Islington school in Quaker peace education film
‘London brings huge benefits but also challenges and our young people have to navigate that.'
A London School is modelling the importance of peace education with the help of a new Quaker initiative.
Islington’s Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School (EGAS) is the first of six schools from around England and Wales to feature in a series of short films created by Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) to showcase the power of peace education.
Sarah Beagley, head teacher of EGAS, believes that peacebuilding workshops are vital in shaping who her pupils become. ‘London brings huge benefits but also challenges and our young people have to navigate that. They do live in communities where they deal with violence, they deal with racism,’ she said. ‘We set out to say that in this school, in this place, and this community something will be different.’
With a track record of engaging with global issues, the school has run sessions on identity and on the persecution of Uighurs in China, after students expressed their concern.
Isabel Cartwright, peace education manager at BYM, said they were drawn to the school ‘because we know they are constantly working to empower their students. Even though the subjects can be daunting, the teachers at EGA are up for it when students come to them with questions about events in Palestine & Israel, Afghanistan and most recently Ukraine’.
‘Schools shouldn’t be afraid of talking about war and peacebuilding,’ she added. ‘They can help young people build the combination of knowledge, empathy and critical reflection needed to be ethical, active citizens.’
The Quaker films will show primary and secondary schools that invest in building peace, whether by training in conflict resolution, exploring identity and inclusion or tackling global citizenship questions. The other schools featured are in Staffordshire, Leeds, Southwark, Merthyr Tydfil and Birmingham. The series of six videos from BYM is building up to a new report Peace at the Heart: A relational approach to education in British schools, released in spring.
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