Learning about The Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
On 25 September 2015, 193 world leaders committed to The Global Goals for Sustainable Development at the UN headquarters in New York. Seventeen goals to achieve three extraordinary things in the next fifteen years:
End extreme poverty
Fight inequality and injustice
Tackle climate change.
The Global Goals are only going to work if people fight for them and you cannot fight for your rights if you do not know what they are. To help share the message with a global audience, ‘The World's Largest Lesson’ aims to get every school in the world teaching children about these goals. We want to help our children become the generation that changes the world.
The focus for The World’s Largest Lesson 2017 is on food, sustainability and hunger, asking children to think about how their food choices impact the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to pledge to make changes. From healthy eating to reducing wastage, eliminating plastic packaging, sourcing closer to home and checking on the practices of food producers, children across the world have been rolling up their sleeves and digging into Goals 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life below Water), and 15 (Life on Land). And not forgetting a call to them to fearlessly stand up for the children who are hungry right now and need our help.
During the week beginning Monday 18 September, Key Stage 3 pupils at Deer Park participated in the World’s Largest Lesson in their Global Citizenship and Geography lessons. The Global Citizenship lessons challenged pupils to think about the agricultural, rural, and fishing industries that produce their food across the world. It gave pupils a real insight into the different methods of farming, which provoked interesting discussions. Pupils were shocked to learn that human rights are violated in some countries, with people forced into labour, producing food that might end up on our plates. Pupils recognised that more needs to be done through international work to address this alarming issue.
"The lesson enabled pupils to learn about wider global issues that affect them directly, and also to reflect upon the impact on those people who are providing the food that we might eat." Citizenship teacher
In Geography, pupils looked at packaging from different food items and considered the distances that some foods are transported and examined the issue of sustainability. They were given opportunities too to reflect on food waste. Have a look below at the food waste data from the Gloucestershire Joint Waste Committee Performance Report for 2016/17:
Our Head of Humanities, Miss Lillington, is currently on a sabbatical, travelling and teaching around the world, but she also engaged in The World's Largest Lesson whilst in South East Asia. She had the opportunity to plan and deliver some workshops on the Sustainable Development Goals to some of the older students at grass roots aid organisation Helping Hands in Cambodia. Read more...
