International Global Citizen's Award

encouraging young people to become better global citizens

All Blog Posts (65)

Festivals of Light

It’s that time of year – Festivals of Light

Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, was celebrated by Hindus on November 12th. Before too long many schools will shortly be taking a winter break, coinciding, in some cases, with the celebration of Christmas, and in others with Hanukkah, or festival of light.

This time of year gives plenty of opportunities for IGCA participants to explore different traditions and to Understand Other Cultures…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on November 15, 2023 at 17:59 — No Comments

Black Friday, Consumerism and the IGCA

BLACK (OR GREEN?) FRIDAY

 

The fourth Friday in November is termed Black Friday in a number of countries. Starting in the United States, but since adopted in other countries, it is a day when heavy discounts are offered on many consumer items, such as clothing or electrical goods. In some other countries a similar discount day takes place at other times this month.

 

These incentives for consumers to spend have been heavily…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on November 15, 2023 at 17:56 — No Comments

Thoughts on the pandemic: None of us will be safe until everyone is safe.

Thoughts on the pandemic: None of us will be safe until everyone is safe.

 

As the Covid pandemic continues, different countries find themselves in very different positions. In some countries everyday life is quite normal, although in some cases low infection rates are ensured by very restricted international travel to or from the country. The UK experienced a second wave of infections earlier this year and deaths are among the highest per…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on April 17, 2021 at 17:30 — No Comments

Beyond the personal to the “political” – a personal perspective

Beyond the personal to the “political” – a personal perspective

The aim of the IGCA is to promote the development of individual students as global citizens, and the recognition of this by their peers and school.

 

As you know, the focus on this development is on three areas:

  • Developing greater knowledge and understanding of the diversity of backgrounds and views among people, in the section

Understanding other…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on April 14, 2021 at 18:41 — No Comments

Update from Academia Británica Cuscatleca (ABC), El Salvador

Walter Arevalo of the Academia Británica Cuscatleca (ABC), El Salvador, reports that schools in the country have been closed for face-to-face teaching since 11 March 2020. But IGCA activities at ABC continue.

“The IGCA meetings are taking place online every Tuesday and participants are very enthusiastic with the activities we hold each session. We also promote activities through an abcigca instagram account, which was a…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on March 17, 2021 at 17:30 — No Comments

Black Lives Matter - Thoughts on racism - Understanding Other Cultures and Outlooks in the IGCA

The issues relating to Black Lives Matter which have come to prominence recently are very relevant to the IGCA. The section Understanding other outlooks and cultures calls for IGCA participants to find out more about how people view the world differently. There are many books and articles on racism, and many IGCA participants may wish to explore some of these resources. But Understanding other outlooks and cultures involves participants having direct…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:53 — No Comments

Modified arrangements for IGCA Awards during the Covid-19 pandemic

Modified arrangements for IGCA Awards during the Covid-19 pandemic

 

Many schools have been closed or considerably scaled back during this continuing Covid-19 pandemic. This has disrupted external examinations, and examining bodies such as the International Baccalaureate and GCE A level examination boards have put in place exceptional arrangements. Students are receiving awards on the basis of work completed up to the time of school closure, and without external…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:41 — No Comments

News from Pathways World School, Aravali, India May 2020

Geetanjali Dhull of Pathways World School, Aravali, India reports the number of awards made this year in Middle School:

Bronze level    50

Silver level       21

Gold level        33

 

In total, Middle School at PWS has made a total of 1307 awards since it introduced the programme in 2013-14:

Bronze 814, Silver 360, Gold 133

 

Completion of the programme and the award process has been held up by school closure for…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:40 — No Comments

Covid 19 – an example of man’s dysfunctional relationship with the natural world

Covid 19 – an example of man’s dysfunctional relationship with the natural world

 

One of the strongest points to emerge during the Covid 19 crisis is the relationship of humans to the natural world.

Covid 19 is thought to have crossed the species boundary from a wild mammal to man. As it wreaks its devastating and tragic impact on human populations, we have responded by going into lockdown.

