EthCo

The Challenge was to use one of the EthCo tasks to promote Interdisciplinary Learning in the spirit of Curriculum for Excellence, and be able to demonstrate this learning in a vibrant and clear manner.

The challenge was intended to:

• Encourage the use of EthCo materials supporting pupils understanding of the Millennium Development Goals
• Ensure Interdisciplinary learning is embedded into Curriculum for Excellence
• Show evidence of Pupils' development as active Global Citizens

A Prize of £400 and a certificate was awarded those schools showing the most innovative and creative learning using the EthCo materials at each of CfE levels; first second and third.

Download the EthCo Challenge 2011 (pdf)

The following information was being sent out to all Scottish Schools, but you can download it here if you wish:

EthCo Challenge letter to schools.

EthCo Case studies.

EthCo Employer engagement.

Free EthCo CPD for your school.    

Grove Academy has been building links with Kenya since 2004 through the interest and hard work of Mrs Kerr, PT Geography starting with an S2 Enterprise Activity to fund the cost of a goat for FARM - Africa. The challenge was one goat, the result was 50. In 2006 Mrs Kerr used the Global Gateway to meet and link up with Meru School in Kenya. There have been a number of staff exchange trips since then, the next one will be in August 2011 when 2 teachers from Meru School will visit Grove.

During the second staff visit from Grove to Meru, the Grove staff met a group of Meru students who had taken on an enterprise project to reduce paper wastage and help raise funds for the school bursary. The bursary supports students who are otherwise unable to cover the cost of school fees. The students, led by Lucy Mbugua, a staff member at Meru School, were taught how to make beads from waste paper by a member of Balm Touch, a local artist who used her bead making skills to fund the education of local street children, some of whom go on to attend Meru School. The Grove Teachers brought back a selection of the beads made by the students and sold them in school and locally to help raise funds for the bursary. The Art Department in Grove enlisted the support of a number of pupils from S4-S6 to help with the design of a logo and the making of packaging and labelling for the beads. The packaging design chosen was made from recycled paper in keeping with the project.

 Grove Eco Group also ran a school wide phone recycling project that provided funds for the bursary. The money raised from both projects was given to Meru staff on their visit to Grove in June 2010.

In Jan 2011, two more Grove teachers visited Meru School. By this point the Meru Students had learnt the bead making skills and were working independently of Balm Touch. This means that all funds raised can go directly into the Meru School bursary. The Grove and Meru staff discussed how the bead project could be developed to include a curricular role in addition to being a fund raising venture. One way was to explore using the bead project as an example of ethical trading, a shared Fairtrade project run as a business supported by the Business Studies Departments of both schools and the schools' existing extra curricular groups.

The Eco School group took on the job of creating additional packaging for the new beads using the original design. Four Grove pupils who have been selected to go to Meru next year, have undertaken to sell the beads at special events and during school time. They are sharing this task with the Fair Trade group.

Details of how the project continues to develop will be submitted by the May deadline. The entry level chosen is lower secondary but the pupils involved are across the age range including upper secondary.

Supporting evidence as photographs, documents and a DVD featuring pupils in both countries was received.

We have adopted the Ethco Challenge as a focus for our whole project last term.  The children loved every minute of it and really appreciated learning about the lives of other people around the world.  Feedback from parents was also very positive and they said they were impressed with their child's knowledge and attitude towards the wider world.

The children decided they would like to collate what they learned in the form of a documentary - which is on the way to you now.  The children filmed and created the DVD on their own and are very proud of it.

We began the project by discussing children's perceptions of a "developing country" we collected stories from the media and discussed them, the children eventually came to their own conclusion that the media does not always give the full story and details can be inaccurate.  It led us to look at media influences in everyday life and the children are now able to make informed decisions as to whether or not they are being influenced.

We then introduced the Millennium Development Goals, learning about what they were and why they were made.  During this time we also learned about the UN and what their role is.  The children made information leaflets about them.

We then broke down the goals and studied each one in detail.  We used a variety of Oxfam's activities which were very helpful and provided a practical, hands on way for children to learn about these goals.  Not all of the information was nice to hear or learn about, but the children appreciated knowing what real is happening in the world.  We also looked at what Scotland were doing to achieve these goals and discussed what we could do ourselves.

