Global Citizenship

November 11th, 2011

Anti-bullying week, 14 - 18 November

kmayer

Comments: none Tags: Tags: action, conflict, debating, learner voice, rights, sectarianism
 : Categories citizenship, health and wellbeing, religious and moral education

Anti-Bullying Week is an annual event organised by respectme, Scotland’s Anti-Bullying Service. The week aims to raise awareness of bullying in and out of school, and highlight ways of preventing and responding to it.

The 2011 Anti-Bullying Week focuses on cyber-bullying. The campaign theme is based around the notion that ‘the internet is a place, not a thing’. Its core message will inform and educate adults about the internet being a social place that children and young people go to, and will reinforce the responsibility adults have to take an active interest and make sure that online environments are as safe as the places they visit in the ‘real’ world.

For more ideas and resources visit our ‘Resources Calendar’

October 26th, 2011

Junior Climate Challenge Funding - apply now

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: action, climate and energy, community, enterprise, funding, learner voice
 : Categories citizenship, renewables and climate change, sustainable development

The Climate Challenge Fund forms part of the Scottish Government’s Sustainable Action Fund. The Climate Challenge Fund is managed by Keep Scotland Beautiful and made funding of £37.7million available to communities across the four financial years 2008-12.

Since its creation, the CCF has supported 345 communities across Scotland to take action on climate change this action includes a wide range of activities, including increasing energy efficiency of homes and community buildings, helping communities to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste, encouraging the use of low carbon transport and active travel options, and the consumption and production of local foods.

The Scottish Government’s spending review has confirmed that the CCF will continue to support communities in this way. £10.3 million will be available to Scottish communities for each of the next three years to 31 March 2015.

A proportion of the CCF will support projects run by and for young people; this activity will be titled the Junior Climate Challenge Fund.

Applications are now being invited from Scottish communities for activities that will take place between now and 31 March 2015.

The deadline for applications is 5pm on 2nd December 2011 (Fri).

More info is available at: http://ccf.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/overview.aspx

Scottish Government press release is at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2011/10/05091832

October 13th, 2011

Open day CPD event - Garrowhill Primary School, Glasgow

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: climate and energy, community, CPD, events, Fairtrade, food, learner voice, nature, school improvement
 : Categories CPD, biodiversity, citizenship, community, outdoor learning, primary schools, renewables and climate change, sharing practice, sustainable development

Date and time: 9:30am – 3.00pm, Tuesday 29 November 2011

Theme: Sustainable Development Education

This CPD event offers practitioners and school leaders a wonderful opportunity to visit Garrowhill Primary School – winner of the ‘Sustainable school’ category in this year’s Scottish Education Awards.

Garrowhill Primary is an inspiring example of a school that has adopted a whole school approach to sustainable development education. The secret to the school’s success has been the embedding of sustainability across the curriculum which has had a demonstrable impact on every classroom and learner. This has been driven forward by strong distributed leadership and a positive, caring ethos which permeates the school.

A focus of the event will be to identify and share the practical lessons and ideas that have helped the school move forward on its journey including:

• Making the most of the curriculum to provide momentum and sustain programmes
• A strong focus on pupil voice to lead learning and activities
• The effective use of programmes such as Eco-Schools, Fairtrade Schools and the John Muir Award to support learning and teaching
• Extensive partnerships with the local community to transform the school’s ageing buildings and grounds through the development of an outdoor classroom, wildlife area and vegetable garden which are regularly used for curricular activities
• The reduction in the school’s energy consumption by 30% through sustained commitment.

Participants will have the opportunity to meet and talk with the Head Teacher, staff and learners and also tour the classrooms, buildings and grounds. Time will also be set aside for participants to reflect and share their own experiences.

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!

Download programme by clicking on the link below

Garrowhill PS Open Day 29 Nov 11

This is one of a series of open day events organised by Education Scotland’s Developing Global Citizenship Team. View the full programme of open day events here>>

October 12th, 2011

School Open Day Event: Woodacre Nursery School, Glasgow City, 18 November 2011

kmayer

Comments: none Tags: Tags: CPD, europe, events, learner voice
 : Categories CPD, biodiversity, citizenship, community, early years, europe, international, outdoor learning, sharing practice, sustainable development

Time: 9:30am – 3.00pm

Theme: International and citizenship education within Early Years

Woodacre Nursery invites practitioners to visit the school and find out about their dynamic international education programme gaining them full International Schools Award, Green Flag status and the ‘Trades House Citizenship Award’. The nursery school has been involved in Global Citizenship Education for the last 6 years embedding many initiatives related to this theme into their curriculum.

Key themes of the day will be a presentation on e-twinning programmes, the school’s transformative Comenius project involving 5 other European countries and the effective use of Glow to deepen international links.

