Local4Global

Clanfield Primary School has been part of RISC's Global Schools Initiative since 2004. This year's funding has enable them to move forward in reporting and disseminating the Global Citizenship and Global Dimension work now embedded across the school's curriculum and within its ethos. Although RISC's work with Clanfield this year has focused on dissemination, the Head Teacher Jane Lloyd often describes embedding Global Citizenship as ‘a journey' on which a school always has further to go. In the light of this, staff regularly take part in RISC's Global Schools training programme. For example two members of staff came on a training day for new staff on 01 October 2009 and on a day exploring how teachers deal with and raise controversial issues in the classroom on 19 April 2010.

Jane Lloyd and class teacher Amanda Warwick have both worked with RISC's Education Team to provide case-studies for RISC's new Global Citizenship self-evaluation (‘Are we nearly there? A Global Citizenship Self-Evaluation Framework', published 2010). Their significant contribution to this publication demonstrates how a school can use the SEF to assess their current position in relation to Global Citizenship. They have also shown how the SEF can be used as a planning tool to develop Global Citizenship work in relation to a range of criteria. For example in response to the SEF heading which explores the issue of charitable activities and fundraising in school Jane Lloyd wrote...

‘As a small village school, most of our charitable activities are organized by our P.T.A. to benefit our own pupils, but there are customarily two occasions during the year when we fundraise for outside charities - Harvest Festival and Christmas. When we undertook the original GC self evaluation audit we assessed our position as "Inadequate" in terms of fundraising because chosen charities and activities often presented stereotypical negative images of life in other countries...In 2008, after a training session at RISC, we realised Homelessness is an issue raised by the Christmas story and we do not have to look far from our own front door to discover that it is very real and very local...A representative from the Night Shelter in Oxford visited our school and explained its work to the children... This was an important factor in countering the negative images most of us have of homeless people gained from seeing them in shop doorways and in the media. Many of the children expressed surprise at what they had learned and much discussion ensued. The experience helped children to question stereotyped images of homelessness and keep their minds open to new ideas... As we are keen help our children make connections between local poverty and poverty in the wider world, we intend to repeat this charitable focus for Christmas 2009.

This year staff and clients from the Oxford Night Shelter will again address our eldest children to explain their work but we have opened this up not just to parents but to the community as a whole, advertising to all known community groups in our village and through the village magazine. It is hoped that the school will become a positive voice to promote greater awareness of the causes of homelessness and thus begin to influence attitudes in a positive way.

Currently, when we evaluate our fundraising activities using the Global Schools Self Evaluation Framework, we can confidently rate ourselves as "good" and if our community campaign to promote the work of The Oxford Night Shelter gains momentum we may be able to aspire to "outstanding" in this area of Global Citizenship - the journey continues!'

Clanfield's contribution to the SEF ensures the good practice established in the school will be shared locally and nationally, both through the publication itself as well as through the training events associated with it. Clanfield's approach to charitable activities has been discussed with the DEA who have asked to disseminate it as a case study of good practice in addressing issues of social justice locally.

Clanfield staff continue to raise the profile of Global Citizenship within their local community, school partnership and beyond. As a small rural primary school with a mainly white catchment they have demonstrated that, even with these apparent disadvantages, Global Citizenship can effectively underpin work and activities throughout the school and in the wider community. Plans are underway for Clanfield staff to share their experience and expertise with the Federation of Small Schools in West Berkshire, with whom RISC will be working next year as well as with other schools within the Diocese of Oxford.

Amanda Warwick regularly attends the Oxfordshire Global Dimension Forum and reports on Clanfield's Global Citizenship work. The Forum provides further opportunities for dissemination, both through the members attending each meeting and through the minutes which are circulated to all 50+ members. Clanfield's very successful local partnership with SS Mary and John C of E Primary School in East Oxford provides a focus for discussion at Forum meetings.

