Children should be seen and heard – that’s the message from a project encouraging parents to chat with their children more often.

Nurseries and schools across the district have been working on the Talking Children Charter to promote the benefits of communication and debate both at home and in the classroom.

Posters have been displayed on local buses, while schools across the district have been contributing written work and verbal recordings to the charter, which were presented to Deputy Lord Mayor Joanne Dodds at a celebration event on Wednesday at the Bingley Mercure Hotel.

One of the organisers is Janice Kershaw, headteacher at Eldwick Primary School and a member of the district’s Language For Learning steering group.

She said: “People think talk is just something we do, and don’t realise how important it is for learning. It’s about making that bit of time for it.”

She said giving children the skills to both talk and listen was also crucial to their future success in the world of work.