Courageous Advocacy
‘What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk
humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8)
Children at Ditchling school are genuinely passionate and articulate about their role as ‘agents of change’, firmly believing that they can ‘change the world’… Children have ownership of projects because they have such an important role to play in deciding what projects should be chosen, what action they would like to take to bring about change and in evaluating its effectiveness. Learning about people from different backgrounds and environments is central to their school life.
Many of our passionate students and parents met outside school, cycling as a swarm to Hassocks to raise awareness of a local danger spot.
Our year 3 children planned and led a very impressive worship about the plight of animals in the rainforest and the destruction of their habitat due to the growing use of palm oil. This was part of a series of worships led by these pupils, and as such, children, staff and families of those children were all informed about the destruction happening to rainforests around the world. This informative campaign was held through whole school worship.
Our children worked as a whole school to raise the profile of supporting primates. We named it ‘Project Primate’. As each class are named after a primate of their choice they all worked incredibly hard to produce excellent worked that demonstrated their research around primates and protecting their habitats. Drusillas, a local zoo, were so impressed with our work, they wrote to us:
Some of the charities we have supported are:
Toilet twinning in Africa, India and Central America – helping to provide clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education. We have twinned over 15 toilets worldwide and raised money to provide safe clean drinking water.
Chestnut Tree House – Year 1 decided as part of their Children in the Community day 2022 to raise money for Chestnut Tree House by baking and selling cakes, they raised almost £100!
In December 2022 the school was visited by Elizabeth Funge, who is the Assistant Director of Education for East Sussex. Year 4 took the opportunity to hand her letters they had each written regarding climate change, and to ask her to pass them on to the council. They received a lovely reply from her, and also a reply from the Councillor Nick Bennett who is Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Resources and Climate Change, which you can see below.
