Bring the world to the classroom

24 September 2015 By SSAT

Fie Rason, Project Manager for the Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Programme, and for Lead Practitioner Accreditation, writes…

Every day we read about things happening in the world around us – good, bad, exciting, new, old, distressing, amazing, interesting…the list is endless.

A challenge for all adults involved with our young people in the UK is how to translate that news into a way that those young people can understand and empathise with, bringing it into their own world.

Seeing from personal experience how many youth groups do this, from being part of the largest youth camp at the World Scout Jamboree in Japan this summer with 35,000 young people and adults from 160 countries, I know it can be done, but how do schools do it? And how can SSAT help them do it?

One answer is being part of the Global Learning Programme (GLP). A UK government-funded programme which is run through a partnership of organisations including SSAT, the GLP aims to do just that.

With a simple aim of ‘Helping schools inspire pupils by deeping their understanding of global issues’, the GLP is available free-of-charge to all schools in England and Wales, and is full of resources, ideas and training opportunities to support schools to achieve this aim.

the GLP is available free-of-charge to all schools in England and Wales

Schools involved in the programme become part of a local network, led by an Expert Centre or Lead School and collaborate with other like-minded schools who are committed to ensuring their young people will be able to play a positive role in today’s globalised world

Ever thought about how can you use an international event like the Rugby World Cup or the Woman’s Football World Cup to involve your students? GLP has – explore the Rugby World Cup resources here.

Seeing the news reports about the thousands of migrants this summer has lead many young people to ask: Where are they coming from? Why are they leaving/coming? What is happening? How can the world change it? How can we each help?

GLP provides an opportunity to engage in the conversation with other educational professionals and share resources and ideas – find out more here.

Or could you make your school part of the World Largest Lesson? On Friday 25th September 193 world leaders will commit to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Seventeen goals to achieve 3 extraordinary things in the next fifteen years, they are:

End extreme Poverty
Flight inequality and injustice
Fix climate change.

Imagine if every school in the world teaches children about these goals – could we help them become the generation that changes the world? Isn’t having the chance to change a young person’s life one of the main reasons teachers become teachers?

Whatever you do – SSAT would like to hear about it. We want to share your ideas with other member schools and teachers – let us know via social media, via email or sign up to the GLP programme.