Batley Girls’ High School social action projects inspire students to think beyond their experiences

The First Give programme is designed to ignite a spark of social conscience in young people and the culmination of this work was a final presentation to a panel of judges, who selected a winner to receive £1,000 for their chosen charity.

All the tutor groups in Year 9 took part and used their form time, as well as time during break, lunch and after school, to research and prepare this work.

Students selected local, national and international charities covering issues as diverse as domestic abuse, homelessness, mental health and poverty developing opportunities to create awareness and fundraise for their chosen charity.

There were raffles, bake sales and sweets sales; one tutor group even wrote a play to raise awareness about their charity and will be performing it in an assembly to the rest of their year group.

Georgia Bennett, the First Give representative working with the school said: “There was so much creative social action presented and a real passion from the students.

“Understanding charities on a different level and the work they do provides another aspect to the education of young people and helps them to become well-rounded citizens.”

Patrick Vis, achievement leader for Year 9 said: “All students have worked diligently and passionately and stretched their comfort zones.

“They have gained in confidence and learned new skills that they’ve put into practice through their fundraising and the presentations.”

9CSK, the form who chose the Bradford Soup run, won the presentation due to the impact of their social action being far reaching.

The students' idea initially was to help populate The Bradford Soup Run’s library, as it’s not purely food and shelter that the people who go there need. Then, when they discovered the charity already had an abundance of books in English they found a different solution.

They wrote to the embassies of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to see if their networks could help to support this cause and provide books in other languages.

It wasn’t long before the students heard back from the Czech Republic, Lithuania; as well as receiving some books from Romania. The students also teamed this with an approach to student engagement and awareness of the charity, with a bookmark competition.

Simon Riley, executive headteacher of Batley Girls’ High School said: “It’s crucial for our young learners to experience life beyond the classroom, and that’s precisely what this project empowers them to do.”

First Give is a charity that works with partner schools to inspire young people to make a positive change in society.

For more information about the First Give programme and how to get involved, visit https://firstgive.co.uk/