Quakers in Britain develop resources to support children and young people to develop the skills and understanding we all need to be peacemakers, whether in our own lives or in the wider world. Linking to the curricula of England, Scotland and Wales these lessons and resources combine fun with critical thinking about issues of peace and justice. Produced by Quaker Peace & Social Witness
Quakers in Britain develop resources to support children and young people to develop the skills and understanding we all need to be peacemakers, whether in our own lives or in the wider world. Linking to the curricula of England, Scotland and Wales these lessons and resources combine fun with critical thinking about issues of peace and justice. Produced by Quaker Peace & Social Witness
The theme:
This lesson asks a simple question: should we make polluters pay? In exploring this global citizenship question, students will encounter a wealth of cross-curricular learning experiences and outcomes with learning for sustainability at the heart.
Teachers can curate a lesson by choosing from 24 activities covering numeracy, literacy, speaking and listening, creative expression, science, geography, critical thinking, mapped onto the curricula of England and Scotland and Wales.
Learners will encounter concepts including the polluter pays principle established at the Rio Earth Summit in 1990 and the loss and damage fund established at COP27, and use images and data to understand how these ideas apply around the world.
Structure:
The activites are structured in four sections:
Introductory stimulus | by encountering the Make Polluters Pay exhibition and forming personal responses, students begin to consider the themes of the lesson.
Teacher explanation | a series of explanatory activities helps students formulate enquiries and understand the background issues such as climate change, loss and damage and the “polluter pays” principle.
Developing understanding | a menu of activities help learners consolidate and deepen their understanding of the difference in responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, evaluating who should pay.
Conclusion and expression | students use their own judgement and creativity to express their views on a fair way to help people facing loss and damage.
Why teach this lesson?
In 2022, governments across the world agreed to establish a loss and damage fund to compensate those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. The term “loss and damage” describes the irreversible harm climate change is causing to people and communities. To this day the loss and damage fund remains significantly underfunded; this is why campaigners are on the streets chanting “make polluters pay”.
Campaigners are calling for the fund to be filled with money from those that caused the climate crisis. Based on the “polluter pays principle”, the idea is to tax polluting companies, utilise this revenue to fill the fund and help those facing climate catastrophe.
These lesson materials are based on an exhibition that has toured the UK and has helped people understand and engage with the issue of loss and damage. This exhibition uses examples from around the world to illustrate communities facing painful loss and damage alongside exemplifying voices that have inspired hope and lead to positive change in the face of the climate crisis.
This lesson will enable cross-curricular learning of sustainability , unpacking the polluter pays principle which signifies an opportunity of hope and justice during difficult and uncertain times, discussing and evaluating the polluter pays principle can provide a starting point in helping to tackle climate anxiety among students.
Ukraine and Russia are at war and a humanitarian crisis continues. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to answer the question, will you fight?
In this lesson, learners will use perspective-taking to grapple with the ethical challenges faced by Ukrainians and Russians sent to war whether they wanted it or not. They will gain knowledge of the chronology of the conflict, international law and practise empathy and critical thinking.
These resources are a sample from a larger pack Quakers in Britain and EAPPI UK & Ireland exploring human rights and peacebuilding among Palestinians and Israelis.
Learners compare a range of boycotts from history including Irish resistance to colonial landlords, the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses and the boycott of apartheid South Africa. They will explore what makes a boycott just or unjust as a tool of social change.
Using this insight, learners can then examine the modern “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions” movement aimed at changing Israel’s human rights policies. Learners will evaluate whether the movement is just and nonviolent, or racist and antisemitic as some have argued.
‘The Two Mules’ is a simple cartoon that can be used in education to explore the themes of conflict and co-operation. Here we provide suggestions and guidance on using the story interactively online or in-person. The content can be used at primary and secondary level.
Learn about:
the need for communication in conflict
win:win solutions
Deeper questions of power in conflict
This lesson is produced by Quakers in Britain. It is a collaboration with Potent Whisper, a London based rapper and Spoken Word artist, and Child Rights International Network.
The lesson introduces the new piece, The Rhyming Guide to Joining the Army! and give students the opportunity to respond to it as unseen poetry to support their English Literature study. The poem also raises important citizenship questions about under 18 recruitment to the armed forces and the way it is promoted to young people.
We’re also really grateful Woodcraft Folk for previewing the video with us and providing an exemplar discussion, blending citizenship and literature in the video discussion provided.
In this lesson, learners will explore and evaluate different peacemaking efforts at the government level and by Palestinians and Israelis at the grassroots.
The lesson takes a close look at the history of the Oslo peace process, but also at bottom-up peacebuilders from Palestine & Israel.
This is lesson 6/6 based on the Razor Wire & Olive Branches learning pack (2019), produced by EAPPI UK & Ireland and Quakers in Britain. The resources are being released to aid online learning. Order the full pack from the Quaker bookshop.
Learners will get to grips with the concept of nonviolence by looking at the choices and actions of Israelis and Palestinians in conflict.
This lesson is based on the Razor Wire & Olive Branches learning pack (2019), produced by EAPPI UK & Ireland and Quakers in Britain. The resources are being released to aid with online learning. Order the full pack from the Quaker bookshop.
In this lesson, learners consider the impact of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for Palestinians and Israelis. The learning materials provide to ways to approach the question: by looking at international law, and by looking at the lives of Palestinians and Israelis through case studies.
