Global Citizenship magazine for schools

Changing Habits for Good

Dilan Oner and Ryan McElhinney, P7 pupils from Balgreen Primary school in Edinburgh, have been involved in a Global Citizenship project with Scotdec. Here they describe what the project enabled them to achieve as peer educators and campaigners.

Changing Habits for Good

Peer Education

A Peer Educator teaches other people their own age about issues around the world.  At Balgreen, we have taken part in a workshop about how to become Peer Educators.  We have taught in classes in our school. 

We went to a conference for pupils and set up activities for children from schools across Scotland.  We lead an activity which asked pupils to order the steps of cotton production.  We also did a ‘Diamond 9’ activity which asked pupils to think about the reasons why they buy clothes.  For example, ‘The Brand’, ‘Fairtrade’, ‘Is it important that famous people wear the same clothes?’  Every time it felt that we were doing a different activity because every group had different answers!  We couldn’t tell pupils what was wrong or right because everyone has a different opinion. This makes Global Education fun!

Being a peer educator makes me feel 10 years older because I know how to plan, organise and teach different age groups (Ryan)

Being a peer educator makes me feel that I know more about the subject and if I got asked a question by someone, I feel I could answer it now (Dilan)

The Campaign at Balgreen

Firstly, we went to a Campaign Workshop at Scotdec with other schools in our area.  We decided on a subject to explore further.  The group chose ‘The Right to Education.’  We took part in group activities to learn about children who are in and out of education across the world. Then we thought about ways we could spread the message about children’s right to education.  Our class came up with an action plan and we invited Marco Biagi MSP to watch our presentation.  We made models of children with speech bubbles on their stomachs explaining why they couldn’t go to school.  The Scottish Parliament is going to put our models on display.

We feel that we have made a difference because we have spread the message further about children’s right to education.  Mr Biagi said that this message is really important and he was impressed by our work at Balgreen.  He has taken the message back to parliament and other MSPs now know about the importance of this issue.  We want to continue doing campaigns because we get to spread the message further than our school.  We think more children should participate in Global Citizenship because they will enjoy it and it would make a difference having more people involved!

Noticeboard

Holocaust Memorial Day

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Holocaust Memorial Day, held annually on 27 January, is the day for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered in the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution, and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. Find out more 

Fair Trade Week

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Celebrate Fair Trade Education Week from 4-8 March. Replacing Fair Trade Fortnight – which has moved to September – this is a chance for schools to take part in a mini lesson and celebrate Fair Trade in Scotland. Find out more here

LGBTQI+ History Month

LGBTQI

Medicine #UnderTheScope is the theme for the 2024 event which celebrates LGBTQI+ peoples’ contribution to the field of Medicine and Healthcare both historically and today. Download Education resources for Early Years to Secondary here 

International Women’s Day

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Imagine a gender equal world. International Women's Day (IWD) is celebrated each year on 8 March and campaigns for women’s equality. The theme for this year is #InspireInclusion Find out more 

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