Nottingham & Nottinghamshire Raul Valdivia Rob Bowden and Sophie Orton Raul Valdivia and Eleanor Brown

'Global Learning through School Partnerships' - 27th April 2010 The Nottinghamshire Locality Group organised a conference for teachers in Nottingham City and County to explore how schools links can provide a learning opportunity for global issues. The programme shows the day provided the opportunity to hear from national agencies like the British Council, to learn from the practice of other schools and also to hear about the benefits of school linking from the perspective of Mexican teachers, who were visiting Nottingham to visit their partner schools. Feedback from the 40 delegates has been positive, and many schools have taken up opportunities offered by the British Council to establish new school partnerships. EMNGPS was able to contribute to the event by providing an information stand which enabled teachers access to a range of resources produced by Oxfam, the DEA, QCDA (Qualifications and Curriculum Development Authority) and DFID. Nottingham/shire Locality Group meeting - 19 January 2010 On 19 January three Local Authority advisers and two NGO staff met at the Locality Group to discuss the following items:- DFID termination of the EES (Enabling Effective Support) funding on 31 August 2010 and the implications of this for Locality Groups - visit the dfid website. DEA Global Learning Charter - see dea website . EMNGPS have signed the Charter and will be encouraging Local Authorities and MPs in the region to also sign it to demonstrate support for the importance of Global Learning. Global Learning through School Partnerships Conference planning: The Nottingham/shire Locality Group are planning a conference in April for City and County schools - details to follow shortly Ideas for Locality Group Summer Term Global Learning action plan included two twilight sessions, planning meetings and a Locality Group in the summer term Analysis of Locality Group action plan 2009 - 10 - all planned activities have been delivered within budget. The EMNGPS Executive Committee have agreed that the School Partnerships conference can take place in April, in order to avoid clashing with an ESD conference. Preparation for regional International / Global Education newsletter Nottingham/shire Locality Group On 17 June 2009, Local Authority advisers from Nottingham City and County met with staff from MUNDI and EMNGPS at the Locality Group meeting. Items discussed were:- An evaluation of the recent "Bringing the Global Dimension to Sustainable Schools conference" Participant feedback had been positive about the mix of inputs and interactive activities. There was interesting discussion about the selection of case-study schools. Plans to organise two twilight sessions in the autumn term for schools to folllow up the conference. These would focus on MUNDI demonstrating some Sustainability resources, and inviting teachers to review resources to explore how they could be used in their school contexts. Current challenges facing Local Authorities. Plans for the re-location of MUNDI. An update of progress the Locality Group had made on its Global Dimension action plan, including the successful Global Citizenship seminar series with UNESCO. Updates on the DFID Building Support for Development Review and White Paper consultations.
Bringing the Global Dimension to Sustainable Schools On 2 June 2009, the Nottingham/shire Locality Group held a conference exploring how to bring the Global Dimension into all aspects of the Sustainable Schools framework. 22 teachers and Headteachers from primary, secondary and Special schools and nine providers enabled the following sessions to take place:-
Introduction to the roles of MUNDI (www.mundi.org.uk) and EMNGPS in helping schools to bring the Global Dimension to life Tracking the Global Dimension in all aspects of the Sustainable Schools Framework A school case-study from Orston Primary School An overview of the Sustainable Schools East Midlands website www.SustainableSchoolsEastMidlands.org.uk which has school case-studies for each doorway and details of local providers who can help schools deliver this agenda Information about a variety of International School Linking opportunities www.globalgateway.org.uk and local school linking www.schoollinkingnetwork.org.uk Examples of Curriculum Activities eg, the World Map, Philosphy for Children Signposting to Local Resources and support, including the Regional Network for International Learning Opportunity for individual action planning Teachers and Headteachers found the day stimulating and useful.

Nottingham/shire Locality Group

On 11th February 2009, three Local Authority Officers, a secondary school teacher, a primary Headteacher and staff from NGOs met to discuss the events planned in the last academic year by the Locality Group.

The Sustainable Schools Event at Perlthorpe Environmental Education Centre in February 2008 had enabled teachers to try a variety of practical activities. The event also provided good CPD for LA Officers, and enabled a new partnership with Environmental Education Officers to be nurtured. This is now resulting in more international and global perspectives in environmental work with schools.

