Harvington C of E First and Nursery School
‘Together we love, learn and grow’
Global Citizenship
Global Neighbours Silver Award Report
At Harvington C of E First and Nursery school the children have developed the confidence, knowledge and desire to change the world! There is a natural fit between global citizenship and the Christian ethos of our church school. Our world is increasingly connected and our hope is for our children to grow as responsible global citizens who care about issues such as the environment and access to education, water and healthcare, for example.
The children have an excellent sense of what is right and what is wrong but also take action by practically making a change and raising awareness with others. This is fulfilling the Church of England's vision for education being 'deeply Christian, serving the common good.' We are so proud of everything our children do.
A challenge of our times is how to teach about issues of global injustice, environmental degradation and climate change in a way which is real and honest, yet which still nurtures hope. It is all too easy to adopt a token approach, giving children the impression that it’s OK if they simply buy a Fairtrade chocolate bar from time to time, wear a red nose once a year, and remember to not leave the TV on standby.
On the other hand, we do not want to terrify them so much about famine, disease, floods, droughts, hurricanes and wars as to paralyse them by fear, guilt and hopelessness.
Our school provides a much-needed safe space and structure in which children can begin to make sense of the world they are encountering and explore their place within it. It aims to nurture the values, attitudes, understanding and skills so our children may realise their hopes and aspirations for a more just and sustainable world in which we live well together, at local, national and global levels. We equip pupils to be courageous advocates for the common good, locally and globally. We teach this as part of our curriculum and then support the children in their ideas for action. We also listen to other ideas the children have and help them to facilitate their plans.
Global Neighbours Accreditation
Our school is part of the Global Neighbours accreditation scheme which celebrates schools that are helping pupils learn about global poverty and the Christian responsibility to tackle it, as well as giving them the tools to play a confident part in creating a fairer world.
In July 2018 we were awarded the Bronze Award and in July 2022 we were awarded the Silver Award for our global citizenship work. (Please read our Bronze and Silver assessment reports above.)
The Awards reflect the work the children have undertaken to improve their knowledge and understanding of global issues. The children have especially enjoyed learning about how to support with safe water and how many millions of children do not have access to even a clean glass of water. We have also been learning about how we can help our environment by reducing our use of plastic. We are now a plastic straw free school which is saving over 500 plastic straws being used EACH WEEK! We then moved to the next action of reducing plastic milk bottles and we now only use reusable glass ones. The children have developed their own recycling centre with extra opportunities being added all the time. The children share their actions with others in the school but most importantly in our community, within the church and with our local MP too.
Harvington C.E School’s Work Tackling Global Poverty Recognised with Christian Aid Award Pupils at Harvington School have been presented with a Silver Award from Christian Aid’s Global Neighbours Scheme for their global citizenship work. From recycling, saving energy and litter picks to supporting Ukrainian refugees, pupils and staff at Harvington C.E. First School have been working hard to take their place as global citizens. Harvington Church of England First School, near Evesham has achieved Silver Award status in Christian Aid’s Global Neighbours scheme in recognition of its wide-ranging steps to love their global neighbour. The accreditation scheme celebrates schools that are helping pupils learn about global poverty and the Christian responsibility to tackle it, as well as giving them the tools to play a confident part in creating a fairer world. Headteacher, Helen Fishbourne said: “We are thrilled to be recognised for the work we have done as a whole school community to raise awareness of the extreme inequalities across our globe and perhaps more importantly, the steps we can take to address these. The pupils learn about global issues regularly across the curriculum and gain an understanding of injustice in our world. Pupils have taken action as a result of their learning such as writing to our catering company asking them to source sustainable items and reducing packaging. The company have changed their practice because of this challenge and are now sharing this with all the schools they serve. “We have a long-standing link with the Bishop Chitemo School, Tanzania. Children in both communities have written letters to find out about how life is lived in another part of the world. Pupils have been learning about examples of people who faced adversity and overcame this to be courageous advocates for change. These stories have challenged the whole school community to think about how each of us can make a difference in our local community and globally. We took part in Christian Aid’s scheme because it gives us a practical way of living out our school vision of ‘Together we love, learn and grow.’ “Our world is increasingly connected and our hope is for our children to grow as responsible global citizens who care about issues such as the environment and access to healthcare. The children have especially enjoyed learning how important it is to consider the use of water and understand that other countries are not as fortunate as themselves. We know how important it is that we try and make a difference. Alison Brown, Global Neighbours Schools Programme Officer at Christian Aid, said: “The Global Neighbours Scheme was launched in partnership with the Church of England’s Education Office with a vision of helping young people understand more about the inequalities in this world and helping them to become courageous advocates for those who have no voice. It’s wonderful to see how staff and pupils at Harvington have taken this to heart and are seeking to tackle injustice. “Christian Aid is also looking to recruit more volunteer teachers locally to go into schools to help us deliver the scheme. If you have experience of working with children and are excited about inspiring a new generation of agents of change, we would love to hear from you!” Any primary school in England can join the Global Neighbours scheme. There are three levels of accreditation: bronze, silver and gold. These are verified by independent assessors, who look for evidence across five areas: school leadership, teaching and learning; collective worship and spiritual development; pupil participation; and community engagement.
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The children asked to share a message to all parents, teachers and governors. They wanted to make a difference:
Sam, Lilly, Maisy and Connie in Year Two have written a message for you:
Dear Parents and Carers,
Please can you walk to school just one day a week at least? If you cannot can you look at getting an electric car? If you cannot do any of these it is okay. Please can you also recycle your rubbish and put in the right bin.
Thank you
From
Lilly, Maisy, Sam and Connie
Dear Year Two,
Thank you for your letters showing that you want to make a difference for the environment. I have read your ideas and they are very thoughtful. What is more important is that you are wanting to tell others.
Thank you also to Lilly B, Connie and Maisy for writing a letter to share with parents. I wonder whether they will have time next week to come and write it as a text message so they can send it to all the parents?
We can then share your ideas even further.
Thank you for being fabulous global citizens!
From
Mrs Fishbourne
Latest news:
The children asked to meet with Class Catering as they were very concerned about the amount of soft plastic and tin foil that was being thrown away. They were very worried that this was not recycled! They met with both managers and challenged what Class Catering were doing and were very pleased that they listened. We now have an extension to our recycling area and we will now recycle tin foil and soft plastics across the school. Not only that Mr Law, the senior manager is sharing this idea with all his other schools. We can make a difference!
This is the email the school sent following the meeting:
On behalf of the children, I wanted to thank you both for taking the time to meet with the children.
I am pleased they had the opportunity to share their thoughts with you both.
They are pleased that you have agreed to recycle your tin foil and cling film from now on. We are also pleased that you will no longer be wasting any bread for display.
They are most excited that you will be spreading the word to your nineteen other kitchens as they are keen to change practice within our school but want more and more schools to follow our example.
They were also excited to hear that you would be regularly discussing environmental matters with your senior managers.
Thank you once again for your time.
Best wishes
Helen Fishbourne
We can make a difference!
We raised money two years ago to twin our toilets with different contries as the children were upset that some children around the world did not have toilets to use. We learned a lot about the different places and how exciting their food, lives and countries were. We are planning to raise some money to twin with a new country soon.