At Renishaw Primary School, we strive to educate our students about the world around them, making them aware of their role as a ‘Global Citizen’. We understand the importance of being globally aware, reflecting on our actions and how they impact the world around us. Through a creative curriculum, we make meaningful links with the world around us both locally and in a wider context. We aim to educate children about issues faced around the world and help them to discuss, debate and innovate their own ideas around these issues. We use different areas of the curriculum to weave in Global Learning and use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to generate ideas about how we can improve our world for the better.
What is Global Learning?
Global learning is essentially education for a fair and sustainable world. In other words, a world free of poverty where all human beings are treated with respect and dignity and where individuals, communities, businesses and countries behave in a way that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Key global learning concepts include poverty, global inequality, social justice, sustainable development and global interdependence.
Global learning helps pupils make sense of the increasingly globalised, complex and rapidly changing world in which they live. It enables pupils to think critically about world issues and to develop an awareness of the impact our own actions can have on others. A holistic approach to global learning equips young people with the essential knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions that will enable them to realise their potential and make a positive contribution to our world.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
The 17 SDGs are integrated – that is, they recognise that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Through the pledge to Leave No One Behind, countries have committed to fast-track progress for those furthest behind first. That is why the SDGs are designed to bring the world to several life-changing ‘zeros’, including zero poverty, hunger, AIDS and discrimination against women and girls.
Everyone is needed to reach these ambitious targets. The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve the SDGs in every context.