Connecting Classrooms is a global education programme for schools. It is designed to help young people learn about global issues and become responsible global citizens, as well as giving them the skills they need for work in a global economy. It will offer school partnerships, professional development courses for educators, school accreditation and opportunities for policy-makers to share best practice with international counterparts.
COMMONWORK is a small group of organisations offering a range of educational and practical activities which explore in practice what it would be like to work co-operatively with nature and people worldwide, and which engage, challenge and encourage people to participate in the process of learning and exchange ideas and experience.
As well as words, we need practice and experience to bring about change in ourselves and others.
VISION - Our vision is of a fairer world, in which people collaborate with each other and with nature everywhere, recognising that all are interconnected.
MISSION - We will work towards this vision in two main ways:
firstly by exploring in practice how to work co-operatively and how to use our land, resources, and abilities so that they are enhanced rather than depleted, for the health and benefit of all;
and secondly by sharing this process with others, both in order to learn from each other, and also by enabling them through hands-on experience to take forward the vision in their own work.
BRITISH COUNCIL
COMMONWORK
ECO-SCHOOLS
GO-GIVERS
LILONGWE WILDLIFE CENTRE
Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a simple framework to help make sustainability an integral part of school life. Eco-Schools can help enhance the curriculum and get the whole school united behind something important.
Our mission is to help make every school in the country sustainable and to bring about behaviour change in young people and those connected to them so that good habits learned in schools are followed through into homes and communities.
What’s more, by addressing environmental issues in school and reducing waste, they'll save money, which can be reinvested elsewhere.
Benefits of joining Eco-Schools include:
Enhancing the curriculum
Links to the community
School improvements
Saving money
Recognition and publicity
What do Eco-Schools do?
Once registered, schools follow simple steps which helps them to address a variety of environmental themes, ranging from litter and waste to healthy living and biodiversity.
Pupils are the driving force behind Eco-Schools – they form and lead an Eco-Committee and help to carry out an audit to assess the environmental performance of the school. In conjunction with the rest of the school and the wider community, it’s the pupils that decide the environmental themes they want to address and how they’re going to do it.
Measuring and monitoring is an integral part of the Eco-Schools programme, providing schools with all the evidence they need to showcase their environmental success. In fact, Eco-Schools can fit into virtually all aspects of the curriculum and help to make learning, both inside and outside the classroom, fun and engaging.
Schools work towards gaining one of three internationally recognised awards – Bronze, Silver and the Green Flag award, which symbolises excellence in the field of environmental activity. Bronze and Silver are both self accredited through this website and Green Flag is externally assessed by Keep Britain Tidy volunteers.
Undertaking the Eco-Schools programme is a long term journey and it can take time for schools to implement the different elements of the framework and engage their staff, students and community with it. We think it's a journey well worth taking though and the Eco-Schools team, along with a whole host of materials, information and resources, will be there to support schools along the way.
BRITISH COUNCIL
COMMONWORK
ECO-SCHOOLS
GO-GIVERS
LILONGWE WILDLIFE CENTRE
Go-Givers has been developed in the belief that our children's education should have its basis in a philosophy of personal responsibility, mutual respect and concern for the world we live in. Its purpose is to create 'Ripples of care across the World' by means of educating children to care for their family and friends and about issues relating to the local, national and global communities.
Aim
To develop caring, concerned citizens with the confidence and skills to make a difference to their communities, both local and global.
Objectives:
- To develop an understanding of Human rights/Children's rights
- To cultivate an insight into other people's problems and their causes
- To inform how resources are allocated through the taxation system and charitable giving.
- To inspire compassion linked to social and moral responsibility
- To enhance the skills of communication, and participation in the community.
- To develop the ability to make choices, set goals and take action.
- Respect for other people's views and experience
- Empathy
- Care
- Concern to act fairly
- Spirit of enquiry
- A positive view on things
- Can prioritise according to Human Rights/Children's Rights
- Understands what makes a responsible Citizen
- Acknowledges rights and responsibilities
- Appreciates ethnic/cultural differences/values/customs
Attitudes:
- Respect for other people's views and experience
- Empathy
- Care
- Concern to act fairly
- Spirit of enquiry
- A positive view on things
Values:
- Can prioritise according to Human Rights/Children's Rights
- Understands what makes a responsible Citizen
- Acknowledges rights and responsibilities
- Appreciates ethnic/cultural differences/values/customs
Skills Related to Personal Development:
The ability to:
- Think critically
- Creative problem solve (independently or with others)
- Develop a rational opinion and explain the reasoning behind it.
- Seek solutions/alternative options
- Listen and observe
- Recognise needs
- Recognise and challenge stereotypes/bias
- Be aware of disadvantage and changing needs - old age/ illness/ disability
- Develop positive relationships with a variety of people
- Share responsibility for group tasks
- Anticipate and counter negative reaction and rationale
- Resolve conflicts
- Make choices and decisions
- Set goals, plan, organise, promote, implement, evaluate.
- Recognise their own worth
- Demonstrate assertiveness, to enable active citizenship, at home, at school and in the community.
Skills for Social Action:
Know how to:
- Prioritise, plan, complete and evaluate a project.
- Research, collect information, speak to the appropriate people
- Organise a petition
- Manage a meeting
- Present to a group of people
- Present an argument, persuade.
- Negotiate
- Present materials attractively
- Take appropriate responsibility for funds.
- The nature of communities
- Children's rights and responsibilities
- Global interdependence/trade/debt
- The Welfare State and the role of charities
- Who makes decisions regarding taxation, how it is spent and the effect this can have on people
- The nature of political pressure/ power of pressure groups
- Taxation, saving and pensions.
- Charitable giving - local and International
- The National Lottery
- Institutions which support people in the community.
- Where individual families can get help
Knowledge:
- The nature of communities
- Children's rights and responsibilities
- Global interdependence/trade/debt
- The Welfare State and the role of charities
- Who makes decisions regarding taxation, how it is spent and the effect this can have on people
- The nature of political pressure/ power of pressure groups
- Taxation, saving and pensions.
- Charitable giving - local and International
- The National Lottery
- Institutions which support people in the community.
- Where individual families can get help
BRITISH COUNCIL
COMMONWORK
ECO-SCHOOLS
GO-GIVERS
LILONGWE WILDLIFE CENTRE
Lilongwe Wildlife Centre based within the capital city of Malawi, are making a real difference by encouraging participation, changing attitudes and promoting a passion for wildlife and its conservation. Our education programme focuses on people and wildlife issues such as illegal bush meat and pet trade, deforestation, habitat pollution, waste management, health and nutrition and climate change.
Our interactive education modules have been developed in line with the local curriculum, and our education team is trained to deliver them at the Centre and in the classroom. Our class twinning initiative also gives international schools the opportunity to sponsor disadvantaged children through our education programme, promoting numeracy and literacy as well as wildlife