This lesson is based on the Razor Wire & Olive Branches learning pack (2019), produced by EAPPI UK & Ireland and Quakers in Britain. The resources are being released to aid with online learning
**Lesson 3 of 6 sample lessons from the Razor Wire & Olive Branches pack.
The history of conflict in what today is Palestine and Israel is a complicated, but in this lesson helps students can get to grips with it. The main resource here is a timeline, but there are lots of ways for students to engage with it.
The activities can help to learn the chronology of key events, but also start to evaluate their significance. More than that, it is a chance to reflect on how identity informs the way we see history. What are our parallel narratives?
As the Treaty on the Prohibtion of Nuclear Weapons comes into effect (22 January 2021). The resources are being released free online to aid with online learning.
In this lesson, learners will explore what weapons have been banned from war, why, when and how. It could be a great spring board for moral and global citizenship discussions and links well with British Values, particularly Democracy and the Rule of Law. Learners will also practise their skills in debate and writing to argue, exploring whether Britain should follow the TPNW.
What rules would you give an armed drone if it could think for itself?
Drawing inspiration from robots in science fiction and the
real world, this workshop explores the ethics of robots and ultimately of of automating warfare.
It uses Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics to pose the question, what rules would you give a robot? Should drones be allowed to decide when to kill?
How do war and the armed forces affect our lives? What is it like to join the military? To be trained? To experience armed conflict? What are the risks? What is the effect on everyday life? Using comic books, video, quizzes, maths and critical thinking, learners can explore these questions individually or as a class.
Hear from British veterans about the challenges they’ve faced
Useful for careers advisors who want students to get to understand what joining the military could mean
Learners practise a professional risk assessment
Analyse multimedia content from War School and the British Army
Reflect on what too much militarism may mean for society
More at war.school for the whole film
Aim: Learn about the different factors that cause insecurity and how we could make the world safer.
Learners will draw on numeracy, speaking and listening and critical thinking skills to explore this citizenship question: do we need to rethink security?
Beginning by exploring the idea of security- what makes us safer and what makes us feel safe? Learners will progress by evaluating and quantifying risks that face us today including knife crime, spiders and climate change, before asking what the priorities should be.
All the content and notes are included in the slide show.
Part of the Rethinking Security project .
This is a creative way to tackle controversial questions surrounding Remembrance, the armed forces, war and militarism.
This attractive poster and the accompanying activities elicit debate and discussion about the reality and ethics of military involvement in British society. Armed Forces Day is a particularly relevant time to open up this discussion in your Citizenship, PSHE lessons and meet your SMSC requirements. It also lends itself to Philosophy for Children sessions at primary or secondary.
Everything shown is ‘real’ - something that does happen on the streets of Britain.
We’ve provided the resource as a PDF, an image and a clickable webpage (meaning you can click on individual parts of the image and see a related video, report or news story; students could explore this individually or be led through it on an a whiteboard.
You can order printed hard copies (free, just pay postage) from the quaker bookshop.
We’ve also suggested a range of activities to elicit interesting discussion in the attached document.
“The best thing we’ve ever done together as a school community”
Moya Richardson, Associate Head Teacher, Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School
This whole-school resource pack contains everything staff and pupils need to explore how they can build a peaceful world. You can then develop the attitudes, values and skills needed to create it. Your Peace Week can be run at any time. It can be an exciting way to start a new term, or a positive way to celebrate the end of the school year.
Includes:
*curriculum linked content for Scotland, Wales and England
tools to help you organise
lesson plans
resources
staff training materials
Peace Week was created by the Quaker Peace Education Programme with help from schools.
To end all wars?
This INSPIRE project plan is for a 30-minute introduction to World War I Remembrance. It can be used as an assembly or at the beginning of a poppy-making workshop. You could use it during Remembrance or, better yet, for thinking about peacemaking in your school. It also contains a challenge: what will you do to make peace in the next 100 years?
The content can be used with ages 9 and above. The follow-up poppy-making activity is for all ages.
2020 NOTE: The Collateral Damage Project is now over but, people are doing window displays of white poppies and posting online
Aims:**
**
to explore the history of war from World War I to the present day
to inspire action to prevent war and build peace
(extension) to make a poppy as a symbol of Remembrance for peace.
This assembly asks an exciting but serious question for children. Can if ever be right to be disobedient? It uses the true story of Franz Jägerstätter, who refused to join Hitler's army in World War 2. The story is gradually revealed to the young people in stages, giving them a chance to decide what they would do.
This fun assembly from the Teach Peace pack explores the ideas of conflict, cooperation and compromise through the simple story of two mules. A great way to start talking about conflict not just as a danger, but as an opportunity.
From of the Peace Education Network
This interactive assembly from the Teach Peace Pack explores whether walls build peace using examples of real walls and barriers from different times and places including , the peace lines of Northern Ireland, the barrier around the Palestinian West Bank and oxen lining up to defend their young.
Follow-up actvities also allow learning to be deepened in the classroom.
Produjced by the Peace Education Network
In this assembly, students will explore 4 different ways the world could be made safer and vote on the best way.
With $1.7 trillion spent on the militaries of the world, the International Peace Bureau and many other organisations question whether we would be safer by spending the money on other things.
Everyone in the assembly will get a chance to vote on how to spend the £45 billion which currently makes up the United Kingdom Defence Budget.
A full lesson plan involving more maths and debate is also available.