inspireaspire Global
Citizens
in
the
Making
Contents
The Connection with Character Scotland
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Foreward - Professor Kay Livingstone
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Inspire > Aspire GCIM: The Project
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The Change Effect
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Our Commonwealth Journey
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#iWill 26 Global Citizenship Activity
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What Next...
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Summary 31
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Inspire > Aspire & Character Scotland
The Connection Aim Global Citizens in the Making explores and help develops the values and personal capacities that will enable young people to be more creative and resilient in addressing the many challenges of our interconnected world.
Intention The project would strategically extend the work of the then new charity: Character Education Scotland - using the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games as a springboard to build on the ground-breaking work previously carried out by the highly successful Learning for Life and inspire>aspire projects to combine two strands composed of: 1. 2.
Character development programmes (inspire>aspire) Cohesive character partnership activity (Character Development Network)
Mission To maximise connectivity between these two strands and provide the necessary strategic leadership and operational capability to plant more seeds and help them take deeper roots because we saw an opportunity to develop timely interventions to reinforce the positive development of young people in Scotland and elsewhere in the Commonwealth. The culmination of this project: Conference on ‘Character, Culture and Values’, 15th – 16th June 2015, University of Glasgow.
Our Team The project has required a range of skills and a lot of our work has been executed by talented younger members of our team, aged between 19 and 26. Giving young people the opportunities to succeed is at the heart of our ethos, we know that Young People are creative, ambitious and inventive and we have been simultaneously pioneering Scotland’s first Enterprise Apprenticeship Scheme which has helped us to become the first charitable organisation in Scotland to achieve Investors in Young People accreditation. INSPIRE ASPIRE 3
Foreword
Professor Kay Livingston
Professor of Educational Research Policy and Practice, University of Glasgow (Chair of the Scottish Government Games Legacy Learning Group)
This programme offers young people the opportunity to think about what they want out of life - an opportunity to reflect on their values and a way of being - it is not just about words on a page, you can see the impact that it has had on them, and the change is amazing.
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The Commonwealth Games was exciting for young people; it was a motivational event that was used as a catalyst to think about regions and countries that the young people might never have previously thought about. Scotland captured this excitement, and there were ways to build on it through – volunteering, arts and cultural activities, sharing stories – it was a fantastic opportunity for young people, it created friendships and understanding that will stay with them.
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Inspire > Aspire GCIM: The Project What is it? ‘inspire>aspire’ is a personal development programme for young people aged 10-18 and it has been running in Scotland for the past 7 years. Using our unique poster template and supporting resource, pupils are guided through a journey of self-discovery and inspiration that concludes with them making informed personal commitments about the type of person they want to become, their vision for a better world and what they will personally do to bring this vision to life.
The Opportunity… Teacher and pupil feedback reveals a transformational effect on those who take part; so when Scotland announced it would be hosting the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games we saw this as a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to create a lasting legacy of Active, Connected ‘Global Citizens in the Making’; strengthening learning and culture at home and internationally.
Aims • International awards event and poster exhibition in Scotland featuring work from each of the 53 Commonwealth nations. • 50,000 registered Scottish participants and 25,000 registered International participants in the school programme over 3 years. • 50 case study school partnerships on character between Scotland and other Commonwealth nations over 3 years. • Inspire>Aspire+ a digital network of 10,000 active participants socialising on character development.
Participants We previously used the context and values that underpinned the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to inspire 75,000 young people in the U.K from 2011-2013. We used our established network of inspired teachers to participate in our new ‘inspire>aspire: Global Citizens in the making’ programme. We were accepted as one of the Scottish Government’s ‘Legacy Partners’ because of our ambition to use the Games to inspire and connect young people whilst strengthening learning and culture at home and internationally. To achieve this we faced two new challenges: 1. To smash our previous participation rates in Scotland and work with all 32 Scottish Local Authorities. 2. To ‘go global’ and achieve participation in each of the Commonwealth Nations
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really enjoyed taking part in this inspire>aspire poster. “ II think that in taking part in this I have learnt my qualities and
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things that I need to work on. This project has made me realise what I need to do to play my part in making the world a better place. Lauren Aitchison Knox Academy
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Shona Robison MSP
Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport
“The purpose of designing the poster is to really allow pupils to think about what they want to achieve in their life and aspire to be as good as they can be.”
The Activity Schools and other organisations apply to take part and we post their resources to them. Pupils use our unique poster template and supporting pupil and teacher resources to complete a process of self-discovery and inspiration that concludes with them making statements about their own future ambitions. The final questions ask young people about their vision for a better world and what they will personally do to bring this vision to life. We encourage pupils to turn this into a pledge starting with the hashtag #iwill; inviting them to tell the world about their vision and plan for social action. Our aim is that by participating in the programme, young people become part of a network of active, connected global citizens. Teachers also send in their 5 most inspirational posters and an external panel of judges select some of those that inspire them the most; these individuals are invited to a showcase of their work, accompanied by their teachers and family, at our annual ‘Awards Event’ and Poster Exhibition. The work is published in our digital and hard copy magazines and a selection of posters become part of an on-line podium of young people’s beliefs, values and goals throughout the Commonwealth.