One of the few upsides of the pandemic is the resurgence of nature –…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:36 — No Comments

Working with Others - some thoughts

Walter Arevalo from Academia Británica Cuscatleca sent through some photos of activities in November 2019 by IGCA participants at his school.

 

Walter’s photos of IGCA participants…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:31 — No Comments

News from Arabian Pearl Gulf School, Bahrain May 2020

John Labor of the Arabian Pearl Gulf School, Bahrain got in touch with news of the programme in his school:

 

“The pandemic indeed disrupted our programme. Our collection of plastic bottles was not disposed of as intended. Children’s donations await delivery to charity. Projects are stalled. But safety and wellbeing of our participants remain paramount, so we are contented with our current accomplishment. We continue to encourage participants to pursue IGCA activities at home…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:30 — No Comments

Plastic use – digging behind the figures

Plastic use – digging behind the figures

 

A recent study in Scientific Advances has highlighted that some figures on plastic use by countries can be misleading.

The Guardian reported that “Previous work had suggested…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:21 — No Comments

Plastic use – digging behind the figures

Plastic use – digging behind the figures

 

A recent study in Scientific Advances has highlighted that some figures on plastic use by countries can be misleading.

The Guardian reported that “Previous work had suggested…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:21 — No Comments

UBUNTU

Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:19 — No Comments

Diversity and Difference: how we Understand other cultures and Outlooks

While studying the University of Bristol's excellent free online course on global citizenship a section concerned Diversity and Difference and this got me thinking. This is of relevance to how we work with IGCA participants to understand other cultures and outlooks.

 

Diversity recognises different types, often identified by the observer rather than the people themselves. The ethnic groups used in censuses and surveys usually require a person to select which of…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on December 8, 2020 at 19:18 — No Comments

Covid thoughts

These are indeed strange times, as the world adapts to living with Covid 19. 

Mulling over the health crisis, against a background of work on education for global citizenship, a few things occurred to me. 

  1. It really is a global world

The spread of the Covid 19 virus has demonstrated the extent and complexity of our interconnections across the whole globe. A virus infection starting in one city has since spread very quickly to every country,…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on September 9, 2020 at 18:12 — No Comments

A breakthrough moment: where's it all gone?

A breakthrough moment



I remember a personal breakthrough moment in my awareness as a global citizen when I was filling up my car with petrol some years ago. The process of filling up a car is designed to ensure that we don’t get covered in petrol or diesel as we do it. So the nozzle of the petrol pump goes straight into the fuel tank, and we only get to actually SEE the fuel if there is a spillage. Otherwise, we depress the lever, the pump monitors our usage as…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on February 11, 2020 at 17:15 — No Comments

Some personal thoughts from a global citizen / 1 Beyond and behind the slogans



Beyond and behind the slogans



There is no doubt that pithy, short and memorable slogans can help make a difference to our behaviour. They can also be useful in campaigns to spread a message to others.



In areas relating to global citizenship, one of the most widely used slogans is:

Reduce Reuse Recycle

Very often this slogan is accompanied by an image of some kind, such as:…



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Added by Boyd Roberts on February 11, 2020 at 17:14 — No Comments

IGCA News from Arabian Pearl Gulf School, Bahrain.

APG Bahrain started the IGCA programme at the start of the 2019-20 academic year.

Here is the latest update from APG's IGCA Coordinator John Labor.

“We are now in our end-of-term examinations and we have wrapped up some of the IGCA activities that happened during the first month before the participants concentrated on examinations.

 

We mentors are yet to meet to review the progress of each participant in different grade levels. They have been active in…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on January 15, 2020 at 14:13 — No Comments

New IGCA Guide 2018

An updated version of the central document for the International Global Citizen's Award, the IGCA Guide 2018 has been produced.

While much of this remains unchanged from the previous version - Information for Schools (2009) - amendments that have been agreed over recent years are all included.

Also included are guidelines on Silver and Gold level projects.

The new version takes immediate effect.

Guide available at:…

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Added by Boyd Roberts on May 17, 2018 at 15:30 — No Comments

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