SPRING TERM NEWSLETTER 2022

Welcome to our Spring newsletter.  Spring is often linked to new beginnings, and we have very much enjoyed being back in the classroom again. The natural curiosity of children is inspirational. 

The impact of war

We’ve worked with many schools this term helping children discuss global issues. It has been a difficult time with issues of war, conflict and refugees headlining our news.

The war in Ukraine has highlighted many things – how do wars start? What can we do to help? It may even have re-imagined for many who a refugee is? There are many questions that your children and young people might have and there are many new resources to help you have these valuable conversations.

PRIMARY
How to talk to children about the invasion
BBC - Russia launches attack on Ukraine
Advice if you’re upset by the news

SECONDARY
Newsthink Ukraine
Teaching about the Ukrainian refugee crisis

Having global learning embedded throughout the curriculum helps connect children and young people with the world around them and provides the space needed to discuss global issues that affect them.

On the Noticeboard

Louise and Sarah have been enjoying face
to face delivery of pupil workshops and trainee teacher training in schools! Our website Noticeboard has more details and some nice photos!

Introducing some of our fantastic global learning schools

Dumpton School
It’s been really inspiring to help plan and work with pupils and staff at Dumpton School on their whole school Earthshot Day. The children got involved in a range of activities and workshops as part of their commitment to environmental responsibility and sustainable living. Our volunteer trustee Jenny ran her ‘Be the Change’ workshop empowering young people to take action and Sarah ran one exploring the impact of the stuff we consume. Our colleagues at Wimborne War on Waste also delivered a workshop on Rethinking Single-Use Plastic. A large number of pledges have been collated from all the children and the whole school community is working towards keeping them!

Symondsbury Primary School
Sarah spent Valentine’s Day working with all the pupils at Symondsbury Primary school as part of their Plastic Pollution week. Congratulations to the school on achieving their Plastic Free Schools Award from Surfer’s Against Sewage, their energy and enthusiasm was infectious!

Witchampton First School and Pokesdown
Primary School
Fairtrade Fortnight saw Louise delivering our popular fairtrade chocolate workshop to both these schools. Pupils role-played being Ghanaian cocoa growers and made decisions about their future. We had great fun together learning about where cocoa and our chocolate come from and how the cocoa farmers are becoming 'The Guardians of the Rainforest'.

‘Louise engaged all members of our Year 3 and 4 class in the Fairtrade workshop with a variety of tasks and artefacts. The children LOVED the machete challenge, the lure of tasting Fairtrade chocolate at the end and the cacao bean group challenge. The activities involved teamwork and co-operation and will help the children to make empowered choices in their own lives and to make a difference around the world. The Fairtrade stall after school was a welcome addition too to help the children continue the conversation about fair trade with their families.’

Teacher at Witchampton First School

Working with our local SCITT schemes
We continue to work with both primary and secondary trainee teacher providers, to deliver workshops on an ‘Introduction to Global Learning’ as well as ‘Multicultural Britain’. These are always accompanied by great resources and a list of useful websites so our trainees are well prepared for life in their new schools.

“Thank you so much for yesterday - the trainees were really buzzing afterwards, and I don't see them giving many rounds of applause!”

Georgina Verrinder, Professional Coordinator, Poole SCITT

This is just a flavour of our work – we are happy to deliver bespoke to your school or setting’s needs, just drop us an email.

DEED Project News

Sarah headed off to the Czech Republic to meet the PLACE project partners in person, where they all enjoyed questing in the snow, walks in the mountains, project planning and spending time getting to know each other. We have 4 schools signed up for this project (Allenbourn Middle, Witchampton First, Heatherlands Primary and Winterslow Primary) and we are enjoying hearing about their plans for wildlife gardens, bee homes, local litter picks and fairtrade stalls.

Louise has been working on one of our latest projects, Object and Stories, with Drama specialist, Sharon Muiruri Coyne, and the Museum of East Dorset (MED), making local student refugees feel welcome by hosting workshops exploring culture and stories at the MED. We worked with young people from all over the world including Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran, Iraq and the Philippines who are here as refugees and learning English at Bournemouth & Poole College. They really enjoyed the time spent together with Sharon at the Museum and with the community in and around Wimborne.

“I enjoyed everything!” commented one of the students.

Sharon Sutcliffe, Events Manager at MED said, ‘it was worth every second.’

Resources

If you have plans for the summer term do get in touch for resources, exhibitions, workshops etc we are always happy to help you develop your planning with a pair of global glasses on!

One of the most popular resources we use in our training workshops is the Global Wall Planner, and the theme for April is "Health". With the arrival of spring (and some much-needed sun) this is the perfect time of year to think about renewal, healthy lives, healthy minds and a healthy planet!

The Global Wall Planner can be found on the Global Dimension’s website where there are also links to new resources, in-focus topics such as refugees and the climate crisis, blogs and news stories. We really can’t recommend them highly enough.

Are you interested in a Master’s Degree in Global Learning?

The IOE - UCL's Faculty of Education and Society offers the MA Global Learning, a unique online programme to support anyone interested in how education responds to and promotes learning about global issues, such as sustainability, climate change and global citizenship.

Applications close on 13 May 2022. If you are interested in developing your skills in preparing your learners for living in a world of increasingly complex global challenges, then please consider applying. You can study full-time over a year, or part-time over
2-5 years.

You can find out more about the MA here.  Feel free to contact the Programme Leader, Dr Clare Bentall c.bentall@ucl.ac.uk, if you have any questions about the programme.  

Enjoy your Easter break and feel free to drop us an email!

And the team of wonderful DEED Trustees