- January 27th, 2012
Earth Hour 2012 – wear it bright!
- imenzies
- Comments: none
WWF’s Earth Hour – 31 March 2012
WEAR IT BRIGHT!
Join with schools and youth groups across the UK for WWF’s Earth Hour, the world’s largest display of hope for a world with a bright future.
From Edinburgh to Sydney, New York and Singapore people all across the world will be joining WWF to switch off and show they care about tackling climate change and protecting the natural world.
WWF is encouraging schools and youth groups to support the event and there is a range of FREE resources which can be used in the days or weeks leading up to Earth Hour, including:
- A support pack
- A climate change information pack
- Ideas to help you promote your activities
Get involved, visit http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/sign-up-for-schools-and-youth to register
- January 27th, 2012
Global citizenship online community – Join now
- imenzies
- Comments: none
Do you have an interest in, or remit for, global citizenship? Need some advice or want to share ideas with like-minded practitioners?
If so, then you’ll probably want to have a peek at the shiny new online community for global citizenship on CPD Central. Join now so you can brag to colleagues about how you were one of the pioneering members .
Why have we set it up? Well, there’s always a buzz of ideas and sharing at our face-to-face CPD events and we thought it’d be amazing if we could find a way of bringing people together again and again to keep the discussion and buzz going. Well we’ve found a way! Here’s your bit:
Step 1 – Visit http://bit.ly/DGConline and add your picture (Glow log in required)
Step 2 - Share an idea or ask the audience
Welcome gift! If you join before Friday 17th February 2012 we’ll be happy to offer you a special gift to welcome you to the community – one of our highly-prized global citizenship wall calendars (these have been flying off our shelves!).
- January 27th, 2012
Whitelees Primary School – Open Day
- imenzies
- Comments: none
School open day
Whitelees Primary School, North Lanarkshire Council
9:30am – 3.00pm, Monday 20th February 2012
Theme: Sustainable Development Education
This event was originally due to take place on 8th December 2011 but had to be cancelled due to the severe storms. It has now been rescheduled for Monday 20th February 2012.
Whitelees Primary School hit the headlines in 2011 when it became the first primary school to be awarded five ‘excellent’ grades by the school inspectors. This isn’t the first time their achievements have made news. The school’s accolades and awards include:
- Finalist, Scottish Education Awards – Sustainable School category (2011)
- Best Green School Award (2009)
- Winner, Scottish Education Awards – Best Enterprise category (2008)
- Four Green Flags, Eco-Schools Scotland.
A key factor in the school’s success has been the way it has placed global citizenship and sustainable development education at the heart of the curriculum to provide exciting, relevant and engaging contexts for learning. This has helped to create, ‘Highly motivated, confident and ambitious children who are keen to learn and to make a difference in school and the wider community.’
This CPD event offers practitioners and school leaders from across Scotland the chance to visit Whitelees Primary School to meet with the Head Teacher, staff and learners and also tour the classrooms, buildings and grounds. A focus of the event will be to identify and share the practical lessons and ideas that have helped the school develop a successful whole school approach to sustainability and global citizenship including:
- A sustained commitment to pupil voice with learners being given real opportunities to shape the curriculum and school decision making
- Effective use of the school grounds, nature and vegetable gardens to support outdoor learning and deliver the curriculum
- The inspiring pupil rock band which has achieved notable success through their songs about fair trade and climate change.
Those participating in the open day will also have time to reflect and share their own experiences.
Click here to download programme for open day
How to book
To book, please email: globalcitizens@educationscotland.gov.uk or Tel. 0141 282 5172.
Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment. This is a free event!
- January 18th, 2012
Global Citizenship – Glow drop-in session
- imenzies
- Comments: none
Developing Global Citizens through sustainable development education
Time: 3.45pm – 4.45pm, Thursday 26th January
Where: The shiny new Glow community for global citizenship
2012 is a big year for Sustainable Development Education (SDE):
- World leaders will gather in Rio to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and decide on further action
- 2012 is the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
- We only have three years until the end of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Education and there is a buzz of activity happening in schools and local authorities across Scotland.
If you’d like to tune into all that’s happening and are looking for inspiration and ideas to kick start 2012 then this is the Glow meet for you. The Developing Global Citizenship Team will be hosting this informal session open to any practitioner or school leader – just drop into the Glow meet to pick our brains, find out what’s coming up or tell us what you’re up to. If you missed the previous sessions then click here to see how they work.
Note: if you join us with a headset or webcam then it means we can have a good blether. However, if you prefer to type fast with wonky spellng then that’s good too!
One click (then another small one) to take part >> http://bit.ly/DGCdropin3
- December 22nd, 2011
Curriculum planning and timetabling for global citizenship
- mfarrell
- Comments: none
A global citizenship workshop for curriculum planners and timetablers
Date: 24th January 2012
Venue: St Paul’s High School, Glasgow
This workshop will bring together curriculum planners and timetablers with an interest in global citizenship, to share ideas and compare plans, strategies and approaches to current planning and timetabling issues. The day will consist of a series of focused discussions and professional dialogue centred on key reflective questions.
At this crucial phase in the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence it is vital that senior leaders in secondary schools have the opportunity to share ideas, innovations and solutions that will help to deliver a curriculum that:
- Develops the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values to equip young people for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century
- Supports interdisciplinary learning by facilitating connections across the curriculum
- Encourages active and collaborative learning approaches including provision for learner voice and opportunities for outdoor learning in the school grounds, local community and beyond.
