EMNGPS case-studies

EMNGPS is a learning network which shares information about its projects. Below are case studies about different aspects of EMNGPS' work. Please feedback your thoughts about these case-studies to us.

International Dimension case-study - this assesses what impact an International dimension consultant can have on the strategic aims of a Local Authority and at school level.

Local Authority case study - EMNGPS and Northamptonshire / Lincolnshire LA match funded a one year Global Dimension post in each LA. What impact did these posts have?

Impact Assessment case study - EMNGPS is a regional network funded by DFID. EMNGPS received 5 years of funding from 2003-2008 and this case study asks what impact has EMNGPS had on its members during this time.

Consultative Day

21.08.2008

On 4th July 2008, EMNGPS held its annual consultative day. Read more...

The Co-operative

On 14 August 2008, Rohini Corfield from EMNGPS met with Pinky Badhan, Co-operative Affairs Officer for our region, to discuss common agendas including working with schools and young people on issues like Fair Trade, diversity, democratic participation, sustainable development and global citizenship. EMNGPS will explore possible joint work. The Co-operative have just launched a new educational website explaining how co-operative values can be brought to education at www.school.coop

Meeting with new Chair of DEA

On 6th August 2008, Linda Barker, from Global Education Derby and Rohini Corfield from EMNGPS met with Roger Clarke, the new Chair of the DEA.

They discussed the diverse work of GED, EMNGPS and current links with the DEA as well as exploring potential joint work in the future. Roger commented "I am impressed by the approach to Global Dimension work in this region".

East Midlands Schools working for Fairtrade Schools Accreditation

Clare Carr, on behalf of EMNGPS, has been working with Locality Group Co-ordinators to encourage schools to register for the Fairtrade Schools Accreditation scheme. There are now 85 East Midlands schools registered (compared with 57 on 16 March), distributed as follows:

Derbyshire - 14
Lincolnshire - 16
Leicestershire and Rutland - 25
Northamptonshire - 17
Nottinghamshire - 13

Congratulations to two East Midlands Schools that have achieved Fairtrade Status:

St George's College of Technology, Lincolnshire was approved on 5 May 2008.

Eyam School, Derbyshire was approved on 16 July 2008.

There will be a meeting of the Fairtrade Schools Scheme network on Monday 29 September 2008 from 11.30am to 3.30pm at the Fairtrade Foundation's offices (Room 204, 16 Baldwin's Gardens, London EC1N 7RJ) to share progress and challenges.

School Leadership for the Global Dimension

14.08.2008

This is an exciting project run jointly by EMNGPS and Oxfam. Although we have had a good response from Head teachers to date, we are hoping to encourage further applications, particularly from Secondary and Special Schools in the East Midlands. In view of this, we have decided to extend the deadline to 17th September 2008. Download more information and an application form.

iCoCo Masterclass - Tackling Extremism

30.07.2008

On 17 July 2008 Rohini Corfield joined 70 other Community Cohesion practioners to hear about the fascinating experiences of Andy Sykes, a former BNP organiser turned anti-racist campaigner. Andy explained , how in the aftermath of riots in Bradford in 2001, he joined the BNP and then realised the harmful impact of their message on the cohesion of diverse communities. Andy then used his insight and knowledge of Far Right Groups to inform his anti-racist work with young people and community groups. He argued that schools and parents have a pivotal role to play in helping young people develop secure identities and self-respect, and an interest in and respect for diverse cultures.
The Rewind project from Sandwell then shared how they work with young people and professionals on anti-racism. Find out more at www.rewind.org.uk For more information about future iCoCo masterclasses see www.cohesioninstitute.org.uk.

Children's International Summer Villages

30.07.2008

On 21 July 2008 Rohini Corfield met with Kiran Hingorani, Education and Training Officer at CISV to explore how EMNGPS and CISV might work together to support young people in developing the values, knowledge and skills to become active global citizens. Initially Kiran will make contact with the Derbyshire Locality Group to learn how they function in supporting schools to embed the global dimension across all aspects of school life and then he will see what other opportunities EMNGPS can offer for joint work. Find out more about Children's International Summer Villages at www.cisv.org

EMNGPS explores how to support City of Sanctuary

30.07.2008

EMNGPS signed the City of Sanctuary pledge in January 2008.

