A GLOBAL CLASSROOM, FROM A LOCAL SCHOOL IN LANCASHIRE
There’s been many inspirational stories during lockdown, from the frontline key workers, the charity campaigns and acts of kindness coming through, but I was blown away by the achievements of one school in Lancashire who approached us to help secure PR for a huge, global event.
During lockdown, Scarisbrick Hall School became the heart of an enormous Global Classroom event, which saw over half a million children around the world tune in to ask questions to inspirational speakers including Bear Grylls, Captain Henson (who founded the Invictus Games with Prince Harry) and Heather Small as well as Cynthia Germanotta, Goodwill Ambassador for Mental Health from the WHO, Lady Gaga’s mum!
Headteacher, Jeff Shaw, and his team came up with a concept to unite children around the globe in a way that had never been done before. While so many people, families and friends were separated by lockdown, with their lives narrowed, they saw a way they could utilize technology and broaden the horizons of children at their school and beyond.
This is how the idea for the Global Classroom was born. An online, monthly event, almost like a giant assembly where children from all walks of life could tune in and meet each other virtually, all united by the global pandemic and having a real chance to get their voice heard. Scarisbrick Hall School approached the World Health Organisation and UNICEF to see if they’d be interested in becoming partners and both came on board!
We were brought in to help secure coverage for their third event, but the first two saw children from Cambodia, Finland, the US, South Africa (200 countries in total) all tune in and ask questions to world leaders. One girl in France knew that she had to wash her hands more often due to Covid-19, but she was scared in doing so that she’d wash the virus down the sink and kill the fish! So she asked Dr Tedhros of the WHO whether that was the case and her mind was immediately put at ease.
We knew this was an amazing story as soon as we’ve heard about it and yesterday secured back to back broadcast interviews with pupils and the headteacher at the school.
It was so inspirational to hear direct from the children about how they’d found the events and what they’d learned. They spoke so eloquently about mental health and wellbeing as well as how they’d found lockdown. They were all highly positive about lockdown – talking about spending more time outdoors as well as with their families, which was really inspiring to hear their view points. The other amazing thing was to hear how the children looked up to the speakers and what an impact they’ve made on their lives, they talked about never forgetting the experience and how down to earth, patient and interested in their opinions.
Our final interview of the day was with Stevie Green, a year seven pupil who loved music and had been selected to ask Heather Small from M People a question. She asked about how singing could help overcome shyness and stop you feeling alone. Heather’s answer was stunning as she talked about how music brings people together, you’re never alone when you sing and how it lifts human spirit. Then, as she sang Proud, live, Stevie was so excited she was dancing round the room!
Such a heart warming way to spend a day and really pleased that we could help out with this fantastic event. So far we’ve landed on BBC NWT, Rock FM, Capital Radio, BBC Radio Lancs and more. Just waiting for the rest of our coverage to go live and do justice to Scarisbrick School and the team who’ve pulled off something so extraordinary
Have a look at their website to see a recording of yesterday’s event https://www.theglobalclassroom.com/
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