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Climate change is having very obvious impacts on our local area. There are now regular extreme weather events that can prevent people getting to work or school. In the past few years we have missed school due to weather warnings about snow and ice, wind and rain. My own parent’s home was badly flooded and they had to move out for a year. Many people in Ireland have had their homes or businesses destroyed due to flooding. In Cork alone, the city centre, Midleton and Bandon have experienced extreme flooding. Farmers are losing crops and having to keep their animals indoors.
Looking at news articles online about events caused by climate change in their local area, field trips to sites affected by climate change and class discussions on changes in weather patterns would all serve to engage children on the topic of climate change. I think we have all noticed that the weather can change so much in the course of a day this summer.
Three actions to make the world a better place:
1. Organise a school wide recycling drive, encouraging recycling and ensuring that all classes are aware of what we can put in the recycling bins. Encourage that these actions are extended to the home.
2. Encourage a zero waste school. Apart from the recycling bin and tissues in the waste bin, we should not have any other waste in school. Children should be using reusable bottles and packaging. Items such as yoghurt cartons can be washed and recycled.
3. Maintaining the school garden and tree planting.
Climate change is a good focus for SSE. It is an easy one to measure in terms of surveying the children and checking waste reduction in the school.Hi Siobhan,
I like the idea of having local experts in to talk to the children about climate change or even people who have been impacted by the effects of climate change such as farmers.
There are many organisations working to support refugees in Cork, such as NASC – The Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre, Together – Razem Centre for Ukranian Economic Migrants and The Cork Migrant Centre at Nano Nagle Place.
However, I feel there have been great efforts made by the local school community. When families arrived from Syria, a local lady organised volunteers to teach English to them over the summer. The teacher in our school who runs the homework club offered the service to these children free of charge as their parents didn’t speak English and would not be able to help with homework. Collections were organised and the parents and children were very welcoming. EAL support was given to these children.
As there are more families arriving now from Ukraine, it would be beneficial to get advice from one of these agencies on how better to organise support for immigrant families as a school community.Hi Sean,
I like the idea of a buddy system. We do this in my school with junior infants and 6th class pupils and it works really well. I think it would be great for new children, particularly if English is a second language for them.
I have seen how gender stereotypes affect children in many ways. On one occasion, when distributing stickers to the children, one boy asked for the pink sticker and said it was his favourite colour. A few children gasped and said you can’t like pink, that’s a girl’s colour. The child looked so ashamed. I tried to explain that anyone can like any colour and there are no specific girl or boy colours but it had an effect on his confidence and he never asked for a pink sticker again. I should have carried on to do lessons on gender stereotypes. In future, I will start with the development education lessons so that children don’t pass on gender stereotypes.
I also think it is very obvious during play or Aistear, when boys tend not to play with the kitchen or the doll’s house but it is apparent that they really want to. I think the lessons provided in this module could dispel these stereotypes early on.I agree with you on the experiences of lockdown. Children who were experiencing some level of difficulty have fallen much further behind their peers and the gap has massively widened. It was evident that we were unaware of the difficulties that some children were facing.
Sustainable Development Goal 13, climate action, is one I believe affects people in every country. The children could do project work on climate change in Ireland, looking at how some people lost their homes through flooding, the children couldn’t access school for a day last year due to flooding, farmers have been having difficulties, etc. This kind of project work could raise awareness that these occurrences are related to climate change. We could also look at other countries which have been affected more extremely, losing their homes, livelihood, access to food and clean water without government assistance. The children could raise awareness of climate change in the school by making displays in the school and speaking at assembly.
We could then look at how they could make a difference by ensuring recycling and waste are in the correct bins, attempting to become a zero waste school by using reusable bottles and containers, planting trees and maintaining the school garden. In our school, we reward a class each week with the golden bin award for ensuring there is only recycling in the recycling bins and there are only tissues in the rubbish bin.I have seen how gender stereotypes affect children in many ways. On one occasion, when distributing stickers to the children, one boy asked for the pink sticker and said it was his favourite colour. A few children gasped and said you can’t like pink, that’s a girl’s colour. The child looked so ashamed. I tried to explain that anyone can like any colour and there are no specific girl or boy colours but it had an effect on his confidence and he never asked for a pink sticker again. I should have carried on to do lessons on gender stereotypes. In future, I will start with the development education lessons so that children don’t pass on gender stereotypes.
I also think it is very obvious during play or Aistear, when boys tend not to play with the kitchen or the doll’s house but it is apparent that they really want to. I think the lessons provided in this module could dispel these stereotypes early on.Hi Catherine,
I found the same in an all girls secondary school. Woodwork, technology, technical graphics work etc were not options in the school.
Hi Orla,
I like your idea of organising CPD, Collaborative planning and making a DE resource bank. Creating a school wide approach helps with developing global citizenship.
I found Ehigie’s paper on ‘The Role of Global Citizen’s in Today’s World’ very interesting. I agreed with Ehigie’s outlook on the role of global citizen’s but I found the article interesting as it was written from the point of view of an immigrant who may have faced some level of racism but still believes that those ‘who promote an ideology that paradoxically denies the humanity of others’ are vulnerable and need support in the form of education. Ehigie realises that this may not be easy and the society is not utopian. I agree with Ehigie on this, particularly that a lot can be learned from history. There is a lot in our history that could make those links that we need to establish as global citizens such as we were colonised and we had mass migration from Ireland. In recent years the rise of the far right is a worrying trend which makes our role as educators all the more important. Development education encourages critical thinking so that children can make these historical links and recognise inequality in society and want to make that change.
In terms of SSE, I think the critical thinking that is encouraged by development education can feed into all areas of SSE. Children are better equipped to look at the teaching and learning that is going on critically and suggest ways to improve.