Global Citizenship

January 30th, 2012

Chinese New Year

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags:  : Categories china, international

As we enter the Chinese Year of the Dragon there is activity all around Scotland to welcome the New Year. The Education Scotland website carries details of resources which can help schools to celebrate.

Here’s a few of the events taking place: a delegation from Shanghai visited several Confucius Classroom hubs, and their song and dance performance is being broadcast on our Glow TV intranet; the Ricefield cultural centre in Glasgow runs a Takeaway China festival with a particular focus on photography and film; and the Take One Action organisation offers a selection of four films about contemporary China, titled ‘China on the move’, each accompanied by discussion with expert speakers.

Out in Scottish schools, there are also events to mark the New Year. For example, in East Dunbartonshire the students at St.Ninian’s High School are participating in cultural and artistic workshops and performances.

January 30th, 2012

Holocaust remembrance in Scotland

nickmorgan

Comments: none Tags: Tags: holocaust education
 : Categories citizenship, international, religious and moral education, social studies

Last week we commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day 2012 with events all over the country in communities and schools. This annual occasion is an opportunity to remember those who died in the Holocaust of World War 2 and in the genocides since, and to challenge the prejudice and discrimination which can lead to such horrors.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) takes a lead in facilitating such commemoration, and it picked the theme of ‘Speak Up, Speak Out’ for its 2012 campaign. It created education resources and material to help local organisers such as teachers and librarians to create activities which increased public participation.

Each year in Scotland one local authority hosts a national event. In 2012 Dundee City Council took the lead, working with partners such as the Scottish Inter Faith Council, HMDT, and the Anne Frank Trust. The event included participation by John Swinney MSP on behalf of Scottish Government, a local disabled dance group, students from Dundee schools, and visiting speakers from Denmark, Japan and Canada. A unique element of the evening was focused around ‘Inside Hana’s Suitcase’, the story of one victim of the Nazis, her family and how a suitcase stimulated learning about the Holocaust in many countries.

Two Grove Academy students presented personal views of the impact of their participation in the ‘Lessons from Auschwitz’ programme managed by the Holocaust Education Trust. The Scottish Government recently confirmed that it will continue its support for this programme for another year, enabling more Scottish school students to learn from the experience.

In East Renfrewshire students from all the local secondary schools were involved in a commemorative event at Eastwood Theatre, covered by one of the local newspapers.

In Edinburgh the public library service launched its Ernest Levy archive at an event hosted by Portobello High School. Ernest Levy was a Holocaust survivor who made his home in East Renfrewshire and then dedicated a great deal of time to working with schools to spread a message of tolerance and respect.

January 27th, 2012

Earth Hour 2012 - wear it bright!

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: action, climate and energy, events, nature, resources
 : Categories citizenship, renewables and climate change, sustainable development

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 Tags: Tags: community, CPD, school improvement
 : Categories CPD, citizenship, early years, games and sport, international, leadership, learner voice, primary schools, secondary schools, sharing practice, sustainable development

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 17^th 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 Tags: Tags: climate and energy, CPD, enterprise, events, Fairtrade, learner voice, nature, school improvement
 : Categories CPD, biodiversity, citizenship, community, curriculum areas, learner voice, outdoor learning, primary schools, renewables and climate change, sharing practice, sustainable development

School open day

Whitelees Primary School, North Lanarkshire Council

9:30am – 3.00pm, Monday 20^th February 2012

Theme: Sustainable Development Education

This event was originally due to take place on 8^th December 2011 but had to be cancelled due to the severe storms. It has now been rescheduled for Monday 20^th 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: [email protected] 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 Tags: Tags: CPD, events, nature
 : Categories CPD, sustainable development

Developing Global Citizens through sustainable development education

Time: 3.45pm – 4.45pm, Thursday 26^th 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 20^th 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!

Click here to watch the recording>>