Gateshead schools honoured as good citizens

Mayor of Gateshead, Councillor Maureen Chaplin, presented 17 schools with Impetus Awards at a ceremony held at the Dryden Centre in Gateshead recently.

Impetus is a youth award programme of the Institute for Global Ethics UK Trust, which recognises and celebrates the work of young people in human rights and good citizenship, and is supported by Gateshead Council.

Each school was assessed against five criteria, including the exploration of their rights and responsibilities, their creative application, the whole school involvement, community engagement and reflection.

Councillor Catherine Donovan, Cabinet member for children and young people at Gateshead Council, said: “It’s really important that children in Gateshead have an awareness of global issues and know about human rights and responsibilities.

“These awards encourage pupils to develop the confidence and courage they need to be better citizens and eventually shape successful communities in the future.”

The winning schools are:

Bill Quay Primary School - African Mercy Ships
During “Africa Week” pupils from the school researched what things were needed in Africa. They then carried out various fund raising activities to provide books for a church library in Liberia and medical aid onboard the mercy ships.

Crookhill Community Primary School - S.O.S. Child
Pupils sponsored a child called Lighton Vantongo from Uganda. In order to improve the quality of Lighton’s life, the pupils organised fund raising events. As a result the children found out a great deal about Lighton and Uganda.

St Alban’s Catholic Primary School - Becoming a Fairtrade School
The school’s aim was to become a “Fairtrade School” in order to relate the rights of the children to Fairtrade. As well as setting up a Fairtrade shop in the school, ensuring that everyone can access fairly traded goods easily, the school has gained an award for its efforts from the Fairtrade Foundation.

Winlaton West Lane Community Primary School - All Creatures Have Rights
Children decided that all creatures have rights and wanted to help animals, as well as children. The pupils raised money to buy a community tap and herd of goats to help children in poor countries have clean water and food to eat. They also sponsored a dog and had a class sale to raise money for Oxfam.

The Cedars Sports College - Adopting Matilda
After deciding that they would like to do something to help animals in danger, pupils organised a toy and book sale and a coffee morning to raise money to sponsor an elephant in India, called Matilda. The pupils were encouraged to make decisions throughout the project to make them aware that they have a right for their thoughts to be heard and taken into account.

St Agne’s RC Primary School - Keeping Safe, Anti-Bullying Project
The pupils decided to explore the issue of bullying and raise awareness throughout the school and community. They researched the different types of bullying, why people are bullied and very importantly how to deal with it if it happens. The project was carried out largely by Year 5 but involved the whole school, staff, headteacher, governors and children of another school.

Clover Hill Community Primary School - Bridging The Generation Gap
Children wanted to develop a greater understanding and respect for the older generation. They invited older people into the school to share their experiences and skills. Help the Aged and Age Concern were contacted and links with children’s grandparents were developed.

Oakfield Infant School - Sponsor a Child
For the second year, the school furthered its commitment to an adopted orphan, Matthew, from Malawi. Fund raising has taken place to provide Matthew with £200 a month to support him.

Glynwood Community Primary School – the PSHE Award
The PSHE Award is based on the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. It requires pupils to be dedicated, disciplined, learn new skills, keep fit, work as a good team member and develop an overall greater sense of responsibility around school. To win the award, pupils were encouraged to get involved in the life of the school such as helping in the dining halls, running the dried fruit stall and doing monitor duties.

Kells Lane Primary School - Engine Lane Park Project
The project was to develop the park close to the school. Damaged equipment covered in obscure graffiti did not make the park a place to play – so young people avoided it. Teenagers gathered there and left litter, bottles, cans etc. Neighbours on three sides felt it unpleasant to view and were afraid of these evening visitors. The children revamped the park with new equipment and a garden area established by the children themselves.

Fell Dyke Community Primary School - Sponsoring One to Benefit Many
“Hands of Love” is an orphanage and school in Uganda that looks after more than 200 children. Most of the children sleep on the floor with little or no bedding and very few have adequate clothing. They rarely have enough to eat and suffer health problems. Pupils wanted to help and raised enough money to sponsor a teacher and buy classroom equipment to benefit the pupils.

St Aidan’s Church of England Primary School - First Aid for Beginners
Keeping yourself and others safe and healthy is a very important human right, so the children decided to look at First Aid. The children experienced treating a range of conditions such as choking, fainting and bleeding and are now able to put someone in the recovery position. They also considered communicating with a casualty, how to cope in an emergency and how to complete a primary survey.

Portobello Primary School - Making Friends in Gambia
The School Council decided to support children and their education in Gambia. Each class took a part of life in Gambia and based their “Harvest” assembly around it. They also collected hundreds of McDonald’s toys for the children in Gambia and raised money to buy valuable teaching resources.

Ryton Community Junior School - Fabulous Fair Trade
The project was designed to make children more aware of the issues around ‘Fairtrade’, and to encourage them and their families to buy more “Fairtrade” items. Children carried out a survey with parents about their attitude towards Fair Trade products. The school introduced a Fairtrade tuck shop with profit to help people oversees.

Caedmon Community Primary School - Children of the World
To enable children to appreciate and value different cultures, they carried out research into various cultures and gained recognition and respect for the diversity of their school community and the community in which they live. Pupils carried out a variety of tasks based around thinking skills and designed and created a tapestry to be displayed in the school entrance.

Swalwell Primary School – Student takeover day
To give children the opportunity to see what it is like being in someone else’s shoes, they took over the role of the teachers for the day. The children organised all teaching for the day, which enabled them to appreciate the demands and responsibilities of a teacher’s role.

Highfield Community School – Highfield Buddies
The project was based on a buddy system, where children supported the lunchtime supervisors by befriending other children. This helped to reduce bad behaviour in the classroom.