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The increase in rainfall year on year is of grave concern. I live near a river and although I am protected from flooding many of my neighbours are not so lucky and even access to our home can be restricted at times of flooding. High winds have also caused problems as we lost slates in the last big storm.
Although there is a plethora of data and science out there to prove that we are now living with climate change there are still climate change deniers who dispute science and refer to weather changes as something that has always occured over time.
So, it is encumbent on us as educators to present compelling information and convince the children that climate change is occuring and the negative effects are visible. Showing videos about how floods and droughts have caused major devastation to crops and livelihoods is one way [Trocaire and Goal have good resources ] but also allowing them to analyse data . Looking at graphs about the hottest days in Ireland and Europe over the last 5 years and comparing these to intense heatwaves in the past. We know we are getting these intense periods of heat much more frequently. This can be linked to the Maths ,Geography, History and Science areas of the curriculum.
3 tangible actions we can take are;
1.Plant more trees and flowers esp wild flowers to offset our carbon footprint and to encourage and support biodiversity
2. Walk on Wednesdays is a nice initiative to get children active and out of their cars as is our schools recent Couch to 5k challenge. The children trained twice a week after school for 9 weeks and then ran the 5km after lunch on one of the last Fridays of term. Anyone not running lined the school path and cheered all runners on as they returned home. There was a great sense of achievement.
3. Revisit and reestablish Our Green School Committee and link with county council to help drive things forward in this area
In terms of school Self Evaluation this links well with active citizenship and wellbeing.
Marian we use the same system of Energy Patrols too. It makes children aware of the need to conserve energy and embeds good habits for them as adults too. We had a Green School Committee for donkeys years and in hindsight it was ahead of its time but we need to put some more work into this and ensure the committee is working effectively as our Amber Flag and Wellbeing Committee seems to have taken some more focus as of late
There is an organisation named Doras which supports migrants and refugees in my area. I t started up in 2000 as a response to the introduction of direct provision services.
I think one of the most difficult things for facilitating integration and inclusion is language barriers .Therefore I would encourage schools to use Google translate for school correspondences and make use of any technology that helps allow parents of children starting school fully understand the rules and policies of the school.
From a SSE perspective we plan to translate all support plans into the home language of the child and we use a feature to translate end of year reports too
Class teachers can use immersive reader features to help keep children who are EAL children focus on text and maybe they could read text in their own heritage language and then it would be translated into English. That way the child feels included and the children in her class gain an insight into the new pupil’s background etc.
There is an organisation named Doras which supports migrants and refugees in my area. I t started up in 2000 as a response to the introduction of direct provision services.
I think one of the most difficult things for facilitating integration and inclusion is language barriers .Therefore I would encourage schools to use Google translate for school correspondences and make use of any technology that helps allow parents of children starting school fully understand the rules and policies of the school.
Class teachers can use immersive reader features to help keep children who are EAL children focus on text and maybe they could read text in their own heritage language and then it would be translated into English. That way the child feels included and the children in her class gain an insight into the new pupil’s background etc.
Yes I agree the idea of preparing the class before the new child’s arrival is fantastic. It gives you as teacher to develop empathy in the child’s peers but also a curiosity about the new classmate.
All too often kids land in cold maybe in the silent phase if they haven’t enough English.
Marie I love the idea of Cooking for Fun and learning a life skill to remain healthy and independent . Also I had not heard of Plan International but I will definitely have to research them now. Thanks for the tips.
Gender stereotypes can be very challenging .They can just sneak in there unknownst to us. Teaching older children about inequality on a global scale is very important. They need to be informed of correct data and figures. We also can revisit our own past history in terms of gender inequality and the suffragette movement which allowed women the right to vote.
For younger children allowing them to chose from a wide variety of toys and engineering play based activities especially outdoor ones where children have to work in teams or small group of mixed gender to play and create may reduce the tendency for children to take on stereotypical roles.
We have a wonderful series of books in our library that focus on remarkable females from many different fields- politics, human rights, sport, music, art and science and these tangible real life stories can be very inspiring for young people. Exposing the older pupils to podcasts/interviews with Malala the youngest Nobel Peace Prize Laureate , a Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban but survived and recovered and spoke to the United Nations on her 16th birthday in 2013 calling for all children to have access to education. Children always relate to and understand concepts like gender inequality when they hear real life accounts and not just an adult telling them about it.
Development education is important as it helps children appreciate their place and role on both the local but also the global stage. There is so much misinformation and disinformation out there now and a definite rise of the far right that we need to teach children to become empathetic to those less well off than us and to work towards appreciating the role they can play in improving the situation for ourselves and our global community. It is all about appealing to the common humanity that we all share in regard to dealing with the world’s most pressing issues. By educating and informing young citizens we have a chance to affect change in our world .
I am an SET teacher but I could facilitate project work with some of the older children on my caseload based on one of the 17 SD goals . I think giving children choice is important. I would familiarise them with the 17 goals and ask them to chose 4 and then narrow this down to one goal which they could research with my help and guidance and create a presentation that they could then deliver to their peers in the classroom. This would link to History and Geography too.
A s part of the school leadership team I could ensure Global Citizenship and development education could be considered as an addition to our School Self Improvement Plan and this would link to our Well Being initiatives too.
Yes creating a shared drive where resources and lessons can be shared and accessed easily is very important to making any new initative seem manageable and not another added burden in an over busy curriculum
Teachers through collaborating and sharing lessons and knowledge are showing example of the collaboration sought by the ESD
The topic I would like to chose from the Sustainable Development Goals is Goal no.15- Life On Land with the protection and restoration and of terrestrial ecosystems. It also important to promote sustainable use of these systems too on how to manage forests and halt biodiversity.
Children can taught at a local level about the initiatives and projects specifically undertaken to preserve and re introduce endangered species. For example I recently watched a news report on the reintroduction of the curlew bird, almost extinct due to its natural habitat being destroyed. A major project to increase their numbers has been very successful .They managed to mind the eggs in a project run with Dublin Zoo and now these birds have been released onto an island safe from the dangers that reduced their numbers drastically.
We often feel we are not doing enough in schools but this topic brings back a local initiative we took part in last year. I believe it was linked to our county council and Teagasc maybe and perhaps Coillte. But a facilitator came to our school and the children helped her to prepare land and plant native trees in an area at the back of the school. The lady came on 3 visits so it was a fairly large project.
Primary Action level 5 from the ESD document refers to accelerating local level action and making links with community . We have a lovely wild flower area near our school and I think it would be a good idea to connect with the local authority to see if a certain group of children could support this or learn more about creating our own wild garden on school grounds.
Helping out with the Tidy Towns Committee is also important as children can become life long learners and truly active citizens if they receive good instruction and collaboration from positive role models.
H Sarah,
you have some great ideas there and I like the way you referred to the small actions we can take at a local level to make change. Giving pupil voice in this process and your reference to a Climate Friendly Classroom was a great way of linking this to the New Primary Framework and Curriculum where pupil voice and active citizenship are key components and integral to the core of the new curriculum