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Nelson Mandela – one of the world’s most respected public figures – will celebrate his 89th birthday on July 19.
As a leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, he helped to make history by creating a multi-racial democracy in the country. He won the Nobel Peace prize in 1993 and was also the country’s first black president.
Find out more about Nelson Mandela’s life and achievements with our resources. They help you to explore the events of his life through the differences between his own autobiography, and biographies written about him. This is also a great opportunity explore the history of apartheid and segregation, and to cover rights and diversity topics in your classroom.
> Resources about rights and social justice
> Resources about equality
The Live Earth concerts are nearly here! On July 7 there will be 24 hours of music dedicated to raising awareness of climate change. The concerts will take place in over eight countries, and are estimated to reach some 2 billion people worldwide.
Many of the 150 acts playing at Live Earth will be popular with your students. The Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Clarkson, Madonna, Razorlight, Kanye West, and Snow Patrol have all added their names to the Live Earth bill. What better time to start teaching about climate change?
> Oxfam resources on climate change
> Practical Action resources about climate change
In July 2005, millions of people united to demand an end to global poverty. Over 36 million people from 70 countries – including 250,000 people at the UK’s march in Edinburgh – called on world leaders to make poverty history.
It’s now two years later, and there’s still a lot to be done. You can teach about this historic moment, the progress since 2005, and what’s needed to tackle global poverty today with our materials on the Make Poverty History campaign.
7 July will be the mid-point of the Millennium Development Goals. World leaders have promised to halve world poverty and provide universal access to primary education by 2015. They need to work much harder to keep on track and ensure the goals are achieved on time.
Our poster competition is an ideal way to bring the key global issues around the MDGs into your classroom. Help your students to design posters about the goals and they could win some fantastic prizes! Every school that enters will receive free resources, and winners have the chance to visit Oxfam’s headquarters – and have their work displayed on Cool Planet!
Across the UK there will be arts, cultural, and education events to mark Refugee Week 2007. By celebrating the huge cultural, social and economic contributions made by refugees, Refugee Week is a powerful positive message about the diversity of our society.
Many young people struggle to fully understand the reasons why people have to leave their countries. We’ve brought together resources to help you explore these issues in your classroom. By promoting positive educational messages about refugees you’ll be helping to dispel the fear and prejudice that sometimes surrounds them.
Climate change is happening, and it’s increasingly part of our lives. Oxfam’s new free online resource will help you teach about this complex topical issue.
Exploring both the causes and effects of climate change, Climate Chaos highlights the impact that climate change might have on the world’s poorest people. Using activities based around pupils’ everyday lives – such as what it takes to produce a packet of cereal – pupils can explore their own use of fossil fuels and what they might do to reduce it.
You can also use the resource to run an excellent active citizenship project , with ideas to help pupils draw up an action plan for reducing the whole school’s use of fossil fuels. . The cross-curricular activities are useful for teaching Geography, Science, English S&L, PSHE/Citizenship, Art & Design and ICT.
Climate change is probably the most important issue affecting the world in the lifetime of our pupils. June 5 is World Environment Day making this the perfect time to teach about climate change with our new resource.
From Aberystwyth to Addis Ababa, pupils from around the world are busy JOINING UP. You can read some stories from UK schools on the Send My Friend website.
There was disappointment at the outcome of a special conference held in Brussels on 2 May to discuss how much money rich countries will pledge for education. World leaders came with their notebooks but not their chequebooks.
A group of children from Kenya, Uganda, India, Colombia and Germany did a brilliant job making the case for education, with a powerful video and by speaking directly to delegates at the start of the meeting.
We still need your help to persuade the G8 to go further at this year’s summit in Germany. Please make sure that any chains you have made get sent to Chancellor Angela Merkel before the summit opens on 6 June.
To mark the mid-point of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) we’re giving away some fantastic prizes in our new MDGs competition. Help your students to design a poster about the MDGs and they could win the chance to come to Oxfam House and have their work displayed on Cool Planet. Every school that enters will also receive a free poster set.
By 7 July 2007, world leaders should be halfway towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals – goals they've set to halve poverty by 2015 – but there’s a still lot to do. It’s vitally important that we keep pressure on world leaders to ensure they deliver their promises.
Entering the competition offers your students the chance to have their say about why overcoming poverty and suffering is important. They will also get the chance to explore key global issues such as the right to education, the need to protect our environment, and the fight against malaria, HIV and AIDS.