- Connects with major local and global themes and contexts that are relevant to young people and their future such as sustainability and climate change, identity and cultural heritage, health and well being, rights and responsibilities, equality and social justice and international education
- Promotes an outward looking, positive ethos across all aspects of school and community life, connected to real life events and issues relevant to the school community
- Supports integration of the broad general education with the senior phase and new National Qualifications giving careful consideration to the issues in managing the change in the remaining years of transition to CfE;
- Develops appropriate provision for universal and targeted personal support
- Is adaptable and flexible enough to facilitate strong partnership working
The workshop will enable participants to think about the following questions:
- How have you structured your S1-S3 broad general education and how does this facilitate progression into the senior phase?
- How have you effectively used partners (especially in the senior phase) to help deliver entitlements – and what are the curricular and timetabling issues around this area?
- What mechanisms and curricular architecture are you using to ensure that interdisciplinary learning is embedded?
- How are you able to provide as individualised a curriculum as possible, bearing in mind personalisation and choice (a) for ALL learners and (b) for those learners who may not achieve level 3 during S1-S3?
- How you are coping with the technical timetabling demands around timing, staffing and accommodation for PSE / H+WB / PE / RE – particularly in the senior phase and particularly during the dual running year?
Fundamental to the event will be the professional dialogue and exchange of ideas that takes place on the day, enabling participants to network, reflect on their own practice and develop intentions for improvement in their own context. With this in mind, participants are encouraged to join the Leadership of Global Citizenship online community, take part in the pre-event activities and share their reflections online.
How to book
To book, please email: globalcitizens@educationscotland.gov.uk or phone 0141 282 5172.
This event is free of charge. Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Follow this link to take part in the pre-event reflection activities (NOW LIVE!)
Directions to St Paul’s High School
- December 19th, 2011
British Red Cross – New resources for the New Year!
- mfarrell
- Comments: none
British Red Cross – New Resources for the New Year
Photo quiz
The British Red Cross schools photo quiz of the year is now available
Is it a quiz? Or a citizenship discussion trigger? It’s both. Ten high-quality press photographs are the basis of a fast-moving and, sometimes, funny quiz. Available as a powerpoint, the pictures and stories can also be used to encourage open discussion, moving to the next question only when conversation falters.
Newsthink Staffroom Poster
BRC have also reprinted the popular newsthink staffroom poster which folds out to various sizes up to A1. It is covered in quick teaching activities and some striking photographs.
Order a free copy here
http://shop.redcross.org.uk/shop/product.asp?id=104278&category=93504
- December 14th, 2011
The Great Climate Change Debate – Join us on Glow
- imenzies
- Comments: 2 Comments »
A series of interactive and lively Glow meets
In November this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change launched a report warning that climate change is likely to lead to more extreme weather. Within weeks of this launch, Scotland was battered by severe flooding and hurricane-force winds which brought much of the country to a standstill. Is our climate already changing? What will climate change mean for Scotland? How can we respond positively and adapt to the changes ahead?
We’re inviting your school to join the great climate change debate. We’ll be bringing together a panel of scientists and experts to answer questions, spark debate and discussion and help learners navigate their way through climate fact, fiction and controversy.
- Glow meet 1: Our changing weather and climate (23rd Jan ’12)
- Glow meet 2: Climate science – evidence versus controversy (30th Jan ’12)
- Glow meet 3: Adapting to climate change (6th Feb ’12)
Each Glow meet will take place from 2pm to 3:00pm. These events will be targeted at learners in secondary schools and upper primary.
Please see links below for further details about each event:
GLOW MEET 1 Our changing weather and climate 23Jan12 (To view the recording click here)
GLOW MEET 2 Climate science evidence vs controversy 30Jan12
GLOW MEET 3 Adapting to climate change 6Feb12
For resources and videos on climate change visit Weather and Climate Change, Exploring Climate Change and Climate Change on Glow.
- December 9th, 2011
SEweb – Scotland’s Environment Website
- imenzies
- Comments: none
For the first time, everything you want to know about Scotland’s environment will now be available at the touch of a button on a new website provided by Scotland’s key environment and health agencies.
Scotland’s Environment Web – named SEweb – aims to be the gateway to everything you want to know about Scotland’s environment. This three year project, supported by funding from the European Union, will put Scotland at the global forefront of sharing environmental information, prioritising problems and involving citizens in assessing and improving their own environment.
Features of SEweb will include:
- All information available from the one source
- Direct link to individual partner agencies, making it easy to navigate through information
- An Online Library containing all partner agency official reports and publications
- ‘Citizen Science’ to allow individual to interact with SEweb (coming in 2012)
Visit the website at: http://www.environment.scotland.gov.uk/default.aspx
- December 9th, 2011
Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable World
- imenzies
- Comments: none
Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future is a multimedia teacher education programme published by UNESCO. It contains 100 hours (divided into 27 modules) of professional development for use in pre-service teacher courses as well as the in-service education of teachers, curriculum developers, education policy makers, and authors of educational materials.
There are over 60 million teachers in the world. Each one is a key agent for bringing about the changes in values and lifestyles we need. Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future will enable teachers to plan learning experiences that empower their students to work creatively with others to help bring their visions of a better world into effect.
Find out more about the programme.
Download resources and modules.
- December 9th, 2011
Last day at UN Climate Talks in Durban
- imenzies
- Comments: none
As major UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa reach their final day, the most likely outcome is a modest step towards a broader deal to cut greenhouse gas pollution to fight climate change.
Scottish climate campaigner, Lexi Barnett (Campaigns Officer with SCIAF), has been attending the talks with one of Latin America’s leading climate scientist. Check out her blog and the news from the last day.
Keep up to date