Somerset

Katy Sams, student primary teacher, Somerset SCITT

Phoebe A Greenwood
Tuesday April 29, 2008

EducationGuardian.co.uk

I wasn't aware of the global dimension until my first day on the course when our six modules were explained to us, including the one on global awareness and poverty reduction. As part of the module, we needed to devise a weeklong global awareness project, which we then carried out in the schools where we are placed.

I chose to base my project around water. I'm teaching eight-year-olds and was worried at the beginning of the week how they would respond. I was surprised by how much the children already knew about water issues across the world. I suppose there's a lot of media coverage about the environment and they just pick up on things.

We started off using cards to divide people's wants from their needs, like shelter, food and water. Later in science we looked at how we could save water using "water hippos" - devices that conserve water in toilet cisterns. Initially there was quite a lot of laughing but, once that passed, they were really interested and surprised by what they were learning. I think quite a lot of them went home and bugged their parents to get "water hippos".

It's so important to address these issues at school. If you can teach children, it will have a ripple effect on their parents and the wider community.

Of the 22 people on my course, I don't know of one who isn't interested in and committed to global values.
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