V i s i t w w w. i n s p i r e - a s p i r
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that I have realised what I want to do with my life and “ II think am grateful for that. I also think that I have found someone
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who I am truly inspired by and I am please because I was unable to do that last year. Lexie Demetrius Elie Primary School
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Reaching Young People To reach young people we worked proactively with ‘Game On Scotland’ (Scottish Government’s official Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games education programme), promoted our programme through teacher networks and CPD opportunities; we also called every Secondary School in Scotland and followed this with a 3 week road trip to drop off their resources. We worked with the British Council, UNICEF, NGO’s and in-country Education Charities; met with High Commissioners, contacted individual schools and teachers via email, social media and skype; visited Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka and Jamaica, and supporters of our work visited Malawi, South Africa and Papa New Guinea.
re.org.uk/podium
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The Change Effect We have years of qualitative anecdotal teacher and pupil feedback and this tells us that the programme has had a transformation effect on many who take part and we passionately believe that every young person would benefit hugely from this type of programme. To help us develop proof of concept, we are currently working in partnership with Dr Jennifer Brown Urban and Dr Miriam Linver from Montclair State University in the USA . They are applying a ‘Systems Evaluation Approach’ to research the effectiveness of the inspire>aspire programme. Together, we have identified the logic model below which demonstrates the ‘change’ that we believe young people will experience by participating in our programme. We are extremely excited about the prospect of moving forward armed with this solid evidence.
The Connection Between: Aims – Activity – Outcomes Complete an ‘inspire>aspire’ poster
> Alignment between values, poster elements and future ambitions
> Setting goals
> Increased motivation to pursue goals
> Contribution to civil society
> Active connected Global Citizens in the Making
about many inspirational people during this project “ Iandlearned found out a lot more about my chosen figure. I feel I have
found out what I feel I need to improve my skills on and what I am good at. Alex Cook Ross High School
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project, I have learnt a lot more about myself. Since “ Inthisthisproject I have tried new things that I thought I wouldn’t like
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and it turned out I’m quite talented at them.
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Matthew Ormrod Mount St Joseph School
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Amy Buchan (14)
Pupil - Auchmuty High School
I have learned about many other inspiring people and what other people in the world go through. This poster has really made me think about what I could do to help people in my community. The things people do in their lives for other people or how they excel with their disabilities really makes me proud to be who I am but also makes me want to achieve more.
Carol Gollop
Teacher - Inverurie Academy
Global citizens in the making is a great tool to enable pupils to think about and reflect upon their place in the world. It offers them the opportunity to look beyond themselves, and identify the key values and ideals that are that are important to them. Many pupils comment on how they hadn’t thought about themselves in such a deep way before. It always proves to be a positive and encouraging experience for all pupils involved. Rarely do they spend so much time focusing on themselves, sharing what makes them tick, what challenges/inspires them, looking forward to the future and making a positive impact for change.
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Our Commonwealth Journey We have achieved participation in 58 Commonwealth Nations and Territories,
Klaus Mayer
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Development officer for Education Scotland and a key player in developing the education programme for the Commonwealth Games in 2014
“inspire>aspire offered us an enormously valuable contribution to the overall games delivery on education because it allowed young people to reflect constructively on their own values and ideas and actually create for them a vision and inspiration for the future.
Today the world is a very much connected place. We are interacting constantly with everyone around the world and so do young people. This is a world where young people need to be prepared, ready, focused and reflective on what they are facing in the future and also whom they are going to work and trade, deal and live with. I am a strong believer that anyone today who has not got a global and international view on life will not, in the long term, be successful in any other aspect of it. We are interconnected, we are global, and we need to allow young people to explore that and to think about it and prepare them gradually for the bigger part they have to play in the world.”
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doing this project I have learned more about the person I am “ While and the person I would like to become. I have achieved a beautiful poster to the standard I think I can achieve. I also have enjoyed being creative and think it has been a great learning curve for me. Chloe Hann Grove Academy
Australia Bahamas Bangladesh Barbados Belize Botswana Brunei Darussalam Cameroon Canada Cook Islands Cyprus Dominica England Falkland Islands Fiji
Ghana Gibraltar Grenada Guyana India Jamaica Kenya Lesotho Malawi Malaysia Maldives Malta Mauritius Mozambique Namibia
Nauru New Zealand Nigeria Niue Norfolk Islands Northern Ireland Pakistan Papua New Guinea Rwanda St Kitts & Nevis St Lucia St Vincent & The Grenadines Samoa Seychelles Sierra Leone
Singapore Solomon Islands South Africa Sri Lanka Swaziland Tanzania Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Uganda Vanuatu Wales Zambia
Have a read of our journey around the world in our Commonwealth diary!
