Give kids a forum and watch them connect

Trainers, jumpers, buses and Cheerios take pupils on a convoluted tour of the planet... and the air miles, and the questions, stack up

Liz Ford
Tuesday April 29, 2008

EducationGuardian.co.uk

On a spring afternoon in April, year six at Redlands primary school are in an enthusiastic mood as they search through atlases for the countries that produced the cereals they ate that morning, the clothes they are wearing and the transport used to travel to school.

Vietnam, Brazil, Hong Kong, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Spain and India are mentioned. England crops up a couple of times, too.

"Where's Bermuda?" one pupil asks. "You don't know where Bermuda is?" comes the incredulous answer from the pupil sitting opposite, as he tries to pinpoint the mysterious Bermuda triangle.

Drawing lines on a map between their homes in the UK and the list of other countries, the pupils are considering how they connect with the world. They calculate the distances the goods travelled, and realise how far they've come - one pupil's total distance tops 55,000km.

"Does this raise any questions for you?" asks Sarah Bergson, year six teacher and deputy head of the school, in Reading, Berkshire. It certainly does. "How did my food travel from one country to another? What was the transport used?" asks Poppy. "What do we know about lorries and air miles?" asks Bergson. "They're very polluting," says Elliot. "And what's the knock-on effect of pollution?" continues their teacher "The ice caps melt," says Thomas. "Flooding in Bangladesh and places in England."

For 10-year-old Amy Dominian, the exercise has made her consider the working conditions of those who made the clothes she's wearing.

"I was reading this series of books and something caught my eye about modernday slavery. I decided to look it up on the internet and I was really surprised that children were working every day in really appalling conditions and they get paid a few pence a day. They were probably the same age as me and could be at school if they could afford it. That's not very good," she says.

Classmate Bethan Scholey, 11, is worried about people working in dangerous places. She recently heard an item on the news about a deadly fire in a mine. "More money should be sent to help improve conditions so there are less likely to be fires and, if there is, there is a quick way of stopping it," she says.

Redlands has been making a concerted effort to become a global school for almost five years. With pupils from a wide range of backgrounds, taking a world view was not entirely new, "but perhaps we didn't do it in such an overt way," says Bergson.

The strategy is reaping rewards. Elliot Jones, 10, says he now has a better understanding of "how the whole idea of fair trade works, how it benefits and how it doesn't benefit people", and the effects his actions have on the environment. "The distances goods travelled were a bit further than I thought. I try to buy localised products. Companies need to give people better working conditions and better pay."

Patrick Mbele, 11, believes we should be doing more recycling to try to end global warming and the flooding that has hit the UK as well as countries overseas. "The government could put more recycling posters up to persuade people to do more recycling, and make recycling bins bigger. It should also make more eco-friendly houses, using solar power for heating." But living a more ethical life won't be easy. If Patrick saw a jumper he really liked, but it was not made close to home, he'd have a dilemma about whether he should buy it. "If I found it was made somewhere else, I'd be gutted."

Weblinks

Global Dimension:
www.globaldimension.org.uk

Learning resources:
www.educationguardian.co.uk/schools/learn

Oxfam:
www.oxfam.org.uk/education

Save the Children:
www.savethechildren.org.uk
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