Rohini Corfield, EMNGPS Project Manager met with Gill Buttery of Leicester City of Sanctuary to discuss possible ways that EMNGPS and City of Sanctuary can work together to bring the issues faced by refugees and asylum seekers to the attention of schools, as part of their work on active global citizenship, international perspectives, diversity & equality and community cohesion.

Locality Groups in Leicestershire and Rutland will explore practical ideas for working with schools on the City of Sanctuary project through their future action plans.

Find out more about the City of Sanctuary at www.cityofsanctuary.com

Three-day Global Citizenship Advocates Course

Dorcas Adusei (Global Dimension Officer, Northamptonshire Local Authority) and Rohini Corfield (EMNGPS Project Manager) have just completed the Global Citizenship Advocates course, run by RISC (Reading International Solidarity Centre). Find out more about RISC at www.risc.org.uk

Teachers, NGO workers, teacher trainers and local authority staff attended the course at RISC over three days. The participatory course included sessions on:-

• How to handle Controversial Issues eg, Peace and Conflict issues
• Gender and Sexuality
• Race and Ethnicity
• Representations of Africa
• World Music
• Majority World Artists
• Use of artefacts, photos, quotes to stimulate discussion
• Global Gardens and Sustainability issues
• Reviewing resources for bias
• Futures education
• School linking
• Justice not pity - fundraising issues
• Active Local and Global Citizenship
• Assessing progress - Global Schools

All participants found the course extremely valuable for both theory and practice and left brimming with ideas about how to implement Global Citizenship in both their professional and personal roles.They were each given £100 worth of resources to support their implementation.

Dorcas and Rohini would both recommend this course to colleagues - see RISC website for details.

Initial Teacher Education conference

14.07.2008

New UK Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Network for ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) and GC (Global Citizenship) conference

On 7 July 2008 this network held its inaugual conference in London. Download the programme here.

Rohini Corfield from EMNGPS joined 70 other educators from across the UK to learn more about how the UN Decade for ESD (2005-15) was being implemented in different countries, and in discussing the particular role that teacher educators could play in bringing the ESD/GC agenda to life.

A series of paper presentations enabled a diverse range of current ESD activity in ITE institutions to be shared eg, the role of school gardens, rights respecting schools etc

Rohini also convened an open space session exporing how NGOs could build strategic and sustainable partnerships with ITE institutions in order to try and influence their teaching curricula and ethos.

A new ESD/GC website for ITE tutors, students and teachers has been launched at http://esd.escalate.ac.uk

The event provided an opportunity for strategic networking and peer learning.

East Midlands Headteacher contributes to national policy roundtable with David Blunkett

14.07.2008

On 7 July 2008, Kate Nash, Headteacher at Silverhill Primary School in Derby travelled to London for a policy roundtable discussion organised by the DEA. She was one of 20 people who shared ideas about how the government could support schools to embed the global dimension across all aspects of school life as a way of delivering quality education, which would enable young people to become active global citizens. Other contributors included the DEA, QCA ( Qualifications and Curriculum Authority), Ofsted and the Geographical Association.

Kate was able to share her experience of working with Global Education Derby and EMNGPS on a range of school linking, environmental sustainability and community cohesion projects. Silverhill Primary use Thursday afternoons for a range of enrichment activities and have found that this has not affected SATs results which have been good.

Kate enjoyed the opportunity to meet other educators with an interest in global learning and to contribute to a national think tank.

Rutland Sustainable Development and International/Global Education Conference

02.07.2008

Phil Smith, (Strategic Learning Lead Consultant, Rutland County Council) opened the event by explaining its objectives. Barbara Smith (Consultant) then introduced the DCSF National Framework for Sustainable Schools and highlighted key documents and the new East Midlands Sustainable Schools website.