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27 November 2013
Nyarach Primary in Kenya complete Inspire>Aspire Posters
Lockerbie Primary School was one of the first inspire>aspire schools to get their Commonwealth partner involved in the programme. Since this blog was posted, Nyarach Primary School have returned posters for two consecutive years and will be visiting Lockerbie Primary in June 2015.
Nyarach Primary School in Western Kenya has been the beneficiary of 50 Inspire>Aspire: Global Citizens in the Making posters; thanks to their Commonwealth Partner School Lockerbie Primary, in Dumfries and Galloway.
Head Teacher Karen Carter and Principal Teacher for the Learning Centre, Emma Watson, have just returned from 10 days at Nyarach Primary. They worked with Class 7 pupils on the posters; whilst the Lockerbie Primary 7 pupils completed the posters back home. "This was a great piece of work to do with the oldest pupils, as we had been working with the whole school on sports and outdoor activities," Mrs Watson said of the Inspire>Aspire: Global Citizens in the Making programme.
is year and h t y a M in y r a im r erbie P een to k y r After visting Lock e v e r e w y e h t sports day, experiencing their school. ir e h t t a e m m a r g ro develop a similar p
20 January 2014
Greetings from New Zealand! In January 2014, David Lorimer, Character Scotland’s Chief Consultant and the creator of the Inspire>Aspire Programme, visited New Zealand and Australia to meet with schools, members of government and like-minded people with a passion for character development and values education. Here is a blog from New Zealand.
I met Paul Daley, principal of Sancta Maria College in Auckland on Friday morning. We had a very fruitful discussion at his school, which has been going for 10 years and which is explicitly based on values as well as the Catholic faith. He showed me the impressive New Zealand curriculum document which reminded me of the Curriculum for Excellence in its statement of values and capacities. Their vision of young people as confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners was very resonant, as was the statement of specific values and key competencies. These values are excellence, innovation, enquiry and curiosity, diversity, equity, community and participation, ecological sustainability, integrity and respect. Key competencies are thinking, using language, symbols and text, managing self, relating to others, participating and contributing. Only a few of the stated values are moral rather than performance virtues. In the afternoon, I met Andrew Gregg at Auckland Museum and we discussed his plans for various exhibitions to engage young people in the Centenary of World War I. It looks very possible that we might develop a joint project, perhaps with the Australian War Museum has a further partner. On Sunday, I had lunch with Christina Barruel, who is the Cool Schools Manager and Trainer for the Peace Foundation. This is a very successful peer mediation programme running in primary and secondary schools - see www.peace.net.nz. She will be coming to the UK in the autumn, and I very much hope that she will be able to visit us in Scotland to share her work.
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13 March 2014
Inspire>Aspire in Delhi, India! Inspire>Aspire: Global Citizens in the Making Programme Co-ordinator Julie Thompson visited India and Sri Lanka in March 2014 to share the programme with teachers and young people. Here is a snapshot of her first few days in Delhi!
I arrived Sunday lunchtime (9 March). You know life is hectic when you thoroughly enjoy an eighthour long-haul flight! A driver from the hotel was waiting for me, smiling with my name on a card and he couldn’t have been nicer. As he drove me through the streets of Delhi, it was absolute madness; people carrying make shift stretchers, a herd of cows in the road and every car bumped! But I knew I was going to have an incredible experience. On Monday and Tuesday I attended the International Conference ‘Education as a right across the levels: Challenges, Opportunities and Threats’, hosted by Jamia Millia University’s Education Department - New Delhi and UNESCO. The conference was in celebration of the University’s 75th Anniversary, and it isn’t any old University Education Department. It was formed as part of an international movement asking “Why should our social theories be based upon theories developed in 19th century Europe?” Why do they ask this? Because they understand India’s complex society and believe it’s time to generate their own approaches to education. Here are some things that I heard during the conference that I want to share... 14 INSPIRE ASPIRE
There is massive regional, gender and social inequalities within education in India and the feeling is that teacher education plays an important part in social reform. Education is a means of public empowerment and the educators in India recognise that the countries where education is compulsory, and where places into HE are gained upon merit, are ruling the roost. And those countries who aren’t are suffering. It was asked: “how are we going to promote the belief amongst teachers that they can achieve?” The message back was that teacher education needs an overhaul. UNESCO stated that India has the largest illiterate population in the World, and that there is incredible inequality in India and very limited upward mobility. Perceiving the problem not just to be the right to education, but the right to a quality education. I also saw Dr Yukti Sharma from University of Delhi present on ‘Redefining Values: Education for Social Wellbeing.’ My interpretation of her work is that teaching often takes the form of teaching facts and concepts from a textbook. That we need to redefine values and teaching for social wellbeing, rather than just exam results. Values have a major impact upon behaviour and attitude and we need to integrate society by directing the goals of individuals. Dr Sharma said the qualities you need to survive in India are foresight, authenticity, optimism, perseverance and persistence. e UK?” ed to survive in th ir qu re s ie to keep in touch it g al in qu go e am th I e e, ar t on ha : “W h. For I would like to ask ady learned so muc phy of Education re so al lo hi ve P ha I of t er bu ch er ea m ov tia, T and I My trip is far fro Harjeet Kaur Bha r so es f ro P cotland from Engl S g in to ir ed sp ov in m d y an tl n ly g rece with the love h her. i University. Havin la il M ia am t to share this wit J an w at I y d og an ol l, hn r el w ec T ly and ation incredib to take part in ou uc n ed ee k do ry d ve an e tl ar co S ho ols w recognise that ng some local scho visiting schools in ti m si I’ vi k ee of w t re ex su N ea d. pl cotlan I’ve also had the ll of the teachers rtner schools in S A pa i. h lh it w De t in ec n n n io co ss se e r CPD programme and to ng Scotland to th d hosting a teache ti an ec i n n lh co De d be an to a k re easu Calcutta, Sri Lan d it’s an absolute pl an er n rt pa h is tt are keen for a Sco Commonwealth! 15
27 February 2014
Friendships grow stronger between Ikusasalethu High School and Stonelaw High School Stonelaw High School has a wonderful ongoing school partnership with Ikusasalethu High School in South Africa. The below entry gives an insight into the added value inspire>aspire provides for their Commonwealth partnership.
