Yesterday, children from our school councils got together to discuss how to tackle some of the issues they care about for London. They were supported by the team from Free the Children. The children first heard about how Free the Children came about: how a 12 year old in Canada,Craig Kielberger, happened to read about a young Pakastani boy, Iqbal Masih, a former child factory worker who escaped his employer and spoke out against child labour. Iqbal was murdered for speaking out. Craig went into school and told his class about Iqbal and started campaigning to stop child labour. Craig’s movement is now a worldwide social action group, showing children how they can make a difference. Our children worked in mixed school groups to put together SMART plans they could carry out, to make a difference in topics they cared about:
to end homelessness: pupils pay a contribution to take part in a weekend sleepover in school to support a charity that is helping the homeless: classrooms are themed and decorated, there are fun activities for children to take part in and the children invite someone from a homeless charity to join them and tell them about how their action will help.
to help people with cancer: a sports day where schools come together across Lambeth and parents pay to attend the event to support a Cancer Charity. The event would take place in a Lambeth park.
to promote anti-racism: schools set up art workshops where they make anti-Racism t-shirts. They contact a t-shirt maker to ask for t-shirt donations. Children also write poetry about anti-racism that is performed at school assemblies.
to support the homeless: children hold cake sales and make posters in school that can be printed up and displayed around Brixton.
It was inspiring to see children working together to bring about change, and to be able to put together SMART action plans to support their aims.
The Brixton Learning Collaborative 