Students 4 Global Action

A NEAD Project

The key objective of the Students 4 Global Action project is to enthuse and empower large numbers of year 8 and 9 pupils in Norfolk and Suffolk (UK) secondary education to make their schools and communities more globally aware and active.

We are targeting Year 8 & 9 students because:

they will in all likelihood stay in their schools for a further 4 to 6 years;
they are not encumbered by the heavy GCSE workload of Years 10 & 11.

Methodology

In order to achieve this we will organise two Students 4 Global Action conferences a year — one in Suffolk and one in Norfolk. These are designed to:

initially raise awareness and increase understanding of a range of local/global issues;
motivate and empower the students to take action on their return to school.

In order to support the student groups after the conferences, the project has also allocated time from NEAD staff and/or others to help them put their action plans into practice.

The Conferences — so far

During the first year of the project two conferences were held: in Suffolk at Debenham Leisure Centre on 15th November 2006, and in Norfolk at The Hewett School on 9th February 2007. The first was attended by 107 year 8 & 9 students and their teachers from 7 schools. The second was attended by 153 students from 11 schools.

To attract participants we sent out an initial letter and booking form (Doc file, 110 KB) to all Norfolk and Suffolk secondary schools. We also prepared a risk assessment sent with further details (Doc file, 183 KB) about arrangements on the day to all schools coming, as well as further details about arrangements on the day.

The format for both conferences was essentially the same with an initial plenary ice breaker/awareness raising activity (Doc file, 59 KB) followed by workshop sessions and Action Planning in school groups in the afternoon.

Workshop themes included:

Fair Trade
Make Poverty History
Racism/Cultural Diversity
Refugees and Asylum Seekers
Trade Justice
HIV/Aids in Africa
Children’s Rights
Education in Conflict Zones
and Climate Change

The workshops were led by experienced educators from leading development agencies:

and local contacts that NEAD has developed:

Following a multicultural lunch — prepared by outstanding caterers, Sugar and Spice — the students worked in their own school groups to brainstorm and then devise their own School Action Plans. The How, How, How Activity (Doc file, 59 KB) was used to provide a framework for the students’ Action Plans.

Each conference was evaluated at the end of the day by students, teachers and facilitators using a simple evaluation form (Doc file, 46 KB).

A Sample of Comments from the Evaluation Process

Comments from students

I learnt a lot of things I didn’t know before…
It opened my eyes to the world I live in…
There are lots of ways to save our planet…
The people today explained the situation effectively and gave us an idea of what is actually happening in the world we are being brought up in…
The most educational part of the day was the Refugees and Asylum Seekers workshop, it has changed my views completely…
Great workshop there was an actual refugee talking…
It was surprising just how wrong the media can be…
Learning about HIV/Aids because I learnt something I didn’t have a clue about from someone who had been there and seen it…
Thanks this day was very educational and fun…
As a result of today I will try to help more and persuade my school and others to do so as well…
Today I enjoyed listening to other schools ideas…
This is a really helpful thing to go to and lets you know what is actually happening in the world…
I now know how lucky I am and what I can do to help others…
Today I learnt how much difference I can make…
Thank you for inviting me, it gave me the motivation I needed to help…
As a result of today I will try my hardest to change my school into a better place…

Comments from teachers

I was surprised to learn that even after 3 workshops students could come up with such excellent action plan ideas and be very inspired…
As a result of today I will continue to encourage pupils to take an interest in and awareness of our place in the global community and focus more on our similarities rather than differences…
The students were inspired by the speakers/workshops and were so constructive and free flowing in their ideas…
Today I was surprised to learn that I knew very little!! The depth of my ignorance!…
It was a real inspiration to bring so many willing people and charities together…
Our pupils were thoroughly enthused and engaged, I was surprised that the pupils were so passionate about these subjects…
It was a very informative, interactive and motivational events for our students…

Post-Conference Support

Following the conferences NEAD as well as some of the facilitators and Children’s Services advisers have offered and provided support to the student action groups. This is ongoing and we hope to arrange visits to all 7 of the schools that came to the Suffolk conference before the end of Year 1 and visits to the schools that came to the Norfolk conference in the first half of the summer term.

Future Plans

Currently we are trying to identify a suitable venue for the 2nd Suffolk Conference for June/July 2007 and starting to plan the 2nd Norfolk Conference, again at the Hewett School, Norwich, in early November. We will again offer places for these conferences to all schools in Norfolk and Suffolk, but we may give preference to schools that have not attended either of the first two conferences.

Funding and Support

The project is funded by the Department For International Development (DFID), with support from Oxfam, Norfolk Children’s Services and Suffolk Children’s and Young People’s Services, and a range of other local and national organisations.

Project updates

We aim to keep these project pages updated. Please return for periodic updates.

Documents for download

Updated 22 February 2007.