Global Citizenship - Eco Schools

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to a better future for all. They cover the global challenges we face, including those linked to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental decline, prosperity and peace and justice. The goals are interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind must be achieved by 2030.

Visit our Global Citizenship Pinterest to find ways you and your Eco-School can help make a difference today.

(Re)Love Our Gadgets

Our new national Global Citizenship national call to action

In the age of rapidly developing technology and increased e-waste our new Global Citizenship call to action will show you how to (re)love your outdated gadgets in a way that also helps isolated members of your local community and grandparents.

Other Actions

Working with local, national and international charities will be accepted as evidence for our Global Citizenship topic from Send a Cow, helping to lift an African Community out of Poverty, to learning about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Send a Cow

Send a Cow trains rural African communities in the skills they need to grow food and earn an income, their resources facilitate conversations with students about Africa, food and sustainability. Their living with wildlife appeal teaches school children in Uganda about conservation.

Learn more about Send a Cow here

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Interestingly, like Eco-Schools the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were a result of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. The SDGs are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all by addressing the interlocking global challenges we face for example poverty or climate change.

Find Sustainable Development Goal school resources here

World’s Largest Lesson

The World’s Largest Lesson provides free resources to help teachers introduce each of the Sustainable Development Goals to young people.

Plan the World’s Largest Lesson

Fairtrade Fortnight

Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. You can become a Fair Trade School or register for their annual Fairtrade Fortnight below.

Fairtrade Schools’ Resources

Earth Overshoot Day

Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. Can their website inspire your school to #movethedate?

Move the Date

Stem Learning: Design for a Better World

A lesson plan and resources for a design challenge (ages 11-14) that gives young people the opportunity to explore the Sustainable Development Goals.

STEM Learning: Design for a better world

Global Citizenship Topic Winner, Eco-Schools Award Ceremony

Amongst 2 weeks worth of whole school activities, St John’s completed a Run for the Rainforest raising funds to purchase and preserve acres of rainforest in Mexico.

Read about their Run for the Rainforest here

School Examples

Streatham and Clapham High School, London

Every Wednesday afternoon at Streatham and Clapham High School, students are allowed to participate in activities linked to global issues their teachers feel passionate about - one of these activities was labelled Beyond Crisis, Finding Hope. With estimates classifying 767 million people as living in extreme poverty (characterized by the severe deprivation of human needs: food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health care, shelter, education), the initiative first explored the nature of poverty before raising funds to directly support young entrepreneurs in the developing world.
For a term, students evaluated the effectiveness of micro-finance (financial services targeting individuals who lack access to conventional banking) and learnt about how they could contribute to help young people in desperate circumstances improve their quality of life and general welfare. Pupils then fundraised individually through a variety of actions such as bake sales and portraiture. When fundraising was complete, they loaned the £500 they had raised to a variety of individuals, deciding to loan only to women to help narrow the gender gap. Projects the girls chose included: solar panels in Palestine and stock for a local store in the Philippines. As the money is only loaned to the projects it means that when it is repaid the girls can continue to loan more and more to different projects over several years. Students at Streatham and Clapham High School would love for other schools to be inspired by and replicate their action.

School Website

Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School, Blackburn

As part of the annual BBC Children in Need appeal, the Social Enterprise Club at Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School prepared and delivered various activities throughout the week.
Students from Tauheedul's Social Enterprise Club were assigned to a group during their after-school, Friday Eco-Warrior session. Working in their groups, students had a twenty pound budget and two weeks to design and plan a stall to raise money for Children in Need.
At the end of the two weeks, students pitched their ideas to a judging panel in a 'Dragons Den' style scenario, ensuring they had a team name and finance sheet with accurate details of cost, profit and products/services. After the pitches, an additional £20 was awarded to the team that demonstrated they could put the additional funds to best use.
During the Children in Need week, the groups hosted their stalls in the school Social Space during lunchtimes selling a variety of food items and hosting challenges and games students could take part in. The week was a huge success raising £863 for Children in Need. Mariya, a member of the social enterprise club, said, 'Children in Need week was really enjoyable, we worked as a team to raise money for a great cause and learnt a lot of skills that I can use in my future.'

School Website

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