The Bronze Global Neighbours Award
At Debden we are working towards the Bronze Global Neighbours Award. This is a Christian Aid Accredited scheme designed to encourage children to understand global issues, develop empathy and encourage responsible citizenship and explore how we can make a positive difference in the world.
A Global Citizen is someone who is aware of and understands the wider world and has empathy for others regardless of their nationality, religion or race i.e. an understanding that everyone has ‘rights’ and ‘responsibilities’.
A Courageous Advocate is someone who believes they can make a difference when the ‘rights’ of others are not being valued or ‘responsibility’ is not being taken. They will stand up for the rights of others (even if they don’t know them personally) when things seem unfair or unjust. They will encourage people to be responsible for their actions.
Courageous Advocacy and our school values
We aim to develop compassion and respect for people and communities all round the world.
We aspire to speak up for people all through the world. We will use our endurance to keep speaking up for people, fight for justice for everyone.
We will use our wisdom to understand where we need Courageous Advocacy. We will use our creativity to raise awareness and do advocate. use our creativity to raise awareness and do advocate.
Courageous Advocacy and The Bible
There are many examples in The Bible of encouraging everyone to be a good neighbour and look after and support one another. Neighbours are not just our physicalneighbours but everyone in the world and we as a school community are striving to consider our Global Neighbours as well as our community in the school.
Jesus gives his most important commandments in Mark :29 -30
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself. 'There is no commandment greater than these.”
This echoes a commandment from the Old Testament Leviticus 19:18
“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.”
The Parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37, tells of a Jewish man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho who is robbed and left for dead. A priest and a Levite, both men of his own people, pass by without helping. A Samaritan, a member of a group disliked by Jews, then comes upon the scene, takes pity on the injured man, and provides aid, bandaging his wounds, transporting him to an inn, and promising to pay for his care. The parable teaches that one's neighbour is anyone in need and that we should show compassion and love to all people, regardless of their background or our differences.
Our School Bible verse
Our school verse comes from the second part of the verse of John 10:10.
“The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life--life in all its fullness.”
We focus on the part "Life in all its fullness" which refers to living a life of purpose, meaning, and joy found in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, not merely material possessions or worldly success.
Global Citizens and Courageous Advocacy at Debden
Debden School has always been lucky to always have kind and considerate children that care deeply about our school community. We are now widening our learning to increase our good neighbourliness to other parts of the world; whilst retaining caring about our school and local environment.
During the academic year of 2025-2025 we had an many opportunities to learn about our Global Neighbours and Courageous Advocacy. Many of these things can be seen on our Facebook page.
Some brief examples include a visit to the school from Capt. Stewart who talked to the school about being part of a military family which is particularly important for our school as approximately half the children are from military families. He also spoke about being deployed to different parts of the world.
Black History Month
We observed Black History Month where Mrs Hatch led some fascinating assemblies and all the children had lessons relating to The Windrush. We also all enjoyed an assembly with steel drums then all the school had a go at playing the steel drums during the course of the day.
Bees
The Ducklings learnt all about bees and their importance in pollination and food production. They created a new flower garden and asked the school and village community for donations of plants and seeds. Their hard work paid off and they won the Rural Community Council of Essex’s Bee Good Plot competition.
Rainforests
Frogs class learnt about the Rainforest including deforestation and were inspired to hold a Green Day where everyone wore green and donated a pound which they then used to sponsor a rainforest animal with the WWF. They also organised a book swap to encourage the reuse of books where children bought in books they no longer needed in exchange for another book, thus saving paper.
Sustainable Clothing
Newts class had a project for a half term learning about the clothing industry and sustainable clothing. They were fascinated to discover where their clothes were made, having studied the labels. They learnt about the life of a t-shirt and what happens to clothes when they are finished with them. They came up with many creative responses but settled on holding a Sustainable Clothing Day where the school were invited to come into school wearing substantiable clothing, either hand me downs, upcycled, second hand or fairly-traded and were invited to walk the catwalk if they wished in assembly. They organised the donations of preloved loved clothes to take to Oxfam and money donations to the same cause. Oxfam were delighted and gave a certificate to the school.
Newts have also started to collect Christmas jumpers than can be sold at reasonable rates. This will encourage reuse and help children that do not have their own Christmas jumper.
Refugees
Kingfisher class learnt about migration and refugees. They found out about the lives of refugees from around the world and explored fictional refugees such as Paddington. We listened to an extract of a book called Pennies for Hitler by Jackie French where the main character escapes Nazi Germany in a suitcase. Many of the class (voluntarily) tried getting in a suitcase and the consensus was that they wouldn’t want to travel for many hours, without food, water or a toilet in absolute silence without any movement at all.
Miss Alina, an LSA at Debden, very kindly shared a very moving and informative PowerPoint describing her difficult journey from Ukraine to Saffron Walden which inspired a group of children to spend their free time making posters to highlight the war in Ukraine.
Kingfisher class have been working on some powerful responses to what they have learned and are producing art, poetry, stories and comic strips.
