by number of employees and has assets of around £11 billion and revenues of more than £5 billion, making it comparable in size to many FTSE 100 companies.

Log onto www.rhymestars.co.uk to nominate the best nursery rhyme and for details on how to submit a song recording.