Symondsbury 
100 Ways to Change the World
6 years ago the children (and staff) at Symondsbury School were inspired to make the world a better place by attending We Day in London Arena. We have worked hard to earn tickets to We Day each year since then through our social action efforts both locally and globally. We set ourselves a task to achieve ‘100 Ways to Change The World’ and this March, 6 years on we have achieved it!
This year, although the children could not attend We Day as they have before due to Covid-19, it has not stopped them from continuing to have a positive impact on the world around them! As a result, they have completed their 100 ways and now we want to celebrate their achievements!
Here is a list of the 100 things that our school has achieved:
100 ways to change the world 1 page.pdf
The topics shared were:
- Climate Change
- Cyberbullying
- Saving the Seas from Plastic
- Education for All
- Voices for All
- Deforestation
- Hunger
- Justice & Peace
- Clean Water & Sanitation for All
- Poverty
- Example activities to try out at school;
- Book recommendations that you may find useful as part of a topic;
- Useful links to websites that we found;
- Links to We Schools and the Sustainable Development Goals;
- Inspirational people who we found helped with our topics; and
- 10 potential outcomes that you could try in your schools.
So What is We Day and 100 Ways to Change the World?
Tiny bit of background – we started attending We Day, an event held in London, in 2015 and it was the catalyst for our 100 ways to change the world. We Day is part of the We Movement – here is the link if you want to find out more…
WE.org | Making Doing Good, Doable | Join the WE Movement
We also take inspiration from the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Good Life Goals
THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development (un.org)
Good Life Goals - SDG Business Hub (sdghub.com)
Our children were inspired to change the world in 100 ways so we completed a range of actions and for each one, we added to piece to our puzzle:
How Can We Get Involved?
The next chapter in our journey is to encourage another 100 schools to get involve and help make our world a better place.
There are a range of resources/activities etc on the websites above but, as we know how busy schools are, at Symondsbury, we have created a toolkit to try and simplify the project and, as the We Day is aimed at children in year 6 and above, we are making it more accessible to children throughout Primary School age. That has been the really powerful part of what we have done at Symondsbury – our School vision of ‘You, Me, Us, Everyone – We are a school that believes we have the power to change the World!’ has really been about involving everyone – children, staff, governors and parents.
The toolkit includes:
- An example action plan written by the children at our school
- An overview letter from me, as Headteacher, about why this works so well as a school – Our personal development was judged as Outstanding by Ofsted in March 2020
- 10 booklets with a range of teaching ideas, book suggestions, song suggestions and links to support your staff
- A copy of the policy paper from the DfE on Sustainability and Climate Change (published 21st April 2022)
- A 100 piece jigsaw puzzle of the world so that your school can change the world one piece at a time!
You can find more information on our website, including a 3 minute clip of our own We Day that we held in June 2022 :
Symondsbury Church of England VA Primary School - We Day 2022 #StandWithSymondsbury
This Seems Like a Huge Amount of Work!
It took us 6 years to achieve our 100 ways so this is going to be a slow process – but I believe, this really helps embed it in the work that you can do as a school and it becomes part of your culture and vision for the future. During lockdown, it was clear to see how embedded it was in our school as children and families independently created real opportunities for change in their local communities.
All we ask is that you achieve 1 local and 1 global action in the next year and see where that takes you. We also ask that you update us on an annual basis and keep in touch with how your puzzle is progressing…
Why is This So Important?
The Government produced a Policy paper named Sustainability and climate change: a strategy for the education and children’s services systems which was published 21 April 2022 – Here is the link:
And, if you need any more convincing, our 100 Ways to Change the World was mentioned in our Ofsted report in March 2020 where we achieved an Outstanding rating for Personal Development – ‘Pupils understand they can make a difference, no matter how small. Pupils’ actions extend beyond the school gates and include a wide range of experiences, such as ‘We Day’ and the ‘100 Challenge’.
I know it may seem like a mammoth task but I guarantee you are doing many of these things anyway as a school and although we are a small school, it has made such a huge difference to us and who our children are growing up to be!
Want to get involved? Email us on office@symondsbury.dorset.sch.uk and become one of 100 schools taking on the challenge of making the world a better place in 100 ways!
