Summer 2008 Newsletter

Eye on the World

Newsletter for teachers - May 2008

Welcome to the summer term newsletter for teachers from the Centre for Global Education, York.

The focus for this issue is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Charlotte Hunt, UNICEF Education Officer in this region explains UNICEF’s new award for Rights Respecting Schools

In this issue we have highlighted some of our recent activities and you will find information on courses for all members of staff and governors

UNICEF’s Rights Respecting School Award

THE IDEA IN A NUTSHELL
Children and young people can raise their achievement at school and improve the quality of their own and their families’ lives if they learn exactly what their rights and responsibilities are according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and how to use this understanding as a guide to living.

Children and young people will know how to go about making informed decisions and become confident, active citizens if this rights / responsibilities guide to living is introduced at an early age and is reinforced throughout school life.

UNICEF’s Rights Respecting School Award is an effective way of inspiring and supporting schools who want to provide children and young people with a rights-respecting guide to living.

Would you be interested in attending an after school meeting in the autumn to find out more?

Please contact UNICEF Education Officer Charlotte Hunt on 01653 691926 or charlotteh@unicef.org.uk
Charlotte is based in North Yorkshire and is keen to work with a cluster of North Yorkshire/York schools on the Rights Respecting Schools Award.

SUMMARY OF RATIONALE
The Rights Respecting Schools Award is premised on the understanding that for children to want to achieve they have to feel included, that they belong, that they matter. Learning that you have certain rights, now, simply because you are a child provides a starting point for building self–esteem. Learning that the way “things are done” in school is based on rights and responsibilities drawn from the articles of the UNCRC connects with all children because:

• It appeals to their self-interest
• It connects them to children everywhere.
• It derives from a higher authority (all but 2 of the world’s nations) and is not simply the school’s rules / mission statement

Thus begins the journey of learning about our rights and responsibilities and the values that underpin this way of seeing. This approach brings children into early contact with ideas of interdependence and thus the need for cooperation. It leads them to view their role as global citizens in terms of justice and empowerment. Knowing that they have a right to participate, to have a voice in decisions that affect them arouses their interest and opens the way to exploring the skills, language and concepts required to exercise this right and the responsibilities that accompany it.

The UNCRC gives a values framework to the SEAL programme and other projects to build social and emotional literacy which enhances their impact on children. The RRSA provides a coherent framework and practical guidance for schools to develop the ethos that can empower children, young people and adults to address the concerns arising out of UNICEF’s recent report on child well-being in rich countries.

SOME OF THE EVIDENCE SO FAR
The RRSA initiative has been running since early in 2005 in primary, secondary and special schools. In that time evidence of its effect has been accumulating. At these schools, teachers, children and parents have reported:

• Improved pupil self-esteem
• Pupils’ enhanced moral development
• Improved behaviour and relationships
• More positive attitudes towards diversity in society and the reduction of prejudice
• Pupils’ development as global citizens
• Overall school improvement including less truancy and bullying, better learning and academic standards
• Enhanced job satisfaction for teachers

Go Global!

Off Curriculum Enrichment day Secondary KS3 Global/Sustainable package from CGE. Worth over £1,200! CGE are proud to offer this stimulating & enterprising day to make learning about these sometimes controversial issues easy.

The day starts with a whole year group introduction led by CGE staff on ‘Being a Global Citizen’ and ends with a plenary looking to a ‘Sustainable Future – living with Climate Change’.
The rest of the day is a selection of workshops including:

• Trading game. A whole class simulation game exploring trade between rich & poor countries
• Global Health game. Uses a rucksack of essential universal health items needed to get from birth to 18 years old fit & healthy all over the world
• Poetry workshop explores what is “Britishness” today in a multicultural Britain
• Global Footprint practical workshop to measure our personal/family footprint, school footprint and look at nations footprint
• MDGs debate & role play Using simple factsheets poor countries prepare to lobby rich countries over achieving the MDGs by 2015
• Community Cohesion & the Media. Looks at the facts about refugees & migration through exercises exploring newspaper headlines

 ‘Better by the Year?’ website at www.betterbytheyear.org provides online resources to download or use directly on an interactive whiteboard looking at Fairtrade and unfair trade, child labour, slavery, global health and the Millennium Development Goals. Watch out for new resources being added on human rights and Climate change, conflict and peace. For more details & to book contact Mick Bradley on 01904 876838 or: cge@yorksj.ac.uk

9x9x9: Building Global Connections - learning from the past for today & tomorrow

CGE has been successful in obtaining a 3-year grant to develop a Key Stage 2 project which will be exciting, participatory, and sustainable while supporting schools to embed the global dimension in the curriculum.  The project aims to enable pupils to understand their place in the world by exploring what it means to be a 9 year old today in the UK and a developing country and what it meant, to be a 9 year old in the past.  It is envisaged that this will be a very practical project that will involve schools and their wider community

