Quaggy Children’s Centre have been working on the Global Citizenship topic: Taking an active role in your community and making our planet more peaceful, sustainable, and fair. The team at Quaggy’s regularly plan learning opportunities which encourage young people to think about different people, places, and climates around the world. The children also learnt about animals in need around the world, and were particularly interested in hippos in Africa. During Eco-Committee meetings, children and adults discussed what they could do to help hippos and were very enthusiastic when they learnt about a place called the Turgwe Hippo Turst, where people worked very hard to look after hippos in need of help. The children decided that they would like to help the Turgwe Hippo Trust by adopting a hippo. Children where shown photos of several hippos in need of adoption, and voted to adopt baby Harvey.

During Eco-Committee meetings, children and adults discussed the hippos that live in Africa that need our help. Where they live it is very hot and this means there is not enough water and food for the hippos. The good news is, there is a place called the ‘Turgwe Hippo Trust’ and the people there work very hard to look after the hippos. We decided we would like to help them do this by adopting a hippo. The children were shown photos of the hippos and they voted to adopt Harvey, and because they had been able to choose Harvey it meant they were very invested in his wellbeing! Now the children at Quaggy’s get regular updates on Harvey and his friends (who are all doing well) and enjoy following his journey with the knowledge that they have created positive impacts in another part of the world.

After the Eco-Committee at Highbury Lodge completed their Environmental Review, it was apparent that their nursery had plenty of surplus fabrics and materials destined for recycling, if they couldn’t first be reused in the nursery! The learning topic they were currently working on, children around the world, provided the answer. Research had revealed that, unfortunately, some children weren’t fortunate enough to have many toys and were forced to create their own toys using available materials. The Eco-Committee at Highbury Lodge decided to do the same – using old bubble wrap and string they made a football and with the aid of an old, unused hoop they weaved leftover fabric strips and made a mat for their reading corner. Now every time a child sits on the mat, they remember other children around the world who are not as fortunate as themselves.

The Junior Leadership Team (JLT) at Kingsbury Academy are passionate advocates of Global Citizenship and strive to understand problems our society faces, whilst taking an active role to make our world a better place. As part of their Global Citizenship work, the JLT linked up with the country’s leading builder of schools and colleges, to plan and model their vision of what a Green Village of the future could look like. Inspired by their learning, pupils went about using their plans to make sure their school was doing all it could to benefit their community and our planet creating bug hotels, advocating for solar panels on buildings, introducing recycling stations and more!

The staff at Stokes Wood Primary School New Parks Leicester have provided food parcels from personal donations to a food cupboard which vulnerable families can access through a member of the school’s pastoral team. In addition, a local football club donated £500 to buy foods which are perishable such as meat, cheese, yogurts, fruit and vegetables. A local resident came down to the school too, to donate a shopping bag full of food.

Not only do the school’s most needy families benefit, the children learn quickly about how the cost of living can soon affect their lives but there are people and organisations who can help if you have the courage to ask.

On Wednesday 9th March 2022 around 50 pupils from the 10 schools located in Marlow met at Marlow CofE Infant School for the second all-Marlow Eco-Schools conference, the first to held in person as the inaugural conference was held online due to COVID restrictions. Representatives from Burford School, Danesfield School, Foxes Piece School, Great Marlow School, Holy Trinity CofE School, Little Marlow CofE School, Marlow CofE Infant School, Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, Spinfield School and St Peter’s Catholic Primary School were all in attendance!

During the afternoon, a tour was arranged around the grounds of Marlow CofE Infant school to see the environmental projects that had been implemented, which include: raised beds for growing vegetables; re-wilded areas to encourage bees, insects and small animals; as well as covered outdoor teaching spaces, so learning can take place outside whatever the weather.

Following the tour, the representatives from each school began planning a collective, community effort to to mark this year’s World Environment Day in June – discussing how the residents of Marlow could make a collective, environmental impact. Ideas include: a non-uniform day to raise money for environmental causes; a Marlow community litter-pick; an all Marlow walk or cycle to school and work day; a single-use plastic free day and an electricity free day.

Whilst plans are ongoing for the day, all schools in Marlow have began registering and working through the Eco-Schools programme – following Marlow CofE infant and St Peter’s lead to achieve an Eco-Schools Green Flag!

The wonderful Eco-Coordinator at Rosslyn Park Primary and Nursery School in Nottingham spotted a winter emergency appeal for food item donations from a local community initiative called Himmah. Himmah aims to tackle poverty, racism and social exclusion and improve mental wellbeing – their charity aims fit in perfectly with what pupils at Rosslyn are taught (the importance of helping those in need), so the Eco-Committee quickly added ‘Global Citizenship’ to their Action Plan and got to work!
The Eco-Committee designed posters appealing for donations which were then hung on every class door and distributed to families through Class Dojo – they told everyone to give as little or as much as they could. With only one week to collect, donations were bought into each class daily – staff, children, parents, friends and family all donated. At the end of the week the Eco-Coordinator was able to donate two car loads worth of food weighing in at over 500kg!!! A celebratory poster was then placed on each class door and distributed via class dojo. The Eco-Committee and their schoolmates all loved supporting their local community!

