Report from the Kirklees Local Forum
Tuesday 30 October at the Deighton Centre, Huddersfield.

Apologies:

David Hudson (School Effectiveness Service), Graham Thomas (Wakefield Advisory Service), Tom Beaumont (Thornhill J, I & N School), Jenny Hannon (Cowersley Primary School)

Organised by:

Adam Ranson & Phil Grayston (Leeds DEC) and Dick Palfrey (School Effectiveness Service)

1) We started off by showing a cartoon picture of New York with 2 new towers labelled 'Global Communication' and 'Global Education', and we asked the group to share their reactions. This led to a lively exchange of ideas and served as a useful ice-breaker. A lot of the contributions reappeared during the next activity, as described below.

2) We divided the participants into 3 groups and asked them to come up with answers to the question : 'What is our world like ?'

We came back together to gather the responses, which were :

Interconnected divided unfair culturally fragmented
Beautiful corrupt unsafe economically unjust
Worth sustaining polarised polluted spiritually lost
Precious racially segregated complicated religiously misunderstood
Diverse wonderful continual change
This world displays a philosophy of global white supremacy
This world is the only one we've got !

3) We asked the participants to go back into the same groups and to consider what skills, values, knowledge and attitudes we need to instil to create the kind of positive world/world society we would like.

Once again we reassembled to gather the responses, which were :

Values & Attitudes Knowledge, Understanding & Skills

Respect intercultural awareness
Tolerance intracultural awareness
Compassion an awareness of 'self'
Challenging injustice an historical, political & economic perspective
Self-esteem control of thought & action
Proactive attitude listening to others
Truth common ground of humanity
Honesty critical thinking
Inclusive attitude objective understanding of own culture
Respecting rights & responsibilities
Valuing/liking other people

4) Adam Ranson gave an overview of the process of the regional strategy. He explained where the DfID initiative is coming from, what it aims to do, the concept of entitlement to development education and also how this local forum fits into the consultation process.

5) Consultation :

The participants were divided up into 4 groups, different to the previous groups.

Group One discussed the question : What/where are the opportunities at the moment for delivering a global dimension to our children's education ?

Group Two discussed the question : What good practice is happening at the moment in Kirklees?

Group Three discussed the question : What are the main obstacles preventing schools from delivering a global dimension to our children's education?

Group Four discussed the question : What would need to happen over the next 10 years to enable every school in Kirklees to provide a global dimension in education?

We reassembled, and a spokesperson from each group reported back on their discussion. Additional contributions were made from participants from other groups. Here are the responses:

Group One

Opportunities:

• School assemblies
• Religious education
• Cross-curricular
• QCA schemes of work
• School ethos
• Befrienders
• Staff as role models
• PSHCE : Humanities
• Rewards and recognitions
• Waste management
• Committed people

Group Two

Current Good Practice:

International : exchanges, field courses, work placements, gap year exchanges, email links

Local: work placements, foreign language learning

National Curriculum Requirements :

• learning of distant locality
• globalisation (eg: of the fashion industry)
• learning of developing country
• introduction of citizenship
• Education for Sustainable Development

Extra-curricular:

• multicultural education
• multilingual signing
• artefacts and displays - positive images of different faiths
• workshops in schools with foreign artists (eg : African drumming, Japanese tea ceremony)
• artist(s) in residence

Group 3

First of all the point was made that it was not exclusively the job of schools to help children to become good global citizens.

List of obstacles:

• National Curriculum - lack of relative importance for global issues
• Lack of time in the school day
• Accountability - tests & exams, school league tables
• Lack of risk taking by teachers in changing the subject matter in core areas
• Low status of non-core subjects in schools
• Lack of resources and funding
• Lack of understanding by teachers

Group Four

What needs to be in place to ensure an entitlement to a global dimension for every pupil in Kirklees :

• A global dimension must be explicit and it must be a statutory requirement.
• There should be a person responsible for development education in every school.
• There must be funding and INSET to give support so that teachers feel confident & competent.
• Training is vital, both for existing teaching staff and for teacher trainees.
• The global dimension must be linked with society's values in the eyes of the students - ie: it must have 'street cred'.
• Society's values/expectations need to be upgraded.

After Group 4 had reported back the whole group of participants was asked for a list of 'demands' - things which must be in place for a credible, coherent and effective global dimension to be delivered to our children :

• The global dimension must be written into the National Curriculum
• The government must put 'teeth' into citizenship - ie: resources and funding
• There must be INSET for teachers
• The global dimension must be an integral part of teacher training
• There must be input from outside agencies
• Teachers must have less contact time, smaller classes and better administrative support
• There must be funding to encourage the recruitment of more teachers into the profession
• Time should be devoted to the regular investigation of global issues without the pressures and stress produced by exam worries, SATS and school league tables. If this is important then make time for it and do it properly

6) The following participants agreed to represent the Huddersfield Local Forum at the forthcoming Regional Forum :

Jane Davies (Batley Boys' High School)
Mary Clifton (The EMA Team)
Charlie Fisher & David Hudson (School Effectiveness Service)
Mick Callaghan (Huddersfield New College) - if he can make it.

7) Participants agreed to exchange email addresses to enable contact to be maintained. (not provided here).