Bishop Aldhelm's CE

Primary School

Loved by God; United in Learning

Global Neighbours Award

In November 2020, our school was awarded with a Bronze Award from Christian Aid’s Global Neighbours Scheme for our amazing global citizenship work!

From recycling and writing to their MP about plastic pollution, to donating food for local people, we have been working hard to take our place as global citizens. We achieved Bronze Award status in Christian Aid’s Global Neighbours scheme in recognition of its wide-ranging steps to love their global neighbour.

The accreditation scheme celebrates schools that are helping pupils learn about global poverty and the Christian responsibility to tackle it, as well as giving them the tools to play a confident part in creating a fairer world.

We are thrilled to be recognised for the work we have done as a whole school community to raise awareness of the extreme inequalities across our globe and perhaps more importantly, the steps we can take to address these.

At our school, pupils learn about global issues regularly and gain an understanding of injustice in our world. Our Green Team has worked hard to encourage all of us to recycle and reduce single use plastics in school. We have taken part in a food waste campaign, supported by Sainsbury’s, which has enabled all of us to reflect on how much we waste and also to begin to make lifestyle changes to reduce waste.

We have developed overseas links to enrich the life of our school and help pupils to ‘look outwards’. We have links with Cherbourg in France, Poole’s twinned town, and pupils have visited to learn about life there. We also have links with schools in China and have set up a cultural exchange where Year 5 pupils have visited China, and we have had the privilege of hosting some of our new friends from China, here in Poole. Children in both communities have enjoyed finding out about how life is lived in another part of the world. Pupils have been learning about examples of people who faced adversity and overcame this to be courageous advocates for change. These stories have challenged the whole school community to think about how each of us can make a difference in our local community and globally. As a result pupils have been sharing their reflections on issues that matter to them via our newsletter, for example, Black Lives Matter; as well as writing to our MP to lobby about climate change.  We took part in Christian Aid’s scheme because it gives us a practical way of living out all our school values of love, inspiration, courage and uniy. 

Our world is increasingly connected and our hope is for our children to grow as responsible global citizens who care about issues such as the environment and access to healthcare.

Caroline Weir, Education Coordinator at Christian Aid, said: “The Global Neighbours Scheme was launched in partnership with the Church of England’s Education Office with a vision of helping young people understand more about the inequalities in this world and helping them to become courageous advocates for those who have no voice. It’s wonderful to see how staff and pupils at Bishop Aldhelm’s have taken this to heart and are seeking to tackle injustice."

GN Bronze Award

GN Bronze Award