Next Helen Trilling (International Links Co-ordinator, Leicestershire County Council) gave detailed information about a variety of British Council funding streams for teacher and Headteacher international professional development opportunities and support for school linking. Find out more at www.globalgateway.org.uk

Rohini Corfield (EMNGPS Project Manager) facilitated discussions about the diversity of the Global Village and summarised the 8 key concepts of the Global Dimension.

Rutland Case Studies

Margaret (teacher) from Edith Weston Primary School then showcased the work the school had done to promote global citizenship and sustainable living:-

• Teaching European languages and cultural awareness in curriculum time through involving parents with connections to other countries
• Learning about Fair Trade
• Supporting Water Aid
• Developing a school link with a German school
• Applying for the International School Award and Eco School accreditation
• Delivering the 5 outcomes of the Every Child Matters agenda through ESD eg, Eco Warriors, Gardening, wild life watches
• Embedding ESD in the School Development Plan

Matt (teacher) from Castleton Business and Enterprise College then explained the work of the college Ethical Committee (a tent structure that pulls together social enterprise within the college) which brought together students working on:-

• Young Chambers (to develop business and enterprise skills)
• Eco-Schools ( environmental issues)
• Amnesty International (human rights issues)
• Charity Committee (fundraising )
• The Base ( gardening projects eg, Sensory Garden)
  

For details of the college's work on Healthy Schools and Sustainable Schools see www.cbec.rutland.sch.uk

Phil Smith then summarised the big picture issues (eg, Community Cohesion, Eco Schools, Sustainable Schools, Multi cultural education and Ofsted reports) and signposted the key documents for each. Helen Trilling gave information about how schools can apply for the Intenational School Award. The day concluded with reflections about how each participant would take ESD and the international/global dimension forward.

UKAEIES Conference

02.07.2008

Six members from EMNGPS participated in the UKAEIES conference in Cardiff 26 - 27 June. At the AGM UKAEIES members (Local Authority International Education Officers and Enabling Effective Support staff) agreed to change the name of the organisation to UKGLAS (UK Association for Global Learning in Schools) and to establish a website summarising the work of the organisation.

In the afternoon members worked in groups to generate creative ideas about how the QCA document "The global dimension in action" could be used in training sessions with teachers. Ideas included asking teachers to identify the success factors of each case-study and to consider how sustainable the work is.

Kevin Dixon from the DCSF's Community Cohesion Unit gave an overview of what schools needed to do to meet their new statutory duty to promote community cohesion. He encouraged contact with the Schools Linking Network, the Institute of Community Cohesion and other external partners. He also encouraged schoools to make cross-curricular links between work in RE, Citizenship, History, Geography and whole school initiatives. For more information and a tool kit see www.globalgateway.org/communitycohesion

Members then discussed ideas for an event that could bring together the current school agendas of Community Cohesion, The Global Dimension and International Linking.

The conference provided a valuable opportunity for networking, and the sharing of information and resources.

Peer Mentoring

On 20 June 2008 the Co-ordinators and an Executive Committee member from 3 regional Enabling Effective Support (EES) networks (EMNGPS, Yorkshire and Humberside Global Schools Association (YHGSA) and North West Global Education Network (NWGEN) met to explore how they could share their experiences of EES work (both the challenges and successes) to improve their effectiveness. The day was facilitated by Katy Newell-Jones who introduced action learning set methodology.

Participants found the day stimulating and all returned with practical actions to follow up.

NWGEN

Developing Community Cohesion course

The course was held at Beaumanor Hall, and funded by The British Council. On the day, 29 schools in the East Midlands were represented, and all delegates fully participated in the group activities.  

Rohini Corfield, EMNGPS, and Bev Milner, RNIL, welcomed the delegates and introduced the programme.
 
