Posted: Wednesday 21 December 2011
Hutchesons' pupils become Young Global Education Campaigners of the Year!
Hutchesons’ is extremely proud of two S4 pupils who recently won the National Steve Sinnott Award for Young Global Education Campaigners of the Year. The pair have been given the chance to become ambassadors for the Global Campaign for Education and here Mr Clarke from Hutchesons’ Geography Department shares their story:
It was in late October that Eilidh Naismith and Billy Davidson in S4 decided to enter the Steve Sinnott competition. After ten days of frantic activity their entry was submitted and two weeks later they were delighted to hear that they had made the final in London.
Another ten days of frantic activity followed before a very early train to London, a quick stop for hot chocolate at Starbucks and then a 15-minute presentation to the judges. Then a long journey back, followed by an e-mail telling them they had won and another frantic few days taking in all the implications of suddenly becoming the UK ambassadors for the Global Campaign for Education.
The aim of this campaign is to ensure that every child in the world is in full-time education by the year 2015. Currently 67 million are missing out. As ambassadors for this campaign, Eilidh and Billy will be raising awareness across the UK of this global injustice.
They will have numerous engagements to fulfil in this year-long role, firstly going to Malawi to find out why some children there do not attend school. They then have to give a presentation on their visit to the NUT conference in Torquay and later they launch 2012’s Send My Friend To School campaign at the Houses of Parliament. In between these events they will visit schools, make films and create blogs.
Eilidh and Billy’s winning presentation gave a vision of how the future could look if all children in the world were able to go to school. They presented it as a series of stories in a newspaper dated 31st December 2025.
The two pupils also dreamed up some imaginative ways to spread the message in the UK, including a schools advertising competition in which famous company slogans could be hijacked for the Send My Friend to School campaign: "Because we are worth it" and because "Every little helps".
The judges were unanimously convinced by Eilidih and Billy, both 15, who showed that they had researched the issues meticulously, as well as demonstrating real passion for the cause, judge Mary Sinnott commented on their performance by saying:
Eilidih and Billy were so passionate, innovative, enthusiastic and knowledgeable in making their presentation that they stood out in a very strong field - I believe they will be tremendous ambassadors.
You can find out more about this worthy campaign by visiting: www.sendmyfriend.org