Agents of Change
At Stanway Fiveways we believe that we are all an ‘Agent of Change’!
We want to make changes- in ourselves, in our school, in our community, around the country and even across the planet.
As an ‘Agent of Change’ we know that change does not just happen; we cannot just wait for someone else or some other time for change to happen. We are the ones who are here and we are the ones who are going to bring about the change that we want.
Agents of Change is a project to provide children with the tools and inspiration to lead and develop positive change, which will also develop their confidence as they go forward and bring about change. This project was originally developed by St Lawrence Primary School in Rowhedge and is now in wider use amongst schools within the Tiptree and Stanway Consortium.
Children can work on a range of 40 different projects; they can do so by themselves or with the support of their friends or with their family. We will also be carrying out some within in school both as a whole school, as year groups and as individual classes.
The most important thing is that children's projects centre around their personal beliefs and are something they are passionate about! This could involve contacting local (or national) leaders encouraging them to look after the environment, volunteering their time to a cause that is important to them, carrying out litter picks or raising awareness about a cause that close to their heart. The possibilities are absolutely endless! Children do not need to bring their whole project in and some of them will be best shown by sharing some photos and by discussing their project with a chosen adult in school.
All children are given a poster (that they keep at home) with 40 ideas and a passport (which is kept in school) with a little more information about each idea. After the children complete a project they will earn a stamp in their passport; once they have completed 7 projects they can choose one of the Agents of Change badges (there are 7 badges for them to collect!) which are given out in special Agents of Change assemblies.
When we launched Agents of Change to the children, we shared this video with them. It is about 10 minutes long and explains in a lot more detail what Agents of Change is, provides examples of challenges that have been completed, and the impact that it has had.