Stonelaw High School pupils Megan Ross and Rosy Howitt have recently returned from a visit to their Commonwealth partner school Ikusasalethu High School, Mtubatuba, in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. This partnership has been developing over the past five years and the visit was to promote the partnership, strengthen educational and friendship links and experience life as a learner in their partner school. Megan and Rosy were accompanied by teachers Mrs Gilchrist and Mrs Bryson for their two week visit. Mrs Gilchrist was returning to Ikusasalethu High School for the third time and spoke to us at Inspire>Aspire before she left about their school partnership. "Having a partnership with a school, especially in a developing country is invaluable to everyones education." Mrs Gilchrist said. "It is only through personal contacts that you truly learn from them and are able to build on these friendships. Inspire>Aspire is a good resource to foster that friendship; by talking about values, children find out they have a lot in common. The students are able to learn so much from International Communication." The students at Ikusasalethu High School evaluated their Stonelaw High School peers' Inspire>Aspire posters and filled out their own. 16 INSPIRE ASPIRE
14 May 2014
Inspire>Aspire breaks new ground in project participation s we worked to a e ir sp a e> ir sp in e for the team at iv ss a m s and throughout a w d n r la ea t y l co o S o h in sc ct 4 /1 je The 2013 possible in the pro s a e pl o pe g n u o y able achievements. t o n e m so s t h g engage as many li h he below entry hig T . h lt ea w n o m m o the C The Inspire>Aspire: Global Citizens in the Making project has achieved a huge participation triumph this year by having at least one school from each of the 32 Scottish LEA’s participate in the programme. This is the first time in the project’s 7 year history (previously as Learning for Life and now Inspire>Aspire) that this has been accomplished. Scottish participation currently stands at 287 schools. During the March/April period participation levels rose by 30%, mostly as a result of the hugely successful ‘Inspire>Aspire Road-Trip’ campaign. During this four week recruitment campaign, every secondary school not participating in Inspire>Aspire was contacted. 242 schools were visited and an Inspire>Aspire information pack was hand delivered, whilst schools in more remote council’s received the pack by post. Moving out of Scotland, there are 67 schools participating from England, Northern Ireland and Wales and 76 schools from other Commonwealth Nations and Territories which has pushed the overall participation numbers past 50,000.
Of the 76 International Schools, 42 different Commonwealth Nations and Territories are represented, highlighting the ‘Global Citizenship’ theme of the project.
15 May 2014
My Amazing Kenyan Experience Inspire>Aspire has been working closely with the organisation ‘Vision Africa’ who work with vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in Kenya since the first year of Global Citizens in the Making. One of their volunteers, Lizzie Knox, blogged about her volunteering experience in Kenya for us.
