[Orlaith Mc Kelvey]

Climate change is certainly evident in my local area as it is everywhere. It has most notably altered the weather and seasons, in particular there’s more regular rainfall and storms which are causing floods and damage to trees, roads and people’s homes and businesses. Temperatures are rising too and there has been unusually warm weather in winter months that in previous years we wouldn’t have had. The quality of plant and animal life has also suffered from climate change. I would engage the children in weather recording activities e.g using rain gauges over a period of time to record the rainfall and compare that to previous years, invite in a guest speaker or climate change activist to talk to the children about the effects and look into setting up a school garden where the children grow and look after plants and trees. The lessons educating the children on climate change would be extremely beneficial. Following on from doing these setting up a whole-school recycling system, putting an emphasis on reducing the use of energy in the school and encouraging as much walking/cycling to school as possible. More green areas in and around the school would be a great example for children to do what they can to help on a local level too.

[Orlaith Mc Kelvey]

There are a number of excellent support organisations for refugees local to me like the Red Cross, Irish Refugee Council and the South Dublin County Partnership. They have migrant integration teams who offer one to one support with mental health/well-being, housing, education, children, while promoting advocacy through collaborative actions.
My school’s EAL team provide extra support to refugee children coming in, making sure they are getting one to one help with English if it is not their first language but also help with integrating into the school. Small play groups for younger classes or social groups with games for older classes are organised. They also organise multi-cultural days where children from different countries get to showcase their country and it’s traditions etc to the school at an assembly. Older classes often take part in project work on various nationalities and traditions too recognising their importance. We do a Christmas shoebox appeal for children abroad but maybe this could be organised (on a smaller scale) for refugees coming to the school as a welcome gift.

[Orlaith Mc Kelvey]

I also love the buddy system for the new children. It would give the current students a real sense of responsibility along with the excitement of making a new friend/friends. It would be less daunting for the new child to have someone friendly their age to show them around, play and help them.

[Orlaith Mc Kelvey]

Ehigie’s piece on ‘The Role of Global Citizens in Today’s World’ highlights the many issues faced by people in the world today like poverty, inequality and climate change and it gives us the empathy and understanding needed to help tackle these issues. Development Education teaches and reminds us that we as individuals can make a difference with these global issues by making small changes to our daily lives. I think this topic could be incorporated very easily into SPHE lessons and research projects etc could be completed with classes so they get a vast understanding of it. The Green Schools initiative is a great way to spread the information too as it is whole school based and the school has targets they need to meet so children might be more focused. Each class in the school could take one of the SDG’s and learn about it and how to help achieve that goal. These could be presented to the school then in a slideshow or at assemblies to reiterate the importance of everyone doing what they can to help achieve these goals.

[Orlaith Mc Kelvey]

I would choose to focus on SDG 13: Climate Action with my class as I think it is a huge issue locally and globally and one the children can relate to in their every day lives and one that affects their future. I think it can be simplified for them by looking at the weather and seasons in Ireland firstly. The weather they expect to be getting at certain times of year could be discussed and analysing the weather we are actually getting focusing on rainfall, storms and temperatures. They could work collaboratively to find out why the climate is changing and things we can do to minimise this on a global and local level. I would then encourage them to make posters for the school to promote ways to help reduce climate change for example; reduce, reuse and recycle items. It might help them be a little more mindful going forward about doing their bit.

[Orlaith Mc Kelvey]

I agree this is a very important issue to highlight to children as I think being so privileged in Ireland they are blissfully unaware of clean water not being available everywhere. The water testing experiments are a brilliant hands-on way of reflecting on this and a good follow-up to the clean water statistics of other countries.

[Orlaith Mc Kelvey]

I agree with Sean’s idea of having more collaborative projects emphasising teamwork and challenging traditional gender roles. Having diverse role models and highlighting achievements of all genders across different fields a great idea too.

[Orlaith Mc Kelvey]

I have come across gender stereotypes on many occassions in classes of all different ages. At infant level for example I have seen children gravitate towards toys they think they should be playing with according to their gender when there is no guidance to play with anything in particular. I have often heard comments towards different toys as well ”That’s a girl’s toy” which makes children rethink their choice for fear of being different or the odd one out and not actually play with what they want to play with. These comments can affect children’s confidence and can steer them away from activites they may be skilled at. I have also noticed it during role-plays or drama when the children have to take on character roles. There can be a negative implication to a girl getting a boy’s character and vice versa, nearly suggesting a girl shouldn’t be associating with how a boy acts or feels. If development education is introduced and highlighted to the children at a young age it might combat these ‘norms’ and give children more freedom around play and being able to associate with the opposite gender better.

[Author]

Posts