Did you get involved in Make Poverty History in 2005? Would you like to teach about whether world leaders are delivering on their promises to the world’s poor? This year’s G8 meeting provides a great opportunity to use a current event to tackle important global issues like the right to education and the importance of fair trade rules.
The leaders of the G8 countries made some big promises about ending poverty in 2005. Though some of these promises were kept, most have gone unfulfilled. On June 6th 2007, the G8 leaders are meeting again in Germany. They must do more to: make world trade rules fair; provide more and better aid; deliver debt cancellation; improve global healthcare and education provision; and prevent the world’s poorest from suffering most from the world’s changing climate.
We have pulled together a collection of resources on the key issues concerning the G8 meeting this year to help you teach about the continuing fight against global poverty, and important global issues.
The National Council for Educational Research want to hear your thoughts about the issues in education that matter to you. As part of a pilot survey project, they want to hear from Primary and Secondary teachers in England, and gather views and opinions about the future of education. If the pilot is successful, NFER hope to roll out the omnibus survey across the whole of the UK.
The pilot project will run through June 2007 and offers you the chance to have your say about the important issues affecting education and the teaching profession.
Saturday the 12th of May is World Fair Trade Day 2007. Not only is it a great opportunity to organise an event in celebration of Fair Trade, but it also provides a great way to get the issues surrounding world trade into your classroom.
This year’s theme is ‘Kids Need Fair Trade’. Fair Trade helps low-income households earn a decent living, so they don’t have to send their children to work. It allows children improved access to clean water, sanitation, health care, and education.
Becoming a Fairtrade school is just one way to celebrate the benefits of Fair Trade. It involves just five simple steps, and allows your students to make a real difference to the lives of farmers and workers in developing countries. Oxfam also has lots of resources to help you teach about Fair Trade and its impact.
Everyone has the right to education. By forming a human, virtual, or paper chain in support of the Global Action Week for education, you’ll be ensuring world leaders know they need to do more to make education for all a reality.
80 million children across the world cannot go to school, the majority of whom are girls. Education is a basic right, and also plays a crucial role in reducing poverty and promoting gender equality.
The Global Action Week is nearly here. The GCE website has lots of classroom resources - designed by Oxfam experts - to help you teach about the issues involved. Generation Why, Oxfam’s website for young people, also has a fantastic quiz to test your pupils’ knowledge of access to education around the world.
The Geographical Association has presented Oxfam with a Gold Award for our free website, Mapping our World!
The GA Awards recognise a significant contribution to the teaching of geography, and the esteemed Gold Award is given to the best entrant across all award categories.
The site was a big hit with the GA judges who praised it for superb use of ICT, being easily understood by students of all abilities, and uniquely contributing to pupils’ understanding of the differences between maps and globes. They were unanimous in their support of Mapping our World, recommending that “every geography teacher uses and enjoys this site today!”
Mapping our World is a free online resource that helps pupils aged 8 and above to explore the difference between a map and a globe, learn the names and locations of continents and countries, and understand how different map projections affect our perceptions of the world. Designed for use on interactive whiteboards, it is also suitable for use on PCs.
We’re thrilled to be able to add a GA Gold Award to the BAFTA received for Mapping our World in November. If you haven’t had a chance to do so already, why not see what everyone’s talking about?
From the 18 th of April, Oxfam will be touring the country and offering you the chance to find out more about our work to end poverty and suffering. Come to one of our many Oxfam Live roadshows where you can find out firsthand what Oxfam does and why we do it. Have your say about issues that matter to you, question one of Oxfam’s Directors, and hear inspiring speakers from around the world. It’s a great chance to meet other Oxfam supporters, and get more involved.
The Oxfam Change programme offers 35 young people (aged 18-25) the opportunity to receive specialist training for campaigning on development issues. If you’re a teacher under the age of 25, or if you think your sixth-formers might like to get more actively involved with Oxfam, the Change programme is a great way to find out more about our campaigns and learn some useful new skills. At our specially designed 5-day residential training course in Bristol from 03 – 07 September 2007, you’ll learn everything you need to know to make an impact in the fight against poverty and suffering.
Pupils will love learning about food by exploring the lives of two children: Yamini, from India, and Luis, from Mexico. Our new free online resource for 5 to 9 year olds is a great way to explore core food-related topics such as healthy eating, whilst also bringing the global dimension into your classroom.
Using vibrant photographs, cross-curricular activities, recipes and country profiles, these free activities draw out the connections between pupils’ own lives, and those of children from around the world. By helping pupils to recognise similarities with their own experiences, the activities help to build pupils’ empathy and to combat prejudice.
