Jacob provided an inspirational Assembly for P4-P6 pupils, telling the story of Craig Kielburger, co-founder of Free the Children who, as a 12-year old boy in Toronto, was inspired to take action after hearing the moving story of the fate of Iqbal Masih. Iqbal was sold into child labour as an infant but escaped and became a campaigner for children's rights only to be killed as a 12 year old himself. It was hearing about this travesty that prompted Craig to become a social activist and found a charity which encourages children to make a difference. Jacob asked our pupils to think about how they could change the world.
Jacob then led workshops throughout the day with half the P6 year group (Sienna and Lauder Houses), encouraging pupils to think about the issues most important to them and which steps they could take to be change makers.
An uplifting day, giving our children a voice in making a difference.
Jacob will return in October to repeat the workshops with the remaining children. Ms Sellar and Ms Gaffney organised a day of workshops for Grange and Tantallon Houses, looking first at the Global Goals for Sustainable Development and then a particular focus on Gender Equality.
Primary Six pupils were fantastic ambassadors for our school, so capable of high level thinking, discussion, debate and planning. Thank you to Free the Children for giving us this wonderful opportunity and we look forward to continuing to work with them next session.
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| How will you be the change? |
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| Remembering Iqbal Masih |
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| Craig Kielburger, Co-Founder of Free the Children |
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| Jacob leads hugely engaging workshops, getting the children to feel confident in expressing their opinions |
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| Listening respectfully to one another was a key message |
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| Which side are you on in the debate? |
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| Voicing opinions in debate |
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| One minute to state your group's case |
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| Everyone included and engaged and motivated |
Article 12 The right to an opinion and for it to be listened to and taken seriously.
Free the Children
Free The Children is an
international charity and educational partner that believes in a world
where all young people are free to achieve their fullest potential as
change-makers. Over the last 20 years, Free The Children has grown into
an international movement supporting youth empowerment through
educational service-learning initiatives in North America and the United
Kingdom, and a holistic and sustainable international development
model. It is supported by the Queen's Trust, the UN, Virgin Atlantic and has many international supporters - Malala, Desmond Tutu, Prince Harry, Oprah will give a flavour. Their model is 'children helping children' and they promote pupil
leadership and taking action, here and abroad. The scheme began in Canada, initiated by one of the CEOs when he was 12, and is a social enterprise
endeavour.
For more information about Free the Children, visit their website.
The 'Free the Children' programme will fit extremely well with our well established Junior Awards
Scheme Scotland (JASS) programme in P6 and P7 where pupils are asked to
take their own action to achieve a 'Me and My World' element. JASS is a
children's version of The Duke of Edinburgh Award, and the idea for it
actually came from Sciennes! It is now adopted throughout Edinburgh and
beyond so has been retitled Junior Award Scheme for Schools.
The Junior Award Scheme Schools (JASS) is an accredited learning programme, celebrating wider achievement, for young people (P6-S2). Sciennes and Tollcross Primary Schools have been implementing this scheme since we piloted it in 2009.
The concept emerged from a discussion during a Sciennes P7 visit to Lagganlia between Alice Brown, Gael Logan and Barry Hewitt who came up with the idea to set up a 'Duke of Edinburgh' style award scheme for upper primary pupils. The scheme has since been developed into a city wide programme.
There are three levels (bronze, silver and gold), each requiring a higher degree of commitment. Each level also includes four sections to be completed:
Sciennes helped develop an online version - eJASS.
Free the Children will also fit in well with our Unicef Rights Respecting Schools programme. We have recently achieved Level One and our next steps are to continue to extend knowledge of UNCRC and to expand global citizenship. The Free the Children programme will assist us with that. We have highlighted the relevance of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development since their launch in September and the programme also supports that well.
The Junior Award Scheme Schools (JASS) is an accredited learning programme, celebrating wider achievement, for young people (P6-S2). Sciennes and Tollcross Primary Schools have been implementing this scheme since we piloted it in 2009.
The concept emerged from a discussion during a Sciennes P7 visit to Lagganlia between Alice Brown, Gael Logan and Barry Hewitt who came up with the idea to set up a 'Duke of Edinburgh' style award scheme for upper primary pupils. The scheme has since been developed into a city wide programme.
There are three levels (bronze, silver and gold), each requiring a higher degree of commitment. Each level also includes four sections to be completed:
- My interest - a hobby or interest
- Get Active, Stay Active - involvement in a sport or physical activity
- Me and My World - a community or environmental project
- Adventure - a teamwork challenge through involvement in an outdoor activity (e.g Benmore and Lagganlia)
Sciennes helped develop an online version - eJASS.
Free the Children will also fit in well with our Unicef Rights Respecting Schools programme. We have recently achieved Level One and our next steps are to continue to extend knowledge of UNCRC and to expand global citizenship. The Free the Children programme will assist us with that. We have highlighted the relevance of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development since their launch in September and the programme also supports that well.
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