Presentations included:

• What is a Global Learner?  - Maggie Talty-Sanghera, Global Education Derby

A group of students from Shirebrook School in Derby showed a film of the area in which they live. It highlighted some issues relating to a local sports store which chose to employ staff from the local Polish community, causing mixed feelings within the rest of the community. The students also presented their views and experiences.
Maggie facilitated an activity during which groups were invited to draw a picture of a global citizen, and describe the citizen’s values, knowledge and skills.

• Get-In – Promoting an inclusive international dimension in the curriculum - Clive Billingham  

• The DCSF International School Award, Overview of funding opportunities - Helen Trilling, International Links Co-ordinator, Leicestershire County Council

•  Faiths Literacy – George Ballentyne, Faiths Equality Officer, Leicester Council of Faiths

George presented information from the 2001 Census, and showed the Leicester figures for different faiths, beliefs and religions.
                www.leicestercounciloffaiths.org.uk

• Engaging & inspiring young people to take leadership on community cohesion - Val Carpenter, Director, Diversity Hub

Val took the lead on a simple, but effective, practical exercise which encouraged the whole group to value and appreciate the diversity within the room.

• Good practice in whole-school linking - Lisa Young, Education & Funding Officer, MUNDI, Nottingham

 Choosing a funding opportunity, Action Planning, Identifying further support – Helen Trilling & Claire Plumb. Global Education Leicester-Shire

Feedback showed that participants had found the day useful, and had learnt more/had a better understanding of community cohesion.

A further community cohesion course will be held in March 2009.

A Celebration of Global Learning

On 11 June Rohini Corfield joined 75 colleagues from the development education sector at the launch of Global Matters, a collection of Global Dimension case-studies compiled by the DEA including a foreward by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The OSDE (Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry) methodology developed in the East Midlands was also highlighted.

Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) Practioners' Network Meeting

On 5 June Rohini Corfield joined 60 Local Authority staff, academics, community activists and iCoCo experts at the above network meeting.

The programme included:-

An introduction and national overview by Ted Cantle, Chair of iCoCo. Issues discussed included the greater international interest in Community Cohesion, funding for English language learning, Citizenship procedures for new arrivals and feedback about national consultations iCoCo had responded to. An interesting international project was that of Living Libraries where people share their life stories as a way of building intercultural understanding.

Living Libraries – borrowing real life experience

Living Library’, as an idea, originated in Denmark in 2000. Instead of a book the public have the opportunity to “borrow” (talk) to an expert in their field, someone who has significant experience to share, or is passionate about a hobby. Living Library projects often focus on fostering respect and countering fear and prejudice in the community. The library is clearly seen as a safe house and as a facilitator of discussion in the community.
Living Libraries have been successfully held across Europe, Canada, and by the end of this year there will be a living library in every state in Australia except Tasmania.

A population mapping and engagement workshop included a presentation about estimating population numbers and assessing migration impacts by Linden Rowley and an example of population mapping in Derby

Jenny Page demonstrated the new iCoCo portal - a one stop shop for Community Cohesion practioners and Andrew Lawerence outlined the plans for the Health and Cohesion initiative

Harris Beider summarised the research iCoCo may carry out to ensure grass roots involvement in community cohesion eg, engaging with alienated white communities, exploring the relationships between different minority groups and investigating the role of women and the voluntary and community sector in enhancing community cohesion. The aim was for research to be used as an empowering tool leading to practical change at the individual, organisational and community levels.

The Awards for Bridging Cultures (ABC) are new and reward grass roots projects that promote intercultual dialogue and understanding through activities like sport, art and learning. see www.bridgingcultures.org.uk

iCoCo are also offering Community Cohesion master classes and post-graduate work-based learning ( Certificate, Diploma and MA in Community Cohesion Management).

