I’ve been spending some time back in my element in primary schools and I’ve loved it!

I was asked to be part of the First Give Primary pilot programme and what an absolute privilege it has been.

First Give is a charity that currently works with hundreds of secondary schools across England and Wales but they have just started piloting a programme designed for children in only a handful of primary schools.

Children in year 5 and year 6 know a lot more about the world than you may think! Their knowledge of social issues around their areas is both impressive but sad.

They only have to walk to school and are aware of homelessness, gangs, feeling unsafe, animal cruelty, vaping, alcoholism & food poverty.

Lots of children were passionate about sexism in sports, underage vaping and feeling scared to walk home on their own.

Children have such an awareness of what is around them. They are incredibly observant and understand what issues exist outside their school buildings.

They knew of these issues but were not sure what they could do to help. That's where I came in. The students learnt all about social needs and what happens when people don't have what they need. This helped them to understand why some issues start.

We then looked at little things they could do at school to start with such as raising awareness through posters, delivering assemblies to other classes and presentations. Some children took it further and made games for the younger children to play, had a bake sale to raise money for a chosen charity and others started donation boxes.

Young people really are the ones who have the power, but we as adults, have the ability to inspire and shape their productivity when it comes to social action work!

All children need is a little push and support to get started. They have the ideas, the creativity and the passion to want to help and do something about the issues in the world we live in.

July 17th 2024