International Education and Curriculum for Excellence Showcase Event

Yesterday I attended in place of Mr Dyer a very interesting event held at Hampden Park, Scotland's National Football Stadium.

The conference looked at International Education and highlighting the excellent work being done by schools in all sectors and in all authorities. The examples were great for linking with Curriculum for Excellence.

In particular the Moray Council schools who did their presentations were fabulous. St Thomas's Primary in Keith did a splendid job showcasing the many aspects of International Education they work at in their school. They have done work on China, Pakistan and Poland, to name but a few. Their teacher Cathy Francis was very enthusiastic and a great role model for the pupils.

Also I was highly impressed by the pupils of Elgin High who had been to Tanzania. Their head teacher also went and he was rightly proud of the two brave pupils who had to face an audience of strangers! I was interested in this since we are going to Ghana in the summer! The pupils put any fears I may have at rest, though they didn't need a Yellow Fever jag! Lucky people! The links Elgin has with the schools in Tanzania (and I think it was Zambia also - I may be wrong) has permeated right through the school and its Learning Community. One factor I thought was a great idea was that the girls that had been to Africa were on the interview panel to select the next batch of Elgin pupils to go to the trip in September.

As well as going to the workshops and talking to other teachers and pupils, I had the job of manning the Hamilton Grammar Exhibition Trade Stand. I reckon I still have issues with Trade Stands since I am not one who is great at the Blue Peter aspect of the job. As a former Marketeer I know what to do to make it eye catching etc, but I really think the pupils would have done a better job! Sadly they had exams and couldn't be there. And Stuart Bence was at a pre-arranged trip to a local primary, teaching pupils about the Eco Group.

Our trade stall showcased the Carbon Offset initiative whereby we plant mangoes in Ghana to offset our carbon here in Hamilton. I also mentioned the role Young Enterprise played in getting local organisations to sponsor acres of mango. Another aspect we highlighted was the World View committee. The people that talked to me seemed to think this was a great idea bringing together Eco Group, International Education, Citizenship, Health Promotion, and Enterprise. And thankfully so did HMIe!

I have a few things to follow up. I never got the chance to speak to a Mr Stuart Hay from Shetlands, as he has several links with overseas schools and he may be able to give us some tips on our links with Australia, Canada, and of course Ghana.

This gave me an idea about our focus for each of the year groups in our new curriculum.

S1 = Africa (by far the most popular continent for schools it seems. Malawi, naturally is a favourite)
S2 = Latin America (wrongfully overlooked in my opinion, and a natural link for Spanish)
S3 = Asia (another interesting part of the world that has booming economies and contrasting poverty)

There was also young people who spoke to the audience who were very impressive. Pupils from Wallace High and Holyrood Secondary were particularly impressive.

There was a debate also about fundraising, which raised a few eyebrows. Many of the panel of experts assembled at the end of the day seemed dead against giving money to the partner schools abroad. I thought to myself that I just hope they didn't comment on the great fundraising work our school have done for the Spartanburg Orphanage in Ghana, but one of the panel spoke up. He was a DHT at Holyrood and spoke of the work his school had done through Mary's Meals to help schools in Africa. I personally agreed with this, since surely if we are in a position to help and it is sustainable and not just handing over wads of cash, surely this is the right thing to do?

Building schools, buying farm tools, raising livestock, buying machinery and all the other great things that the Developed World can do to help the Developing World is surely the least we can do.

If only global politicians acted with the same compassion, commitment and energy of our young people, then perhaps poverty in general would be a thing of the past.

Here's a final question: What happens to the young idealists when they get to Parliament or positions of power?