Tag Archives: Development Education

Biodiversity Flag 2017

Well done to our Green Schools Committee for all their work on achieving our Biodiversity flag.  Some of the committee members collected our fifth flag at the award ceremony in Claremorris on Thursday 11th May.  The aim of our committee is to create more awareness for students, staff and the wider community on how their lifestyle choices can affect the environment and to ensure that Ballinamore CS remains a green school.  The environment committees have worked throughout the years to achieve the following green flags:

Litter & Waste (Awarded 2009) Energy (2011) Water (2013) Travel (2015) and Biodiversity (2017)

Next year we will begin working on achieving our sixth flag which will be for Global Citizenship – Litter & Waste. In addition to this, our committee continues to work on the other five areas in order to renew them and ensure Ballinamore CS remains as environmentally friendly as possible.

 

Visit to the Irish Aid Centre 2017

On Wednesday 26th April the TY class visited The Irish Aid Centre as part of their Development Education module this year. Check out Joely McGovern’s account of how they got on…Irish Aid Workshop by Joely McGovern

The Irish Aid Centre works to reduce poverty and hunger, especially in Sub Saharan Africa where the needs are greatest. Our visit involved firstly finding out more about the organisation and watching a clip about a girl in Africa. The clip showed Memory’s typical daily life as a 16 year old. This was a very good clip as we got to see how tough hr life was and she never once complained and was always smiling. She had to get up before school every morning and do all of her chores and then when she went to school there were no tables, chairs or even books. She talked about the importance of education and why she continued to secondary school. After the video clip we took part in a role play game where we were people living in a small rural village in Africa. For the game we were put into teams of three and we each got an envelope with a number of food cards. The aim of the game was to try and build up your food cards. I loved this game as it was fun and educational. We had to answer questions or take part in scenarios that saw us gain more food cards  or assets like blight resistant potatoes, tractors, irrigation systems etc if we were lucky. During the game we realized how important tractors and irrigation systems are to these communities and how important blight resistant potatoes are if a drought hits the region. We take our food for granted and it showed me how important the availability of food is for people in this part of the world.

 

Self Help Africa Workshops 2017

Thank you to Hugh Bergin from Self Help Africa who visited our school during the year to give a series of workshops to 1st, 2nd and TY students. The workshops explored issues such as gender inequality in our world, climate change and the role that we can all play in achieving a fairer society. This workshop tied in with topics students were studying in classes such as CSPE, English,  Home Economics and Science and Religion.

Science Gallery FIELD TEST Exhibition

‘Our ability to produce food and products for growing populations on a finite amount of land with limited resources is unquestionably one of the great challenges we face globally. It may not be foremost in our minds when we do our weekly food shop but the decisions we make as consumers and digesters can be critical influencers in the way these challenges play out’ (Science Gallery)

As part of the Development Education module in school TY’s visited the Science Gallery in Trinity College to check out the exhibition that is currently running. The exhibition was very interactive and thought provoking in relation to the area of radical adventures in future farming. Sustainability, biodiversity what type of plants and animals we grow in the future, the use of mycotecture bricks in building (bricks grown from fungi like mushrooms), bee protection, home grown in vetro meat, city farms, insects as an alternative protein food source were all some of the topics discussed during our visit. Our focus this year in school was to look more at the idea of food sustainability both locally and globally and also food security through development education classes so this exhibition helped consolidate the ideas discussed in class.

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Development Education in Action – MDG Book Publication

As part of our work with Self Help Africa our school got involved in the publication of a book around the area of Maternal Health to link in with our exploration of the Millennium Development Goals.

Students (Keely Doonan, Sorcha Gilheaney, Sarah Doonan, Eimhinn Quinn, Sorcha McGrath and Abbi Sweeney) some staff (Ms Reynolds & Ms Cooney) and parent (Eunan Sweeney) submitted either a poem, reflection or illustration on the area of Maternal Health.  Students got the opportunity to investigate issues around child mortality and maternal health and the effects globally. We also displayed the submissions in the canteen for the wider school community to see. The book is now published and available to purchase through www.selfhelpafrica.org

 

Transition Year students also visited the Irish Aid Centre in Dublin as part of their development education module. The workshop began with a short presentation on the work that Irish Aid carry out in helping developing countries and then students took part in an activity which highlighted the inequalities and issues that exist in certain parts of the world through a role play based in a rural village in Africa. A short video clip showing what the reality of daily life in a typical village is like also cemented the information learned at the workshop.

Concern Hunger Hero Certificates

Transition Year’s undertook a variety of activities around the area of world hunger and food poverty for their DE Module. They participated in a CONCERN workshop on the area of World Hunger and learnt more about how people in developing countries are affected by lack of food. Another activity they undertook was the St Vincent De Paul Christmas Food Appeal where various food boxes were donated in school and helped those in need on the lead up to Christmas. This was part of their work during Social Awareness Week. The final activity students took part in was the Concern Fast prior to Christmas (along with some of the Junior students) where the total amount raised for Concern was €857.66 . Well done to all the students in school who participated in the fast and helped raise a fantastic amount for Concern.  As a result of their effort and work in this area they were each awarded a Hunger Heroes Certificate from Concern in recognition of their commitment to understanding more about this topic.

Self Help Africa Workshop

As part of DE (Development Education) in school this year and to tie in with this years focus theme (World Hunger) the TY’s participated in three workshops over a three week period led by Dorothy Jacob and her daughter Jess who both work with GORTA- Self Help Africa. Workshop 1 – set the scene of the inequality that exists in our world that we all share. Students began to see their own world as part of the problem and part of the solution to Global Inequality. Workshop 2- focused on the lives of rural farming families and the issues that have driven them into a cycle of poverty. Water, land, trees, gender equality, farming and access to seed, trade and markets for their produce were just some of the issues explored. Workshop 3– students gained a deeper understanding about Climate Change and Fairtrade and began to realize what actions they could undertake to make a difference and create a better and fairer world.

Concern Workshop on World Hunger

As part of  the Development Education (DE) module being carried out in school the Transition Year group participated in a workshop on World Hunger which was facilitated by Claire O Carroll from Concern. Some shocking facts learnt –

1 in 8 people in our world will go hungry today!

Women do 66% of the world’s work, produce 50% of the world’s food but only earn 10% of the world’s income and own 1% of the world’s property…. and 60% of the world’s hungry are women!

A child dies every 12 seconds from hunger related diseases!

Students are working towards achieving their Hunger Hero Certificates for work carried out in our DE theme of World Hunger and Food Poverty.