New ESD Programme
In September 2012 a new volunteer, Laura Río Fernández, propose to create a group of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), which would reinforce one of the objectives of the organisation “To raise awareness throughout Northern Ireland (NI) about the issues of sustainable development”.
Tools for Solidarity has already had a Development Education Group that had gone underground for 5 years. This group was the responsible of the creation of a didactic resource pack in topics related with sustainable development called “Aid for a Sustainable future”, in which different schools from Belfast have been involved. Now we have the opportunity to re-established the educational activity with new core challenges. The group has changed its name to Education for Sustainable Development as we think it fits better with the philosophy of the organisation and coincides with the actual terminology of UNESCO.
Education for sustainable development is a tool which allows every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future.
The first step has been the creation of a report called “Education for Sustainable Development in TFS” which justified the creation and implementation of the group, including new objectives and challenges. One of the new aspects of the group is the creation of a didactic programme which could be implemented inside the classroom with primary schools and youth associations in Belfast and the elaboration and design of this programme has been the key work of the group.
In particular we started focusing our work in the areas “The world around us” and “Personal Development and Mutual Understanding” in the Key Stage 2 age range from 9 to 11 years old thus matching some of the general objectives of the second stages of the primary curriculum. The methodology that we use to develop the programme is to visit the schools for three or four sessions of 60 minutes and delivered over three/four consecutive weeks. In these sessions we explore the following aspects of the sustainable Development:
1 - Poverty and Inequality
2 - Exploitation of natural resources
3 - Critical thinking and the impact of our lifestyle on a global scale
4 - A practical example: Fair Trade
The methodology inside the classroom is dynamic and participatory in order to help students to build critical learning step by step, starting with a general understanding of sustainable development and building up to more concrete knowledge and understanding about our actions and their impact on the world.
The ESD put emphasis on communication with the community. The ESD has worked already with youth associations from Belfast, secondary schools with special needs from Belfast (Loughshore school) and Downpatrick, after-school clubs and several primary schools in Northern Ireland.
Looking ahead ESD expect to keep working with more primary schools and look for new target groups and challenges. We invite all the schools or youth associations to contact us for more information!
Tools for Solidarity has already had a Development Education Group that had gone underground for 5 years. This group was the responsible of the creation of a didactic resource pack in topics related with sustainable development called “Aid for a Sustainable future”, in which different schools from Belfast have been involved. Now we have the opportunity to re-established the educational activity with new core challenges. The group has changed its name to Education for Sustainable Development as we think it fits better with the philosophy of the organisation and coincides with the actual terminology of UNESCO.
Education for sustainable development is a tool which allows every human being to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future.
The first step has been the creation of a report called “Education for Sustainable Development in TFS” which justified the creation and implementation of the group, including new objectives and challenges. One of the new aspects of the group is the creation of a didactic programme which could be implemented inside the classroom with primary schools and youth associations in Belfast and the elaboration and design of this programme has been the key work of the group.
In particular we started focusing our work in the areas “The world around us” and “Personal Development and Mutual Understanding” in the Key Stage 2 age range from 9 to 11 years old thus matching some of the general objectives of the second stages of the primary curriculum. The methodology that we use to develop the programme is to visit the schools for three or four sessions of 60 minutes and delivered over three/four consecutive weeks. In these sessions we explore the following aspects of the sustainable Development:
1 - Poverty and Inequality
2 - Exploitation of natural resources
3 - Critical thinking and the impact of our lifestyle on a global scale
4 - A practical example: Fair Trade
The methodology inside the classroom is dynamic and participatory in order to help students to build critical learning step by step, starting with a general understanding of sustainable development and building up to more concrete knowledge and understanding about our actions and their impact on the world.
The ESD put emphasis on communication with the community. The ESD has worked already with youth associations from Belfast, secondary schools with special needs from Belfast (Loughshore school) and Downpatrick, after-school clubs and several primary schools in Northern Ireland.
Looking ahead ESD expect to keep working with more primary schools and look for new target groups and challenges. We invite all the schools or youth associations to contact us for more information!