Creating impact at home and further afield

Children at this Gold primary work on global issues in partnership with communities, close to home and further away.

Troon Primary School is a Gold Rights Respecting School in South Ayrshire, Scotland. Headteacher Aileen Roan shares her school’s approach to global citizenship and the impact it has made for communities and pupils. 

Developing empathy for others around the world

Careful planning provides opportunities to promote children’s rights and talk about global issues.  As a result, the children are also confident in bringing their ideas and concerns to us, knowing they will be listened to and their views acted upon.  By increasing the children’s awareness of their own rights, this has led naturally to an awareness of the rights of others and empathy towards children around the world.  Across the school we encourage the children to develop their awareness of current affairs and what is going on in the world around them using Newsround and First News weekly newspapers in class and through our weekly assembly calendar. Rights based discussions demonstrate growing empathy and a much increased awareness of the difference our children can make through the promotion of children’s rights.   

Building rights into our annual calendar ensures global issues and the lived experiences of others is carefully planned for, allowing for progression across the stages. To develop global citizenship, we introduce children to global issues in age-appropriate ways, this has helped them see the differences but also the interconnections across our world.  As a result of inter-disciplinary learning, citizenship lessons, religious and moral education and assemblies, our children are informed, compassionate and engaged as global citizens – they recognise and respect the diversity of others and are open-minded as a result.  This approach has empowered the children to raise their own issues and concerns and has increased leadership and participation in their own learning.  By encouraging open discussions, the children have been supported to develop critical thinking, develop understanding, curiosity and empathy for others.

Helping to uphold the rights of others in Haiti and Ukraine

At the beginning of our Rights Respecting journey, we established global links through a community partnership project. The whole Troon community – schools, churches, inter-generational community groups, shops – came together, working collaboratively to support a town in Haiti recover from the damaging effects of earthquakes, storms and flooding. The initial aim of the project, to rebuild and equip a new school for the local children and community, was a success. Children in our P6 classes are our Haiti link stage, joining Zoom calls with the children in Haiti, discussing their rights and lives together to show unity.

When the war in Ukraine began, our children showed huge concern for the children in the affected areas; it was clear they were highly aware of the impact and support they could provide, following the success of their work with Haiti. The children worked together to discuss ways they could help and send vital resources to displaced families in Ukraine. The children fundraised, wrote letters and drew pictures to share with children and families which were delivered by local families.

We were extremely proud of how quickly the children responded, realising the way they could ensure the rights of others could be upheld and supported around the world. Children are highly aware of their impact as a Global Citizen and showing empathy for others rather than sympathy.

Bringing all pupil voice groups together to maximise impact

After self-evaluation and reflection, children discussed the possibility of all our pupil voice groups coming together to maximise their impact. Over a third of our pupils now work together as the Global Impactors Group, meeting monthly, or weekly when we are working towards a bigger goal.

Last session, the children planned a whole school inter-disciplinary topic focused on the Olympics. They attended a staff meeting to share their ideas, and House Captains held meetings with Active Schools Coordinators, Thriving Community staff and the Senior Leadership Team. They planned local community walks, supporting local walking groups and sheltered housing residents and seeking parents to train as Walk Leaders to help support the community in the longer term. Children supported beach cleans and conducted road safety audits. When learning about their countries, children learned about languages, religions, cultures, and the rights of others.

Through their work with Living Streets, the children carried out a pavements audit in the town, which will impact positively on our community. We were able to get the support of residents in local sheltered housing in our virtual ‘walk around the world’, with residents tracking and sharing their steps with the school.