Meeting with Ofsted to discuss Global Dimension work in schools

• the curriculum, in particular through Citizenship Education, Geography, Religious Education
• developing work for the new statutory duty on Community Cohesion
• helping implementation of national frameworks like the Sustainable Schools and International School Award

Ofsted have published a series of reports (available on www.ofsted.org.uk) with recomendations for the DCSF (Department of Children, Schools and Families) , Local Authorities and Schools on the followoing themes:-

• Schools and Sustainability - A climate for change (May 2008) Ref number 070173
• Geography in Schools:changing practice (January 2008 ) Ref number 070044
• Towards consensus? Citizenship in secondary schools (September 2006) Ref number HMI 2666

EMNGPS plans to continue this dialogue with national stakeholders about recognising the importance of the Global Dimension in all aspects of education.

Global Education Leicester-shire (GEL) runs Global Citizenship and Controversial Issues Conference on 30 May for Leicester University trainee teachers

Dr Hillary Cremin and Dr Paul Warwick from the School of Education at Leicester University ( insert logo) invited EMNGPS to orgainse a Global Dimension awareness day for 14 PGCE ( Post Graduate Certificate of Education) Secondary Citizenship trainee teachers.

The aims of the conference were to:-

• Raise awareness of external agencies that can help citizenship educators to provide vibrant and engaging learning opportunities for their students
• Enable trainees to experience a range of learning activities for promoting active citizenship, and an appreciation of its global dimension
  

Claire Plumb, Locality Group co-ordinator for GEL organised the following programme of presentations and activities:-

Rohini Corfield faciltated a game of GloBingo as an introduction to the concepts underlying the Global Dimension and then outlined the support available for teachers from regional EES (Enabling Effective Support) networks like EMNGPS - see www.globaldimension.org.uk

Claire Plumb then explained how the diverse work of the Leicester Masaya Link Group (eg. arts projects, international visits, school linking, civic linking) could support active citizenship in schools in England and Nicaragua


Helen Trilling went on to outline the variety of international professional development opportunities available for teachers and schools through the British Council - see www.globalgateway.org

Rachel Toach and Julia Fergusson then led a RSPCA education workshop using active learning methods - see www.rspca.org.uk/education The RSPCA aims to promote kindness and prevent cruelty to animals. The RSPCA Education team can offer schools free school-based training linked to the National Curriculum, Work with School Councils on animal welfare issues and run teacher training sessions for schools and universities

Anne Liddle then facilitated a session on CND which included a powerful DVD about the impact of nuclear armaments , discussions about Hiroshima, Chernobyl , peace education and distributed CND Peace Education Packs For more information about Peace education see www.cnd.org.uk

George Ballentyne then led an interactive session about faith diversity based on national and Leicester data from the 2001 Census - see www.leicestercounciloffaiths.org.uk

Clare Carr finished by explaining the Fair Trade Schools scheme and exploring Trade Justice issues - link with doc below and www.bigquestioncompany.com

Hillary asked students for their feedback and thanked all contributors for their stimulating inputs.

ESD Schools Working Group

• The new East Midlands Sustainable Schools website going live on Monday 16 June. This website includes ESD case-studies from East Midlands schools on all eight doorways of the Sustainable Schools Framework and signposts where schools can access regional support through listing ESD providers. EMNGPS members MUNDI and Skillshare International led on co-ordinating the sign-posting.
• Tenders in ESD - for the co-ordination of the SWG (see www.goem.gov.uk) and for the Young Activists Project (www.dcsf.gov.uk)
• Possible involvement in the Expo 2008 event
• The Nottingam declaration on Climate Change for Schools - see consultation
• The new toolkit (Valuing our future:a toolkit for developing sustainable schools) produced by the National College of School Leadership

It's all about about Behavioural Change

On 8 May Rohini Corfield represented EMNGPS at a regional conference about Behaviour change in the context of Climate Change organised by the East Midlands Regional Assembly, Government Office for the East Midlands(GOEM) and supported by the East Midlands Development Agency and Department of Health.

View invite

The aims of the event were to:

• enable regional stakeholders to explore how behaviour change can deliver a lower carbon, better adapted and more sustainable East Midlands
• to agree co-ordinated actions in 4 priority areas - Energy in Homes, Transport, Food and Shopping, Health and Well-Being

70 delegates from government agencies, regional bodies, local authorities, NGOs and universities attended the event at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham.