These activities have been adapted from Oxfam’s new print publication, Our Food, Our World. This photopack introduces Jordan, AA, Thembe, Luis and Yamini, five children from very different parts of the world (France, Thailand, South Africa, Mexico and India). Comprising a 64pp teachers booklet, 32 full-colour photocards, a CD-ROM, an A1 poster, and full curriculum links, this pack gives you everything you need to teach about food at ages 5 to 9.
Why not bring the world into your classroom with Oxfam's newest resources today?
The theme of World Health Day 2007 is ‘global health security’. In an increasingly interconnected world, threats to health know no borders. Diseases such as HIV and AIDS cause untold suffering to those affected whilst also threatening the stability of regions and countries. Only by collaborating can governments hope to safeguard the health and security of all peoples around the world.
World Health Day 2007 is a great opportunity to educate your students about the serious threats to global health posed by diseases such as HIV, AIDS and malaria. Access to safe drinking water, sanitation and health care also pose considerable barriers to health in developing countries.
Oxfam has resources on health topics such as maternal mortality, childhood disease, and the fight against HIV and malaria, to help you get involved with this year’s World Health Day.
An innovative project called Developing Citizenship has lots of great ideas for helping you develop the global dimension in Citizenship, both in the classroom, and across the whole school and wider community.
The result of collaboration between Oxfam GB, UNICEF UK, Save the Children UK and three Development Education Centres across England, this project worked with five Local Authorities and 16 Secondary Schools between 2002 and 2005. The project supported schools to develop concrete ideas to make the most of a global dimension.
The results are now on the Teaching Expertise website, and provide fantastic ideas about how to bring the global dimension into your classroom, along with ideas for developing students’ participation. There are case studies and benchmarking materials to inspire and support your work - and ensure your pupils are equipped with the knowledge, skills and values they need for life in the 21st century.
On the 25 th of March 1807, the slave trade was legally abolished in Britain and its colonies. The injustice of slavery inspired an unprecedented public outcry, and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was the result of years of hard work by campaigners. Through lobbying, boycotts, petitions, and judicial challenges, abolitionists achieved this important step toward the total abolition of slavery in 1833.
The bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade can be readily incorporated into curriculum areas such as History, Geography, English, PSHE and Citizenship. You can use this opportunity to teach about the history of the slave trade, the abolitionist movement, the legacies of the slave trade that remain today, and the persistence of slavery in the form of forced and child labour.
There are lots of ideas about how you can mark this historic event on the Global Dimension website, and Anti-Slavery International, which formed in 1839, has an excellent resource about the history and legacy of the slave trade. Oxfam also has a range of resources for teaching about human rights and social justice.
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reaffirms the importance of combating racism. Established in honour of 69 South African protestors killed at a peaceful anti-apartheid demonstration in 1960, this day reminds the international community of the need to work harder to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.
Education is one powerful way of tackling discrimination and prejudice. By promoting values such as equality and respect, and encouraging understanding in your classroom, you will be helping to teach your students about the importance of diversity. Oxfam has lots of resources to support you in doing this.
Every other year, Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day activities help to focus attention on poverty and social injustice in both the UK and Africa. This national extravaganza provides a great opportunity to get global issues into your classroom.
Red Nose Day will undoubtedly excite your students. This is a fantastic opportunity to introduce them to important global issues such as aid, trade and debt, whilst also helping them to understand some of the causes of poverty and injustice. No matter which age group you teach, the Red Nose Day website has some great ideas for lessons on the issues involved. We’ve also collected some of Oxfam’s best resources for teaching about aid, trade and debt in the classroom.
By 2015, world leaders have promised that all children will have access to primary education. By joining the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) and asking world leaders to Send My Friend to School, your students will be helping to ensure that world leaders deliver on their promise.
This year, the GCE hopes to create the world’s longest chain in support of primary education for all. Send your paper or online chains to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor and Chair of this year’s G8. JOIN UP! and show world leaders just how many children and teachers want every child to go to school.
Taking part in the JOIN UP – Send My Friend to School campaign is also a great opportunity to explore global issues in your classroom. Oxfam education experts have created over 30 free lesson plans and activities to help you examine the issues and explore the actions that are needed.
On March 1st 2007, the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition will celebrate its first birthday. This organisation is committed to creating a public mandate for political action on climate change.
Oxfam is part of this coalition because rising world temperatures put hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people at even greater risk of severe drought, flooding, starvation and disease. Developing countries will be affected by climate change out of all proportion to their contribution to it. They are feeling the effects now.
