Global Citizenship

January 20th, 2010

Haiti earthquake

nickmorgan

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories citizenship, international

The devastating earthquake in Haiti has stimulated a huge international Aid and relief effort to assist the local population.

Oxfam Education has already produced educational resources on this natural disaster. The presentation slides and notes will help schools that intend to run assemblies or fundraising activities to support the relief and recovery work in Haiti, and facilitate discussion of issues of responsible global citizenship

The Oxfam website also has an online diary written by one of its Aid workers in the country, which provides a fresh perspective on the charitable relief operations and the situation in Haiti.

Mercy Corps and the Edinburgh Disasters Response Committee has also produced an Education pack, available in our Glow Group for International Education.

January 14th, 2010

Holocaust Education

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories citizenship

It’s now just two weeks until Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January, when nations all over the world will remember the genocides of the modern world and promote tolerance. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website carries up-to-date news of events and many resources for teachers. Many schools and local authorities in Scotland will be holding some kind of event in commemoration, such as school assemblies and meetings with Holocaust survivors.

Some school events will be led by pupils who have benefitted from the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme developed by the Holocaust Education Trust.

Linda Hooper, the Principal of Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee and originator of the Paperclips project, is visiting Scotland and will talk with Scottish teachers and pupils in Glasgow and Renfrewshire about her experience with Holocaust Education.

This year is the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945. The recent theft of the infamous ‘Arbeit macht frei’ sign from the main camp gates caused initial worries about neo-Nazi activity but the rapid arrests by the Polish police suggest that the theft was for criminal reasons of profit rather than politically motivated.

This week saw the death of Miep Gies, the last link with the hiding of Anne Frank’s family in Amsterdam. Miep concealed the diary after the family’s arrest in 1944, and handed it over to Anne’s father after the war - making its publication possible and creating a resource for Holocaust Education in schools worldwide.

January 12th, 2010

Biodiversity

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories international, sustainable development

The United Nations has designated this year as ’2010 International Year of Biodiversity’, and the website has good background material about the intentions of the year and the concept and aspects of biodiversity.

The Natural History Museum in London hosted the UK launch for this initiative, and there will be activities all over the UK in the year ahead to raise awareness and celebrate biodiversity. A BBC story reports on the launch.

The Scottish Government has encouraged Scots to make more use of the natural riches around them and take up activity in the outdoors environment.

Learning and Teaching Scotland is working with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to run a Glow event for schools tomorrow, and the Glow intranet will enable teachers and pupils to follow the subject throughout the year.

January 5th, 2010

Sustainable Development Education - Improving schools, improving lives

imenzies

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories sustainable development

Ofsted visited 14 schools over a three-year period to evaluate how effectively they had developed pupils’ understanding of sustainability and whether education for sustainable development had any impact on improving the broader life of the school. Over three years all but one of the schools improved the overall effectiveness of their provision for sustainable development, with a wide range of positive consequences for pupils, their families, the school and wider community.

Download full report from http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publications-and-research/Browse-all-by/Documents-by-type/Thematic-reports/Education-for-sustainable-development-improving-schools-improving-lives