St Mary’s Achieves Bronze Award for Global Neighbours – May 2023
St Mary’s is very proud to receive this award from Christian Aid. It helps recognise the great work that our pupils, staff and parents have completed over the years to support the needy, the oppressed, those who face injustice and those who cannot escape poverty. It also recognises the actions and education that has taken place in order for our pupils to help tackle climate injustice on a local scale and also globally.
Following our submission, the accompanying report highlights:
- The school’s aims, which are prominent on the school’s website, are for pupils to develop an understanding of deprivation and disadvantage locally, nationally and globally. It is hoped this will enable them to become responsible, valued and contributing citizens. The vision is based on loving one another and for each individual to have respect for themselves and others.
- As pupils progress through the school, they have a range of opportunities, through the topics they cover in class, to learn about the similarities and differences between their lives and the lives of others. This may be through a variety of individual curriculum subjects such as RE, geography, science or literacy, or through cross curricula learning.
- There is a well organised collective worship plan for the year which includes termly opportunities to focus on global citizenship themes. A variety of resources are used as stimuli for collective worship and spiritual development. These include local, national and world events, Picture News resources, class work on relevant topics and planned events and days within the school and year calendar. These allow the pupils to spend time reflecting on issues of global poverty and climate justice.
- There are opportunities for the whole school to be involved in activities relating to global citizenship. This includes learning about situations locally, nationally or globally and raising money and awareness.
- All pupils are given opportunities to engage with local, national and global events, often inspired through collective worship. This can lead to small changes in school, at home or in supporting events and appeals.
St Mary’s -its pupils, staff, parents and governors – will continue to fight against climate injustice, global poverty and racial inequality as we continue our excellent work in education. We hope that our dedication to help make this world a much fairer place to live in will inspire others to take action and that our pupils will go forward into the world as ambassadors for positive change and advocates for those people and causes that need help the most.