Click here to view the programme for the day

Stan Crawford explained the sustainable design features of the Sherwood Energy Village which had been set up as a community business and has won a variety of environmental awards.

A series of workshops then showcased success stories in the East Midlands:

• The Big Wheel organisation described how they were encouraging sustainable transport use www.thebigwheel.org.uk
• Global Action Plan shared how they brought communities together to achieve environmental, social and financial change www.globalactionplan.org.uk
• The Food Initiative Group explained the links between Sustainable development - Food, Climate Change and Peak Oil www.foodfig.org.uk
• Living for Tomorrow, the local sustainability magazine for Nottinghamshire detailed practical ideas about how to live sustainably
• The BBC Breathing Places provided ideas for one environmental activity that children could do every term www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
• Groundwork discussed what people could do to tackle climate change www.groundwork.org.uk

Philip Stamp then summarised the work that Defra ( Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - insert logo) are doing to drive behaviour change including the framework for pro-environmental behaviours see www.defra.gov.uk/evidence/social/behaviour/index.htm

David Fell from Brook Lyndhurst then fed back from their recent research " Investigating Behavioural Change with respect to Sustainable development in the East Midlands: A scoping study"

Finally delegates identified the following priority actions for the region to take forward :

1. setting up an energy meter loan system
2. expanding bicycle and ride schemes
3. encouraging co-operative local generation schemes
4. promote car sharing
5. promote behaviour change in schools
6. promote local shopping
7. set up regional food co-operatives
8. transfer freight from roads to rail
9. encourage employers to provide a holistic health MOT for employees and more home working
10. expand and promote cycle routes

EMNGPS Moodle group scopes feasibility study

On 29 April 4 EMNGPS members met in Nottingham to agree the format of the feasibility study - research of Moodle usage would be carried out with schools, colleges, and Local Authorities. Plans to host a temporary EMNGPS Moodle site were explored, and the possible involvement of other regional and national partners. Watch this space.......

Meeting with BT Regional Manager - Building a Better World

On 30 April Rohini Corfield met withTom Hamilton to explore how EMNGPS and BT might work together with regional schools on sustainability issues, global education and active citizenship projects.

BT were named Company of the Year in the Business in the Community Awards, and have a wide ranging Corporate Social Responsibility Programme.

The BT Better World Campaign

BT believe that core communication skills are even more essential in the digital age and that there is a need for a renewed emphasis on developing these skills in young people in order to meet their three key objectives:

• To ensure young people most in need are heard and helped
• To develop young people's communication skills by sharing information
• To help young people campaign to create real social change.

What other activities do they do?

The BT Better World Campaign is a key element of BT's Corporate Responsibility Programme. They believe that Better Communication can help create a Better World. Their strategy is to maintain their current momentum in CSR and to focus their efforts on the three biggest challenges:

• The need for sustainable economic growth
• The need for wider inclusion of all sections of society
• The need to tackle climate change.

International activity

Under the Better World Campaign they have launched a number of international projects which extend the reach of the Campaign globally, enabling BT to make a real difference to the lives of tens of thousands of young people around the world.

BT Education
BT have been instrumental in linking schools in the UK with schools world-wide, through the BT education programme, and through other projects.

Initiatives in India
BT are providing education support to two schools, and a phone-based information service, (Lifelines), that supplies vital information to poor rural farming communities.

Inspiring Young Minds
This is a three year strategic programme in partnership with UNICEF, where BT is investing £1.5 million into projects in South Africa, Brazil and China.

International Recognition
In April BT's Campaign received international recognition when BT and ChildLine were jointly awarded 'Listener of the Year 2008' for 22 years of listening and supporting children. Nominations are made from around the world for this presitigious award, and past winners have been U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

EMNGPS hosts EES (Enabling Effective Support) Coordinators Meeting