George Mitchell School Council: Citizenship Themes
Date: 25/03/03
Students' work on the site can only be viewed by the individual
student or by their teachers. We are ver grateful to pupils
at George Mitchell School who have made their work available
to visitors. Click on the links below. All the pupils' names
have been changed to their first names only.
The School Council: Citizenship
in Action
“I am in the school council because I help to improve
the school by taking notice of people's views and producing
it in a meeting.
I am also the vice chair person of year 8 which means that
I have to help to organise meeting s for our year 8 team.
This is part of Citizenship because we are learning to be
responsible and also respect others. There are children from
other countries at our school so it is really important that
we respect others and their culture. In the school we learn
about different cultures and sometimes we celebrate different
festivals.”
“In our school we are trying to improve our environment
e.g. lots of kids are dropping a lot of litter around the
school. We are trying to tell kids not to drop litter .There
are bins outside our school to help stop the rubbish overflowing.
Another e.g. is the school gates to protect us from intruders
but that means some kids can't get their lessons on time.
I think it good being a school councillor because together
we can help the school.”
“I was born in London, but my parents come from Pakistan.
At my school we try to take care of each other and I help
to do this in the School Council. I do better in my Maths
and Humanities because I listen and I concentrate. I like
this school because my friends are here and the teachers are
helpful.”
“In the school council for next years 7, I would like
to make them feel safe in the school and prevent them from
being bullied.”
“I'm writing about International Citizenship. Well
in my school I have helped a lot about the environmental status,
Like keeping the school playground clean: telling people not
to drop litters on the floor and picking up rubbish from the
floor. The school has different ethnic group. The school have
raised a lot of money for other countries or cultures by having
a non-uniform day in school where we get people to their international
clothes or clothes of some other countries. Whenever you were
these clothes you have to pay a maximum of 50p for the day.
This money was collected because it was sent to countries
that needed help in other facilities.”
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Social Exclusion
“I got chosen for school member and the people you
homeless than need help for the family you can than need support
and than begging for money the matter is than mate cold in
weather were can sleep want than do with you what to help
homeless people. It will be great to help them.”
“People think that homeless people are rude but the
kind of people you give money there are support”.
“Many teenagers across the UK, have been chucked out
or have left their homes, they have had no-where to go so
these people have turned to the streets. There are many shelters
across the UK, but there are not enough for the amount of
people living on the streets.
And now because of the war many more people will be homeless”.
“Hi. I am 13 years of age and I believe that we should
help all the, or most of the homeless people. They are cold
in the winter and are so hungry they have to steal to eat
or beg for money,they are so stressed out that they use the
money that they get and buy cigarettes.”
I am disgusted of the amount of homeless people on the street
trying to earn a living on begging people for money and scraps
of food. They probably have family but have just had a tiff
or have fallen out with them.
What we can do:
I think that we should help by donating money to them, its
not only people that are homeless its dogs as well. They are
with their homeless owners, they have nowhere to go and no
one to turn to. I think we could all help, if we tried hard
enough.”
Hi. What I am going to tell you about is homelessness. I
am going to show you my views on what I think homelessness
is like so here it is.
A lot of people everywhere through out the world are very
homeless. They have nowhere to live and have no food or drink
to survive.
Every time I go out somewhere I always see people on the
streets very ill and they start to beg. I don't think this
is very fair because I find it horrible seeing people like
that and sometimes it even scares me the way they act.”
“I think it's bad to see people homeless living on
the streets really ill. People are like this because sometimes
they run away from home because of their parents. Their parents
are not treating them very well all they keep doing is beating
them up and nothing else and so they run away and stay homeless.
The reason why I'm telling you this is because I had a friend
and this was happening to her all her life since she was five
she was living in fear of her father beating her up everyday.
Her mother had died when she was five years old and that is
how her father started beating her up. She never told anyone
but everyday she came in with either scares or bruises on
her face and arms. When I saw the marks on her face and arms
I always asked her and that is when she told what had happened.
So all I am trying to tell you people is that don't take
things for granted and don't just think of your self there
are people out there who need your help
So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help those people they need you.”
“In the UK there are thousands of people who are homeless.
By law every child is entitled to a home. So why are there
thousands of children on the streets? People see homeless
people as being tramps dirty people or drug dealers, but there
are many people on the streets that have done nothing wrong,
so who are we to judge them? Councils have set up youth hostels
and shelters where people can go but only for a short time.
So it is up to us to help them. We are all part of a community
and if we don't do anything then who will? So next time we
see a homeless person don't judge them on what they look like
or where they're from try helping them, not necessarily with
money it could be food blankets, or an address to a hostel
where they can stay. We are all part of one community and
instead of staying close together and only helping are loved
ones we can take a few steps back and help them to allow them
in.”
“I think it is very upsetting that people live on
the street especially when you see a lot of people spending
money like it was nothing. I think the Government should build
more shelters and try to get more jobs for homeless people
because sometimes when people are not from England come to
stay they have to live on the streets and in other countries
they do not have to.
