Raising Awareness of Global Issues

October 25, 2023

BTH pledges to raise awareness in their school and local community of some global issues affecting us all.

Pupil Leaders/One Worlders focused their meetings this term on helping us to recognise that we can all make a difference by acting to build a fairer, environmentally restored, and sustainable world for all.

We Identified in our scrutiny of our curriculum that there was little impact of our commitment to global issues. This concerned our Pupils Leaders, and supported by some staff, we created an action plan of how we could link what we already do and add a One World Day every half term. 

Firstly, we planned a whole school event of 80 pupils aged from 7 to 16 and agreed that for our first One World Day we would focus on SDG13, Climate action and global connections. Through our Assistant Headteacher for Careers and Work-Related Experiences (CWRE), we invited Dr David Sprake from Wrexham University to talk to us about looking after our world and each other. 

We also invited parents and carers to attend the talk as we wanted to reach out to the local community for them to understand these issues and increase sustainability practices which we know will have a greater impact overall. 

We pledged to get rid of single use plastic bottles, make sure there is minimal use of paper, reduce the need for laminating, and recycle tins. 

We finished with an organised litter pick with our External Leadership (EL) department and a Shape Poem/Story competition. 

The following week we investigated the impact this had, if any.  We were pleased to see that 58% of pupils agreed that this day had given them a better understanding of why we need to act on global issues and were keen to act. 

Nearly all staff agreed that this had a big impact on their pupils and had encouraged skills such as listening, empathy and collaboration. 

Parents were also asked about their views and 100% agreed that the day had been successful and loved learning alongside their children. 

Our next steps are to find out how we can increase the number of pupils from 58%, that have a better understanding of global issues and invite more of our local community to join in One world days. 

Our next One World Day will focus SDG 1 – No poverty, and we will be working on enterprise projects for our Christmas Fayre to raise money for skiing trips.