United Nations International Day of Co-operatives:

"Confronting Climate Change through Cooperative Enterprise"

We are looking for 8 more Tower Hamlets primary schools and 2 secondary schools to join the project from September 2008 so if your school is interested in getting involved or would like more information please contact Sophie Mackay on 0207 364 6405 or by email on sophie.mackay@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Click here for creating a school council constitution.

Click here for creating school council policy on Fairtrade and poverty.

Click here to explore local democracy and Fairtrade and sustainability.

Suitable for primary and secondary schools.

Spitalfields City Farm is starting a gardening club for young people, aged 11-25. It is called the Green Hand Gang. Get involved!

At the Farm’s club, you will learn hands-on the basics of organic gardening, and will get the opportunity not only to grow but to eat your own vegetables.

The aim is to have fun, learn gardening skills and work with others.
The sessions are FREE and will take place every Tuesday from 2pm and start from June.

If you are interested or would like to find out more, contact Laura Stobbart, Community Horticulture Co-ordinator, mailto:gardens@spitalfieldscityfarm.org
Buxton Street London E1 5AR    Tel: 020 7247 8762      www.spitalfieldscityfarm.org

The Battle of Plassey Young People's Project; local East India company sites and researching about the area's past links with Bengal. It is for young people aged 18-25.

It will include presentations by Nick Robbins (author of The Corporation that Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational) and Georgie Wemyss, who teaches Social Anthropology and South Asian Studies at Tower Hamlets College and is a visiting research fellow at Goldsmiths College research fellow at Goldsmiths College.

To download the detailed leaflet click here.

Visit the site, find out what its all about and contact us for advice or help. HEC tel: 020 7364 6405 e-mail: hec@gn.apc.org

Click here for the LgFL Global Homepage.

To find out news, case studies, events and grants about sustainability then join the London Sustainable Schools Forum. To see some of the items in their most recent newsletter simply scroll down this page. You can read reports of their previous conferences and newsletters and join-up by clicking here. You can download their most recent newsletter by clicking here.

School Councils UK is keen to get your school council involved in sustainable action!

School Councils UK (SCUK) believes that effective school councils are an ideal mechanism for managing and sustaining projects in school. Which makes them ideal for developing and running environmental, social and sustainability projects.

SCUK is dedicating their summer newsletter to school council led projects around the environment and sustainability. If your school council is doing something innovative and exciting in these areas, why not promote it by submitting your story to SCUK, and gain the opportunity to have your story printed in the summer edition?

Click here to go to the School Council UK website and download the pdf of their magazine.

·      ‘Planning a sustainable school’ - new DCSF tool published (7^th April)

The DCSF have launched a new sustainable schools publication to help schools to drive school improvement through sustainable development.

Click on 'Read More' to find out how to get the new booklet.

Click here for the CRAE website.

Click here for the Get Ready for Geneva site. For children and young people.

Click here to go to the webpage of resources for schools taking part in the Rivers of the World project as part of the Thames Festival.

Campaign for school gardening by Royal Horticultural Society.

Farming and Countryside Education

A fantastic resource pack to help schools within London become sustainable, produced by Hackney.

London Sustainable Schools Forum

Global issues in farming including case studies of the influence of trade liberalisation on different small farmers around the world.

Science Museum's new interactive exhibition for young people on how to save the planet.

For the third year HEC organised a fairtrade training day at Tower Hamlets Town Hall. Two schools, Swanlea and Stepney Green, and thirty students took part in the morning.

Zina Lewis explained how their schools could become Fairtrade schools. They worked with Rachel Carless Tower Hamlets Sustainability Officer to look at decision-making by the council on Fairtrade, listened to a presentation by Ceri Willmot, the Managing Director of Britain’s newest Fairtrade company, Liberation Foods, whose majority owner are the food producers. Some 22,000 co-operative farmers around the world own 42% of the company that imports, processes, packages and markets nuts. This allows the growers to benefit from all the points of the supply chain!

After interviewing Ceri Willmot they visited the Council debating Chamber and interviewed Councillor Rofique Ahmed (the Mayor was unavailable due to illness), and then were presented badges and fairtrade cotton bags to celebrate their participation in the training and for them to go back into the schools as ambassadors for Fairtrade.

