Charity Begins in the Classroom

A Dundee charity is helping aspiring teachers explore new ways to teach children how to be responsible citizens.

Nearly 30 third-year Education students from the University of Dundee visited Signpost International to explore different ways to teach ‘bigger issue’ topics that require a range of curricular areas.

Inspired by their visit, the students will now go on to design a project that they could run in a primary school.   They are also in the early stages of planning fundraising to support the charity’s work to install a borehole in an East African community to enable more girls to access primary education.

Jamie Morrison, Chief Executive of Signpost International, based at The Roundhouse in Dundee, showed the students how the charity uses its indoor and outdoor space and facilities as a ‘gateway into another world’.  

The charity regularly welcomes visitors to its garden space, where they can learn where food comes from and take part in planting, harvesting, and preparing fresh produce. Visitors also learn about food insecurity and how the charity supports local people facing hunger. In addition, the charity uses virtual reality headsets to help people ‘meet’ community members from its projects in East Africa, which aim to empower communities to lead their own development. There is also a life-size replica of a traditional East African roundhouse, offering an immersive experience into the home of one of the charity’s community members in Uganda.  The charity is currently exploring plans to open a learning centre which will provide a comprehensive programme of activities and visits for a range of learners including school pupils and community workers

Jamie explained, “Much of our work is around global citizenship, encouraging people to be responsible citizens and live in a way that positively impacts their own lives but also their wider community. That ideally starts at a young age but it’s never too late to start. In our experience, to motivate people to be responsible citizens, you can’t preach or instruct. You need to motivate and inspire, while showing we can empower ourselves and others to do more and be better versions of ourselves. We believe our approach is something the next generation of teachers can follow and take into the classroom, so it was a fantastic opportunity to share our work with those tasked with educating some of the children currently growing up in and around Dundee. Education can be transformative, and by involving and engaging young people in understanding issues of social, economic, and environmental injustices, we sow the seeds for a better tomorrow. “

Jonathan Brown, Lecturer in the School of Education and Social Work, University of Dundee, added, “We know that building stronger school-community links can lead to wider support networks for both pupils and families so it was fantastic for our students to explore real-life examples of how a local charity is living its values by running creative and impactful activities here and overseas. Our students can learn so much from Signpost International’s approach. Most of them will go on to teach locally so it was a fantastic opportunity for them to see what a local charity is doing to support the communities their future pupils might come from, and how they can use that as an example to teach children about the bigger issues in life. Longer-term, when working in schools, we hope our students can continue that engagement with the charity, and explore others, enriching the experience their pupils will enjoy at school.”

For more information, visit https://www.signpost-international.org/