Current Activities 

Global Literacy for a Fairer World!

Global Literacy for a Fairer World! is a three year project involving teachers and pupils in four countries (Czech Republic, Ghana, Poland and UK), 75% funded by the European Union.

This academic year (2011 – 12) we are working with KS2 heads and teachers from schools from across Cumbria. 

First, there is a pupil audit, to take a snapshot of what the pupils think now about Africa and issues like learning, poverty, trade, food, hunger and whether they can make a difference. 

Pupil Audit - Low Furness CE School

Secondly, pupils will produce a 3 - 4 minute presentation called “All about our school”.  So will the pupils in schools in all 4 partner countries – the presentations will be shared on a project webspace, so the pupils can learn all about each other’s perspectives.
Over the academic year, CDEC will support the focus group teachers as they develop materials relevant to project themes (learning, poverty, trade, food hunger – challenging myths about the global South, with pupils thinking critically about what they discover).  All relevant to the curriculum, with a particular focus on literacy and citizenship.

In 2013, materials from all four countries (Czech Republic, Ghana and Poland as well as the UK) will be compiled into “challenge and enquiry” packs for sharing more widely.  The same year, a core group of schools will allow pupils to take a lead in making a difference …

watch this space for more details …

Global Literacy: Finding our Voice

CDEC are now working alongside Sandside Lodge School in Ulverston and George Hastwell School on Walney to develop and share approaches to enquiry-based teaching  based on the Philosophy for Children (P4C) approach.

The project aims to  make these approaches relevant to pupils with Special Educational Needs, so that these young people can get engaged in real world and citizenship issues and have a say on issues of concern.

Teachers and support staff from both schools have already attended a Philosophy for Children Level 1 course in Ulverston and practical work in schools (and the outdoors) will continue until the end of the Summer term. Findings from this project will feed into future training courses led by CDEC and Enquiry and challenge packs which will be distributed to schools. This project is funded by the Sir John Fisher Foundation and the European Union.

If you are interested in Philosophy for Children, please visit the CPD area on our website and also our resources section. CDEC run level 1 P4C courses, Outdoor Philosophy courses, Philosophy Rucksack inset and can also provide support in the classroom.

Fairtrade Foundation - Fairtrade Schools Award

The 2011 Fairtrade Schools project is going well with 23 schools on board all working towards the aim of achieving the Fairtrade Schools Award. CDEC are supporting schools with resources, cluster network meetings, whole school training and advice throughout the year. There are four clusters of schools that meet in Barrow, Carlisle, Kendal and Whitehaven to share ideas, work together and receive expert advice from staff at CDEC and colleagues from Cumbria Fairtrade Network about working towards the 5 goals for achieving Fairtrade Schools Status.

In the summer term teachers from the West Coast cluster and schools in the Carlisle cluster were lucky enough to hear from an exciting, rare visitor, Fairtrade producer Joseph Kibuta from Panda Flowers. The Kenyan flower producer gave excellent presentations to children and staff about rose production and exportation which gave real insight into the many roles of the production line and the many benefits of being part of a Fairtrade market.

Clusters will be meeting up in early November to talk about plans for a Fairtrade Christmas and Fairtrade Fortnight 2012. We hope that more schools are ready to submit for Fairtrade Schools Status before the end of the project in December 2011. Well done to St Margaret Mary Catholic Primary School who achieved status in June this year.

Outdoor and enquiry based learning with Ambleside Primary School

CDEC is working in partnership with Ambleside Primary School, providing a programme of support to the whole school which combines weekly philosophical enquiry sessions for every class plus an outdoor session for each class too. In this way we are helping the school to bring together enquiry-based learning and forest school skills, and to link this with the rest of the curriculum.  Children in Upper KS2 have been wondering about change in the locality, from the changing landscape to litter and supermarkets, and in lower KS2 about what we really mean by good and bad (quite a puzzle!). KS1 has considered hard work from the point of view of an apple tree (the roots, seeds, trunk, leaves and apples all working hard!) and are making great progress in building their enquiry skills.

Reception children are also taking part, finding big ideas in stories and thinking with Philosophy Bear. After half-term the theme will shift to Cultures and Celebrations, and we hope that in the longer-term the children will have more fun and confidence in enquiring and puzzling about difficult questions, as part of their everyday school life.

If you are interested in any of our projects mentioned above or would like to talk to us about working with your school please contact us on This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone 015394 31602 for a chat.