Citizenship Bulletin - November 2007
Contents
Conferences
Managing cross-curricular themes across the secondary school
A full conference report, including workshop presentations and keynote PowerPoints, will be available soon on the Education for Citizenship website. There were two conferences, one in Glasgow on 26 October and one in Edinburgh on 2 November. If you didn't manage to attend, have a look at the report to see what schools and teachers are doing to develop cross-curricular working in citizenship, sustainable development education and enterprise.
Eighth annual conference on Education for Values and Citizenship
This year the conference is being hosted by England in Leeds on 15-17 November. It is concentrating on 'tackling controversial issues and values in education for citizenship, and a delegation from Scotland will participate throughout the two and a half days. Keynote speakers include Mick Waters, Director of Curriculum at QCA. Historically, the Institute for Global Ethics UK Trust has assisted the host country in convening these conferences with the support of the Gordon Cook Foundation of Aberdeen. Reports from previous conferences can be downloaded from the Global Ethics website. A summary of discussions and key points will follow in the next bulletin.
Resources
Gender Equality: A Toolkit for Education Staff
The Scottish Government has published a Gender Equality Toolkit on its website.
Under the new Equality Act (2006) and the Gender Equality Duty which arises from it, schools are required to show that they are eliminating unlawful discrimination and harassment and promoting equality between women and men. This toolkit has been produced to help education staff to reflect on and develop that process throughout all aspects of their work in schools.
The format of the toolkit has been taken from the 'Race Equality Audit for Schools: A Self-evaluation Resource' already in use by many schools across the country. It is structured around the quality indicators of 'How good is our school?' (2007) and is designed so that primary and secondary schools can look at the whole pack or only one section at a time. It is expected that most schools will already be implementing some or many of the suggestions and can therefore look for ways to improve the impact of strategies already in place or investigate some new ideas. The eventual aim would be for every school to be able to evidence good practice at level 5 or 6 across each of the key areas.
This toolkit has been written as Curriculum for Excellence becomes the key focus for developments in Scottish schools. Gender equality, positive attitudes towards both girls and boys, and teaching about gender issues, are essential if all pupils are to become confident individuals, successful learners, responsible citizens and effective contributors.
Gender Equality: A Toolkit for Education Staff
Sectarian stories
Nil by Mouth, the anti-sectarian organisation, is launching a new DVD, 'Sectarian Stories'. The film, designed as an educational tool to support the challenge against sectarianism, is a documentary featuring 12 first-hand accounts of personal experiences of sectarianism in Scotland. The stories, shared by people from a wide range of age groups and backgrounds, offer an insight into the impact of bigotry on people and their communities.
The DVD will be launched at the Scottish Parliament in November, and will be available to Scottish schools, by contacting Nil by Mouth.
Email: mail@nilbymouth.org
Tel: 0141 225 8008
Sunday Herald news article: Five Lives Scarred by Sectarianism
Young Scot podcasts
Visit the Young Scot website to listen to a wide range of podcasts made by young people. There are interviews with Scottish politicians, programmes about active citizenship, recycling, UNICEF youth voices and much more.
DVD to plan route to school
Primary schools across Scotland will be able to order a DVD promoting the development of a travel plan and alternatives to the school run, from mid-November.
The half-hour programme, produced by the sustainable transport charity Sustrans, is funded by the Scottish Government, and will be available free through school travel co-ordinators. Narrated by television and radio presenter Grant Stott, 'Healthier Routes' is divided into 11 sections covering walking, safety, cycling, health, social benefits, global and local issues surrounding unnecessary car trips and a teachers’ section.
Scotland’s Culture: resources for St Andrew's Day
The new Scotland’s Culture website aims to support schools as they celebrate St Andrew's Day on 30 November. Sections include in-depth features on the story of the Saltire and the history and traditions of St Andrew’s Day as well as a collection of useful learning resources.
Learning and Teaching Scotland: Scotland's Culture
Building successful school partnerships, Oxfam 2007
This new publication is a short guide to the key questions to consider before embarking on a school link and helps plan a good quality link which is sustainable over the long term. Available as an A4 booklet or as a download from the website, it is the latest in the Global Citizenship Guides series.
Building successful school partnerships
Competitions
InSite: 20th century conflict for 21st century learning
InSite is a unique, all expenses paid immersive learning programme run by Their Past Your Future and the Imperial War Museum. It is for Scottish teachers, museum educators and other education professionals who wish to increase their knowledge of 20th-century conflict, the legacy of the Second World War and events post-1945. As well as a subject focus, the programme also aims to build confidence in leading focused and outcome-led educational trips using museums, historic sites and their collections, to provide practical training to enable trips to run safely and successfully and to build awareness of the issues inherent in teaching controversial and sensitive subjects and increase confidence in delivering these subjects. As well as these outcomes it is hoped that participants will be able to act as advocates for learning outside the classroom within their own professional area.
Successful applicants will take part in two overseas residential visits during 2008. The first, to Germany and the Czech Republic, will be in July and there will be a shorter visit to Budapest in October. During these visits, the group will visit a number of relevant museums and historic sites including the Stasi HQ and Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, the Party Rally Grounds at Nuremberg and the village of Lidice. As well as the overseas components of the programme there will be preparatory and follow-up workshops in London and an online community which participants will be encouraged to take part in.
For more details about the itinerary and to apply for a place on the InSite Immersive Learning Programme, please visit the InSite website.
InSite Immersive Learning Programme
Word file: InSite banner adverts (106 KB)
What would you ask one million people to do to change the world?
This national competition is scouring the UK for the next generation of simple, small actions that have the power to bring about big change. We Are What We Do, the organisation behind the Anya Hindmarch 'I’m NOT a Plastic Bag' and the international bestseller, 'Change the World for a Fiver', will turn the winning entry into a massive national campaign in 2008 to inspire as many as one million to action.
The competition, which runs from 15 October until 19 December, is funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
To enter, participants need to submit their actions to the competition website and bring it to life with a photo of themselves and their friends doing the action, the impact of the action if lots of people do it, or an artistic interpretation of the action. Entries will then feature on a Google map which will allow people to see what else is going on in their area and all around the country. They will also be able to take part in the regional judging, out of which the best entries will be presented to a high profile national judging panel.
The winning entries will be announced and featured in The Times in 2008. More information can be found on the Small Actions Big Change website.
Events
Play fair in Fairtrade Fortnight!
The current Fair Play Drama project is aiming for 100+ DIY performances of a Fair Play Drama throughout the UK during Fairtrade Fortnight 2008 (25 Feb to 9 March 2008). Interested groups plan and produce a performance - with help from Fair Play Drama in the form of downloadable production/script information.
More information about the project and downloadable materials can be found below.
Project Jam Fair Play Drama project
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