Our students and staff from across the globe recently came together in London for the Global Student Forum, part of the Nord Anglia Education Global Classroom experience. Nord Anglia Education students were exposed to the complexities of the global food crisis and through a range of seminars and experiences, were encouraged to think creatively about solutions.
Global Classroom Summit: Hungry for Justice June 2012 - Global Classroom: Nord Anglia Education students are Hungry for Justice
Our students and staff from across the globe recently came together in London for the Global Student Forum, part of the Nord Anglia Education Global Classroom experience. Nord Anglia Education students were exposed to the complexities of the global food crisis and through a range of seminars and experiences, were encouraged to think creatively about solutions.
The Global Classroom summit was organised in association with Damaris Trust and Apple. This gathering of students from across the Nord Anglia Education family is an integral part of our Global Classroom programme, and is specifically designed to develop students’ concern for society, inquiry and risk taking.
The Global Student Forum
The Global Classroom summit was organised around the 2012 Global Student Forum: a one-day conference entitled ‘Hungry for Justice’ organised by Damaris Trust. For the first time, Nord Anglia Education students joined over 700 UK sixth formers to engage with politicians, development practitioners and campaigners to look at ways to bring about change to the global food crisis. The students heard from key experts such as scientists and economists about the issues of food poverty, leading to an extremely lively debate on some of the problems, and potential solutions. “The complex problem of world hunger was distant to me until I attended the Global Student Forum,” said Maria Vajda, year 12 at the British International School, Bratislava. “Now I feel involved and know that I can make a positive difference.”
The Global Classroom summit
A full programme was developed either side of the Global Student Forum. Highlights of the programme included the students visiting the UK Houses of Parliament, a question and answer session with UK and EU government aides, meetings with representatives from UK food and international development charities, and a private tour of Westminster Abbey. Julie Hutchinson, year 12 at The British School, Warsaw said: “I had never seen London from this perspective before, so to go to very privileged parts of Westminster Abbey, to see the House of Commons and the House of Lords was something I didn’t actually ever expect to do in my lifetime.”
Supporting Partners
Apple iPads were used to document every detail of the Global Classroom summit, with Nord Anglia Education students capturing their thoughts, photographs and video footage. During a workshop at Apple’s European HQ, students then used their footage and personal reflections on the issues to develop iBooks, iMovies and Keynote presentations to use as materials within their school.
Future Challenges
The final challenge for the students who participated in the summit is to share their learning with up to 1,000 of their peers, within their school and local community. Equipped with the skills and resources to share their learning, they will be embarking on a peer education programme during the 2012 Autumn term, having a direct impact on the lives of many Nord Anglia Education students across the world. Anna Watkins, Modern Foreign Languages Teacher at the British International School Budapest was one of the teachers participating in the Global Classroom Summit. Speaking about the students, she said: “They’ve had their minds opened to a lot of new ideas on the topic of hunger. I suspect the students thought they knew quite a bit about it already, but now they’re definitely discussing and reflecting a lot more.”
