WorldWise Global Schools

Irish Aid’s WorldWise Global Schools is Ireland’s national Global Citizenship Education (GCE) programme for post-primary schools. Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is an educational process aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of the rapidly changing, interdependent and unequal world in which we live. By challenging stereotypes and encouraging independent thinking, GCE helps students critically explore the root causes of global justice issues and how they interlink with our everyday lives.

Students have optimal opportunities to be active global citizens through various initiatives in the AVS such as Young Social Innovators, BT Young Scientist, Young Environmentalist and Junk Kouture. An example of this includes the 2019/2020 YSI project Keeping Up With Reality which focused on the impact of social media and reality TV on the lives of young people. Students explored the global justice themes of stereotypes, racism and prejudice. They ran a social media campaign which involved over 200 celebrities and influencers globally and it received National coverage with students getting to speak on the Ray D’Arcy radio show.

One of the key global justice themes we have explored and aimed to tackle at the AVS is Climate Change and Climate Justice. Senior science students evaluated how humans contribute to sustainability with a focus on the disposal and recycling of materials. This led to a campaign organised by a 2nd year wellbeing class to ensure all students across all year groups received a personalised reusable water bottle in an effort to reduce the use of plastic in our school. Students explored the advantages of this initiative to people and the environment and ultimately, our school plastic use was dramatically reduced.

In February 2021, we entered the Global Passport Awards as part of the WorldWise Global Schools initiative. This was led by a team of teachers in the AVS including Ms. Kelly, Ms. Rooney, Ms McCrea, Mr. Russell, Mr. McFadden and Mr. Clarke. We were delighted to receive our result and were awarded a Diplomatic Passport. This is a fantastic achievement and we are extremely proud of all the hard work undertaken by both staff and students to make this initiative a success.

As part of Global Citizenship Education, a new module was introduced to all Transition Year students in the Abbey Vocational School from September 2021. In Global Citizenship, students will have the opportunity to explore what global citizenship education is and how they can become more active global citizens. They will explore topics such as sustainability, migration, equality and inequality, stereotypes, poverty and marine pollution. This module will provide students with the necessary skills they need to make a positive change.