I have visited I am at the halfway mark in my volunteering with Vision Africa here in Kenya. Over the last three weeks many of Vision Africa’s projects and met some very happy and inspiring children. provides after I visited the after school club based in the Kibera Slum, one of the biggest slums in East Africa. The project homework. their do to place safe a and textbooks to access as school tuition for primary and secondary children, as well maths their with children secondary the helping I lent a helping hand, listening to the primary children reading and homework. and toddlers aged I stayed at Kandara Children’s home for a week where I fed, played with and cuddled the babies dance to WakaWaka between one month and four years at the baby unit. Another of my jobs was helping to choreograph a examples of the by Shakira mixed with I’m Gonna Be by the Proclaimers with the teens of Kandara. These are just two many fulfilling experiences Vision Africa has given me so far. Home has been My work on Inspire>Aspire with the children at the Village of Hope project and at Mbeere Children’s g to listen to interestin was It qualities. equally rewarding. At Village of Hope we began by discussing different desirable positive, word the of the tutors giving their examples of each quality as they had a real Kenyan twist! For the definition tutor the empty, I explained that being positive would be having the outlook that the glass is always half full and not half that said I re-explained saying if you were given a half cup of porridge you would be happy rather than sad. For principled went on to discuss you always do the right thing, the tutors used the example of not accepting bribes. The children then , a pilot and some policeman a doctor, a become to wanted they their aspirations for the future. Each child told us of how and clean for cook to able and kind caring, be to wanted surprised us by taking a different angle and describing how they their families like their own mothers. joyful and selfAt Mbeere the children reflected on their personalities with most of them agreeing that they were of singing as the disciplined a statement I can back up given that I was woken at six every morning by the sounds faith was their children washed and cleaned their dorm and clothes. The children also told me that their Christian Inspire>Aspire has inspiration for their good qualities and for the improvements they wanted to make to themselves. their ambitions about think to children the allowed has It allowed me to learn more about the children I am working with. so that they are able to work towards achieving them. and fulfilling Tomorrow I will go back to Kandara to begin the second half of my trip. I can only hope it will be as enjoyable as the first. 18 INSPIRE ASPIRE
Lizzie Knox - Vision Africa Volunteer
10 July 2014
Social Network of inspired young people In the summer of 2014, 2nd Prize Gold winner, Morgan Morris of Waid Academy spent time at our office on work experience as a Social Media Intern. Morgan had the below blog featured on the Legacy 2014 website which was a fantastic achievement! I attend Waid Academy and we take part in the inspire>aspire poster awards programme programme, I worked on my poster from the start of the school year and we only completed them in March!
ony on 16 of em er C d r a w A r ei participants at th 00 ,0 6 3 ocial Media f S ‘ o s ’ t k u o ee e w iz a pr ed d t n ep 2 cc a I won Gold I have gratefully lt u es r a s a d n a June in Glasgow ice in Cupar. f f o r ei h t t a ’ ip sh Intern At the start of the week I was asked to create a social group on Facebook to connect past and present winners and finalists so that they can share their experience of participating in the programme and what they have been doing since winning their award. By the end of the week I have a group with 55 members; I’ve promoted a filming opportunity to them, written a blog for ‘Legacy 2014’ and taken charge of their social media sites. The theme of this programme was ‘Glasgow 2014’, there have been many opportunities for young people to become involved in ‘The Games’ through programmes like this, the Queens Baton Relays and volunteering while the games are on which I think will let them develop more skills in many areas.
A lot of inspiring young people from across Scotland have written about their ‘Vision for a better world’ on the inspire>aspire posters and my job was to try and get them to take action on this vision. Why not join the group, like us on Facebook or follow us on twitter to see if we can all take action to create a better world together! www.facebook.com/InspireAspireGCIM and @InspireAspireCS
15 August 2014
Global Citizens in the Making reaches over 8,500 International pupils The 2013/14 school year was incredibly busy for the team at inspire>aspire with a large scale focus on Commonwealth recruitment matching the efforts on recruiting schools from every local authority in Scotland. The blog entry below gives a little flavour into what went on behind the scenes.
Over the past year, inspire>aspire: Global Citizens in the Making not only achieved great participation success in the home nations; the programme spread its wings further afield with more than 8,500 registered participants from 40 different Commonwealth Nations and Territories. We had schools from 26 different Commonwealth Nations and Territories return poster entries with representation present from the 6 different Commonwealth regions (Africa, The Americas, Asia, The Caribbean, Europe and The Pacific). A variety of different recruiting methods were administered to achieve such positive results, ranging from hosting High Commissioner information events in London, to launching a campaign, #BeatTheBaton – with our own virtual baton racing against the Queens Baton around the Commonwealth signing up schools along the way. Over the course of the year, we have been incredibly lucky to have been in communication with so many fantastic schools , organisations and teachers throughout the Commonwealth as a result of this project and we look forward to further strengthening these bonds during our legacy year. We started receiving the fantastic completed entries from all over the Commonwealth in June. At our National Awards Ceremony at The University of Glasgow on June 16th, we were extremely lucky to have in attendance teachers from 3 different Commonwealth schools participating in inspire>aspire to help add a ‘global’ theme to the event. Over 200 entries were pre-judged within the inspire>aspire offices before shortlisted finalists were sent to London, where the prize winners were selected by a distinguished panel of judges. Over 75 prize winners were selected in total. The international posters were of an exceptionally high standard and were often difficult to separate. We received such amazing posters from Uganda Living Values; the judges were unable to separate the pupils’ work which resulted in 6 joint first prize winners! A full list of International Prize winners can be found here. We are currently in the process of liaising with teachers to award the pupils with something to recognise their wonderful achievements and further benefit their education. Prize winners from Hilda Skeene Primary School in Barbados have managed to feature on the Barbados Olympic Associations website! As we now enter the next phase of the programme, the legacy year, we are working to further strengthen the relationships with International schools we have already fostered, and working hard to ensure we hit our target of having some form of participation from young people in each of the 71 Commonwealth Nations and Territories. An ambitious target perhaps, but we are excited at the prospect of achieving this and cannot wait to connect with more of our Commonwealth friends! We will also be facilitating Commonwealth Partnerships between International schools and schools in Scotland so that the young people can mutually benefit from learning about one another’s different cultures, values and beliefs. This will also add to the Connected Legacy outcome from the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games which is an outcome we are incredibly excited about positively contributing to.
