Year Six Pupils Raise £120 for Amnesty International
Libby Burrows, a Year 6 teacher from Dickens Heath School tells Dickens Heath.net about the work of the Y6 Human Rights Writing Group in their after-school club.
“The six pupils and I meet after school on Tuesdays to learn about human rights issues and take action on behalf of Amnesty International. The pupils have taken part in creative projects, writing messages of solidarity to people whose lives have been adversely affected, and also written to world leaders to ask for their help and support.
The group initially formed after the pupils demonstrated a passion for standing up for human rights during a series of RE lessons in the Autumn term 2011. The whole class took part in Amnesty international’s annual ‘Write for Rights’ campaign. One of the prisoners of conscience that the children wrote to was freed by the Azerbaijan authorities just weeks after their letters were sent.
The pupils were amazed at the power of the pen!
A group of pupils from the class wanted to continue the work they had started. Since then they have written messages of support to WOZA (women of Zimbabwe arise), they have emailed David Cameron to ask him to support a ‘Bulletproof Arms Trade Treaty’, they wrote a letter to the president of Sri Lanka and emailed Shell Oil asking them to clean up the mess they leave in the Niger Delta. It’s serious stuff.
Yesterday, the group held an ‘AmnesTEA party’ after school. They sold cakes to parents and pupils at home time on the playground to raise money for Amnesty International and raise awareness of the serious human rights issues that they have been learning about. After that, they stocked up their ‘AmnesTEA Trolley’ and visited all of the teachers in their classrooms so that they could take part too.
The pupils had baked cakes and biscuits which represented the different campaigns they have been taking part in. Cupcakes iced with the number 6 to signify the ‘Six years and still no justice’ for the parents of a student shot dead by Sri Lankan police with no explanation; biscuits iced with a white peace dove to represent the paper birds of peace that they decorated and wrote messages of support to the people of the Peace Community in Columbia, and many more.
The amount raised is currently £120 and is set to rise as they are still collecting money from ‘IOU’ slips that they gave to parents who had forgotten their purses!
The pupils have amazed me with their passion for standing up for human rights and their dedication to the writing projects they have undertaken. The AmnesTEA bake sale was completely initiated by the group and organised brilliantly. It is extremely rewarding to work with such highly motivated and passionate young people; they set a fantastic example to others.”
Below are some images and you can also read the pupils’ own articles about their work.
AmnesTEA raises £120 – Reported by Shona Nayyar
On Tuesday 29th May, Dickens Heath Human Rights Writing Group held a bake sale to support Amnesty International and raise awareness of human rights issues across the globe.
The ambitious team, (and friends) worked diligently to create delicious cakes and biscuits which they advertised through eye-catching posters, flyers and announcements! Themed cakes and biscuits corresponded with the campaigns they have been involved in. Flower shaped biscuits were made to represent WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise), a peaceful protest group who are campaigning for better conditions and fair treatment. Football themed cakes were sold to symbolise Jabbar, a university student who peacefully protested on Facebook; was beaten and had drug charges fabricated by Azerbaijan police. Altogether they managed to create 240 bursting-with-flavour cakes and biscuits!
There were two stands outside, one in the playground and another at the community entrance. Fortunately, the weather was great, and the sun was beating down on them as they worked some Amnesty magic. The group had thoughtfully prepared an ‘AmnesTEA trolley’ full of mouth-watering cakes and biscuits to sell to the teachers, who were busy marking in their classrooms! ‘The cakes were absolutely amazing, the assortment of colours was breathtaking, it was all so efficient and I have had many compliments from parents and pupils!’ Mrs Nicholls (Headteacher).
Amnesty International, who work to protect human rights from being violated, will hopefully be extremely content with the money raised. It took a lot of hard work, effort, perseverance and ingenious schemes; it was a worthy cause though. The sales were phenomenal and the final total was an amazing £120! Shona Nayyar, Hayden Hutchinson, Kiri Koshionis, Jack Shorten, Matthew Mellor, Salahudeen Ayub and Ms. Burrows cleared up afterwards feeling very proud of themselves and hope that the money raised will help make the world a safer, fairer place.
AmnesTEA Bake Sale Accomplish Task
By Salahudeen Ayub
On Tuesday 29th May, the Human Rights ‘Write for Rights’ group from Dickens Heath School held a bake sale to raise money and awareness for Amnesty International. They raised £120 by selling cakes and biscuits to parents, pupils and staff. It was a great success! We sold out on everything, even the teachers decided to have a bite. “The football cakes sold the quickest; the store was very well organised,” said Matthew.
The football cakes were for Jabbar; he loves football. He was locked in prison in Azerbaijan because he planned a peaceful protest; the police later planted drugs on Jabbar and arrested him on trumped up charges.
There were also peace dove biscuits to represent the peace community in Columbia that we supported.
Other cakes were made to represent the ‘Own up, pay up, clean up!’ about Shell Oil which were decorated with blue icing ‘waves’.
Everyone tried their hardest and put their utmost into the work. Together we did it, and raised a lot money for Amnesty International. We will all carry on standing up for human rights, even when we start our new school in September.
We would like to say a big thank you to Ms Burrows for helping us organise the event.
AmnesTEA Bake Sale is a Big Success – Reported by Hayden Hutchinson
On Tuesday 29th May the Human Rights writing group from DHCPS held a bake sale after school in the playground to raise money for Amnesty International. They help protect people whose human rights are being violated.
Matthew Mellor, who goes to Dickens heath school, said this:
“The store was very efficient; the lemon cakes were delicious.”
There were two stands, the one for ks1 and one for ks2, both were really busy, and nearly everyone bought a cake. In the ks1 playground it was just as busy. At both stands there was a complete sell out. Luckily the group had prepared the Amnestea trolley full of cakes and biscuits just for the staff, so they didn’t miss out.
The group made special cakes to do with the campaigns they have been involved in. One of the cakes was for Ragihar Manoharon. He was blamed and killed for something he didn’t do. We iced the cakes with a number six to signify the six years and still no justice campaign, in which we wrote to the president of Sri-Lanka.We also sold flower shaped biscuits to represent WOZA. Women of Zimbabwe Arise hold peaceful protests and are calling for better treatment of people in Zimbabwe. We also had cakes to raise awareness of the arms trade treaty, shell oil(own up pay up) and many others. For more information about these campaigns, go to the Amnesty International website.
Although it was hard work, in the end the writing group raised an amazing total of £120! It was an amazing achievement for an excellent cause and everyone involved is very proud.
AmnesTEA bake sale raises £120! An article by : Kiri Koshionis
On Tuesday the 29th of May the Human Rights Writing Group of Dickens Heath school had a AmnesTEA bake sale on the playground.
This group included some of the most talented writers in the school; Kiri Koshionis, Hayden Hutchinson, Shona Nayyar, Salahudeen Ayub and Jack Shorten, who meet regularly to send emails and letters to prisoners of conscience and world leaders. The group decided to raise money for Amnesty International after a tradition started in the group of bringing in home baked cakes/biscuits to snack on during the after school writing sessions.
For the sale they made themed cakes and biscuits corresponding to the campaigns they have supported like these flower biscuits representing the campaign for WOZA (Women Of Zimbabwe Arise).
Matthew Mellor a pupil from Dickens Heath said “I was impressed on how efficient the store was and the lemon cakes were delicious!”
It took a lot of orginisation, effort and perseverance, but the group managed to turn out just over a £120, which will be sent to Amnesty International who help people all over the world who have been treated unfairly.
well done all.
Very proud of you all, well done.