Global Neighbours Award

We are delighted to have been awarded the Global Neighbours Bronze Award, which highlights our commitment to Global Learning. We are now the proud recipients of this, and the International Schools Award. 

Bollington School’s Work Tackling Global Poverty

From recycling, saving energy and walking to school pupils and staff at Bollington St John’s Primary School have been working hard to take their place as global citizens.

Bollington St John’s Church of England Primary School has achieved Bronze Award status in Christian Aid’s Global Neighbours scheme in recognition of its wide-ranging steps to love their global neighbour.

The accreditation scheme celebrates schools that are helping pupils learn about global poverty and the Christian responsibility to tackle it, as well as giving them the tools to play a confident part in creating a fairer world.

Headteacher, Melanie Walker, said: “We are thrilled to be recognised for the work we have done as a whole school community to raise awareness of the extreme inequalities across our globe and perhaps more importantly, the steps we can take to address these. The pupils learn about global issues regularly and gain an understanding of injustice in our world. Our Ethos Group and School Council have written to local shops including Tesco to question them on their policies and practice relating to exploitation and injustice, linked specifically to climate change.

“We have a link with schools in Uganda, China and Romania. Pupils in Romania have worked with our pupils learning about the Sustainable Development Goals, making Plastic Pledges together. This work was shared with town councillors and the mayor who likewise made pledges. Pupils have been learning about examples of people who faced adversity and overcame this to be courageous advocates for change. These stories have challenged the whole school community to think about how each of us can make a difference in our local community and globally.”

Alison Brown, Global Neighbours Schools Programme Officer at Christian Aid, said: “The Global Neighbours Scheme was launched in partnership with the Church of England’s Education Office with a vision of helping young people understand more about the inequalities in this world and helping them to become courageous advocates for those who have no voice.

It’s wonderful to see how staff and pupils at Bollington St John’s have taken this to heart and are seeking to tackle injustice."