12 September 2014
Barbados inspired by Games Supporting Legacy 2014 project The below Legacy 2014 blog gives a fantastic insight into the impact of inspire>aspire in a Commonwealth setting. Hilda Skene Primary School in Barbados participated in inspire>aspire during 2014; we always love hearing about inspire>aspire experiences from both teachers and pupils in our International participating schools.
a SupJanelle Denny is a PE teacher and project coordinator of Inspire > Aspire: Global Citizens in the Making, alth. Commonwe the t throughou porting Legacy 2014 Project designed to inspire and connect pupils in schools on their Janelle describes how the programme gave her pupils at Hilda Skeene School in Barbados a chance to focus alth. future aspirations through the international values of the Commonwe facilitate Every teacher has a responsibility to guide and direct the learning process of one’s charges, but also to fulfil to e atmospher nurturing a create an environment to discover and develop their skills and abilities and to y opportunit the offered project pire their hopes and dreams and ultimately fashion good citizens. The Inspire>As of self-discovery. for After agreeing to be part of the project, it quickly dawned on me what an awesome opportunity it presented analyse critically to them allowed task this my students of the graduating class of Hilda Skeene. This was because inspires themselves: who they are, their strengths and weaknesses, who they would want to be, whom and what own did their of inspiration what and them and more importantly what contributions they could make to society they have to offer. in the Both I and my colleagues were proud of all the students’ efforts and the project has inspired us to continue lead can sis self-analy in engage to ability future to allow more children to engage in this worthwhile venture. The thinkof level improved an saw I students to a profound growth and strength of spirit, and as I worked with my ing and confidence as they enjoyed exploring who they were.” the InOne Hilda Skeene pupils who took part in the project was Aren Brathwaite. He shares his experiences of spire>Aspire Commonwealth Games Legacy 2014 programme. athletes “ s I sat and watched the Commonwealth Games on television, I observed closely the performance of the A Usain were me inspired who athletes the – their perseverance, strong will, focus and final achievements. Some of from Walcott Keshorn throwers Javelin e. Bolt, Keshorn Walcott and our own Barbadian hurdler Shane Brathwait particito wish I event an is this as me in Trinidad and Julius Kiplangat Yego from Kenya created a deep interest pate in some day in the near future. the athI“ loved the Commonwealth Games - the excitement and nerve-wracking finishes and the encouragement ess. letes showed towards each other in an atmosphere of unity and togethern around me “ riting my Inspire>Aspire poster project encouraged me to examine myself, my future, and the world W achieve can I that realise to me allowed and the goals I want to achieve in life in the near future. These games think always to me reminded also It goals. great things in life as long as I aspire and work diligently towards my can I way, big or small a in whether of others while I am trying to achieve my goals because by assisting others, also help myself.
meday in the “I am determined that so e of the athletes on be ll wi I re tu fu ar ne onwealth Games.” competing at the Comm
04 November 2014
Cameroon inspire>aspire prize winner begins her university adventure! Carine Mamifo Ngouanto [18] won 1st prize for her Commonwealth country Cameroon in our inspire>aspire: Global Citizens in the Making International Awards. Carine completed her poster early in 2014 whilst she was in her final year of secondary school at the Government Bilingual High School of Santchou. She received some exciting news later in the year‌ In exciting news, Carine has now begun her tertiary education at The University of Douala where she be is studying Sociology within the school of Human Sciences. It is a notable achievement for Carine to get to 18 aged people young for difficult is (it accepted into the course of her choice given both her age into university in Cameroon) and the traditional gender discrimination attitude that Cameroon still faces, despite education advances in the country over the past decade. Carine referenced the issue of racism and discrimination throughout her inspire>aspire poster and listed the late Nelson Mandela as her inspiration for his work fighting peace and freedom. Carine to aspires to create an organisation to help tackle the issue of discrimination and racism within society, help achieve peace in the world. We have developed a fantastic working relationship with the organisation Global Compassion who is . operating the inspire>aspire: Global Citizens in the Making programme throughout schools in Cameroon of education as such Global Compassion is a non-profit organisation working with humanitarian issues children, providing food, resources and community services. of Global Compassion Founder and President Clement Awanfe Ngueto has been central to the success us. the inspire>aspire programme in Cameroon and has kindly shared Carine’s success story with
As well as her university studies, Carine is also working hard to improve her computer/internet literacy skills as she has not had the opportunity to develop these at school. Clement is helping Carine develop these skills to help her connect with young people throughout the world and to help benefit her future aspirations post university. We look forward to inspiring more young people in Cameroon like Carine with our programme next year and hearing of many more success stories.
