We live in a world made up of divisions, extreme inequalities, injustice, poverty, conflict and environmental crises. 

Courageous advocacy is the act of speaking out against an issue of injustice, often on behalf of those whose voice is not heard. It's about having a voice of hope and aspirations to speak out to make a real change for the poor and marginalised around the world. 

Standing up is not easy, it takes courage and resilience.

Becoming a courageous advocate for change, therefore, involves being informed about an issue and then moving beyond simply knowing, to saying and doing. Our Christian Values embody an ethos of action-taking, challenging injustice and becoming agents of change in the transformation of ourselves, our relationships and our communities from the local level to the global.

At St John's it is part of character development - we seek to develop empathy and understanding and the beginnings of action and response by equipping them, though an enquiry-led educational approach, with the skills, tools, confidence, and opportunity to speak up and take action on issues of justice.

Children live in an increasingly globalised and interconnected world often learning about these issues via the media and personal experiences. As a result of this, our children naturally have lots of questions, concerns and emotions and are integral to building a fairer and more sustainable world in which we live well together, at local, national and global levels. 

It is important that understanding and skills deepen over time as pupils move from Early Years Foundation Stage, through the primary Key Stages.

In our school, with your help, we want to provide a safe space and structure for our children to begin to make sense of the world they are encountering and their place within it. 

At St John's, we work hard to ensure that

• taking action is a deeply educational and empowering experience involving reflection and critical thinking. Children should be involved in decision-making and have a sense of ownership and understanding of why they are taking a particular action;

• children should be encouraged to think critically through the full range of options and how they help address the causes and symptoms of a particular situation;

• children should be supported to think through the possible consequences of their actions and to take account of the law, school policies and ethical and safety considerations;

• children should reflect on what has been learned through taking action.

At St. John's C.E. Primary School and Nursery, our children have always supported many local, national and global charities. For many years, we have supported the Padley Group, where we have raised money and collected food for the homeless and disabled and Hope for Belper. This has always been widely supported by our school community at our annual Harvest Festival service at St. Peter's Church. This year, it will take place at school and will be led by our Year 3 children.

Our school is closely linked to Scott Lane School in Kolkata, India. Several school staff members have been over to visit the staff and children there, over the last couple of years. The children are developing a strong bond with these children and have been involved in 'WhatsApp' calls and follow regular updates and blogs regarding their progress. As part of this connection, our children have organised events such as the Christmas Jumper Day, Christmas T-shirt/jumper decorating events and a Bauble competition. The children raised funds for Scott Lane School and also presented them with the winning bauble design for their Christmas tree, last year.

In addition to this, we also support national and global charities such as Children in Need, Comic Relief and Sport Relief. 

Last year, our children had the opportunity to discuss their ideas as to which charities to support and how we could raise funds for these through our School Council meetings. Through these meetings they discussed supporting more local charities and community support events such as: Belper Shoebox Appeal, Christmas Jumper Swaps, Winter Coat Swaps and 'Leave your old shoes on the table' days. The children also tried to take into account how much money is a reasonable amount to spend on charity events for the average child, each year. They considered events that were the equivalent to money gained via pocket money. This way children could contribute personally and appreciate the cost of things for themselves. The whole school will be alerted to these charity events through the weekly newsletter.

This year we hope to introduce new courageous advocacy champions/agents for change.

We are looking forward to supporting many charities and being a voice for others to make a difference in the wider world.

Let's take a look at the difference we are making.........