Courageous Advocacy
Speak for those who cannot speak for themselves
Proverbs 31:8
At St Margaret's we define the term 'courageous advocacy' as speaking out against an issue of injustice, on behalf of those whose voice is not heard. We use courage when speaking out at any level, therefore we are becoming a courageous advocate for change. To achieve this, our involvement in an issue must go beyond just being informed about it, to saying and doing.
Our Christian vision is rooted in being loving to one another, this is at the heart of all we do; we aim to inspire and instil Christian values to our whole school community. We educate for courageous advocacy in a way that has an ethos of action-taking, challenging injustice and transforming ourselves to become agents of change, within our local communities and on a global level. We understand that life can be challenging at times for anyone, we encourage pupils to recognise that, support others and stand up for what they believe. We also encourage children to pray for our community.
Courageous advocacy at our school empowers pupils:
- To ask why questions - encouraging pupils to think widely and deeply about why issues happen;
- To ask what can be done - encouraging pupils to think of creative ways they can help;
- To understand their own rights and responsibilities in society;
- To identify where power is located and how decisions are made;
- To express themselves confidently and articulately as decision-makers.
As a school, we are proud to support a range of charities, giving pupils a chance to encounter a wide range of issues. Among them are:
- The Trussell Trust (food bank)
- Housing Justice
- Children in Need
- Save the Children
- Woolwich Service Users Project (homeless support)
- The Royal British Legion
Fundraising Activities and Events
We believe that to develop our children as agents of change, they must be given opportunities to choose how to fundraise, raise issues (such as write letters to MPs), support others in their fundraising activities. As school adults, we believe that one of the best ways to model how we want the children to grow into agents of change, is to model this in our lives and share our passions and beliefs with the children and our school community.
This year we have had fundraising events for the following:
- Harvest festival food bank collection
On Friday 4th October 2024, we held a non-uniform day in school and donated food items to support our local food bank 'The Trussell Trust'.
- Poppy appeal to support The Royal British Legion
- Christmas movie nights to raise money for Housing Justice
- Bishop's Lent Appeal
Our annual Bishop's Lent Appeal will take place this lent, each class and their adults are thinking about ways they can raise money to support others in need.
- Staff fundraising - Big Sleep Out to raise money for WSUP.
Our ongoing support in school
In school, we have a number of water coolers in school supplying filtered, chilled water to the children and staff. We all know the benefits of good hydration and we encourage the children to drink water regularly. The company who provide our coolers donate a proportion of their charges to us to providing elephant pumps for communities in Zimbabwe. This pump provides clean water for a community who previously had to walk long distances to collect water.