The class were split into "Millennium Development Home Teams" and they all made raps and logos which demonstrated in their own words, what the point in these goals were.  As you will see on the DVD they are quite impressive.  Within these teams the children regularly worked co-operatively.  The project leant itself to many discussions and debates and in turn it improved the children's abilities to work as a team, to express their own opinion and listen and value the opinions of others.  We also focused on doing some debating.  The project also threw up a range of controversial issues so it was an ideal opportunity to do this.  The children were taught debating skills and they chose themselves various controversial issues which they researched and then debated in class.

The children also wrote to Alex Salmond inviting him in to hear our information on the Millennium Development Goals, although he was unable to do so, he wrote back congratulating them on their hard work.

Other things we did were:

Wrote to our local MP and asked her to take our message to parliament.

Raised money for educational resources for a school in Nepal

Raised money for Red Nose Day

Made red ribbons in a tribute to suffers of HIV/AIDs.  The children were particularly inspired by the work of N'kosi Johnson and they were all very humbled by what he had done.

Learned about the Scottish Economy and how it differed from other countries.

Asked our link school in Tanzania to also find out about their countries contribution to the MDGs.

Learn about the spread of infectious diseases such as Malaria, HIV and TB

Signed up to take part in "Send My Sister to School" in May and have invited our local MP along.

Took part in Earth Hour - run by the WWF

Made posters, leaflets and presented to parents to widen peoples knowledge about the MDGs

The project has really been a great success.  Although it is now over the children continue to be interested in current affairs.  For homework they have found out about the conflict in the Middle East and the earthquake in Japan.  They have also a surprisingly good knowledge about complex issues such as the Foreign Aid Budget and how money is spent in our country.  They asked what their parents and relatives opinions of these issues were and we discussed why people may have different opinions about this topic.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to take part in this project as it has been a wonderful experience for the children and myself.  At the moment we have our 1st Level Rights Respecting School Award, but with everything we have done I am sure we are now well on our way to the second level.  Can you please look out for the DVD in the post (should arrive 28/04/2011) as that will give the clearest indicator into what the children have learned.

 We are a P7 class who are proposing to open a Fairtrade Cafe in school once a month. The Cafe will be open to staff,parents and the local community. The children will experience the benefits of trading ethically. They will plan, organise, and run the cafe including funding, ordering, stock control and keeping an accurate record of sales and money.

The children will learn about the millenium goals and showcase their learning to parents and the local community at their cafe.They will find out the fairtrade/ethical traders in the local community both large companies and small and will promote the benefits of buying through these suppliers at their cafe.

The Cafes main aim is to promote the benefits of buying Fairtrade to the children, their parents and the local community therefore hopefully contributing to the reduction in World Poverty . It will also help in the goal to enable all children to have a primary education. The children will support their local community in their quest to become a Fairtrade Town and their school in becoming a Fairtrade School.

What did we do?

We had previously studied Fairtrade as topic. We decided to look further into the poverty that affects the whole world. We did this through the Millennium Goals using the Ethco and Oxfam websites. We wanted to tell other people about our findings and encourage them to be more ethical in their purchases. We decided to open a Fairtrade Café, which would be open once a month. The Café is open to the Forfar Community and promotes Fairtrade produce including food and clothing. At the Café we have displays that explain the Millennium Goals and Fairtrade, we feel we are educating the local community and explaining the benefits to society in buying Fairtrade.

What did the pupils do? What responsibilities did they take?

The children came up with the original idea of the Café. They have planned, organised and ran the Café with support from their teacher. They have written a viable business plan and applied for jobs based on their assessment of their skills and qualities. They wrote to the local Fairtrade providers to ask for their support, which they have happily given. They have also asked a local department store to donate Fairtrade school uniforms to promote the buying of Fairtrade clothes at their Café. They have researched Fairtrade and the Millennium Goals and have made colourful, eye-catching displays to display at their Café. They have shown these to the local community and have discussed with them the problems in the world and the benefits of buying Fairtrade.

Did the task achieve its aims?

The task achieved its aims, as the children were able to communicate their findings to the local community. The local community were very complimentary of the involvement of the children in these global issues. The children have become more confident individuals and this can be evidenced in their everyday approach to life. The children are seen as responsible citizens in their own community and this can be proven through the positive feedback received.

What impact did this task have and how sustainable is it?

