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Hi Anna
Nice idea to encourage staff to take part in Global Goals Week, as staff in schools are similar to leaders of countries. By working to change the school environment, staff are supporting Goal 17:Partnerships for the Goals. If each school does their bit in Ireland, the country is then fully supporting this very important goal.
In my local town there is a Refugee Support Group who fundraise and have a collection centre for clothing and household supplies needed by refugee families. They also have cultural and craft days as well as talks by the refugees themselves trying their stories, which helps develop empathy and understanding among the local Irish citizens. I think schools could organise similar activities for refugee families joining the school community, thus providing a greater understanding to locals of the plight of these people. The book ‘my name is not Refugee ‘ is a great resource to use to help children empathise with refugee children and families. I also liked the PLAN international lessons provided in this module as a good resource for teaching children correctly about the whole refugee crisis and how to tackle negative stories in the media.
From a SSE point of view, leading by example would benefit all. Schools could create buddy systems for EAL children, which would be especially effective during play time. Another idea would or work with local GAA or soccer groups to help refugee children learn English through play.
I also love the idea of a buddy system. It would also be a nice add on to teach those buddies and classmates a few words or phrases in the new child (refugee’s) language to make them feel welcome and valued.
In my area there has been very obvious increased rainfall which has been linked to climate change, particularly evident in a record breaking wet July of 2023. There are constant issues with flood water from local rivers which costs taxpayers money as county and city councils battle to keep flooding at bay. Wet weather also means more blight affecting potato, fruits and other crops, as well as the need for increased chemical spraying to combat this. And of course farmers struggling to save hay in wet summers means prices increase so they are unable to keep as many cattle in winter, with a subsequent knock on affect on farm produce the following spring.
Chats / talks to older local farmers, or visits to their farms world enable children to discover how long climate change has been affecting the agriculture industry, and may learn ways in which they can help.
Three actions which students can take in school to help combat climate change are:
1. Creating a School Garden is an an excellent way of empowering children to grow their own fruit and vegetables and it’s a hands on way for them to learn about producing crops themselves. They can incorporate recycled items such as yogurt pots and other plastic pots, as well as using biodegradable paper pots that can go straight into the ground. They call also learn how to turn food waste and cardboard into compost, as well as learning about ways to control insects without the use of pesticides. Other areas of the school garden could be given to biodiversity, such as a pond where frogs would naturally maintain the insect population, a hen coop where their manure could fertilize the ground, and learn how to do these things to regulation standard. Again, local community members could visit and help with this initiative.
2. Rainwater harvesting…. Create a safe rainwater collection area to be used for the school garden and possibly school toilets.
3. Energy Saving – give the students responsibility for making sure the lights are turned off and switches are off. Incorporate this with obtaining the schools Green Flag (Set up Green Flag committee) as a motivator to continue with energy saving.
As part of the school’s SSE we can look at ways the school can help by fundraising to install PV/solar panels for replace traditional electricity consumption. Have walk to school days, encourage cycling, and keep children in touch with their environment by having outdoor activities, classes, walks, and observation of nature during all seasons. Recording rainfall at their local MetOffice for one month each session, would help them “see’ any tiny improvements over time / year to year.
I would be interested in empowering students to take action on SDG 4, “Quality Education,” with the aim of building a more equitable world, where every child has the opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential. The resources and videos shown here would be of great benefit to inform children in Irish schools about how quality education is not freely available to children around the world. In the past I have shown videos from the series “Most dangerous ways to school” available on YouTube, as part of development education in my classroom. This was an add-on to children learning about their school and community. They discussed their feelings about school and whether it not it was easy for them to get to school…. Also connected with Data in Maths to examine modes of transport. This was then compared to children in countries such as Cambodia and documentaries showing children’s journey to school… Across rivers in boats, kayaks, up mountains, through rainforests without parents who had to work in fields. I love the idea mentioned by another person on here, of teaming with a school in Cambodia to connect electronically and perhaps organise school exchanges to really make a difference to the lives of a few disadvantaged children, rather than focus on more paper policies for SSE in relation to development education.
Wow this is a lovely thing to do, great initiative by your school and amazing support from local community too. Would be great if this happened in all local communities.
Excellent idea to incorporate tree planting in the local or school community as a response to action for climate change. The memories created by this kind of project will stay with the children far longer than a classroom based one, thus cementing their own opinions of themselves as powerful citizens who can change their own future environment. I think, projects like this really empower children in relation to climate action for SDG. This could also be incorporated into whole school SSE.
Love this idea of having people visit the school to explain how they got into their role in an industry dominated by the other sex. It would be especially effective if that person was from their local area.
I have found children will adhere very well to labels we adults give up toys or stations at school and this can affect how girls / boys feel about them. For example. If I ask who wants to play with the ‘doll house’, only girls will want it. But if I call it ‘The small world station’ boys will also want to play. I think it’s important for teachers to be careful for we label toys and play stations and be mindful of keeping labels neutral. As another poster stated here, it’s also important to give girls ‘traditional boys roles’ in sister or science / maths teacher projects , rather than let them choose themselves. For example by giving the girls in the group the roles of engineer and architect, while the boys take on project management and admin – this lets the children see that the teacher’s views on girls in engineering is a positive one, and that this is the norm rather than the exception. Similarly, boys can be nurses, caregivers etc. Showing videos of successful females in traditionally male dominated roles will also normalise this for children… Eg County Mayo female astronaut Dr Nora Patten.
- I like your idea of using the Lorax to help students understand global warming and climate change. It would be great to have a list of age appropriate literature for use in various areas of development education. Perhaps this is something schools could do among staff .. or maybe there is already such a resource online!
Ehigie,s paper on Development Education highlights the importance of global citizenship, and examines how development education creates a sense of responsibility around global issues. Development education means to care, and aims to promote critical thinking, empathy, and a better understanding of social justice. It also promotes better everyday choices in relation to global sustainable development.
To incorporate development education in teaching 1sr and 2nd class, I use activities that encourage critical thinking and empathy towards cultures and people in a very positive, informed and fun way. I would integrate global issues into the curriculum across subjects such as history, geography, sphe, to inform children about global challenges. For older children, examples of projects to investigate global issues could be child labour in the plastic industry, and the relationship this has with budget stores in Ireland and online, and how these products often end up in the Christmas Shoe box appeal…. Sent to other disadvantaged children. Older children could critically reflect on this and become empowered to make better choices on where they buy from as future consumers. That we are not ‘better’ just because we send items to help. Again fostering critical thinking, self reflection and empathy.
To encourage colleagues to plan development education activities throughout the school, I would suggest whole school events that would promote cross-cultural understanding and empathy, such as intercultural day where parents could also attend. This would showcase adults in the community leading by example, by demonstrating their empathy understanding and acceptance of other cultures, traditions, cuisine, values etc. thus helping to foster the same ideals for the children going forward.