Schools global link Project

[JillStephens7]

For a few years there has been attempt to get schools in Lancashire to link up with schools in other countries but always a low take up.
My friend launched herself at the project last year and finally has enough schools signed up to get the go ahead. She went out to Sri Lanka last year to meet up with some teachers at a school there and is arranging exchanges where some teachers from each partner school will job swap for a period of time to help the kids learn about another culture and the schools can plan projects for the kids to interact with children in the partner county and learn from each other.

This is a funded initiative but to get the funding, schools have to do an initial project with their kids that meets some of the (very loose) criteria set by Oxfam. Some of the schools got cold feet as they didn't know what to do for the projects so asked me to write some lesson plans that teachers could use that linked the Oxfam criteria with the National Curriculum.

I did all the Primary school ones a couple of months ago and today I'm doing secondary school ones, using the theme of sustainability & use of resources.

So far I've done an art lesson making a collage of rubbish (juice cartons, fabric scraps etc.) showing aspects of their school day e.g. a collage of the library or lining up for school buses at the end of the day or a collage of a typical school dinner. They could share these with children in the partner school via video link or email and use it a a starting point to discuss differences between the two schools at the same time as looking at use of resources and our throwaway culture.

A maths lesson where each pupil calculates the food miles in their dinner and looks at the sustainability of food transport, suggesting ways to reduce their food miles, then compares this with the food miles of the class in the partner school. The two schools could work together to reduce the food miles used by their schools etc.

Now I'm procrastinating on here and just wondering if this is a project anyone else is involved in? Or if anyone has any good ideas for other lessons on sustainability?

Good wishes, Jill

[Rosendula]

Here's some sites that may be of help.
http://www.dea.org.uk/members/decs.asp
http://www.dechull.karoo.net/Links.html#

This one's just Yorkshire and Humber, but the info and links might (or might not) help
http://www.yhgsa.org.uk/

[JillStephens7]

Thanks Rosey

THe DEA site has given me an idea for sustainability in the clothing industry. Most school uniforms I have come across are high in polyester and nylon content, both made from petrochemicals.
I know that sweatshop working used to be on the secondary school geography syllabus, from when I used to work with teenagers with behaviour probs., so will have a look on the nat. curriculum website & if it's still being taught, should be an easy enough link to make and def. fits Oxfams global criteria.

Cheers

Or maybe I should just do clothing in general, maybe challenging the ethics of school uniforms is getting too political Maybe subtler to plan the lesson round clothing in general and just point out that one way of doing this would be looking at school uniforms. Sneaky beaky

[grahamhobbs]

These are some girls on the way to school in Bangladesh.

Wonderful idea linking schools in different countries, but I think perhaps going on about sustainability and food miles, may either go over the heads of kids in countries like Bangladesh or may even be a bit offensive considering what little they live on.

[JillStephens7]

Yeah, I know what you mean Graham. Unfortunately (?) I think all the schools in other countries will be relatively 'well to do' due to needing computors etc. to have found out about the project in the first place and take part in video links etc.

Teachers and kids in the less well off schools probably have bigger things on their mind than what's going on in Lancashire

It's a start though eh

Oh, I just re-read what you wrote ... the lesson plans are for kids in Lancashire, teachers in the partner schools will be doing their own thing, in fact the teachers in Lancashire can do their own thing to but some have asked for some sample lessons that fit both Oxfam & national curriculum objectives

Seeing the amount of posts I've done today I'm not working very hard am I