As a teacher, you can play a central role in the creation of this mandate for change. By educating young people about the causes and consequences of climate change, you will be helping to empower a generation to act for a more just, secure and sustainable world. Oxfam has resources to help you do this.
Simple changes to what you buy can make a huge difference to peoples’ lives. Fairly traded products improve livelihoods and strengthen businesses; they benefit whole communities and offer producers in developing countries security and justice. Fairtrade Fortnight provides a great opportunity to teach about unfair trade rules and to get the issues surrounding global poverty into your classroom.
You can also join the global struggle against poverty by helping your school to become a Fairtrade school. With five simple and inspiring steps, you’ll be helping your students to get their voices heard, and bringing important global issues into the heart of the school. And if you live in Wales this decision could be even more momentous - by becoming a Fairtrade school you’ll be joining a movement of people committed to making Wales the world’s first Fairtrade country!
Fairtrade Fortnight is sure to get your students talking. You can help them to take positive action too. Oxfam has been working on Fair Trade issues for 40 years and we have plenty of resources to help you to teach about Fair Trade issues this March.
The J8 is a young people’s version of the G8. It gives young people a unique opportunity to come together and tell leaders of the G8 nations what they think about global issues.
By participating in the J8, young people have a chance to work with students from 15 countries, to develop their understanding of global issues, and to make their voices heard. Competition winners will represent the UK at the J8 summit in Germany this summer. Last year, the winners even had a special 45-minute audience with all the G8 leaders!
The J8 competition also provides a great opportunity to encourage your students to be active Global Citizens, and to teach about global issues in your classroom. The J8 website has fact sheets, exercises and games, and lesson plans with ideas on how to do this. And why not use Oxfam’s resources to help your pupils explore the issues?
LGBT History Month celebrates the hidden histories of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. In doing so, the month breaks through the wall of silence that often surrounds those who don’t conform to conventional notions of sexuality and gender.
As a teacher, by bringing the history of the LGBT community into your classroom, you will be enacting a powerful message of tolerance and understanding. Educating for equality helps to foster a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere, into which all children will feel accepted, and able to celebrate the differences they will meet inside and outside of class.
Why not teach about the importance of diversity this February? The following resources will help you:
January 07
JOIN UP to Send My Friend to School!
Every year, 80 million children miss out on school because of poverty. JOIN UP! the new initiative from the Global Campaign for Education, is calling for teachers and pupils to join up and form the world’s longest chain, so that world leaders can see how many people want every child to go to school.
Oxfam’s education team has developed a package of 30 teaching and learning activities for the campaign, to help you examine the issues in your classroom and explore how we can bring about change. Aimed at children aged 8+, these activities come with background information, photos, and children’s stories, and all take an Education for Global Citizenship approach.
Inspire and educate your pupils with these exciting activities!
January 07
New for 2007 – Catalogue of Resources for Schools
Oxfam’s mail order Catalogue for Schools 2007 contains more than 400 excellent teaching materials, specially selected by Oxfam’s education experts. All the resources listed, produced by Oxfam and many other publishers, support a global approach to teaching and learning, and help teachers empower pupils to understand their world and make a positive difference.
This year, the Catalogue includes more than 70 new titles for early years, primary and secondary teaching, as well as two new sections containing resources about School Linking, and Active Global Citizenship.
For copies of the Oxfam Catalogue, teachers should contact Oxfam on 0870 333 2700 or email education@oxfam.org.uk.
You can also browse and order resources securely online at www.oxfam.org.uk/publications.
January 07
Request an Oxfam School Speaker
Our speakers can help pupils aged 8 to 18 explore a range of topics, including poverty, health, education, and the work of Oxfam, as well as the ways in which they can make a positive difference to the world.
Oxfam School Speakers can also advise you on resources and support for bringing a global dimension to your teaching – why not request a Speaker today and find out what they can do for you?
Find out more about how to request a School Speaker.
January 07
16-25 year olds wanted!
Oxfam is looking for six fun, creative, committed 16-25 year olds to join its Youth Board from April 2007.
As a Youth Board member, they will play an important role in advising Oxfam on the best ways to reach out to other young people around the UK and encouraging them to get involved with Oxfam.
We ask for a two-year commitment from members to ensure the board can make a real impact, attending three Board meetings a year and undertaking small amounts of project work.
The closing date for applications is Wednesday 31 January 2007.
There will be an interview day at Oxfam’s head office in Oxford on Wednesday 28 February.
For more information and an application pack, please go to the Youth Board pages on the Generation Why website. You can also find out what it's like to be a member of the Youth Board from former member, Adam Askew (above).
