New school resources aim to educate and inspire pupils
Free resources educate primary pupils on the power of a school meal for some of the world’s poorest children
Primary school pupils can now learn how the promise of a school meal is transforming the lives of some of the world’s poorest children, thanks to our new educational resources.
We have launched two new learning resources for primary schools, downloadable for free from our website, which highlight our work. The resources include easy-to-follow lessons, discussion questions, cross-curricular links and photo packs, which are centred around themes of global citizenship and a right to education.
'Meals Make a Difference’, designed for lower primary pupils, and ‘Hunger to Hope’, designed for younger primary pupils and older primary pupils, support curriculum objectives and are designed to engage pupils in a range of cross-curricular activities that demonstrate the challenges faced by young people living in the world’s poorest countries.
The resources also suggest ways to engage pupils in taking action to change the lives of hungry children living thousands of miles away.
Both ‘Meals Make a Difference’ and ‘Hunger to Hope’ centre on life in Zambia, one of the countries where Mary's Meals serves its school meals to more than 420,000 hungry children.
Pupils will learn about 11-year-old Failo, who eats Mary's Meals at his school in Zambia. Failo looks forward to his daily serving of vitamin-enriched porridge, which is often his first meal of the day.
He says: “Mary’s Meals is helping because when I eat at school, I am able to concentrate. I don’t have anything to eat in the morning before coming to school. We depend on the porridge.”
Deputy headteacher and Religious Education lead, Rhianon Riddick, has been using the resources with her pupils at St Albert’s Catholic Primary School in Liverpool.
Rhianon says: “We’ve enjoyed great class discussions about what life is like in Zambia and the pupils have been very engaged in suggesting ideas of how they can help to make a difference.
“The resources have introduced the pupils to an area of the world they may never have known about before, while also educating them on poverty experienced by children and what Mary’s Meals is doing to support them.
“As well as teaching our pupils valuable lessons, the resources have helped them develop a charitable spirit, which is very heartening to see in children so young.”
Morven Macgillivray, supporter engagement manager at Mary’s Meals, says: “Our new, free resources have been developed in partnership with teachers to support curriculum objectives.
“They are aimed at helping primary-age pupils understand the challenges faced by children living in poverty across the world – and showing them how the promise of a good meal at school is giving these children hope for a better future."
She continues: “A great way to introduce our new resources to your pupils is to have a Mary’s Meals representative speak to your school assembly or your class. We’d love to hear from teachers who would like us to arrange this for them.”
Our school resources, including content for secondary pupils, are available to download here.
We can also arrange for a volunteer to visit schools and share its story. To arrange a talk for your pupils, please call 0800 698 1212 or email info@marymeals.org.
