Global Neighbours
In January 2020, our school was awarded with a Bronze Award from Christian Aid’s Global Neighbours Scheme for our amazing global citizenship work!
From working with our local MP about food poverty in Bournemouth; to donating food for local people, we have been working hard to take our place as good local and global citizens. We 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 who 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.
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.
At our school, pupils learn about global issues regularly and gain an understanding of injustice in our world. We have a very active school Parliament, and our parliamentary Ethos Committee, worked throughout the lockdown to support the injustice of loneliness for disabled people in a local care facility. The school worked closely with Shelley Park Rehabilitation Centre in Bournemouth, to reduce the vulnerable peoples’ feeling of isolation and loneliness. We also carried out fund raising, to support people to have specialist equipment so that were enabled to have fuller, more satisfying lives.
At a national level, MSJ works regularly with the YMCA with both local and national projects. At a local level, we support the local branch with their homeless project, by gaining a deeper understanding of homelessness, but also by raising awareness throughout the community of the hardship of being homeless. In addition, we also collect personal care products, warm clothes and blankets for distribution to local homeless people.
The school has strong links with the Salvation Army and the Red Cross. Both of these organisations offer practical help to people without discrimination and stand up for those who are vulnerable. This is the same ethos that we at MSJ are committed to. Therefore, we regularly support both these organisations with on-going projects.
As a school, we want to empower our pupils to be agents of change, as we believe that everyone is equal in the eyes of God. We have developed an overseas link with a charity called ‘Stand Up and Build’. They provide the community of Muyinga in Burundi with essential construction skills. MSJ not only works alongside the charity Directors, but have raised enough money to build a toilet block for a local school there. In addition, we have regular communication with the pupils at the school, and continue to form a close working relationship with the community.
Our world is increasingly connected and our hope is for our children to grow as responsible global citizens who care about issues.