The wonderful Eco-Coordinator at Worsley Mesnes Community Primary in Wigan discovered a crisp packet recycling project that creates survival blankets from crisp packets, which would otherwise end up being sent to landfill. Having told the school’s Eco-Committee about the project, soon all children in the school became involved – collecting crisp packets during lunchtimes, then washing and drying them for their Eco-Coordinator to iron and fuse together creating survival blankets. Once created, the majority of blankets will be donated to local Wigan-based charity The Brick, however, some blankets have also been personally handed to homeless people located close to the school. Everyone in Worsley Mesnes is extremely proud of the project, especially because it helps people and the planet – the school’s Eco-Code has now been updated to, ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Save Lives.’

To celebrate World Earth Day, the fabulous Eco-Coordinator and Eco-Committee at Gorse Hall Primary school planned a, ‘Restore Our Earth’ day. Throughout the day, all pupils took part in a variety of activities to highlight the issues our planet faces as well as completing eco-actions planned to combat these issues. Pupil activities included: dressing in the colour of their favourite animal, bird or flower; collecting money for Water Aid; making an eco-wish; creating eco-awareness posters; designing environmentally-themed mosaics to display outside school; planting flowers around the school boundary; and completing litter picks. The day was a huge success! In the words of Eco-Coordinator Kathleen, “Such a fabulous day… the children were enthusiastic and remained actively engaged in all the activities they took part in: the smiles on their faces summed it up!”

As part of their work on the Global Citizenship and Litter topics the Eco-Committee at Perdiswell decided that they wanted to encourage the entire school community to pick up litter during their school holidays! As some pupils would be staying local, and others travelling abroad it was decided that pupils would be encouraged to litter-pick both locally and internationally (for those going abroad)! This was decided on to highlight that litter and pollution is both a local and global issue.

The Eco-Committee delivered an assembly using powerful images of animals from around the world (with the help of a David Attenborough video) and pitched the idea to their school and, upon returning for the new academic year, found they had plenty of pictures of pupils litter-picking from all over the world including: California, Vietnam, Mexico and (of course) Worcester! The Eco-Committee put the pictures on display in their dinner hall, so everyone could see how pupils at Perdiswell had set an example to the world!

For the Global Citizenship Topic Reddish Hall School focussed on raising as much money as possible for charities, local and global. Their chosen charities were ‘The Donkey Sanctuary’, ‘The WWF’, and ‘The Wellspring’ (a local homeless charity). Their team of Eco-Warriors took some time to brainstorm the best way to raise money and decided to organise several plant and craft sales across the academic year. They sold plants and flowers grown by their own students in their school garden, for example, garden peas, tomatoes, sunflowers, calendula. As well plants, they also had arts and crafts for sale including decorated repurposed jam jars and painted ‘flower’ pinecone fridge magnets. During the academic year Reddish Hall School made over £200 in plant and craft sales! In addition, their Eco-Warriors also teamed up with their Outdoor Education department to take part in WWF’s annual ‘The Great Winter Wander.’ Many students walked 5 miles and raised over £500. Students at Reddish Hall School are all eager for the next academic year to begin so they can continue their work as Global Citizens!

Whilst we were all kept apart during 2020, St Mary’s bought their school community together. They did this whilst promoting fairness and equality with a series of Fairtrade competitions, which were incredibly popular and had stacks of entries. Competitions included: baking (using Fairtrade ingredients), Fairtrade posters (see photo), and a poetry competition (see below).
A non-profit organisation Fairtrade,
An organisation that provides aid,
Preserving hum rights,
Like bright shining lights.
Fairtrade ensures workers are paid good wages,
Setting an unprecedented standard for all ages,
You can find their label on chocolate or banana,
Without unjust wages for workers which seems like a palaver!

Every Wednesday afternoon at Streatham and Clapham High School, students are allowed to participate in activities linked to global issues their teachers feel passionate about – one of these activities was labelled Beyond Crisis, Finding Hope. With estimates classifying 767 million people as living in extreme poverty, the initiative first explored the nature of poverty before raising funds to directly support young entrepreneurs in the developing world.
For a term, students evaluated the effectiveness of micro-finance (financial services targeting individuals who lack access to conventional banking) and learnt about how they could contribute to help young people in desperate circumstances improve their quality of life and general welfare. Pupils then fundraised individually through a variety of actions such as bake sales and portraiture. When fundraising was complete, they loaned the £500 they had raised to a variety of individuals, deciding to loan only to women to help narrow the gender gap. Projects the girls chose included: solar panels in Palestine and stock for a local store in the Philippines. As the money is only loaned to the projects it means that when it is repaid the girls can continue to loan more and more to different projects over several years. Students at Streatham and Clapham High School would love for other schools to be inspired by and replicate their action.

As part of the annual BBC Children in Need appeal, the Social Enterprise Club at Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School prepared and delivered various activities throughout the week.
Students from Tauheedul’s Social Enterprise Club were assigned to a group during their after-school, Friday Eco-Warrior session. Working in their groups, students had a twenty pound budget and two weeks to design and plan a stall to raise money for Children in Need.
At the end of the two weeks, students pitched their ideas to a judging panel in a ‘Dragons Den’ style scenario, ensuring they had a team name and finance sheet with accurate details of cost, profit and products/services. After the pitches, an additional £20 was awarded to the team that demonstrated they could put the additional funds to best use.
During the Children in Need week, the groups hosted their stalls in the school Social Space during lunchtimes selling a variety of food items and hosting challenges and games students could take part in. The week was a huge success raising £863 for Children in Need. Mariya, a member of the social enterprise club, said, ‘Children in Need week was really enjoyable, we worked as a team to raise money for a great cause and learnt a lot of skills that I can use in my future.’