Integrated Education Week 2012

Theme of ‘Journeys’ -‘Newcomer’ parents invited to join the class to share the story of their journey to NI. - ‘Bike it’ initiative: all classes went on a journey across the peace bridge. -Sustrans & Claudy Cycles assisted in encouraging families to cycle. -P4-P7 cycled across the bridge and went as far as the old railway station and were shown the main cycle paths and routes. -P1-P3 walked across the Peace bridge.

Additional focus (Rights Respecting Schools Award) Live as if the change you want to see has already come.”Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi(1869-1948) -Re-introduction of RRSA using ‘Lift off’ programme, revisiting CRC (Convention on the rights of the child), class charters & pupil voice. -Fits perfectly with our school’s ethos -Highlighted as good practice by ETI & ‘Every school a good school’. -Further exploring the theme of Rights as well as Integration through Forgiveness Education, TACADE ,PDMU & Culture Club resources on challenging sectarianism.

“In everything we do, ask yourself…. how does this fit with RRSA “In everything we do, ask yourself…..how does this fit with RRSA? Not the reverse.” -The Guardian, Tuesday 20th March 2007- report on Sir Al Aynsley-Green’s speech to Barnado’s Conference He cites King's Park Primary School in Bournemouth - an "exceptional school in terms of ethos" - where rights and respect are not taught as an add-on to the curriculum but are embedded in the school's entire philosophy. Pupils understand they have the right to be listened to and the right to an education not distracted by bullies, he says. -Numeracy, Literacy & Homework protected but where possible linked to learning and focus in afternoon.

The school’s vision statement begins, ‘A school where everyone is aware of their rights and responsibilities towards themselves and others.’ The values and language of the CRC are reflected in the school’s policies and underpin the daily life of the school……. The universality of the CRC has been used to encourage the children to see themselves as ‘global citizens’...

What does an RRSA level 2 school look like? (See handout) What should a Rights Respecting Level 2 school be like? Three challenges for progressing to RRSA Level 2 Universality of UNCRC has to be upheld. This can only be done if RR charters are firmly linked to articles in CRC. Question: Are they? The RRSA must go beyond simple child right and responsibility pairing. The right should refer to the agreed actions required to access that right. The charter is for everyone in the room and should have replaced traditional rules. Question: Are adult roles included in the charter? The language and concepts of the CRC should help children engage in challenging issues and develop a higher order of thinking. Question: are pupils using the CRC as a reference point to resolve issues? By addressing these three questions schools can build up an understanding of the CRC across the whole school community. Developing a widening pool of adult expertise in the CRC is central to long term sustainability.

Question: Does the RRSA still depend on a narrow adult support base for delivery. If someone left would the programme stop? Deepening knowledge and understanding of rights and global citizenship understand that at the basis of human rights lies justice and not wants appreciate that the exercise of one’s right may be limited by that of others understand that rights can be denied or abused but not taken away understand that some groups need greater protection understand some of the controversy about the relative importance of different human rights

Progressing towards being fully a rights respecting school (L2) requires the following: Intensification……of embedding the CRC in vision, mission and all school policies. Sustainability….. of ensuring policies underpin practice and that the future of the programme is secure Promotion…….of developing a strong parent community involvement. Young people acting as ambassadors and presenters of a RRS approach. Building a rights respecting attachment to other school Innovation…..of finding new and creative ways of raising pupil voice in terms of curriculum, evaluation, research and planning.

What should an RRSA classroom look like? Pupils and teachers negotiate and agree a classroom code of conduct, agreement or charter expressed in terms of rights from the Convention Pupils have regular opportunities to give their teachers feedback on what helps them learn and what they enjoy most about their lessons; and also to comment on what might hinder their learning Pupils are fully involved in the assessment of their own learning and the evaluation of their own work; there is supportive evaluation of their peer’s work Pupils have responsibility for aspects of classroom organisation

Pupils have opportunities to make choices in their learning There is a strong emphasis on mutual support and collaboration Teachers make use of a wide variety of teaching strategies and routes to learning, recognising that pupils may differ in their preferences for how they learn Teaching assistants are valued and respected by all, as reflected in their relationships and communications with teacher colleagues and with pupils Behaviour is good or improving as everyone recognises and respects the rights of all to their education

teachers and teaching assistants model rights-respecting behaviour, for example. teachers and teaching assistants listen positively to pupils’ views and show respect for their opinions; they avoid put-downs and sarcasm; they give clear reasons for use of sanctions; teachers avoid use of ‘blanket’ sanctions of the whole class when only individual pupils have misbehaved; teachers show respect for teaching assistants and all other adults displays are used to reinforce awareness of rights in relation to each other and others locally and globally pupils respect and value each other’s similarities and differences and support each other; there are few incidences of negative behaviour, name-calling, racist or sexist comments high status and adequate time is given to listening and acting on pupils’ views, for example the School Council all pupils make progress to the best of their abilities Page 1

Links with clergy and local churches: Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in. Alan Alda, actor and director (1936-) Links with clergy and local churches: -Daily assemblies for two weeks (RC, Presbyterian, Church of Ireland, Methodist, Church of Latter Day Saints, Mormon, Amish represented.) -P7 (Baptist, Muslim, Seventh Day Adventist & Jehovah Witness. -P5 church visits -MCN -One final assembly to showcase all the good work that took place. Links with other schools & organisations: Ebrington, RVIPS, GIPS, OIC, Caw Community group, local MLAs, DCC,Interfaith NW representatives and other community relations groups.