The programme will also include:

• A live Glow meet with a nursery in Iceland
• A visit of the garden and recycling projects
• Latest information on international programmes by the British Council
• A presentation by the ‘Glasgow City Council Community Action Team’
• A presentation of partnership working with parents and local community groups as key drivers to advance the nursery’s eco schools programme.

Participants will also have an opportunity for professional dialogue and the exchange of ideas on the day.

Flyer and Programme: Woodacre Nursery Open day, 18 Nov 11

How to book

To book, please email: [email protected] or Phone 0141 282 5172.

Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment. This is a free event!

This is one of a series of open day events organised by Education Scotland’s Developing Global Citizenship Team. View the full programme of open day events here>>

September 28th, 2011

Newly revised - Schools Global Footprint calculator

imenzies

Comments: none Tags: Tags: action, climate and energy, enterprise, learner voice, nature, resources, water
 : Categories ICT, mathematics, renewables and climate change, sciences, social studies, sustainable development, technologies

Education Scotland’s new-look Schools Global Footprint Calculator is now live and can be viewed at: http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/schoolsglobalfootprint

This key online resource has had a significant make-over and now features:

• a user-friendly interactive calculator
• streamlined navigation
• a comprehensive teacher handbook
• tutorial videos for practitioners
• inspiring examples of how schools have used the resource to reduce their footprint.

The school estate is responsible for an estimated 50% of greenhouse gas emissions from local authorities. The online calculator allows learners to measure the ecological footprint of their school in relation to six topic areas: food, water, energy, buildings, transport and waste. Learners are also encouraged to develop innovative approaches to reducing their impact on the environment and promoting sustainable lifestyles in the wider community – from tackling the school run to growing and eating their own produce to reduce food miles.

In addition to providing an exciting real life context for delivering the experiences and outcomes, the resource greatly supports Eco-Schools activities and provides learners with skills for learning, life and work as Scotland move towards a low-carbon future.

View the Schools Global Footprint resource or find out more about Education Scotland’s sustainable development education resources.

September 20th, 2011

New school open day: Mearns Primary School, East Renfrewshire

kmayer

Comments: none Tags: Tags: learner voice
 : Categories Uncategorized, citizenship, primary schools, sharing practice

Main focus: Learner voice and Rights Respecting Schools

Thursday, 13 October 2011, 9.30 am – 3 pm

Mearns Primary School, - this year’s Education Awards in the category ‘Global Citizenship’ -, will provide you with the opportunity to spend the day in the school to talk to staff and pupils about a high level of momentum and commitment to learner voice across the whole school for years. This has enabled the school to transform the ethos as well as the overall life and work of the school and to develop rich learning experiences and activities including:

• Implementing a highly effective pupil participation strategy
• Developing international education programme through the ‘Connecting Classrooms’ programme (British Council) and links with other foreign schools.
• Forging strong partnerships with parents and a wide range of local community groups and businesses.
• Establishing a whole school ethos based on justice, fairness and human rights agenda leading to Rights Respecting Schools accreditation and peer assessor status.

A focus of the event will be to identify and share the practical lessons and ideas that have helped the school move forward in its journey, and also to reflect on the challenges encountered along the way. Time will also be set aside for some professional dialogue and exchange of ideas.

For more information see attached document: Mearns Primary Open day

How to book

To book, please email: [email protected] or

Phone 0141 282 5172.

Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

This is a free event!

July 29th, 2011

LGBT Pupil Voice growing in the Borders

kmayer

Comments: none Tags: Tags: community, conflict, learner voice
 : Categories citizenship, secondary schools

The Scottish Borders Challenging Homophobia Together Project is part of a national project that aims to reduce homophobia and homophobic bullying in schools bullying. The project is led by LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Youth Scotland, supported by Scottish Borders Council and funded by the Big Lottery Fund. This work follows both national and local research that indicates homophobic bullying has links with low attainment, truancy and early school leaving. Research also suggests that this type of bullying can have a negative impact on young people’s health and well-being, the consequences for some pupils include depression, self harm and suicide attempts.

In Galashiels Academy and Peebles High School LGBT delivered assemblies to 5th and 6th year pupils. Here we asked if anyone would like to get involved in delivering work that challenges homophobia in their school. The response was overwhelmingly positive and a Youth Advisory Group now runs in Gala Academy with 6 pupils and in Peebles High school with 5 pupils. Their ideas have included: posters that challenge homophobia, eliminating the use of the word “gay” as an insult, gathering information on homophobia from other pupils, involvement in developing and delivering lesson plans, and promoting the inclusion of same sex couples at their Christmas dance.