CGE would like to work with primary schools that have a partnership link with a school in a developing country as this project will support the schools in developing joint curriculum materials.
If you would like to know more about this project please contact Chrissie on 01904 876755 or c.dell@yorksj.ac.uk

RE-viewing the World

RE-viewing the World, our DFID -funded Media Studies Project, is reaching completion. For the last three years, our team has been working with teachers of English from the Yorkshire and Durham area to develop activities aimed at analysing media stories about the wider world. We have put these activities in a teaching pack which we plan to publish and also to make accessible to teachers on the CGE website. The pack includes a hands-on radio project which was successfully trialled by secondary school students as a way to help them understand how the media works. One the teachers on the Project, Phil Grosset from Easingwold School, decided to take this further by setting up a radio club with Years 10 and 7. With a bit of coaching from Jenny Zobel (JZ), the children created their own station, Dot Radio, on a Wikispaces podcast.  On Thursday 13th March, BBC Radio York came to the school to interview the Dot Radio team for three shows. The Year 10s also reviewed the day's papers live on air. More details here.

How healthy is the food you eat?

• for yourself
• for the producer
• for the planet?

Primary school children in York have been finding answers to these questions while having a lot of fun thanks to a project on sustainable food, organised by the CGE and the MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives). Mick Bradley, Jenny Zobel from CGE and Lucy Knock from the Castle Museum, went to Yearsley Grove and Park Grove Primary Schools to run a series of workshops on fish and fishing, milk and chocolate. Children explored the history of milk with a help of a fascinating collection of milk containers from Victorian times to today.  They performed their own lively role plays to illustrate the role of chocolate from the time of the Aztecs to modern days, include the story of chocolate in York and the development of Fair Trade and the Divine Company. The children learned a lot about the importance of sustainability by playing games created by the team, such of ‘Snap Fish’, ‘Fishing for Facts’ and ‘Global Fish Dishes’. They also enjoyed listening to the tale of Anancy and the Fisherman and watching a slide-show on Life of a West African Fishing Village

If you would like to know more about this project or how the workshop could be run at your school please contact cge@yorksj.ac.uk

A pack has been developed and will soon be available on line or to borrow from CGE

FREE Courses

.Becoming a Fair Trade School

Tuesday 20th May 2008
York St John University
9:30am – 3:15pm
Introducing Fair Trade activities in school provides opportunities to enhance many areas of the curriculum and explore citizenship from a global perspective. It gives students an opportunity to participate and take responsibility for their decisions as well as encouraging critical thinking and contributing to ‘Every Child Matters’ and ‘Education for Sustainable Development’

For more details contact Mick Bradley on 01904 876838 or: cge@yorksj.ac.uk
To book contact: Claire Barker, NYBEP, T: 01904 693632, E: clairebarker@nybep.org.uk

Global School Partnerships & A Global Dimension in the Curriculum

This FREE course is aimed at all teachers involved in learning partnerships or those considering developing a partnership with a Southern school.

Thursday 12 June 2008
York St John University   9.30 – 3.30
FREE lunch & refreshments included

This workshop is designed to help embed a ‘global dimension’ in the ethos and curricula of schools in the UK and in Southern countries working together in learning partnerships.  The session:

• explores the meaning of a global dimension for UK and for Southern schools
• illustrates what we can learn together to challenge and better inform perceptions of citizenship and development
• identifies opportunities and practical ways for partner schools to collaborate on curriculum development with global dimension goals.

To book contact Chrissie c.dell@yorksj.ac.uk or 01904 876755

Building Effective Partnerships Workshop

This FREE workshop is designed to support teachers involved in global school partnerships, to ensure that these partnerships are effective and are based on an equal relationship.
Tuesday 24 June 
York St John University
10am – 4.30pm

As a result of attending the session you will have:

• examined your own assumptions about diversity, the purpose of your partnership and your relationship with your Southern partner
• explored ways of engaging with and building on diversity to enhance partnership relationships and educational goals
• considered how economic inequalities between and within North and South might affect relationships between colleagues and schools
• shared your experience with colleagues and benefited from the experience of others
• gained some practical ideas about improving or maintaining equity-based relationships with colleagues and between young people in your partner school.

To reserve a place contact Chrissie : c.dell@yorksj.ac.uk or 01904 876755.

The Global Dimension in the Early Years

Thursday 26 June 2008  1.30pm – 4.30pm at York St John University

This participatory workshop aims to develop:

• a shared understanding of what is meant by the Global Dimension and how it is relevant to the Early Years
• a recognition of aspects of the Global Dimension that you currently cover in your work and how these may be developed further
• an understanding of some of the activities, approaches and resources available to support the development of the global dimension in the curriculum
• opportunities for incorporating further aspects of the Global Dimension in your work

To book contact Chrissie c.dell@yorksj.ac.uk or 01904 876755

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