Students 4 Global Action

A NEAD Project

The key objective of the Students 4 Global Action project was 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.

Methodology

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

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

Target Groups

We are targeted Year 8 & 9 students because:

We also limited student numbers to a maximum of 16 per school (a minibus size) so that as many schools could attend as possible.

The Conferences

During the three years of the project, six conferences were held: three in Suffolk at Debenham Leisure Centre and, in Norfolk, two at The Hewett School in Norwich and on at the park High School in King’s Lynn.

These attracted 289 students from Suffolk from 20 schools, and 338 students from Norfolk from 25 schools. Suffolk has 38 state secondary schools and Norfolk 52, so that a good percentage of secondary schools in both counties sent attendees.

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 the 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:

The workshops were led by experienced educators from leading national, regional and local 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

Comments from teachers

Post-Conference Support and Actions

Following the conferences NEAD as well as some of the facilitators and Children’s Services advisers offered and provided support to the student action groups in organising:

Thus this project has clearly stimulated large numbers of Year 8 & 9 students to take action.

Future Plans

With no future funding secured we cannot afford to subsidise the schools conferences or post-conference support. However we do offer schools in-school conferences for year groups (and evening parent/community events). For more information about this contact us.

Funding and Support

The project was funded by the Department For International Development (DFID), with support from Oxfam, and , and a range of other local and national organisations.

Documents for download

Updated May 2009.