The KS3 event in January 2009 had been well received with positive feedback from attendees. The interactive activities, information stalls and school case-studies were all useful.

Potential ideas for the Locality Group to implement in 2009-10 include:-

• A conference in June 2009 for primary and secondary schools about cross-curricular learning and Every Child Matters
• A leaflet for schools explaining how EMNGPS/Locality Group can help schools incorporate the Global Dimension to deliver a Creative Curriculum
• Follow-up work with secondary schools who attended the KS3 event

Global Dimension in Action - KS3 Training Event

On 23 January 2009, the Nottinghamshire Locality Group organised a conference with funding from EMNGPS for 25 secondary teachers to explore how the Global Dimension (GD) can help deliver the revised secondary curriculum.

The key notespeaker was David Gardener, Senior Programme Manager, Curriculum Division, QCA who outlined the big picture of the curriculum and emphasised that the GD should be at the heart of curriculum planning to "make learning irresistible." He summarised the QCA GD document and referred to a variety of other publications. Find out more at www.qca.org.uk/curriculum.

Djanogly City Academy and Rushcliffe Comprehensive School also presented case-studies illustrating the range of GD curriculum work, international student visits, school links and ethos.

Presentations were given about funding opportunities and key websites to help find partner schools. Teachers were also given a chance to do some action planning. Evaluations showed that teachers had found the day useful.

Global Learner Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Download MUNDI's Global Learner electronic newsletter, Autumn edition 2008. The Global Learner e-newsletter is aimed at primary and secondary school teachers from East Midlands, as well as other educators.

Summer term 2008 Locality Group meeting

Staff from MUNDI, EMNGPS and Local Authorities met on 14 July 2008 to review the work of the Locality Group and the events it had organised for teachers over the last academic year.

The International School Award (ISA) event in April 2007 had been a massive success with more Nottingham City and County schools registering for the ISA.

The Global Dimension and ISA event in October 2007 had also received positive feedback, and was enhanced by the presence of teachers from India and three British Council speakers.

The Sustainable Schools event at Perlthorpe environment education centre in February 2008 had attracted a different mix of participants and been very hands on, with a number of interesting activities for each of the doorways. However, it was felt that the link between Sustainable Schools and the Global Dimension could be made more explicit eg,encouraging schools with international links to undertake joint curriculum environmental projects through Comenius.

Participants also gave updates. Highlights include:-

• The Hablame conference on 30 June organised by MUNDI had been a great success with national speakers and 70 delegates - see www.mundi.org.uk
• Nottingham City updates on links with Lebanese, Pakistani, Chinese and Jamaican schools. The British Council is in the process of launching a new programme with schools in the near East and North Africa.
• Nottinghamshire school links with Taiwan, Korea and Brazil. A Local Authority link with France to include schools and youth groups.
  

The dates of future Locality Group meetings were agreed as 22 November 2008, 11 February 2009 and 17 June 2009 at different locations around the city and county. Raul Valdivia would take over co-ordinating the Locality Group.

Ideas for events in the new academic year included an event for leaders about the Global Dimension and the Creative Curriculum, and Community Cohesion.

Global Learner Spring 2008 Newsletter

Download MUNDI's Global Learner electronic newsletter, Spring edition 2008. The Global Learner e-newsletter is aimed at primary and secondary school teachers from East Midlands, as well as other educators, and will be delivered to you electronically twice a year (a paper version is not envisaged).

Global Learner in the Great Outdoors

Participants engaged in environmental activities at Perlethorpe Environmental Education Centre on 28th February 2008.

Environmental art in the woods	Testing mini wind turbines	Willow working

Sharing Progress in 2006-7

Nottingham/shire Locality Group completed a 2-year DFID funded project called Learning About Others, Learning About Ourselves. Find out more at www.learningaboutothers.org.uk They also developed iHablame! (Speak to me) - an innovative school linking project between Nottingham and Mexico using ICT, Citizenship and Modern Foreign languages as channels of communication. www.mundi.org.uk

MUNDI annual general meeting

MUNDI Global Education Centre held its annual general meeting in June 2007.

