Global Citizenship : a taste of Uganda

At least 12 primary schools experienced a “taste of Uganda” during   the year 2003 - 4, thanks to the Millennium Commission and the charity, Link Community Development, who jointly organised and funded the third year of the “Global Teacher” scheme.   Under this scheme, three Gloucestershire primary school teachers joined seventeen others from around the UK in spending five weeks of their 2003 summer holidays working in rural primary schools in Masindi District, Uganda.   On their return, they have all been involved in follow-up work in Global Citizenship in primary schools and community groups within Gloucestershire.

Mary Jeans, one of the Gloucestershire teachers, described the experience of spending five weeks working in a Ugandan village school and living with a local family as simply   “one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of the whole of my personal and professional life”.   And she has endeavoured to impart some of that excitement to the approximately 600 school pupils and 30   members of staff with whom she has worked since her return – not to mention the pupils' families who have visited exhibitions of work and attended performances based on the project.   She has also been involved with the Woodcraft Folk group in Stroud.

The folIow-up work started with a major Year 5 cross-curricular theme at Kingsholm C. of E. Primary School in the Spring Term involving Literacy, Dance, Drama, Art, Design and Technology, Geography (“a contrasting locality”) and ICT, as well as PSHE.   A Ugandan artist was enlisted to help with story-telling, drama and making water pots and drums; and the theme focused on the lives of two particular Ugandan children with whom the Gloucestershire pupils could readily identify.   This was followed on with an equally ambitious and creative cross-curricular project with Year 5 pupils at Tredworth Junior School , a two week multi-cultural arts project with Year 5 and 6 pupils at Whitminster C. of E. Primary School and some work on recycling and making toys out of scrap at Harewood Junior School as part of their Year 6 theme, “Our Diminishing World”.

These projects have helped to raise Gloucestershire pupils' levels of awareness, empathy, understanding and respect for children whose culture and life experiences are very different from their own. And this enhanced awareness and respect was not limited in its scope to the children in far-off rural Uganda,   but   also extended to some of the children in the Gloucestershire schools whose ethnicity and life experiences meant that they could contribute from their own first hand knowledge to the topics under discussion, and thus had their own cultural identities affirmed.

The Kingsholm C. of E. Primary School planning is available on this website, together with photographs from that school and from Whitminster C. of E. Primary School.   Mary Jeans is willing to assist other schools with the planning, implementation and resourcing of such projects, and can be contacted at CIRCLE on 01452 427262.