At the meeting on 18 March 2010 Mandy Warwick reported:

‘Clanfield had a busy Fairtrade Fortnight at Clanfield, with a Fairtrade breakfast, Fairtrade tuckshop and KS1 playing Oxfam's ‘It's not fair!' while KS2 played Christian Aid's ‘Chocolate Game'. The school is renewing its Fairtrade School status and aiming for the children to have a real understanding that FT is not about charity. Staff hope that by the time the children are in Yr 6 they'll have a real understanding of social justice but a ‘push' is needed to move attitudes on from a focus on charity.'

Key Outcomes

• Clanfield Primary School is now a well established Global School and a centre of excellence for the delivery of Global Citizenship within Oxfordshire Local Authority and within the Diocese of Oxford
• The school has an established and sustainable local school partnership with another C of E primary school and the learning from this is being widely shared
• Good practice at Clanfield is being disseminated to teachers locally and nationally through partnerships, publications and websites.

 

Updated June 2010

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Clanfield’s Global Schools dissemination work has continued as the school’s Global Citizenship work becomes increasingly embedded in its curriculum and ethos.

Clanfield now has the ‘Fairtrade School’ award. During Fairtrade Fortnight in March it held a ‘Fairtrade breakfast’ and all pupils took part in the Fairtrade Foundation’s ‘Go Bananas’ activity to highlight the positive impact of choosing Fairtrade Bananas. These events were just one part of the school’s commitment to using fair trade as a way of raising awareness of social justice issues in and beyond the school. Every month they ensure the profile of fair trade is highlighted, e.g. through serving fair trade refreshments at the village fete and other local events – and ensuring people know why they are doing this.

At the Oxfordshire Headteachers’ Conference on 26 March 2009 Jane Lloyd co-facilitated a Global Citizenship workshop with the Headteacher of SS Mary & John’s Primary school and a member of RISC’s Education Team. The focus was on measuring attitudinal change in Global Citizenship. Their input generated a great deal of interest from the participants – with two more Head teachers asking for Global Citizenship training from RISC and other Heads from within Clanfield’s partnership wanting to know more about the school’s Global Citizenship work. Jane is now providing support for her partnership schools, for example on embedding work on sustainability.

Part of the school ethos is to reduce waste going to landfill, so pupils are involved in composting on a domestic scale at school. To develop their understanding of why composting is important, the whole school were recently taken to visit the local council’s composting site, to find out about composting at an industrial scale and how harvesting methane can be used to produce energy.

In the spring Years 2-6 cross-curriculum topic work on the Tudors included exploring the Benin Empire and this fed into a term’s work on Nigeria. Artefacts from RISC’s loans service, and a visit from contemporary Nigerian ceramicist Tony Ogogo, were used to inspire Humanities and Art work. On 14 May 2009 the school hosted an art inset for their partnership schools and others, with Jane Lloyd providing an introduction to their Global Citizenship work. The session involved exploring the work of Nigerian artist Nnenna Okore with RISC’s Arts Worker and the Education Co-ordinator of the October Gallery.

Clanfield’s local school partnership with SS Mary and John in East Oxford (another of RISC’s Global Schools) has gone from strength to strength. All Clanfield pupils visited SSM&J in March, following a visit to the East Oxford Mosque as part of their RE work. At the school, host pupils gave a presentation to their Clanfield visitors about what it is like to be a Muslim. Teachers from the two schools are planning and delivering joint curriculum projects. The partnership, and its contribution to the Community Cohesion agenda, was highlighted as good practice in Clanfield’s recent OFSTED report.

A member of Clanfield’s staff is part of the Oxfordshire Global Dimension Forum, which provides the school with an opportunity to disseminate their GC work to a wider network on a regular basis.

Taking the work forward
The school plans to develop its Global Citizenship work, embedding it in the curriculum to ensure it’s sustainable so it can be used as a basis for further Global School dissemination. E.g. RISC’s garden worker will be asked to advise the school on trying a range of different composting techniques, so that pupils can compare and evaluate their effectiveness as part of the maths/science curriculum. This work can then be shared.

The Imam from the East Oxford Mosque is to visit Clanfield to lead an assembly as a follow up to the pupils’ visit. This will further cement the partnership with SSM&J. Learning from this successful local school partnership will be valuable in disseminating ways in which Global Citizenship can contribute to Community Cohesion
Two new members of staff will be joining the school in September and will be included in the training RISC provides for new staff at all their Global Schools.

