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RISC and local authorities

Meeting with LA Advisers
In March 2007 RISC's Education Team invited Advisers from the six Berkshire Local Authorities to a meeting at RISC to update them on the support, training and services we offer teachers. The visit included tours of RISC's Resource Centre, Schools Loan's Service and Roof Garden, followed by a presentation about the different aspects of our schools work - including Global Schools, CPD, ITE, Global Citizenship Advocates Courses, resources, exhibitions and our Measuring Change Project. The meeting was a valuable opportunity to exchange information and discuss the most effective ways in which we can work together. We followed it up by sending information to colleagues of those who attended and arranging to take part in training and events later in the year. All those who attended were happy to promote our services - and one adviser signed up to take part in our summer GCA course.

Taking part in LA conferences
In 2006/7 these included:
Reading NQTs Conference, where all present experienced The World in their Hands: making the most effective use of artefacts in the classroom.
The West Berkshire Geography Conference, where participants all took part in ‘Sustainable Futures: exploring ways of embedding sustainability across the curriculum and within your school ethos'.

As part of our ongoing work with Oxfordshire Local Authority, RISC worked with the Oxfordshire Adviser for PSHCE to plan and prepare for part of a primary schools conference in June 2007. It was agreed that Global Citizenship should be a key part of the day for all conference participants and that this would be an ideal opportunity to disseminate work from RISC's Global Schools project.
The conference was attended by over 100 teachers, many of them senior management level. The two Head Teachers from RISC's Oxfordshire Global Schools made a joint presentation with a member of RISC's Education Team - ‘Global Schools, Global Citizens'. This gave all participants an overview of Global Citizenship, why the schools considered it a key part of their curriculum and ethos, and how they had embedded it throughout their schools. The presentation was followed by a choice of workshops on ‘Embedding a global dimension in the curriculum' - these were run by RISC, teachers from the Global Schools, members of the LA and Oxfam. The workshops included Global Maths, Developing Oracy and Global Citizenship, Resourcing the Global Citizenship classroom, Sustainable Schools - putting the future first, Storytents and Global Citizenship, How Global Schools embed global citizenship in the curriculum.
Feedback on the sessions was enthusiastic and a number of participants have followed them up by asking for more information, ordering resources and enquiring about training.

Following the launch conference for RISC's Early Years Handbook ‘Growing Up Global', RISC is delivering Early Years training for Bracknell Forest and Reading Local Authorities at conferences this year, as well as taking part in other Local Authority events such as Slough Multicultural Fair.

Work with Surrey Local Authority
In spring 2007 we made contact with Surrey LA. Two advisers came to a meeting at RISC to discuss the support we could provide for Surrey teachers - given that there is no Surrey DEC but some schools are close enough to Reading to access RISC. It was agreed that RISC could provide information and support electronically - for instance with RISC e-news being uploaded onto Surrey's intranet for teachers. RISC is also taking part in CPD events in Surrey, starting with an event for RE co-ordinators this term, and we have agreed to deliver a GCA course accessible to Surrey teachers. Another route into Surrey schools is via the South East Fairtrade Forum who are holding a conference in Surrey and have asked RISC to provide input on resources for schools.

Louise Robinson, Reading International Solidarity Centre
September 2007

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