For the past three years, NAISR have organised workshops on World Children’s Day (20th November). Each year, around that date, we invite our students to think about the importance of youth voice, in line with children’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). During these workshops, students have the opportunity to learn about their rights but moreover, to thoughtfully engage with the UNCRC and reflect on developing meaningful actions for themselves and their communities.
On Friday, 19th November the entire NAISR community wore blue to school to celebrate World Children’s Day.
In the words of Phillippa Tichotova, Nord Anglia Social Impact with Unicef lead for the European Region “It's not just a day, though, with the goal being to create a sustainable, youth voice presence embedded in school.”
This year’s World Children’s Day was linked to four key advocacy priorities: Quality Education, Climate Action, Zero hunger and Gender Equality.
Years 5 and 6 received a visit from guest speakers within our very own parent community.
Talya Enriquez who used to work for UNICEF, led a workshop on Climate change for Year 5, she explained what climate change is, the possible consequences of it and invited students to reflect on what can be done on an individual and collective level. Talya also presented young people who were actively involved in using their voice to protect the environment via Young Voices for the Planet. Reminding the students of their own voice.
Tatjana Scoggie who works for Ocean Cleanup , led a discussion session with Year 6 on how to actively work to find solutions to a global problem and make the world a better place. She used the example of Boyan Slat, CEO of Ocean Cleanup who saw a problem and is now solving this problem with his organisation. She then invited students to jointly identify one problem which bothers them and then to individually develop ideas to solve this problem.
The main goal being to empower them similarly as Boyan felt empowered.
Year 12 students, led by Kai Noppen (Year 13), organised workshops to raise awareness of the four key advocacy priorities in Secondary School.
In the Quality Education workshop, students had to separate into two groups and create an origami, however only one of the groups had the instructions, the other one did not. At the end of the activity, students were invited to reflect on what makes a quality education.
In the Climate Action workshop, students had to answer questions about Climate Action and then throw water bottles/paper/cans into a choice of 3 bins according to the answer they thought was correct (a,b,c). Once thrown into the correct bin the team that gets the correct answer wins house points. With this activity, students had to think about what little everyday gestures they can do to help the environment.
In the Zero Hunger workshop, students participated in a Kahoot Quiz to test their knowledge on the topic and learn more about the problem of Hunger in the world but moreover to learn what can be done to help at a local and global level.
In the Gender Equality workshop, students had to participate in a pay gap simulation. The groups were divided into “boys” and “girls” independently of their gender, then had to perform an obstacle course and answer trivia questions. After that, “boys” were given “double the money”(bean bags) for completing the course. At the end of the activity students were invited to reflect on what gender equality is.
At the end of the event, each participant was invited to write what they had learnt.
The NAISR parent community was also present, demonstrating their support of this event. The PTSA bake sale to raise funds for UNICEF was also a huge success! A special thanks to Deniz Koycu for organizing the bake sale and to Patricia Coleman, president of the PTSA for her collaboration in the coordination of our parent community to make this World Children’s Day a successful event.
To all participants, thank you!
Gül Uyar and Clara Diaz
NAISR Social Impact leads