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Clanfield Primary School has been part of RISC's Global Schools Initiative since 2004. This year's funding has enable them to move into reporting and disseminating the Global Citizenship and Global Dimension work now embedded across the school's curriculum and within its ethos.
The final Global School audit of pupils' knowledge and attitudes took place at Clanfield on 16 August 2008. The results of this were fed back to the staff who are now able to use this evidence in their Global Schools dissemination work.

 

Photo caption: The children were asked to bring in all the plastic bottles they used in a two week period. Fifteen families responded and the photograph shows the result. KS2 spent a whole morning doing Science and Maths activities with the bottles and KS1 made mini composters for their break time fruit peel.

At a consultation meeting with the Head Teacher, Jane Lloyd, other teaching staff and a member of the RISC Education Team, the RISC Global Citizenship SEF was discussed and reviewed. Subsequently the school carried out an extensive self-evaluation focusing on the following headings and sub-headings:

Teaching and Learning - curriculum, visits and visitors, charitable activities, links and partnerships
Resources
Communications - language, publicity and outreach, displays
Ethos and Policies - policy, participation, action
Staff Development
Monitoring and Evaluation - auditing pupils' knowledge and attitudes, reporting

These examples, from what Jane Lloyd and her staff reported, demonstrate the extent to which Clanfield has become a Global School

‘School policies: At the start of our work with RISC's Global Schools Initiative only a few of our curriculum policies included elements of global citizenship and the global dimension. Now our SMT and Governors have ensured GC/GD is central to our School Improvement Plan. We have a policy statement on GC that supports its inclusion in all of our whole school and curriculum policies. All staff ensure that their work is consistent with this.

Staff development: Although a few of our staff had received some piecemeal GC training, at the start of the initiative their approach was to ‘bolt on' GC in their curriculum planning. Now our teaching and non-teaching staff have all participated in a programme of training from RISC, and teachers have included a GC focus in their Performance Management Targets.

These are just some of the changes which mean we feel confident in disseminating our Global Schools work locally and beyond'.

Jane Lloyd and staff from Clanfield have delivered Global Citizenship training to colleagues within their cluster of schools in the west of Oxfordshire and have taken part in other Local Authority training events.

Photo caption: Tudor Topic - this year the children learned about the UK in Tudor times and also Benin during the same period. Here they are displaying their "Globes of the Tudor World"

The link between Clanfield Primary School and SS Mary and John Primary School in Oxford City, were featured in The Guardian's ‘Think Global' supplement published on 29 April 2008. This highlighted the advantages of ‘local linking' and explained how the two schools are working together to deliver agreed Global Citizenship objectives. For example a joint project on water that addresses a number of MDGs.

Clanfield Primary featured as a case study of ‘education for a just and sustainable world' in the DEAs Global Matters publication (June 2008). ‘The World in Clanfield' describes the effect of embedding GC/GD on the knowledge and attitudes of staff and pupils in a rural primary school.

Jane Lloyd and and class teacher Amanda Warwick worked with RISC's Education Team to plan and prepare the keynote introduction to the Primary Global Dimension Conference ‘The World in Your Classroom' held at in London on 3 December2008. This enabled primary colleagues from across London to find out, from Clanfield staff, how Global Citizenship has been successfully embedded in a small rural primary school and use the learning from this to explore ways of taking this forward in their own schools. Participants' evaluations said
‘The opening talk was really good - it showed how the Global Dimension can be incorporated into the existing curriculum'
‘Jane and Mandy demonstrated the need to raise awareness of staff beyond bolt on activities. I've got new ideas about how to successfully build GD into the curriculum'
‘It really made me think about how we teach about sustainability - and the importance of the pupils' voice'
‘Very inspirational to see theory in action'

Jane Lloyd and a member of RISC's Education Team are planning workshops to further disseminate the school's GC/GD work. These will be delivered to colleagues at the Oxfordshire Head teachers' Conference on 26 March 2009.

Read more >> Clanfield CEP School 2 Overview of being a global school
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