Friday 30th November saw the arrival of the long awaited, heavily prepared for Citizenship Charity Fayre. The fayre was a culmination of Year 10’s Active Citizenship Unit which represents 60% of their Citizenship GCSE.
Year 10 had chosen to focus on the theme “Our responsibilities as global citizens” looking at the issue “Should the UK Government do more to support people in less economically developed countries?” We had decided to investigate what the UK Government and UK citizens are doing to support the Millennium Development Goals which were a set of goals agreed by the United Nations and non-governmental organisations in the year 2000. These goals were intended to be met by 2015 but with only 3 years to go, we have discovered that many of the targets that were set are unlikely to be achieved. Two of the goals that we found will not be achieved are:
MDG1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
MDG4: Reduce by 2/3rds by 2015 the number of children dying before reaching 5 years of age.
During their research into these goals, year 10 found out some shocking facts:
MDG1: There are 925 million hungry people in the world and nearly all under nourished people live in LEDCs .
MDG4: 29,000 children under the age of five – 21 each minute – die every day, mainly from preventable causes.
Year 10 decided to TAKE ACTION!
Each class wrote a letter to either their local MP or to Downing Street asking what the Government intends to do to try to ensure that these issues are addressed as a matter of urgency .
They then decided to help in their own way by trying to raise awareness of these appalling issues and raise some money for the numerous charities who are working to support people in LEDCs directly affected by hunger, poverty and disease.
In groups the students chose an issue to focus on and chose a charity to support. Oxfam, Save the Children, Water Aid, Stop Hunger Now, Women's Children's Aid Foundation and CAFOD were just a few of the charities that we focussed on. The ideas for activities to run ranged from cake and sweetie sales, guess the number of sweets in the jar, Mario Kart racing, Glitter tattoos to the more bizarre Can the Cameron game! There were various petitions available to sign for students to pledge their support, which will in turn be forwarded to the Prime Minister.
Students in Years 7-9 had the opportunity to visit the fayre in periods 1 and 2 whilst upper school and staff were able to explore the various stalls at breaktime.
The atmosphere at the fayre was tremendous and the feel good factor associated with doing something to help others abounded. One Year 8 student said “I can’t believe so many little kids die every day just because they don’t have clean water to drink. I’ve spent all my money on this stall so I know I have helped in a small way.”
There was a real sense that the Highcliffe School community were all pulling together to ensure the success of this important event.
When it was all over, Year 10 had a real sense of achievement, they had alerted their peers to the importance of being global citizens -by acting locally we can make a difference globally. Nearly £1000 was raised to send to the charities concerned.
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