25 March 2015
Active Global Citizens in Hyndland! Our Programme Manager, Julie Thompson writes about her recent visit to Hyndland Secondary School for an exciting chat with some young people!
st’s Education Resource ru T t ec oj Pr g in in jo pleasure of Susie Johnson rs he ac te t On 4th March I had the ea gr s ’ re pi and one of inspire>as izenship’ session it C l ba Officer, Lorcan Byrne lo G ‘ a t lo pi to School, in Glasgow in Hyndland Secondary pils. with some of their S3 pu
The aim of the session was to: 1. Introduce the pupils to real life global citizen and Project Trust Ambassador Eilidh Quinn who is a returned volunteer from South Africa where she worked in a children’s home. 2. Inspire the pupils to take action on their vision for a better world, by helping them to think about things that they could do individually, locally and globally to make a difference. The pupils were an impressive group and it was wonderful to hear about their contribution to a better world, such as paired reading and donating to their local food bank. They were also captivated by Eilidh’s story and we hope that one day some of them might become a Project Trust volunteer themselves!
We left them with posters completed by pupils in South Africa so that they could gain a better insight into the country, and learn more about their school - something pupils tend to find very rewarding and a unique experience for them. INSPIRE ASPIRE 23
May 2015
Inspire>aspire – Gold Coast 2018 After the success of our Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games themed inspire>aspire: Global Citizens in the Making programme, the team at inspire>aspire have been looking at ways to grow and adapt Global Citizens in the Making beyond 2015. A global audience witnessed the impressive handover of the Commonwealth Games from Glasgow to the Gold Coast at Hampden back in August and we are hoping to do something similar by transitioning our Glasgow 2014 model to a Gold Coast 2018 inspired programme.
inspire>aspire: Global Citizens in the Making Operations Executive Alex Gregg visited his native Australia in November 2014; here is what he got up to during his stay! I travelled home to Australia in November/December 2014 to promote our work to schools and organisations in the hope of gaining further participation in our current Global Citizens in the Making programme. The aim of this visit was to pilot our current programme with a nucleus of schools to gauge whether or not there was strong project potential, if it will map into the Australian Curriculum, and be received by both teachers and pupils as well as it has in Scotland. I had an interesting meeting with Janet England and Zoe Wilkins from the Queensland Education Department and Chelli Easson, Manager for Sustainability and Legacy for Gold Coast 2018, to see where they were positioned with the official Embracing 2018 education programme, and share our experience of working as a supporting legacy project of Glasgow 2014.
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the uniqueness of the inspire>aspire The theme of Global Citizenship received a positive response as well as I had received earlier in the week from programme. A piece of advice from Janet and Zoe - which mirrored advice ent Authority – was to ensure that Nerrida Mathews and Monica Bini from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessm freely use the resource. the programme maps in with the Australian Curriculum to allow teachers to in Burnie, Tasmania, and lined up a During planning for my visit, I reconnected with a teacher from my old school College, which is just outside of session with the Year 8 and Year 9 pupils in her new school, St Benedict’s Catholic and welcoming staff and pupils; it was Brisbane. It was an inspiring visit to a fantastic school filled with friendly a teacher and leader as I remember also fantastic to catch up with Mrs Dempster 7 years on - she is still as brilliant from my school days. and many similarities were identified The sessions with the young people were incredibly thought-provoking when it came to values and people who lly between young people in Australia and young people in Scotland, especia inspire them. and where I was visiting schools. I stayed with a good friend of mine, Ryan Kennedy, on the Sunshine Coast, Queensl he could. He is a very talented video He was really taken aback by the programme and wanted to help out in any way School to shoot footage of the young producer and has since been into St Benedict’s Catholic College and Blair State film. people working on their inspire>aspire projects for an upcoming promotion
and, Victoria, Western sl en ue Q in s ol ho sc om ipation fr there is clear project ed iv ce re We have now had partic ve ha we ck ba and from the feed develop inspire>aspire d an Australia and Tasmania y tr to on ti si po a really strong g active, connected, un yo potential. We are now in of on ti ra ne ge r inspire anothe otion film for om pr e th d an in Australia and work to rk wo ed et n view examples of compl ca u Yo s. en iz it C l ba lo G rg.uk/Australia. .o re pi as eir sp in w. ww Australia at INSPIRE ASPIRE 25
In December we began working with Step Up to Serve’s #iwill campaign. Their vision is for as many 10-20 year olds as possible to be participating in social action by the end of 2020. We began by making a pledge as an organisation to help inspire and encourage young people to take part in social action. As we reach a lot of young people with our inspire>aspire posters we had the idea to get these young people involved in making pledges too, stemming from the activity in the poster which asks them about “their vision for a better world.” We began sending out “#iwill foms” with posters to get young people writing pledges for social action, and to act on the words that they were writing in their posters. Much of #iwill’s campaign is digital and pledges are often expressed via twitter so we have encouraged young people to tweet or Instagram their pledges on our social media channels. We have since received back a number of the pledges and we hope to get young people involved at our Awards Ceremony as well. The campaign has been a success so far as we have had teachers contacting us for more information after seeing promotion of the #iwill pledges on our sites. By supporting Step Up to Serve’s campaign we are hoping to get young people thinking more about their vision for a better world and what they can do to bring that to life.
