One of the great things about being part of the St. James’ family is that we welcome the opportunity to discuss real world issues and learn about key things that are happening around our precious planet.
Over the course of this term, Year 4 have tackled areas such as the sustainable production of palm oil and deforestation. This reached a head recently when we planned and constructed our own viewpoints that tackled the big question, ‘should be deforestation be banned?’ For this, each group adopted a different viewpoint and constructed clear and concise arguments.
The points of view including; loggers, tribes, fast food restaurant owners, government officials, environmentalists and protestors among others. What was interesting is that some children actually adopted viewpoints that they didn’t necessarily agree with, which was a real challenge and meant particularly detailed research was required!
This opened the window for an educated, passionate debate where not only did the children present clear, structured points of view but also listened to one another and asked some really good questions. It really was such a successful lesson and one of those where as a teacher you can truly sit back and marvel at the brilliance of children!
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