How To Sail Through Those Post-Christmas Blues

You know the story. After all the hype, excitement and anticipation that leads up to Christmas, it's all over and the prospect of finding interesting ways to entertain children, before they go back to school, suddenly dawns.

Now, thanks to the HSBC Global Education Challenge, parents can encourage their children to log onto a specially designed website that stimulates children to learn through fun, interactive education modules.

From September this year, millions of

children and their teachers in primary and secondary schools across the world have been freely accessing the independent learning website, which is based on one of the world's greatest individual sporting challenges.

The website - www.education.hsbc.com - cleverly enables schoolchildren to follow the skippers in the 'Around Alone' yacht race, focusing on yachtsman Graham Dalton and his yacht 'Hexagon'.

Now, with Christmas almost upon us, parents can support their children and continue the work that they are doing at school, by logging on and keeping in touch with race

events and tackling relevant weekly challenges online as solo competitors
take part in the longest race on earth
for individual participants.

Through the website children can interact with Graham through reading his daily updates and sending him emails. They
can also complete the challenges for
which they are rewarded with 'virtual treasures' and fun activities.

The website was created by David Berry, Deputy Headteacher of Thomas Telford

School in Shropshire. It was produced by HSBC, already a supporter of online education through its new online GCSE mathematics course, created by Thomas Telford Online.

This latest venture builds on David's experience of developing the UK's first online GNVQ IT and GCSE maths courses two years ago, now used by over 1,000 UK schools. His flexible online programme for HSBC covers a broad range of subjects, expertly tailored to fit the National Curriculum.

The 32 weekly modules are aimed at children aged 9 to 12 years and can be accessed either at school or at home. It is the first time that an online programme of this kind has been designed and launched for such a young age group in the UK.

The modules focus on the different aspects of the natural world that Graham's yacht faces on its circumnavigation. These include weather systems and energy, wildlife, geography, nutrition, and culture.

Over 25,000 headteachers across the UK have received a resource pack containing a race map, stickers for their pupils and a personal invitation to view the website. Together these resources aim to make the race an exciting, interactive educational experience.

A firm supporter of education and sport, Graham believes the two go hand in hand naturally. The drive to use his own sailing experience to inspire and motivate young people has led him to spearhead innovative education programmes based on the sport. He said: "If you look at young achievers in sport, their performance will be mirrored within the classroom. Academic ability and sport are both extremely important and it is essential to achieve a balance between the two."

"I began sailing my first dinghy at the age of 10, and by 17 I had sailed around the Pacific, so I welcome this opportunity to enthuse schoolchildren about an activity so close to my own heart. By tapping into children's natural curiosity, and using real-life experiences to do so, it is easier to help them to learn."

The Around Alone race will take the skippers through the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific. Having already stopped off in Torbay, England and Cape Town, South Africa, the race will head for Tauranga, New Zealand and then Salvador, Brazil. The race is due to finish in April 2003, in Newport, Rhode Island, in the USA.

So, after helping the children win treasures by completing the tasks and introducing them to the wonders of round-the-world sailing, what's your reward? Well, where did you put that bottle of mulled wine…?