foleshillfields think tank

GlobalCitizenship2006

Page history last edited by Mark Hinton 3 yrs ago

Global Citizenship 2006

For the fifth year running we have been working with the top year at JohnGulsonSchool on a Global Citizenship project. With SATS out of the way, and with the large numbers of volunteers we bring each year, we are able to work quite intensively with the children on issues of importance to them, to our neighbourhood as a whole, and to the world.
	We always aim for a diverse group of volunteers, from around the neighbourhood and around the world. This year we had younger and adult volunteers from Spain, Cameroon, Somalia, Mexico and Turkey - as well as local community members from the Gujerati, Pakistani, African-Caribbean and white working-class communities.
As we have done befoire, we took as our theme of "Myself" on day one - the "identity flower" in the picture on the right shows one exercise we used. Day two's sessions focused on "My Family and Friends"; day three on "My Community"; day four on "My Country"; and on day five we talked about "My World".
	The work in JohnGulson has always included offering the children creative ways of expressing their hopes and dreams. This year, expressive and creative work included singing, drumming, circus skills, visual arts and the preparation of a Hopes and Dreams Parade for the final day.
Our last day this year was a Wednesday. At times it seemed the parade would never be ready, but scarf-twirlers, drummers, chanters, flag-wavers, banners, and wind-socks were all eventually lined up and ready to go.

	The weather was much kinder than we had feared, and we received many smiles and waves on our way through the Swanswell park to Millenium Square - where we gathered for a photograph next to the big "timezone clock" floor map of the world.

It was another great opportunity to talk with young people about to enter secondary education about lots of important issues, to remind them that this is their world, and to strengthen community relationships of great value now and into the future. If you are interested to know more, or perhaps to be involved next year, please drop us a line!