Binfield Primary School, Bracknell
· 20 April 2009 A Global Citizenship training day took place, focusing on the curriculum, with Global Maths and Science workshops
· 29 June 2009 & 30 June 2009 RISC's Education Team visited the school to observe the delivery of GC in each class. Evidence of good practice was gathered then each teacher was given feedback and had the opportunity to discuss ideas for developing their GC work with the RISC team
· 01 October 2009 new Binfield teachers attended a GC training day designed for new Global School staff to introduce them to RISC's Global Schools initiative and equip them to deliver GC alongside their colleagues
· 20 October 2009 RISC carried out Binfield's mid-term audit (two years after their baseline audit). All children in years 2, 4, & 6 were asked questions to gain a ‘snapshot' of their knowledge and attitudes about a range of global topics. The results were analysed and fed back to staff to enable them to use the information to inform their planning in the second phase of their work with RISC. The results provided evidence to show that Binfield had made considerable progress with children in all three years, showing they had a greater knowledge and more positive attitudes about issues relating to social justice and sustainability.
· In March 2009 Head Teacher Di Ware wrote an article about Binfield's Global Citizenship work for the Bracknell Forest primary schools newsletter, disseminating the schools work in the first phase of their partnership with RISC
· A new model of support for Global Schools has been successfully trialled with Binfield. This involved meetings with all the teachers, from all seven year teams, to support them in their curriculum planning. These took place on
- 13 November 2009 Year 5
- 17 November 2009 Year 2
- 26 November 2009 Reception
- 10 February 2010 Year 3
- 12 March 2010 Year 6
- 15 March 2010 Year 1
- 18 March 2010 Year 4 and meeting with the SENCO
Teachers sent their curriculum plans to RISC in advance, so members of the Education Team could review them and bring appropriate resources to each meeting. This high level of input from RISC staff was costly in terms of time but has had positive outcomes.
· A meeting with the Senior Management Team also took place to review progress and plan for the training day at the start of the summer term
· 19 April 2010 Global Schools' training day for Binfield teachers and staff from two other Global Schools. The day focused on how to deal with and raise controversial issues in and out of the classroom. Staff commented
Good feedback shared we have moved on ...
Useful further reflection on how we might move forward with social justice and consider charity (approaches to it)
Found out how to use critical thinking skills through books and objects
I'll be more confident in confronting and dealing with challenging issues
I will use the P4C in my class and the critical thinking skills with books objects and pictures
· Binfield's local partnership with Redlands Primary School is becoming established with staff visiting each others' schools and the planning and delivery of a joint Year 3 day with a sustainability focus at RISC in May
Key Outcomes
· RISC's Education Team have invested a considerable amount of time in working with Binfield staff and this strong partnership has ensured that Global Citizenship is being successfully embedded. Binfield Primary School is becoming a centre of excellence within Bracknell Forest Local Authority.
· With RISC's support, the school has established a local partnership with a multi-ethnic school in central Reading, in order to strengthen their contribution to community cohesion.
· Good practice at Binfield is already being shared and will be disseminated to teachers locally and nationally through publications and websites.
The second year of the project with Binfield Primary has seen great progress. All staff visited RISC for a day’s training in April 2009. The workshops focussed on curriculum development, looking at a range of activities to develop Global Citizenship work through science and maths. There was also an opportunity to discover the Global Citizenship and art links in the work of a contemporary Iraqi artist, Hassan Massoudy. It followed on well from the training session in October, allowing for staff to further develop curriculum ideas and planning. Some comments were
• It was practical and informative and showed us how to make further links and use cross curricular ideas. I will look at my plans and see how to adapt and change them as a result of today.
• I have a heightened awareness of how to make global citizenship more explicit in teaching across the whole curriculum.
RISC provided a training session for the governors of the school, who were able to try out the audit activities that had taken place in the school at the beginning of the project, and discuss some of the feedback, as well as have an introduction to global citizenship. This will forge links between RISC and the wider school community, and will enable the Govenors to further support the work of the school. The Senior Management Team felt this was a priority, which demonstrates their commitment to the project.
Binfield participate in the UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Programme, and Bracknell Forest Local Authority held a conference to showcase and celebrate the work of their RRS schools across the region. Binfield pupils and staff presented their global citizenship work to the conference, with a number of pupils guiding the adult participants through the audit activities that had formed their initial attitudinal audit. Pupils presented and guided two workshops in which they were sharing their thoughts and impressions of the audit activities and challenging the adult conference participants as to their views, when taking part in the activities; questioning stereotypes and reminding them of balance and representation. The confidence in the pupils’ ability to challenge and question through the use of these activities was impressive, and the value that the school places on the link with the Global Schools programme was evident in their enthusiasm to demonstrate the positive impact of the work so far, and their presentation of the relationship between RISC and the school as fundamental to the work.
Taking the work forward
RISC and Binfield staff have agreed dates for lesson observations to take place, to enable the RISC team to offer more focussed and constructive feedback on how to include Global Citizenship in existing lessons, and develop future teaching plans. These observations will take place over 2 days, and then planning and feedback meetings will be set up as appropriate.
RISC will conduct an audit of the school library, looking at both fiction and non-fiction resources, then meet with the staff to explore what gaps exist and how these can be filled to support the effective delivery of Global Citizenship.
Binfield’s local school partnership with Redlands Primary School in Reading will be developed with RISC’s support. The learning from this will be disseminated as the partnership becomes embedded in both schools, with a focus on sharing ways in which local partnerships can contribute to the Community Cohesion agenda.
In the first year of this partnership initiative funded through DfID the following activities took place:
- The Senior Leadership Team had a series of meetings with the RISC education team to agree the project activities and timetable.
- Two whole staff training sessions took place after school which introduced Global Citizenship (GC), described the project, and introduced a selection of activities for challenging assumptions and measuring attitudinal change.
- RISC conducted audit activities with all children in years 2, 4 & 6 as a baseline for the initiative. The responses from these enabled staff to establish existing strengths and weaknesses and prioritise areas for focus this year. Further meetings took place in which RISC supported curriculum planning and provided resource support to the whole staff.
- Two parents' evenings took place, enabling a member of the RISC education team alongside Suzie Wright, the Deputy Head, and pupils to introduce the initiative and the findings from the pupils' audit responses to parents and governors.
- A half-day training was organised for new staff and for TAs to ensure all are aware of the schools' commitment to the initiative.
- In October a GC training day was held at RISC for the whole staff. This included evaluating resources for their effectiveness at delivering GC, using artefacts as a starting point for cross-curricular topics, how school gardens can support the delivery of GC, and evaluating resources which promote GC and oracy. This day also included a meeting with a teacher from the established Global School in Reading to begin plans for the two schools to develop a local link.
Staff said about this day:
- All very interesting and practical activities, lots of movement and pace
- Inspiration for school garden!
- The Development Compass Rose was very useful to extend thinking when looking at artefacts
- I loved the idea about using an object from a country and building a week around it!
- Like the idea of growing plants that have a Global relationship
- I found out how to use plants to make links across the curriculum
- I'm going to adapt some of the resources used today, especially the oracy activities
- I really enjoyed being able to think and talk - not rushed - not lectured at.
Planning for two future training days has taken place - Governor training to take place on 24 March 2009 and for a whole staff training day on 20 April 2009 to be held jointly with another new Global School.
January 2009
