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 are planning fundraising events:
- Harvest festival food bank collection
On Friday 4th October 2024, we are holding a non-uniform day in school. Please bring in an item of dry food/tinned to donate to support our local food bank The Trussell Trust.
On Friday 11th October 2024 at 9:30, please join Year 1 to Year 6 for our Harvest Festival service at St Mark's with St Margaret's, where will will take the opportunity to thank God for his blessings in our lives. This service will be led by Rev. Bisi Adesoye.
Reception class will be holding their annual Harvest Festival event in their classrooms. Parents are welcome to attend on Thursday 10th October. This year the class will be making vegetable soup. Here are some photos from a previous year when they made super hero vegetables
- Poppy appeal to support The Royal British Legion
As always, we will be selling poppies and other items towards the end of October and start of November. We will also be holding a Remembrance Day collective worship.
- Christmas movie nights to raise money for Housing Justice
The Faith Group are organising a KS1 and KS2 Christmas movie night after school in the first week of December. Popcorn and drinks will be provided and all funds raised will go to support the work of Housing Justice and homelessness.
- Bishop's Lent Appeal
Our annual Bishop's Lent Appeal will take place, each class and their adults are thinking about ways they can take their £10 and make it grow to provide for others.
- Staff fundraising
On Thursday 24th October 2024, Ms Sullivan (Head teacher) and Ms Hardie (RE lead) will be taking part in the Big Sleep Out event to raise money for Woolwich Service Users Project, a charity that supports homelessness in our local area. They will be talking to the children about why homelessness and food poverty are issues in our area, what the children can do, how we can take action at any age, and how we can show our Christian vision of sacrificial love to others. If possible, we would appreciate your financial support, donations can be made on our Just giving page: https://www.justgiving.com/page/stmargaretssullivanandhardie
Staff are also planning to take part in the Housing Justice fundraising 5K run, in Greenwich Park on Saturday 2nd November 2024 and the virtual 'Dog Jog' throughout the month of November.
Stay tuned in for further events!
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.
