Report on Shawlands Academy Global Citizenship Projects
S1 Global Citizenship
This session Shawlands Academy introduced a dedicated Global Citizenship period into the S1 curriculum.
This was motivated by a desire to raise awareness among our young people of their rights and
responsibilities on every level: locally, nationally and globally. Pupils have been looking at the work of the
United Nations and specifically the Millenium Development Goals: 1. Reduce poverty, 2. Educate every
child and 3. Equal chances for girls and women. Lessons have been delivered through active learning
methods based on resources from Oxfam, WOSDEC, British Red Cross and other organisations. Pupils
have reacted very positively to their experience, one comment in our evaluation stating:” I have learned that
we can change what happens in our future and that we do have some say in what happens”.
eTwinning Project – Culture in a Blog
Pupils from Shawlands Academy and Collège Lafayette (Brioude France) research their own cities, cultures
and lifestyles. The information is then presented as multimedia presentations, podcasts, photos, electronic
newsletters, posters, digital video productions - and shared with the partner school via the Twinspace.
Pupils engage with each other during group or pair work. The skills developed during this project are
transferable across the curriculum. The emphasis is on curricular integration. Pupils see the relevance of
learning a modern language through integrating ICT with French. Recording voice messages in French and
the creation of avatars was motivating and removed inhibitions. Pupils feel good when their French peers
understand them.
eTwinning integrates seamlessly into Curriculum for Excellence, meeting many of the experiences and
outcomes in the curriculum areas of technologies, modern languages, literacy and health and well-being.
eTwinning has been a feature of Shawlands Academy since 2008 and has played a significant part in the
schools success with the ISA.
Fit in Your World Day
This is a day off timetable for all S1 pupils. The focus is on IDL under the health and wellbeing E’s and O’s
encompassing physical fitness, social and emotional health, food ethics at local national and international
level, link with citizenship, community, enterprise. Teachers work collaboratively with colleagues in a
workshop environment to deliver a variety of extracurricular activities. The school has developed links with
external agencies/companies/ charities from the wider and local community. Pupils are more aware of what
is on offer in their wider community and local agencies are exposed to the diversity of pupils within
Shawlands Academy. Pupils are: more informed in Health/ Citizenship issues and should feel like valued
members of society.
Scotland lights up Malawi
The project aims to raise awareness of the issue of people using kerosene lamps in Malawi and the benefits
of using solar lighting instead, highlighting issues such as energy, poverty, climate change, solar light,
global citizenship and sustainability. There is a national competition where pupils are invited to produce a
campaign to raise awareness of these issues in their format. Pupils become more aware of climate justice
issues and focus on how they can help raise awareness of global issues. Team working and presentation
skills are developed. Teachers follow a programme of resources and develop pupils’ collaborative skills
which can be applied to new situations. This may lead to future links/partnership with a school in Malawi.
Taiwan Partnership – “Comparing our Lives”
In this partnership S3 students from Shawlands Academy work with students from Zhong-Lun Junior High
School in Taipei to research and gather information about their own cities, cultures and school lives. Each
pupil has a “buddy” and is currently communicating via email. We are in the process of creating a project
space through Schools Online which will allow pupils to share electronic resources. The Computing Science
pupils are highly motivated and are eager to learn about the Computing curriculum in Taipei. Pupils want to
share ideas with their buddies thus improving the quality of their work. This partnership integrates into BGE,
meeting many of the experiences and outcomes in technologies and literacy. It raises awareness of
pedagogy in another country. It is anticipated that this school link will continue over the years and expand
into several curricular areas.
South Africa Partnership
Eighteen young people and four teachers will be visiting Johannesburg and in particular Realogile High
School in May 2016. Shawlands Academy has been linked to Realogile High School in South Africa since
2004, and several exchange visits have taken place. Staff in both schools identified the need to develop the
global dimension across the curriculum through collaborative working and a sharing of knowledge, skills,
values and perspectives The young people at Shawlands Academy undertake sixteen months of fundraising
events to supplement their life changing trip to South Africa. The trip will enable young people to develop
their own identity and the national identity of Scotland, in terms of history, culture, achievements, language
and local dialects. It will help the young people of Shawlands Academy to understand Scotland’s place
within the world now and possible contributions in the future. This focus on Scottish contexts and their
connections with South Africa helps young people to understand the stories of people in locations different
from their own, in a reasoned, informed and balanced way.
Palestinian Link – Exploring Conflict – Building Bridges
This is a project in which senior pupils work with Hittin School in the Left Bank. The project aims to
document the daily life of our pupils through the medium of film /photos and will run a course for the upper
school with a series of lessons using the Oxfam pack ” Controversial issues” as a springboard for
discussion. The benefit for our pupils is to give them the tools to be independent, inquisitive learners and the
benefits for all; teachers, school and community at large are manifold in opening all our eyes to a
complicated world issue.
Sending Students to School in Botswana
This year a group of S4 students have been working on a British Council funded project linked with Lerala
High School in Botswana. The students have been raising money to send students in our partner school to
school for the full three years. The students created scholarship application forms that were distributed to
students in the primary schools in Botswana. Our five students had to collate these and make the difficult
decision of choosing the successful candidates. Since choosing the 4 students that they wished to offer the
scholarship to, the students have been busy raising money through various activities. Our students have
empathy for the students in Botswana who do not receive the same educational opportunities as we do. By
selecting the students they are learning to make informed, responsible decisions. The teachers benefit
from this project as well as it allows them to see students in a different setting. It’s a great opportunity to be
involved in this project as it allows them to identify and compare social issues that arise from the research
that is involved in the two schools, such as literacy rates and reasons for non-attendance at school. By
linking with Lerala High School, the school is also gathering data that can be used in all subjects across the
school, embedded into the coursework to help bolster our partnership.