How the Internationalising Learning Course affected ESDGC in our school.

ESDGC in our School

Our Initial Plan for our ProjectWe decided to run a food miles project with our Year 4/5/6 class, challenging the pupils to investigate the possibility of making a pizza using only local, Fairtrade or low cost toppings.

Our planned schedule was:

• Initial ‘Diamond Ranking’ self assessment.• Pupils to complete Enquiry Planning Form.

• Split the class into groups and allow them time to choose their toppings, begin their research and complete a Food Miles map.• Acquire ingredients and make the pizza.• Pupils to hold a debate supporting their pizza.• Final ‘Diamond Ranking’ self assessment.

Initial Diamond RankingPupils were put into pairs and handed a diamond ranking activity sheet. They had nine statements about what makes a good pizza which they had to discuss and place in order of importance. No lead up work was done to this activity as we wanted to gauge their initial views on the subject although the pupils were given time to generate their own definitions of the statements.

The choices were:

Cost

Taste

Variety of Toppings

Appearance

Fairtrade

Food Miles

Ease

Local Produce

* 1 Free choice item

Initial Diamond Ranking

Final Diamond Ranking

Initial Diamond Ranking

Final Diamond Ranking

Enquiry Planning Form

Each group had to complete an Enquiry Planning Form at the start of the project outlining: • What concepts, skills, knowledge and

attitudes they wanted to develop.

• Key Questions they wanted to investigate

• Identified learning experiences to achieve these targets.• Suggested assessment opportunities.

Locally Grown Pizza

Low Cost Pizza

Fairtrade Pizza

Pupil Led ResearchThe groups began the process of starting their own research. The local group started searching for local producers and suppliers and began sending out emails. The Fairtrade group got straight onto the Fairtrade company website and tried to search for their toppings. The low cost group used price comparison websites to search for the cheapest toppings that were on offer.

Research in the Field – Pizza Express Visit

Fairtrade Group

Fairtrade GroupAfter selecting their four toppings (2 protein, 2 fruit and vegetables) they discovered that 3 out of 4 of their choices were not actually available as Fairtrade. The struggle to find viable toppings for their pizza began. The range of protein related toppings was little to none. They could source their original choice of pineapple but the only vegetables available to them were green beans.

With all of this frustration and seemingly closed doors blocking their paths taking place before their research into what Fairtrade was, opinions on Fairtrade were initially pretty low within the group.

Local Produce Group

Local Produce Group

The local source group were very efficient at searching for local suppliers and sent off a raft of emails to a variety of companies.

Dear Local Pizza Group

Mushrooms and onions can be sourced locally in the spring and summer months when they are in season. Mushrooms cost £1.53 per kilo and are from Bridgend in the summer months and Lincolnshire in the winter months. Onions cost £0.57 and can be sourced from the same places at the same times.

Best wishesW. R. Bishop & Co.

Dear Local Pizza Group

Hi

Our price for cooked ham is £11.00 per kilo.

Our meat comes from local produce.

Kind regards

Alan John – Family Butchers

A selection of emails

Local Produce – Food MilesThe local produce group then began to input their information into a spreadsheet. They then used Google maps to investigate how many miles it was from the course of origin to our school.

The most successful source in terms of food miles was the local butchers in Brynna, the next village over from our school.

The total cost of all four toppings came to £30.10 per kg.

Low Cost Group

Low Cost GroupThe low cost group used a price comparison website and settled on three superstores; ASDA, TESCO and Sainsburys. They selected their toppings and searched for the lowest priced variety in each store. In cases of there being a tie between two stores for the lowest price, a vote was held to see which was the preferred option. In both circumstances TESCO won.

The total cost of the four lowest toppings came to £5.82. The pupils then began the process of researching the chosen products to see if they could identify their origins. Having studied the ingredients they quickly realised that this may not be as simple as they would have expected.

Making and Baking

The DebateEach group created a PowerPoint presentation outlining their research and reasons for why their chosen group was the most worthy. They then debated their reasons in front of a panel of eight Year 3 and 4 pupils.

What follows is a selection of closing statements from the three groups.

Fairtrade Group

Local Produce Group

Low Cost Group

The Future?Raised our awareness of many misconceptions that need to be addressed within the curriculum.

Internationalising Learning to be incorporated within our theme based approach.

Staff training needs.

School Development Plan 2011-12

Rolling out Peer to Peer mentoring within Literacy.