For the first time in history, schools across the world will join together at the end of September to deliver The World’s Largest Lesson; educating students about the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using resources co-created by teachers and education specialists.
The World’s Largest Lesson, delivered in partnership with UNICEF and with the support of TES Global and Education International (EI), is part of the Project Everyone initiative led by the campaigner Richard Curtis. The initiative aims to communicate the SDGs, after they have been announced by the Secretary General of the UN in September, to seven billion people in seven days.
Calling on the expertise of teachers to develop these resources, Project Everyone has launched a competition that invites teachers to submit exciting lesson plan ideas to a special area of the TES website. The winning lesson ideas will be those that are most highly rated by other teachers. Winners will have their lesson plans published as a global set of learning resources on The World’s Largest Lesson website, to enable teachers to craft a relevant lesson on the SDGs for the children that they teach. A winning teacher will be invited, along with their school, to take part in a filmed lesson event with a visiting celebrity.
“The World’s Largest Lesson will be the biggest collaborative education project the world has ever seen,” said Richard Curtis. “By working in association with TES and Education International, Project Everyone are drawing on the unique creativity that the teaching community have in building understanding of difficult issues amongst children. This will be an opportunity for teachers to become recognised for their outstanding talent and indispensable expertise on a worldwide scale.”
All lessons will be supported by a short animated film (with an audio equivalent) by Sir Ken Robinson which will explain why the goals exist. It will convey the idea that everyone on the planet is part of a wider team and that the new SDGs are essentially a ‘to-do’ list for the planet, created and to be achieved through teamwork across all countries.
For more information on The World’s Largest Lesson, or to find out how to get involved, please visit www.tes.co.uk/worldslargestlesson. Teachers are invited to submit lesson plans by the competition closing date of April 17. Lesson plans can then be peer rated and reviewed until May 1.