Schools blog

Here at ActionAid we’ve joined forces with a host of different charities to form a partnership called EQUALS. Brought together by Annie Lennox, EQUALS intends to ‘step up the call’ for equality on the anniversary of International Women’s Day. 

This year IWD will be a day of celebration, marking the great achievements and successes of women, but also a day of debate, asking ‘are we really equal yet’?

We want to spark the great debate and get everyone asking how men and women’s lives really compare, here and all over the world in the countries that we work in.

To find out more about how we work with women and girls around the world check out our Women's rights pages.

Here in the Schools Team we’re marking the occasion by putting together some materials for schools to use in exploring the issue of gender equality, and hopefully sparking off some great debate. 

These will be available to download from our schools pages from mid February so watch this space!

We’ll also be conducting an online poll that we hope you’ll all take part in, asking you and your pupils whether you feel that International Women’s day is still relevant in today’s society.

And don’t forget the launch of Send My Sister to School this month, we’ll keep you updated when everything goes live but you can already register to take part and order your free schools pack here.

Following last week’s launch of the review of the National Curriculum, we are looking at what place Citizenship, including active global citizenship, might have in schools in the future and how we can effectively argue its merits.

As it stands at the moment, subjects that will definitely be statutory core subjects following the review are English, Maths, Science and PE – though other subjects may be added to that list at a later date.

The government has made it clear that its intention is to provide a slimmer National Curriculum that only covers a few core subjects, in order to free up teachers' time to teach what best suits their students in a way that suits them.

Whilst this may sound rather bleak for the inclusion of Citizenship as a discrete subject, there are promosing signs and there are certainly things we can do to argue its case.

The Education White Paper doesn't mention Citizenship explicitly, but does give hope to its supporters with a reference to the need to 'guarantee a truly rounded curriculum for all' and statement that 'there needs to be room in the life of the school for exploration of wider social issues which contribute to the well-being and engagement of all students'.

With this in mind, there are several opportunities for us to reinforce the importance of this subject.

DfE consultation on the curriculum review

For a start we must engage with DfE's consultation on the review and use this opportunity to outline the value of Citizenship education.

The consultation is operating in two phases. Phase 1, the current phase, will look at what pupils need to be taught in the already confirmed core subjects of English, Maths, Science and PE, and phase 2 will look at which other subjects should become part of the National Curriculum.

We have until April 14th to comment on phase 1, and will then be able to comment on phase 2 this time next year.

Democratic Life’s campaign for Citizenship

We can also join Democratic Life’s campaign to keep Citizenship. Democratic Life is a coalition of organisations and individuals that has come together to ‘strengthen and extend young people’s entitlement to high-quality citizenship education in England.’

Quality Citizenship education in school

Finally, we should ensure that Citizenship, whether taught as a discrete subject or across the curriculum, is given value and prominence in schools now and throughout the review.

Remember that, post-review, schools will be expected to implement their own wider school curriculum outside of the core content of the National Curriculum.

Schools should have greater flexibility and choice in what constitutes their wider school curriculum – and the more ingrained Citizenship is to school life when senior management are making those choices the better!

For further news and support on Citizenship teaching, see the Association for Citizenship Teaching website.

Not only were the impacts devastating but the recovery has been slow, and fraught with challenges. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Americas and the co-ordination of the clean-up has been hampered by a lack of government action and a devastating outbreak of cholera.

One year on, we take a look at some of these challenges and what ActionAid has been able to do with the money you raised – working closely with local partner organisations, volunteers and the 138,000 survivors that we have managed to reach.

ActionAid, active in Haiti since 1997, has set up a three year earthquake response and rehabilitation programme. The programme will continue until January 2013, and our long term development work will continue beyond that.

What has ActionAid been doing?

Our immediate response involved distributing food, essential items and shelter to over 11,000 families living in camps. 

The next step was to help provide an income for people who had their livelihoods destroyed, by providing cash for work projects, which pay a fee for work that helps the community, such as clearing gullies and much-needed rubble removal.

Manilia, in the video below, received cash for work and with the money she repaired her damaged house, got her trading stall up and running again and has managed to keep her children in school.

Challenges and next steps

One of the biggest problems facing survivors is shelter and the lack of housing, due to issues around land ownership and availability. An ActionAid report, Building for the future has found that less than 2% of those displaced by the earthquake have found permanent homes, and that those trying to provide homes are facing significant obstacles.

These obstacles include little thought being given to the need for permanent low-cost housing for the poorest, a lack of a strategic plan around shelter and rubble clearance, and a failing system of land ownership.

The report warns that Haiti’s reconstruction could cost an additional £32 million in emergency replacement tents, unless the Haitian government and international donors – the US, Canada, France, Spain and the EU – address these land problems.

Our priorities for 2011 will be to work with communities in Haiti to support them to campaign for their rights to shelter. We are urging the Haitian government and international donors to invest in a system of land reform that would redistribute multiple plots of land to poor communities and provide much needed social housing – government subsidised homes let at low rents and on a secure basis to people in housing need.

Thank you for your support

The response to our call for funds following the earthquake has been incredible, raising around £8 million for Haiti’s recovery.

In addition to the thousands of individuals that donated, we know that many UK schools raised money too. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you sincerely for your support.

If you’d like to continue to support the emergency response in Haiti, or our ongoing development work there, we are still fundraising and you can make a one-off donation. Alternatively, your school could sponsor a child in Haiti.

As we head towards the end of 2010 here’s a quick look at what we in the schools and youth team here at ActionAid have been up to throughout the year.

Download ActionAid Schools & Youth 2010 review

On the schools side we’ve had a great time working on a variety of projects which we know are having an impact here and in the countries with which we work. Here are some highlights:

• An amazing 1 million school children in 9000 schools around the UK took part in Send My Friend to School. Since 2000, 40 million more children are in school, so we know our campaigning is making a big impact.

• Over 1500 UK schools joined us to pledge to cut their carbon emissions to help mitigate the impacts of climate change in developing countries. We’re currently asking schools for feedback on their carbon cutting journey, as well as suggestions for how we can offer support in 2011. Please let us know your thoughts here.

• Our first volunteer teacher went over to Chembakolli, in southern India to teach in the local school out there and collect materials for an exciting new FREE resource section on our website, due to launch in March 2011. Browse our current Chembakolli resources here.

• Our network of visiting teachers has delivered over 500 assemblies and/or workshops this year, raising awareness of ActionAid’s work and how schools can get involved.

• Over 50 schools have sponsored a child with us since the launch of our child sponsorship in schools offer, raising £9000 for Actionaid’s work around the world. Watch our video of Siana's story to see how sponsorship can make a difference to a whole community.

For more information about the youth side of things, take a look at their web pages here.

We’ve got lots of exciting things planned for 2011, including an improved schools section on our website which will contain many more free resources to use in class, as well as some amazing slashed prices in our schools shop!

Make sure you’re up-to-date with our activities during 2011 by signing up to receive our half termly enewsletter for teachers and registering to take part in the 2011 Send My Friend to School campaign. You can also follow us on Twitter – we’re ActionAidTeach.

Our work is made possible by the support of thousands of individuals and schools, so we’d like to say a big thank you to all of you who have campaigned with us, fundraised for us or used our teaching materials in 2010. Together we can build children and young people’s knowledge about global poverty, and encourage them to actively contribute to a fair and just world. We’re grateful for your interest and support, and look forward to working with you further in the New Year.