Think Global has chosen Sarah Maile, from Sandbach High School and Sixth Form College, as the Winner of its
Global Educator of the Year 2015 Award, announced today. Sarah will receive the £500 prize money, and her school will receive two free places, worth an additional £1,000, on Think Global’s accredited six-week global learning course for teachers.
“This is such an incredible honour,” said Sarah on learning that she was the winner. “I’ll admit I had a little dance/cry moment. I am so grateful, humbled and surprised.”
Sarah is a Religious Studies teacher, and the Pupil Voice/Citizenship Co-ordinator at Sandbach High School. She was nominated by one of her students, who wrote, “Many students in her classes gain a better understanding of what human rights they have through her regular teaching of global, national and local issues. In addition she regularly gives up time to prepare and run assemblies based on these prevalent issues….Everything she does for our school and its pupils is admirable to everyone; she has influenced many pupils and teachers and will continue to inspire people wherever she goes.”
Aspects of her work as a global educator which particularly impressed the panel:
- As the school’s Citizenship Co-ordinator, she has run a Lower School Citizenship club for over 3 years and encourages older pupils to nominate others for the termly citizenship award.
- She has helped a Year 11 student receive an honoured position on the UN Council – she is the youngest member of the UN in the UK (and possibly the whole organisation).
- She has helped a Year 10 student became an MYP (Member of Youth Parliament) for Cheshire East.
- For 6 years, she has run a weekly Amnesty International club, educating students of 14 and above on issues such as persecution.
- For over 5 years, she has run another lunchtime club, SLOTHs (Shine a Light On Trafficking Humans), an anti-human trafficking group open for students of 15 and above. SLOTHs have run a successful local farmers’ market stall twice, written letters to every MP and Peer, and met several influential people, including Nick Clegg and CEOs of relevant charities. As a result of their campaigns, they won Campaigners of the Year in 2014
- She organised a trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica in 2013 for sixth form students which involved helping in local projects. A similar trip has been planned for July 2015; this time she will take a group of students to India to improve life for people of third world countries for a life changing experience
Sarah says she has been passionate about human rights and global issues ever since she can remember – a passion which was inspired by her mother. “I wanted to get a job to make a difference, and someone said that teaching could do this. Absolutely love it. Such an incredible job.” She feels that the campaigning work that her pupils are involved in “gives them a chance to not only express what concerns them, but widens their understanding of people. It creates mature young people. It shows that no matter how young you are, you have a voice, you can be heard”. And she’s not stopping there, she wants more: “More girls involved, more awareness raising, more money for the charities… This year, I want girls back down to parliament and start lobbying again, now that MPs have changed.” What an amazing, positive force for good she is!
You can follow Sarah and Sandbach High School on Twitter: @missmaile1 and @sandbachhigh
Tom Franklin, Chief Executive of Think Global, commented, “The panel were blown away by the breadth of the activities which Sarah undertakes as a ‘global educator’. There is no doubt that her work is going to have a lasting impact on her students for decades to come, and it is perhaps especially fitting that she was nominated by one of those students. Finding people like Sarah, and giving them the credit which they deserve, is just what this Award is all about.”
Think Global would like to congratulate all six finalists for their outstanding work as global educators, as well as all of the other educators who were nominated.
The other finalists are:
Monowara Gani from the organisation MADE in Europe (which stands for Muslim Agency for Development Education). Monowara, who was nominated by Sarah Javaid, her line manager, was awarded a Special Commendation.
“Amongst her achievements, Monowara has single handedly set up a global learning programme from scratch for the Muslim educational sector involving schools, youth groups and madrasahs (after school clubs run by mosques). She has developed first of their kind in-depth school and youth group curriculums on issues ranging from trade justice to the environment, global hunger and sustainable farming. These resources are completely unique because they approach issues from an Islamic perspective to make them relevant and accessible for Muslim communities.“
Richard Hatwood from Ysgol Esgob Moran school, Denbighshire, Wales. Nominated by his Vice Chair of Governors, Richard describes how several factors came together to lead him to become a global educator. “I took over geography as the lead teacher here, and at the same time the Education for Sustainable Development Framework was launched here in Wales. The children really seemed to enjoy the work, and it built on from there, with us doing more International Schools work and also making the most of the Olympic Games.”
His nominee said, “Richard has always had a passion and drive to ensure the children in his class leave him as responsible local and global citizens. He works tirelessly to develop the global aspect in school in a fun and creative way. Over the past four years he has led the school, ‘People, Places, Planet Week’ which helps the children to learn more about the world and the way that the world works through the framework for Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship. This always coincides with a Big Fairtrade Fotnight celebration which I am always proud to assist with. “
You can follow Richard on Twitter: @esgobmorgan
Sophy Silverstein and
Cordelia Cooper from Granton Primary School, London. Sophy and Cordelia were nominated by their Deputy Headteacher, Vicky Corbett, who says,
“Both colleagues have championed global learning within school and helped teachers to enrich our creative curriculum with meaningful and challenging topics and through working together with International partner schools to build strong reciprocal partnerships that we are all very proud of. Since applying for GLP Expert Centre status, they have shared their knowledge, skills and expertise with 16 schools and 30 teachers per session in outstanding twilights. They are now at the point where two of the netweork schools are considering applying for Expert Status. Both colleagues will mentor them to enable them to be successful. Their inspirational leadership of this project has resulted in more teachers attending each twilight which bucks the normal trend.”