Introduction to Digital Video	KS2,3 and 4	4:15-5:45	1st May	p135
Ethical School Uniform	KS2,3 and 4	9:30-3:00	1st May	p136
Enterprise in the Global Dimension	KS3& 4	4:15-5:45	14th May	p137
Britishness as Part of Active Global Citizenship- taking part in legal Citizenship Ceremonies.	KS2	4:15-5:45	21st May	p138
New Curriculum Geography KS3	KS3	9:00-3:30	2nd June	p139
School Councils Working with Local Gov	KS3&4	4:15-5:45	4th June	p140
Introduction to Digital Video	KS2,3 and 4	4:15-5:45	12th June	p141
Science & the Global in Secondary Schools	KS3 and 4	4:15-5:45	18th June	p142
School Linking: Challenges & Opportunities	KS2, 3 and 4	2:00-5:00	9th July	p143

                                     
          

Download  the pdf of the Tower Hamlets brochure and find out more from the page numbers, you can book using the fax form at the back of the brochure. Teachers from other London Boroughs can attend the HEC sessions.

Click here to download pdf of Programme.

Join a network for teachers and find out what is happening with ICT and the global dimension with members from City Learning Centres and e-Learning Advisers as well as Development  Education Workers.

Visit our website for primary school children Eastendtalking, click here for the International Women's Day page.

Teachers and secondary school students can download detailed documents that can be used for research for their lessons/activities, just click on 'read more' to get a choice of downloads of articles ranging from Lady Jane Grey to Tango dancing girl strikers...!

Click here for the International Women's Day website.

Mayflower School year 5 class, Hockney, visited the Bow Registry Office not only to act as journalists but to take an active role in the ceremony. Seven students were introduced to the audience, and the new citizens, and read statements they had created in class about being citizens of their school, Tower Hamlets and Great Britain.

The children filmed and took pictures of the event and interviewed the Mayor Ann Jackson, the registrar Catherine Sutton and a new citizen from Egypt. The student's five and a half minute film and powerpoint were shown to the whole school on Friday 15th February. The children's work will be shortly available on the web as well as advice for other schools to take part in the ceremonies.

Click here to read the East End Life article about the project. 

Let the students debate what should happen to plastic bags... ban them, tax them, educate against them, or just use them?

Click here to download resources.

They came first in two categories: Best Documentary ... 'Toy making workshop'  - a film of children making toys from rubbish.  Award sponsored by the Community Chanel.  Best Animation ... 'It's so easy' - an animation exploring the numerous joys and pleasures associated with recycling.  Award sponsored by HSBC.

The awards were presented by Blue Peter's Konnie Huq.

To find out more e-mail Brenton Sandford (Tower Hamlets Citizenship Adviser).

As a tool for getting the students to research the key areas of the project there is a growing set of webquest that are going on-line. The first webquest is for anti-knife crime click here.

New report on school councils and their effectiveness. Download as a pdf, click here.

A website launching a new Fairtrade company owned by co-operatives of nut producers has gone live. Find out about this unique business and how it challenges the normal economics of trade. Click here to find out more.

Click here to find our more and get your students involved.

At the London Sustainable Schools Forum Cayley Primary School students delivered a workshop on their work on fairtrade and social enterprise, and how their school council involved the whole school in creating and implementing policies.

This work has been used to create a guide to teachers on using the local Town Hall to explore local democracy and sustainability, and is being rolled out as part of Tower Hamlets Young People's Plan.

To find out more watch this space...

As part of the Citizenship curriculum schools are being encouraged to have a more outward focus in their work and to get to know the world around them. The Humanities Education Centre (HEC) is offering to support members of school councils in becoming active global citizens and engaging with both local and global issues such as: Energy, Food, Health, Homelessness, Refugees, Rights of Child, Tourism, Transport, Waste & Recycling, Water, Women’s Rights, Trade, Fair Trade and Ethical Fashion.
All support will be provided by a certified School Council UK trainer.
For more information on the support available please contact Zina Lewis on 0207 364 6405 or email zina.lewis@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

September 2007 – July 2008

Website launch this month about how schools can get involved.  Industry-led initiative for the academic year from September 2007 to July 2008, which is aimed at helping children and young people learn about farming, cooking food, good nutrition and how it can contribute to a healthier lifestyle.

Click here for the new website.