Global Citizenship

The Spring Day 2010 campaign has been launched by the European Commission. This is an annual opportunity for teachers and students to celebrate and enhance a European dimension in the life of the school. The Spring Day website has competitions, suggestions for activities, etc.

Schools can register to run an event, such as meetings between students, teachers, and key institutional or social personalities. It is an opportunity for young people to discuss today’s challenges and help shape Europe’s future. Spring Day 2010 is celebrating “Citizenship and Fundamental Rights” as part of Europe’s cultural and social identity, and also promoting solidarity and social cohesion in schools – supporting the goals of the European Year of Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.

East Dunbartonshire Council have celebrated the completion of their ‘Projet Citoyen’ project, which enabled sixth form pupils to undertake activities to raise European awareness in local schools. A group of students visited Strasbourg and the European Parliament, and produced video clips and presentations about their trip. They also improved the fluency of their spoken French.

This material was then converted into an online quiz for pupils in the first year of secondary. Now there are plans to extend this material further, with background information about Strasbourg and European institutions, and move the resource onto the Glow intranet for further use by pupils and teachers.

The European Economic and Social Committee, one of the less well-known European institutions, is an advisory body not part of the European Parliament or the Commission. EESC is organising a major European event for upper secondary school pupils aged 16-17. It’s a face-to-face simulation of an EESC plenary session in Brussels, to be held in April 2010, with pupils taking on the speaking roles to discuss European issues and negotiate compromise. 

EESC is funding travel and accommodation for participating pupils and teachers. The ‘Your Europe, Your Say’ website has details of how to register, rules and practical arrangements, such as on the selection of participating schools and the preparatory work needed in Scotland and in Brussels. Schools need to register to take part by 15^th January 2010.

The UN Climate Change summit conference is nearly upon us and people across the globe will be watching as world leaders and government officials meet in Copenhagen to negotiate new international targets to tackle climate change. Learning and Teaching Scotland will be bringing you photos, videos, blogs and live feeds from Copenhagen to enable your school to be part of the experience and to participate in the climate change debate.

To kick off our programme of events, we’re giving Scottish schools the chance to take part in a live ‘Glow meet’ videoconference with Heather Reid, BBC Scotland weather presenter and professional meteorologist. Heather works frequently with schools on science education, and will be answering your questions on weather, climate and the impact of global warming.

This live Glow meet will take place on Wednesday 9^th December 2009 from 11:20am to 11:50am. To take part, visit the Sustainable Development Education Glow group at https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/Climate%20Change/default.aspx

Submit your questions to Heather in advance of the Glow meet by visiting https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/climate%20change/lists/pages/discussions.aspx?idsip=ext or by emailing I.Menzies@LTScotland.org.uk

Plans are also being finalised for a further Glow meet live from the Copenhagen conference on Fri 11^th December 2009. Watch the Sustainable Development Education Glow group or LTS online http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/sustainabledevelopment/index.asp for further details.

2009 is the twentieth anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

The European Commission is running a competition to mark the anniversary, and invites young people aged 10-18 to form small teams to design a poster which illustrates one chosen Right from the set. The deadline is 19^th March 2010, and the overall winners will travel to Brussels for the awards ceremony. The website also has quiz text about the CRC and educational material.

The UN Copenhagen summit on Climate Change (COP15) in December is now just a few weeks away, and a steady flow of new websites and educational opportunities is emerging.

The Danish Ministry of Education has supported the creation of an international Teachers site (in English) on climate in education, called Teacherscop15.dk . This website assists teaching about climate issues and provides themes and ideas for learning more. Schools in Scotland can take part in educational activity with schools from Denmark and around the world, and can upload examples of their project work such as presentations, video clips, etc to put their own school on the interactive map.

Oxfam has published a new online resource to support education about climate change, its impacts, and the need for positive action.

And SCIAF, the Scottish aid and development charity, also has fresh educational resources about the injustice of climate change and the need to tackle its causes and consequences.

The UK government’s ‘Act on Copenhagen’ website provides updated international news about climate change and information about action in social and economic sectors of the UK.

The veterans charity Erskine has published findings from its recent pupil survey timed to coincide with Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day (11th November) and the commemoration of British war dead. It is concerned about problems with misconceptions and lack of knowledge about the events of World War Two, with significant proportions of students having a sketchy appreciation of key individuals and aspects of the history of that period.

The Daily Mail also expressed alarm in its article “Hitler, the German football coach, and other historical ‘facts’ according to our schoolchildren”.

Curriculum for Excellence represents an opportunity to cover such underpinning knowledge to support effective learning in areas such as Social Studies, Citizenship and Holocaust Education.

 LTS is inviting applications for a SCIPD group study visit to Catalonia, Spain, which is targeted at Scottish education professionals working in Gaelic education. The group will investigate minority language provision and development, as bilingual working and immersion techniques in Catalonia are well-established. Full details and application forms are on the LTS International Education website, and the closing date is Friday 16th October.

A recent BBC story “Gaelic pupils ‘do well’ at school” reported on the view of Highland Council that bilingual Gaelic and English education produced good results among young people.

The Scottish Government recently announced additional funding for Gaelic education, recognition of its contribution to Scottish culture.

Two more examples of International Education in Scottish schools, where they engage in collaborative work with overseas partner schools to benefit the learning of their pupils:

Glaitness School in Orkney has a good blog which describes the range of activity going on; for example, a link being developed with a school high up in the Rocky Mountains of the USA, a very different environment from the home of the Orkney children.

And Meldrum Primary in Aberdeenshire is featured in a TESS article this week which focuses on their EU Comenius school partnership project with schools in Germany, Spain, Slovenia and Slovakia.

Both schools using a variety of means to expose their children to the wider world and the place of Scotland and Scots within it.

The European Day of Languages took place last week, and an article in The Scotsman reported on developments such as the Confucius Classrooms programme (supporting Mandarin), the growth of Gaelic learning, and the provision of Latin.

The European Commission’s Translation department (Directorate-General for Translation, DGT) has developed an animated game for young people to increase interest in European languages, and LinguaGo is now on the EuropaGo website at http://europa.eu/linguago/ . The aim of the game is to navigate a language maze and collect parcels. To get through the maze, players need to guess the names of the European languages and steer clear of mischievous spiders. As they progress, they will also have to play the game in languages other than their own.