Pupils from Eden Boys’ Leadership Academy, Bradford have been participating in an engaging social action project throughout the Spring term. The school has partnered with the First Give charity to empower its pupils to engage with their community and make a difference to the causes they care about through social action.
Through the First Give programme, 120 Year 8 pupils participated in a series of assemblies, lessons and workshops to inspire charitable and social action.
The programme enables students to take part in engaging social action projects to raise funds for a chosen charity, while also raising awareness of the social issues affecting their community and society.
Each group of pupils began by identifying social issues in the school’s local community and then researching existing charities that are working to reduce or resolve these issues. Through existing links with some charities pupils learnt about their work and found out about their impact in the local community and considered how the school could support the charities. The class groups then planned and delivered social action activities to raise awareness and fundraise for their chosen charity. Activities included distributing information leaflets, preparing, and delivering assemblies to the whole school, and fundraising activities including sale events.
Throughout the process, the pupils had the opportunity to develop their public speaking skills as they created presentations about the work of their chosen charity and outlining what they have done to support them. Groups within each class presented their work to their peers who voted for a winning group to represent their class at the final. The finalists delivered their presentation to the whole of Year 8 and a panel of judges including Louisa Searle, Director of First Give, and Robina Naznine, Principal of Eden Boys’ Leadership Academy, Bradford.
The panel of judges rated each presentation on the potential impact of their social action project and the quality of their presentation. The winning group of five pupils presented their ideas to support Mind Bradford and included sharing of statistics, details of the charities work and how many people have benefited from this amazing support offered by the charity. The judges were impressed with the quality of research and depth of knowledge the group presented and the impact of their social action activities. The winning team was awarded with a £1,000 donation to their selected charity, Mind Bradford.
Robina Naznine, Principal of Eden Boys’ Leadership Academy, Bradford said:
“This has been a fantastic experience for the pupils to demonstrate leadership in social action, which is at the heart of the work of our school. Through our STAR value of service we emphasise the importance of serving others throughout the year. The First Give programme has allowed our Year 8 students to develop both qualities whilst supporting the work of their chosen charities.”
Louisa Searle, Director of First Give, said
“It was a privilege to see the Year 8 pupils present with passion and professionalism about the local issues and charities that matter to them. First Give is proud to work with schools like Eden Boys’, where community and giving are so central to the school’s ethos.”