Alex Kosogorin talked about the new DFID funded project Me, My Community and My World which focuses on working with Early Years practioners to explore how children aged 0-5 years could learn about:

• ourselves and the local community
• our friends and the wider communities
• our world

Lisa Young summarised the Learning About Others, Learning About Ourselves (LAO) project which developed a learning methodology based on critical educational approaches to citizenship education for use with teachers, secondary pupils and undergraduate students. LAO was developed in conjunction with Global Education Derby, the Centre for Citizenship Studies and an international partnership with educational institutions in Canada, Sinapore, Israel, Brazil and Mexico. For more information please visit www.learningaboutothers.org.uk

Raul explained how the Hablame (Speak to Me) project was enabling global citizenship, intercultural understanding and the learning of Spanish and English through linking 10 primary schools in Nottingham/shire with Saltillo in Mexico. For more information, please visit www.mundi.org.uk

Rohini Corfield (EMNGPS Project Manager) summarised how MUNDI staff have supported EMNGPS in a variety of ways:

• Strategically - Alex Kosogorin is an active member of the Executive Committee helping shape the strategic direction of EMNGPS by organising a regional conference, consulting on a new 5 year strategy and distributing funds to Locality Groups.
• Alex is also a member of the Funding Working Group which has appointed a Marketing Consultant to develop a marketing strategy for EMNGPS and produced a case study detailing how an International Dimension Consultant can add value to the education agenda in Local Authorities.
• Operationally - Lisa Young is the main EMNGPS contact and has delivered a variety of training events (including the International School Award event) and is a key contributor to the development of the OSDE (Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry) methodology. More information is available at www.osdemethodology.org.uk
• All staff support the Global Awareness Network for teachers and contributed to the EMNGPS regional conference.

Rohini congratulated MUNDI for the success of their GARP (Global Anti-Racist Pack) which had been requested by the QCA
(Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) and the British Council, and was being used in Bedfordshire and the North East of England. She hoped that the partnership between MUNDI and EMNGPS continues to flourish.

Nottinghamshire International School Award Event

On 25 April 2007, 49 educators from Nottingham city and Nottinghamshire schools and local authorities attended a conference about the International School Award. In their evaluations, 20 teachers were keen to receive more information about the locality group, suggesting an ongoing interest in global issues. Participants found the conference "challenging and thought provoking", "motivating", "very worthwhile" and "a great day". When asked what they would do to follow up the event in school, participants replied they plan to:

• brief colleagues, especially the Senior Management Team about the ISA
• set up an International Committee and do an audit of existing international activities
• develop a School International Policy
• agree an action plan for the ISA application
• appoint an International Co-ordinator
• find a link school / deepen cross-curricular links with school in Pakistan
• build global awareness into the School Development Plan
• link work on eco schools with the international agenda
• engage other schools in family group on ISA through organising INSET training

For further information, please contact Lisa Young at the MUNDI Centre, lisa.young@mundi.org

GARP

GARP is a well researched, practical document which provides easy to use information showing how global and anti racist perspectives can be integrated throughout the primary curriculum. Using QCA units as the starting point, the manual identifies global and anti racist perspectives for each subject area for foundation, KS1 and KS2, and lists appropriate resources to support inclusion. In addition, the GARP manual gives a list of case studies, and bright ideas from classroom situations, as well as providing links to organisations for further support.

The manual is the result of over two years work, and the launch to Nottingham City schools in attracted over 60 enthusiastic participants. Nottingham City Council provided £100 for each school to spend on resources, and encouraged schools to attend training on how to use it - we hope that other Local Authorities will follow their example!

For more information, and to order the GARP resource, contact headteacher@radford.nottingham.sch.uk

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Controversial issues and avoiding stereotypes

The Nottingham City/Nottinghamshire locality group looked at dealing with controversial issues, and avoiding stereotypes. This is an area which occurs time and time again, particularly when looking at life in a different culture. The documents below give a flavour of the discussions within the group, and provide some starting points for teachers. For more details, please contact Lisa.

• Choosing appropriate stimuli - adapted from 'Evaluating Artefacts' Resource Centre for Multicultural Education, Leicester
• Nottingham/Notts locality group 18/4/05: Controversial issues and stereotypes - minutes/issues

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