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Julie Thompson Programme Manager
Taking inspire>aspire ‘global’ has been everything we hoped for, and more! I had the privilege of taking a trip in March 2014 to share the programme with teachers and pupils in India and Sri Lanka and I came back feeling incredibly inspired and full of hope. The motivated and smart pupils in India made me feel excited about the future of this developing country, especially the potential of their young population. And the dedication and warmth I observed in Sri Lanka really made me think about who I am and what I can do to be more like these new friends that I admired so much. Looking back, this education programme is a real game changer for games legacy and global citizenship education: as a result of going global we now have a resource that offers teachers and pupils a fantastic insight into the beliefs, values and goals of young citizens throughout the commonwealth; I have personally experienced how much we can all grow and learn from being global citizens so I urge you to have a look here: www.inspire-aspire.org.uk/international We can all grow and learn so much from being Global Citizens, as an organisation - we used the games to expand and go global, we have learned so much from our own journey and we are very excited about embedding this legacy of inspired young people and greater intercultural understanding and links and moving forward into a more inspired and ‘Connected’ Scotland.
Global Citizenship Activity To break new ground in Global Citizenship Education; we wanted to create school partnerships and give pupils the opportunity to read one another’s work so that they could learn about different countries - and the world - through the eyes of its young citizens. To the right you can see some reflections between Inverurie Academy in Scotland and Akshar School in India.
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What have you learned about young people in Scotland (especially about their ‘Character’ and ‘Values’) from reading these posters? “From reading these posters, I have found that the young people of Scotland are no different from us on the basis of Character and Values. I have found that they are extremely caring and believe in hard work. Like us, they also want to explore distant places and want to meet new people.” (Indian Pupil) What have you learned about young people in your partner school (especially about their ‘Character and ‘Values’) from reading these posters? “We have learned that Auntora is a firm believer in equality. She is focused on her character and on what qualities she wants to see in herself.” (Scottish Pupil) What do you think the similarities / differences might be between young people in your partner school’s country and young people in Scotland? “We love similar books, are big supporters of the movement for women’s rights and value the same qualities. Aankhi seems to love her country a lot and although we also love our country, we don’t think we are as vocal about it as she is.” (Scottish Pupil) Do you have a message for young people in your partner school in Scotland? “I want to convey to the people in Scotland to believe in what they have written here, no matter what the odds are.” (Indian Pupil) Do you have a message for young people in your partner school in India? “Enjoy school and keep reading amazing books, appreciate the wonders of discovery and don’t forget to be awesome!” (Scottish Pupil)
Teacher feedback: What do you think your pupils learn from school partnerships and from gaining an insight into the values, character qualities and ambitions of young people in different countries?
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Carol Gollop
Inverurie Academy
“It highlights the importance of global citizenship, increasing their understanding of the universality of education. Pupils begin to appreciate in a tangible way that their neighbours are fellow pupils in schools across the globe. They can see and acknowledge what unites them, and are challenged and genuinely interested in the differences”
Sucharita Pradhan Akshar School, India
“Children and young people have similar aspirations, even if they stay in different corners of the world. Our pupils have learned about the mental make-up and thought process of other young people through this school partnership.”
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What Next… #iwll helping young people take action on their vision for a better world, see page 26 Taking ‘Global Citizenship Ambassadors’ into Schools see page 23 Working in partnership with Montclair State University to develop the inspire>aspire logic model, see page 8 Helping as many young people as possible develop as global citizens by learning about their world through the eyes of their global peers, see page 28-29 Passing the baton to Gold Coast 2018 see page 24-25
To move forward to further deliver on Character Scotland’s mission
Our Vision Every child and young person flourishing as part of an inclusive, just, compassionate and sustainable society.
Our Mission Empower children and young people to be their best and contribute to a better world.
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Summary
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Gordon MacKenzie OBE
Character Scotland Trustee, former Head Teacher of Balwearie High School
I think inspire>aspire is a wonderful programme. First and foremost, it encourages young people to reflect upon themselves: what kind of people they are, what kind of people they would like to be and what actions they may take to get there. Reflection is an important practice for people of all ages and inspire>aspire allows our students to develop the skills required to reflect and to plan the way ahead. Secondly, it encourages them to identify their role model, research their backgrounds, identify what they think is so special about their character and their personality and why they admire what they have done. This is a very valuable exercise. Today, young people are growing up in a global world and it’s great that inspire<aspire is being used in so many countries. It’s very important that we make greater efforts to understand one another and that the kinds of values we try to promote are widely similar across the world. The world will become a much fairer and safer place to live in if we can promote global citizenship and make it an integral part of a young person’s learning.
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