Global Learning Programme Report

I'm pleased to have been involved with the Global Learning Programme in a small way. I was potentially going to be heavily involved via the GA as I had an interview all scheduled to do some work as a national / regional coordinator but was then asked by Claire Kyndt to work with her at King's Ely, so all that changed...
King's Ely was later named a Centre of Excellence as part of the Global Learning Programme. We were also featured in the GA Magazine with a full page profile of the work we were doing within the department. I also wrote an online CPD course on our Global Village.

The Global Learning Programme was a programme supporting the teaching and learning about global issues in key stages 2 and 3, funded by UK government, that ran from 2013 to 2018.

Together with curriculum support, resources and training, the Global Learning Programme (GLP) built a national network of schools committed to equipping their students to make a positive contribution to a globalised world. More than 7800 schools participated in the programme in England, and over 900 in Wales, with many experiencing the positive impact that global learning can have on pupils’ engagement, knowledge, skills and values.
The report on the impact of the Global Learning Programme has now been published on the GA website. Thanks to John Hopkin for flagging that up.
May be worth a read for those exploring the potential for continuing to engage with the materials and ideas that underpinned the project. SDGs are still vital for curriculum thinking in Geography and will be for the next decade.

Download the National Research Report on the GLP, compiled by John Hopkin for the Geographical Association (PDF link)

Check the GA page for more reports and plenty of case studies and resources.

Very pleased to have got a mention in the final report.

Global Village

I've been working to add some more information into my Factfulness Scheme of Work.
I've been going through a few earlier resources of mine, to re-use some of the ideas, and shape them towards the Factfulness project.

Living in a Global Village
It was an early effort at a collaborative effort, which hasn't really paid off so far, with few additions being made, but was an interesting idea of its time.

The scheme of work is available on the GA website for GA members.

Here's the description taken from the GA website:

This online course introduces a proposed new scheme of work for KS3 geography, which makes use of web tools to explore our ‘Global Village’. Technology can allow access to a range of topical and contemporary material, which can then be used alongside existing publications and other resources to construct a number of stories.

These pages draw on the importance of the ISM (initial stimulus material) that Margaret Roberts refers to in ‘Geography through Enquiry’, and this online course provides a number of options for developing appropriate hooks, followed by the opportunities to investigate the issues in more depth.

One important element of this course is the creation of more nuanced arguments when considering notions of development and global inequality. The work of Hans Rosling and others has started to inform the debate on whether terms such as ‘first world’ and ‘third world’, even ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ are appropriate anymore. There is also the notion of Aid and charity and the importance of avoiding stereotyping and a particular view on the relationship that the UK and other EU countries might have with former colonial territories.

We also need to connect the work with this statement from the National Curriculum:
‘A high quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives’

(DfE, 2013)

There are five sections to the course, plus a page of associated resources and links. You may wish to browse the pages in numerical order, but each of them is self-contained and provides guidance and ideas for the creation of global learning materials around the idea of our ‘Global Village’ where all students and teachers live. There are also activities which are designed primarily for teachers rather than students, and intended to act as pointers for thinking, or for discussions within department meetings. Some could also be used as prompts for conversations with students, perhaps in sessions where curriculum change or lesson content is negotiated.

Check it out...

New Global Learning Course

For a period between 2007 and 2013, I ran regular courses for the Geographical Association, including the Living Geography courses, NQT Conferences, GIS courses with ESRI, New Fieldwork courses and plenty of others. In that time, I worked with hundreds of teachers, and learned a lot about my own practice.
When I returned to teaching full time in 2013, I didn't have time to do them, and stopped, and a 'new' generation of presenters has taken over including Catherine Owen, Ben Ballin, Garry Simmons and Becky Kitchen.

Now, I'm back leading an event for the GA, with a new course, which has the added advantage of being 'my old favourite price': FREE. So you can come along for an afternoon discussing technology and global learning, and networking with other colleagues, and leaving with some new ideas for you I hope.

It's being put on in Bury St. Edmunds, so it's a handy location for those in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and S. Norfolk, and perhaps even parts of Essex.

It's on the theme of the GLOBAL LEARNING PROGRAMME, (which is funding the course) and has the context of a global village.

It also connects with an online course which I wrote last year for the GA, and is called Exploring our GLOBAL VILLAGE.

There is a connection with the golden record that NASA attached to the Voyager spaceships before they headed out to the edge of the universe. I was interested in a recent Kickstarter project to create replicas.

I hope to see some of you there...

Global Village

I'm working on a range of projects at the moment, as we hurtle towards the summer at a crazy pace.
One of them is preparing for two Global Learning Programme CPD events, which I recently reminded you of the dates for. (June in London and July in York)
These will involve the creation of a new Scheme of Work for the new KS3 Curriculum 2014 from September

This will be called 'Global Village' and will aim to cover some of the key elements of the Global Learning Programme as well as some of the sections in the new Curriculum 2014 documents

Delegates will get the chance to see some new tools and then put them to use to help co-construct the curriculum with me on the day, so that it's ready by the time we leave...

Here's the skeleton of the unit - if you fancy fleshing this out and learning a lot about new tools and spending a day in a nice location in London or York then head to the Global Learning Programme website and sign up or contact Lucy Oxley at the Geographical Association.