Extract from the evaluation report of the ACT/RFK ‘Speak Truth To Power’ Human Rights Curriculum pilot [July 2017] Case study 2: Enfield Grammar School, Enfield, London Teacher: Verity Currie Outcome: This is a short sequence of lessons for year 7 (11-12 year olds). It builds on an earlier project on human rights and looks “We’ve learned how important forward to a longer project on active citizenship. In this human rights are and how sequence students learn about a rights defender and start to they affect everyone.” plan a possible action they could undertake. This plan (Student) introduces students to the problems of deciding what would constitute an effective political action and raises problems to be picked up later. Sequence of learning: Additional resources: Lesson 1: The right to education and Malala Discuss what you want to achieve in life and the role of education in helping you. What would happen if you couldn’t attend school? How would your life prospects change? There are 32million fewer girls in primary school than boys, why might that be? What do we already know about Malala? Watch video (a) about Malala and think about how she (a) Malala's story - BBC News: defender. exemplifies being a rights https://youtu.be/FnloKzEAX7o Lesson 2: Planning action Discuss a human rights issue you feel strongly about and prepare to explain why to the class. Think about what a reasonable aim might be to tackle this issue. Then think about who the main decision-makers are, and who else could be influential? Brainstorm the kind of campaigning activities we have learned about previously. Which ones would be relevant to your chosen issue? In groups plan a human rights campaign and then pitch it to the rest of the class. Teacher tips: The students enjoyed learning about Malala but she was already fairly familiar to them. It would have been useful to introduce at least one other less well-known defender. The students chose an interesting range of causes including: arms control, Water Aid, and child labour. However, the variety of causes did make it difficult to tease out the logic of why some actions would work in very different contexts, as the class had diverged without really knowing enough about each cause. With less time, there is probably a trade-off with more teacher direction and less student choice, so you can establish sufficient in-depth understanding and relate the action to the situation. .