Sophy and Cordelia work in a school where 44 languages are spoken. It already feels like a global community, and the children have loads of enthusiasm for the perspectives developed through the school’s involvement in the Global Learning Programme. Sophy and Cordelia support each other in delivering global learning; in bouncing ideas off each other they feel that what they deliver as a team is far bigger that what they could achieve individually. Global learning is great for engaging parents, but has engaged staff too. Teachers have learned different greetings in different languages; the school has books featuring a range of cultures. A partnership with a school in Tanzania has really inspired everyone; it is based on a real partnership rather than being ‘charitable’ – it’s about helping pupils in both schools explore differences and similarities, and understand each’s others cultures. Looking ahead, Sophy and Cordelia want to build the impact with parents, keep the project fresh and unique as well as embedding it within the school so it remains sustainable.
You can follow Sophy and Cordelia and Granton School on Twitter: @misscooper2014 @hiSophySilver @grantonprimary
Roz Artist from Cherry Grove Primary School in Chester. Nominated by Heather Swainston, the Director at Cheshire DEC.
Roz’s passion for global learning stems from her having spent some 10 years, after leaving university, teaching in both Taiwan and in Thailand, indeed – even setting up a school from scratch. On return to England she took a Masters in Global Education at the University of Chester, where she was very influenced by the role of global learning in inspiring students. She has involved her current primary school in evolving partnerships with schools in Yemen, Brazil and Egypt as well as UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools work. She says her pupils’ understanding of the wider world “has definitely increased… understanding both the commonalities between them as well as the differences... The children are taking control of their own learning, being active citizens; they feel valued and have agency.”
In nominating Roz, Heather quoted her pupils:
''Since Mrs Artist has come to this school she has improved the school because she has organised loads of exciting new projects and brought the school closer together. To be in her class was amazing because we explored loads of different cultures and learnt loads more about the world.' (Sophie)
'Mrs Artist has helped our school by introducing the Unicef Ambassadors and helping us to organise our respect campaign. We want everyone to respect each other at playtime and lunch time. She has helped us to improve this and make school safer.' (Nick)
Liz Roodhouse, the Coordinator of Craven DEC, who was nominated by Ruth Stacey, the Schools Carbon Reduction Officer at North Yorkshire County Council.
Liz describes how her passion for global learning began at university, where she studied geography. “One of the options was on West Africa, and the lecturer – the only female lecturer in the department – was a young woman who had just returned from West Africa. She inspired me so much I decided to go and teach in Sierra Leone for two years – and that changed my life. “ Being a global educator is not just a career for Liz. “It is my life. When I think about what I should do when I retire, I’m clear about one thing. I can never step out of it. I can never stop doing it.”
Ruth says in her nomination, “I have known and worked with Liz for the past five years I have spent working at North Yorkshire County Council. She is a font of knowledge on Global Education, fantastic fun to work with and very inspiring. We have worked together on many different teacher events and pupil sessions, most recently we planned and ran a pupil event for 80 pupils to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight. Liz ran a fantastic and innovative session helping primary pupils explore the Global links between Water, Fairtrade and Milk production in the UK which really got the pupils thinking.”
You can follow Liz / Craven DEC on Twitter: @cravendec
Sally Robbins from Pedmore CE Primary School, who was nominated by Fran Martin, her former tutor at the University of Worcester and more recently her research partner. Fran says,
“Sally’s influence as a global educator is both far reaching and profound. She has had an impact on her school, encouraging other members of staff to take part in The Gambia study visit, and she became a member of the senior management team leading on Global Learning; in 2006-7 Sally co-led the study visit herself, and on three subsequent occasions, as a result of which
she co-authored a piece on ‘Leading study visits’ with Ben Ballin; in 2013 Chaddesley Corbett became one of the first expert centres for the Global Learning Programme (GLP) with Sally coordinating the work. As part of her role in the GLP, Sally advises other schools, and wrote an article for Primary Geography (Spring 2013) on the challenges primary schools face when embedding global learning in the curriculum – specifically the issue of how to show and assess progression in critical questioning skills. Criticality is a skill that Sally possesses in spades. This is not to say that she is critical, but that she brings an analytical mind to global learning practices, and she aims to develop her pupils as critical consumers as well as producers of knowledge about the world. Having recently moved school, Sally is already working on plans to lead Pedmore Primary School on the Rights Respecting UNICEF initiative, as part of a review of the whole school’s ethos.”
About the Global Educator of the Year Award
This is the first year of the Award, which Think Global has established to celebrate educators who are helping young people to become good global citizens. Educators may be classroom teachers, teaching assistants, school governors, head teachers and anyone who works in the broader field of education, and nominations can be made by head teachers, parents, governors or even students. The panel – composed of representatives from Think Global, government, primary and secondary heads, and the British Council, were looking for people who are making a special difference in inspiring colleagues and/or students to develop a better understanding of the world and the role they can play in making it more just and sustainable.