The children have been motivated throughout. They have learned new skills for learning, life and work that they will be able to carry with them throughout their lives. They have made an invaluable link with the local community. The children have an increased sense of confidence and self- esteem through being part of such a successful project. The children have a greater awareness of the poverty in the world and how important a part they have to play in helping to reduce this. The Café will run from month to month and the children are prepared to teach the year below how to run and operate their Café so they can take over when they leave. The plan is to research other globol citizenship areas and display these new findings every month.

Next steps

v      to teach others how to organise and run their café

v      to use the profits to fund a Fairtrade sports event for their local schools.

v      to continue to educate themselves and the local community in the benefits of ethical trading.

 We have enclosed pictures of our Millenium Goals Display and our Business Plan

From homework on Bees through which P6 pupils learned about the decreasing numbers of bees, they decided to create a bee and butterfly meadow at the top of the school playing field to try and conserve a habitat for them.  This involved large scale planning, (the total area of the meadow is 280 square metres) measuring, designing, preparing the ground, sowing, observing growth and then holding a grand celebration to inform others about the project.  They worked with the Ranger Service and, through this service, the Grounds and Parks Department of Midlothian Council which was keen to support this initiative.

Pupils began the work during their P6 year and saw the results when they returned in P7.  The work had a large impact on the whole school community who watched the process over many months and then enjoyed the riot of colour and variety of bees, butterflies and insects it attracted.  At the Opening Ceremony, pupils had made calendars using photographs of the meadow which they sold, with proceeds going to the Bee Conservation Trust.   They made bee and butterfly themed cakes and biscuits for guests and devised games for younger pupils to teach them about bees and butterflies.

After this, the meadow was cut down in late autumn and pupils now plan to check this year's growth against last year's and find out if the same variety of flowers and grasses are growing.

The Powan is a fish that lives only in Loch Lomond and Loch Awe in Scotland. Pupils work closely with the National Park staff in Luss and through them discovered the Powan numbers had decreased such that it had become an endangered species in Scotland.

Pupils agreed to care for 100 Powan eggs in a tank in the classroom and release the fish when they hatched. They were given workshops on how to look after the eggs. It was particularly important that the water temperature was kept at the temperature that Loch lomond would be in January. This proved to be quite a challenge in a warm modern classroom.

We borrowed a tank that had two compartments one for eggs and one for ice. It also had a pump to keet the oxygen circulating and a polystyrene box into which it fitted snugly. The children brought small bottled water containers to school that they froze daily in the fridge and changed into the ice compartment to keep the temperature down. They had to do this every day - weekends and holidays included - for the six weeks it took for the eggs to hatch and be ready for release. Parents, pupils, teachers and janitor all took turns to come into school on the days that there was no school to make sure the eggs survived. The temperature was recorded three times daily and ice bottles changed twice daily.

Pupils studied the conditions for Powan in the Loch. They looked at the preditors, many of which had been introduced into the Loch by man. They looked particularly at the Ruffe that had stolen the sandy shallows habitat where the Powan would normally lay their eggs. Pupils discovered that normally 0.005% of Powan eggs lived until they hatched. As almost all of our eggs survived this means that we increased the survival rate by 200 times.

Pupils looked at the food sources for Powan and discovered by river dipping in a river feeding Loch Lomond that the water had very low levels of pollution and high levels of insect life so there was plenty of food available for the Powan. They studied the life cycle of the Powan.

Finally the children released their 100 healthy little fish into Loch Lomond and watched on underwater monitors while they swan away into the depth of the Loch. The school has agreed to continue to raise a tank of Powan every year and prize money from this competition would allow us to buy our own tank, box and pump.

   Our project is to create awareness and raise money for the following  5 major charities

SCIAF, CHAS. Mary's Meals,Fairtrade and The Good Child Foundation in Thailand 

Our main aim is to inform the school and wider community, ie parents and local companies of our school goals to help the named charities above and hopefully get them involved with current project s.

This would involve groups of children being responsible for each individual charity, creating posters, web pages, fund raising events and delivering presentations to different year groups with in the school. We plan to engage with the following companies which have been recommended by Ethco ie Dunning Design and Mercurytide. These activities would develop Global Citzenship and many other skills for the children involved. We also intend to invite speakers from each charity to give the children information on how the money is spent. We would like to purchase marketing material to promote these charities aswell.

In previous years we have raised around £6000 over our charity awareness period however we hope we can do better than this with any funding available.