Local 4 Global

During the academic year of 2007/08 Brighton Peace and Environment Centre has been working to develop the whole school approach to the Global Dimension with two schools in Brighton and Hove, Elm Grove School and Cottesmore St. Mary's Catholic school.
Schools were identified with support of Hilary Ferries, Primary Strategy Manager of the Local Education Authority.

Agreement took place at the end of the previous academic year on what would be developed during the first of the three year work together, and staff training days were booked in. It was decided that the first year would focus on Literacy.

A baseline audit was carried out with all year 2 pupils in June 2007 to assess children's values and attitudes towards diversity and distant localities and knowledge of issues of environmental sustainability. The results of this audit were fed back to teachers in a staff meeting with an introduction to the Global Dimension and the whole school approach.

An audit was also carried out on the library books and books used in the classroom, to discover the representation of the Global Dimension across the school.

Focusing on Literacy, a Global Dimension storyteller was invited in to both schools to deliver an assembly and run workshops with pupils who had undertaken the audit, now in year 3.
Training was delivered by BPEC to Year 3 teachers on exploring the global dimension through literacy and linked in with one school's Anti-bullying week.

During this first year, Elm Grove school received an Ofsted inspection and the Global Schools work with BPEC was documented in the inspectors report.

Section 5 Inspection Report 21 April 2008: Elm Grove School.
"Pupils' have an excellent understanding of the wider community beyond the school gates. Initiatives such as Black History Month and the Global School Project ensure that pupils have a good understanding of Britain as a diverse society and a real understanding and appreciation of the rights and responsibilities which have all helped to establish a strong, cohesive community where every child really matters."

Whole school staff training was delivered by BPEC staff with both schools and sessions included: Appropriate use of images; Challenging stereotypes; Critical thinking skills; Evaluating resources; Use of language and terminology; Ideas for curriculum links and cross curricular work; Using artefacts and resource collections.

Good feedback was received from the training sessions and Teaching Assistants were particularly pleased to be able to take part. Head teacher John Lynch commented:
"Thank you for the day. It is clear from the evaluations that this was an extremely useful exercise and I personally thought that it was a very well run and well presented day."

BPEC helped to identify curriculum links and links into topic work and resources to complement these were lent to year three teachers.

Evaluations will be carried out at the end of the summer term 2008 and plans put into place for next year's work together.

Ruth England, BPEC, June 2008

<< Back to BPEC
<< Back to Elm Grove