I think the school should try and have fund raisers and
stuff for homeless people more often, to raise food and money.”
“I think that it is quite sad when rich people spend
their money on expensive clothes when there are poor people
especially in London asking for some change. They just walk
past them and ignore them.
I would like to see more people helping homeless people
by building shelters and homes for them.”
“In school we could help by learning about it more
and donating money to a homeless project. For example, having
a non-uniform day where people pay to wear their own clothes.
We have these days about two or three times a term. The money
goes to all different kinds of charities.
I would like to see our school council organise more days
where we can learn more about homeless people and even set
something up where we can donate to a homeless charity.
I think the Government should be in charge of building all
the shelters. It would help people who get thrown out of their
house, or wives where their husband has thrown them out.”
“At the moment I am seeing a lot of young people on
the streets.
About 2 weeks ago, on BBC2 [comic relief] they showed us
pictures of young people putting babies to bed, but it wasn't
normal they were sleeping on the streets in the cold with
no food and no home, most importantly no FAMILY. I am glad
I am in the school council because I can discuss with other
people about what I think. We could donate some money to the
countries that need and we could visit them to see how our
money has helped. So please donate just £2.00, you WILL
make a difference. If I do get the chance to go and see them
then I will teach them how to dance and a bit of maths.”
“I want to let people know about my views on homelessness.
While we all go home from work or school there are people
all over the world with no home to go to. We take so many
things for granted when it is actually the people that don't
have much who treasure the things they have. I personally
don't think that it's fair for people to have no homes just
because they can't afford it.”
“I used to have a friend who had a single working
mother. Her mother worked so hard to provide for her children.
She was part-time worker and part-time student. It just wasn't
enough for the government. Soon their bills began to pile
up and they didn't have enough to reduce them. Then they began
to live in fear. The government sent them letters to take
away their furniture, their things and even their home. Luckily
for my friend her dad was very successful, their mother managed
to track him down and told him about their position. Then
thinking about his children's future, he was prepared to pay
their bills and support them until their mother was back onto
her feet.”
“Thinking about that just terrifies me. Now when I
go out to centre city I see so many homeless people starving.
I hear people say why not get a job? Just think who would
want to employ a homeless person? People nowadays just think
about themselves and won't want anything to do with people
who don't have as much money as them.”
“When it was near Christmas time I was with my aunt
at centre city and there was a man playing a carol on a traffic
cone. It actually made me sad to see that people can't even
beg properly. It's just so sad.”
“I am writing about homelessness. Many adults and
even young kids are homeless and living on the streets. There
are many shelters set up by the council to give these homeless
people somewhere to live and provide them with food and a
bed. Now because of a stupid war in Iraq over oil there are
going to be more homeless people on the streets.”
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Trans-national perspectives
“We have done some International project such as South
African Project. This project is just to learn their cultures
like dancing, acting and music. Lots of people attended this
occasion and it helped them to know a bit about the country.
Last 2 weeks ago there was a programme about comic relief.
This programme was all over the country and it's about collecting
money to help the needs and poor. We took a serious consideration
about this programme and we decided to collect money for other
poor countries and people with AIDS that needed medicine for
curing. We had a non-uniform day as well and people wore red
and other colours to show their caring for the poor. Our school
was really good at this expedition.”
“Hi. What I am going to tell you now is about homelessness.
I am going tell you what I think about homelessness.
Millions of people throughout the world are homeless. They
have no beds to sleep in and survive on scraps of food or
survive on nothing.
When I go out, I see people on the streets begging for food
and for money.
When I go to Pakistan, I see so many homeless people sometimes
they leave home because of abuse from their parents.”
“I am writing about the war on Iraq. I think that
G.W.Bush is being unreasonable. They should kill Sadam Hussain
but not bomb innocent civilians. American doesn't care about
Iraq they are only after the oil. America only cares about
themselves. The so called " world police". They
used the excuse that the Talban was bad and if the other countries
helped American to take the Taliban over, that they would
give food to the Afghanistan public but they never did. America
believes that they have the right to do what they want. If
America bomb a country it is called "world police"
or "for world peace". But if someone bombs America
it is called "terrorist attack". So in conclusion
America are selfish and Sadam Hussian should be killed.”
“Our school supports many children form various cultures
and backgrounds and of both sexes. If they come to our without
English as their first language we have many special teachers
to who can help them to speak English.
Within our school we hold many events and celebrate special
occasions from different cultures. For example we have celebrated
black history month and we also have held many non-uniform
day for international dress day. we use events such as these
to raise money for various charities (e.g. comic relief).
We have a pen-pal programme for children who like to write
and want to learn how children in other countries live. I
thought this was a brilliant idea and that it gives children
that can't speak English very well a great opportunity to
improve their communicating skills while learning about others.”
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Immigration
We are both 15 years old attending school and are part of
the school council and we are going to share our views about
International Citizenship.
People immigrate into Britain in search of citizenship.
They migrate from their countries for various reasons such
as war, hunger, education, health etc. Whatever the reason,
they come in search for a better life.
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