Multi-Cultural Evening-“Hand in Hand , We’ll Change the World!” -All three primary schools, united in singing the UNICEF song ; ‘Hand in Hand,we’ll change the world’ -Opportunity for parents& children to celebrate and share their own as well as other cultures, through food, music, dance & traditions. Article 30 “Children have a right to learn and use the language and customs of their families, whether these are shared by the majority of people in the country or not.” -Links -Promotion of Integration to parents considering Post Primary selection. -Promotion of Integration to wider community (politicians, clergy, community groups, media)

Example of good practice during IE week in our school: During Integration week we also: Made bookmarks celebrating our differences We watched a video on minorities which including working on racism, refugees, bullying and discrimination. We learnt how to play ‘ Don’t stop believin’ by Journey on mini keyboards Erfan’s Mum came in to tell us all about the Iranian New Year. Frank and Ethan led assembly telling everyone about their religions. Erfan and Wojtec also made presentations about their religions. We all completed a mini project based on a person (life journey) or a country.

Nursery : The journey of a letter -We learned about writing and posting letters. Then we walked to the post box to post the letters. -We also learned about our similarities and differences through the ‘Respecting Differences programme

Oakgrove Nursery Post Office We set up our graphics area as a post office and had fun writing ,posting and delivering letters.

Nursery snack time We enjoyed eating fruits and different foods from around the world.

Primary 1 went bananas!

Our Parents and Grandparents came to play!

Primary 1A share Integration week We walked over the Peace Bridge.

We walked across the peace bridge!

Powerpoint presentation by Ethan Divan Primary 1. Presented to Primary 1 Class about his cousin who lives in Mexico. This included six slides explaining about life in Mexico.

Granny and Granda taught us about life in Ghana

Exploring our own identity and then how we fit together in P1.

P2, Bananas with Groarty IPS

Walking the Peace Bridge

We looked at the Forgiveness Education programme, which examined love We looked at the Forgiveness Education programme, which examined love. How we have family love. How when people love us we then go into the world and share this love with others, even if they are different to us. Children talked about the journeys they have been on ie holidays, but also Giedrius and Janelle who moved here from Lithuanian and Philippines. They talked about the country where their parents grew up. We discussed rights and responsibilities and how some people who have not received their rights have moved here. Children found this very interesting. A great conversation about how lucky we are and what we can do to help people around the world, who do not have the right to speech or accessibility of education / clean water / health care and so on. We used “The Right Start’- ‘We All Belong’; a debate about fav food, colour, age, sport, subject to begin then opinions and questions like school should be just fun. Children were able to articulate their ideas well but also make own opinions and respect others comments like “I’m a bit like that but not all the time so maybe I’m halfway in-between”

P3. We talked about why we make journeys and planned a journey around the park. We worked in pairs and drew a map/route.

P3. The children swapped rooms and teachers for an afternoon and did music and circle time activities.

P3. We wrote on labels about our wonderful school and attached them to balloons. We let them go on the Peace Bridge and now our balloons are on their own “Journey!”

P4. We talked about people making journeys to new countries and how we can make them feel welcome. My dad came to our class to tell us about his journey to Northern Ireland from Bulgaria.

P4. We invited Ebrington PS to visit us P4. We invited Ebrington PS to visit us. We played games in the hall to get to know each other and then we shared our ideas on where we would like to go on a journey.

P4. We walked to the Peace Bridge with Primary 3 to release our balloons. We got to meet some people including a sailor, an American GI and Amelia Earhart. They told us of their journeys.

P5 Church Visits Minister Paul Linkens at Ebrington Presbyterian Church St Columb’s Roman Catholic Church Clooney Methodist Hall

P5 Church Visits Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints

Everyday objects transformed by conflict.

P5 Journeys Mr Hudson (Eava’s Dad) came into P5A and talked about his journeys all over the world.

Primary 6

Leah McLaughlin Katherine Duncan Rhys O’Kane

Tara Garfield Emma Louise Hogan

We travelled across the Peace bridge to make ‘ Thumb Pianos’ at the Context Gallery

Maori We learned a Maori Song and enjoyed performing it with Ms Pender for Multicultural Night.

Verbal Arts Centre facilitated an Ulster – Scots / Irish / English workshop

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world.  Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead, anthropologist(1901 - 1978)