For pupils with additional support needs, who can often feel excluded in their own communities, education for Global Citizenship can be particularly empowering, building confidence and self-esteem. ASN teachers agree that Global Citizenship is a fantastic opportunity to give their learners a sense of the wider world and their place in it. Central to this approach is equality, inclusion and participation.
Participation and Respecting Rights
Pentland Primary School in Coatbridge is North Lanarkshire Council's designated specialist provision for primary pupils with social, emotional and behavioural needs. It was the first SEBN School in Scotland to reach level 1 of UNICEF's Rights Respecting School award and recently achieved level 2. This reflects a real commitment to working with pupils to teach them about their Rights and those of others to live peacefully together. Derek McIntyre, Head of Pupil Council for 2014-2015, showed me around. He told me about a series of initiatives such as their recycling and Rights Knights who are the boys in charge of making sure that the other's pupil's Rights are respected.
“Education for Global Citizenship can be particularly empowering, building confidence and self-esteem.”
Derek explained:
"The best thing about this school is that I feel included. I'm head of pupil council and part of the eco committee. In the council we got together to think about what we wanted in the school and we got some of those things through the year. As the oldest Rights Knight I tell new arrivals about their Rights."
Last year at an SEBN conference in Glasgow two of Pentland's boys, Liam and Cameron, held a workshop for teachers and other professionals. The fact that the boys themselves were running the session brought a lot of professionals into the room.
"The best thing about this school is that I feel included.”
Carla Grieve is the impressive, energetic teacher who is leading the Pentland boys in their work on rights. She believes that:
"Making Rights real for the pupils is very important. We have to physically teach social skills to the boys such as 'what does listening look like?’ ‘What does peaceful look like?' At the beginning of each year we come together with the pupils to work out and agree a school charter. We have a pupil council, an eco-committee and a Fairtrade committee. The first 15 minutes every morning are given over to moving forward together on these kinds of initiatives."
Whole school approach
Global Citizenship can support learning across the curriculum, for example a particular theme or issue can be explored through a variety of different subject areas. Cardinal Winning Secondary in Glasgow took a whole school approach to learning about the Commonwealth Games.
"The skills and values of Global Citizenship are fundamental for both their staff and their learners in order to fight for equality of opportunity for their young people."
Cardinal Winning Secondary pupils experience a range of moderate learning difficulties. The Games were viewed as an ideal opportunity to cover a broad range of activities. Each year group participated in workshops with The Conforti Institute to promote the values and principles outlined in the Commonwealth Charter, health and wellbeing and a deeper global awareness and understanding of other cultures. The school is small enough to allow for curricula flexibility, so teachers can creatively design appropriate activities across the whole school, enabling the inclusion and participation of all young people.
Amongst other things the science, music and drama departments collaborated in a fashion show using recycled materials which showcased costumes from Commonwealth countries; in PSE pupils conducted role-plays in which they made up fictitious countries with sets of rules and discussed who would and who wouldn't be eligible for membership; in PE children got a chance to take part in a variety of sports in Olympic venues that given their social and economic background would not otherwise have been possible.
The long-term impact of these activities is evident in the comment from one of the pupils who took part: "I learned a lot about countries, religions and cultures and this is a good thing. Next we should learn about children's Rights".
Getting Started
There are lots of great resources available on Global Citizenship www.signpostsglobalcitizenship . Although most teachers will adapt these to their own classroom context, ASN teachers have an additional challenge in making them appropriate for their pupils and this takes time. Pictorial representations and sensory experiences can be vital for some learners. Although there is a wealth of material for early and first level learners, these are not always age - or skills - appropriate.
In the West of Scotland, WOSDEC is supporting a working group composed of ASN teachers with a wide spectrum of expertise. These teachers feel passionately that the skills and values of Global Citizenship are fundamental for both their staff and their learners in order to fight for equality of opportunity for their young people, and to tackle the ongoing prejudice and discrimination their young people can experience.
The group recognises the importance of creating professional learning opportunities for practitioners in this sector, and demonstrating how the key mainstream activities for Global Citizenship can be adapted for different ASN settings. In March 2016 the group will deliver two twilight sessions for fellow ASN colleagues in Glasgow, funded by the Global Learning Programme. http://www.ideas-forum.org.uk/education/schools/projects/global-learning-programme-scotland