This work is in its infancy, however the interest from a broad range of pupils has shown that young people are interested in getting involved in work that can make a difference in their school, and that homophobia and homophobic bullying can affect many pupils. We also discovered that assemblies, although short, can still have a clear impact. In a recent assembly pupils were asked the question: “Does Homophobia exist in your school”? In response all of the pupils in the assembly hall put their hand up. This sent a strong message about the need for this work and school staff noted their shock and surprise at pupil’s responses.

Written by Karen Wilson,Youth & Community Development Officer LGBT Youth Scotland
Karen can be contacted at [email protected]

July 29th, 2011

Developing Rights and Responsibilities at Mearns Primary: the Rights Respecting School Award

kmayer

Comments: none Tags: Tags: community, democracy, learner voice, rights
 : Categories citizenship, primary schools, social studies

In June 2009, Mearns Primary School achieved Level 1 of the Rights Respecting School Award. We surveyed staff, parents and pupils to evaluate the impact of developing an understanding of rights and responsibilities within the school and wider community. Embarking on Rights Respecting Schools Award had a hugely positive effect on general behaviour and the ethos within the school. With this in mind we decided to work towards Level 2.

As every class had participated in lessons to develop an understanding of the UNCRC we looked to ways to further embed this within the school. This was done through looking for ways to embed rights and responsibilities throughout the curriculum. When planning, teachers look for specific links to articles in the UNCRC through topics such as WW2, Victorians, Refugees, Election Fever and Local Area. In addition to this, our P7 reading buddies now have a template they use to discuss various rights and responsibilities when reading with younger children.

Every class has a class charter, displays linked to Articles and a copy of the UNCRC display so to up level this the steering group interviewed members of the school community from pupils, catering, office and janitorial staff to teachers and parents. They highlighted the right that they felt applied to them and the responsibility they have in ensuring others enjoy it. These were displayed throughout the school.

We introduced a ‘Right of the Week’ system where each week we focus on a different right and responsibility. Pupils who display responsible and respectful attitude towards that right receive a certificate. This is organised independently by the steering group.

The steering group wanted to raise awareness in the local community so they organised a poster competition throughout the school. Details were put in our RRS Newsletter and the posters were completed as a homework task. This increased awareness and understanding for parents. The winning posters were published and then the steering group visited local community establishments explaining what the UNCRC is and what we had been doing to become a RRS. They then asked for the posters to be displayed and for that place to be a RRS doctors, dentist, library etc.
Our RRS also visited local guides, brownies and BBs to do presentations about RRS there, this was well received and we aim to continue to do this.

Written by Siobhan McColgan, DHT, Mearns Primary. Siobhan can be contacted at [email protected].

July 29th, 2011

Election fever: developing young politicians in primary school!

kmayer

Comments: none Tags: Tags: action, democracy, enterprise, learner voice, scottish culture
 : Categories citizenship, primary schools, scottish culture, social studies

At Mearns Primary the election fever topic looks at election processes, the Scottish parliament and is run as an enterprise topic. Pupils work in teams to run an election campaign and undertook the following:
• Through discussion and activities the children realised the importance of a leader to organisation and decision making capabilities
• Pupils discussed what qualities a leader (a candidate) should have. For this the children used a resource called ‘Ideas Trail’, to sort their ideas and arrive at important qualities. This allowed them to structure their discussion and rate their final choices.
• Pupils had opportunity to think as to whether they had these qualities or indeed whether they could develop these qualities and propose themselves as a candidate.
• Candidates then had to write a manifesto, whilst those not applying had to write a similar script on what they would like to be changed in the school/classroom.
• A mini secret ballot was then initiated and 4 candidates chosen to run for election. The other children in the class were assigned to work for a candidate and they were to choose a logo a party name and a slogan.
• On the day of voting children were given specific roles: Presiding Officer, Polling Agent, Counting Agent and Tellers.
• The winning candidate then made a speech and gave thanks to their supporters and support team. A considerable effort was made to ensure ballot was as realistic as possible by making a ballot box, voting booth, using name cards, high visibility vests etc.
• Pupils are also given an additional activity where they are given the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer. We watch a video of the Budget and the children are given a fictional amount of money and they have to decide how they are going to spend it e.g. Education, Armed Services, Health etc. The class then have a debate about how the money is spent and get to see that people from different perspectives have very different opinions.

July 29th, 2011

EthCo Challenge 2011 Winners

kmayer

Comments: none Tags: Tags: community, enterprise, Fairtrade, learner voice, natural disasters, research, rights
 : Categories citizenship, curriculum areas, international, primary schools, secondary schools, sharing practice

EthCo has announced the school winners in this year’s Challenge competition. The Challenge was to use one of the EthCo tasks to promote Interdisciplinary Learning in the spirit of Curriculum for Excellence, and be able to demonstrate this learning in a vibrant and clear manner.

For more information see: http://bit.ly/oMLECy