Skip to content ↓
In the eyes of God, every child matters, every moment of every day

In the eyes of God, every child matters, every moment of every day

Courageous Advocacy ~ We make a difference

Courageous Advocacy is at the heart of our curriculum, here at Buckden CE Primary Academy.

As a Christian School it is part of our Ethos to support those who are in need. Luke 3:10-11 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”

We teach a curriculum that is based around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 goals were defined by the United Nations to tackle the world's biggest problems by 2030. Hundreds of millions of people do not have enough food to eat; women still earn less money than men and have fewer rights; plant and animal species are rapidly vanishing; fossil fuel energy resources are declining; and the gap between the rich and poor is getting wider.

As a school we work together to ensure that sustainability is considered at all points and becomes embedded in all that we do. We have looked at what we can do to meet the goals within our school and community. We have reached out to support and encourage other practitioners to consider teaching a curriculum similar to ours through the Ely Diocese and Anglia Ruskin University. We have made connections with The British Council and are working with them to learn from schools in other countries how they are teaching about the SDGs

Some further ways which our school is sustainable
 
  • We held a Green Day to raise money to be able to plant a heritage orchard on our school playing field with the support of the Sustainable Food Trust. We have recently underplanted these trees with a variety of native wildflowers to create a bee highway across the school field
  • We have a track around our school field to allow the children to walk daily which is made of recycled tyres
  • Our PTA raised nearly £18,500 pounds so that we could replace the playground equipment and seating with equipment made from recycled plastic
  • We have a school allotment in the village in which we grow a range of produce
  • We use a recycled products from home and a recycling centre to purchase resources for art and design technology projects
  • We are creating a wild flower areas using recycled tyres and pipes as planters around our school

The goals allow us to look at these most pressing global issues, giving our children a voice to discuss them and to be part of the solution both now and in the future.

We encourage our children to be courageous advocates for others through our 'Think it, Believe it, Live it' philosophy and recognise when our children come up with solutions to help those in need with the Courageous Advocacy Award. We feel that this proactive approach is helping our children to flourish as future citizens.  Some of the awards given have been for raising awareness about the homeless and supporting them through inviting Three Pillars into school to share their mission, a food collection and bake sale to raise money for the charity. We have had a class hold a second hand uniform sale, as they were concerned about fast fashion and the amount of clothing entering landfill.

Also, as a whole school we are very proud to support many charities over the year, these include local, national and international charities. Our children are encouraged to help choose the charities we support, in many instances these will be linked to the sustainable development goal of focus that term. School Parliament and Collective Worship team will then present these, which gives the children opportunity to be part of democratic decision making. In Year 6 the children have the opportunity to organise a fundraising event of their own during ‘Enterprise Week’ where they choose the charities they support, again democratically with a vote.

Charities we have supported
 

See below some of many charities we have supported previously.

NSPPC is regularly supported as part of their national campaign.

A number of our families made up Christmas boxes for the Samaritan Purse Operation Christmas Shoebox Appeal.  We collected 93 boxes in total which were taken to our local collection point to be distributed.

Image resultWe supported the annual ‘Children in Need’ appeal.  The day before the appeal we he had a visit from Pudsey Bear.  On Children in Need Day we came to school dressed in spots and raised £373.46.

At our Harvest Assembly in September all children brought an item to donate to the Godmanchester Foodbank and we are pleased to say that an amazing 202 kg of food was donated, a brilliant effort by everyone involved.

macmillan-coffee-morningWe held many ‘Coffee Afternoons‘ to raise money to support the tremndous efforts of our Macmillan Nurses.

RACE FOR LIFE-COL [Converted]We run the  ‘Race for Life’ event on the school playing field, bi-annually and this is organised by Miss Lizell our Sports Coach. We always raise an amazing amount of money It is fantastic achievement and thanks go to our school community for their continued support.