A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CITIZENSHIP TEACHER By Michelle Codrington On Wednesday 29th June I was invited by Education International to join a High Level Panel at an event organised by UNESCO at their centre in Paris. In September 2022, the UN have called a Summit of world leaders to discuss the importance of prioritising education. This is in response to the impact of Covid on the education of children and young people across the world but also due to Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education for all. As a teacher I became active in the teacher trade union NASUWT and I have been very well supported by all the head teachers I’ve worked with at Cherwell from the days of Jill Judson to Mr Price. Cherwell is a school that has always understood that we are more than teachers and we have energy outside of the classroom that we are able to share with our students. As a Citizenship teacher, I believe strongly that as teachers we can show our young people that they have a voice that matters and that not everyone has to be famous like Greta Thunberg. From 2018 to 2022 I was elected to become a National Officer of the NASUWT and have the unique experience of being the National President from April 2020 to April 2021, becoming not just the first ever lockdown President of the Union, but also the first Black National President in 101 years. This year I was elected as the Honorary National Treasurer and I’m proud to say that I still teach, mainly KS3. Coincidently the time I received the invite to join the panel was just as Year 7s were finishing a unit on the Sustainable Development Goals and some have written emails to the Secretary General of the UN. During the pre-summit, Education International were making sure that teachers and educators are central to the UNESCO call for ‘Transforming Education’ and that the 150+ Education Ministers from across the world understand that without teachers there is no education system. As the only global organisation of education unions, they are the only voice for all teachers across the world. I was on the main stage panel “Transforming Education Together” – voices of diverse actors with Ministers of Education from Morocco, African Union Commission, China and the Norwegian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, the most thought provoking intervention came from Ms Tarcila Rivera Zea, (Executive Director, Centro del Culturas Indigenas del Peru). Her intervention was about the importance of children from indigenous and diverse communities to see themselves in their education. One thing we definitely all agreed on, is that children and young people deserve an education system that gives them more than academic achievement. Covid 19 demonstrated the importance of mental health as well as opportunities for social interaction. We also need an education system that prepares our young people for the world of tomorrow, with the necessary skills and ambitions to tackle inequality, the climate emergency and challenges to democracy. My main message to the conference was that when teachers are trusted and feel valued we will give our all to the children we teach. However transformative, however innovative the ideas that governments try to mainstream, they will be unsuccessful without teachers being involved in their design and implementation. It will end up as a tug of war between teachers and schools who know their pupils and their communities, and on the other side politicians wanting to trial new ideas pulling the other way. I was only able to speak for 3 minutes but I was the only intervention that received a standing ovation from the floor.
Page 8 SUMMER NEWSLETTER 2022 © The Cherwell School, Opportunity, Responsibility, Excellence
